0 vsvaawa vin»$ e 7 c % Ql 0 5 o O V!)W9»V9 V1NVS I o AU5i>3AlNr. 3HJ, O TMt UNIV(<=. B . , & I'D j / filS <-ftf- i_Jr c£f LI* y u A.X15- ty>kr / > soil \ LTv { Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/bodyofdivinitywh02ridgiala BODY OF DIVINITY: WHEREIN THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION y ARE EXPLAINED AND DEFENDED. BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF SEVERAL LECTURES ON THE ASSEMBLY'S LARGER CATECHISM. BY THOMAS RIDGELEY, D.D. A NEW EDITION, REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES BY THE REV. JOHN M. WILSON. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. NEW YORK : ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, No. 285 BROADWAY. 1855. to' 1° CONTENTS 01 VOL. II. Page QUESTIONS LXI, LXII, LXIII, LXIV. The Church, Visible and Invisible, 1 The meaning of the word Church, . 1 The meaning of the phrases, 'the Vis- ible ' and ' the Invisible Church,' . 4 The invisible church, ... 5 The visible church, .... 7 The church under the Mosaic dispensa- tion, 10 The church under the ministry of the Apostles, 13 The nature and government of the Chris- tian church, 15 Notes. — Various significations of the word 'Church,' 36 The invisible church, ... 38 The holy catholic church, . . 38 The visible church, ... 40 Qualifications for church-fellowship, 42 The office of a ruling elder, . . 43 QUESTIONS LXV, LXVL The Benefits enjoyed by the Invis- ible Church, .... 44 What th% benefits are which the Invis- ible Church enjoys, .... 44 What union to Christ is, . . . 44 QUESTIONS LXVII, LXVIII. Effectual Calling, . . . 48 The general nature of the Gospel call, 48 The external call of the Gospel, . 48 The previous character of persons who are effectually called, . . .55 The change wrought in effectual calling, 57 Effectual Calling a Divine work, . 61 Notes. — Common grace, . . .75 Regeneration, .... 77 QUESTION LXIX. '.'ommunion in Grace with Christ, 80 QUESTIONS LXX, LXXI. 81 Justification The importance of the doctrine of justi- fication, ...... 81 The meaning of the word 'justify,' 82 The privileges contained in justification, 83 The foundation of justification, . 66 Man's inability to work out a justifying righteousness, 86 Christ's righteousness as the ground of justification, ... 88 Justification an act of God's free grace, 93 QUESTIONS LXXII, LXXIII. The Connection of Faith with Justi- fication, .... 95 Other graces than faith do not justify, 95 How faith justifies, ... 98 Inferences from the doctrine of justifi- cation, . . . . . 103 The nature, kinds, objects, degrees, and uses of faith, 106 The general nature of faith, . . 107 The various kinds of faith, . . 108 The objects and acts of saving faith, 110 How faith is produced, . . . 114 The degrees of faith, . . .116 The use of faith in a believer's life, 117 How faith is attained or increased, 120 Notes. — The connection of faith with jus- tification, . . . . 121 What is faith? .... 124 Are there several kinds of faith ? 126 Acts of faith, direct and reflex, . 130 QUESTION LXXIV. Adoption, 131 The various senses of the name ' Sons of God,' 131 The difference between divine and hu- man adoption, .... 132 The reference of the sonship of believ- ers to the sonship of Christ, . 133 The privileges of adoption, . . 134 The connection between adoption and justification, .... 136 QUESTION LXXV. Sanctification, .... 137 The meaning of the word ' sanctify,' 137 What sanctification includes, . . 138 Practical inferences from the doctrine of sanctification, . . . . 143 QUESTION LXXVI. Repentance, The subjects of repentance, 1 46 146 IV CONTENTS. Page Man's natural aversion to repentance, 146 Repentance wrought by the Divine Spirit, 147 The means of repentance, . . 147 The differences between legal and evan- gelical repentance, .... 149 The various acts of evangelical repent- ance, • 150 Practical inferences from the doctrine of repentance, ..... 151 Note. — Legal convictions of sin, . 152 QUESTION LXXVIL The Connection and the Difference between Justification and Sanctification, .'..•■ - 152 The connection between justification and sanctification, . • . • 152 The difference between justification and sanctification, .... 153 QUESTION LXXVIII. The Imperfection of Sanctification, 154 The imperfection of believers, . . 154 Why believers are allowed to be imper- fect, . . . . . . 156 How the imperfection of sanctification is displayed, 157 The consequences of the prevailing power of indwelling sin, . . . 161 Practical inferences from the imperfect state of believers, .... 161 QUESTION LXXIX. Perseverance in Grace, . . 164 General view of the doctrine of perse- verance, 164 Explanation of the doctrine of persever- ance, 165 Perseverance the result of the Divine power and will, . . . .167 Proofs of the doctrine of perseverance, 168 Examination of objections against the doctrine of perseverance, . . 179 Practical inferences from the doctrine of perseverance, 193 Note The characters described in 2 Pet. ii. 21, 22 194 QUESTION LXXX. Assurance of Salvation, . . .194 The nature and degrees of assurance, 195 The attainableness of assurance, . 196 The character of the persons who enjoy assurance, 201 The means of attaining assurance, . 201 QUESTION LXXXI. Destitution of Assurance, . . 210 Assurance not of the essence of faith, 210 may not be soon obtained, 213 may be weakened and inter- mitted 213 The state of believers who want assur- ance, 215 QUESTION LXXXII. Communion with Christ in Glory, 217 QUESTION LXXXIII. P»ge Earnests of Glort, and Apprehen- sions of Wrath, . . . 217 Earnests of glory 218 Apprehensions of wrath, . . . 223 Practical inferences from the different prospects of the righteous and the wicked, 224 QUESTIONS LXXXIV, LXXXV. Death, 225 The certainty of death, . . . 225 The sting and curse of death, . . 228 Death an advantage to believers, . 228 QUESTION LXXXVL The Future State, .... 230 The immortality of the soul, . . 230 The immediate happiness of the righteous after death, . . . . .236 The misery of the wicked at death, 245 Notes Christ's preaching to the spirits in prison, .... 245 Arguments against purgatory, . 246 QUESTION LXXXVIL The Resurrection, . . . 248 The meaning of the resurrection, . . 249 The resurrection not contrary to reason, 249 a doctrine purely of re- velation, 250 Proofs of the doctrine of the resurrection, 252 Examination of objections against the re- surrection, ..... 262 The resurrection universal, . . 265 The condition in which the body shall be raised, 267 Note. — The identity of the human body, 269 QUESTION LXXXVIII. The Final Judgment, . . . 270 Proofs of the final judgment, . •. 271 The person and appearance of the Judge, 272 The persons judged, . . . 274 The manner of the judgment, . . 276 The place and time of the judgment, 279 Practical inferences from the doctrine of the final judgment, . . . 280 QUESTION LXXXIX. Final Punishment 281 The nature of the punishment, . 282 The degree of the punishment, . . 283 The duration of the punishment, . 283 How the doctrine of final punishment is to be preached, .... 285 QUESTION XC. Final Blessedness, . . . 286 The saints acknowledged and acquitted, 286 ■ joining Christ in judging, . 287 blessed in heaven, . . 289 Practical inferences from the doctrine of final blessedness, .... 296 CONTENTS. QUESTIONS XCI, XCIL Page Moral Obligation, .... 298 Man bound to obey God, . . . 298 Connection of revelation with moral obli- gation, 299 The law of God as the rule of obhgation, 299 QUESTIONS XCIII, XCIV, XCV, XCVI, XCVII. The Nature and Uses of the Moral Law, 300 The nature of tbe moral law, . . 300 The uses of the moral law, . . 302 Strictures on Antinomianism, . . 305 QUESTION XCVIIL The Judicial and the Ceremonial Law, 307 The judicial law, .... 307 The ceremonial law, .... 308 The legislation from Horeb, . . 311 QUESTION XCIX. Rules for understanding the Ten Commandments, . . ' . . 312 QUESTIONS C, CI, CIL The .Preface and Sum of the Ten Commandments, . . . 314 QUESTIONS CIII, CIV. The Duties Required in the First Commandment, .... 316 QUESTIONS CV, CVI. The Sins Forbidden in the First Com- mandment 318 Atheism, 318 Idolatry, 321 Note Doctrines of Devils, . . 327 QUESTIONS CVII, CVIII, CIX, CX. The Second Commandment, . . 328 Difference between the first and the second commandment, . . 328 The duties enjoined in the second com- mandment, ..... 329 The sins forbidden in the second com- mandment, ..... 330 The reasons annexed to tbe second com- mandment, 334 QUESTIONS CXI, CXII, CXIII, CXIV. The Third Commandment, . . 335 General view of the third commandment, 335 The duties enjoined in the third com- mandment, ..... 336 The sins forbidden in the third command- ment, 337 The reasons annexed to the third com- mandment, 341 QUESTIONS CXV, CXVI. The Sabbatic Institution, 341 Page General import of the fourth command- ment 34] The nature of the sabbatic institution, 342 The date of the sabbatic institution, . 344 The change of the sabbath, . . 346 The relative time of the sabbath, . 352 QUESTIONS CXVII, CXVIIL The Duties Enjoined in the Fourth Commandment, .... 353 Preparatory duties to sabbath-sanctifica- tion, 353 The sabbatic rest, .... 355 Works of necessity and mercy, . . 356 The sanctifying of the sabbath, . 358 QUESTIONS CXIX, CXX, CXXL The Prohibitions and Motives of the Fourth Commandment, . . 360 The sins forbidden in the fourth com- mandment, ..... 360 The reasons annexed to the fourth com- mandment, 361 Import of the word •remember' in the fourth commandment, . . . 362 Inferences from the fourth commandment, 363 QUESTION CXXIL The Sum of the Second Table of the Law, 363 Love to our neighbour, . . . 364 Doing as we would be done by, . . 364 QUESTIONS CXXIII, CXXIV, CXXV, CXXVI. The Relations of Life, . . . 366 The meaning of 'father' and 'mother' in the fifth commandment, . . 366 Why superiors are styled father and mother, . . 366 The bases and nature of the social rela- tions 367 QUESTIONS CXXVII, CXXVIII, CXXIX, CXXX, CXXXI, CXXXII. Relative Duties 368 The duties of inferiors to superiors, . 368 The sins of inferiors against superiors, 374 The duties of superiors to inferiors, . 374 The sins of superiors against inferiors, 376 The duties of equals, . . 377 The sins of equals, .... 377 QUESTION CXXXIII. The Reasons Annexed to the Fifth Commandment, .... 378 QUESTIONS CXXXIV, CXXXV, CXXXVI. The Sixth Commandment, . . 380 The duties enjoined in the sixth com- mandment 380 The sins forbidden in the sixth command- ment, 38i Note — The Judicial Law The Civil Punishment of Death, . . . 386 VI CONTENTS. Page QUESTIONS CXXXVII, CXXXVIII, CXXXIX. The Seventh Commandment, . . 392 The duties required in the seventh com- mandment, 392 The sins forbidden in the seventh com- mandment, ...... 392 The aggravations of sins against the se- venth commandment, . . . 394 The occasions of the sins against the seventh commandment, . . . 395 QUESTIONS CXL, CXLI. The Duties Enjoined in the Eighth Commandment, .... 396 The promotion of our own well-being, 396 The promotion of our neighbour's well- being 397 QUESTION CXLIL The Sins Forbidden in the Eighth Commandment, .... 399 Self-robbery, 399 Theft, 399 Breach of trust, . . . . 400 Non-payment of debt, . . . 400 Oppression, ... . . . 401 Litigiousness, 402 Usury, 402 Restitution, 402 QUESTIONS CXLin, CXLIV, CXLV. The Ninth Commandment, . . 403 The duties required in the ninth com- mandment* . . , . . 403 The sins forbidden in the ninth com- mandment 405 QUESTIONS CXL VI, CXL VII, CXL VIII. The Tenth Commandment, . . 416 The duties required in the tenth com- mandment, 416 The sins forbidden in the tenth com- mandment, 419 QUESTION CXLIX. Man's Inability to keep the Com- mandments, .... 423 The nature and limits of man's inability, 423 The uniform and constant display of man's inability, .... 424 QUESTION CL. The Degrees of Sin, . . . 426 QUESTION CLL The Aggravations of Sin, . . 426 Aggravations from the person offending, 426 parties offended, 427 nature and quality of the offence, .... 428 — ■ — circumstances of time and place, .... 429 QUESTIONS CLII, CLIII. Page The Desert of Sin, and the Way of Escape from it, . . . . 430 The desert of sin, .... 430 The way of escape from the desert of sin, 431 QUESTION CLIV. The Ordinances, The import of the ordinances, . Classification of the ordinances, The ordinance of praise, . QUESTION CLV. 433 433 434 434 The Ordinance of The Word, . 443 The Word is to be read and explained, 444 The Word made effectual to salvation, 444 QUESTIONS CLVI, CLVII. By Whom and How the Word is to be read, 448 The Word to be read by and to all men, 448 Directions for reading the Word of God, 452 Note. — Scriptures ' hard to be understood,' 472 QUESTIONS CLVIII, CLIX, CLX. The Preaching and Hearing of the Word, 473 By whom the Word is to be preached, 473 How the Word is to be preached, . 476 The hearing of the Word, . . . 480 Note. — Are unconverted persons to be ex- horted to pray ? 481 QUESTIONS CLXI, CLXII, CLXIII, CLXIV. The Sacraments, .... 483 The nature and parts of a sacrament, 483 How the sacraments become effectual means of salvation, . . . 487 What the sacraments of the gospel dis- pensation are, .... 488 Notes The design of observing the Lord's Supper, 490 Extreme unction, .... 490 QUESTION CLXV. 492 492 493 494 Baptism The nature and authority of baptism, The form of baptism, . What baptism signifies and entails, . QUESTION CLXVI. The Subjects and Mode of Baptism, 496 Who are excluded from baptism, . 496 The profession of faith made in baptism, 497 Infant baptism, .... 497 The mode of baptism, .... 506 Abuse of the ordinance of baptism, . 511 Note — The connection of discipleship and baptism 512 QUESTION CLXVII. The Improvement of Baptism, . . 513 Our obligation to improve baptism, . 513 How baptism is to be improved, . . 514 CONTENTS. VII Page QUESTIONS CLXVIII, CLXIX, CLXX. The Lord's Supper, . . . 517 The Lord's Supper an ordinance of the New Testament, .... 518 By whom the Lord's Supper is to be ad- ministered, ..... 518 The elements used in the Lord's Supper, 519 The setting apart of the elements in the Lord's Supper, .... 519 The actions performed in observing the Lord's Supper, 520 What is signified in the Lord's Supper, 522 The qualifications of communicants, . 524 Notes Half-communion, . . . 524 Transubstantiation, .... 525 QUESTION CLXXI. Preparation for the Lord's Supper, 527 Self-examination, . . • . . 527 Various duties of preparation for the Lord's Supper, .... 534 QUESTIONS CLXXII, CLXXIII. The Partakers of the Lord's Supper, 535 The case of doubting professors, . . 535 i ignorant and immoral pro- fessors, 537 The use of the Lord's Supper as a civil test, 540 QUESTIONS CLXXIV, CLXXV. Duties connected with the Obser- vance of the Lord's Sdpper, . 541 Duties while observing the Lord's Supper, 541 Duties after observing the Lord's Supper, 546 Note — Covenanting and Vowing, . . 549 QUESTIONS CLXXVI, CLXXVII. The Correspondence and the Differ- ence between Baptism and the Lord's Supper, .... 550 Correspondence between baptism and the Lord's Supper, .... 550 Difference between baptism and the Lord's Supper, .... 551 QUESTION CLXXVIII. The Kinds and Parts of Prayer, . 552 What prayer supposes, . . . 553 The various kinds of prayer, . . 553 The various parts of prayer, . . 554 QUESTIONS CLXXIX, CLXXX, CLXXXI. To Whom and in Whose Name Prayer is made, 561 Prayer is to be made to God only, . 561 in the name of Christ, 562 Why prayer is to be made in the name of Christ 563 QUESTION CLXXXIL The Holy Spirit's Help in Prayer, . 563 Page Prayer cannot be made without the Spi- rit's help, '563 In what the Spirit's help in prayer con- sists, ..."... 565 Raised affections in prayer, . . 566 Practical inferences from the Spirit's help in prayer, 567 QUESTIONS CLXXXIII, CLXXXIV. For Whom and for What Prayer is to be made, ..... 568 For whom prayer is to be made, . 568 For whom prayer is not to be made, . 571 For what prayer is to be made, . 575 Note. — Is any sin unpardonable? . . 576 QUESTION CLXXXV. How Prayer is to be made, . . 580 The frame of mind in which prayer is to be made, 580 The graces which are to be exercised in prayer, 583 Requisites to the graces which are to be exercised in prayer, . . . 587 Perseverance in prayer, . . . 588 QUESTIONS CLXXXVI, CLXXXVII. The Rule of Direction for Prayer, 590 The necessity of a rule of direction for prayer, 590 The word of God the rule of direction for prayer, 590 Practical inferences from the word of God being a rule of direction for prayer, . 600 The Lord's Prayer a special rule of direc- tion for prayer, .... 600 QUESTIONS CLXXXVIII, CLXXXIX. The Preface of the Lord's Prayer, 602 QUESTION CXC. The First Petition of the Lord's Prayer, 608 QUESTION CXCI. The Second Petition of the Lord's Prayer, 617 What is supposed in the Second Petition, 618 What is prayed for in the Second Petition, 619 QUESTION CXCIL* The Third Petition of the Lord's Prayer, 623 The meaning of doing the will of God, 625 What is prayed for in the Third Petition, 6/6 How the will of God is to be done, . o27 QUESTION CXCIII. The Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer, 62f- The meaning of the word * Bread ' in the Fourth Petition 628 CONTENTS. Page What is supposed in the Fourth Petition, 629 What is prayed for in the Fourth Petition, 629 QUESTION CXCIV. The Fifth Petition of the Lord's Prayer 633 Man's uneasiness under a sense of guilt, 634 How a sinner is to ask forgiveness, 63 > The connexion between forgiving others and enjoying forgiveness from God, 638 Note. — Prayer for Pardon, . . 643 QUESTION CXCV. P«fe The Sixth Petition of the Lord's Prayer, 644 The meaning of the word * temptation,' 644 What is supposed in the Sixth Petition, 644 Temptations, and prayer for deliverance from them 646 QUESTION CXCVI. The Conclusion of the Lord's Prayer, 663 THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION EXPLAINED AND DEFENDED. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. Question LXI. Are all they saved who hear the gospel, and live in the church f Answer. All thnt hear the gospel, and live in the visible church, are not saved, but they only who arc true members of the church invisible. Question LXII. What is the visible church ? Answer. The visible church is a society made up of all such as, in all ages, and places of the world, do profess the true religion, and of their children. Question LXIII. What are the special privileges of the visible church? Answer. The visible church hath the privilege of being under God's special care and government, of being protected and preserved in all ages, notwithstanding the opposition of all enemies, and of enjoying the communion of saints, the ordinary means of salvation, offers of grace by Christ to all the members of it in the ministry of the gospel, testifying, that' whosoever believes in him shall be saved, and excluding none that will come unto him. Question LXIV. What is the invisible church f Answer. The invisible church is the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head. They who are made partakers of Christ's redemption, and are brought into a state of salvation, have been already described as members of Christ's body the church. We are now led to consider them as brought into this relation to him. Accord- ingly we are to inquire in what sense they are members of Christ's church ; and to speak of this church as to its nature, constitution, subjects, and privileges. The Meaning of the Word ' Church.' We shall first inquire what we are to understand by the word 'church,' as we find it applied in scripture. I. It is sometimes used to signify any assembly that is met together, whatever, be the design of their meeting. Though it is very seldom taken in this sense in scripture ; yet there are two or three places in which it is so understood. Thus the multitude who met together at Ephesus, who made a riot, crying out, • Great is Diana of the Ephesians,' are called 'a church ;' for the word is the same which we generally so render.a Our translators, indeed, render it, ' the assembly was confused ;' and it is said, ' This matter ought to be determined in a lawful assem- bly,'15 that being an unlawful one ; and, • the town-clerk dismissed the assembly.'0 In all these places, the word, in the Greek, d is the same which we, in other places, render ' church ;' and the reason why our translators have rendered it 'assembly,' is that the word 'church' is used in a'very uncommon sense in these places, — a sense in which we do not find it used in any other part of scripture. a Acts xix. 32. b Verse 39. c Verse 41. d cxxAixrva. II. A 60 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 3 spise ye the church of God V He there attempts to prove from the opposition that there is between their 'own houses' and 'the church of God,' that the apostle, by * the church,' means the place of worship. But the inconclusiveness of this argu- ment has been already considered. What he farther says, to prove that there were places, in the apostle's days, appropriated or set apart for divine worship, and, in par- ticular, that the room in which the disciples met together on the day of our Saviour's resurrection and eight days after, in which they were honoured with his presence, was the same in which he ate his last Passover with them, and instituted the Lord's Supper, and that it was in that place that they constantly met together for worship, that there the seven deacons were afterwards chosen,11 and that afterwards a goodly church was erected on the same spot of ground, — what he says to prove these points, is mere uncertain conjecture. That the disciples met together in an apartment or convenient room iu the dwelling-house of some pious one of their number, is very pro- bable. But his observation that it was an upper room, on account of being freest from disturbance and nearest to heaven, seems to be too trifling for so great a man. As to his supposing that this room is referred to in the account of the disciples' 'break- ing bread from house to house,'0 a phrase which he contends ought to be rendered 'breaking bread in the house,' that is, in this house appointed for the purpose; his rendering and the opinion founded on it, are not so agreeable to the sense of the Greek words.P as our translation is. As to his proving that there were particular places appropriated for worship in the three first centuries, by referring to several quotations out of the Fathers who lived in those ages, what he says is not to be contested. Yet the objection which he brings against this being universally true, taken from what Origen, Minutius Felix, Arnobius, and Lactantius say concern- ing the Christians, in their time, declining to build them, after they had been dis- turbed and harassed by various persecutions, seems to have some weight, and is not sufficiently answered by him. What he says on the subject may be consulted in the work of his to which we have referred. All that we shall say is, that it is beyond dispute that as the church was obliged to convene together for religious worship, it was necessary that the usual place in which this was performed should be known by them. But it still remains uncertain whether, — though, at some times, in the more peaceable state of the church, they met constantly in one place, — they did not, at other times, adjourn from place to place, or sometimes convene in the open air, in places where they might meet with less disturbance from their enemies. All who are conversant in the history of the church in those ages, know that they often met, especially in times of persecution, in caves and other subterraneous places, near the graves of those who had suffered martyrdom ; their object in doing this was not only to encourage one another to bear a similar testimony to Chris- tianity to that which the martyrs had done, but that they might be more retired and undisturbed in their worship. But, as most things connected with this subject are of little moment, what I would principally oppose is an opinion which the excellent writer now mentioned attempts to prove, in his following Dissertation, °- as to the reverence which is due to these churches, not only whilst divine duties are performed in them, but at other times, as supposing that they retain a relative sanctity which calls for veneration at all times. The main stress of his argument rests on the sanctity of those places which, by divine appointment, were consecrated for worship under the ceremonial law ; and on the reverence which was expressed by persons when they entered them, which, by a supposed parity of reason, he applies to those places which are erected for worship under the gospel-dispensation. But it does not follow that, because the tabernacle and temple had a relative holiness in them, the same thing is applicable to places of worship under the gospel-dispensation. The temple was a type of God's presence among men, and in particular of the incarnation of Christ, which was a glorious instance of that presence. The temple was also an ordinance for their faith in this matter ; and on that account it was holy. Besides, there was a visible external symbol of God's presence, whose throne was upon the mercy-seat, between the cherubim, in the holy of holies ; so that this might well be called ' a holy place,' 11 Acts vi. 1 — 6. o Acts ii. 46. p K«r' cikov. q See p. 432, et seq. 4 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. even when worship was not performed in it. But it is certain that other places of worship, and, in particular, the synagogues, were not then reckoned so, when no worship was performed in them, though they were erected for that purpose. More- over, our Saviour seems to intimate, that the holiness of places is taken away un- der the gospel-dispensation. This appears from his reply to the woman of Samaria, when, speaking concerning their ' fathers worshipping in this mountain,' that is, in the temple which was erected on mount Gerizim, he says, ' The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father;'' that is, no place shall he so consecrated for religious worship that it shall be more acceptable there than elsewhere, and consequently no veneration is to be paid to sny such place more than another, where the same worship may be performed.3 3. What we have been stating is little other than a digression from our present design; which is to show that the word 'church,' in scripture, is, for the most part, if not always, taken for an assembly of Christians met together for religious wor- ship, according to the rules which Christ has given for their direction. The He- brew word, in the Old Testament, by which the church of the Jews is signified, is generally rendered ' congregation, 'fc or assembly ; so that, in our translation, we never meet with the word 'church' in the Old Testament. Yet what is there called * the congregation,' or assembly of the Israelites, might very properly be called 'a church,' inasmuch as it is so styled in the New Testament. Thus it is said con- cerning Moses, that ' he was in the church in the wilderness. 'u But it is certain that the word 'church,' is peculiarly adapted, in the New Testament, to signify the Christian church, worshipping God according to the rules prescribed by our Saviour, and others delivered by his apostles, under the Spirit's direction. This is the sense in which we are to understand it, in discussing these Answers. [See Note A, page 36.] The meaning of the phrases ' the Visible1 and ' the Invisible Church.' We proceed to consider the church as distinguished into visible and invisible. Each of these is particularly defined, and will be farther insisted on under some fol- lowing Heads. At present, we may offer something, by way of premisal, concern- ing the reason of this distinction. .The word 'church,' according to its grammati- cal construction, signifies a number of persons who are called ; and, in its applica- tion to the present subject, every one who is a member of it, may be said to be called to be made partaker of that salvation which is in Christ. Now, there is a twofold calling spoken of in scripture. The one is visible and external, whereby some are made partakers of the external privileges of the gospel and all its ordinances ; the other is internal and saving, whereby others are made partakers of those special and distinguishing blessings which God bestows on the heirs of salvation. The for- mer our Saviour intends when he says, ' Many are called, but few are chosen ;'x the latter is what the apostle speaks of, when he connects it with 'justification' and r John iv. 20, 21. s It maybe observed, that though the learned author formerly mentioned gives sufficient evidence from the Fathers, that there were several places appropriated, and some erected, for divine worship, during the three first centuries; and though he thinks that whether they were consecrated or not, there was a great degree of reverence paid to them, even at times when divine service was not performed in them ; yet he does not pioduce any proof for this out of the writings of the Fathers in those centuries. It is impossible, indeed, that he should ; for, from Eusehius' account of the matter, it appears that the consecration of churches was first practised in the fourth century. [Vid. ejusd. Hist. Ecil. lib. x. cap. 3.] As for the quotations which Mr. Mede brings from Chrysostom and Ambrose, to prove that reverence was paid to the churches in their time, it must be observed that they lived in the fourth century, in which churches being not only appropriated, but consecrated for public worship, it is no wonder to find the Fathers of that age expressing a reverence for them. Nevertheless, it is very evident, from the words of these Fathers there cited, that they intend nothing but a reverent behaviour, which ought to be expressed by those who come into the church to perforin any act of divine worship; and this we are lar from deinintf, whether the external rites of consecration be used or not. As for his quotation from Tertullian, who lived in the end of the second century, it does not prove that he thought reverence ought to be expressed to the places of worship, but that the highest reverence ought to be used in the acts of worship, and particularly in prayer ; which is an undoubted truth, whether we worship God in the church or anywhere else. t mp. u Acts vii. Sa x Matt. xx. 16. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 5 ' glorification. 'y Now, thej who are called in the former of these senses, are in- cluded in that branch of the distinction which respects the visible church ; the lat- ter are members of that church which is styled invisible. The former are members o£ Christ by profession ; the latter are united to him as their Head and Husband, are made partakers of spiritual life from him, and shall live for ever with him. The members of the visible church are the children of God, as made partakers of the external dispensation of the covenant of grace. These God speaks of, when he says, ' I have nourished and brought up children.'2 Elsewhere also he says concerning the church of the Jews, who were externally in covenant with him, 4 Israel is my son, even my first-born. 'a But the members of the invisible church are the children of God by faith ; b and because children in this sense, ' heirs, — heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.'0 These things, however, must be parti- cularly insisted on. The Invisible Church. Accordingly, we shall say something concerning the invisible church. This is described, in one of the Answers we are explaining, as containing the whole num- ber of the elect who have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ their Head. 1. They are said to be elect, and subject to Christ their Head. On this account, some have included in the number the holy angels ; inasmuch as they are styled, by the apostle, ■ elect angels ;'d and Christ is, in some respects, their Head, as the apostle calls him ' the Head of all principality and power ; ' e and elsewhere the church is said to come to ' an innumerable company of angels. 'f But though they are indeed elected, it may be questioned whether they were chosen in Christ, as the elect among the children of men are said to be ; and though Christ is styled their Head, yet his headship over them does not include those things which are implied in his being the Head of his chosen people, as he is the Head of the covenant of grace on which their salvation is founded, or • the Captain of their salvation, * who, having purchased them by his blood, brings them into a state of grace, and then to glory. For these, and similar reasons, I would not assert that angels are pro- perly a part of Christ's invisible church, but would infer that it includes those only who are elected to salvation among the children of men. 2. They are farther described as persons who have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head. Hence, there is a part of them that are not ac- tually brought in to him. These our Saviour speaks of, under the metaphor of sheep who were ' not of this fold,' concerning whom he says, ' Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. 'h There is also another part of them who are triumphant in heaven ; as well as those who are actually called by the grace of God, and are on their way to heaven, struggling, at present, with many difficulties, through the prevalence of corruption, — and conflicting with many temptations, and exposed to many evils, which attend the present state. These different circum- stances of those who are brought in to Christ, give occasion to the known distinction between ' the church triumphant' and ' the church militant.' To that part of this description of the invisible church which includes those who shall be gathered unto Christ, it is objected that no one can be said to be a member of this church who is not actually brought in unto him ; for to say this would be to suppose that unconverted persons might be members of it, and consequently that Christ is their Head, Shepherd, and Saviour. Yet they are characterized, in scrip- ture, as children of wrath, running in all excess of riot, refusing to submit to him, and neglecting that great salvation which is offered in the gospel. How, then, it is asked, can such be members of Christ's church, and that in the highest sense of the word 'church?' Moreover, it is objected, against the account given of the in- visible church in this Answer, that a part of those who are said to be the members of it, are considered, at present, as not existing. It must, we are told, be a very y Rom. viii. 30. z Isa. i. 2. a Exod. iv. 22. b Gal. iii. 26. c Rom. viii. 17. d 1 Tim. v. 21. e Col. ii. 10. f Heb. xii. 22. g Chap. ii. 10. h John x. 16. 6 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. improper, if not absurd, way of speaking, to say that such are members of Christ's church. Now, I am not inclined to extenuate those expressions of scripture which repre- sent unconverted persons as children of wrath, in open rebellion against God, and refusing to submit to him ; nor would I say any thing from which such might have the least ground to conclude that they have a right to any of the privileges of God's elect or of Christ's invisible church, or that they are included in that number. To do this would be to expose the doctrine of election to one of the main objections which are brought against it, — that it leads to licentiousness. Yet let it be considered that this Answer treats of the invisible church ; so that whatever privileges are reserved for those who, though elected, are in an unconverted state, are altogether unknown to them, and it would be an unwarrantable presumption for them to lay claim to them. We must not deny, however, that God knows who are his, who are redeemed by Christ, and what blessings, pursuant to their being so, shall be applied to them. He knows the time when they shall be made a willing people, in the day of his power ; and what graces he designs to work in them. He considers the elect in general as given to Christ, and Christ as having undertaken to do all that is necessary to fit them for the heavenly blessedness. Moreover, we must suppose that God knows, without the least doubt and uncertainty, the whole num- ber of those who shall appear with Christ in glory, at his second coming. For things which are future to us, are present with respect to him ; as, with one single view, he knows all things past and to come, as well as present. Now, if the ex- pression made use of be thus qualified, which is agreeable to the design of this Answer, I cannot see that the objection has sufficient force to overthrow it ; any more than those arguments which are usually brought against the doctrine of elec- tion, can render it less worthy to be received by us. The other branch of the objection, is that they who are not in being cannot be denominated members of Christ's church in any sense. Now, though it be allowed that such cannot be, at present, the subjects of any privileges ; yet we must consider that, since God seeth not as man seeth, they may, in his eternal purpose to save them, be considered as the objects of his grace, and therefore, in his account, be reckoned members of Christ's invisible church, that is, such as he designs to bring into being, and afterwards to make meet to partake of the inheritance of the saints in light. I see no reason, therefore, to except against the mode of speaking in which they are described as persons who shall be gathered under Christ their Head. If, however, the objection respected only the propriety or impropriety of a word, and had not a tendency to overthrow the doctrine of God's certain and per- emptory election, I would not militate against it. 3. This church, which is said to consist of the whole number of the elect, is styled invisible. By this we are«not to understand that their election of God cannot be known by themselves ; for we have sufficient ground, from scripture, to conclude that believers may attain the assurance of this in the present life. But the church is so called, because many of them have finished their course in this world, and have entered into that state in which they are, with respect to those who live here, no more seen. Moreover, the number of those who are styled the members of this church, cannot be determined by any creature. It is known to God only. That grace, also, which any of them experience, how far soever they may arrive at the knowledge of it themselves, cannot be said to be certainly and infallibly known by others. Hence, the apostle says concerning them, that 'their life is hid with Christ in God.'1 [See Note B, p. 38.] Although, however, this church is at present invisible ; yet, when the whole number of the elect shall be brought in to Christ, and, as the apostle says, 'gathered together unto him,'k it shall no longer remain invisible. For ' when Christ, who is their life, shall appear, then they shall also appear with him in glory.'1 We may farther observe concerning the church, as thus described, that it has many glorious characters given of it. It is frequently, in the Song of Solomon, (•ailed Christ's spouse. By this name, the inspired writer seems to intend more than what could well be said concerning the Jewish church ; for the descrip- i Col. iii. 3. k 2 Thess. ii. 1. 1 Col. iii. 4. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 7 tion there given of it, as being all fair, and without spot,"* is applicable rather to the state in which the saints shall be hereafter, than to that in which they are at present, so that I am inclined to think that he speaks of the invisible church, or the election of grace. The character which he gives of them is an allusion to that conjugal union which there is between Christ and believers. In reference to this union, it is said elsewhere, ' Thy Maker is thine Husband, the Lord of hosts is his name ; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel.'11 The psalmist, also in a very elegant manner, describes the church as thus related to Christ, when he says, ' Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir ;'° and then goes on to speak of it as arrived at the highest pitch of honour and happiness, and as introduced into the king's presence 'in raiment of needle-work, 'with gladness and rejoicing, being brought into his palace.P The apostle calls it, ' the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written,'** or, as it is in the margin, enrolled, 'in heaven.' It is considered also, when brought to perfection, and 'presented ' by Christ 'to himself,' or to his own view at last, as ' a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy, and without blemish. 'r In this respect it may be called, 'the holy catholic church;' though many, without sufficient ground, under- stand the words of the Creed in which it is so called, in a sense very different from and inferior to this. [See Note C, p. 38.] — Again, the invisible church is but one body, and therefore not divided, like the visible church, into many particular bodies, as will be observed under a following Head. This seems to be the meaning of the expression in which it is said, 'My dove, my undefiled is but one.'s — Further, it is not the seat of human government, as the visible church is ; nor are persons said to be received into its communion. Whatever officers Christ has appointed, to secure the order and promote the edification of his churches, have nothing to do in the church considered as invisible. It is, however, eminently under Christ's special government; who is the Head as well as the Saviour of it. — Again, there are many special privileges which belong to it. These include all the graces and comforts which are applied to its members by the Holy Spirit ; and so they are considered as enjoying union and communion with Christ in grace and glory, as being called, justified, sanctified, and many of them assured of their interest in Christ here, while all of them shall be glorified with him hereafter. These privi- leges are insisted on, in several following Answers. We therefore pass them over at present, and proceed to consider another of the Answers which we are to explain. The Visible Church. We have next an account of the visible church. This is described as a society made up of all those who, in all ages and places of the world, profess the true reli- gion, and of their children. In this description of the church, we may observe that it is called visible, not only because the worship performed in it, and the laws given to those particular churches of which it consists, are visible, but because its members are so, or known to the world, and because the profession they make of the true religion, or subjection to Christ as their Head and Sovereign, is open, free, and undisguised, whereby they are distinguished from the rest of the world. Moreover, it is called a Society. This denomination it takes from the com- munion which its members have with one another. But as the word is in the singular number, as denoting but one body of men, it is to be inquired whether this be a proper mode of speaking, though frequently used. It is allowed 1by all Protestants, that there are, and have been ever since the first preaching of the gospel by the apostles, many particular churches in the world.u That there were m Cant. iv. 7, et seq. n Isa. liv. 5. o Psal. xlv. 9. p Verses 14, 15. q Heb. xii. 23. r Eph. v. 27. s Cant. vi. 9. t The Papists, indeed, pretend that there is no church in the world but that which they style catholic and visible, of which the Bishop of Rome is the head. But we may say, in answer to this vain boast, as is said concerning the church in Sardis, (Rev. iii. 1.) ' Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.' Protestants, though they often speak of the visible church as one, yet do rot deny that there are many particular churches contained in it. See the Assembly's Confession of Faith, chap. 25. sect. 4. 8 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. such in the apostolic times, appears from what we often read in the New Testament, as the apostle Paul directs his epistles to particular churches, such as those at Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi, &c. Some of these were larger, others smaller ; yet they are equally called churches, denoting that no regard is to he had to the numher of persons of which each of them consists. Thus we read of churches in particular houses ;u and these, for the reasons above-mentioned, may each of them, without the least impropriety of expression, be styled a visible church. — But it must also be allowed, on the other hand, that the church is spoken of in the singular number, in scripture, as if it were but one. Thus it is said, ' Saul made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison.'* Speaking of himself, he says, ' Concerning zeal, persecuting the church ;'? and else- where, ' Beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it.'z Now, it is certain that it was not one particular church that he directed his persecuting rage against, but all the churches of Christ wherever he went, especially those in Judea. These he speaks of in ,the plural number ;a and, by doing so, he explains what he means by his • persecuting the church of God ;' for it is said, • He which persecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.'1* Elsewhere, too, it is said, • God hath set some in the church ; first, apostles ; second- arily, prophets ; thirdly, teachers.'0 By 'the church,' here, we are to understand all the churches ; for the apostles were not pastors of any particular church, but acted as pastors in all the churches wherever they went. Though every church had its own respective pastor set over it, who was in a peculiar manner related to it, yet all these churches are called in this place 'the church.' We are not, there- fore, to contend about the use of a word, provided it be rightly explained, whether persons speak of the church in the singular, or churches in the plural number. If we speak of the church as if it were but one, the word is to be taken collectively for all the churches of Christ in the world. This the apostle explains, when he speaks of them all as if they were 'one body,' under the influence of the same Spirit, 'called in one hope of their calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in them all. 'd This is that ' unity of the Spirit' which they were to 'endeavour to keep,' and, in keeping which, they were to act agreeably to their faith. In this respect, we freely allow that all the churches of Christ are one. There is but one foundation on which they are built, one rule of faith, one way to heaven, in which they all professedly walk. Moreover, not only have the churches of Christ communion with one another in their particular societies ; but there is a communion of churches, whereby they own one another as walking in the same fellowship with themselves, express a sympathy with one another in afflictive circumstances, and rejoice in one another's edification and flourishing state. In these respects, we consider the churches as one ; and so call them all the church of Christ. This is to be understood, however, with certain limitations. We are not to suppose that the church, as the seat of government, is one ; or that there is one set of men who have a warrant to bear rule over the whole, that is, over all the churches of Christ; for none suppose that there is one universal pastor of the church, except the Papists. All Protestants, however they explain their sentiments about the catholic visible church, allow that the seat of govern- ment is in each particular church, of which no one has any right to give pastors to other churches, or to appoint who shall be admitted into their respective communion. There is another thing in this description of the visible church which stands in need df being explained and defended. It is said that it consists of all such as, in all ages and places of the world, do profess the true religion. If nothing be intended hereby but that none have a right to the privilege of communion of saints, or are fit to be received into any church of Christ, but those who profess the true religion, or the faith on which the church is built, I am far from denying it ; for to do so would be to suppose that the church professes one faith and some of its members another, or that it builds up what it allows others to throw down. But I am a little at a loss to account for the propriety of the expression, when the church is «i 1 Cor. xvi. 19. x Acts viii. 3. y Phil. iii. 6. z Gal. i. 13. a Gal. i. 22. b Ver. 23. c 1 Cor. xii. 28. d Eph. iv. 4—6. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. Q I said to be a society professing the true religion in all ages. It cannot be supposed that the church or churches which are now in being are any part of that society which professed the true religion in Moses' time, or in the apostolic age. It is, however, principally the propriety of expression which is to be excepted against; for I suppose nothing is intended by it but that, as the church in every respective foregoing age con- sisted of those who embraced the true religion, so it consists of no other in our age. There is one thing more which I would take leave to observe in this descrip-' tion of the church. What I refer to is a defect in the description, which ren- ders it incomplete. It speaks of the church as consisting of those who profess the true religion ; but makes no mention of that bond of union which constitutes every particular branch of the universal church, a church of Christ. It speaks, indeed, of those qualifications which belong to every one as a Christian, which is a remote, though necessary condition, of being received into church-communion ; but it takes no notice of that mutual consent which is the more immediate bond by which the members of every church coalesce together. But this we may have occasion to consider under a following Head. The last thing I observe in this description of the visible church is, that it con- sists not only of the professors of the true religion, but of their children. This is rather to be explained than denied. Yet I cannot but observe that many have run too great lengths in what they have asserted concerning the right of children to this privilege. Some of the Fathers not only considered them as members of the church, but brought them to the Lord's table, and gave them the bread dipped in the wine, in the same way as food is applied to infants when they are too young to discover anything of its design. That which led them into this mistake was their misunderstanding the sense of our Saviour's words, • Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.'e They supposed that these words were meant of eating bread and drinking wine in the Lord's Supper ; though they might easily have known that this was not our Saviour's meaning, inasmuch as the Lord's Supper was not instituted till some time after, and, when instituted, was not designed to be reckoned so necessary to salvation that the mere not partaking of it should exclude from it. Cyprian gives an account of his ad- ministering it to an infant brought by her mother, and relates a circumstance attending the ministration which savours so much of superstition in that grave and pious Father, that I forbear to mention it.f The giving of the Lord's Supper to children, was practised not only by him, but by several others in some following ages. Many, also, in later ages, speak of children as incomplete members of the church. Some suppose that their being so is the result of their baptismal dedica- tion. Others suppose that it is their birthright ; and they have, in consequence, maintained that when the children come to be adult, they rather claim their right to church-communion than are admitted to it, as those who are not the children of church-members. As a farther consequence of their opinion, they assert that, if they are guilty of vile enormities, and thereby forfeit their privilege, they are in a formal way to be excommunicated ; and that it is a defect in the government of the churches in our day that this is not practised. The opinion of these parties, how- ever, is not what is meant, in the Answer under consideration, by children being members of churches, together with their parents. What is meant will, I think, be allowed by all : it is, that children being the property of parents, the latter are obliged to dedicate them, together with themselves, to God, and, pursuant to their doing so, to endeavour to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, hoping that, through his blessing on education, they may, in his own time and way, be qualified for church-communion, and then admitted to it, that hereby the churches of Christ may have an addition of members to fill up the places of those who are called off the stage. As to the concern of the church in this matter, which in some respect redounds to the advantage of the children of those who are members of it, they are obliged to show their regard to them, so far as to exhort their parents, if there be occasion, to express a due concern for their spiritual welfare ; or, if the chil- dren are defective in religion, to extend their censure rather to the parents than, to e John vi. 53. f Vid. Cypr. de baps. cap. 1, § 13. II. B 10 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. them, as neglecting a moral duty, and so acting unbecoming the relation they stajid in to them. Having thus spoken concerning the description given of the visible church in this Answer, we shall now proceed to discuss it more particularly, and accordingly shall consider its former and present constitution and government. [See Note D, page 40.] The Church under the Mosaic Dispensation. As to the Jewish church before the gospel-dispensation, it was erected in the wilderness, and the laws by which it was governed were given by God, and trans- mitted to Israel by the hand of Moses. We read of a very remarkable occurrence preceding their being settled as a church. God demanded an explicit consent from the whole congregation to be his people, and to be governed by those laws he should give them. They then made a public declaration, ' All that the Lord hath spoken we will do ;' and ' Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.' Soon after, there was another covenant-transaction between God and them, mentioned in a following chapter : ' Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments ; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do. ' This was confirmed by sacrifice. • He took half of the blood, and put it in basons, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar, and he took the book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people.' They here repeated their engagement, ' All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient:' and then 'he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you, concerning all these words. '» Immediately after, we have an account of an extraordinary display which they had of the divine glory : ' They saw God, and did eat and drink, 'h which was a farther confirming of the covenant. On some important occasions they renewed this covenant with God. They ' avouched him to be their God ;' and he condescended, at the same time, to 'avouch them to be his peculiar people.'1 Thus they were settled in a church- relation by God's appointment, and by their solemn covenant and consent to be his people. After this, we read of God's settling the form of their church-government, ap- pointing the various ordinances and institutions which are contained in the cere- monial law, settling a ministry among them, and giving directions concerning every branch of the work which was to be performed. Aaron and his sons had the priest- hood committed to them ; and they were to offer gifts and sacrifices. The high priest was to be chief minister in holy things ; the other priests assistants to him in most branches of his office. And when the temple was built, and the service to be performed in it established, the priests attended in their respective courses, each course entering on their ministry every sabbath ;k and there being twenty-four courses,1 it came to their respective turns twice every year. The porters, also, who were to wait continually at the avenues of the temple day and night, to pre- vent any unclean person or thing from coming into it, as well as its being plundered of the treasures which were laid up in chambers adjoining to it, — they also, the number of whom was the same as that of the priests, m ministered in their courses. The singers, too, who attended some parts of the worship, ministered in their courses.11 Besides these, there were some appointed to represent the people, who were chosen to come up from their respective places of abode with the priests when they minis- tered in their courses. These are called stationary men. Dr. Lightfoot0 gives an account of them from some Jewish writers who treat on the subject. Not that we have any mention of them in scripture ; but it is supposed that the appointment of them took its rise from the law? which obliged those who brought an offering to the Lord to be present, and to ' put their hands upon the head ' of it, as well as g Exod. xxiv. 3, 5—9. h Verse 11. i Dent. xxvi. 17, 18. k 2 Chron. xxiii. 4. 1 1 Chron. xxiv. m 1 Chron. xxiii. 5. romp, with chap. xxvi. n 1 Chron. xxiii. 5. comp. with chap. xxv. o See his works, vol. i. pages 92-1, 925. p Lev. i. 3, 4. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 1 [ the priests who had the main concern in the service. From this law it is inferred that, as, besides the sacrifices which were offered for particular persons, there were daily sacrifices offered in behalf of the whole congregation, and as it was impos- sible for them to be present to bear a part in this service, it was necessary that some should be deputed to represent the whole body of the people, that so there might be a number present to assist in this service, and that these acts of worship might be performed in the most public manner. Inasmuch, too, as this was to be performed daily, it was necessary that some should be deputed whose proper busi- ness it was to attend. Dr. Lightfoot thinks also, that, as there were priests deputed to minister in their courses, so there was a number of persons deputed to repre- sent the people, who went up to Jerusalem with the priests of the respective course. He adds, that at the same time that these were ministering in the temple, the peo- ple met together, and spent the week in those synagogues which were near the place of their abode, in fasting and other acts of religious worship ; in which, though at a distance, they implored a blessing on the service which their brethren were performing. As to the rest of the people, they were obliged to be present at Jerusalem at the solemn and public festivals performed three times a-year. Such of them as had committed any sin which was to be expiated by sacrifice, were to go up thither to the temple at other times, and bring their sacrifices to atone for the guilt which they had contracted. It may be said that though this was, indeed, a solemn method of worship, exceed- ingly beautiful, and having a feature which was its glory, namely, that the temple- service was typical of Christ and of the way of salvation by him ; yet it seems to have included no means for instructing the people in the doctrines of religion, as there would be but a small attainment of this end in coming up to Jerusalem to wor- ship at the three yearly festivals. How, it is asked, did they spend their sabbaths ? Or, what acts of worship were they engaged in, in their respective places of abode ? We answer, that God appointed a sufficient number to be their ministers in holy things, helpers of their faith as to this matter ; he appointed not only the priests, but the whole tribe of Levi, whose place of residence was conveniently situated. They had forty-eight cities in various parts of the land ; some of which were not far distant from any of the people. These instructed them in the way of God. The people sought knowledge from their mouths.** Besides, in addition to the temple, there were several other places appointed for religious worship. These were of two sorts, synagogues, and places of prayer. The synagogues were generally built in cities, of which hardly any were with- out them, if they consisted of a number of persons who were able to erect them, and had leisure from their secular employments to preside over, and set forward the work to be performed in them.1" This work was of a different nature from the temple-service, in which gifts and sacrifices were to be offered, God having expressly forbidden the erecting of any altars elsewhere than in the temple. The worship performed in the synagogues was prayer, reading, and expounding the law and the prophets, and instructing the people in all other duties of religion which were neces- sary to be performed in the conduct of their lives. The manner of doing this, was not only by delivering set discourses, agreeably to our common method of preach- ing,8 but by holding disputations and conferences about some important matters of religion. Thus the apostle Paul ' disputed in the synagogues.'' Disputations were held occasionally ; but the Jews met constantly in the synagogues for religious worship ; and our Saviour encouraged them in doing so by his presence and instruc- tions. Thus it is said, not only that 'he taught in their synagogues,' but that this was his constant practice ; for it is said, ' He came to Nazareth, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath-day, and stood up for to read.'u There were also certain officers appointed over every synagogue. Thus q Mai. ii. 7. r These were called t5"3bu3 Otiosi. See Lightfoot's Works, vol. i. p. 610 — 613. and Vitring. de Synag. Vet. p. 530, et seq. Lightfoot says, from one of the Talmuds, that there were no less than 460 synagogues in Jerusalem, vol. i. p. 363, 370, and that the land was full of them; in which the people met every sabbath, and some other days of the week. s Acts xiii. 15, et seq. t Chap. xvii. 17. u Luke iv. 15, 16. 12 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. we read sometimes of ' the rulers of the synagogues,'* whose business was to prevent the doing of any thing which was indecent and disorderly. And there were some persons from whom a word of exhortation was expected, who were called ministers * of the synagogue.2 Nor are we to suppose that this method of promoting religion in the synagogues, was practised only m the last and most degenerate age of the Jewish church ; for they had their synagogues in the more early and purer ages. If we had no express account of this in the Old Testament, yet it might be inferred from the notices of the synagogues in our Saviour's time ; for certainly there were then no methods used by the Jews to instruct the people in matters of religion, which were not as necessary, and consequently in use, in preceding ages. It is true, we do not often read of synagogues in the Old Testament. Yet there is men- tion of them in the scripture formerly referred to,a in which the psalmist complains, that • they had burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land ;' where the word, being in the plural number, cannot be meant, as the Chaldee Paraphrast renders it, of the temple. This appears from the context, in which the psalmist speaks of ' the enemies of God roaring in the midst of the congregations.' Besides, he ex- pressly mentions their burning the temple, by ' casting fire into the sanctuary of God, and casting down the dwelling-place of his name to the ground. 'b Besides the synagogues, there were other places in which public worship was per- formed, called places of prayer.0 Mr. Mede gives an account, from Epiphanius, of the difference that there was between these and the synagogues. He says, that a ' proseucha,' or a place appointed for prayer, was a plot of ground encompassed with a wall or some other-like mound or enclosure, open above, much like our courts ; whereas a synagogue was a covered edifice, as our houses and churches are. He adds, that the former were generally fixed in places without the cities, in the fields, in places of retirement ; and that they were generally rendered more private, and fit for the work which was to be performed in them, by being surrounded with a plantation of trees. He supposes that these were not only made use of in our Saviour's and the apostles' time, but in preceding ages ; and that the grove, which Abraham is said to have planted, in which he called on the name of the Lord,d was nothing else but one of these convenient places, planted for that purpose, in which public worship was performed. This seems very probable.*5 Moreover, we read, in scripture, concerning 'high places.' These, as Lightfoot observes, f are sometimes spoken of in scripture in a commendable sense. Thus Samuel is said to have gone up into one of these 'high places, 's to perform some acts of religious worship. We read also of another 'high place,' in which there was ' a company of prophets, with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them, and they did prophesy.'11 It is true, in other scriptures, we read of them as abused by that idolatry which was performed in them.1 These the pious kings of Judah, who reformed religion, took away. And as to its being said in the history of some of their reigns, that how much soever they destroyed idolatrous worship, yet 'the high places were not taken away ;'k Lightfoot thinks that they should not have been destroyed as places of worship or public assemblies ; that it is not reckoned a blem- ish in the reign of those kings, that the high places were not taken away ; and that, whatever abuse there was, consisted in sacrifice and incense being offered there, which were parts of worship confined to the temple. So that if the kings had not only reformed them from the abuse of those who exercised their idolatry in them, but had proceeded to reform this abuse of their sacrificing there, they might law- fully have met there to perform religious worship ; which it is supposed, they did in synagogues, high places, and groves, which were appointed for that purpose. Thus, then, they met together for religious worship in other places besides the synagogues. — Again, we read in the New Testament, that Paul went, on the sabbath-day, out of the city of Philippi, ' by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made ;'' and there he preached the word by which Lydia was converted. This some think to x Mark v. 22. Luke viii. 41, 49. y Luke iv. 20. z See more of this in the pages of Lightfoot, before referred to. a Psal. lxxiv. 8. b Psal. lxxiv. 3, 7. c n^nvxat, Proseuchae. Evxrtip*, «-?««u*r»{i«, Oratoria. d Gen. xxi. 33. e See Mede's Works, voi. i. book i. disc. 8. f See vol. i. p. 608. g 1 Sam. ix. 19. h Chap. x. 5. i 1 Kings xi. 7; xii. 31. k 2 Kings xii. 3; xiv. 4; xv. 4. 1 Acts xvi. 13. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE A.ND INVISIBLE. 13 have been one of those places to which the Jews resorted for prayer and other pub- lic worship. Others suppose also that the place mentioned in the gospel, to which our Saviour resorted, was one of these ; and that the words, ' he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God, 'm ought to be rendered, 1 in that particular place where prayer was wont to be made to God. ' n But the Greek words may as well be rendered as they are in our translation ; and then they have reference to no particular place of prayer, but import his retirement to perform this duty. We have thus endeavoured to prove, that the church of the Jews had other places in which worship was performed, besides the temple, — a circumstance which was of very great advantage for propagating religion among them. We might have farther proceeded to consider their church- censures, ordained by God for crimes committed, whereby, when the crimes they were guilty of did not deserve death, persons were cut off from among their people by excommunication. But I shall not enlarge any farther upon this Head, but proceed to speak concerning the gos- pel-church. The Church under the Ministry of the Apostles. Here we shall consider the methods taken, in order to the first planting and in- crease of the church, by the apostles. When our Saviour had finished the work of redemption, he, ■ after his resurrection, altered the form of the church, and ap- pointed his apostles not only to signify to the world that he had done so, but to be instruments in erecting the new church. We have already considered the apostles as qualified to be witnesses of Christ's resurrection, and also as having received a commission from him to preach the gospel to all nations, and an order to tarry at Jerusalem till they received those extraordinary gifts from the Holy Ghost which were necessary for their performing the work they were to engage in. Agreeably to the instructions given them, they all now resided at Jerusalem ; and, a few days after Christ's ascension into heaven, the Holy Ghost was poured upon them on the day of Pentecost.0 They then immediately began to exercise their public ministry in that city ; and they had there the advantage of publishing the gospel to a numer- ous concourse of people, who had resorted thither from the various parts of the world in which the Jews were dispersed, to celebrate the festival. Some suppose that there was a greater number gathered together than was usual, it being one of those three feasts to which the Jews resorted from all the parts of the land. A learned writer p supposes, indeed, that the Jews were not obliged to go to this feast from other nations ; and that those who did go were not said, as these are, to dwell at Jerusalem. He thinks, therefore, that what brought them thither from the several parts of the world, was the expectation which the Jews generally had that the Messiah would appear, and erect a temporal kingdom, and that Jerusalem was the place where he would fix his throne ; so that they would be there to wait on him, and share the honours they expected from him. But, whatever occasion brought them thither, it was a seasonable opportunity for the gospel first to be preached. Accordingly, Peter preached his first sermon to a multitude who were gathered together ; and therein he exercised the gift of tongues, by which means, not only was his discourse understood by men of different languages, but they had a plain proof that he was under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He takes oc- casion also to improve this amazing dispensation of providence, by telling them that it was an accomplishment of what had been predicted by the prophet Joel ; and then he preached Christ to them, declaring that he and the rest of the apostles, were all witnesses that God raised him from the dead, and exalted him by his right hand, and that, in consequence of this, the extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost was conferred upon them. The success of his first sermon was very remarkable ; for there were added to the church, as the first-fruits of his ministry, 'three thou- sand souls. 'i We read also that ' the Lord added to the church daily such as should m Luke vi. 12. n E» rri tr^co-i-j^ri rev Bieu, in proseucha. Dei. o Acts ii. i, 2. p See Light foot on Acts ii. o. vol. i. pwjjes 751, 7o2. q Acts ii. 41, 47. 14 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. be saved.' Soon after it is said that ' the number of the men,' of whom the church consisted, 'was about five thousand.'1- This was a very large and numerous church ; and, as is more than probable, it met in the same city. For we must conclude that they fixed their abode there, rather than that they returned to the respective places whence they came, that they might have an opportunity to sit un- der the sound of the gospel, which was at that time preached nowhere else. What makes this more probable is the method they adopted for their subsistence in the world. There would have been no occasion for those who had possessions to sell them, and dispose of the price to supply the exigencies of their fellow-members, had they not removed from their habitations, and forsaken all ior the sake of the gospel. Tins church had wonderful instances of the presence of God among them, which did more than compensate for the loss they must be supposed to have sustained as to their secular affairs. We read, for some time, of little else but success attend- ing the gospel, and of persecutions raised by the Jews against it which rather tend- ed to their own shame and confusion than to the extirpating of it. When the Jews, at length, so far prevailed that, after the death of Stephen, the first martyr, a new persecution was begun by the instigation of Saul, as yet not converted to the faith, the immediate consequence was the scattering of the church 'throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria,8' but the eventual result was the furtherance of the gospel ; for, wherever the brethren went, they preached, and many believed. The apostles, at the same time, obeying the order which was previously given them, continued at Jerusalem ; * and there still remained a church in that city sitting un- der their ministry. This was wisely ordered by the providence of God, not only as an accomplishment of those predictions which respected the gospel being first sounded thence, but that, in this church, a sufficient number might be trained up for the exercise of the ministry in other places, when there should be occasion for their services ; and, in order to this, they had some advantages which no schools of learning could afford them, for they had the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost. Here it was that the prophets and evangelists were first raised up, being imme- diately taught by God. This was the first scene of the gospel-church. Here it con- tinued till the apostles were ordered, by the Holy Ghost, to travel into those parts of the world in which, by his direction, their ministry was to be exercised. The greatest part of them were ordered to those places in which some of the Jews resided. But Paul was ordained to exercise his ministry among the Gentiles. Accordingly, we read that ' the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.'u This divine command they imme- diately obeyed ; and then we read of churches erected in various parts of the world by his ministry who is styled ' the apostle of the Gentiles.' There are several things observable in the exercise of Paul's ministry. Wher- ever he went, he preached the gospel, and confirmed it by miracles, as occasion served. This was attended with such wonderful success and expedition, that the multitudes which were converted by his ministry exceeded not only what might be gathered by one man in the compass of his life, but by several ages of men, unless their ministry should be accompanied by a remarkable hand of providence. At one time, we read of him exercising his ministry ' from Jerusalem, and round about unto IllyricAim ;'x at other times, in several parts of Asia Minor ; then in Spain, and at Rome, and in some pans of Greece ;? and wherever he went, his ministry was attended with such wonderful success as might be described in the words of the Roman emperor, 'I came, I saw, I conquered.' When the apostle had, by the success of his ministry, prepared in any place fit materials for a church, as it would have taken up too much of his time to reside among them till they were provided with a pastor and other officers, who were necessary to carry on the work which was begun, he sent for one of the evangelists, who, as was formerly observed, were fitted for this service by those extraordinary gifts which they had received, while they continued in the church at Jerusalem. The office of these evangelists seems r Acts iv. 4. s Chap. viii. 1. t Chap. i. 4. u Chap. xiii. 2. x Rom. xv. 19. y Ver. 28. THE CUUltCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 15 to have been principally this ; they were to ' set in order the things that were want- ing,' or left by the apostles to be done, and to ' ordain elders in every city ;' as the apostle Paul intimates in his charge to Titus, z who appears to have been an evangelist particularly ordained to minister to him, and to build upon the founda- tion he had laid. The evangelists appear to have had all the qualifications for the ministry which the apostles had, excepting what respected the latter having seen Jesus, and having been thereby qualified to be witnesses of his resurrection ; and they continued till they had performed their work, in settling pastors and other officers in churches ; and then they were ready to obey another call, to succeed the apostles in some other places, and so perform the same work there. While the apostles were thus concerned for the gathering and building up of churches, and were assisted in this work by the evangelists, there was a continual intercourse between them and those churches Avhose rise was owing to the success of their ministry. Accordingly, they conversed with them by epistles ; some of which they received by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, as designed to be a rule of the church's faith in all succeeding ages. Some of these epistles were written by other apostles, but most of them by Paul.* He sometimes desires to ' know the state' of the churches to whom he wrote ; at other times, he informs them of his own, the opposition he met with, the success of his ministry, the persecutions he was exposed to for it,b and the necessity of the churches which required contribu- tion for their support ; and in doing this, he often enlarges on those important truths, which, had he been among those to whom he wrote, would have been the subject of his ministry. This was necessary to strengthen their hands, and encourage them to persevere in that faith which they made profession of. We may add, that there were, upon several occasions, messengers sent from the churches to the apostle, to in- form him of their state, to transmit to him those contributions which were necessary for the relief of other churches, and to give him the countenance, encouragement, and assistance, which his necessities required. Some of these were very excellent persons, the best that could be chosen out of the church for the service. The apos- tle calls some of them, ' the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ,'0 which is an extraordinary character. Some think, that he means, by the expres- sion, that they were the messengers of churches which were the glory of Christ, that is, the seat in which he displays his glory. Others suppose, that he calls the messengers, 'the glory of Christ,' as they, by their wise and faithful conduct, pro- moted his glory ; which was not dependent on, but illustrated thereby. Sometimes they were ministers of churches, sent occasionally on these errands. Thus Epa- phroditus was a messenger and minister of the church at Philippi ;d and One- siphorus was sent to strengthen and encourage the hands of the apostle, when he was a prisoner at Rome, whom Paul speaks of with great affection, when he says, • He sought me out very diligently, and found me, and was not ashamed of my chain. 'e These were very useful persons to promote the interest of Christ, which was carried on by the apostles ; though it does not appear that theirs was a stand- ing office in the church, their service being only occasional. The Nature and Government of the Christian Church. Having thus considered the apostle as engaged in gathering and building up churches, in the way which was peculiar to them in the first age of the gospel, we shall now proceed to speak concerning that state and government of the church, which was designed to continue longer than the apostolic age, and is a rule to the churches of Christ in our day. We have already considered the evangelists as succeeding the apostles, in appointing officers over churches, directing them to fit persons who might be called to the ministry, and instructing these how they should behave themselves in that relation. This was necessary, in consequence of these officers not having ground to expect such extraordinary assistances from the Spirit of God as the apostles and the evangelists had received, any more than pastors and z Tit. i. 5. a Phil. ii. 19. b Col. iv. 7 ; 2 Cor. i. 8; I Cor. xvi. 9. c 2 Cor. viii. 23. d Phil. ii. 25. e 2 Tim. i. 16, 17. 16 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. other church-officers are to expect them in our day. This leads us to consider the nature, constitution, and government of the churches of Christ in all ages. I. We shall first consider what we are to understand by a particular church, and what is the foundation of it. A church is a number of visible professors, called to be saints, or, at least, denominated, and, by a judgment of charity, esteemed saints ; united together by consent, in order to their having communion with one another ; and testifying their subjection to Christ, and hope of his presence in all his ordinances ; designing hereby to glorify his name, propagate his gospel and in- terest in the world, and promote their mutual edification in that holy faith which is founded on scripture revelation. For these purposes they are obliged to call and set over them such pastors and other officers as God has qualified for the service, to be helpers of their faith, and to endeavour to promote their order, whereby the great and valuable ends of church communion may be answered, and God therein be glorified. This description of a particular church is agreeable to scripture, and founded on it, as may be easily made appear by referring to several scriptures in the New Testament relating to this matter. We read that the members of Christ are char- acterized as saints by calling, or ' called to be saints. 'f The churches in Macedonia are said to ' give their own selves to the Lord, and to the apostles by the will of God,'? — to sit under their ministry, and follow their directions, so far as they im- parted to them the mind of Christ, and were helpers of their faith and order, to his glory ; and we read of their ' professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ. 'h The church at Ephesus also is described as ' built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,' namely, the doctrines laid down by them, as the only rule of faith and obedience, 'Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.' As to their duty towards one another, they are farther said ' to build up themselves in their most holy faith, and to keep themselves in the love of God ;' that is, to do every thing, by the divine assistance, which is necessary for these ends, ' looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life ;' ' or, as it is said elsewhere, to ' consider one another, to provoke unto love, and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of themselves together, 'k inasmuch as this is an instituted means for answering that great end. Many other scriptures might have been brought to the same purpose, tending to prove and illustrate the description we have given of a gospel-church. But this may be evinced, also, in a reasoning from the laws of society, as founded on the law of nature, and applied to a religious society, which takes its rise from divine revelation and is founded on it. In order to our doing this, we shall lay down the following propositions. First, it is agreeable to the law of nature, and the whole tenor of scripture, that God should be glorified by social worship, and that all the members of worshipping societies should endeavour to promote the spirit- ual interest of one another. Man is, by the excellency of his nature, fitted for conversation ; and he is obliged to it, by his relation to others who have the same capacities and qualifications. As, moreover, the glory of God is the end of his be- ing, it ought to be the end of all those intercourses which we have with one an- other ; and, as divine worship is the highest instance of our glorifying God, we are, as intelligent creatures, obliged to worship him in a social way. — Again, it is the great design of Christianity to direct us how this social worship should be performed by us as Christians, paying a due regard to the gospel, and the glory of the divine perfections as displayed in it. These are the subject of divine revelation, especially of that part of it whence the laws of Christian society are taken. — Further, they who have been made partakers of the grace of God, are obliged, out of gratitude to him, as the author of it, to proclaim his glory to the world. And as the experi- ence of that grace, and the obligations which it lays persons under, are extended to others as well as ourselves, so all who are under like engagements, ought to be helpers of the faith and joy of one another, and to promote their mutual edification and salvation. Now, that this may be done, it is necessary that they consent or agree to have communion with one another in those duties in which they express f Rom. i. 7. g 2 Cor. viiL 5. h Chap. ix. 13. i Jude, ver. 20, 21. k Heh. x. 24, 25. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 17 their subjection to Christ, and desire to wait on him together in all his holy insti- tutions. And the rule for their direction in this is contained in scripture ; which sets forth the Mediator's glory, as King of saints, gives a perfect directory for gospel- worship, and encouragement to hope for his presence in it whereby it may be at- tended with its desired success. Finally, as Christ, in scripture, has described some persons as qualified to assist and direct us in this matter, as well as called them to this service, it is necessary that these religious societies should choose and appoint persons to preside over them, who are styled pastors after his own heart, who may feed them with knowledge and understanding, so that his ordinances may be rightly administered, and the ends of church communion answered, to his glory, and their mutual advantage. In this method of reasoning, the constitution of churches appears to be agreeable to the law of nature. We are not to suppose, however, with the Erastians and others, that the church is wholly founded on the laws of civil society, as if Christ had left no certain rules by which it is to be governed, besides those which are common to all societies, as an expedient to maintain peace and order. For there are other ends to be answered by church communion, which are more immediately conducive to the glory of Christ, and the promoting of revealed religion, which the law of nature, and the laws of society founded on it, can give us no direction in. It is a great dishonour to Christ, the King and Head of his church, to suppose that he has left them without a rule to direct them in what respects the communion of saints ; as much as it would be to assert that he has left them without a rule of faith. If God was so particular in giving directions concerning every part of that worship which was to be performed in the church before Christ's coming, so that they were not, on pain of his highest displeasure, to deviate from it ; certainly we must not think that our Saviour has neglected to give laws, by which the gospel- church is to be governed, distinct from such as are contained in the law of nature. It may hence be inferred, that no church, or religious society of Christians, has power to make laws for its own government, in those things that pertain to religious worship, or are to be deemed a part of it. I do not say that a church has no power to appoint some discretionary rules to be observed by those who are of the same communion, provided they are kept within due bounds, and Christ's kingly office be not invaded. There is a very great controversy in the world, about the church's power to decree some things which are styled indifferent ; but persons are not generally agreed in determining what they mean by indifferent things. Some understand by them those rites and ceremonies which are used in religious matters. These they call indifferent, because they are of less importance ; but by being made terms of communion, they cease to be indifferent. Besides, whether they are of greater or less importance, if they respect a necessary mode of worship, con- ducive to the glory of God, such as occasions him to be more honoured than he would be by the neglect of it, to call them indifferent is to carry the idea of indifference too far, and to extend the power of the church beyond its due bounds. For as the terms of communion are to be fixed only by Christ, and as the means by which he is to be glorified, which have the nature of ordinances in which we hope for his pre- sence and blessing, must be sought for from him ; so the church has not power to ordain or sanction them without his warrant. Hence, when we speak of those in- different matters which the church has power to appoint, we mean those things which are no part of religious worship, but merely discretionary, which may be ob- served or not, without any guilt contracted, or censure ensuing. II. We are now led to consider the matter of a church, or the character of those persons who are qualified for church communion. We have already considered the church as a religious society. It is, therefore, necessary that all the members of it embrace the true religion ; and, in particular, that they deny none of those funda- mental articles of faith which are necessary to salvation. It is not to be supposed that the members of any society have a perfect unanimity in their sentiments about all religious matters ; for that is hardly to be expected in this world. They are- all obliged, however, as the apostle says, 'to hold the head, from which all the body, by joints and bands, having nourish dent ministered, and knit together, increased^ n. c 18 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. with the increase of God,'1 and puhlicly to avow or maintain no doctrine which is subversive of the foundation on which the church is built. Revealed religion cen- tres in Christ, and is referred to his glory as Mediator. Hence, all the members of a church ought to profess their faith in him and willingness to own him as their Lord and Lawgiver, and to give him the glory which is due to him as a divine Person, and as one who is appointed to execute the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. The apos- tle gives a short but very comprehensive description of those who are fit members of • a church, when he says, ' We are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. 'm It follows, that every religious society is not a church. False religions have been propagated among the heathen and others, in distinct societies of those who performed religious wor- ship, who yet had no relation to Christ, and therefore were not reckoned among his churches. On the other hand, we cannot determine concerning every member of a particular church, that his heart is right with God. That is a prerogative which belongs only to the Searcher of hearts. It is the external profession which is our rule of judging. All are not in a state of salvation who are church-members, as the apostle says, ' They are not all Israel which are of Israel.'11 He makes a dis- tinction between a real subjection to Christ by faith, and a professed subjection to him. He says, concerning the church of the Jews, ' He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter ; whose praise is not of men, but of God.'° Yet they were all church-members, professedly or apparently devoted to God. Concerning such we are bound, by a judgment of charity, to conclude, that they are what they profess themselves to be, till their conduct plainly gives the lie to their profession. The visible church is compared to the net, which had good and bad fish in it ;P and to ' the great house' in which are ' vessels' of various kinds, — ' some to honour, and some to dishonour,'^ — some fit for the master's use, others to be broken as ' vessels wherein is no pleasure,'1" — some sincere, others hypocrites. Yet till their hypocrisy is made manifest, they are supposed to be fit matter for a church. [See Note E, p. 42-.] III. We are now to consider the form or bond of union, whereby the members are incorporated into a society, and so denominated a church of Christ. It is neither profession of faith, nor conduct agreeable to it, which constitutes a person a mem- ber of a particular church ; for, according to the laws of society, there must be a mutual consent to walk together, or to have communion one with another in all the ordinances which Christ has established. As the materials of which a building consists, do not constitute the building unless they are cemented and joined to- gether ; so the union of professing Christians, whereby they are joined together and become one body by mutual consent, is necessary to constitute them a church, as much as their professed subjection to Christ to denominate them a church of Christ. Hereby they become a confederate body ; and as every one, in a private capacity, was before engaged to perform those duties which are incumbent on all men as Christians, now they bring themselves, pursuant to Christ's appointment, under an obligation to endeavour, by the assistance of divine grace, to walk becom- ing the relation they stand in to each other, or, as the apostle expresses himself, 'to build up themselves in their most holy faith,'3 so that the ends of Christian society may be answered, and the glory of Christ secured ; and they have ground to expect his presence in waiting on him in all his holy institutions. By means of this union they who were before considered as fit subjects for church-fellowship are said to be united together as a church of Christ. But as this principally respects the foundation or erection of churches, there are other things necessary for their increase, for the maintaining of that purity which is their glory, and for thereby preventing their contracting the guilt which would otherwise ensue. IV. We are thus led to consider the power which Christ has given them, and the rules which he has laid down to be observed by them, in the admission of per- sons to church communion, and in the exclusion of them from it. 1 Col. ii. 19. m Phil. iii. 3. n Rom. ix. 6. o Chap. ii. 28, 29. p Matt. xiii. 47. q 2 Tim. ii. 20. r Jer. xxii. 28. s Jude 20. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 19 1. As to the admission of members who may fill up the places of those whose relation to them is dissolved by death, it is highly reasonable that the churches should have all the satisfaction which is necessary concerning their fitness lor church communion. But we must inquire what terms or conditions are to be insisted on, and complied with, in order to admission. We must not suppose that these are arbitrary, or such as a church shall please to impose ; for it is no more in their power to make terms of communion, than it is to make a rule of faith or worship. In this, a church differs from a civil society. The terms of admission into the lat- ter are arbitrary, provided they do not interfere with any of the laws of God or man. But the terms of Christian communion are fixed by Christ, the Head of his church ; and therefore no society of men have a right to make the door of admission into their own communion straiter or wider than Christ has made it. This is a matter in which some of the reformed churches differ among themselves ; though the dis- sention ought not to rise so high as to cause any alienation of affection, or any de- gree of uncharitableness, so as to occasion any to think that because they do not in all things agree as to this matter, they ought not to treat one another as those who hold the Head, and are designing to advance the interest of Christ in the various methods they are pursuing to advance it. I think it is allowed by most of the churches of Christ — at least by those who suppose that persons have no right to church communion, without the consent of that particular society of which any one is to be made a member — that nothing short of a professed subjection to Christ, and a desire to adhere to him in all his offices, as well as worship him in all his ordinances, can be reckoned a term of church communion. For we suppose the church to be built upon this foundation ; and nothing short of it can sufficiently set forth the glory of Christ as its Head, or answer the valuable ends of church com- munion. It follows that, as ignorance of the way of salvation by Jesus Christ dis- qualifies for church communion, so also does immorality in conduct ; for both of these evince a person to be alienated from the life of God, a stranger to the cove- nant of promise, and in subjection to Satan, the god of this world, which is incon- sistent with a professed subjection to Christ. Hence, a mind rightly informed in the great doctrines of the gospel, with a conduct in life corresponding to it, is to be insisted on, as a term of church communion. But that in which the sentiments of men differ, is the way and manner in which this qualification for church communion is to be rendered visible ; and whether some things which are merely circumstantial are to be insisted on as terms of com- munion. That those qualifications which are necessary to church communion ought to be, in some way or other, made visible, is taken for granted by many on both sides. Indeed, without it the church could not be called 'visible,' or a society of such as profess the true religion, and, together with it, their subjection to Christ. Qualification for fellowship must, in a special manner, be made known to those who are to hold communion with the persons admitted, as called to be saints ; for this communion cannot, from the nature of the thing, be held, unless the character of saints be, in some way or other, made to appear. If it be said that there is no occasion for this character to be explicit, or the profession of it to be made other- wise than as their relation to a church declares them visible professors ; we must observe that that relation is only a presumptive evidence that they are Christians, and does not sufficiently distinguish them from the world, especially from that part of it who make an outward show of religion, and attend on several branches of .public worship. This mere outward profession is certainly very remote from the character given of all those churches which we have an account of in the New Tes- tament, concerning some of whom the apostle says, that 'their faith' was not only known to the particular society to which they belonged, but was 'spread abroad,' or 'spoken of throughout the whole world.'* This it could never have been, if they who were more immediately concerned to know it, had received no other con- viction than what is the result of their joining with them in some external acts of worship. That Christian character must be made visible may be inferred, also, from what is generally allowed by those who explain the nature of the Lord's Sup- t 1 Thess. i. 8, compared with Rom. i. 8. 20 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. per, which is a church ordinance, and lay down the qualifications of those wlio are deemed fit to partake of it, particularly that they are under an obligation to ox- mine themselves, not only concerning their knowledge to discern the Lord's body, but concerning their faith to feed on him, their repentance, love, and new. obedience, their trusting in his mercy, and rejoicing in his love, and that they are tmder a necessity of renewing the exercise of those graces which may render them meet for this ordinance." This is consonant to the practice of many of the reformed churches ; who will not admit any into their communion, without receiving satisfaction as to their having these qualifications for this ordinance. Now, as the matter in contro- versy with them principally respects the manner in which this is to be given, and the concern of the church in it, we may infer that there is the highest reason that the church should receive satisfaction, as well as those who preside over it. They are obliged, in conscience, to have communion with the persons admitted, and to reckon them among the number of those who have been made partakers of the grace of Christ; and this they cannot well be said to do, unless the Christian char- acter of the persons admitted be in some way or other made visible to them. We are thus led to consider the manner in which a profession of Christianity is to be made visible, — whether it is to be done by every one in his own person, or whether a report of it by another in his name may be deemed sufficient. This I can reckon no other than a circumstance. Hence, I am of opinion that one of these ways is not so far to be insisted on, as that a person whose qualifications for it are not to be questioned, should be denied the privilege of church communion because he is unwilling to comply with it, as thinking that the main end designed by it may be as effectually answered by the other. If a person be duly qualified, as the apostle says concerning Timothy, to make ' a good profession before many witnesses ;'x if his making such a profession may not only have a tendency to an- swer the end of giving satisfaction to the church, but be an expedient, in an un- common degree, to promote their edification ; if he have something remarkable to impart, and desire to bear his testimony to the grace of God which he has experi- enced in his own person, and thereby to induce others to join with him in giving him the glory of it ; there is no law of God or nature which prohibits or forbids him to do it. Nor ought such a public profession to be censured, as if it could not be made without being liable to the common imputation that pride must be the necessary inducement to it ; for that is such a censure and reproach as is unbe- coming Christians, especially when it is alleged as an universal exception. I am far, however, from pleading for such a public profession as a necessary term of communion ; nor do I think that a person's desire to give the church satisfaction in such a way, ought always to be complied with ; for whatever occasion some may suppose they have for it, all are not fit to do it in such a way as may tend to the church's edification. There are various other ways by which a church may know that those who are proposed to its communion have a right to it, which I forbear. to mention. But one of them is not to be so far insisted on, as that a refusal to comply with it rather than another, provided the general end be answered, should debar a person, otherwise qualified, from church communion. The church being satisfied, he is joined to them by their consent ; and is, in consequence, laid under equal engagements with them, to walk in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord, blameless. 2. We are now led to consider the exclusion of members from church communion. This is agreeable to the laws of society, as well as their admission into it ; and hereby a becoming zeal is expressed for the glory of God, and a public testimony given against those who discover the insincerity of their professed subjection to Christ, which was the ground and reason of their being admitted into that relation which now they appear to have forfeited. Now, the church has a right to exclude those from its communion who appear to be unqualified for it, or a reproach to it. Here I cannot but take notice of the opinion of the Erastians, that a church has no power, distinct from the civil government, to exclude persons from its communion. This opinion was advanced by Erastus, a u See Quert. clxxi, clxxiv. x 1 Tim. vi. 12. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 21 physician in Germany, soon after the beginning of the Reformation. What seems to have given occasion to it, was the just prejudice which he entertained against the Popish doctrine, concerning the independence of the church upon the state. This was then, and is at this day, maintained and abused to such a degree, that if a clergyman insults the government, and sets himself at the head of a rebellion against his lawful prince, or is guilty of any other enormous crimes, he flies to the church for protection, and generally finds it there ; especially if the king should, in any respect, disoblige him, or refuse to lay his crown at his feet, if he desire it. Opposition to this was, I say, a just prejudice ; and gave first rise to the opinion of Erastus, who, in opposing one extreme, ran into another. The argument by which his opinion is generally supported, is, that the independence of the church upon the state tends to erect or set up one government within another/ But this is not contrary to the law of nature and nations, when a smaller government is not co-ordinate with the other, but allowed and protected by it. The government of a family or corporation must be acknowledged by all to be a smaller government in- cluded in a greater. But will any one deny that they are inconsistent with it ? May not a master admit into his family whom he pleases, or exclude them from being members of it ? Or may not a corporation make the by-laws by which it is governed, without being supposed to interfere with the civil government ? And, by a parity of reason, may not a church, pursuant not only to the laws of society, but to the rule which Christ has given, exclude members from its communion, with- out being supposed to subvert the fundamental laws of civil government ? We do not deny that, if the church should pretend to inflict corporal punishments on its members, or make use of the civil sword, which is committed into the hand of the magistrate ; or if it should act contrary to the laws of Christ, by defending, en- couraging, or abetting those who are enemies to the civil government, or excluding them from those privileges which the laws of the land give them a right to, its do- ing so would be a notoriously unwarrantable instance of erecting one government within another, subversive of it. But this is not the design of excommunication, as one of those ordinances which Christ has given to his church. We are now to consider the causes of inflicting censure on persons. These are no other than those things which, had they been before known, would have been a hinderance to their being admitte'd to church communion. Hence, when a person is guilty of those crimes which, had they been known before, he ought not to have been received, and when these are made to appear, he is deemed unqualified for that privilege which he was before admitted to partake of. On this account we generally say, that every one first excludes himself, by being guilty of those crimes which disqualify him for church communion, before he is to be excluded from it by the sentence of the church. — But, that we may be a little more particular on this subject, let us consider that they who disturb the tranquillity of the church, by the uneasiness of their tempers, or who are not only unwilling to comply with the me- thod of its government, but endeavour to make others so, or who are restless in their attempts to bring innovations into it, or to propagate doctrines which are contrary to scripture, and the general faith of the church founded on it, though these be not di- rectly subversive of the gospel, yet, inasmuch as the persons are not satisfied in retain- ing their own sentiments, without giving disturbance to others who cannot adhere to them, such, I think, ought to be separated from the communion of the church, purely out of a principle of self-preservation ; though it is not the church's im- mediate duty to judge the state so much as the temper of the persons, whom they withdraw from. — Again, if a person propagate a doctrine subversive of the gospel, or of that faith on which the church is founded, he is to be excluded. It is such an one, as I humbly conceive, whom the apostle styles ' an heretic,' and advises Titus • to reject,' and of whom he speaks as one that 'is subverted, and sin- neth, being condemned of himself. 'z Some think that the person here spoken of, is one who pretends to believe one doctrine, but really believes another which is of a most pernicious tendency ; that he is to be rejected, not for his sentiments, but for his insincerity; and that on this account he is said to be ' self-condemned.'* But I cannot acquiesce in this sense of the text. For though there may be some y Imperium in imperio. z Tit. iii. 10, 11. a AvrtKarax^rtt. 22 THE CHUKCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. in the world who think to find their account, gain popular applause, or, some way or other, serve their worldly interest, by pretending to believe those doctrines which they really deny ; yet this cannot be truly said of the person whom the apostle, in this scripture, describes as 'an heretic' He is, indeed, represented as inconsis- tent with himself ; and his being so is supposed to be known and alleged, as an ag- gravation of the charge on which his expulsion from the religious society of which he was a member is founded ; but did ever any man propagate one doctrine, and tell the world that he believed another, so that he might, for this conduct, be con- victed as an hypocrite ? Certainly his acting thus could not be known without his own confession ; and the church could not censure him, but upon sufficient evidence. It may be said that they might know this by divine inspiration. But though it is true that they were favoured with divine inspiration in that age, in which, among other extraordinary gifts, they had that of ' discerning spirits ; ' yet it is greatly to be questioned, whether they ever proceeded against any one upon extraordinary intimations, without some apparent matter of accusation, which was known by those who had not this extraordinary gift. For, if they had a liberty to proceed against persons in such a way, why did not our Saviour reject Judas, who was one of that society who attended on his ministry, when he knew him to be an hypocrite, or 'self-condemned,' in a most notorious degree? Yet our Saviour did not reject him ; and the reason, doubtless, was, that he designed that his churches, in succeed- ing ages, should, in all their judicial proceedings, go upon evidence which might easily be known by all, when they expelled any one from their communion. Besides, if the sense contended for be the true sense of the text, and the ground on which persons are to be rejected, no one can be known to be self-condemned now ; for we have no extraordinary intimations since miraculous gifts ceased ; nor can we believe that any thing was instituted as essential to the church's proceedings, in the modes of government, which could not be put in practice except in the apostolic age ; and if so, then having recourse to extraordinary discerning of spirits, as a foundation of proceeding against persons to be excluded from church communion, will not serve the purpose for which it is alleged. It must be concluded, therefore, that the person here said to be 'self-condemned,' was deemed so, not because he pre- tended to hold that faith which he really denied, but because his present professed sentiments were the reverse of what he had before pretended to hold, his profession of which was a term on which he was admitted into the church. In this sense he is said to be ' self-condemned ; ' his present errors being a contradiction to the faith which he then professed, in common with the rest of the society of which he was ad- mitted a member. — Further, persons are to be excluded from church communion for immoral practices, which not only contradict their professed subjection to Christ, but argue them to be in an unconverted state. When they were first received into the church, they were supposed, by a judgment of charity, to be Christ's subjects and servants. Their own profession, which was not then contradicted by any ap- parent blemishes in their conversation, was the foundation of this opinion, which the church was then bound to entertain concerning them. But, when thev are guilty of any crimes which are contrary to their professed subjection to Christ, the church is to take away the privilege which they had before granted them. For by these crimes they appear to be disqualified for their commuuion ; and the church's excluding them is necessary, inasmuch as by it they express a just detestation of every thing which would be a reproach to them, or an instance of disloyalty to Christ, or rebellion against him as their Head and Saviour. We are now to speak concerning the method of proceeding in excluding persons from church communion. We must consider this as a judicial act, and therefore not to be done without trying and judging impartially the merits of the cause. A crime committed is supposed to be first known by particular persons, who are mem- bers of the church ; or if any injury be done, whereby another has received just matter of offence, he is supposed to be first apprized of it before it be brought be- fore the church. In this case, our Saviour has expressly given direction concern- ing the method in which he is to proceed. He says, ' If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then THE CHUKCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 23 take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an hea- then man and a publican. 'b If this scripture be rightly understood, it will give great light to the method of proceeding in this matter. Here we must consider, that the crime, is called 'a trespass.' Accordingly, it is, in some respects, in- jurious to others ; and by its being so, the offender contracts some degree of guilt lor which he is to be reproved. Were it otherwise, there would be no room for a private rebuke or admonition, in order to bring him to repentance ; nor, upon his obstinate refusal to repent, would the church have ground to proceed in excluding him from its communion. We are not to suppose, however, that the crime is of such a nature as is, in itself, inconsistent with a state of grace, or as affords matter of open scandal to the Christian name, as if a person were guilty of adultery, theft, or some other notorious crime ; for, in this case, it would not be sufficient for the person who is apprized of it to give the offender a friendly and gentle reproof, so that, upon his confessing his fault, and repenting of it, all farther pro- ceedings against him ought to be stopped. For, in such a case, I humbly conceive that he who has received information concerning it, ought to make it known to the church, that so the matter may not only be fully charged upon him, but his repentance be as visible as the scandal he lias brought to religion, by his crime, has been. If I know a person to be a traitor to his prince, a murderer, or guilty of any other crime whereby he has forfeited his life, it is not sufficient for me to re- prove him privately for it, in order to bring him to repentance ; but I must dis- cover it to proper persons, that he may be brought to condign punishment. So, in this case, if a person be guilty of a crime which in itself disqualifies for church communion, and brings a reproach on the ways of God, the church ought to ex- press their public resentment against it ; which will tend to secure the honour of religion. Hence, it ought to be brought before them immediately ; and they ought to proceed against the offender, by excluding him from their communion, even though, for the present, he seem to express some degree of sorrow for his crime, as being made public. And if they judge that his repentance is sincere, and that the world has sufficient ground to conclude it to be so, then they may express their forgiveness of it, and so withdraw the censure they have passed upon him. But, in crimes of a lesser nature, a private admonition ought to be given ; and if this be to no purpose, but the person go on in his sin, so that it appears to be ha- bitual, and his repentance not sincere, the cause is then to be brought before the church. But, in order to this, the person who first reproved the offender must take one or two more, that they may join in the second reproof ; and if all this be to no purpose, then they are to appear as evidences against him, and the church is to give him a public admonition ; and if this solemn ordinance prove ineffectual, then he is to be excluded. His exclusion is styled his ' being to them as an heathen man or publican ; ' that is, they have no farther relation to him, any more than they have to the heathen or publicans, or no immediate care of him, otherwise than as they are to desire to know whether the censure inflicted on him be blessed for his advantage. We are now led to consider the temper with which the sentence of exclu- sion from church communion ought to be denounced, and the consequences of it, with respect to him who falls under it. The same frame of spirit ought to discover itself in this as in all other reproofs for sin committed. There ought to be a zeal expressed for the glory of God, and, at the same time, compassion to the souls of those who have rendered themselves obnoxious to it ; without the least degree of hatred being felt toward their persons. The crime is to be aggravated in proportion to its nature, so that he who has committed it may be brought under conviction, and be humbled for his sin ; yet he is to be made sensi- ble that his spiritual advantage is intended by the discipline to which he is subjected. This is very contrary to those methods which were taken in the corrupt state of the Jewish church; who, when they excommunicated persons, denounced several curses against them, and whose consequent behaviour was altogether unjustifiable. b Matt, xviii. 15 — 17. t 24 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. "We have an account, in some of their writings, of two degrees of excommunication practised among them. One of these deprived them of only some privileges which that church enjoyed, but not of all. Another carried in it more terror, by reason of several anathemas annexed to it ; which were a great abuse and perversion of the design of the law relating to the curses which were to be denounced on mount Ebal.c This law was given, not as a form to be used in excommunication, but to show the Israelites what sin deserved, and to be an expedient to prevent those sins which would expose them to the divine wrath and curse. d The Jews pretend, too, to have a warrant for their excommunications by anathema from Deborah and Barak's cursing Meroz,e and from Joshua's denouncing a curse upon him who should rebuild Jericho.f But these instances do not give countenance to their proceedings ; for we must distinguish between anathemas denounced by immediate divine direction by persons who had the spirit of prophecy, and those curses which were denounced by others who were altogether destitute of it.s — Moreover, as the Jews, in the degenerate ages of their church, abused the ordinance of excommunication, so they discovered such a degree of hatred to those whom they excommunicated, as ought not to be expressed to the vilest of men. An instance of this we have in their behaviour towards the Samaritans ; who, according to the account we have from Jewish writers, were excommunicated in Ezra's time, for building a temple on mount Gerizzim, and setting up corrupt worship there, in opposition to that which ought to have been performed in the temple at Jerusalem. For this they were justly excluded from the Jewish church ;h but their morose behaviour towards them was unwarrantable. That there was an irreconcilable enmity between them, appears from the woman of Samaria's answer to our Saviour, when desiring her to give him water ; and it is evident that he was far from approv- ing of the behaviour of the Jews towards them. The woman was amazed that he should ask water of her, and said to him, ' How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans ;M that is, they retain the old rancour and prejudice against them, that they will not have any dealings with them which involve the least obligation on either side. These things were consequences of excommunication, which they had no ground for in scripture. As to the Christian church, they seem to have followed the Jews too much in that in which they are not to be imitated. Hence arose the distinction between the greater and the lesser excommunication ; which is agreeable, though expressed in other words, to that which we have already mentioned. Their denouncing ana- themas against persons excommunicated by them, how much soever it might have argued their zeal against the crimes they committed, is no example for us to follow. It is beyond dispute, that they endeavoured to make this censure as much dreaded as was possible, to deter men from committing those crimes which might deserve it. Tertullian calls it, ' an anticipation ol the future judgment ;'k and Cyprian supposes a person on whom it is inflicted to be ' far from a state of salvation.'1 Moreover, some have supposed that persons, when excommunicated, were possessed by the devil. This they conclude to be the sense of the apostle, m when he speaks of ' delivering' such 'unto Satan. 'n They think that Satan actually seized and took possession c Deut. xxvii. d The former of these, Jewish writers call "TT3 Niddui. The latter they call Erin Cherem, or Know Schammatha. This was performed with sevtral execrations, by which they, as it were, bound them over to suffer both temporal and eternal punishments. See Lightfoot's Horoe Hebr. and Talmud, in Cor. v. 5. e Judges v. 23. f Josh. vi. 26. g See more on this subject in Vitringa de Synagog. Vet. page 745, and also the form used, and the instrument drawn up, when a person was excommunicated and anathematized, in Seliien de Jure Nat. et Gent. lib. iv. cap. 7. and Buxt. Lex. Talm. in voce CHEREM. h See an account of the manner of their excommunication, and the curse denounced apainst them at that time, and the first cause of it, taken from Josephus and other Jewish writers, in Lightfoot's Works, vol. ii. pp. 538 — 540, and vol. i. page 599. i John iv. 9. k Vid. Tert. Apol. cap. 39. ' Summum futuri judicii praejudicium.' 1 Vid. C\ pr. de Orat. Dom. ' Timendum est, et orandum, ne dum quis absUntus seperatur a Christi corpore, procul remaneat a salute.' m 1 Cor. v. 5. n Vid. Cave's Prim. Christ. Part III. can. 5. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 25 of them ; that God permitted this as an expedient to strike terror into the minds of men, to .prevent many sins from heing committed ; and that it was more neces- sary at the time when the church was destitute of the assistance of the civil magis- trate, who took no care to defend the church, or to punish crimes committed by its members. But I cannot think that there was ever such a power granted to the church, how much soever the necessity of affairs might be supposed to require it. We read nothing of it in the writings of those Fathers who lived in the early ages, such as Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, or Cyprian ; who would, doubtless, have taken some notice of this extraordinary miraculous punishment attending excom- munication, had there been any such thing. Some of them, indeed, speak oi the church's being favoured, in some instances, after the apostle's time,0 with the ex- traordinary gift of miracles, and particularly that of casting out devils ; but we have no account of the devil's possessing any upon their being cast out of the church. We read in scripture, indeed, of ' delivering' a person excommunicated 'to Satan. *P But I cannot think that the apostle intends any more by the phrase than a person's being declared to be in Satan's kingdom, that is, in the world, where Satan rules over the children of disobedience. If, too, his crime be so great as is inconsistent with a state of gtface, he must, without doubt, be reckoned a servant of Satan, and in this sense be delivered to him. Besides, there is a particular design of the deliver- ing to Satan mentioned by the apostle, namely, 'the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus ;' so that the person's good is to be intended by it, that he may be humbled, brought to repentance, and alterwards received again into the bosom of the church. We have thus considered the general description of a church, the matter and form of it, and the power granted to it of receiving persons into its communion or excluding them from it. From what has been stated on these subjects, we may infer that nearness of habitation, how much soever it may contribute to the answer- ing of some ends of church communion, which cannot be attained by those who live many miles distant from one another, is not sufficient to constitute persons church members, or to give them a right to the privileges which attend that relation. Parochial churches have no foundation in scripture ; for they want both the matter and form of a church ; nor are they any other than a human constitution. — Again, the scripture gives no account of the church as national or provincial. Though persons have a right to many civil privileges, as born in particular nations or provinces, it does not follow that they are professedly subject to Christ, or united together in the bonds of the gospel. If a church which styles itself national, exclude persons from its communion, whether it be for real or sup- posed crimes, it takes away a right which it had no power to confer, but which is founded on the laws of men, which are very distinct from those which Christ has given to his churches. V. We are now led to consider the government of the church, by those officers which Christ has appointed in it. Tyranny and anarchy are extremes, inconsistent o Justin Martyr tells the Jews, [Vid. ejusd. Colloq. cum Trypb.] that the church, in his time, had the gift of prophecy. This Eusebius [in Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. 17-] takes notice of, and, doubtless, believed to be true in fact; though it is very much questioned whether there were any such thing in the fourth century, in which he lived. Gregory Nyssen and Basil, who lived a little after Eusebius, assert that there were many miracles wrought in the third century by Gregory of Neo-Csesarea, for which reason he is called Thaumaturgus; though it is not improbable that they might be imposed on in some things which they relate concerning him, especially when they com- pare him with the apostles and ancient prophets, not exceptii g Moses himself in this respect. It is certain that many things are related of his miracles which seem too fabulous to obtain credit. Yet there is ground enough, from all that they say, to suppose that he wrought some, and that, therefore, in his time, they had not wholly ceased. [Vid. Greg. Nyss. in vit. Greg. Thaum. and Basil de Sp. Sanct. cap. 29.] Origen affirms that, in his time, the Christians had a power to per- form many miraculous cures, and to foretell things to come. [Vid. lib. i. Contr. Gels.] * K*» i« 'Xyr> Teu *y"u txiit'u Hnvf4.tt.rc; ira^a. %£imavei( eofyrmi i!nr*Jay#7 iaiftoms xai xeXXas i*eu( tvrirtXtufi tcai oouat riva xara re €t>uXyfi fjuXXniruv.1 If this had not been true, Celsus, w ho wanted neither malice nor a will to oppose, would certainly have detected the fallacy. Tertullian . [Vid. Apologet. cap. 23.] appeals to it for the proof of the Christian religion, offering to lay his life and reputation at stake, if the Christians, when publicly calling upon God, did not cure those who were possessed with devils, p I Cor. v. 5. II. D 2t) THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. with the good of civil society, and contrary to the law of nature, and are sufficiently guarded against by the government which Christ has fixed in his church, lie has appointed officers to secure its peace and order, and has limited their power, and given directions which concern the exercise of it, so that the church may be gov- erned without oppression, its religious rights maintained, and the glory of God and the mutual edification of its members promoted. We have already considered those extraordinary officers whom Christ set over the gospel-church, when it was first constituted, namely, the apostles and evangelists. But there are others whom he has given to his churches. These are either sucli as are appointed to bear rule, more especially in what respects the promoting of faith and order, who are styled pastors and elders ; or they are such as have the over- sight of the secular affairs of the church, and the trust of providing for the neces- sities of the poor committed to them, who are called deacons. As to the former, namely, pastors and elders, we often read of them in the New Testament. All, however, are not agreed in their sentiments as to whether the elders spoken of in scripture are distinct officers from pastors, or whether Christ has appointed two sorts of them, namely, preaching and ruling elders. Some think the apostle distinguishes between them, when he says, ' Let the elder% that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. 'q The ' double honour' here intended, seems to be not only civil respect, but maintenance, as appears from the following words, ' Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn; and the labourer is worthy of his reward.' Now, the parties to whom I refer suppose that this maintenance belongs to such only as 'labour in word and doctrine,' and not to the other elders who are said to 'rule well.' They hence conclude that there are elders who 'rule well,' distinct from those who 'labour in word and doctrine.' Others, indeed, think that the apostle, in this text, speaks only of the latter sort ; and then the stress of his argument is laid principally on the word ' labouring,' as if he had said, ' Let erery one who preaches the gospel and presides over the church, have that honour conferred on him which is his due ; but let this be greater in proportion to the pains and dili- gence which he shows for the church's edification.' I cannot but think, however, since it is agreeable to the laws of society, and not in the least repugnant to any thing we read in scripture concerning the office of an elder, that, in case of emer- gency, when the necessity of the church requires"it, or when the work of preaching and ruling is too much for a pastor, the church being very numerous, it is advisable that some should be chosen from among themselves, to assist him in managing the affairs of government and performing some branches of his office distinct from that of preaching, a work to which they are not called, as not being duly qualified for it. These are helpers or assistants in government ; and their office may have in it a very great expediency ; as in the multitude of counsellors there is safety, and the direction and advice of those who are men of prudence and esteem in the church will be very conducive to maintain its peace and order. But I cannot think that the office of ruling elders is necessary in smaller churches, in which the pastors need not their assistance. [See Note F, page 43.] We shall now speak concerning the office of a pastor. This consists of two branches, namely, preaching the word and administering the sacraments on the one hand, and performing the office of a ruling elder on the other. We may first consider him as qualified and called to preach the gospel. This is an honourable and important work, and has always been reckoned so by those who have had any concern for the promoting of the glory of God in the world. The apostle Paul was very thankful to Christ that he conferred upon him the honour of being employed in this work, or, as he expresses it, that ' he counted him faith- ful, putting him into the ministry.'1" Elsewhere he concludes, that it is necessary that they who engage in this work be sent by God, * How shall they preach, except they be sent ?'* This is a necessary prerequisite to the pastoral office, as much as speech is necessary to an orator, or conduct to a governor. Yet persons may be employed in the work of the ministry, who are not pastors. These, if they faith- q 1 Tim. v. 17. r Chap. i. 12. • Rom. x. 15. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 27 fully discharge the work they are called to, may be reckoned a blessing to the world, and a valuable part of the church's treasure. Considered as distinct from pastors, however, they are not reckoned among its officers. This is a subject which very well deserves our consideration. But, as we have an account elsewhere * of the qualifications and call of ministers to preach the gospel, and of the manner in which their work is to be done, we pass the subject over at present. We shall next consider a minister as invested with the pastoral office, and so re- lated to a particular church. The characters by which those who are called to it are described in the New Testament, besides that of a pastor, are a bishop or over- seer, and a presbyter or elder, who labours in word and doctrine. The world, it is certain, is very much divided in their sentiments about this matter. Some conclude that a bishop is not only distinct from, but superior, both in order and degree, to those who are styled presbyters or elders ; while others think either that there is no difference between them, or, at least, that it is not so great that they should be reckoned distinct officers in a church. The account we have, in scripture; of this matter, seems to be somewhat different from what were the sentiments of the church in following ages. Sometimes we read of several bishops in one church. Thus the apostle, writing to the church at Philippi, directs his epistle to the bishops and deacons.u Elsewhere he seems to call the same persons bishops and elders or pres- byters ; for he sent to Ephesus, 'and called the elders of the church, 'x and advised them to ' take heed to themselves, and to all the flock over whom the Holy Ghost had made them overseers' or bishops. * At another time, he charges Titus to 'ordain elders,' or presbyters, 'in every city.' He then gives the character of those whom he was to ordain, bidding him take care that they were ' blameless,' and had other qualifications necessary for this office ; and, in assigning a reason for his doing so, he adds, ' For a bishop must be blameless,' i(N)(l, Altar. Dhiimsc. Jameson's Fundamentals of the Hierarchy examined; For- rest.t's Hierarchical Bishop-' Claim. &c. ; nrid Clarkson's ' No Evidence for Diocesan Churches,' and liis •D.octs..ij Cuutchea not \et discovered,' &c. 28 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. of Ignatius, Tertullian, Cyprian, and other Fathers in these ages, that there was a superiority of bishops to presbyters, at least in degree, though not in order ; that the presbyter performed all the branches of the work which properly belonged to bishops, with only this difference, that it was done with their leave, or by their order, or in their absence ; and that, there being several elders in the same church, one of these, when a bishop died, was ready to succeed him in his office. Some of the Fathers speak also of the church as parochial, and contradistinguished from diocesan. But as it does not appear, by their writings, that the parochial churches of which they speak had no bond of union but nearness of habitation, I cannot so readily conclude that their church state depended principally on this political cir- cumstance. I am of opinion rather that Christians thought it most convenient for those to enter into a church relation, who, by reason of the nearness of their situa- tion to each other, could better perform the duties which were incumbent on them as church members. It appears, too, from several things occasionally mentioned by the Fathers, that the church admitted none into its communion but those whom they judged qualified for it, not only by understanding the doctrines of Christianity, but by a conduct becoming their profession ; and that they caused them to remain a considerable time in a state of probation, admitting them to attend on the prayers and instructions of the church, but ordering them to withdraw before the Lord's Sup- per was administered. These are sometimes called ' hearers,' by Cyprian, at other times, 'candidates,' but most commonly 'catechumens.' And there were persons appointed not only to instruct them, but to examine what proficiency they made in religion, in order to their being received into the church. In this state of trial they continued generally two or three years.s Such was the care taken that per- sons might not deceive themselves and the church, by their being joined in com- munion with it, without having the necessary qualifications. This was a very different state of things from that of parochial churches, as understood and defended by many in our day. Hence, the calling of churches ' parishes,' in the three first cen- turies, was only a circumstantial description of them. In every one of these churches, too, there was one who was called a bishop or overseer, with a convenient number of elders or presbyters ; and it is observed by the learned writer just refer- red to, that the churches were at first comparatively small, and not exceeding the bigness ot the city or village in which they were situated, each of which was under the care o* oversight of its respective pastor or bishop. This was the state of the church, more especially, in the three first centuries. But, if we descend a little lower to the fourth century, when it arrived at a peaceable and flourishing state, we shall find that its government was very much altered. Then, indeed, the bish- ops had the oversight of larger dioceses than they had before. This proceeded from the aspiring temper of particular persons,11 who were not content till they had added some .neighbouring parishes to their own ; and so their churches became very large, till they extended themselves over whole provinces. But even this was com- plained of by some as an abuse. Chrysostom frequently insisted on the inconve- nience of bishops having churches too large for them to take the oversight of, and of their not so much regarding the qualifications as the number of those over whom they presided ; and he signifies his earnest desire that those under his care might excel rather in piety than in number, as it would be an expedient for his better dis- charging the work committed to him.' We have thus spoken concerning the character and distinction of the pastors of churches, together with the form of the church in the first ages of Christianity, and what is observed by many concerning the agreement and difference which there was between bishops and presbyters. But this last point has been so largely in- g See Clarkson's Primitive Episcopacy, chap. 7, in which he observes, that it was decreed, by some councils, that they should continue in this state of probation at least two or three years: and that Augustin continued thus long a catechumen, as appears from the account that Father gives of his age when converted to Christianity, and afterwards of his being received into the church by Ambrose. h See Primitive Episcopacy, pp. 189—197- i See Clarkson's Primitive Episcopacy, chap. 8, in which he refers to several places in the writ- ings of that excellent Father to the same purpose. THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 29 sistcd on by many who have written on both sides of the question, and the contro- versy turns so very much on critical remarks on occasional passages taken out of the writings of the Fathers without recourse to scripture, that it is less necessary or agreeable to our present design to enlarge on it. We may observe, however, that some of those who have written in defence of diocesan episcopacy, have been forced to acknowledge that Jerome, Augustin, Ambrose, Chrysostom, in the fourth cen- tury, and Sedulius, Primatius, Theodoret, and Theophylact, in some following ages, all held the identity of both name and order of bishops and presbyters in the primitive church. k Jerome, in particular, is more express on this subject than any of them, and proves it from some arguments taken from scripture. He also speaks of the distinction between bishops and elders, as the result of those divisions by which the peace and order of the church was broken ; and says that it was no other than a human constitution. x This opinion of Jerome is largely defended by a learned writer ;m who shows that it is agreeable to the sentiments of other Fathers who lived before and after him. Having thus spoken concerning a pastor as styled a bishop or presbyter, we shall now consider him as invested with his office, whereby he becomes related to a par- ticular church of Christ. That no one is pastor of the catholic church, was ob- served under a foregoing Head.n We there showed that the church, when styled catholic, is not to be reckoned the seat of government ; that, therefore, we must consider a pastor as presiding over a particular church ; and, that, in order to his doing so, he must be called or chosen, on their part, to take the oversight of them, and comply with the invitation on his own part, and afterwards be solemnly invested with this office, or set apart to it. Let us now consider what more especially re- spects the church, who have a right to choose or call qualified persons, to engage in this service, and to perform the two branches of the pastoral office, namely, instruct- ing and governing. This right of a church to choose their pastor is not only agree- able to the laws of society, but is plainly taught in scripture, and appears to have been the sentiment and practice of the church in the three first centuries. The church's power of choosing their own officers, is sufficiently evident from scripture. If there were any exception, it must be in those instances in which there was an extraordinary hand of providence in the appointment of officers over the churches ; but even then God sometimes referred the matter to their own choice. Thus, when Moses made several persons rulers over Israel, to bear a part of the burden which before was wholly laid on him, he refers the matter to their own election. ' Take ye wise men,' says he, 'and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.'° The gospel-church, also, which at first consisted of ' about an hundred and twenty ' members,? when an apostle was to be chosen to succeed Judas, 'appointed two' out of their number, and prayed that God would ' signify whether of them he had chosen ;' and, when they had ' given forth their lots, the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. 'i So we render the words ; but if they had been rendered, 'he was num- bered among the eleven apostles by common suffrage,' or vote, the translation would have been more expressive of the sense.1- Soon after, we read of the choice of other officers in the church, namely, deacons ;s and the apostles said to the church, ' Look ye out among you seven men, whom we may appoint over this business.' And afterwards, in their appointing elders or pastors over particular churches, we k See Stillingfleet Iren. p. 276. 1 Vid. Hieron. in Tit. i. 5. ' Sicut ergo Presbyteri sciunt se ex Ecclesia consuetudine, ci qui sibl propositus fuerit esse suljectos, ita Episcopi noveriiit se magis consuetudine quam dispositionis doiniincae veritate, Presbyteris esse mnjores, et in commune debere Ecclesiam regere.' m Vii er of ' binding and loosing,' which was committed to the apostles. But what, in the two earliest centuries, was viewed as admission to mere fraternal confidence, began, in the third, to be viewed as in a degVee the imparting of a character, or the deciding of a moral condition. What chiefly, and perhaps solely, occasioned this change, was the gradual usurpation by the pastors or ' bishops' of undue ecclesias- tical power. When the ecclesiastics of the third century set up pretensions to a loftier domination than comported with the simplicity of more primitive times, they claimed for their authority every possible kind of importance, and naturally promulged new and strange doctrines, such as miuht i in - press the people with awe, respecting the nature and consequences of their acts of discipline. To admit or to excommunicate members, was hence represented as ' a binding' or 'a loosing' in some mysterious or peculiarly solemn sense, — 'a binding' or 'a loosing' of such a character, as to involve more or less the highest interests of the soul. This error, which was destined to assume, in the course of a few centuries, the settled form of the Romish doctrine of absolution from all sins by ordained priests, bail acquired sufficient distinctness of outline to be perceptible, even in the days of Tertullian; and as first mooted, or as existing in a shadowy and unacknowledged state, it is exactly what that primi- tive writer denounces in the quotation which closed our last paragraph: "The church will, indeed, give remissions; but the church is the Spirit acting through the spiritual man; the church is not a number of bishops." Tertullian's doctrine, promulged during the first years of the third century, was extensively undermined between the years 248 and 2C0, — a period which was distinguishedby alike the pious labours and the injurious influences of the celebrated Cyprian. That generally ex- cellent man was the worst innovator, whom the churches had hitherto encountered, on the rights and liberties of the Christian people; and, without intending or foreseeing so painful a result, he did more than many of his predecessors united, to convert the primitive form of church order into an incipient system of unscriptural domination. Now, excepting one given by Origen which talks simply of ' the preaching of truth in the churches,' that given by Cyprian is the only one of the primitive summaries of faith, which affords even a re- mote sanction to the clause in the apostles' creed : ' The Holy Catholic Church.' Yet even Cyprian says nothing respecting 'the Catholic church,' and he speaks of 'the Holy church,' not as a distinct' article of belief, but as connected with 'remission of sins and lite eternal.' He identifies — not in his creed, indeed, but in bis accompanying writings — first, 'the church' wiih the church's bishops, and next, the bishops' acts of discipline with some loose or floating ideas of absolution from sin or of infliction of punishment as affecting the permanent condition of the soul. He no doubt repre- sents faithfully the belief which prevailed at the period, especially among hiso ,\ n immediate people; yet he states it as a belief simply in the doctrine of ' remission of sins through the holy church ;' and he leaves us to infer, what is rendered abundantly certain by even later records than his writings, that all such notions of ' the Holy Catholic Church' as prevailed from near the commencement of the fourth century, generally till the epoch of the Reformation, and in a degree till the present time, were unknown and uuthought of at the period when he wrote. We must thus look to later documents than the primitive summaries of faith, iti order to find sanction for the phrase, 'the Holy Catholic Church.' The earnest creed. in which it appears is the JS/icene. No writer mentions any thing of 'the church' as an article of belief, or says any thing like ' 1 believe in the Holy Catholic Church,' before Alexander bishop of Alexandria; and even tie is known or thought to have written so, only as he is reported in tlie ecclesiastical history of Theo- doret, who wrote about the year 430. Alexander himself was the cotemporary of the council of Nice, and was a chief party in bringing before it both the Ariaus and the orthodox sect of Miletians; and, as represented by Theodoret, he speaks of 'the one only Catholic and apostolic church,' in the course of a professed commentary on the enactments of Nice. Alter him, except as existing in the Nicene creed, there is no further trace of the clause till the time of Epiphanius, who wrote ahout the year 390. This writer, as well as several cotemporary or immediately subsequent Greek authors, record it as begun to be incorporated, among the eastern chuiches. with copies ot the apostles' creed. Yet, even at the late dale of the close of the lourih century, when this clause began to lie copied from the Nicene creed into the apostles', it r< ad for a season in all copies ot the latter, not ' the Holy Catholic Church,' but simply 'the Holy Church.' Rutin us, who was cotemporary with Epi- phanius, remarks, — " We do not say * we believe in the Holy Church,' but ' we believe the Holy Church,' not as in God. but as a church congregated by God;" and Augustine, writing about the year 410, and expounding the apostles' creed, says, " We believe the Holy Church, to wit, the 40 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. Catholic one." clearly adding the word 'catholic' as a term expository of the phrase, 'the Holy Church,' winch was all his copv of the creed contained. Tiis phrase, then, 'the Holy Catholic Church,' belongs, in all its authority and parts, to the creed of Nice, and in no degree or resp ct whatever to the apostles' creed, except as carried into it Iroin the other toward the end of the fourth century, and during the progress of the filth. If we would know either its history or its intended meaning, we must look solely to the proceedings of the Nicene council. In the creed of that assembly, it reads, ' I believe one Holy Catholic and Apostolic church.' This is its legitimate shape, that which it originally possessed, and the only one in uhuh it ought ever to have appeared. Let the clause retain this form, and let a glance be given at the occasion and the objects of convoking the council of Nice, and all its intended meaning, as well as its utter want of sanction in the consent ol the three earliest centuries, will be distinctly understood. The Nicene council was summoned by Constantine the Great, to settle existing differences among the various parties and sects of the professing Christians. It dealt, in- the fiist instance and chiefly, with the Aiians, who were a heterodox party in the bosom of the general communion; and next to them, it dealt most prominently with the Novatians and the Miletians. who were two large sects of or- thodox dissenters, or according to the language of the period, orthodox ' schismatics.' One of its twenty canons is occupied wholly u it li the affairs of the Novatians. Now, as regarded doctrine, it declared — fitly enough — that the Arians were not believers in Christ's true gospel; and as regarded commu- nion, it declared — most unfitly — that the Novatians and the Miletians were not members of Christ's true' church; or what amounted to the same thing, it enacted that the Arians should not be treated as Christian brethren because tbey were ' heretics,' and that the Novatians and Miletians, except on condition of tneir 'conforming,' should not be treated as such, because they were ' schismatics.' What the council decreed against error was summed up in the numerous clauses ol their creed which assert the true Deist of Christ; and what they decreed against the orthodox sects was summed up in the words, ' the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic church.' Their conduct virtually amounted to the foreshadowing, though unwittingly, of those baneful claims which have, for so many centu- ries, been pleaded by the Church of Rome. The words ' Holy Catholic Church,' if interpreted either by the light of bistort', the concurrent usage of early authors, or the original intention of the council of Nice, intaii little else than that the large sect protected and endowed by the Christian Roman Emperors, anil afterwards presided over by 'the patriarchs' of Rome, is the one only church built on the apostles or acknowledged by Christ, whilst the holiest and most orthodox communities who dissented from it, in common with such egregious errorists as the Valentinians, the Basilidians, and the Carpocratiatis, lie under the displeasure of the great King of the Christian dispensation. We might quote several early writers on the clause to show that this view of its original meaning is correct; but we shall content ourselves with one quotation from Augustine: " We believe the Holy Church, to wit, the Catholic one ; for heretics and schismatics call their congregations churches; but heretics, by false opinions concerning God, violate the faith; and schismatics, by unjust separa- tions, depart from brotherly love, although they believe what we believe. Wherefore a heretic doth not belong to the catholic church, because she loves God; nor a schismatic, because she loves her neighbour." So far, then, as the apostles' creed represents the Christian sentiments of the three earliest cen- turies, the clause, ' the Holy Catholic Church,' must be expunged ; and so far as it represents the sentiments of later ages, that clause must be treated as at war with the doctrines of the Bible, and as a defence of the corruptions which pioneered the papacy. The best possible apology which can be made for it is, that, viewed apart from its history, it absolutely wants meaning. ' To believe a church,' in any such sense as to believe a doctrine, such as ' the resurrection of the body,' or ' the life everlasting,' is manifestly absurd; and 'to believe in a church,' would be to make erring mor- tals the guides of unerring faith, or to invest them with an authority over the conscience which should be inconsistent with the supreme claims of revelation. The scriptures invite us to 'believe' only in doctrines revealed; and they invite us to 'believe in' only the living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christ's churches upon earth are simply communities of ' saints,' ' faithful men,' 'called,' 'brethren;' they are bodies of believers who must 'bear one another's burdens,' and ' each esteem others better than himself '—' fed' and 'taught' by ministers who are not 'lords over thein, but helpers 01 their joy' — and bound to 'stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free.' — Ed.] [Note D. The Visible Church — Used as a collective term to denote all Christian congregations, or the aggregate body of professing, Christians, the word 'church' is convenient and expressive, and can hardly, even by a fastidious thinker, be regarded as liable to exception. This sense of it, however, must not, 1 thinly be exhibited as having the sanction of scripture; nor must it be allowed to have any influence or place in questions of ecclesiastical economy. To speak of the church in a general way as expressive of the aggregate body of professing Christians, is only a convenient usage, which saves a writer from periphrases, or from the cacophonous use of such phrases as ' the pro- fessing Christian churches of the world,' 'the professedly Christian population of the earth;' but to speak ol ' the church' in the technical and distinctive manner intended by the designation ' the visible church,' is to introduce interminable confusion into our ideas of ecclesiastical economy, and afford an inlet and a sanction to innumerable abuses in the practice of discipline and the observance of ordinanees. The phrase ' visible church,' if viewed in the light of history, or even in that of present usage, is a perfect pohglott of significations, — sometimes exhibiting six or eight languages in a row. Even an alleged part of "the visible church ' — 'the national church' of an> given country —is not unfrequentlj understood in a variety of conflicting senses. At one time it means all the inhabitants of the soil ; at another, all the baptized inhabitants; at another, all the baptized who ba.e received baptism m the established communion ; at another, all the Christian communicants ol the country; at another, all the communicants of the established sect; at another, all the church judicatories of the country ; at another, the supreme ecclesiastical judicatory of the establishment THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 41 co-operating with the state. In all these senses, and perhaps in some others, the phrase * the church of ,' as designative of the sect established by law in a country, is often understood. Yet this phrase, with all its diversity of meanings, designates only a part of what is meant to be expressed by the phrase, 'the visible church.' How perplexingly contused, then, how surpassingly indefinite, how exquisitely adapted to the purposes of subterfuge and corruption, must the latter phrase be! The grossest outrages on Christian liberty, the most latitudinarian or licentious invasions on scriptural views of ecclesiastical discipline, the wildest efforts to extend the Christian name to almost any thing in faith and almost every thing in morals, the most audacious courses of antichris- tian usurpation and tyranny, have all careered over the phrase 'visible church' as a field of summer dust, a wilderness of impalpable sand, throwing up such clouds as have at once concealed their own movements and blinded the eyes of onlookers or pursuers. The only definition of 'the visible church' which can at all bear examination, is that which makes it a colL ctive name lor all single Christian congregations, or a designation of the aggregate body of professing Christians. This seems to he, with some deviations, the sense attached to it throughout Dr. Ridgeley 's remarks; it is, at all events, the sense in which he understands it « hen he claims for it a scriptural sanction. As tar, then, as he is concerned, the only question is, whe- ther the use of the word 'church,' thus understood, is simply a matter of convenience, or whether it possesses sacred authority, ami, in consequence, ought to influence our views of ecclesiastical economy ? Now, Dr. Ridgeley does appear to me to fail in his attempt to adduce scriptural proof. As to the passage, 'God hath set some in the church, first apostles; secondarily prophets,' &c, (1 Cor. xii. 28.) it would be hard to >how that ' the church' of which it speaks is the aggregate body of Christian congregations cotemporaueously existing at any period on the earth. Just to that church, to those persons, to that elected multitude whom Christ bought with his blood, ha? God given, as they pass in their successive generations through the world, all those ordinances, whether the ministry of apostles, or the ministry of prophets, or the ministry of evangelists, or the ministry ot pastors and teachers, which are for 'the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till they all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, . unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,' Eph. iv. 1 1 — 13. The apostles, in particular — on the peculiarity of whose office Dr. Ridgeley appears wholly to rest his argument — were not given to the aggregate body of single congregations in the primitive age, nor to the aggregate body of professing Christians in any one period of the world's history, hut to "the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven,' or to that entire church over whom their inspired writings will have an everlasting influence. Hence, the wall of the new Jerusalem, the emblem of the entire body ot the saved in a state of celestial glorification, is said to have 't.'tKe foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb,' Rev. xxi. 14. Hence, ioo. the united multitude of Jewish and Gentile believers — all who have 'access by one Spirit to the Father' — are said to be 'built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himselt being the chief corner-stone; in whom all the buildmg, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord,' Eph. ii. 20, 21. As io the passages which speak of Paul's persecuting ' the church,' they may not be of so easy explanation. If, however, any one should assert that by ' the church' of which they speak is to be understood only the church at Jerusalem, the obligation to prove the opposite would lie with persons who adopt Dr. Ridgeley 's exposition. For before it can he alleged that the word is an aggregate designation of several churches or congregations, proof must be furnished that such churches existed at the time to which the passages refer. Now, where is the proof that, at the period of Paul's being a persecutor, there had been formed any other stated congregation than that at Jerusalem? Paul, it is to be remembered, was converted in the year 33; and be is first noticed as a persecutor only in the previous year, when, in consequence apparently of his proceedings, the church at Jerusalem ' were all scattered abroad throughout Judea and Samaria.' His persecution is noticed in the book of Acts seemingly in connexion with Jerusalem only, and with his purpose to make inquisition in Damascus. He appears to have remained at Jerusalem till ' he went to the high priest ; and desired of him letters to Damascus to the sy nagogues.' He speaks, indeed, of ' the churches ot Judea;' but he not only says that ' he was unknown by face to them,' but makes mention ot them as cotempoianeous with his 'going into the regions of Syria and Cilicia,' Gal. i. 21, 22. Now, as we learn from comparing Gal. i. 17, IS. with Acts ix. 22 — 30, he did not go lino ' Syria and Cilicia,' or toward ' Csesurea and Tarsus,' till at least three years — possibly not till tour or five or six — after his conversion. Is it not probable, then, that 'the churches ot Judea* which then existed had sprung out of the labours of the brethren composing the church at Jerusalem who, a little while before his conversion, • were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria,' and who ' went everywhere preaching the word?' Acts viii. 1, 4. If so, these churches 'hearing tiiat he who persecuted us in tunes past, now preacheth the faith which onee he destroyed,' (Gal. i. 23.) must refer simply to his persecuting persons ot their views and character, — persecuting the class ot men to which they belonged. Had ihey existed as churches in the days of his being perse- cutor, and been subjected, as Dr. Ridgeley 's argument assumes, to his persecuting rage, he could i ardly have been • unknown to them by face.' At whatever time these churches were planted, they were, so late as at least three years after his conversion, unacquainted with bis person, and had only heard of bis character and history. Two tilings may seem strange in the supposition I have made, — that, so late as the date of Paul's conversion, or in the fourth year atfer the day of Pentecost, there was no Christian church except that of Jerusalem; and that, so early after that interval as the date ol his going to Syria and Cilicia, churches bad sprung up in Judea. But it must be remembered that the apostles, in the commission they received to preach the gospel to the world, were instructed to 'begin at Jerusalem;' (Luke xxiv. 47.) and that they appear to ha\e been remarkably slow to commence exertions beyum. iu« II. S 42 THE CHURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. precincts of that citv. Peter's visit to Cornelius, for example, (lid not occur till eleven \ears i, t. r Pentecost, or wven after Paul's convention. As to ehurehes springing up in Judea between the date of the dispersion of the church of Jeiusalem and that of Paul's going to Syria and Cilicia, no evnit, not expressly narrated, can teem more probable. The interval between the dates u as four \eurs; and the number of dispersed brethren employed in preaching must have been very great, —almost multitudinous. During this interval, too, we are expressly told ' Samaria received the word of God,' or for the first' time produced any materials for a Christian church, Acts viii. 14. Now. the dispei sion which affected Samaria was exactly the event which affected Judea ; lor the brethren who went everywhere preaching the word were 'scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.' What more probable an inference, then, than that ' the churches of Judea ' r> lei red to by Paul were planted during the period immediately succeeding bis persecutions? There is onlv another point in Dr. Ridgeley's argument, or in the passages adduced by him, which requires notice". Paul says he ' persecuted the chvrch of God;'' and he here employs a designation v. l,i,-li may be thought too emphatic to be applied to the congregation of Jerusalem. But exactly lli. iam« designation is elsewhere applied by him to each of several congregations. Thus he in- scribes his First Epistle to the Corinthians ' tojhe church of God which is at Corinth,' 1 Cor. i. 2. He asks the disorderly communicants of that congregation, in reference to their seemingly contemp- tuous treatment of the stated public meetings of their brethren, ' Despise ye the church of God?' 1 Cor. xi. 22. He exhorts the elders of Ephesus, in reference to the pastoral duties which they owed to the congregation, to ' feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood,' Acts xx. 28. He asks, in reference to a bishop or pastor's relation to the congregation which he rules, ' If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?' 1 Tim. iii. 5. To apply the designation 'church of God' to a single congregation, is thus a current usage of the apostle's style. I am far from asserting that the view I have given of the church which Paul persecuted, accords with assured fact. All I would say respecting it is, that it is vindicated by what appears to me respectable evidence; while the view contended for by Dr. Ridgeley is, so far as I know, supported by no evidence whatever. Before it can be asserted that 'the church' which Paul persecuted wa. what is usually termed 'the visible cliurcb,' or even a plurality of Christian congregations, a refuta- tion must be made of the reasons which have been assigned for supposing that it was only the church at Jerusalem, and evidence must be furnished that other churches than the latter existed prior to Paul's conversion. Alter all, the three texts which speak of Paul's persecuting the church, — texts one in subject, though three in number, — are the only ones out of upwards of one hundred which are seriously claimed in sanction of any of the technical or scholastic meanings attached by syste- matic writers to the word 'church.' Of thirU -two texts in which the plural ' churches' occurs, none whatever are claimed; and of about seventy in which the singular 'church' occurs, almost all are admitted, and the small remainder are but feebly dtnied, to exhibit 'the church' either as the aggregate body of the saved, or as a single Christian congregation. — Ed.] , [Note E. Qualification for Church-feUowship. — " The apostle," says Dr. Ridgeley, "gives a short but very comprehensive description ot those who are fit members of a church, when he says, ' We are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.' " Does it not follow, then, that some evidence of persons possessing this character is requisite for their own sakes, and ought to be demanded by a church before their being admitted to its fellowship? Yet Dr. Ridgeley makes the only qualification for admission to consist in *a piofession,' — a qualification, according to him, so valid and conclusive as to entitle persons to the enjoyment and retention of fellowship till they shall perpetrate conduct which 'gives the lie' to what they profess. No term, perhaps, has been more abused, more indefinite in meaning, more accommodated to all varieties of laxity or severity ol discipline, than this word ' profession.' Every body of nominal Christians attaches to it just such a meaning as best accords with its own practical standard of fitness for church-fellowship. The geographical pastor, who admits all persons above a given age and within certain territorial limits, and the austere separatist disciplinarian, who demands acquaintance with not only the elements but the minute lessons of* Christian character, equally, according to their own showing, require candidates to make 'a profession.' It is high time that Christian churches should define 'a profession' to be positive evidence — such evidence as satis- fies the judgment of faithfulness and charity — of nothing less and nothing more than a person's being *a new creature in Christ Jesus.' The notion of ' the visible church,' as distinguished from 'the invisible,' has worked havoc upon correct notions of Christian fellowship. Pastors without number imagine that they are building up a community which is in some sense a true church of God, and composed of persons in some s. use Christians; all the while that, confessedly to themselves, they are including in it but an in- different proportion of hopeful members of what they are pleased to call "the invisible churcii.' " The members of the invisible church," says Dr. Ridgeley, in a previous part of his work, (,See conelu-ion ot Sect. 'The meaning ot the phrases, the Visible and the Invisible Church,' under this Quest.) " are the children of God by faith;" but " the members of the visible church are the chil- ui en ol God as made partakers of the external dispensation ot the covenant of grace." All, then, w bo enjoy the ministry of the gospel — for that alone can be meant by the external dispensation of the covenant — are members of the visible church, and of course are to be admitted to its fellowship! Now, in what conceivable sense are tbey ' the children of God?' B\ what imaginable process does the mere enjoyment of the gospel ministry constitute persons Christians? In what consistent or vind, cable sense can men who are destitute of faith in Christ b? regarded as members ot bis body add subjects of his kingdom? To talk of the Israelites having been the children of God, is onlv to confess the tolly of the sentiment in question. For if all persons under the external dispensation ot the covenant are the children of God because the Israelites were so, the offering of wine and oil must be a Christian act ot thanksgiving, and the burning of incense a Chnstiau act ot pray er. These THE ( HURCH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 43 'carnal' acts were not less certainly symbolical of spiritual affections, than the act of circumcision was symbolical of the regeneration of the heart, or the outward sonship of an Israelite symbolical of the inward and heaven-bom sonship of 'a new creature in Christ Jesus' Dr. Ridgeley's prin- ciple, then, of esteeming all who enjoy 'the external dispensation of the covenant of grace' to be • the children of God' and ' members of the visible church,' till they ' give the lie' to their pro- fession, is directly contradictory of the only sound qualification for church-membersbip which he had himself virtually stated, — satisfactory evidence of regenerated and believing character. Dr. Ridgeley further says, ' The visible church is compared to the net which had good and bad fish in it, or to the great house in which are vessels of various kinds, some to honour and some to dishonour.' Now, what our Lord compares'to 'the net* is, not 'the visible church,' but the king- dom of heaven, h fatiXuu, een before in some suspense ; but tliat dictate of the understanding which it follows, is the last, after mature deliberation; and it is suppos d to have compared things together; and therefore presents a thing, not only as pood, but more eligible than any thing else, which they call a comparate dictate of the understanding; and i>\ this means the will is persuaded to a compliance. But though this may be true in many in- Riances which are natural, daily experience proves that it does not hold good with respect to things t.ivine and supernatural. e John viii. 12. f Chap. xvii. 3. 62 EFFECTUAL CALLING. In this sense we understand effectual calling to be a work of God's almighty power. That it may appear to be so, let it be premised, that it is not inconsistent with God's dealing with men as intelligent creatures, endowed with liberty of will, to exert this power ; for special providence or efficacious grace does no more destroy man's natural powers, by its internal influence enabling and exciting him to do what is supernaturally good, than common providence being conversant about the free actions of men, makes them cease to be free, — only the former exerts itself in a different and superior way, producing effects much more glorious and excellent. This being supposed, we shall, without pretending fully to explain the manner of the divine agency, which is principally known by its effects, endeavour to show that effectual calling is, in a way of eminence, the work of divine power, as distinguished from other works which are, in their kind, the effects of power in a natural way. We shall next observe what effects are produced by it, and in what order. We shall then consider it as it is, in a peculiar manner, attributed to the Spirit of God, and also show that it is a wonderful display of his grace. We shall farther consider this divine power as irresistible, and consequently such as cannot but be effectual to produce what it is designed to bring about. And finally, we shall say something concerning the season in which this is done ; which is called 'God's accepted time.' I. Effectual calling is eminently a work of divine power. For the proof of this, we have not only many express texts of scripture which sufficiently establish it, but we may appeal to the experience of those who are made partakers of this grace. If they compare their former and present state, they may easily perceive in them- selves that there is such a change wrought in them as is contrary to the inclinations of corrupt nature, — a change in which the stubbornness and obstinacy of their wills has been subdued, and such effects produced in them as they never experienced before. And the manner in which these effects have been produced, as well as the consequences of them, gives them a proof of the agency of God in the change, and of the glory of his power exerted ; so that they who deny that effectual calling is eminently a work of divine power, must be unacquainted with themselves, or not duly observe that which carries its own evidence with it. But we shall take our proofs principally from scripture. There we have an ac- count of the beginning of this work, which is styled ' the new birth.' In this we are said to be made • partakers of the divine nature ;'g that is, a nature which is produced by divine power. We are also said to be ' born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.'h The gospel, which is the instrument he makes use of in calling effectually, is styled ' the rod of his strength. ' * The effect of it is ascribed to the ' revelation of his arm. ' k The season in which this is done, is called 1 the day of his power.'1 And the gospel itself is, by a metonymy, called ' his power. 'm The cross of Christ is also, when preached and made effectual for con- version, styled ' the power of God.'n Moreover, the progress of the work of grace is ascribed to ' the power of God.'0 It is this power which ' keeps ' those who are effectually called 'through faith unto salvation. 'p That the power may appear to be extraordinary, the apostle uses an uncommon emphasis of expression, when ne calls it ' the exceeding greatness of his power,' and ' the working of his mighty power ;*t which words' can hardly be translated without losing something of their force and beauty. Indeed, there is not an expression used in scripture to signify the efficacy of divine power, which exceeds, or, I may say, equals them. That the apostle may appear to speak of the power more strongly, he, in the following words, represents it as being no less than 'that power which wrought in Christ, when God raised him from the dead.' — Let me add, that something to the same purpose may be inferred from those metaphorical expressions by which conversion is set forth. Thus it is called * a creation.' When we are made partakers of this privilege, we are said to ' be created in righteousness and true holiness.'3 The apostle seems to compare it with the creation of man at first after the image of God, which consisted f f P,t- '• 4- h John i. 13. i Psal. ex. 2. k Isa. liii. 1. I • > n i Cor> j, 24. f> -» lhe». u 11. pi pet. i. 5t q Eph j 19 20. r Ti vrt^nXX-.t fttyiht r»f luretuiatf xvrov, xa.ro. rrn fueyuat rev xoxrevt mt itYy'i aurtv. S 1. 1 ll. IV. 24. EFFECTUAL CALLING. 63 principally in righteousness and true holiness. He, accordingly, considers this image as restored when a principle of grace is implanted, whereby we are again disposed to the exercise of righteousness and holiness. Elsewhere, also, he says, ' We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, that we should walk in them. 'l Here he supposes that this creating power must be exerted before we can put forth good works ; so that it can be nothing less than the power of God. Nor would it have been styled 'a creation,' if it had not been a supernatural work ; so that it is, in that respect, more glorious than many other effects of the divine power. — Conversion is styled, also, ' a resurrection from the dead.' Thus the apostle says, ' You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.'u In this respect, it certainly exceeds the power of men. A physician by his skill may mend a crazy constitution, or recover it from the confines of death ; but to raise the dead exceeds the limits of finite power. This mode of speaking our Sa- viour makes use of to signify the conversion or effectual call of sinners, when he says, ' The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live-.'* He had, in the preceding verse, been speaking of those ' having eternal life,' and ' not coming into condemnation, and being passed from death to life,' who hear his words and believe ; and then it fol- lows, that ' the hour is coming,' that is, the time is near at hand when the Spirit shall be poured forth, and the gospel-dispensation be begun, and it 'now is,' in some degree, namely, in those who were converted by his ministry, 'when the dead shall hear his voice and live,' or pass from a state of spiritual death to life, as a means for their attaining eternal life. This view is much more agreeable to the context, than to conclude, as some do to evade the force of this argument, that, in the words 'now is,' our Saviour speaks concerning some who were then, or should thereafter be, raised from the dead in a miraculous manner ; and that ' the hour is coming,' refers to the general resurrection. But this seems not to be the sense of the text ; because our Saviour, in a following verse, supposes his hearers to be astonished at the doctrine, as though it was too great an instance of power for him to implant a principle of spiritual life in dead sinners ; and therefore he proves his assertion from his raising the dead at the last day: ' Marvel not, for the hour is coming,' that is, at the end of the world, ' when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice. '? This cannot well agree with understanding Christ's raising the dead to refer to the general resurrection ; for that would represent him as answering their objection, or putting a stop to their wonder at what he had said, by asserting the same thing in other words. If, how- ever, you suppose the dead ' hearing his voice,' to imply a spiritual resurrection, and ' the dead being raised out of their graves,' to be an argument to convince his hearers that his power was sufficient to bring about this great effect, there is much more beauty in the expression, and strength in the reasoning, than to understand the passage otherwise. — This is so plain a proof of the argument we are endea- vouring to defend, that nothing needs be added. However, I cannot but mention another scripture, in which our Saviour says, ' No man can come to me except the Father draw him.'z Here Christ, by ' coming to him,' does not mean attend- ing on his ministry, which did not require any power to induce them to it ; but 'believing on him,' so as to 'have everlasting life.' In this sense, 'coming to him ' is often understood in the gospels ;a and it is the immediate consequence of effectual calling. Now, when our Saviour says that ' no man can ' thus ' come to him' without being ' drawn by the Father,' we may understand what he means by what is said in a following verse, namely, their being ' taught of God,' and having ' heard and learned of the Father. 'b Such, says he, 'come unto me.' Now, this ' teaching ' certainly implies more than giving a rule of faith contained in divine revelation ; for Christ is not here, as elsewhere, proving the necessity of divine revelation, but is speaking concerning its saving efficacy ; and none can deny that many have been objectively taught and instructed by the word, who have not come to Christ, or believed in him to everlasting life. The words are a quotation from the prophets, to whom he refers, and who intimate that they should be ' all taught t Eph. ii. 10. u Chap. ii. 1, 5. x John v. 25. y John v. 28. z John vi. 44. a Ver. 47. b Ver. 45. 64 EFFECTUAL CALLING. of God.' But this teaching- certainly implies more than an objective teaching and instructing; for in this sense they, having divine revelation, were always taught of God. What the prophet Isaiah mentions, when he foretells this matter, is a special privilege ; as appears by his connecting it with the great peace which its subjects should have, or the confluence of saving blessings which should attend it. c The prophet Jeremiah, who speaks to the same purpose, says, ' They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, 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;'d that is, not only shall they have an objective revelation, or that which some call moral suasion, but this shall be made effectual to their salvation. And in order to its being so, God promises that he would ' put his law in the inward part, and write it in the heart, ' and that he would ' give them a new heart, ' and ' put a new spirit within them,' and hereby 'cause them to walk in his statutes. 'e The teaching, therefore, is not merely a rectifying of some mistakes to which they are liable, but a producing in them of something which they had not before ; not building upon the old foundation, but laying a new one, and so working a change in the powers and faculties of the soul. And as they formerly were obdurate and hardened in sin, lie promises to 'take away the heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh,' and by his 'word,' which is compared to 'a hammer,' to 'break the rock in pieces.'* This is certainly a work of power. But that it is so, will farther appear from what follows in considering the work itself. II. We are thus led to show what effects are produced by the power of God, when we are effectually called. 1. The first step which he is pleased to take in this work, is his implanting a prin- ciple of spiritual life and grace, which is absolutely necessary for our attaining to, or receiving advantage by, the external call of the gospel. This is generally styled regeneration, or the new birth, or, as in the scripture just referred to, 'a new heart.' If it be inquired, what we are to understand by this principle, we answer that, as principles are known only by the effects they produce, springs of acting, by the actions themselves, we must be content with the description, that it is something wrought in the heart of man, whereby he is habitually and prevailingly biassed and inclined to what is good. In virtue of it, he freely, readily, and willingly chooses those things which tend to the glory of God ; and refuses, abhors, and flees from what is contrary to it. As this effect more immediately concerns the understand- ing, whereby it is enabled to discern in a spiritual way the things which God re- veals in the gospel, it is styled his * shining in the heart, s to give us the light of the knowledge of his glory,' or his giving ' an eye to see, and an ear to hear.'h As it respects the will, it contains a power whereby it is disposed and enabled to yield the obedience of faith, to whatever God is pleased to reveal to us as a rule of duty ; so that we are made willing in the day of his power. And as it respects the affec- tions, they are all inclined to run in a right channel, to desire, delight, and rejoice m every thing which is pleasing to God, and to flee from every thing which is pro- voking to him. This is that whereby a dead sinner is made aLve, and so enabled to put forth l.ving actions. Concerning this principle of grace, let it be observed that it is infused, and not acquired. The first principle or spring of good actions, may as truly be supposed to be infused into us as Christians, as the principle of reasoning is said to be in- fused into us as men. None ever supposed that the natural power of reasoning may be acquired, though a greater facility or degree of it is gradually attained. In the same way, that power whereby we are enabled to put forth supernatural acts of grace, which we call a principle of grace, must be supposed to be implanted in us ; for, were it acquired, we could not, properly speaking, be said to be born of God. I am hence obliged to infer, that the regenerating act, or the implanting of this principle of grace, which, in the order of nature at least, is antecedent to any act of grace put forth by us, is the immediate effect of the power of God. rius none who speak of regeneration as a divine work, pretend to deny. I cannot but conclude, therefore, that it is wrought in us without the instrumentality of th ! r Is., liv. 13. ,] jlT, xxxi> 33> 34 e Ezek xxxvi 26 f Jer> xxiii> ■_>». g 2 Cor. iv. 0. L Deut. xxix. 4. EFFECTUAL CALLING. 65 word, or of any of the ordinary means of grace. My reason for thinking so is, that it is n'ecessary, from the nature of the thing, to our receiving or improving the word of God. or reaping any saving advantage by it, that the Spirit should produce the principle of faith. Now, to say that this is done by the word, is, in effect, to assert that the word produces the principle, and the principle gives efficacy to the word ; which seems, to me, little less than arguing in a circle. The word cannot profit, unless it be mixed with faith ; faith cannot be put forth, unless it proceed from a principle of grace implanted ; therefore this principle of grace is not pro- duced by the word. We may as well suppose that the presenting of a beautiful pic- ture before a man who is blind can enable him to see, or that the violent motion of a withered hand can produce strength for action, as we can suppose that the pre- senting of the word, m an objective way, is the instrument whereby God produces that internal principle by which we are enabled to embrace it. Nor would this so well agree with the idea of its being a new creature, or of our being ' created unto good works ;' for then it ought rather to be said, we are created by faith, which is a good work. This is, in effect, to say that the principle of grace is produced by the instrumentality of that which supposes its being implanted, and that it is the result and consequence of it. — I am sorry that I am obliged, in this assertion, to appear at least to oppose what has been maintained by many divines of great worth ; who have, in all other respects, explained the doctrine of regeneration agreeably to the mind and will of God, and the analogy of faith. ' It may be the principal dif- ference between this explanation and theirs is, that they speak of regeneration in a large sense, as including, not merely the implanting of the principle, but the ex- citing of it, and do not sufficiently distinguish between the principle as implanted and as deduced into action ; for, I readily own that the latter is by the instru- mentality of the word, 'though I cannot think the former so. Or it may be, they consider the principle as exerted ; while I consider it as created or wrought in us, and therefore can no more conclude that the new creation is wrought by an instrument, than I can that the first creation of all things was. I am ready to conjecture that what leads many divines into this way of think- ing, is the sense in which they understand the words of the apostle : ' Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liv- eth and abideth for ever;'k and elsewhere, ' Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.'1 But this language respects not so much the implanting of the principle of grace, as our being enabled to act from that principle. It is as if the inspired writers had said, ' He hath made us believers, or induced us to love and obey him by the word of truth.' This supposes a principle of grace to have been implanted ; otherwise the word of truth would never have produced these effects. Regeneration may be taken, not only for our being made alive to God, or created unto good works, but for our putting forth living actions, proceeding from that principle which is implanted in the soul. I am far from denying that faith and all other graces are wrought in us by the instrumentality of the word ; and it is in this sense that some who treat on this subject explain their sentiments, when they speak of being born again by the word. I persuade myself, therefore, that I differ from them only in the acceptation of words, and not in the substance of the doctrine they maintain.1" [See Note H, page 77.] 2. The principle of grace being implanted, the acts of grace in those who are adult, immediately follow. There is, in other words, a change of our behaviour, a renovation of our lives and actions, which may properly be called conversion. Having explained what we mean by regeneration, it is now necessary to consider how it differs from conversion. Here I shall take leave to transcribe a few passages from the excellent divine just mentioned. " Regeneration is a spiritual change; i See Charnock, vol. ii. pages 220, 221, &c. and Cole on Regeneration. k 1 Pet. i. 23. 1 James i. 16. m See Charnock, vol. ii. page 232, who, speaking concerning its being an instrument appointed by God for this purpose, sa\s, " God hath made a combination between hearing and believing; so that believing comes not without hearing;" and while he infers from this, that the principle of grace is implanted, by hearing and believing the word, be must be supposed to understand it, con- cerning the principle deduced into action, and not concerning the implanting of the principle itself. II. I G6 EFFECTUAL CALLING. conversion is a spiritual motion. In regeneration there is a power conferred : con- version is the exercise of this power. In regeneration there is given us a princi- ple to turn ; conversion is our actual turning. In the covenant, the new heart, and God's putting the Spirit into them, is distinguished from their walking in his statutes, from the first step we take in the way of God, and is set down as the cause of our motion. In renewing us, God gives us a power ; in converting us, he excites that power. Men are naturally dead, and have a stone upon them ; regeneration is a rolling away the stone from the heart, and a raising to newness of life ; and then conversion is as natural to a regenerate man, as motion is to a living body. A principle of activity will produce action. The first reviving us is wholly the act of God, without any concurrence of the creature ; but, after we are revived, we do actively and voluntarily live in his sight. Regeneration is the motion of God in the creature ; conversion is the motion of the creature to God, by virtue of that first principle. From this principle all the acts of believing, re- penting, mortifying, quickening, do spring. In all these a man is active ; in the other, he is merely passive."11 This is what we may call the second step, which God takes in effectual calling ; and it is brought about by the instrumentality of the word. The word before this was preached to little or no purpose, or, it may be, was despised, rejected, and disregarded ; but now a man is enabled to see a beauty and a glory in it, all the powers and faculties of his soul being under the influence of the spiritual life implanted in regenei*ation, and inclined to yield a ready and cheerful obedience. This work is gradual and progressive, and as such, is called the work of sanctification, — of which more shall be said under a following Answer ;° and it is attended with repentance unto life, and all other graces which accompany salvation. In this respect we are drawn to Christ by his word and Spirit ; or, by his Spirit making use of his word, our minds are savingly enlight- ened, our wills renewed and determined to what is good ; so that, as it is expressed'- in the Answer we are explaining, we are made willing and able freely to answer the call of God, and to accept of and embrace the grace offered and conveyed in the gospel. The first thing in which that change which is wrought in effectual calling mani- fests itself, is our understanding being enlightened to receive the truths revealed to us in the word of God. Accordingly, we see things with a new and different light, — behold a greater beauty, excellency, and glory in divine things, than ever we did before. We are also led into ourselves, and convinced of sin and misery, conclud- ing ourselves to be, by nature, in a lost and undone condition. The soul then sees the glory of Christ, the greatness of his love who came to seek and save those that were lost, and who now appears precious, as he is said to be to those who believe. Then the will — being determined or enabled so to do, by the Spirit of God excit- ing the principle of grace which he had implanted — accepts of Christ on his own terms ; and the affections all centre in him, and desire to derive all spiritual bless- ings from him. Thus the work of grace is begun in effectual calling, which is after- wards carried on in sanctification. As we are here considering the beginning of the work of grace in effectual call- ing, I cannot but take notice of a question which frequently occurs on this subject, namely, Whether man, in the first moment of effectual calling, that is, in regen- eration, be merely passive, though active in every thing which follows ? That he is so, we cannot but affirm, not only against the Pelagians, but against others whose method of treating the doctrine of divine grace seems to agree with theirs. Here, that we may obviate a popular objection, usually brought against our assertion, as if we argued that God dealt with men as if they were machines, and not endowed with understanding or will, let it be observed that we consider the subjects of this grace no otherwise than as intelligent creatures, capable of being internally excited and disposed to what is good, or else God would never work this principle in them. Nor do we suppose, however men are said to be passive in the first moment in which this principle is implanted, that they are so afterwards ; but we say that they are enabled to act under the divine influence. The case is similar to the literal n See Charnock on Regeneration, vol. ii. page* 70, 71. o See Quest, lxxv. EFFECTUAL CALLING. 67 creation of Adam. When his soul was created, it could not be said to be active in its own creation, and in the implanting of those powers which were concreated with it ; yet it was active, or those powers exerted themselves, immediately after it was created. This is the state #of the question we are now debating. We cannot but maintain, therefore, that men do not concur in the implanting of the principle of grace ; for then they would be active in being created unto good works. But these are the result, and not the cause of that power which is infused into them, in order to their being produced. The doctrine we have stated is sufficiently evi- dent, not only from the impotency of corrupt nature as to what is good, but from its utter aversion to it, and from the work being truly and properly divine, or, as was formerly observed, the effect of almighty power. This is not a controversy of late date ; but has been either defended or opposed, since the time of Augustine and Pelagius. Many volumes have been written concerning the aids and assistances of divine grace in the work of conversion. The schoolmen were divided in their sentiments about it, as they adhered to or receded from Augustine's doctrine. Both sides seem to allow that the grace of God affords some assistance ; but the main thing in debate, is, Whether the grace of God bears only one part in this work, and the will of man the other ; like two persons lifting at the same burden, and carrying it between them ? Some have allowed that the divine concourse is necessary, and yet have not been willing to own that man bears no part in this work, or that ' it is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.'1* This the apostle asserts in so plain terms, that the most known sense of his words cannot well be evaded. Indeed, were it otherwise, it could hardly be said, that ' we are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves ; a saying which, though immediately applied to ministers, is certainly, by a parity of reason, applicable to all Christians.** Nor would it be, in all respects, true, that we are 'born of God,' or that we, who formerly were dead in sin, are raised to a spiritual life, or made, with respect to the principle of spiritual actions, new creatures ; all which is done in regeneration. We might also take occasion, under this head, to notice what we often meet with in practical discourses and sermons, concerning preparatory works, or previous dis- positions, which facilitate and lead to the work of conversion. Some assert that we must do what we can, and, by using our reasoning powers and faculties, endea- vour to convert or turn ourselves; and that then God will do the rest, or finish the work which we have begun. Many things are often considered as the steps which men may take in the reformation of their lives, — such as abstaining from gross enormities which they may have been guilty of, thinking on their ways, observing the tendency of their present course of life, and setting before themselves proper arguments which may induce them to repent and believe ; and then, it is alleged, they may be said to have prepared themselves for the grace of God, the bestowal of which upon them will follow. It is added that, if there be any thing remaining, which is out of their power, God has engaged to give success to their endeavours ; so that he will bring them into a state of regeneration and conversion.- — Now, this method of accounting for the work of grace is liable to many exceptions ; parti- cularly as it supposes man to be the first mover in his own conversion, and the divine energy to be dependent upon our conduct. For the contrary is agreeable, not only to scripture, but to the divine perfections, as well as to the doctrine we have been maintaining as to effectual calling being, in the most proper sense, a divine work.— But that we may impartially consider this matter, and set what some call a prepa- ratory work in a just light, let it be observed that preparatory works must either be considered as good in all those circumstances which are necessary to denominate them good, particularly they must proceed from a good principle, that is to say, a prin- ciple of regeneration ; or else they are only such works as are materially good, which many perform who are never brought into a state of conversion. Or if, on the other hand, they are supposed to proceed from a principle of regeneration, they are works, from the nature of the thing, not preparatory to the first grace, but rather consequent upon it.— Again, it is one thing to assert that it is our duty to p Phil. ilia. q 2 Cor. iii. 5. 68 EFFECTUAL CALLING. perform all those works which some call preparatory for conversion,— such as medi- tation, attendance on ordinances, duly weighing those arguments or motives which should lead us to repentance and the exercise of all other graces ; and another thing to say that every one who performs these duties* shall certainly have regenerating grace. Or, it is one thing to apply ourselves to the performance of those duties, as far as it is in our own power, and, at the same time, to wait, pray, and hope tor success to attend them ; and another thing to assert that success shall always at- tend them, as if God had laid himself under an obligation to give special grace to those who, in this way, improve that which is common. For the contrary to this may be observed in many instances ; and when we have done all, we must conclude that the grace of God, if he is pleased to give success to our endeavours, is free and sovereign. — Further, they who say that if we do all we can, God will do the rest, advance very little to support their argument ; since there is no one who can pre- tend that he has done what he could. May we not suppose, too, that God, in a judicial way, as punishing us for the many sins we commit, may deny us success « How can it be said, then, that success will necessarily follow ? When we perform any of those duties which some call preparatory to conversion, they are to be con- sidered as the Spirit's preparing his own way, rather than as corrupt nature's pre- paring itself for grace. We are far from denying that there is a beautiful order in the divine dispensations. The Spirit of God first convinces of sin ; and then shows the convinced sinner where his help is to be had, and enables him to close with Christ by faith. He first shows the soul its own corruption and nothingness ; and then leads him to see Christ's fulness, or that all his salvation is reposed in his hands, and enables him to believe in him to the saving of the soul. One of these works, indeed, prepares the way for the other. None of them, however, can be said to prepare the way for regeneration ; which is the work of the Spirit of God, and without which no other can be said to be a saving work. It is objected that there are several scriptures which seem to speak of common grace, as being preparatory for special. Thus the scribe, mentioned in the gospel, who expressed himself 'discreetly,' in asserting that, 'to love God with all the heart, and with all the understanding, soul, and strength, and to love our neigh- bour as ourselves, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices,' is said to have been 'not far from the kingdom of God.'r Elsewhere, too, we are exhorted *to ask' and 'to seek ;' and a promise is annexed, that 'it shall be given us, and we shall find.'s In another place, we are commanded 'to turn at God's reproof;' and it is said, ' he will pour out his Spirit' unto us, ' and make known his words unto us.'1 There are also several other scriptures, in which superadded grace is connected with duty enjoined ; which duty is supposed to be in our own power, and to be preparatory for it. — Now, as to the first of these scriptures, in which our Saviour tells the scribe that he was 'not far from the kingdom of God,' ho intends nothing else but that the profession he made, which he calls his ' answer- ing discreetly,' was not very remote from that which was made by those who were the subjects of his kingdom. It is the doctrine the scribe mentions which Christ commends. It must hence not be inferred that he had regard to his state, as if his inward temper of mind, or moral conduct of life, were such as more imme- diately disposed him for a state of grace, so that he was hovering between a state of unregeneracy and conversion. — As for the instance in which persons are supposed to prepare themselves by prayer for that grace which God gives in answer to it, the meaning is not that he has obliged himself to give whatever they ask for relating to their salvation. Neither the scripture referred to, nor any other to the same purpose, can have this meaning, unless it be understood of the prayer of faith, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. This, however, supposes regenerating grace, and therefore, is foreign to the argument in which man is considered as pre- paring himself for the grace of God, and not as expecting farther degrees of grace, upon his being inclined by the Spirit of God to seek them. — As for God's engaging ' to give the Spirit,' and to ' make known his words,' to those who ' turn at his reproof;' this, I conceive, contains nothing else but a promise of the Spirit, to carry on the work of grace in all those in whom it is begun. Though ' turning,' in scripture, is some, r Mark xii. 33, 34. . Matt. vii. 7. t Pror. i. 23. EFFECTUAL CALLING. 6]) times taken for external reformation, which is in our own power, as it is our indis- pensable duty ; yet, whenever a promise of saving blessings is, as in this scripture,- annexed to it, it is to be understood as denoting the grace of repentance. If it be said that this is God's gift, and therefore cannot be the subject of an exhortation, it may be replied that saving grace is often represented, in scripture, as our act or duty ; in order to the performance of which we ought to say, as the church is re- presented as doing, * Turn thou me, and I shall be turned ;'u that is, ' I shall return unto thee with my whole heart, and not feignedly.'* — The same reply might be given to the objector's sense of several other scriptures brought to maintain the doctrine of preparatory works performed by us, as necessarily inferring our obtain- ing the special grace of God. But I shall close this head with a few hints taken from the excellent divine formerly mentioned. "Man cannot prepare himself for the new birth. He hath, indeed, a subjective capacity for grace, above any other creature in the inferior world ; and this is a kind of natural preparation, which other creatures have not, — a capacity, in regard of the powers of the soul, though not in respect of the present disposition of them. He hath an understanding to know, and, when it is enlightened, to know God's law, — a will to move and run, and, when enlarged by grace, to run the ways of God's commandments ; so that he stands in an immediate capacity to receive the life of grace upon the breath and touch of God, which a stone doth not ; for in this it is necessary that rational fac- ulties should be put as a foundation of spiritual motions. Though the soul is thus capable, as a subject, to receive the grace of God, yet it is not therefore capable, as an agent, to prepare itself for it, or produce it. It is capable to receive the truths of God ; but, as the heart is stony, it is incapable to receive the impressions of those truths. Though some things which man may do by common grace, may be said to be preparations ; yet they are not formally so, — as that there is an ab- solute, causal connection between such preparations and regeneration. They are not disposing causes of grace. Grace is all in a way of reception by the soul, not of action from the soul. The highest morality in the world is not necessary to the first infusion of the divine nature. If there were any thing in the subject that was the cause of it, the tenderest and softest dispositions would be wrought upon ; and the most intelligent men would soonest receive the gospel. Though we see them sometimes renewed, yet many times the roughest tempers are seized upon by grace. Though morality seems to set men at a greater nearness to the kingdom of God ; yet, with all its own strength, it cannot bring it into the heart, unless the Spirit open the lock. Yea, sometimes it sets a man farther from the kingdom of God, as being a great enemy to the righteousness of the gospel, both imputed and inhe- rent. And other operations upon the soul, which seem to be nearer preparations, such as convictions, &c, do not infer grace ; for the heart, as a field, mav be ploughed by terrors, and yet not planted with any good seed. Planting and water- ing are preparations, but not the cause of fruit. The increase depends upon God."* Thus this learned author, who also proves that there is no obligation on God by any thing which may look like a preparation on man ; and adds that, if any pre- parations were our own, and were pure, which they are not, yet they cannot oblige God to give supernatural grace. III. We are now led to consider that this work is, in a peculiar manner, attri- buted to the Spirit of God ; the only moving cause of it being his grace. That the Spirit is the author of this work, is not to be proved by experience, as the impres- sions of divine power in it are ; but it is to be proved by scripture ; and the scrip- ture is very express on the subject. Thus, when God promises to ' give a new heart, to take away the heart of stone, and to give an heart of flesh, and to cause his people to walk in his statutes,'2 he tells them that, in order to his doing so, he would ' put his Spirit within them.' Elsewhere they are said 'to have 'purified their souls in obeying the truth, through the Spirit.'11 Our Saviour also asserts the necessity of our being • born of the Spirit, 'b in order to our entering into the kingdom of God. So that, from these and several other scriptures which might be u Jer. xxxi. 18. x Jer. iii. 10. y See Charnock on Regeneration, vol. ii. pages 147, 148, &c. z Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. a X Pet. i. 22. • b John iii. 5. 70 EFFECTUAL CALLING. referred to, it appears that. effectual calling is the internal powerful work of the Holy Ghost.c It is objected by some, that this doctrine savours of enthusiasm ; since it supposes that there is no difference between the Spirit's internal influences and his inspira- tion ; and to pretend to this, now that the miraculous dispensation which was in the apostle's days has ceased, is vain and enthusiastic. — But the charge of enthusiasm is very unjustly deduced from this doctrine ; for we must distinguish between the extraordinary and the ordinary influence of the Holy Ghost. The former is allowed by all to have now ceased ; so that they who pretend to it are liable to this charge. But it is a very great dishonour cast upon the Holy Ghost to deny his powerful influence or agency in the work of grace ; and it renders the present condition of the church, in a very material circumstance, so much inferior to what it was of old, that it is incapable of attaining salvation, — unless it could be proved that salvation might be attained without the divine energy. — But, that we may farther reply to the objection, let it be considered that the Spirit's influence, as subservient to the work of grace, is evidently distinguished from inspiration. The latter was a pecu- liar honour conferred upon some persons, who either were to transmit to the church a rule of faith by the immediate dictates of the Holy Ghost, or were favoured with inspiration to answer some extraordinary ends which could not be attained without it, namely, their being furnished with wisdom, as well as courage and boldness, to maintain the cause which they were not otherwise furnished to defend, against the opposition that it met with from their persecuting and malicious enemies, that so it might not suffer through their weakness. Hence our Saviour bids his disciples * not take thought what they should say,' when brought before rulers, &c. ; and promises that 'the Spirit should speak in them.'d In some other particular in- stances, especially in the church at Corinth, we read that when ministers had not those advantages to qualify themselves to preach the gospel which they afterwards were favoured with, some had this extraordinary gift, so that they spake by the Spirit, but this was only conferred occasionally, and for some special reasons. Hence those scriptures which speak of the influences of the Spirit which were more common, and immediately subservient to the work of grace in the souls of those who were the subjects of them, were, at that time, the same with those that we are pleading for, and were designed to continue so in the church in all ages. Thus, when persons are said ' through the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body,'e the language does not respect any extraordinary dispensation which they were then under ; since it is the duty of all men, in all ages, without the extraordinary influ- ences of the Spirit, to mortify the deeds of the body ; so that we may expect this powerful energy as well as they, or else our condition would be very deplorable. — Besides, we never find that extraordinary gifts were immediately subservient to tho subduing of corruption, or, at least, that every one who had them did mortify sin, and so appear to be internally sanctified. Yet, to mortify sin, is a character of those who are under sanctifying influences ; and not to have these influences, determines a person to be in an unregenerate state, or ' to live after the flesh,' and so to be liable to death. f No one can suppose that when the apostle, in the fore- going verse, says, • If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die,' he means, ' If ye are not under inspiration, ye shall die, as living after the flesh.' His reasoning, however, is strong and conclusive, if we understand the divine influence of which he speaks, as what is distinct from inspiration, and consequently a privilege necessary for the beginning and carrying on of the work of grace, and so belonging to believers in all ages. — Again, when the Spirit is said 'to help our infirmities'* in prayer, is not prayer as much a duty now as it was when they had extraordinary gifts ? and ought we not to hope for the assistance of the Spirit in all ages ? The Spirit's c When we speak of effectual calling being the work of the Spirit, the agency of the Father and Son is not excluded; since the divine power by which all effects are produced, belongs to the divine essence, which is equally predicated of all the persons in the Godhead. But when any work is peculiarly attributed to the Spirit, it implies that his personal glory is demonstrated thereby, agree- ably to wn»tis elsewhere called the economy of the divine persons. See this farther explained in Sect. ■ The Economy of the. Persons in the Godhead,' under Quest, ix, x, xi. (1 Matt. x. 18—20. e Rom. viii. 13. f Ver. 12. g Ver. 26. EFFECTUAL CALLING. 7l help, therefore, is not confined to the age when there was a miraculous dispensation, or extraordinary inspiration. — Further, when it is said, ' As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,'h can we suppose that none were the sons or God but such as had extraordinary gifts I Does not this privilege belong to us as well as to them ? Now, if we are the sons of God, as well as they, we have this evidence of our being so, that we are ' led by the Spirit of God ;' though we pretend not to be led by him as a Spirit of inspiration. — We may add, that the apostle elsewhere speaks of some who were ' sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance.' These are described as ' trusting in Christ, after they had heard the word of salvation,' and 'believing in him.*' But this character belongs to the church in all ages ; so that the ' sealing ' spoken of is not a privilege confined tp those who had the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, but one which belongs to believers as such. — Moreover, it is said, ' The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.'k Therefore some per- sons may, in a way of self-examination, know themselves to be the children of God, by the witness of the Spirit which is common to all believers ; they may do so with- out pretending to be inspired, which would be to know this matter without the con- curring testimony of our own spirits. — Many things of a similar nature might be observed concerning other scriptures which are generally brought to prove that be- lievers, in our day, though they pretend not to the Spirit of inspiration, are made partakers of the powerful influences of the Holy Ghost. But what we have stated is a sufficient Answer to the objection we have been considering. It is farther objected, that, if the Spirit does work internally in the souls of men, we are not to suppose that he works a change in their wills, but only that he presents objects to them which they, by their own power, improve and make use of for their good ; even as a finite spirit may suggest good or bad thoughts, without disposing us to comply with them ; or, as the devil is said to work in men, and is called, ' The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.'1 But an objective influence, properly speaking, is no influence at all ; much less is it becoming the dignity of the Holy Ghost, to say that he has no more an hand in the work of conversion than that which a mere creature might have. I will not deny that the Greek word,m which signifies energy, or internal working, is sometimes taken for such a kind of influence as is not properly the effect of power, as in the instance stated in the objection. Yet, let it be considered that in other instances the same word is often used, in senses very different, when applied to God and the creature ; the word, in itself, being indeterminate, while the ap- plication of it so determines the meaning as to leave no doubt as to the sense of it. Thus, when 'to make,' ' form,' or 'produce,' is applied to God, and the thing made, formed, or produced, is represented as a display of his almighty power which exceeds the limits of finite power, the sense is determined to be very differ- ent from making, forming, or producing, when applied to men, acting in their own sphere. So the apostle speaks of ' building,' in a very different sense, as applied to God and the creature, which no one is at a loss to understand: ' Every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.'n Now, to apply this to our present purpose, we do not deny that a finite spirit has an energy in an ob- jective way ; but when the same word is applied to God's manner of acting, and, as was formerly observed, is used to denote a display of his almighty power, produc- ing a change in the soul, and not only persuading but enabling a man to perform good works, from a principle of spiritual life implanted, it may easily be under- stood as having a very different sense from the same word, when applied to the in- ternal agency of a finite spirit. The objection in question, therefore, does not overthrow the argument we are maintaining. It is farther objected against the illustration of the powerful work of the Spirit from a person's being raised from the dead, that this implies nothing supernatural, or out of the power of man ; since the apostle says, ' Awake, thou that sleepest, aud arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.'0 If arising from the h Rom. viii. 14. i Eph. i. 13, 14. k Rom. viii. 16. 1 Eph. ii. 2. m Eti^yua. ii Heb. iii. 4. o Eph. v. 14. 72 EFFECTUAL CALLING. dead, it is said, be the effect of almighty power, when applied to the work of grace, it seems preposterous for this 'arising from the dead' to be recommended as our duty ; and if it be not a work of almighty power, those scriptures which illustrate effectual calling by the resurrection of the dead, are nothing to the argument for which they have been brought. Now, some suppose that its being assigned as a matter of duty for sinners to rise from the dead, does not infer that their doing so is in their own power ; but that it signifies only that none can expect eternal life except those who rise from the death of sin. Accordingly, as the promise here mentioned, relating to our 'having light,' is said to be 'Christ's gift;' so the power to perform that duty which is inseparably connected with it, namely, ' rising from the dead,' is to be sought for at his hand. But if this Answer be not reckoned sufficient, I see no absurdity in supposing that the two expressions, ' awake, thou that sleepest,' and ' arise from the dead,' import the same thing. Sleep is, as it were, the image of death, and, by a metaphorical way of speaking, may be here called death ; and if so, the apostle commands believers to awake out of their carnal security, or shake off their stupid frames, as they expect the light of eternal life. Though, however, it be taken in this sense here ; yet when we meet with the words ' quickened,' or 'raised from the dead,' elsewhere, they may be understood in a dif- ferent sense, as denoting the implanting of a principle of grace in regeneration, as will appear by the context. Thus when God is said to ' quicken those who were dead in trespasses and sins, who walked according to the course of this world, ful- filling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath ;' and to do this with a design to show 'the exceeding riches of his grace, and kindness towards them;' and, in consequence, to work that faith which accom- panies salvation, and which is not of themselves, but is his gift ; when God is said to do these things in our being 'quickened or raised from the dead,' the expres- sions certainly argue more than a stupid believer's awaking from the carnal security which he is under, who is supposed to have a principle of spiritual life, whereby he may be enabled so to do. It is also objected to what has been said as to effectual calling being a work of divine power, that those scriptures which speak of it as such, denote nothing else but the power of working miracles ; whereby they to whom the gospel was preached were induced to believe. Thus, when the apostle says, ' My preaching was in de- monstration of the Spirit and of power, 'p his meaning is alleged to be that the doctrines he preached were confirmed, and the truth of them demonstrated, by the power of the Holy Ghost enabling him to work miracles. Again, the words, ' The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power, 'i are alleged to mean that the gospel was not only preached, but confirmed by miracles ; and the words, ' Our gospel came to you in power and in the Holy Ghost, 'r are paraphrased, — ' The gospel which we preach, was confirmed by the power and miraculous works of the Holy Ghost;' which, say the objectors, has no reference to the internal efficacious influences of the Spirit put forth in effectual calling. — Now, though we often read that the gos- pel was confirmed by miracles ; yet I cannot see that this is the principal, much less the only sense of these scriptures, and some others which might have been produced to the same purpose. — As to the first of them, in which the apostle speaks of his preaching being 'in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power,' it may be observed that, in the preceding chapter, he had been speaking concerning Christ preached, and his glory set forth among them, as ' the power of God ;' that is to say, the power of God rendered the preaching of the doctrine of Christ effec- tual to the conversion of those who believed. Now, this the apostle concludes to contain no less a conviction of the trutli of the Christian religion, than if he had wrought signs or miracles; which the Jews demanded, and which he had no design to work among them. Why, then, should we suppose that, when he speaks of his preaching being 'in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power,' he means the confirming of his doctrine by miracles, and not the confirming of it in the same sense he had just signified of Christ being the power of God— As for the scripture in which it is said, ' The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power,' it is to p 1 Cor. ii. 4. q chap. iv. 20. r 1 Tbess. i. 5. • 0 EFFECTUAL CALLING. 73 be understood by comparing it with what immediately goes before, in which he says, ' I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and know not the speech of them who are puffed up, but the power.' If we suppose that, by ' them who are puffed up,' he means some of their teachers, whdfswelled either with pride or envy, probably were sowing some seeds of error among them, it does seem to be just to explain the following words, ' I will know not the speech of them who are puffed up, but the power,' to mean, 'I will not so much regard the doctrines they deliver, as I will inquire and be convinced that they have confirmed them by miracles.' For he would rather regard their doctrine than their pretence to miracles, or have said, ' I will not inquire whether they have wrought any miracles, but what efficacy their doctrine has had.' By 'knowing the power,' therefore, the apostle does not mean that of working miracles ; but he intimates that he would know, not only what doctrines these persons taught, but what success attended their preaching. And then he adds, that 'the kingdom of God,' that is, the gospel-state, is advanced and promoted, not merely by the church's enjoying the means of grace, such as the preaching of the word, but 'by the power of God,' which makes the word preached effectual to salvation, whereby sinners are converted, and many added to the church, such as shall be saved. — As to the last scripture mentioned, in which the apostle says, ' Our gospel came to you, not in word only, but in power,' I can- not think that he has any reference in it to the confirming of the gospel by miracles ; because what it says is assigned as a mark of their election, ' Knowing, brethren, your election of God ; for our gospel came unto you, not only in word, but in power,' &c. Now, whether we take election for God's eternal design to save them, for the execution of that design in his applying the graces of the Spirit to them, or, in the lowest sense which they on the other side of the question generally adopt, for their being a choice, religious, unblameable society of Christians, excelling many others in piety, it could not be evinced by the gospel being confirmed by miracles. This tense, then, seems not agreeable to the apostle's design. Hence, the objection founded on those scriptures which speak of the power of God in conversion, as implying nothing else but his power exerted in working miracles, will not, in the least, be sufficient to weaken the force of the argument we are maintaining. Thus, concerning effectual calling being a work of power attributed, in particular, to the Holy Spirit. There is one thing more observed in the Answer we are explaining, which must be briefly considered, namely, that effectual calling is a work of grace, which was the internal moving cause of it, or the reason of God's exerting his divine power in it. Effectual calling must be a work of grace, without any motive taken from those who are its subjects ; for they had nothing in them which could render them the objects of divine love, being described as 'dead in trespasses and sins, alienated from the life of God,' and 'enmity ' itself 'against him.' Their condition, ante- cedent to effectual calling, cannot be supposed to be the moving cause of it ; for that which is in itself altogether unlovely, cannot afford a motive for love to any one who weighs the circumstances of persons and things, and acts accordingly. But it is objected, that though the present condition of unregenerate persons cannot afford any motive inducing God to make them the subjects of effectual call- ing, yet the foresight of their future conduct might. We answer, that all the good which shall be found in believers is God's gift. He is the finisher as well as the author of faith ; and therefore it cannot be said, that any thing out of himself was the moving cause of it. We may add that God foresaw the vile and unworthy be- haviour of believers, proceeding from the remains of corrupt nature in them, as well as those graces which he would enable them to act ; so that there is as much in them which might induce him to hate them, as there is to move him to love them. We must conclude, therefore, that his love proceeds from another cause, or that it is by the grace of God alone that we are what we are. IV. We are now led to consider that the power and grace of God displayed in effectual calling, is irresistible, and consequently such as cannot but be effectual to produce that which is designed to be brought about by it. To deny this, would be to infer that the creature has an equal, if not a superior force to God. For, as in nature, every thing which impedes or stops a thing which is in motion must have an equal force to resist with that which is affected by it ; so, in the work of n. K 74 EFFECTUAL CALLING. grace, if the will of man cau render the power of God of none effect, or stop the progress of divine grace, contrary to his design or purpose, the creature's power of resisting must be equal to that which is put iorth by God, in order to the bringing of this work to perfection. This consequence is so derogatory to the divine glory, that no one who sees it to be just, will maintain the premises whence it is deduced. If it be said that God may suffer himself to be resisted, and his grace which would otherwise have been effectual to be defeated, this will not much mend the matter, but will only, in order to the avoiding of one absurd consequence, bring in another ; for if every one would have brought to pass what he purposes to be done, and would not be disappointed if he could help it, the same must be said of the great God. Now to say, that God could have prevented his purpose from being defeated, but would not, argues a defect of wisdom. If his own glory was designed by purposing to do that which the creature renders ineffectual, then he misses that end which cannot but be the most valuable, and consequently most desirable. Hence, ior God to suffer a purpose of this nature to be defeated, supposing he could prevent it, is to suffer himself to be a loser of that glory which is due to his name. More- over, the supposition is directly contrary to what the apostle says, 'Who hath re- sisted his will?'8 or, "Who hath rendered the grace which he designed should take effect, ineffectual?" or, which is the same thing, " Who can do it?" The ground on which many have asserted that the grace of God may be resisted, is taken from some scriptures which speak of man's being in open hostility against him. Thus we read of a bold daring sinner as ' stretching out his hand against God, and strengthening himself against the Almighty, running upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers.'* Stephen reproves the Jews as having 'always resisted the Holy Ghost, both they and their fathers.'11 The Pharisees are said to ' have rejected, 'x or, as the word? might have been rendered, •disannulled the counsel of God against themselves.' And the prophet speaks of God's 'stretching out his hand all the day, unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.'2 These, and similar scriptures, give occasion to some to suppose that the power and grace, as well as the purpose of God, may be resisted. But that we may understand the sense of these scriptures, and, at the same time, not relinquish the doctrine we are maintaining, and thereby infer the consequence above-men- tioned, we must distinguish between our opposition to God's revealed will contained in his word, which is the rule of duty to us, and resisting his secret will, which de- termines the event. Or, as it may be otherwise expressed, it is one thing to set ourselves against the objective grace of God, that is, the gospel ; and another thing to defeat his subjective grace, that when he is about to work effectually in us, we should put a stop to his proceedings. The former no one denies ; the latter we can by no means allow. Persons may express a great deal of reluctance and per- verseness at the time when God is about to subdue their stubborn and obstinate wills ; but the power of God will break through all this opposition, and'the will of man shall not be able to make his work void, or without effect. The Jews, as above-mentioned, might ' resist the Holy Ghost,' that is, oppose the doctrines con- tained in scripture, which were given by the Spirit's inspiration ; and they might make this revelation of no effect with respect to themselves ; but had God designed that it should take effect, he would have prevented their resisting it. Israel might be ' a gainsaying people,' that is, they might oppose what God communicated to them by the prophets, which it was their duty and interest to have complied with ; and so the offer of grace in God's revealed will might be in vain with respect to them ; but it never was so with respect to those whom he designed to save. And if the hardened sinner, 'stretching out his hand against God,' may be said hereby to express his averseness to holiness, and his desire to be exempted from the divine government, he may be found in open rebellion against him, as hating and oppos- ing his law, but he cannot offer any real injury to his divine perfections, so as to detract from his glory, or render his purpose of no effect. Moses, speaking concern- ing God's works of providence, says, ' They are perfect; for all his ways are judg- ■ Horn. ix. 19. t Job xv. 25. 26. u Acts vii. 51, 52. x Luke vii. 30. V AhrnvKi. % Rom. x. 21. EFFECTUAL CALLING. 75 ment.'* Elsewhere, God, by the prophet Isaiah, says, ' I will work, and who shall let it;'b whence he argues his eternal Deity and uncontrollable power, ' Before the day was, I am he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand ;' so that if a stop might be put to his works of providence, he would cease to be a God of infinite perfection. May we not infer, then, that his works of grace are not subject to any control ; so that when he designs to call any effectually, nothing shall prevent this end from being answered? This is what we intend, when we speak of the power and grace of God as irresistible. V. We are now to consider the season or time in which persons are effectually called. This, in the Answer under consideration, is said to be ' God's accepted time.' If the work be free and sovereign, without any motive in us, the time in which he does it must be that which he thinks most proper. Here we may ob- serve that some are regenerated in their infancy, when the word can have no in- strumentality in producing the least acts of grace. These have therefore the seeds of grace, which spring up and discover themselves when they are able to make use of the word. That persons are capable of regeneration from the womb, is no less evident, than that they are capable of having the seeds or principle of reason, which they certainly have ; and if it be allowed that regeneration is con- nected with salvation, and that infants are capable of the latter, as our Saviour says that 'of such is the kingdom of God,' they must be certainly capable of the former. Not to suppose some infants regenerated from the womb, would, without scripture-warrant, be to exclude a very great part of mankind from salvation. Others are effectually called in their childhood, others in riper years, and some few in old age ; that so no age of life may be an inducement to despair, or persons be discouraged from attending on the means of grace. Thus ' Josiah, in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, began to seek after the God of David his father.'0 David was converted when he was a youth, a stripling of a ruddy and beautiful countenance.'*1 Moses seems to have been effectually called, when he left Pharaoh's court, and 'it came into his heart to visit his brethren the chil- dren of Israel ;' at which time he was 'forty years old.' e Abraham seems to have been made partaker of this grace, when he was called to leave his country, when he was seventy-five years old ; before which it is probable that he, together with the rest of his family, served other gods.f We read also, in one instance, of a person converted in the very agonies of death, namely, the thief upon the cross.* Sometimes when persons seem most disposed to conversion, and are under the greatest convictions, and more inclined to reform their lives than at other times, the work appears, by the issue of it, to be no more than that of common grace, which miscarries and leaves them worse than they were before ; and it may be that afterwards, when they seem less inclined, God's accepted time will come, when he begins the work with power, which he afterwards carries on and completes. Some are suffered to run great lengths in sin, before they are effectually called ; as the apostle ' Paul, in whom God was pleased to show forth all long-suffering, as a pattern to them which should hereafter believe.' h Hence the time and means being entirely in God's hand, as we ought not to presume, but to wait for the day of salvation in all his ordinances ; so, whatever our age and circumstances, we are encouraged to hope for the mercy of God unto eternal life, or that he will save and call us with an holy calling. a Deut. xxxii. 4. b Isa. xliii. 13. c 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3. d 1 Sam. xvi. 12. compared with chap. xvii. 56, 58. e Acts vii. 23. f Josh. xxiv. 2. compared with Gen. xii. 14. g Luke xxiii. 43. h 1 Tim. i. 16. [Note G. Common Grace Dr. Ridgeley, in what he says respecting ' common grace,' ' restrain- ing grace,' and ' common operations of the Spirit,' appears to have got so engaged in expounding the Catechism that he forgot duly to inquire, ' What saith the scripture?' Grace which does not ' bring salvation,' and a work of the Holy Spirit on the soul which does not renovate and savrngly enlighten, mu-t seem, to any person who has studied the scriptures apart from the theology of the schoolmen, very extraordinary ideas. Dr. Ridgeley himself appears not to understand them. He says, " Though the Spirit is considered at an external ayent, inasmuch as he never tin ells in the heart of any but helitv, rs ; yet the effect produced is internal in the mind and consciences of men, and, in some degree, in the will, which is almost perr-uaded to comply." Now, if the Spirit is not an inter- nal agent, — if he never dwells, or carries on a work, in the heart of any but believers; how can he 76 EFFECTUAL CALLING. be said to perform ' operations,' whether ■ common * or otherwise, on the souls of persons who continue to reject the truth ? ' Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' ' When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he leads into all truth.' ' But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them ; because they are spiritually discerned.' While the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, is ' known' to believers, and ' dwelleth with them, and shall be in them,' the world ' cannot receive him, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.' Nor is the case altered by saying that " effects are produced internal in the mind and consciences of men, and, in some degree, in the will." By the common occurren- ces of providence, bereavements, losses, public calamities, pestilences, and rumours of war, as truly as by direct appeals concerning 'temperance, and righteousness, and judgment to come,' many an unconverted sinner is occasionally made to ' tremble,' to stand self-convicted of guilt, to resolve upon amendment of conduct, and, in general, to experience strong internal effects upon his moral affections. Yet who would speak of the consternations, the moral panics, the temporary reforma- tions of ordinary life as a work of grace, or the result of common operations of the Spirit ? Im- pressions on the human mind, by means of the occurrences of providence, through the medium of natural conscience and reason, are, in all respects, perfectly distinct from impressions by means of the word of God and the ordinances of Christianity, through the divine Spirit's illuminating power or gracious operations ; and these two classes of impressions seem to include all the varieties of moral feeling of internal effect on the mind and consciences of men, or even upon the will — which come within the limits of human experience on earth. To distinguish a middle class of impres- sions, and represent these as of higher quality than such as properly comport with man's fallen and unregenerated character, and yet of lower quality than such as are connected with the renewing of the heart and the spiritual illuminating of the understanding, appears to be just a breaking down of the lofty and broad line of demarcation between a work of natural conscience and a work of divine grace, — a work which belongs to the economy of God's general government, and a work which belongs to the sovereign and gracious economy of redemption. Some sinners, it is true, experience, in coming under the saving work of the Holy Spirit, a con- currence of impressions by means of the divine word and by means of providential events ; and other sinners, on the contrary, experience, while they continue in unregeneracy, a series of excite- ments as truly from the appeals of the Bible as from the general lessons of the divine government. It is not, however, the nature of the instrumentality employed, but the nature of the agency at work in the mind, which constitutes the difference between the effects produced. In the one class, the reason works with the aid merely of natural conscience, while, in the other class, it is enlight- ened, convinced, and directed by the Holy Spirit. Natural conscience, even in circumstances where the light of revelation is nearly extinct, achieves many a self-accusation ; and, in circumstances where the full light of the gospel is enjoyed, may easily be supposed to work out, in thousands of instances, quite as strong moral excitements as those which were felt by Felix under the preaching of Paul. ' For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves : which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another,' Rom. ii. 14, 15. Yet the strong workings of conscience even in the heathen, and its still stronger workings in unconverted men under the ordinances of the gospel, take place in connexion simply with God's general moral government, and are quite dis- tinct from any results whatever of the dispensation of the economy of grace, or the redemptional operations of the Holy Spirit. Dr. Ridgeley vindicates what he calls " the Spirit* common work of conviction," by an appeal to the text, ' When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin.' But this text clearly speaks of the demonstrative evidence which the Holy Spirit should furnish — not by transient impressions on the minds of the ungodly — but by the miraculous establishment of the gospel dispensation, and by the actual conversion to God of multitudes of unbelievers. When he descended on the day of Pentecost, and when he afterwards gave power to the ministry of his faithful servants, he demon- stratively convinced thousands of 'the world' that they sinned in rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, the only Saviour of sinners, — that they could become righteous, as to either their acceptance before God, or the purification of their hearts from defilement, only through the merits of Christ's sacrifice and intercession, — and that thpy could act safely for themselves and piously toward God, only by seeing that ' all judgment is committed to the Son,' that he is the King and the Lawgiver of the re- deemed, and that he reigns ' the Lord of the living and the dead,' ' alive for evermore,' having ' the keys of hell and of death.' ' When the Paraclete is come,' says the Saviour, ' he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment ; of sin, because they believe not on me : of nj?hteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more : of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged,' John xvi. 8 — 11. The Divine Spirit began this work on the day of Pen- tecost, when three thousand ' gladly received the word and were baptized ;' he carried it on in the ministry of the apostles, who ' preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,' — who>e ' preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power ;' and he continues still to conduct it both by the enduring attestation of those miracles by which he established the new dispensation, and by his gracious power upon men to en- lighten them savingly in the knowledge of the gospel, and to turn them from the error of their ways to the wisdom and obedience of the just. But his thus ' reproving the world of sin,' is a work altogether different from his alleged ' common operations ' as an agent acting ' externallv ' upon unbelievers. ^Dr' Rjd^eley refers als.° to the passage, « My Spirit shall not always strive with man.' But if the words be read in their connexion, they will be seen to have no reference whatever to the moral or economical work of the divine Spirit, but to refer entirely to the shortening of the period of human life UDon earth. The chapter in which they lie, narrates simply the general wickedness into EFFECTUAL CALLING. 77 which the antediluvians had plunged, the longevity and physical strength for which they were dis- tinguished, the tendency of their conduct to undermine all their well-being, and the denunciation, against them of a suitable punishment for their luxurious profligacy. Just after their peculiar wickedness is mentioned, and immediately previous to a statement of their robustness and lon- gevity, the words»occur: ' And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he als-o is flesh ; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.' Even apart from the context, this passage may be distinctly seen to speak of the shortening of man's mortal life. He had hitherto lived, on the average, to upwards of nine hundred years ; but he was mortal — he possessed that ' fleshly' and fallen nature which was doomed to return to its original dust ; he had been upheld in his longevity by the special kindness of the Giver of life ; and as he was now pursuing a course which directly tended to debilitate his frame, and entail diseases on his posterity, and poison the stream of hurrian generation at its fountain, he should no longer be maintained in his robustness and his extreme length of earthly existence ; — ' yet his days,' though no longer extending to eight or nine centuries, ' should be an hundred and twenty years.' What means this finishing clause, this exceptional or mitigating statement, if the passage does not entirely refer to the abridging of his longevity ? Nor is it strange that the intimation of that event was made in the phrase, • My Spirit shall not always strive with man.' In transmuting chaos into the organized world, ' the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters ;' and in the whole process of calling away mortals from the earth and repeopling their places with successors, God ' takes away their spirit ami — they die and return to their dust ; he sends forth his Spirit "jm"i — they are created, and he renews the face of the earth,' Psalm civ. 29, 30. The Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the Arabic versions, accordingly, appear to understand the clause in question as speaking of the animat- ing principle, and all render it, ' My Spirit will not always dwell with man.' A third passage is alluded to by Dr. Ridgeley — ' Quench not the Spirit.' But as this text oc- curs in connexion with the commands, ' Despise not prophesyings,' ' Prove all things,' it seems be- yond doubt to refer to the Holy Spirit's miraculous gifts. Both in the word vStm/pi, here rendered 4 quench,' and in the word ata^wru^.a, signifying to ' revive a fire,' in the somewhat parallel pas- sage, 2 Tim. i. 6, there appears, in the judgment of Macknight and other critics, to be an obvious allusion to the ' cloven tongues as of fire,' which rested on the disciples at the impartation of mir- aculous gifts on the day of Pentecost- These gifts, it is quite clear, were conferred on a principle altogether distinct from the grace of the Holy Spirit's economical operations ; for, as appears by some examples, as well as by our Lord's statement of what he shall say at the day of final ac- counts to many who have ' cast out devils and done wonderful works,' they were possessed, in some instances, by persons who were strangers to divine grace. Nothing, therefore, can be in- ferred from either the possession or the ' quenching' of the Spirit in the sense of miraculous gifts, to sanction the notion of 'common' as distinguished from ' special' operations of the Spirit in the economy of salvation. In addition to the three texts at which I have glanced, I am not aware of any argument in favour of the doctrine in question, except appeal to the ordinary history of unregenerated hearers of the gospel. We are invited to observe how many of these persons are brought into temporary religious concern, and how all of them are more or less subjected to an influence for good, by means of the ordinances of Christianity ; and we are then requested to say on what principle, different from that of ' common grace,' or ' common operations ' of the Spirit, we can account for the phenomena we witness. Now, the beneficent tendency of the gospel, its humanizing influence, its power to awe and restrain and agitate even its enemies, are quite manifest. But, while it operates on all who come within its sphere, and is eventually to every one either a savour of life unto life or a savour of death unto death, it is the instrument of the Holy Spirit's economical work only in achieving salvation, — it is ' the law of the Spirit of life' only in making men ' free from the law of sin and death.' In every other respect, the results of its influence stand connected not with the covenant, not with the system of grace, but with the moral government of God, — with the beneficence and the equity of the divine general administration. All men have consciences, and ure accountable beings, and experience movements of the moral affections ; and when any two sections of them — one section sitting under the light of Christian ordinances, and the other section sitting in the dark- ness of dominant heathenism — experience kindred emotions of self-accusation or religious concern, the former section are not, on account of these emotions being stronger or from a more influential instrumentality, to be viewed, any more than the latter, as the subjects of ' common grace,' or as possessing, in any degree or in any sense, the peculiar boons of sovereign favour which are bestowed on the renewed and justified. There hence comes to be no alternative but either unqualifiedly to reject the doctrine of ' common grace,' or to mould it into the latitudinarian form of the kindred but broader doctrine held by the Pelagians. — Ed.] [Note H. ltegentration Dr. Ridgeley makes a distinction, to which he appears to attach con- siderable importance, between the implantation of the principle of grace, and the exciting of that principle into activity. This, however, is either a distinction without a difference, or it distin- guishes regeneration from sanctification. Regeneration, define it as we may, consists in the com- mencement of the work of holiness in the heart, — in the first breathing, the first experience, or the actual reception of spiritual life ; and sanctification consists in the progressive advancement of the work of holiness, — the continued existence, the strengthening, the maturing, or, in one word, the activity of the spiritual life. Now, if the life conveyed to the renovated soul is at all to be viewed in itself, abstractedly from the same life viewed in its activity, there can be a distinction, not be- tween two things constituting the commencement of the life, but only between the life as received and the life as performing its functions. We shall hence have a distinction, not between the im- plantation and the activity of the principle of renovation, but between renovation or regeneration itself, and the sequent work of sanctification. What- Dr. Ridgelev means by ' the principle of grace' can be easily conjectured and understood. 78 EFFECTUAL CALLING. hut is ill expressed by the phrase which he employs. ' A new heart,' or desires different from any the miuI experienced "before,— ' the seed of God,' or love to holiness, love to the divine service, love to whatever is divine,—' conformity to the divine image,' or moral affections kindred in character to those di.-played in the divine word and government, — ' eternal life,' or the begun experience of a spiritual vitality perfectly suited to the soul's capacities, and enduring as its own immortality, — « a new creation,' or the instantaneous but silent appearance of order, and light, and beauty, where all before was chaos, darkness, and deformity ;— these are the graphic images, the illustrative de- scriptions, by which the inspired oracles exhibit the idea of regeneration. But they are clumsily, and not a little injuriously, epitomized in the phrase ' the principle of grace.' The word principle is too general, too abstract, too misty to bring vividly or fully before the view the glowing notion of transformation, creation, life. We usually think of a principle as something distinct from prac- tice, either as the precept or doctrine by which conduct is directed, or as the moral impression, the belief, the habitual conviction which the precept or doctrine produces. No such conception, however, is to be formed of the differentia — whatever it be — between a regenerated and an unre- generated man. Call it what we may, we must conceive of it as ' a heart,' ' a nature,' an animus, ' a life,' something which has activity in its very essence, and which exists at all only as it thinks, and feels, and propels to conduct. When we reflect on the act of material creation — on God's speaking and it was done, on his commanding and it stood fast — we cannot conceive of the implant- ing of a principle of organization and order and beauty in our world, apart from the exciting of that principle into action ; nor when we reflect on the communication of life to Adam— when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul — can we conceive of any commencement of his animated being, call it what we may, apart from the first actual movement of his vital organs, or any commencement of his moral and intellectual existence, apart from his first act of consciousness, or his real capacity of rational and moral thinking. So with regard to ' the new creation,' or the spiritual life of regeneration, there is no abstraction, — no abstraction especially which is ' implanted,' — nothing but what is positive or what exists in an active state. Perception of divine truth, love to God, desire for holiness, or whatever else constitutes the spiri- tual life, is, in its essence, as truly active in regeneration as in sanctification. Indeed, sanctification is just the perpetuation and bringing to maturity of what is begun in regeneration, — a series, in progressive strength and growing fulness, of the same acts as that in which regeneration consists, — the development of that vitality, the confirming and enlarging exercise of those vital functions, which begin in regeneration, as the developing and growing life of an infant began in the first pul- sation of the heart. As truly, therefore, might we speak of a principle of grace in sanctification apart from actual and active holiness, as we may speak of a principle of grace in regeneration apart from the active nature of the commencement of spiritual life. Dr. Ridgeley's distinction seems to have been framed in order to support his notion that " the regenerating act is wrought in us without the instrumentality of the word, or of any of the ordi- nary means of grace." How he could have adopted this notion in the face of the texts which he himself quotes, is not very easy to conceive. These texts seem to be sufficiently explicit : ' Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and ahid- eth for ever.' * Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.' Dr. Ridgeley discovers, however, that " this language respects not so much the implanting of the principle of grace, as our being enabled to act from that principle ;" that is, he previously sets up a distinction between the abstract being and the active nature of spiri- tual life, and then, on the faith of that distinction, perceives the texts of scripture in question to refer, not to ' the regenerating act,' but to the moral ability or activity which it imparts. Yet no words, in any part of scripture, would seem to speak more directly and even distinctively of 'the regenerating act,' than the phrases, ' We are born again,' ' Of his own will begat he us.' Where, if not in these phrases, as they occur here and in other texts, is inspired language to be found which describes even what Dr. Ridgeley calls 'the implanting of the principle of grace;' or where, if these phrases be otherwise explained, does authority exist for speaking, in any respect whatever, of re- generation ? Yet the two passages in which they lie explicitly ascribe our being ' born again,' and our being ' begotten of God ' to the instrumentality of ' the word of truth,' ' the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.' Dr. Ridgeley states, as the ground of his opinion, that the regenerating act is effected without the instrumentality of the word, that " it is necessary, from the nature of the thing, to our receiv- ing or improving the word of God, or reaping any saving advantage by it, that the Spirit should produce the principle of faith ;" and he thus reasons : " Now to say that this is done by the word, is, in effect, to assert that the word produces the principle, and the principle gives efficacy to the word ; which seems to me little less than arguing in a circle." But does not the vice of reasoning in a circle appear somewhat strongly to characterize his own argument? 'Saving advantage,' if the phrase have any due signification, must mean the advantage of obtaining or receiving salvation. Now, this advantage he very justly represents as received by faith in the divine record ; while, at the same time, he represents it as ' from the nature of the thing,' previously received in a regenerat- ing act which is wrought without the instrumentality of the word. In other words, saving advan- tage, according to him, must be received in order to saving advantage being received ; or while enjoyed by faith in the word, it must, nevertheless, he previously enjoyed without the instrumen- tality of the word. That I do not misstate his argument, seems certain from a remark which he makes respecting faith,— a remark of somewhat startling discord with his preceding context. " 1 am far from denying," says he, " that faith and all other graces, ore wrought in us by the instrumen- tality of the word." Yet he had said, " It is necessary to our receiving or improving the word of God that the Spirit should produce the principle of faith." The word, that is to say, is the instru- ment in producing faith ; and yet is of no saving use to us whatever, and, of course, of no use in producing faith, till faith be actually produced. Dr. Ridgeley may be alleged, indeed, to distinguish EFFECTUAL CALLING. 79 between 'the grace of faith' and ' the principle of faith,' for he uses the former phrase when ad- mitting, and the latter, when denying that faith is wrought by the instrumentality of the word. But, if words have meaning, faith is a grace simply as it is of divine origin, and it is a principle simply as it prompts and regulates conduct ; and, under the two names, it is strictly and entirely one thing, merely viewed in different aspects. Besides, he uses the word ' faith ' without the ad- junct of either 'grace' or ' principle,' in a sentence which exhibits even a larger circumference than that already noticed, of reasoning in a circle. He says, " The word cannot profit unless it be mixed with faith ; faith cannot be put forth unless it proceed from a principle of grace implanted ; there- fore this principle of grace is not produced by the word !" Yet, while a principle of grace goes before faith, and faith goes before the instrumentality of the word, both "faith and all other graces are wrought in us by the instrumentality of the word." Such is the confusion of thought resulting from the distinction between the implantation and the activity of " the' principle of regeneration." ' Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.' We believe, not by possessing ah abstract capacity, but by counting true the record which God has given concerning his Son. Our minds, by their own unaided efforts, will look in vain upon divine truth in order either to understand its spiritual import, or receive it in its evidence; yet they are necessarily turned toward it, and made to look on some of its declarations, when the divine Spirit gives them ' the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.' Just while he speaks in his word — while he discloses the truth in its real colours, its genuine glory, its perfect adaptation to man — he makes all things new. In the moral creation, as in the physical, ' he speaks and it is done, he commands and it stands fast.' Exhibiting the truth in its evidence, enlightening the understanding, affecting the heart, giving origin to faith, and renewing the spirit of the mind, are all but different phases of strictly one act. When the change which passes upon a sinner on his being made spiritually alive, is viewed in reference to the instrumentality employed, it is called his believing or receiving the truth ; when it is viewed in reference to its result upon his understanding, it is called the enlightening of his mind ; when it is viewed in reference to its result upon his heart or character, it is called regeneration ; and when it is viewed in reference to its result on his condition, or in reference rather to the redemptional grounds on which it is effected, it is called justification. These constituent parts or different as- pects of the impartation to a dead soul of eternal life, are exhibited in scripture, not as consecutive acts in a causational process, — not as separate events or separate things following one another in a given order, — but strictly as one great change, constituting the man who was dead in trespasses and sins alive unto God. Perfectly distinct, therefore, as the conceptions afforded us by the Bible are of our change of state, our change of character, and our change of views — our justification, our regeneration, and the saving enlightenment of our understanding — we are not to conceive of even these as arising out of one another in the order of causation or the order of priority ; and still less are we to conceive in this manner of any number of parts or aspects into which we may divide our notions either of believing, of being enlightened, or of becoming ' new creatures in Christ Jesus.' However much, in particular, we may, for the sake of clearness of conception, distribute our thoughts on regeneration into classes referring to the agency, the instrumentality, the concomitant circumstances, the results upon the will, the desires and the affections, we must carefully sum them all up in the one idea stated in the expressive phrase, ' Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth. A dispute, then, in which some writers have indulged, as to whether, in regeneration, there is the implantation of a positive principle, or merely the communication of light to the understanding which acts reflexly on the heart, is — if the subject be viewed as we have stated it — a 'mere logo- machy What one party really mean by the reflex influence of communicated light, is probably just what the other party mean by the implantation of a positive principle. Both expressions — as all words must be which refer to matters of mere consciousness or abstract intelligence, and espe- cially to matters of divine influence on the soul — are essentially figurative ; and they differ from each other, if they differ at all, only in the strength and appropriateness of their respective tropes. Light, literally understood, is just as really positive as any palpable substance capable of being im- planted ; and light, understood metaphorically of what is conveyed to the understanding and im- pressed on the heart by the divine Spirit, can differ nothing from what is termed the implantation of a principle of grace. The metaphor of implanting, however, — especially when collocated with the very general and indefinite word ' principle' — falls far short, as to either fitness or force, of the expressive metaphors of the shining of light into darkness, a resurrection from the dead, a new creation, and a being begotten of God, or begotten again, employed in the scriptures. Even the phrase, ' the new birth ' or being ' born again,' so < urrently applied to regeneration and repeatedly occurring in our English version of the New Testament, is considerably less expressive than the phrase whose place it usurps, ' begotten anew,' or 'begotten from above.' Reading the passage as it ought to be translated, how doubly significant, for example, are the words : ' Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love ye one another with a pure heart fervently, ye having been begotten again, not of corruptible ste/i. but of incorruptible, by the word qf God which liveth and abideth for ever.' The great features of regeneration, additional to the grace and the divine agency of its origina- tion, the instrumentality of the divine word in effecting it, and its connexion in identity of occurrence with justification through the merits of Christ, are its instantaneity, its moral nature, its totality, its incompleteness, and its imperceptibility to consciousness. Its instantaneity is its being, not a work or a process, but a single act ; and appears from the character of the metaphors, especially those of creation, resurrection, and the impartation of life, which are employed to describe it. Its moral nature is its affecting only man's will, his affections, and his views or motives of action, and not his intellectual powers or the peculiar configuration of his mind ; and appears both from the fact that regenerated men retain just the intellectual faculties and culture which they possessed when un regenerated, and from the statement that ' the old man' is crucified in the crucifixion of 80 COMMUNION IN GRACE WITH CHRIST. depraved ' affections and desires,' and that the new man is created after the image of God ' in right- eousness and true holiness.' Its totality is its affecting all the moral faculties, leaving not one moral power, not one member of the heart, untouched ; and appears from the idea of entireness conveyed in the images of a new creation, a new heart, a new man, as well as from the declaration, ' Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.' Its incompleteness is its affect- ing the soul only in the way of begun holiness, of the commencement of a work of sanctification, of the impartation of what requires to be reared up to maturity ; and appears both from the imper- fect state in which regenerated persons continue while on earth, and from the image of ' a babe in Christ' employed to describe the comparative condition of a recent convert. Its imperceptibility to consciousness is its not being, by the mind of its subject, distinguishable, as to the very act in which it takes place, from those emotions of concern which precede or accompany it, or from the commencing growth of those fruits of inward holiness by which its reality is evinced ; and it appears, both from the experimental testimony of men who afford eminent evidence of having been its subjects, and from the express declaration of our Lord : ' The wind bloweth where it livteth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.' Such seem to be the characteristic features of regeneration. They are exhibited, however, not as separate things in the act, and still less as things which in any sense originate one another, but simply as different aspects of the same thing, conceived of sepa- rately, and viewed each by each, for the sake of distinctly conceiving the undivided whole Ed.] COMMUNION IN GRACE WITH CHRIST. Question LXIX. What is the communion in grace, which the members of the invisible church have with Christ f Answer. The communion in grace, which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is, their partaking of the virtue of his mediation, in their justification, adoption, sanctiricntion, and whatever else, in this life, manifests their union with him. Having considered the vital union which the members of the invisible church have with Christ in their effectual calling, we are now led to speak concerning the com- munion in grace which they have with him. Communion with Christ does not in the least import our being made partakers of any of the glories or privileges which belong to him as Mediator; but it con- sists in our participation of those benefits which he hath purchased for us. It im- plies, on his part, infinite condescension, that he will be pleased to communicate such blessings to us ; and, on ours, unspeakable honours and privileges, which we enjoy from him. It is sometimes called 'fellowship ;'* which is the result of friend- ship, and proceeds from his love. Thus our Saviour speaks of his ' loving ' his dis- ciples, ' and manifesting himself to them.'k It also proceeds from union with him, and is the immediate effect and consequence of effectual calling. Hence, God is said to have 'called us unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ.'1 It is farther said, in this Answer, to be a manifestation of our union with him. He has received those blessings for us which he purchased by his blood ; and, accordingly, is the treasury, as well as the fountain of all grace ; and we are therefore said to ' receive of his fulness, grace for grace. 'm And the blessings which we are said to receive, by virtue of his mediation, are justification, adoption, and sanctification, with all other benefits which either accompany or flow from them. These are particularly explained in the following Answers. i 1 John i. 3. k John xiv. 21. 1 1 Cor. i. 9. m John i. 1(5. JUSTIFICATION. 81 JUSTIFICATION. Question LXX. What is justification f Answer. Justification is an art of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone. Question LXX I. How is justification an act of God's free grace f Answer. Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a proper, real, and full satis- faction to God's justice, in the behalf of them that are justified; yet, inasmuch as God accepteth the satisfaction from a Surety, which he might have demanded of them, did provide this Surety, his own only Son, imputing his righteousness to them, and requiring nothing of them for their justifica- tion but faith ; which also is his gift ; their justification is, to them, of free grace. The Importance of the Doctrine of Justification. Hitherto we have been led to consider that change of heart and life which is be- gun in effectual calling ; whereby a dead sinner is made alive, and one who was wholly indisposed for good works, and averse to the performance of them, is enabled to perform them by the power of divine grace. Now we are to speak concerning that change of state which accompanies change of heart ; whereby one who, being guilty before God, was liable to the condemning sentence of the law, and expected no other than an eternal banishment from his presence, is pardoned, received into favour, and has a right to all the blessings which Christ has, by his obedience and sufferings, purchased for him. This is what we call justification ; and it is placed immediately after the subject of effectual calling, agreeably to the method in which it is insisted on in the golden chain of salvation exhibited by the apostle, ' Whom he called, them he also justified.'" This is certainly a doctrine of the highest importance ; inasmuch as it contains the way of peace, the foundation of all our hope, of the acceptance both of our per- sons and our services, and the beholding of the face of God, at last, with joy. Some have styled it the very basis of Christianity. Our forefathers thought it so necessary to be insisted on and maintained, according to the scripture account of it, that they reckoned it one of the principal doctrines of the Reformation. Indeed, the apostle Paul speaks of it as so necessary to be believed, that he concluded the denying or perverting of it to be the ground and reason of the Jews being rejected: * Who being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish a right- eousness of their own, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.' If, as many suppose, their call be meant in the account which we have of ' the marriage of the Lamb, and of his wife having made herself ready,'0 it is worth ob- serving that she is described as ' arrayed in fine linen, which is the righteousness of saints,' or, Christ's righteousness by which they are justified. This is that in which they glory ; and therefore they are represented as being convinced of the impor- tance of that doctrine of which they were formerly ignorant. This doctrine we have an account of in the two Answers which we are now to explain. In considering it, we shall endeavour to observe the following method. First, we shall consider what we are to understand by the word 'justify.' Second- ly, we shall inquire what the privileges are, which are contained in it, as reduced to two heads, namely, pardon of sin, and God's accounting those who are justified righteous in his sight. Thirdly, we shall inquire what the foundation is of our justification, namely, a righteousness wrought out for us. Fourthly, we shall show the utter inability of fallen man to perform any righteousness which can be the matter of his justification in the sight of God. Fifthly, we shall show that our Lord Jesus Christ has, as our surety, wrought out this righteousness for us, by per- forming active and passive obedience, which is imputed to us for our justification. Sixthly, we shall consider justification as an act of God's free grace. Lastly, we shall show the use of faith in justification, or in what respects faith is said to justify. n Rom. viii. 30. o Rev. xix. 7. II. L 82 JUSTIFICATION. The Meaning of the Word * Justify.' We shall first consider in what sense we are to understand the word 'justify.* As there are many disputes about the method of explaining the doctrine of justi- fication ; so there is a contest between us and the Papists about the sense of the word. They generally suppose that - to justify,' is to make inherently righteous and holy ; because righteousness and holiness sometimes import the same thing, and because both denote an internal change in the person who is so denominated. Accordingly, they argue that, as to magnily signifies to make great, — to fortify, to make strong, — so to justify, is to make just or holy. And they suppose that what- ever we do to make ourselves so, or whatever good works are the ingredients of our sanctification, must be considered as the matter of our justification. Some Protes- tant divines have supposed that the difference between them and us is principally about the sense of a word. This favourable and charitable construction of their doctrine would have been less exceptionable, if the Papists had asserted no more than that justification might be taken in the sense they contend for, when not considered as giving us a right to eternal life, or as being the foundation of that sentence of absolution which God passes upon us. But as this is the sense they give of it, when they say that we are justified by our inherent holiness, we are bound to conclude that it is very remote from the scripture sense of the word. We do not deny that justification is sometimes taken in a sense different from that in which it is understood when used to signify the doctrine we are explaining. Sometimes nothing more is intended by it, than our vindicating the divine perfec- tions from any charge which is pretended to be brought against them. Thus the psalmist says, ' That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.'P And our Saviour is said to be justified, that is, his person or character vindicated or defended, from the reproaches which were cast on him. • Wisdom,' it is said, ' is justified of her children. 'i We frequently read in scrip- ture, also, of the justification of the actions or conduct of persons ; in which sense their own works may be said to justify or vindicate them from the charge of hypocrisy or unregeneracy. Again, to justify is sometimes taken, in scripture, for using endeavours to turn many to righteousness. Hence, the words, in the pro- phecy of Daniel, which signify, ' they who justify many,' are rendered by our trans- lators, 'they who turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars. 'r There are various other senses given of this word, which we pass over as not applicable to the doctrine we are maintaining. We shall proceed to consider the sense in which it is used, when importing a sinner's justification in the sight of God. When thus used, it is to be taken only in a forensic sense ; and accordingly signifies a person's being acquitted or dis- charged from guilt or a liability to condemnation, in such a way as is done in courts of judicature. Thus we read in the judicial law, ' If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them, then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.'3 Here 'to justify the righteous,' is to be understood for acquitting, or discharging from condemnation, one who appears to be righteous, or not guilty ; while ' the wicked,' that is, they Who appear to be guilty, are to be ' condemned.' In this sense the word is used, when applied to the doctrine of justification, in the New Testament, and parti- cularly in Paul's epistles, who largely insists on this subject. Now, that we may understand how a sinner may expect to be discharged at God's tribunal, let us consider the methods of proceeding used in human courts of judicature. In these, it is supposed that there is a law which forbids some actions which are deemed criminal ; and also that a punishment is annexed to this law, which renders the person who violates it guilty. Next, persons are supposed to be charged with the violation of the law ; and if the charge be not made good, they are said to be jus- tified, that is, cleared from presumptive, not real guilt. But if the charge be made good, and if he who falls under it is liable to punishment, and actually suffers the p Ptal. li. 4. q Matt. xi. 19; Luke vii. 35. r Dan. xii. 3. »p«TXDV » Deut. xxv. 1. JUSTIFICATION. 83 punishment, he is justified ; as in crimes which are not of a capital nature. Or if he be any otherwise cleared from the charge, so that his guilt be removed, he is deemed a justified person, #nd the law has nothing to lay to his charge, with re- spect to that which he was accused of. Thus, when a sinner, who had been charged with the violation of the divine law, found guilty before God, and exposed to a sentence of condemnation, is freed from it, he is said to be justified. The Privileges contained in Justification. We are now led to consider the privileges contained in justification. These are forgiveness of sin, and a right and title to eternal life. They are sufficiently dis- tinguished, though never separated ; so that, when we find but one of them men- tioned in a particular scripture which treats on this subject, the. other is not ex- cluded. Forgiveness of sin is sometimes expressed in scripture, by not imputing sin ; and a right to life, includes our being made partakers of the adoption of children, and a right to the inheritance prepared for them. The apostle mentions both when he speaks of our having ' redemption through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins,' and of our being ' made meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.'4 Elsewhere, also, he speaks of Christ's ' redeem- ing them that were under the law,' which includes the former branch of justifica- tion ; and of their 'receiving the adoption of children,' which includes the latter. Again, he considers justified persons as ' having peace with God, ' which more especially respects pardon of sin ; and of their ' having access to the grace wherein they stand,' and 'rejoicing in hope of the glory of God,'u which is what we are to understand by, or includes, their right to life. That justification consists of both these branches, we maintain against the Papists. They suppose that it includes nothing else but forgiveness of sin, which is founded on the blood of Christ ; and they say that our right to life depends on our internal qualifications or sincere obedience. There are also some Protestant divines who suppose that it consists only in pardon of sin. This is asserted by them, with different views. Some assert it as most consistent with the doctrine of justi- fication by works, which they plead for ; while others assert it as most agreeable to another notion which they advance, namely, that we are justified only by Christ's passive obedience, which will be considered under a following Head. Again, there are others, whose views of the doctrine of justification are agreeable to scripture, who maintain that it includes both forgiveness of sins and a right to life ; but who yet say that the former is founded on Christ's passive obedience, and the latter on his active. We cannot but think, however, that the whole of Christ's obedience, both active and passive, is the foundation of each. But as this point will be considered when we come to speak concerning the procuring cause of our justification, all that we shall observe at present, is, that the two privileges in question are inseparably connected. As no one can have a right to life, but he whose sins are pardoned ; so no one can obtain forgiveness of sin, without, in consequence, having a right to life. As by the fall man became guilty, and then lost that right to life which was promised in the event of his standing, so it is agreeable to the divine perfections, provided the guilt be removed, that he should be put in the same state as if it had not been contracted, and consequently he should have, not only forgiveness of sins, but a right to life. Forgiveness of sin, without a right to eternal life, would ren- der our justification incomplete. Hence, when any one is pardoned by an act of grace, he is put in possession of that which, by his rebellion, he had forfeited ; he is considered, not only as released out of prison, but as one who has the privi- leges of a subject, such as those which he had before he committed the crime. With- out this he would be like Absalom, when, upon Joab's intercession with David, the guilt of murder, which he had contracted, was remitted so far as that he had liberty to return from Geshur, whither he had fled ; but who, nevertheless, reckons him- self not fully discharged from the guilt he had contracted, and concludes his return to Jerusalem, as it were an insignificant privilege, unless by being admitted to see t Col. i. 12, 14. u Rom. v. 1, 2. 84 JUSTIFICATION. the king's face, and enjoy the privileges which he was possessed of before, he might be dealt with as one who was taken into favour, as well as forgiven ;x which was accordingly granted. This leads us to a particular consideration of the two branches of justification. 1. Forgiveness of sin. Sin is sometimes represented as containing moral impu- rity, as opposed to holiness of heart and life. Accordingly, it is said to ' defile a man ;'*" and it is set forth in scripture by several metaphorical expressions which tend to beget an abhorrence of it as of things impure. In this sense it is removed is sanctification, rather than in justification. Not but that divines sometimes speak of Christ's redeeming us from the filth and the dominion of sin, and our deliverance from it in justification. But when the filth and the dominion of sin are thus spoken of, they are to be understood as rendering us guilty ; inasmuch as all moral pollu- tions are criminal, as contrary to the law of God. For, were they not so viewed, our deliverance from them would not be a branch of justification. In speaking on this subject, therefore, we shall consider sin as that which renders men guilty be- fore God, and so show what we are to understand by guilt. Guilt supposes a person to be under a law, and to have violated it. According- ly, sin is described as ' the transgression of the law.'2 The law of God, in com- mon with all other laws, is primarily designed to be the rule of obedience ; and, in order to its being so, it is a declaration of the divine will which, as creatures and subjects, we are under a natural obligation to comply with. Moreover, God, as a God of infinite holiness and sovereignty, cannot but signify his displeasure in case of disobedience ; and therefore he has annexed a threatening to his law, or passed a condemning sentence, as what is due for every transgression. This, divines sometimes call the sanction of the law, or a fence with which it is guarded, that so, through the corruption of our nature, we may not conclude that we may rebel against him with impunity. The scripture styles it, 4 the curse of the law;'a so that guilt is a liableness to the curse, or condemning sentence of the law, for our violation of it. It is sometimes called a debt of punishment which we owe to the justice of God for not paying that debt of obedience which was due from us to his law. Thus, when our Saviour advises us to pray that our sins may be forgiven, he expresses it by ' forgiving us our debts ;'b so that forgiveness, as it is a freeing us from guilt, discharges us from the debt of punishment to which we were liable. There is a twofold debt which man owes to God. One he owes to him as a crea- ture under a law. This is that debt of obedience which he cannot be discharged from ; and therefore a justified person is, in this sense, as much a debtor as any other. There is also a debt which man contracts as a criminal, whereby he is liable to suffer punishment. This alone is removed in justification. Moreover, we must carefully distinguish between the demerit of sin, or its desert of punish- ment, and the sinner's obligation to suffer punishment for it. The former is in- separable from sin, and not removed, or in the least lessened, by pardoning mercy. For sin is no less the object of the divine detestation, nor is its intrinsic evil or demerit abated, by its being forgiven. Hence, a justified person remaining still a sinner, as transgressing the law of God, has as much reason to condemn himself in this respect as if he had not been forgiven. The psalmist, speaking concerning a person who is actually forgiven or justified, says, ' If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand?'0 He was in a justified state, but yet con- cludes that there is a demerit of punishment in every sin which he committed ; though, when it is pardoned, the obligation to suffer punishment is taken away.d Hence, the apostle speaking of such, says, ' There is no condemnation to them.'e We must farther distinguish between our having matter of condemnation in us, — which a justified person has ; and there being no condemnation to us, which is the immediate result of being pardoned. There are several expressions in scripture whereby forgiveness is set forth. It x 2 Sam. xiv. 32. y Matt. xv. 19, 20. z 1 John iii. 4. a Gal. iii. 10. 5 tl! fxu 4; Matt* vi- 12, c PsaU cxxx- 3- d I he former of these divines call ■ reatus potentialis ;' the latter, * reatus actualis.' The far- mer is the immediate consequence of sin; the latter is taken away in justification, e Rom. vih. 1. JUSTIFICATION. 85 is called God's covering sin. Thus the psalmist says, * Blessed is he whose trans- gression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 'f It is called, also, his hiding his face from it, and blotting it out ; its ' not being found "* ' when it is sought for ;'h and •casting our sins into the depths of the sea.'1 Elsewhere it is said that, when God had pardoned the sins of his people, ' he did not behold iniquity in Jacob, nor see perverseness in Israel. 'k This amounts to the same thing as the foregoing expres- sions, as to sin being covered, hid, blotted out, &c. I am sensible there have been many contests about the sense of this scripture, which might, without much diffi- culty, have been compromised, had the contending parties been desirous to know one another's opinion without prejudice or partiality. It is not to be thought that, when God forgives sin, he does not know or suppose that the person forgiven had contracted guilt by sins committed ; for without this he could not be the object of forgiveness. When God is said not to look upon his people's sins, or to hide his face from them, it is not to be supposed that he knows not what they have done, or what iniquities they daily commit against him ; for that would be subversive of his omniscience. When, again, he is said not to mark our iniquities, we are not to understand it as if he did not look upon the sins we commit, though in a justified state, with abhorrence ; for the sinner may be pardoned, and yet the crime forgiven be detested. God's not seeing sin in his people, is to be understood in a forensic sense. Accordingly, when an atonement is made for sin, and the guilt of it is taken away, the criminal is, in the eye of the law, as if he had not sinned. He is as fully discharged from the indictment which was brought in against him, as if he had been innocent, — not liable to tany charge founded upon it. Hence, the apostle says, ' Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justi- fieth.'1 It is the same thing as for God ' not to enter into judgment,' as the psal- mist elsewhere expresses it ; or to ' punish us less than our iniquities have deserved.'"1 In this sense, the indictment which was brought against the sinner is cancelled, the sentence reversed, and prosecution stopped ; so that whatever evils are endured as the consequence of sin, or with a design to humble the transgressor for it, as bring- ing sin to his remembrance with all its aggravating circumstances, he is encouraged to hope that these are inflicted, not in a judicial way by the vindictive justice of God demanding satisfaction, but to display and set forth the holiness of his nature as in- finitely opposed to all sin, and also the holiness of the dispensations of his provi- dence, and that with a design to bring the transgressor to repentance. That the privilege of forgiveness may appear to be most conducive to our happi- ness and comfort, let it be considered that, wherever God forgives sin, he forgives all sin, cancels every debt which rendered the sinner liable to punishment. Were it otherwise, our condition would be very miserable, and our salvation impossible. Our condition would be like that of a person who has several indictments brought in" against him, every one of which contains an intimation that his life is forfeited ; and whom it would avail very little for one indictment to be superseded, while the sentence due to him for the others should be executed. Accordingly, the apostle speaks of ' the free gift' being 'of many,' that is, of the multitude of our 'offences unto justification.'11 Elsewhere, too, he speaks of God's forgiving his people ' all trespasses.'0 And as he forgives all past sins, so he gives the pardoned ground to conclude that iniquity shall not be their ruin ; so that the same grace which now abounds towards them in forgiveness, together with the virtue of the atonement made for sin, shall prevent future crimes from being charged upou them to their condemnation. Thus concerning forgiveness of sin. The other privilege which they who are justified are made partakers of, is the acceptance of their persons as righteous in the sight of God. They are said to be 4 made accepted in the Beloved, 'p And as their persons are accepted, so are their performances, notwithstanding the many defects which adhere to them. Thus God is said to have ' had respect unto Abel, and to his offering. 'i Besides, they have a right and title to eternal life ; which is that inheritance which Christ has pur- chased for them, and which God, in his covenant of grace, has promised to them. f Psal. xxxii. 1. g Jer. 1. 20. h Psal. li. 9. i Micah vii. 19. k Numb, xxiii. 21. 1 Rom. viii. S3. m Psal. c.xliii. 2; Ezra ix. 13. n Rom. v. 16. o Col. ii. 13. p Eph. i. G. q Gen. iv. 4. 86 JUSTIFICATION. This is a very comprehensive blessing ; for it contains a right to all those great and precious promises which God has made respecting their happiness both here and hereafter. But we shall have occasion to insist on it under a following Answer, when speaking on the subject of adoption, which some divines, not without good reason, conclude to be a branch of justification, or at least to contain those positive privileges which they who are justified partake of, either here or hereafter. The Foundation of Justification. We now proceed to consider what is the foundation of our justification. This must be some righteousness wrought out either by us or for us. Since justification is a person's being 'made righteous,' as the apostle styles it,r we must consider what we are to understand by this phrase. A person is said to be righteous who never violated the law of God, or exposed himself to its condemning sentence. In this respect, man, while in a state of innocency, was righteous. His perfect obedience was the righteousness which, according to the tenor of the covenant he was under, gave him a right to eternal life ; and it would especially have done so, had it been persisted in till he became possessed of that life. But such a righteousness as this cannot be the foundation of our justification ; for the apostle says, ' By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.'8 The righteousness we are now speaking of must be something wrought out for us by one who stood in our room and stead, and was able to pay that debt of obedience and endure those sufferings which were due for sin. This debt the law of God might have exacted of us, and insisted on the payment of in our own persons ; and, as paid by Christ for us, it is, as will be considered under a following Head, that which we generally call Christ's righteous- ness, or what he did and suffered in our stead in conformity to the law of God ; whereby its honour was secured and vindicated, and justice satisfied, so that God appears to be, as the apostle says, ' just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.'* Mans inability to work out a justifying Righteousness. We are now to consider the utter inability of fallen man to perform any righte- ousness which can be the matter of his justification in the sight of God ; whereby it will appear, as is observed in this Answer, that we are not accounted righteous in his sight for any thing wrought in us or done by us. That we cannot be justi- fied by suffering the punishment which was due to sin, appears from the infinite evil of it, and the eternal duration of the punishment which it deserves. Thus our Saviour observes in the parable concerning the debtor who did not ' agree with his adversary while in the way,' but was ' delivered to the officer, and cast into prison,' that he should not come out 'till he had paid the uttermost farthing, 'u that is to say, he should never be discharged. A criminal -who is sentenced to endure some punishments short of death, or which are to continue but for a term of years, is discharged or justified when he has suffered them. But it is far otherwise with man, when fallen into the hands of the vindictive justice of God. Hence, the psal- mist says, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant,' or do not punish me accord- ing to the demerit of sin ; ' for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified.' — Nor can any one be justified by performing active obedience to the law of God. No- thing is sufficient to answer that end, but what is perfect in all respects. It must be sinless obedience ; and that not only as to what concerns the time to come, but as respecting the time past. But this is impossible from the nature of the thing, to be affirmed of a sinner ; for to affirm it implies a contradiction in terms. Besides, the holiness of God cannot but detest the least defect, and therefore will not deal with a sinful creature as though he had been innocent. As for sins which are past, they render us equally liable to a debt of punishment with those which are com- mitted at present, or shall be hereafter, in the sight of God. Moreover, the hon- our of the law cannot be secured, unless it be perfectly fulfilled ; and it cannot be so if there be any defect of obedience. r Rom. v. 19. 8 Gal. ii. 16. t Rom. iii. 26. u Matt. v. 25, 26. JUSTIFICATION. 87 As for works which are done by us without the assistance of the Spirit of God, they proceed from a wrong principle, and have many other blemishes attending them, on account of which they have only a partial goodness. For that reason Augustine gives them no better a character than that of shining sins.x But what- ever terms we give them, they are certainly very far from coming up to a confor- mity to the divine law. And as for good works which are said to be wrought in us, and are the effect of the power and grace of God, and the consequence of our being regenerated and converted, they fall far short of perfection ; there is a great deal of sin attending them, which, if God should mark, none could stand. This is ex- pressed by Job, in a very humble manner: • How should man be just with God ? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.' ' If I wash myself with snow wrater, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. * When God is said to 'work in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight, 'z we are not to understand that the grace which he works in us renders us accepted in his sight, in a forensic sense, or that it justifies us ; for in this respect we are ' made accepted' only ' in the Beloved,' that is, in Christ.a — Moreover, as what is wrought in us has many defects ; so it is not from ourselves, and therefore cannot be accepted as a payment of that debt of obedience which we owe to the justice of God ; and conse- quently we cannot be justified by it. Some, indeed, make the terms of acceptance or justification in the sight of God as low as if nothing were demanded of us but our sincere endeavours to yield obedience, whatever imperfections it be chargeable with. Others pretend that our confessing our sins will be conducive to our justi- fication, and assert that our tears are sufficient to wash away the guilt of sin. The Papists add that some penances, or acts of self-denial, will satisfy his justice, and procure a pardon for us ; yea, they go farther than this, and maintain that per- sons may perform works of supererogation, or pay more than the debt which is owing from them, or than what the law of God requires, and thereby not only satisfy his justice, but render him a debtor to them ; and they put them into a ca- pacity of transferring these arrears of debt to those who stand in need of them, and thereby lay an obligation on them in gratitude to pay them honours next to divine. Such absurdities do men run into who plead for human satisfactions, and the merit of good works, as the matter of our justification. Indeed, nothing can tend more to depreciate Christ's satisfaction, on the one hand, and stupify the conscience on the other ; and therefore, it is so far from being an expedient for justification, that it is destructive to the souls of men. — As for our sincere endeavours or imperfect obedience, these cannot be placed, by the justice of God, in the room of perfect ; for to do so is contrary to the nature of justice. We cannot suppose that he who pays a peppercorn or a few mites, instead of a large sum, really pays the debt which was due from him. Justice cannot account this to be a payment ; and a discharge from condemnation on the ground of it, cannot be styled a justification. To say that it is esteemed so by an act of grace, is to advance the glory of one divine perfection, and, at the same time, detract from that of another. Nothing, therefore, can be our righteousness, but that which the justice of God may, in hon- our, accept of for our justification ; and our own righteousness is so small and incon- siderable a thing, that it is a dishonour for him to accept of it in this respect ; so that we cannot be justified by works done by us or wrought in us. — This will far- ther appear, if we consider the properties of this righteousness, and in particular, that it must not only be perfect, and therefore such as a sinful creature cannot per- form, but also be of infinite value, otherwise it could not give satisfaction to the infinite justice of God, and consequently cannot be performed by any other than a divine person. It must also bear some resemblance to that debt which was due from us ; inasmuch as it was designed to satisfy for the debt which we had con- tracted ; and therefore it must be performed by one who is really man. But as this has been insisted on elsewhere, under the head of Christ's priestly office,b we shall not farther enlarge on it. x Splendida peccata. y Job ix. 2, 3, 30—32. z Heb. xiii. 21. a Eph. i. 6. b See Sect. ' The Necessity o( Satisfaction for Sin,' under Quest, xliv. 88 JUSTIFICATION. Christ's Righteousness as the ground of Justification. We now proceed to observe that our Lord Jesus Christ has wrought out this righteousness for us, as our surety, by performing active and passive obedience ; which is imputed to us for our justification. We have already shown that it is im- possible that such a righteousness as is sufficient to be the matter of our justification, should be wrought out by us in our own persons. It must hence be wrought out for us by one who bears the character of a surety, and performs every thing which is necessary to our justification. Such an one is our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. Here we must show what we are to understand by ' a surety ;' since it is the righteousness of Christ under this relation to us, which is the matter of our justifi- cation. A surety is one who submits to be charged with, and undertakes to pay, a debt contracted by another, to the end that the debtor may be discharged. Thus the apostle Paul engages to be surety to Philemon for Onesimus, who had fled from Philemon whom he had wronged or injured, and to whom he was in consequence indebted. Concerning Onesimus, the apostle says, ' If he hath wronged thee, or owetli thee ought, put that on mine account ; I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it.'c We read also of Judah's overture to be surety for his brother Benjamin that he should return to his father, as a motive to induce the latter to give his consent that he should go with him into Egypt: ' I will be surety for him ; of my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever.'d Suretiship is so com- monly known in civil transactions of a similar nature between man and man, that it needs no farther explication. — It may be observed, however, that a person's be- coming surety for another, must be a free and voluntary act. For to force any one to bind himself to pay a debt which he has not contracted, is as much an act of in- justice as it is in any other instance to exact a debt where it is not due. — Again, he who engages to be surety for another, must be in a capacity to pay the debt ; otherwise he is unjust to the creditor, as well as brings ruin upon himself. Hence, it is said, ' Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts, if thou hast nothing to pay ; why should he take away thy bed from under thee?'6 — Further, he who engages to be surety for another, is supposed not to have contracted the debt himself ; and therefore the creditor must have no de- mands upon him, as being involved together with the debtor, and so becoming en- gaged antecedent to his being surety. Yet after he has become surety he is deemed, in the eye of the law, to stand in the debtor's room and to be charged with his debt, and to be as much obliged to pay it as if he had contracted it, especially if the creditor be resolved to exact the payment of him rather than of the original debt- or. — Further, as debts are of different kinds, so the obligation of a surety admits of different circumstances. Thus there are pecuniary debts resulting from those dealings or contracts which pass between man and man in civil affairs ; and there are debts of service or obedience ; as also debts of punishment, as was formerly observed, for crimes committed. In all these cases, as the nature of the debt differs, so there are some things peculiar in the nature of suretiship for it. In pe- cuniary debts the creditor is obliged to accept of payment at the hand of any one who, at the request of the debtor, is wdling to discharge the debt which he has contracted, especially if what he pays be his own ; but in debts of service or punishment, when the surety offers himself to perform or suffer what was due from another, the credi- tor is at liberty to accept or refuse satisfaction from him, and might insist on the payment of the debt in his own person by him from whom it is due. 2. Christ was a surety for us, or substituted in our room, with a design to pay the c Philem. verge 18. d Gen. xliii. 9. e Prov. xxii. 26, 27. fThe distinction is often used in the civil law between 'fide-jussor' and 'expromissor.' A per- son's being hound together with the original debtor, and the creditor's being left to ids liberty to exact the debt of which of the two he pleases, is called ' fide-jussor ;' and the surety's so taking the debt upon himself :bat he who contracted it is discharged, is what we understand bv 'expromis- sor.' This distinction has been considered elsewhere. See Note near the end of Sect. ' The ad- ministration of the Covenant under the Old Testament,' under Quest, xxxiii, xxxi , xxxv. JUSTIFICATION. 89 debt which was due to the justice of God from us. — Here, that we may resume the ideas of a surety just mentioned, and apply them to Christ as our surety, let it be considered that what he did and suffered for us was free and voluntary. This ap- pears from his readiness to engage in the work, expressed by his saying, ■ Lo, I come to do thy will.'s Hence, whatever he suffered for us did not infer the least injustice in God who inflicted it.h — Again, he was able to pay the debt; so that there was not the least injury offered to the justice of God by his undertaking. This is evident, from his being God incarnate. In the one nature, he was able to do and suffer whatever was demanded of us ; and in the other nature, he was able to add an infinite value to what he performed. — Further, he was not rendered incapable of paying our debt, or of answering for the guilt which we had contracted, by any debt of his own, which involved him in the same guilt and rendered him liable to the same punishment with us. This is evident from what the prophet says concerning him, that he was charged with our guilt, though 'he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.'1 What the prophet calls 'doing no violence,' the apostle Peter, referring to and explain- ing it, styles ' doing ' or committing ' no sin ' of any kind. He was not involved in the guilt of Adam's sin, which would have rendered him incapable of being a surety to pay that debt for us ; nor had he the least degree of corruption of nature, being conceived in an extraordinary way, and sanctified from the womb ;k nor did he ever commit actual sin, for ' he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.' — Another thing observed in the character of a surety, which corresponds very much with Christ's being our surety, is that what he engaged to pay was his own, or at his own disposal. He did not offer any injury to justice, by paying a debt which was before due to it, or by performing any service which he had no warrant to do. It is true, he gave his life a ransom ; but consider him as a divine Person, and he had an undoubted right to dispose of or lay down that life which he had as man. Did he consent, in the eternal transaction between the Father and him, to be incarnate, and in our nature to perform the work of a surety ? This was an act of his sovereign will ; so that whatever he paid as a ransom for us, was, in the highest sense, his own. The case was not the same as if one man who has no power to dispose of his life at pleasure, should offer to lay down his life for another. We are not lords of our own lives. As we do not come into the world by our own wills, we are not to go out of it when we please. But Christ as God, was, if I may so ex- press myself, lord of himself, of all that he did and suffered as man ; by which I un- derstand that he had a right as God to consent or determine to do and suffer whatever he did and suffered as man. The debt, therefore, which he paid in the human nature, was his own. — Further, as in some cases he who is willing to substitute himself as a surety in the room of the debtor, must be accepted and approved by him to whom the debt is due ; so our Saviour's substitution as our surety in our room, had a sanc- tion from God the Father ; who gave many undeniable evidences that what Christ did and suffered for us, was accepted by him as really as if it had been done by us in our own persons. This, as was formerly observed, might have been refused by him, it being the payment of a debt of obedience and sufferings. But that God the Father testified his acceptance of Christ as our surety, appears from his well-pleasedness with him, both before and after his incarnation. Before he came into the world, God seems to speak with pleasure in the forethought of what he would be and do, as Mediator, when he says, 'Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth.'1 He is also said to be 'well-pleased for his righteous- ness' sake,'m or in his determining beforehand that he should, as Mediator, bring in that righteousness which would tend to magnify the law and make it honourable. Moreover, his having anointed him by a previous designation to his work, as the prophet intimates, speaking of him before his incarnation," is certainly an evidence of his being approved to be our surety. And when he was incarnate, God approved of him, when engaged in the work which he came into the world to perform. Thus, when he was solemnly set apart by baptism to the discharge of his public ministry, g Heb. x. 9. h Volenti non fit injuria. i Isa. liii. 9. k See Sect. * Christ not re- presented by Adam,' under Quest, xxii. 1 Isa. xlii. 1. m Ver. 21. n ha. lxi. 1, 2, II. M 90 JUSTIFICATION. a voice from heaven said, « This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well- pleased.'0 We may add, that there was the most undeniable proof of God's well-pleasedness with him, as having accomplished this work, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places. Again, that the Father tes- tified his acceptance of Christ as our surety, may be argued from his justifying and saving those for whom he undertook to be a surety, before the debt was actually paid, and from his applying the same blessings to his people since the work of re- demption was finished. The application of what Christ undertook to purchase, is an evidence of the acceptableness of the price. This may be considered, either as respects those who were saved before his incarnation and death, or those who are, from that time, in all succeeding ages, made partakers of the saving benefits of re- demption. Before the actual accomplishment of what he undertook to do and suf- fer as our surety, God the Father trusted him ; and, by virtue of his promising to pay the debt, discharged the Old Testament saints from condemnation, as effec- tually as if it had been actually paid. There are some cases in which a surety's undertaking to pay a debt, is reckoned equivalent to the actual payment of it ; namely, when it is impossible that he should make a failure in the payment, either through mutability or fickleness of temper inducing him to change his purpose, or from unfaithfulness, which might render him regardless of his engagement, or from some change in his circumstances, whereby, though he once was able to pay, he afterwards becomes unable: I say, if none of these things can take place, and especially, if the creditor, by not demanding present payment, receives some ad- vantage, which is an argument that he does not stand in need of payment, then the promise to pay a debt is equivalent to the payment of it. Now these things may well be applied to Christ's undertaking to pay our debt. It was impossible that he should fail in the accomplishment of what he had undertaken ; or change his purpose, and so, though he designed to execute his work, enter into other mea- sures ; or, though he had promised to execute it, be unfaithful in the accomplish- ment of it ;— these things are all inconsistent with the character of his person ; for though he suffered for us in the human nature, it was his divine nature that under- took to do the work in the human nature ; and the divine nature is infinitely free from the least imputation of weakness, mutability, or unfaithfulness. While, too, the present payment was not immediately demanded, nor designed to be made till the fulness of time was come, the delay of it was compensated by the revenue of glory which accrued to the divine name, and by the honour which redounded to the Mediator, in the salvation of the elect before his incarnation. This, then, was certainly an undeniable evidence of God's approving his undertaking. Moreover, since the work of redemption has been completed, all those who are or shall be brought to glory, have, in themselves, a convincing proof of God's being well- pleased with Christ, as substituted in their room and stead, to pay the debt which was due from them to his justice, and so to lay the foundation of their justification. It hence plainly appears, that Christ was substituted as a surety in our room and stead, to do that for us which was necessary for our justification. We have also sufficient ground to conclude that he was so from scripture, whence alone this point Can be proved, it being a matter of pure revelation. Thus it is said, in express terms, that he was 'made a surety of a better testament. 'p And that, as our surety, he paid the debt of sufferings which was due from us, is evident from its being said that ' he offered himsell a sacrifice for our sins/i and that he was 'once offered to bear the sins of many.'1" From his being holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, the apostle argues that he had no occasion to offer a sacrifice for himself, or that he had no sin of his own to be charged with ; so that, when he suffered, he bore or answered for our sins. Thus the apostle Peter says, ' He bare our sins in his own body on the tree; by whose stripes ye were healed.'8 And elsewhere we read of 'his being made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;'4 that is, he who had no guilt of his own to answer for, submitted to be charged with our guilt, to stand in our room and o Matt. iii. 17. p Heli. vii. 22. q Ver. 27. r irieb. ix. 28. « 1 pet. ii. 24. t 2 Cor. v. 21. JUSTIFICATION. 91 stead, and accordingly to be made a sacrifice for sin. Now all this implies his having been made a surety for us. But on this point we particularly insisted else- where when speaking concerning Christ's satisfaction, which could not be explained without taking occasion to mention his being substituted in the room and stead of those for whom he paid a price of redemption ; and we also considered the mean- ing of those scriptures which speak of his 'bearing our sins.'u 3. We shall now proceed, then, to consider what Christ did as our surety, in his paying all that debt which the justice of God demanded from us, and which consisted in active and passive obedience. There was a debt of active obedience demanded of man as a creature ; and upon his failing to pay it, when he sinned, it became an outstanding debt due from us, but such as could never be paid by us. God determines not to justify any, unless this outstanding debt be paid. Christ, as our surety, engages to take the payment of it on himself. While, too, this defect of obedience, together with all actual transgressions, which proceed from the corruption of our nature, render us guilty or liable to the stroke of vin- dictive justice, Christ, as our surety, undertakes to bear that also. This we gen- erally call the imputation of our sin to Christ, the j lacing of our debt to his ac- count, and the transferring to him of the debt of pujuslmitnt which was due from us. On this account he is said to yield obedience, and .-uffer in our room and stead, or to perform active and passive obedience for us. These two ideas the apostle joins in one expression, when he says that he ' became obedient unto death.' x But this having been insisted on elsewhere, under the head of Christ's satisfaction,? where we not only showed that Christ performed active as well as passive obedience for us, but endeavoured to answer the objections which are gen- erally brought against Christ's active obedience being part of that debt which he engaged to pay for us, we shall pass it by at present. — Again, that our sin and guilt was imputed to him, may be argued from his having been ' made a curse for us,' in order to his redeeming us from the curse of the law ;z from his having been ' made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him ;'a and from other scriptures which speak of him as suffering, though innocent, — pun- ished for sin, though he was the Lamb of God without spot or blemish, — dealt with as guilty, though he had never contracted any guilt, — and made a sacrifice for sin, though sinless. These things could not have been done consistently with the jus- tice of God, had not our sins been placed to his account, or imputed to him. — It is indeed a very difficult thing to convince some persons, how Christ could be charged with sin or have sin imputed to him, in consistency with the sinless purity of his nature. This some think to be no better than a contradiction ; though it is agree- able to the scripture mode of speaking, as 'he was made sin for us,' and yet 'knew no sin.'b When, however, we speak of sin being imputed to him, we are far from insinuating that he committed any acts of sin, or that his human nature was, in the least, inclined to or defiled by it. We choose, therefore, to use the scripture phrase, in which he is said to have 'borne our sins,' rather than to say that he was a sinner. Much less would I give countenance to the expression which some make use of, that he was the greatest sinner in the world ; for I do not desire to apply a word to him, which is often taken in a sense not in the least applicable to the holy Jesus. We cannot be too cautious in our expressions, lest the most common sense in which we understand ' the greatest sinner' when applied to men, should give any one a wrong idea of him, as though he had committed sin, or were de- filed with it. All we assert is, that he was charged with our sins when he suffered for them, — not with having committed them, but with the guilt of them, which, by his own consent, was imputed to him. For had it been otherwise, his sufferings could not have been a punishment for sin, nor could our sin have been expiated, or his sufferings have been the ground of our justification. 4. We are thus led to consider the reference which Christ's suretiship-righteous- ness has to our justification. This is generally styled its being imputed, which u See Sect. ' Tlie Reality of the Atoupmeiit,' under Quest, xliv. x Phil. ii. 8. y See Seet. ' The Nature of the Satisfaction required,' under Quest, xliv. z Gal. iii. 13. a 2 Cor. v. 21. b Ibid. 92 JUSTIFICATION. is a word very much used by those who plead for the scripture sense of the doctrine of justification, and as much opposed by those who deny it. We are obliged to defend the use of it ; otherwise Christ's righteousness, how glorious soever it be in itself, would not avail for our justification. ' Here it is necessary for us to explain what we mean by the imputation of Christ's righteousness. There are some who oppose this doctrine by calling it a putative righteousness, the shadow or appearance of what has no reality ; or our being ac- counted what we are not, whereby a wrong judgment is passed on persons and things. We are not, however, to deny the doctrine because it is thus misrepresented, and thereby unfairly opposed. It is certain that there are words used in scripture and often applied to this doctrine, which, without any ambiguity or strain on the sense of them, may be translated ' to reckon,' 'to account,' or to place a thing done by another to our account, or as we express it, 'to impute.'15 This respects either what is done by us, or something done by another for us. Imputation in the for- mer of these senses, our adversaries do not oppose. Thus, it is said, that ' Phinehas executed judgment, and it was counted unto him for righteousness, 'd that is, it was approved by God as a righteous action. This expression seems to obviate an ob- jection which some might make against imputation. They might suppose that Phinehas did that which more properly belonged to the civil magistrate, or that his judicial act was done without a formal trial, and, it may be, too hastily. God, however, owns the action, and, in a way of approbation, places it to his account for righteousness, that it should be reckoned a righteous action throughout all genera- tions.— Again, sometimes that which is done by a person, is imputed to him or charged upon him so that he must answer for it, or suffer the punishment due to it. Thus Shimei says to David, ' Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me ;'e that is, ' Do not charge upon me that sin which I committed, so as to put me to death for it, which thou mightest justly do.' And Stephen prays, ' Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ;'f that is, impute it not to them, or inflict not the punish- ment on them which it deserves. No one can deny that what is done by a person himself may be placed to his own account ; so that he may be rewarded or pun- ished for it, or that it may be approved or disapproved. This, however, is not the sense in which we understand imputation, when speaking concerning the impu- tation of Christ's righteousness to us ; for this supposes that what was done by another is placed to our account. This is the main thing which is denied by those who have other sentiments of the doctrine we are maintaining. They pretend that, for God to account Christ's righteousness ours, is to take a wrong estimate of things, to reckon that done by us which was not. This, they say, is contrary to the wisdom of God, who can, by no means, entertain any false ideas of things ; and they add, that, if the action be reckoned ours, the character of the person perform- ing it must also be applied to us, — which is to make us sharers in Christ's media- torial office and glory. But this is the most perverse sense which can be put on the words, and a setting of this doctrine in such a light as no one takes it in who pleads for it. We do not suppose that God looks upon man with his all-seeing eye, as having done that which Christ did, or as sustaining the character which be- longed to him in doing it. We are always reckoned by him as offenders, or as contracting guilt, and unable to do any thing which can make an atonement for it. Hence, what interest soever we have in what Christ did, is not reputed our action. God's imputing Christ's righteousness to us, is to be understood in a forensic sense ; which is agreeable to the idea of a debt being paid by a surety. It is not supposed that the debtor paid the debt which the surety paid ; yet the payment of it is placed to his account, or imputed to him as really as if he had made it himself. So what Christ did and suffered in our room and stead, is as much placed to our ac- count as if we had done and suffered it ourselves ; so that we are, in consequence, discharged from condemnation. This is the sense in which we understand the imputation of Christ's righteous- ness to us ; and it is agreeable to the account we have in scripture. Thus we are said to be 'made the righteousness of God in him ;'s that is, the abstract being put c ajpn XtyZ*. d Psal. cvi. 31. e 2 Sam. xix. 19. f Acts vii. 60. g 2 Cor. v. 2 JUSTIFICATION. 93 for the concrete, we are denominated and dealt with as righteous persons, acquitted and discharged from condemnation in virtue of what was done by him. Elsewhere, also, he is styled 'the Lord our righteousness.' The apostle, too, speaks of his 'having Christ's righteousness ;'h that is, having it imputed to him, or having an in- terest in it, or being dealt with according to the tenor of it. In this respect, he opposes it to that righteousness which was in himself as the result of his own per- formances. Again, Christ is said to be 'made of God unto us righteousness ;' that is, his fulfilling the law is placed to our account. Further, the apostle speaks of ' Christ being the end of the law for righteousness to every one that belie veth ;'1 which is the same as what he asserts in other words elsewhere, concerning ' the righ- teousness of the law being fulfilled in us,'k who could not be justified by our own obedience to it, ' in that it was weak through the flesh,' or by reason of our fallen state. Christ, therefore, performed obedience for us, and accordingly God deals with us as if we had fulfilled the law in our own persons, inasmuch as it was ful- filled by him as our surety. — This maj farther be illustrated, by what we generally understand by Adam's sin being imputed to us, as one contrary may illustrate an- other. As sin and death entered into the world by 'the offence of one,' namely, the first Adam, ' in whom all have sinned ; so by the righteousness of one, the free gift,'1 that is, eternal life, 'came upon all men,' namely, those who shall be saved, ' unto justification of life.' For this reason the apostle speaks of Adam as 'the figure of him that was to come.'m Now, as Adam's sin was imputed to us as our public head and representative, so that we are involved in the guilt of it, or fall in him ; so Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, as he was our public head and surety. Accordingly, in the eye of the law, that which was done by him was the same as if it had been done by us ; so that, as the effect and consequence of it, we are justified. This is what we call Christ's righteousness being imputed to us, or placed to our account ; and it is very agreeable to the acceptation of the word, in dealings between man and man. When one has contracted a debt, and desires that it may be placed to the account of his surety, who undertakes for the payment of it, it is said to be imputed to him ; and the debtor's consequent discharge is as valid as if he had paid it in his own person. Justification an Act of God's Free Grace. We shall now consider justification as an act of God's free grace. This point is particularly insisted on in one of the Answers we are explaining. We are not to suppose, however, that our being justified by an act of grace, is opposed to our being justified on account of a full satisfaction made by our surety to the justice of God ; in which respect we consider our discharge from condemnation as an act of justice. The debtor is, indeed, beholden to the grace of God for this privilege ; but the surety who paid the debt, had not the least abatement made, but was obliged to glorify the justice of God to the utmost, which accordingly he did. Yet, there are several things in which the grace of God is eminently displayed. 1. It is displayed in God's willingness to accept satisfaction from the hands of our surety. He might have demanded the satisfaction of ourselves. The debt which we had contracted was not of the same nature with pecuniary debts ; in which case the creditor is obliged to accept payment, though the offer of it is made by another and not by him who contracted the debt. But, in debts of obedience to be performed or of punishment to be endured, he to whom satisfaction is to be given, must of his free choice accept one to be substituted in the room of him from whom the obedience or sufferings were originally due, otherwise the overture made, or what is done and suffered by the substitute, is not regarded, or available to procure a discharge for him in whose room he substituted himself. God might have exacted the debt of us, in our own persons ; and then our condition would have been equally miserable with that of fallen angels, for whom no mediator was accepted, no more than provided. 2. The grace of God farther appears in having provided a surety for us. We h Phil. iii. 9. i Rom. x. 4. k Chap. viii. 3, 4. 1 Chap. v. 18. m Ver. 14. 94 JUSTIFICATION. could not have provided a surety for ourselves, nor have engaged Him to he so who was the only person that could bring about the great work of our redemption. Tho only creatures who are capable of performing perfect obedience are the holy angels. These, however, could not be our surety ; for, as was formerly observed, whoever per- forms it must be incarnate, that he may be capable of paying, in some respects in kind, the debt which was due from us. He requires, therefore, to suffer death, and consequently to have a nature which is capable of dying. But this the angels had not, and could not have, but by the divine will. Besides, if God should havo dispensed with that part of satisfaction which consists in subjection to death, and have declared that active obedience should be sufficient to procure our justification, ' the angels, though capable of performing active obedience, would, notwithstanding, have been defective in it; so that justice could not, in honour, have accepted it, any more than it could have dispensed with the obligation to perform obedience in general. It would not have been of infinite value ; and it is the value of things which justice regards, and not merely the matter or perfection of them in other respects. Hence, the obedience must have had in it something infinitely valuable, else it could not have been accepted by God, as a price of redemption, in order to the procuring of our justification ; and such an obedience could be performed by none but our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious author and procurer of this privilege. It was impossible for man to have found out this Mediator or surety. The ap- pointment of him had its origin with God, and not with us. It is he who found a ransom, and laid help upon one that is mighty. This was the result of his will. Hence, our Saviour is represented as saying, ' Lo, I come to do thy will.'n That we could not, by any means, have found out this surety, or engaged him to have done that for us which was necessary for our justification, will evidently appear if we consider that, when man fell, the Son of God was not incarnate. Even if we allow that fallen man had some idea of a trinity of persons, in the unity of the divine essence, — and it is not unreasonable to suppose that he had, since it was necessary that this doctrine should be revealed to him in order to his performing acceptable worship ; yet, can any one suppose that man could have asked such a favour of a divine person, as to take his nature, and put himself in his room and stead, and expose himself to the curse of that law which he had violated? Such a thing could never have entered into his heart ; yea, the very thought, if it had taken its rise from him, would have savoured of more presumption than had he entreated that God would pardon his sin without a satisfaction. But if he had sup- posed it possible for the Son of God to be incarnate, or had conjectured that there had been the least probability of his being willing to express this instance of conde- scending goodness, how could he have known that God would accept the payment of our debt at the hands of another, or commend his love to us who were such ene- mies to him, in not sparing him but delivering him up for us ? If God's accepting a satisfaction, as well as the perfection or infinite value of it, be necessary in order to its taking effect ; it is certain, man could not have known that he would have done it, for this was a matter of pure revelation. Moreover, should we suppose even this possible, or that man might have expected that God would be moved by entreaty to appoint and accept the satisfaction ; yet such was the corruption, per- verseness, and rebellion of man's nature as fallen, and so great was his inability to perform any act of worship, that he could not have addressed himself to God in a right manner, to entreat that he would admit of a surety. Besides, God cannot hear any prayer but that which is offered to him by faith ; which supposes a Medi- ator, whose purchase and gift it is. Now, as the sinful creature could not plead with God by faith that he would send his Son to be a Mediator, how could he hope to obtain this blessing? It evidently follows, then, that, as man could not give satisfaction for himself, so he could not find out any one who could or would give it for him. Hence, the grace of God, in the provision which he has made of such a surety as his own Son, unasked for, unthought of, as well as undeserved, is very illustrious. 3. It was a very great display of grace in our Saviour, that he was pleased to ii Heb. x. 7. THE CONNECTION OF FAITH WITH JUSTIFICATION. 95 consent to perform this work for us. Without his consent the justice of God could not have exacted the debt of him. He being perfectly innocent, could not bo obliged to suffer punishment ; and it would have been unjust in God to have in- flicted it, had he not been willing to be charged with our guilt, and to stand in out room and stead. Though, too, he knew beforehand all the difficulties, sorrows, and temptations which he was to meet with in the discharge of this work, he was not discouraged from undertaking it. Nor was he unapprized of the character of those for whom he undertook it. He knew their rebellion and the guilt contracted by it, which rendered satisfaction necessary in order to their salvation. He knew also that they would, notwithstanding all the engagements he might lay on them to the contrary, discover the greatest ingratitude toward him ; that, instead of improving so great a display of condescending goodness, they would neglect the great salvation when purchased by him ; and that, in consequence, they would appear to be his greatest enemies, notwithstanding his friendship to them, unless he engaged not only to purchase redemption for them, but to apply it to them, and to work those graces in them whereby they might be enabled to give him the glory which is due to him for his great undertaking. We are next led to consider the use of faith in justification, and how, notwith- standing what has been said concerning our being justified by Christ's righteous- ness, we may, in other respects, be said to be justified by faith ; and also to show what this faith is, whereby we are justified. These subjects- being particularly in- sisted on in the two following Answers, we proceed to consider them. ' THE CONNECTION OF FAITH WITH JUSTIFICATION. Question LXXII. What is justifying Faith 1 Answer. Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner, by the Spirit and Word of God , whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself, and all other creatures, to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation. Question L XXIII. How doth faith justify a sinner in the sight of Godf Answer. Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God; not because of those other graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that are the fruits of it; nor as if the grace of faith, or any act thereof, were imputed to him for his justification; but only as it is an instrument, by which he receiveth and applieth Christ and his righteousness. As the latter of these Answers, in which faith is considered as that whereby a sinner is justified, seems better connected with what has been before insisted on in explaining the doctrine of justification, we choose to discuss it before discussing the former. In considering the account which it gives of justifying faith, there are two things which may be taken notice of. First, it is observed that, though there are other graces which always accompany faith and the good works which flow from it, none of these are said to justify a sinner in the sight of God. Next, we have a statement of how faith justifies, or what it is to be justified by faith. Other Graces than Faith do not Justify. We observe, then, that though there are other graces which always accompany faith and the good works which flow from it, none of these are said to justify a sinner in the sight of God. There is an inseparable connection between faith and all other graces ; and, though it is distinguished, it is never separate from them. They are all considered as ' fruits of the Spirit.'0 The apostle reckons up several graces which are connected with faith and proceed from the same Spirit, such as 'love, peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance.' The o Gal. v. 22, 23. 96 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH same apostle commends the church at Thessalonica for their ' work of faith ;' and considers this as connected with a ' labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 'p The apostle Peter exhorts the church to which he writes to 4 add to their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly-kindness, and to brotherly-kindness charity ;** which supposes that all these graces ought to be con- nected together. The apostle James calls that a ' dead faith 'r which has not other works or graces joined with it. Indeed, these graces not only are connected with it, but flow from it, or are the fruits of it. Thus we read of ' the heart being purified by faith ;'" that is, this grace, when exercised in a right manner, will have a ten- dency, in some degree, to purge the soul from that moral impurity which proceeds out of the heart of man, and is inconsistent with saving faith. Elsewhere, also, we read of faith as ' working by love,'' that is, exciting those acts of love, both to God and man, which contain a summary of practical religion. It is likewise said to 'overcome the world ;'u and it enables Christians to do or suffer great things for Christ's sake, of which the apostle gives various instances in the Old Testament saints.x But notwithstanding the connection of other graces with faith, and with those works which flow from it, we are never said in scripture to be justified by these graces, — not by love to God, nor by any acts of obedience to him, which can be called no other than works. On the contrary, when the apostle speaks of our justification by faith, he puts it in opposition to works. ' A man,' says he, '.is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law.'* It is objected that the apostle here speaks concerning the ceremonial law, which he excludes from being the matter of our justification ; and not the moral law, or any evangelical duty, such as love and sincere obedience, which, together with faith, is the matter of our justification. We reply that, when the apostle speaks of our justification by faith, without the deeds of the law, he does not intend the ceremonial law ; for those whom he describes as justified persons are said, in a following verse, to be not Jews only, but Gentiles who were converted to the Chris- tian faith. The former, indeed, were under a temptation to seek to be justified by the ceremonial law, and so to conclude that they had a right to eternal life because of their being distinguished from the world, by the external privileges of the cove- nant which they were under, many of which were contained in or signified by that law ; but the Gentiles had nothing to do with it, and therefore never expected to be justified by the ceremonial law. Accordingly, when the apostle speaks of justi- fication by faith without the deeds of the law, he cannot be supposed to intend the ceremonial law. Besides, if we look a little farther into the context, we shall find by his reasoning, that he excludes all works in general, and opposes faith to them, lie argues that we are justified in such a way as tends to exclude boasting. But he who insists on any works performed by himself as the matter of his justification, cannot do so any otherwise than in a boasting way, valuing himself, and founding his right to eternal life, upon them. We are justified therefore, not by them, but by faith ; that is, we are justified in such a way that, while we lay claim to the greatest privileges from Christ, we are disposed to give him all the glory, or to renounce our own righteousness at the same time that we have recourse by faith to his righteousness for justification. That it may farther appear that our justification by faith is opposed to justifica- tion by works, either those which accompany or those which flow from it, we may apply to this argument what was formerly suggested, in considering the matter of our justification. If we consider the demands of justice, or what it may in honour reckon a sufficient compensation for the dishonour which has been brought to the divine name by sin, or what may be deemed a satisfactory payment of the out- standing debt of perfect obedience which was due from us, or of punishment to which we were liable according to the sanction of the divine law ; we may easily infer that no obedience performed by us, though including the utmost perfection winch a fallen creature is capable of attaining, is a sufficient satisfaction ; and if p 1 Thess. i. 3. q 2 Pet. i. 5, 6, 7- r James ii. 17. 8 Acts xv. 9. 1 Gal- v- & u I John v. 4. x Heb. xi. J Rom. iii. 28. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 97 there can be no justification without satisfaction, we cannot be justified by such obedience. It is a vain thing, therefore, for persons to distinguish between works done before and after faith, as though the former only were excluded from being the matter of our justification ; or to say, as some do, that we are justified not in- deed by obedience to the moral law, but by our obeying the precepts which our Saviour has laid down in the gospel, such as faith, repentance, &c, which they call obedience to the gospel as a new law. Let it be observed that these evangelical duties are supposed to be performed as the result of a divine command, which has the formal nature of a law, whether they be contained in the moral law or not ; so that, when we are justified by faith in opposition to the works of the law, obedience of any kind performed by us must be excluded. This point appears farther from the nature of faith, to which justification by the works of the law is opposed. For faith is a soul-humbling grace, and includes a renouncing of all merit, or induce- " ment taken from ourselves as a reason why God should bestow upon us the bless- ings we stand in need of. It trusts in Christ for righteousness, and in him alone ; and therefore turns itself from any thing which may have the least tendency to eclipse his glory, as the only foundation of our justification. Hence, when we are said to be justified by faith, and not by the works of the law, the meaning is, that we are justified in such a way as tends to set the crown upon Christ's head, acknow- ledging him to be the only fountain whence this privilege is derived. From what has been said, it follows that our justification cannot be founded on our repentance. That it is founded on repentance, is often maintained by those who are on the other side of the question. They suppose that justification con- tains nothing else but forgiveness of sin ; and that, if offences are to be forgiven by men upon their repentance or confessing their fault, then forgiveness may be expected from God on our repentance. Some use a very unsavoury way of speak- ing, when they say that our tears have a virtue to wash away our sins. That they may gain farther countenance to their opinions, they refer to the scripture in which it is said, ' Repent, that your sins may be blotted out ; 'z and to other scriptures of a similar nature. We are not to suppose, however, that, in the text just quoted, the apostle means that forgiveness of sin is founded on our repentance, as the mat- ter of our justification in the sight of God ; but we are to understand him as teach- ing that there is an inseparable connection between our claim to forgiveness of sin, together with all the fruits and effects of the death of Christ whereby this blessing was procured, and repentance, — so that the one is not to be expected without the other. While men are to forgive injuries when the offender acknowledges his fault and makes sufficient restitution, they may do so as far as the offence is committed only against a creature, — especially if the offence be of a private nature. But in. juridical and forensic cases, will any one say that the prince is obliged to forgive the criminal who is under a sentence of condemnation, because he is sorry for what he has done, or confesses his fault ? Would his doing so secure his honour as a lawgiver ? And if, upon his pardoning the offender, the latter were to be discharged, from his guilt, would there not be a defect in the administration of the legisla- ture ? How, then, can the principle of pardoning on the ground of repentance be applied to forgiveness as expected at the hand of God ? Here justice as well as mercy is to have the glory which is due to it ; and we are to be not only acquit- ted, but justified, or pronounced guiltless. How, then, can forgiveness be expect- ed, when our acknowledgment of our offence cannot be reckoned a sufficient satis- faction to the justice of God? It is objected by those on the other side of the question, that, though repentance be not in itself a sufficient compensation to the justice of God, for the crimes which we have committed ; yet God may, by an act of grace, accept it as if it had been sufficient.* This they illustrate by a similitude taken from a person's selling an estate of a considerable value, to one who has no money to buy it, provided he will z Acts iii. 19. t a This is what is generally styled, by a diminutive word, ' Acceptilatio gratiosa,' which is an ac- cepting a small part of a debt, instead of the whole; a sort of composition, in which, though the payuif nt be inconsiderable, the debtor's discharge is founded on it by an act of favour in the credi- tor, as if the whole sum had been paid. II. 2f 98 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH pay a peppercorn of acknowledgment. Thus, say they, how insignificant soever repentance, or any other grace which is deemed the matter of our justification, be in itself, it is by an act of favour, deemed a sufficient price. Now, I would ob- serve, that the objection which was formerly brought against the doctrine we have been maintaining, concerning the imputation of Christ's righteousness, namely, that it is a putative righteousness, a not judging of things according to truth, and the like, seems to be of no weight when it affects their own cause ; otherwise we might turn their argument against themselves, and ask them whether it be for God to judge according to truth, when that is accepted as a sufficient payment, by his justice, which is in itself of no value ? But passing this by, we may farther observe that their supposition wholly sets aside the necessity of satisfaction, as the Socinians do ; so that it is no, wonder that the latter make use of the supposition. As for others who do not altogether deny the doctrine of satisfaction, yet think that a small price may be deemed satisfactory for sin committed, it may be re-' plied to them, that if justification, as tending to advance the glory of divine justice in taking away the guilt of sin, depends upon a price paid which is equivalent to the debt contracted, and if nothing short of a price of infinite value can be reck- oned such an equivalent, then certainly that which is performed by men cannot be deemed a sufficient payment, or accepted as such. It is a vain thing for persons to pretend that there is a difference between satisfying God, and satisfying his jus- tice, or that to satisfy God is to pay a price which he demands, be it never so small, while satisfying justice is paying a price equal to the thing purchased ; for we must conclude that God cannot deem any thing satisfactory to himself, which is not so to his justice. This distinction, therefore, will not avail to free their argument from the absurdity which attends it. We might here observe, that as some speak of pardon of sin being founded on our repentance, others speak of our justification being by the act of faith, or by faith considered as a work. In defending justification by works, as if, contrary to what has been already proved, it were not opposed to justification by faith, they argue that we are often said in scripture to be justified by faith, that faith is a work, and that, therefore, it cannot be denied that we are justified by works. But it is one thing to say, that we are justified by faith, that is, a work, and another thing to say, that we are justified by it as a work ; or, it is one thing to say, that we are justified for our faith, and another thing to say, that we are justified by it. This will more evidently appear under the following Head. How Faith Justifies. We therefore proceed to consider what it is for us to be justified by faith, or how faith justifies. None can, with the least shadow of reason, deny that justification by faith is a scripture mode of speaking. Some, indeed, have questioned whether the apostle's words, ' Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ,' give countenance to the doctrine of justification by faith ; for they observe that, by putting a stop immediately after the word justified, the sense would be, that they who are justified by Christ's righteousness, have peace with God by faith, through our Lord Jesus Christ. But though this will a little alter the reading of the text ; it will not overthrow the doctrine of justification by faith as contained in it. For if we understand our 'having peace with God,' as im- porting, not merely peace of conscience, but that peace which they have a right to who are interested in Christ's righteousness, it will follow that to have this peace by faith, is, in effect, the same as to be justified by faith. This farther appears from the following words, ' By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.' The 'grace wherein we stand' is that grace which is the foun- dation of our justification, and not merely peace of conscience. When, therefore, •we have access by faith into this grace, it is the same as for us to be justified by faith. — Moreover, this is not the only place in which we are said to^be justified by faith. The apostle says elsewhere, ' We are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ, 'b b Gal. ii. 16. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 99 or, by faith in Jesus Christ. Again, he says, ' The just shall live by faith ;'c which, agreeably to the context, must be understood of their being justified by faith ; in which sense he particularly explains the words elsewhere. d In another place he speaks of ' the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ ;'e and also of a believer's ' waiting for the hope of righteousness by faith. 'f We must, there- fore, not deny that justification is by faith ; but rather explain the sense of those scriptures which establish this doctrine, agreeably to the mind of the Holy Ghost in them. There are vai'ious methods taken to explain the doctrine of justification by faith ; particularly one which we think subversive of justification by Christ's righteousness ; and another, that which is contained in the Answer which we' are explaining. 1. As to the former of these, namely, that which is inconsistent with the doc- trine of justification by Christ's righteousness, it is maintained by those who plead for justification by works. They say that we are justified by faith and all other graces; and these they call the conditions of our justification in the sight of God. Indeed, to be justified by faith, according to them, is little other than to be justi- fied for faith. Whether they reckon it a meritorious condition or not, they must own it to be a pleadable condition, otherwise it would have no reference to justifi- cation ; and if it be understood in this sense, our justification depends as much upon it as if it had been meritorious. This is the account which some give of justifica- tion. To prepare the way for their opinion, they suppose that the terms of salva- tion in the gospel, which are substituted for those which were required under the first covenant made with Adam, are faith, repentance, and sincere obedience, in- stead of perfect; that God, in justifying a penitent, believing sinner, pursuant to the performance of these conditions, declares his willingness that there should be a relaxation of that law which man was at first obliged to obey ; and. accordingly, that sincerity is demanded by him instead of perfection, or is substituted in the room of it. This some of them call the new law, and others a remedial law. Hence, according to their opinion, instead of being justified by Christ's yielding perfect obedience, or paying the outstanding debt which we were obliged, by rea- son of the violation of the first covenant, to pay ; we are to be justified by our own imperfect obedience. What may be objected to this reasoning, is, that it is incon- sistent with the holiness of the divine nature, and the glory of the justice of God, detracts from the honour of his law, and is, in effect, to maintain that we are justi- fied without satisfaction given. For though the alleged terms of our justification and acceptance in the sight of God may be falsely styled a valuable consideration ; yet none will pretend to assert that they are an infinite price ; and nothing short of such a price, which is no other than Christ's righteousness, is sufficient to answer the end of satisfaction. I am sensible that they who lay down this plan of justifi- cation allege in defence of it, that, though the terms of acceptance are of small value in themselves, yet God, by an act of grace, reckons the payment of a small debt equivalent to that of a greater, as was formerly observed. They also speak of faith and repentance as having a value set upon them by their reference to the blood of Christ,^ who merited the privilege for us of our being justified in such a way, or upon these conditions performed. They call them indeed easier terms or conditions, and include them all in the general word sincerity, instead of perfec- tion. Yet they are somewhat divided in their method of explaining themselves. Some suppose these conditions to be wholly in our own power, without the aids of divine grace, as much as perfect obedience was in the power of our first parents. Others, though they do not suppose that these conditions are altogether out of our own power, ascribe a little more to the grace of God, according as they explain the doctrine of effectual calling ; and they so far lay a foundation for the sinner's glory- ing, as to suppose that our right to justification and eternal life are founded on per- forming the conditions. I cannot but think that this method of explaining the doctrine of justification is c Rom. i. 17. d Gal. iii. 11. e Rom. iii. 22. f GaL v. 5. g These works they speak of as ' Tincta sanguine Christi.* 100 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH subversive of the gospel ; and that it is highly derogatory to the glory of God to assert that he can dispense with the demand of perfect obedience, and justify a person on easier terms. To say this is little better than what the apostle calls ' making void the law.' This, says he, we are far from doing 'by faith,' or by our asserting the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ's righteousness ; ' but we rather establish it' hereby. Moreover, to say that God sets such a value on our performing these con- ditions of the new covenant that they are deemed equivalent to Christ's perform- ing perfect obedience for us, reflects on his glory, as set forth to be a propitiation for sin to declare God's righteousness in the remission of it, and detracts from the obligation which we are laid under to him for what he did and suffered in our be- half for our justification. — Again, to assert that God sets this value on our per- formances pursuant to. Christ's merit, or that they are highly esteemed by him because they are tinctured with his blood, is contrary to the design of Christ's death. For that design was, not that such an estimate might be set on what is done by us, but rather that the iniquities which attend our best performances may be forgiven, — that, though, when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants, we may be made accepted in the Beloved, — and that, having no justifying righteous- ness of our own, we may be justified by that which he hath wrought out for us, and glory in it. — As to the supposition that faith, repentance, and new obedience are not only conditions of justification, but conditions easy to be performed, it plainly discovers that they who maintain it, either think too lightly of man's impotency and aversion to what is good, and of his alienation from the life of God, or are strangers to their own hearts, and not duly sensible that it is God that works in his people both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. — The only thing which I shall add, in opposition to the doctrine of justification by works, is, that what- ever is the matter or ground of our justification in the sight of God, must be plead- able at his bar. For we cannot be justified without a plea; and if any plea taken from our own works be thought sufficient, how much soever the proud and deluded heart of man may set too great a value upon them, God will not reckon the plea valid, so as to discharge us from guilt, and give us on account of it a right and title to eternal life. 2. We now proceed to consider the method taken in the Answer before us, to explain the doctrine of justification by faith. This method, we think, is agreeable to the divine perfections, and contains a true state of the doctrine in question. We formerly considered justification as a forensic act, that we might understand what is meant by our sins being imputed to Christ our head and surety, and his righte- ousness imputed to us, or placed to our account. And we are now to speak of this righteousness as pleaded by or applied to us, as the foundation of our claim to all the blessings which were purchased by it. Here we must consider a sinner as bringing in his plea, in order to his discharge ; and he does this either with the view of being declared innocent, or with the view of being justified on the ground of Christ's righteousness. If he be charged by men or by Satan with crimes not committed, he pleads his own innocency ; if charged with hypocrisy, he pleads his own sincerity. In this sense, we are to understand several expressions in scripture. When, for example, a charge of the kind mentioned was brought against Job, Satan having suggested that he did not serve God for nought, and that, if God would touch his bone and his flesh, he would curse him to his face, and his friends having often applied to him the character they give of the hypocrite, and so concluded him to be a wicked person, he said, ' God forbid that I should justify you,' that is, that I should acknow- ledge your charge to be just. 'Till I die, I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go. My heart shall not re- proach me so long as I live ;'h that is, ' I never will own what you insinuate, that my heart is not right with God.' David, also, when complaining of the ill treat- ment which he met with from his enemies and persecutors, who desired not only to 'tread down his life upon the earth,' but to 'lay his honour in the dust,' to murder his name as well as his person, prays, ' Judge me, 0 Lord, according to h Job xxviL 5, 6. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 101 my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in roe.'1 What could he plead against malicious and false insinuations, but his righteousness or his integrity ? Elsewhere, also, when he says, ' The Lord rewarded me according to my righteous- ness ; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me ; for I have kept the ways of the Lord ; his judgments were before me ; I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity, 'k his words are nothing else but an intimation that, how much soever he might be charged with the contrary vices, he was, as regarded them, innocent. Though God did not justify him at his tribunal for his personal righteousness ; yet, in the course of his providence, he seemed so far to approve his plea, that, whatever the world thought of him, he plainly dealt with him as one who was highly favoured by him, or as one whom, by his dealings with him, he evidently distinguished from those whose hearts were not right with him. It is true, some who plead for justification by our own righteousness, allege these scriptures as a proof of it; but they do not distinguish between the justification of our persons in the sight of God, and the justification of our righteous cause, or be- tween our being justified when accused at God's tribunal, and our being justified or vindicated from those charges which are brought against us at man's. When a person stands at God's tribunal, as we must suppose the sinner to do, when bringing in his plea for justification in his sight, he has nothing to plead but Christ's righteousness ; and faith is the grace which pleads it. On this account, we are said to be justified by faith, or in a way of believing. Faith does not justify by presenting or pleading itself, or any other grace which accompanies or flows from it, as the cause why God should forgive sin, or give us a right to eternal life ; for no grace has a sufficient worth or excellency to procure these blessings. When we are said to be justified by faith, it is by faith as apprehending, pleading, or laying hold on Christ's righteousness. This gives occasion to divines to call it the instru- ment of our justification. Christ's righteousness is the thing claimed or appre- hended; and faith is that by which it is claimed or apprehended. Agreeably to the idea of an instrument, we are said to be justified, not for faith, but by it. Christ's righteousness is that which procures a discharge from condemnation for all for whom it was wrought out ; and faith is the hand which receives it, whereby a person has a right to conclude that it was wrought out for him. Christ's righte- ousness is that which has a tendency to enrich and adorn the soul ; and faith is the hand which receives it, whereby it becomes ours in a way of fiducial application. As the ^righteousness of Christ is compared, in scripture, to a glorious robe which renders the soul beautiful, or is its highest and chief ornament ; so it is by faith that this robe is put on. Thus its beauty, as the prophet says, is rendered 'perfect through his comeliness, which is put upon him.'1 Hence, Christ's righteousness justifies, as it is the cause of our discharge; faith justifies as the instrument which applies this discharge to us. Accordingly, when it is said, ' The just shall live by faith,' faith is considered as that which seeks and finds life in him. The effect is, by a metonymy, applied to the instrument ; as when the husbandman is said to live or be maintained by his plough, and the artist to live by his hands, or the beggar by his empty hand which receives the donative. If a person, were in a dungeon, as the prophet Jeremiah was, and a rope were let down to draw him out, his laying hold on it is the instrument, but the hand which draws him out is the principal cause of his release. Or, that we may make use of a similitude which more directly illustrates the doctrine we are maintaining, suppose a condemned malefactor had a pardon procured for him, which gives him a right to liberty or a discharge from the place of his confinement, this pardon must be pleaded, and his claim be rendered visible ; and afterwards he is no longer deemed a guilty person, but discharged, in open court, from the sentence which he was under. Thus, Christ procures forgiveness by his blood ; the gospel holds it forth, and describes those who have a right to claim it as believers ; faith pleads it, and claims it as belonging to him in particular ; and hence arises a visible discharge from condem- nation, and a right to claim the benefits which attend it. If we understand justi- fication by faith in this sense, we do not attribute too much to faith, on the one hand, nor too little to Christ's righteousness on the other. [See Note I, page 121.] i Psal. vii. 8. k 2 Sam. xxii. 21, et seq. 1 Ezek. xvi. 14. 102 THK CONNECTION OF FAITH We choose to call faith an instrument rather than a condition of our justifica- tion, as we are sensible that the word * condition ' is generally used to signify that for the sake of which a benefit is conferred, rather than the instrument by which it is applied. Not but that the word may be explained in such a way as is con- sistent with the doctrine of justification by faith. We do not deny that faith is the condition of our claim to Christ's righteousness ; or that it is God's ordinance* with- out which we have no ground to conclude our interest in it. We must distinguish between its being a condition of forgiveness, and its being a condition of our visible and apparent right to forgiveness. This privilege cannot be said to belong to us, unless we receive it ; nor can we conclude that we have an interest in Christ's re- demption, any more than they for whom he did not lay down his life, but by this medium. We must first consider Christ's righteousness as wrought out for all those who were given him by the Father ; and then consider faith as that which gives us ground to conclude that the privilege belongs in particular to us. This account of the use of faith in justification, we cannot but think sufficient to obviate the most material ejections which are brought against our way of maintaining the doc- trine of justification, namely, by Christ's righteousness, in one respect, and by faith in another. It is an injurious suggestion to suppose that we deny the necessity of faith in any sense, or to conclude that we may lay claim to justification without it ; for we strenuously assert, on the one hand, the necessity of Christ's righteousness being wrought out for us, and of forgiveness being thereby procured, — and, on the other hand, the necessity of our receiving it. Each of these points is true in its respective place. Christ must have the glory which is due to him ; and faith the work or office which belongs to it. We have thus considered Christ's righteousness as applied by faith. It may be observed, also, that there is one scripture in which it is said to be ' imputed by faith.' The apostle Paul, when speaking concerning Abraham's justification by faith in this righteousness, says, ' It was imputed to him for righteousness ;' and adds, that ' it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe.'™ In this scripture, I con- ceive, imputation is taken for application. Accordingly, the meaning is, the righ- teousness of Christ is so imputed that we have ground to place it to our own ac- count, if we believe. This is the same as applying it by faith. It must be allowed, indeed, that while the apostle speaks elsewhere of ' faith being counted for righ- teousness ;'n there is a great deal of difficulty in the mode of expression. If we assert that the act of believing is imputed for righteousness, as they do who establish the doctrine of justification by works, or by faith as a work, we overthrow what we have been maintaining. If, on the other hand, we understand faith for the object of faith, namely, what was wrought out by Christ, which faith is conversant about, and conclude, as I conceive we ought to do, that this is imputed for righteous- ness, we are supposed by some to deviate too much from the common sense of words. But if there be such a figurative way of speaking used in other scriptures, why may we not suppose that it is used in the text under consideration ? If other graces are sometimes taken for the object of them, why may not faith be taken, by a metonymy, for its object? Thus the apostle calls those to whom he writes, ' his joy,' that is, the object or matter of his joy.0 In the book of Canticles, the church calls Christ ' her love,'P that is, the object of her love. Hope also is plainly taken for the object of it, when the apostle says, ' Hope that is seen, is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?'0- He here plainly intends that whatever is the object of hope, cannot be in our present possession. Christ, moreover, is styled, ' the blessed hope,'r that is, the person whose appearance we hope for. Jacob, too, speaks of God as ' the fear of his father Isaac, 's that is, the person whom he worshipped with reverential fear. Now, in all these cases the phraseo- logy is equally difficult with that of the text under consideration. m Rom. iv. 22, 23, 24. n Ver. 5. o Phil, in 1. p Cant. viii. 4. 0 Rom. vni. 24. r Tit. ii. 13. s Gen. xxxi. 53. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 1(J[ Inferences from the Doctrine of Justification. "We have thus spoken concerning Christ's righteousness as wrought out for us, and applied by faith. This doctrine is the foundation of all our peace and com- fort, both in life and in death ; and cannot but be reckoned a doctrine of the high- est importance. We shall now consider some things which may be inferred from it. 1. From what has been said concerning justification, as founded in Christ's suretiship-righteousness, wrought out for us by what was done and suffered by him in his human nature, and having infinite value as depending on the glory of the divine nature to which the human is united, we cannot but infer the absurdity of two contrary opinions, namely, that of those who have asserted that we are jus- tified by the essential righteousness of Christ as God,* and that of others who pre- tend that, because all mediatorial acts are performed by Christ only as man, the infinite dignity of the divine nature has no reference to their being satisfactory to divine justice. This is what they mean when they say that we are justified by Christ's righteousness as man, in opposition to our being justified by his essential righ- teousness as God.'u I think, however, that the truth lies in a medium between these extremes. On the one hand, we must suppose that Christ's engagement to become a surety for us, to stand in our room and stead, and to pay the debt which we had contracted to the justice of God, could not be done in any other than the human nature ; for the divine nature is not capable of being under a law, of fulfilling it, or, in any instance, of obeying or suffering ; so that we cannot be justified by Christ's essential righteousness, as God. On the other hand, what Christ did and suffered as man, would not have been sufficient for our justification, had it not had an infinite value put upon it, arising from the union of the nature which suffered with the divine nature, agreeably to the apostle's expression, ' The church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. 'x 2. From what has been said concerning the fruits and effects of justification, that our sins are pardoned and we made accepted in the Beloved, we infer that it is not only an unscriptural way of speaking, but has a tendency to overthrow the doctrine we are maintaining, to assert, as some do, that God is only rendered re- concilable by what was done and suffered by Christ. This seems to be maintained by different parties with different views. Some speak of God's being rendered recon- cilable by Christ's righteousness, that they may make way for what they have farther to advance, namely, that God's being reconciled to a sinner is the result of his own repentance, or the amendment of his lii'e, whereby he makes his peace with him. This is to make repentance or reformation the matter of our justification, and to substitute it for Christ's righteousness. They, therefore, who speak of God's being made reconcilable in this sense by his blood, are so far from giving a true account of the doctrine of justification, that, in reality, they overthrow it. — But there are others who speak of God's being reconcilable as the consequence of Christ's satis- faction, that they may not be thought to assert that God is actually reconciled by the blood of Christ, to those who are in an unconverted state, — a state which is inconsistent with a state of reconciliation. They hence use this mode of expression, lest they should be thought to give countenance to the doctrine of actual justifica- tion before faith. But certainly we are under no necessity of advancing one absur- dity to avoid another. Let it be here considered, therefore, that the scripture speaks expressly of God's being reconciled by the death of Christ. He is said, as a God of peace,? to have ' brought him again from the dead.' Elsewhere the apos- tle speaks not of God becoming reconcilable to us, but of his ' having reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.'2 Again, he says, • If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ; much more being reconciled, we shall t This opinion was propagated soon after the Reformation, by Andr. Osiander, who lived a little before the middle of the sixteenth century. u This opinion was propagated soon after by Stanearus, in opposition to Osiander, whom Du Pin reckons amongst the Socinians. or who, at least, after he had advanced this notion, denied the doctrine of the Trinity. [See Du Pin's Eccl. Hist, sixteenth century. Book \v. chap. 6.] x Acts xx. 28. y lleb. xiii. 20. z 2 Cor. v. 18. 104 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH he saved,' * that is, shall obtain the saving effects of this reconciliation, • by his life.' Again, ' Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. And you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight. 'b Here he describes those who were reconciled as once enemies ; and speaks of their re- conciliation as having been procured by the death of Christ, and of holiness here and salvation hereafter as the consequence. What he speaks of, therefore, is such a reconciliation as is contained in our justification. — But though this appears very agreeable to the mind of the Holy Ghost in scripture, it must be understood in con- sistency with those scriptures which represent persons in an unconverted state as 'children of wrath, 'c and as being ' hateful,' d that is, not only deserving to be hated by God, but actually hated, as appears by the many threatenings which are denounced against them, and by their being in a condemned state. We must un- derstand the doctrine of reconciliation consistently with what the scriptures say respecting such persons, that we may not give countenance to the doctrine of some who, not distinguishing between God's secret and revealed will, maintain that we are not only virtually but actually justified before we believe ; as though we had a right to claim Christ's righteousness before we have any ground to conclude that it was wrought out for us. But what has been already suggested concerning justifica- tion by faith, will, I think, sufficiently remove this difficulty. — The only thing which remains to be explained is, how God may be said to be reconciled by the blood of Christ, to a person who is in an unconverted state, and as such, is represented as a child of wrath. Now so long as a person is an unbeliever, he has no ground to conclude, according to the tenor of God's revealed will, that he is reconciled to him, or that he is any other than a child of wrath. Yet, when we speak of God's being reconciled to his elect, according to the tenor of his secret will, before they be- lieve, we in effect say that justification, as it is an immanent act in God, is antece- dent to faith, — which is a certain truth, inasmuch as faith is a fruit and conse- quence ; and we add, that God does not declare that he is reconciled to us, or give us ground to conclude that he is, so as to make it appear that we are no longer the "children of wrath, till we believe. If this be duly considered, we have no reason to assert that God is reconcilable rather than reconciled by the death of Christ, lest we should be thought to maintain the doctrine of justification, or deliverance from wrath, as a declared act, before we believe. We may add that God was reconcil- able to his elect, that is, willing to be reconciled to them, before Christ died for them ; otherwise he would never have sent him into the world to make reconcilia- tion for the sins of his people. He was reconcilable, and therefore designed to turn from the fierceness of his wrath ; and, in order to this, he appointed Christ to make satisfaction for sin, and procure peace for them. 3. There is not the least inconsistency between those scriptures which speak of jus- tification as an act of God's free grace, and others which speak of it as by faith founded on Christ's righteousness ; or between God's pardoning sin freely, without regard to any thing done by us to procure it, and his insisting on and receiving a full satisfaction, as the meritorious and procuring cause of it. It is sometimes ob- jected against what we have advanced in explaining the doctrine we maintain, that it represents justification, as, in some respects, an act of justice, and in others an act of grace ; as though the doctrine were inconsistent with itself, and our method of explaining it were liable to an absurdity ; or as though two contradic- tory propositions could be both true, namely, that justification is an act of the strictest justice, without any abatement of the debt demanded, and yet an act of free grace, without insisting on the payment of the debt. But this seeming contra- diction may be easily reconciled. For the debt was not paid by us in our own per- sons. Had this been done, it would have been inconsistent with forgiveness being an act of grace. But the debt was paid by our surety ; and as paid by him, there was no abatement of it. He did not receive a discharge by an act of grace, but was justified as our head or surety, by his own righteousness, or works performed by a Kom. v. 10. b Col. i. 20, 21, 22. c Eph. ii. 3. d Tit. iii. 3. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 105 him ; while we are justified by his suretiship-righteousness, without works per- formed by us. Moreover, as was formerly observed, this surety was provided for us. Hence when we speak of justification as an act of grace, we distinguish be- tween the justification of our surety, after he had given full satisfaction for the debt which we had contracted ; and the payment being placed to our account by God's gracious imputation of it to us, and our consequently obtaining forgiveness, which can he no other than an act of the highest grace. 4. From what has been said concerning justification by faith, we infer the method, order, and time in which God justifies his people. There are some who speak of justification, not only before faith, but from eternity ; and consider it as an im- manent act in God in the same sense as election is said to be. I will not deny eternal justification, provided it be considered as contained in God's secret will, and not made the rule by which we are to determine ourselves to be in a justified state, and as such to have a right and title to eternal life, before it is revealed or apprehended by faith. If we understand it in this sense, it is beyond dispute that justification is not by faith. But as the most known, yea, the only sense in which justification is spoken of, as ap- plied to particular persons, is, that it is by faith, we must suppose that it is a declared act. That which is hid in God, and not declared, cannot be said to be applied ; and that which is not applied cannot be the rule by which particular persons may judge of their state. Thus, to speak of eternal election, and say that God has per- emptorily determined the state of those who shall be saved so that they shall not perish, is nothing to particular persons, unless they have ground to conclude them- selves elected. So if we say that God has, from all eternity, given his elect into Christ's hands ; that he undertook before the foundation of the world to redeem them ; and that, in consequence, God promised that he would give eternal life unto them ; or, if we consider Christ as having fulfilled what he undertook from all eter- nity, finished transgression, brought in everlasting righteousness, and fully paid the debt which he undertook ; consider him as being discharged, and receiving an acquittance, when raised from the dead ; and all this as done in the name of the elect, as their head and representative ; and if we farther consider them, in terms of an expression often used, as virtually justified in him ; all this is nothing to them, with respect to their peace and comfort ; they have no more a right to claim an interest in the privilege or relation of being justified persons than if he had not paid a price for them. We suppose, therefore, that justification, as it is the foun- dation of our claim to eternal life, is a declared act. Now, if justification be a de- clared act, there must be some method which God uses, whereby he declares it or makes it known. Yet it is certain that he nowhere in scripture tells an unbe- liever that he has an interest in Christ's righteousness, or that his sins are pardoned, or gives him any warrant to take comfort from any such conclusion. On the con- trary, such an one has no ground to conclude otherwise concerning himself than that he is a child of wrath ; for he is to judge of things according to the tenor of God's revealed will. Christ's righteousness is nothing to him in point of application. He is guilty of bold presumption if he lays claim to it, or takes comfort from it ; as much so as he would be were he to say, ' Some are elected, therefore I am.' When a person believes, however, he has a right to conclude that he is justified, or to claim all the privileges which result from justification. This is what we call justification by faith ; which, therefore, cannot be before faith. That which gives a person a right to claim a privilege, must be antecedent to this claim ; or, that which is the foundation of a person's concluding himself to be justified, must be antecedent to his making this conclusion. Hence, all who duly consider what they affirm, must conclude that justification is not before faith. 5. From what has been said concerning the office or use of faith in justification, as an instrument which applies Christ's righteousness to ourselves, we infer that it is more than an evidence of our justification. We do not indeed deny it to be an evidence that we were virtually justified in Christ as our head and representative, when he was raised from the dead ; in the same sense as it is an evidence of our eternal election. But this is equally applicable to all other graces ; and therefore cannot be a true description of justifying faith. If we are justified by faith, only as it is an evidence of our right to Christ's righteousness, we are as much justified II. o 106 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH by love, patience, and submission to the divine will, or any other grace which ac- companies salvation. But they who speak of faith as only an evidence, will not say that we are justified by all other graces, in the same sense as we are justified by faith. Indeed the scripture gives us no warrant so to do. 6. From what has been said concerning faith, as giving us a right to claim Christ's righteousness, we infer that a person is justified before he has what we call the faith of assurance ; of which more shall be said hereafter. We hence consider the grace of faith as justifying us, or giving us a right to claim Christ's righteous- ness, whether we have an actual claim or not. If this were not allowed, the loss of assurance would infer the suspension or loss of our justification ; and consequent- ly would render our state as uncertain as our frames, and our peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, as liable to be lost as that peace and joy which we sometimes have in believing, and at other times are destitute of. 7. From what has been said concerning justifying faith being accompanied with all other graces, we infer that that faith which is justifying, is also a saving grace, or a grace which accompanies salvation. Yet there is this difference between saving faith, as we generally call it, and justifying faith, — the former respects Christ in all his offices, the latter considers him only in his priestly office, or as set forth to be a propitiation for sin. The Nature, Kinds, Objects, Degrees, and Uses of Faith. We are now led to consider the grace of faith in its larger extent, with respect to both its acts and its objects, as stated in the former of the Answers we are ex- plaining. We shall here examine the nature of faith in general, or of that faith which, as already explained, we call justifying. There are some things in this grace which are common to it with other graces. In particular, it is styled a saving grace, not as being the cause of our salvation, but as it accompanies it, or is connected with it. Again, it is said to be wrought in the heart of a sinner, to distinguish it from other habits of a lower nature, which are acquired by us. It is also said to be wrought by the Spirit and word of God, — by his Spirit, as the principal effi- cient, who, in order to work it in us, exerts his divine power, — and by the word, as the instrument which he makes use of. The word presents to us the object of faith ; and it is God's ordinance in our attending to which he works and excites it. Moreover, there are several things supposed or contained in this grace of faith, which are common to it with other graces. When we speak of a believer, or one who has faith, being convinced of sin and misery, of his being unable to recover himself out of the lost condition in which he is by nature, and of the impossibility of his being recovered out of it by any other creature, we view faith as containing several things in common with other graces, particularly with conversion, effectual calling, and repentance unto life. These things, therefore, we shall pass over as having been considered elsewhere, and confine ourselves to what is peculiar to this grace mentioned in this Answer. Yet a few things may be observed concern- ing it, as it is styled a saving grace, and wrought in the heart of man by the Spirit and word of God. We shall add also some other things of which we have no par- ticular account in this Answer, and which may contain a full explanation of this grace. In discussing the subject, we shall observe the following method. First, we shall consider the meaning of the word 'faith,' in the more general idea of it. Secondly, we shall speak particularly concerning the various kinds of faith. Third- ly, we shall speak concerning the various objects and acts of saving faith ; espe- cially as it assents to the truth of the promise of the gospel, and receives and rests upon Christ and his righteousness held forth therein. Fourthly, we shall consider it as a grace which accompanies salvation, and is wrought in the heart by the power of the Spirit, and instrumentality of the word. Fifthly, we shall consider it as strong or weak, increasing or declining ; and also the various marks and evidences of its being in these respective states. Sixthly, we shall speak of the use of faith in the whole conduct of our lives ; as every thing we do in an acceptable manner is said to be done by it. Lastly, we shall show how it is to be attained or increased, and what are the means conducive to these ends. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 107 The General Nature of Faith. As to the meaning of the word 'faith,' in its more general idea, it is either an assent to a truth, founded on sufficient evidence, or a confiding or relying on the word or power of one who is able and willing to afford us sufficient help or relief.6 1. As an assent to a truth proposed and supported by sufficient evidence, it is more especially an act of the understanding. In order to its existing, it is neces- sary that, as the matter of our belief, something be discovered to us which demands or calls ior our assent; and this is considered either as only true, or as both true and good. If it be considered as only true, the faith or assent which is required is speculative ; but if we consider it not only as true but as good, or as containing something redounding to our advantage, the faith resulting from it is practical, and is seated partly in the understanding and partly in the will, or, at least, the will is influenced and inclined to embrace what the understanding not only assents to as true, but proposes to us as what, if enjoyed, would tend very much to our advan- tage.— As to this general description of faith, as an assent to what is reported, founded upon sufficient evidence, we may farther considerf that it is not in our power to believe a thing, unless the judgment be convinced, and we have ground to conclude it to be true. Accordingly, there must be something which has a tendency to give conviction ; and this is what we call evidence. Every thing which is reported is not to be credited ; for it has very often no appearance of truth in it. Besides, it is reasonable for the understanding to demand a proof before it yields an assent. If the matter be one of report, we are to consider the nature of the evidence, whether it be sufficient or insufficient to persuade us to believe what is reported ; and according to the strength or credibility of the evidence, we believe it, hesitate about it, or utterly reject it. If, according to our present view of things, it may be true or false, we hardly call it the object of faith ; we can only say con- cerning it, that it is probable. If, on the other hand, it be attested by such evi- dence as cannot without scepticism be denied, there arises what we call certainty, or an assurance of faith supported by the strongest evidence. — Moreover, accord- ing to the nature of the evidence or testimony on which faith is founded, it is dis- tinguished into human and divine. Both of these are referred to in the apostle's words, ' If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. '* As to human testimony, though it may not be termed false, yet it can hardly be deemed any other than fallible ; for it cannot be said concerning sinful man, that it is im- possible for him to lie or deceive, or to be deceived himself. But when we believe a thing on the divine testimony, our faith is infallible. It is as impossible for us to be deceived, as it is for God to impart that to us which is contrary to his infinite holiness and veracity. It is in the latter sense that we consider the word 'faith,' when we speak of it as an act of religious worship, or as included or supposed in our idea of saving faith. Accordingly, we style it a firm assent to every thing which God has revealed as founded on the divine veracity. Let us now consider faith as an assent to a thing, not only as true, but as good. On this account, we call it a practical assent. It is first seated in the understand- ing ; and then the will embraces what the understanding discovers to be conducive to our happiness. We first believe the truth presented to us, and then regulate our conduct agreeably to it. When a criminal- hears a report of an act of grace being issued forth by the king, he does not rest in a mere assent to its truth, but e This is commonly called 'fiducia,' and as such is distinguished from * tides,' by which the former is generally expressed. f In this respect faith is distinguished from science. Accordingly, we are said to know a thing which is contained in an axiom, which no one, who has the exercise of his understanding, can doutit of; for example, that the whole is greater than the part, or that a thing cannot he and not he at the same time, &c. Every thing which is founded on a mathematical demonstration, is in- cluded in this word science ; to which we may add ocular demonstration. Now these things are not pioperly the object ol faith ; or the assent we give to the tru^h of them is not founded merely upon evidence. In this respect, faith is distinguished from it: for which reason we call it an assent to h truth touuded on evidence. g 1 John v. 9. 108 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH puts in his claim to it. Or when a merchant is credibly informed that there are great advantages to be obtained by trading into foreign countries, he receives the report with a design to use all proper methods to partake of the advantage. ' The kingdom of heaven,' says our Saviour, ' is like unto a merchant-man seeking goodly pearls ; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.'h We have sufficient evidence to support our faith, that there is forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ, and that all spiritual blessings are treasured up in him for the heirs of salvation. In this respect faith does not con- tain a mere speculative assent to the truth of these propositions ; but it excites in us an endeavour to obtain the blessings in the way which is prescribed by him who is the giver of them. 2. Faith may be farther considered as an act of trust or dependence on him who is its object. This is very distinct from the former sense of the word. For though it supposes, indeed, an assent of the understanding to some truth proposed ; yet this truth is of such a nature that it produces*in us a resting or reliance on one who is able and has expressed a willingness to do us good, and whose promise is such as we have ground to depend on. This supposes in him who is the subject of faith, a sense of his own weakness or indigence ; and in him who is the objectof it, a fitness to be the object of trust for giving relief. Thus, the sick man depends upon the skill and faithfulness of the physician, and determines to look no farther for help, but relies on his prescriptions, and uses the means which he appoints for the restoring of his health. Or when a person is assaulted by one who threatens to ruin him, and is able to do it as being an overmatch for him, he has recourse to and depends on the assistance of one who is able to secure and defend him, and thereby prevent the danger which he feared. Thus Jehoshaphat, when his country was invaded by a great multitude of foreign troops, being apprehensive that he was not able to withstand them, exercised the faith of reliance on the divine power, when he said, ' We have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do ; but our eyes are upon thee.'1 God is very often in scripture represented as the object of trust. The church says, • I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength. 'k Elsewhere, ' he that walk- eth in darkness and hath no light,' that is, knows not which way to turn, and is helpless and destitute of all comfort, is encouraged to ' trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.'1 This is truly and properly a divine faith ; and, accordingly, an act of religious worship. It is opposed to a ' trusting in man, and making flesh his arm ;'m and it supposes a firm persuasion that God is able to do all for us which we stand in need of, that he has promised to do us good, and that he will never fail nor forsake those who repose their trust or confidence in him. With this view the believer relies on his perfections, seeks to him for comfort, and lays the whole stress of his hope of salvation on him, not doubting concerning the event, but concluding himself safe if he can say that ' the eternal God is his refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.'n [See Note K, page 124.] The Various Kinds of Faith. We are now led to consider the various kinds of faith mentioned in scripture. We read of a faith which was adapted to that extraordinary dispensation of provi- dence in which God was pleased to confirm some great and important truths by miracles. This faith is styled a faith in miracles. There is also a faith which nas no reference to a supernatural event, and is not confined to any particular age or state of the church in which miracles are expected, but is founded on the gospel- revelation; which, how much soever it may resemble saving faith, yet falls short of it. There is likewise a faith which is inseparably connected with salvation. 1. We shall speak first concerning the faith of miracles. This is what our Sa- viour intends, when he tells his disciples that, • if they had faith as a grain of mus- tard-seed, they should say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and h Matt. xiii. 45, 46. i 2 Chron. xx. 12. k Isa. xii. 2. 1 Chap. 1. 10. m Jer. xvii. 5. n Deut. xxxiii. 27. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 109 it should remove ; and nothing should he impossible unto them.'0 It is a faith which many had who were not in a state of salvation ; as is plain from what our Saviour says, ' Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not pro- phesied in thy name ? and in thy name have cast out devils ? and in thy name done many wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you ; depart from me, ye that work iniquity, 'p The apostle Paul supposes that a person might have ' all faith,' that is, this kind of faith, ' so that he could remove mountains, 'i which is a proverbial expression, denoting that extraordinary and mira- culous events might attend it; and yet, at the same time, be destitute of 'charity' or love to God, and consequently without saving grace, and so appear in the end to 1 be nothing.' Some have questioned whether this faith of miracles was peculiar to the gospel dispensation in the time of our Saviour and the apostles, and so was not required in those who wrought miracles under the Old Testament dispensation. Others suppose that, from the nature of the thing, it was always necessary that faith should be exercised when a miracle was wrought. We have little or no ac- count, however, of this faith as exercised by those who wrought miracles before our Saviour's time ; and, therefore, we cannot peremptorily determine this matter. According to the account we have in the New Testament, there were several things necessary to or included in this faith of miracles. First, some important arti- cle of revealed religion required to be proposed for confirmation ; and, in order to this, an explicit appeal was made to God, in expectation of his immediate interposition in working a miracle for that end. Everything which was the object of faith, was not, indeed, to be proved true by a miracle ; but only those things which could not be suffi- ciently evinced without it, so as to beget a divine faith in those who were the subjects of conviction. We never read that miracles were wrought to convince the world that there was a God or a providence, or to persuade men concerning the truth of those things which might be sufficiently proved by rational arguments. But when there could not be proof given without the finger of God being rendered visible by a mira- cle wrought, then those who had the faith of miracles depended on such an instance of divine condescension, and the people who were to receive conviction were to expect such an extraordinary event. — Again, it was necessary that there should, in him who wrought the miracles, be a firm persuasion of the truth of the doctrine to be confirmed by it, together with an explicit appeal to it for the conviction of those whose faith was to be confirmed. Sometimes we read that, when miracles were to be wrought in favour of those who before had a sufficient proof that our Saviour was the Messiah, it was necessary that they should have a strong persuasion of this truth, and that he was able to work a miracle ; otherwise they had no ground to expect that a miracle should be wrought. . In the former case, we read of Christ's disciples working miracles for the conviction of the Jews, and exercising, at the same time, the faith of miracles ; and in the latter, a general faith was demanded that our Saviour was the Messiah, before the miracle was wrought. In this sense we are to understand our Lord's reply to the man who desired that he would cast the devil out of his son, ' If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that be- lieveth ;'r which is as if he had said, ' Thou hast had sufficient conviction by other miracles that I am the Messiah, and consequently hast no reason to doubt that I can cast the devil out of thy son ; therefore, if thou hast a strong- persuasion of this truth, the thing that thou desirest shall be granted.' Elsewhere also it is said, ' He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.'8 — Further, how much soever a person might exercise this strong persuasion that a miracle should be wrought, which we generally call a faith of miracles, I cannot think that this event always ensued without exception. For sometimes God might refuse to work a miracle, that he might cast contempt on some vile persons who pretended to the faith of miracles ; who, though they professed their faith in Christ as the Messiah, yet contradicted their profession by their conduct. Hence, God would not put the honour upon thorn to work a miracle at their desire. Much less are we to suppose that he would work a miracle at the pleasure of any, if they were persuaded that o Matt. xvii. 20. p Chap. vii. 22, 23. q 1 Cor. xiii. 2. r Mark ix. 23. 8 Matt. xiii. 58. 110 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH he would do so. Again, sometimes God might, in judgment, refuse to exert his divine power in working a miracle, when persons had had sufficient means for their conviction by other miracles, but believed not. Finally, when the truth of the Christian religion had been sufficiently confirmed by miracles, they were less com- mon ; and then we read nothing more of that faith which took its denomination from them. 2. There is another kind of faith, which has some things in common with saving faith, and is sometimes mistaken for it, but is vastly different from it. This, in some, is called an historical faith ; and in others, by reason of the short continu- ance of it, a temporary faith. An historical faith is that whereby persons are convinced of the truth of what is revealed in the gospel, though it has very little influence on their conduct. Such have right notions of divine things, but do not entertain a suitable regard to them. Religion with them is little more than a mat- ter of speculation. They do not doubt concerning any of the important doctrines of the gospel, but are able and ready to defend them by proper arguments ; yet, though in words they profess their faith in Christ, in works they deny him. Such as these the apostle intends when he says, ' Thou believest that there is one God ; thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble.'* He charges them with a vain presumption, in expecting to be justified by their faith ; it being without works, or those fruits which were necessary to justify it, or evince its sincerity, or to prove that it was such a grace as accompanies salvation ; and therefore he gives it no better a character than that of a dead faith. As for that which is called a temporary faith, it differs little from the former ; unless we consider it as having a tendency, in some measure, to excite the affec- tions, and so far to regulate the conduct as to produce in those who have it a form of godliness ; and it continues as long as this form comports with or is subservi- ent to their secular interest. But it is not such a faith as will enable them to pass through fiery trials, or to part with all things for Christ's sake, or to rejoice in him as their portion, when they meet with little but tribulation and persecution in the world for the sake of the gospel. Trials and persecutions will evidently discover its insincerity ; for it will wither like a plant which is without a root. Our Saviour speaks of it in the parable, of the ' seed that fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprang up, because they had no deepness of earth ; and when the sun was up, they were scorched ; and because they had no root, they withered away.' This he explains of him ' who heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it ; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while ; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.'11 This parable had a particular relation to the Jews, who heard John the Baptist gladly, rejoicing in his light for a season, and seemed to be con- vinced by his doctrine concerning the Messiah who was shortly to appear ; but who, when they apprehended that his kingdom, instead of advancing them to great honours in the world, was likely to expose them to tribulations and persecution, were offended in him. It is applicable also to all those who think themselves something, and are thought so by others, as to the profession they make of Christ and his gos- pel ; but who afterwards appear to be nothing, deceiving their own souls. 3. We are next to consider faith as a grace inseparably connected with salvation. This is called 'justifying faith,' and also 'a saving grace,' in this Answer in which the nature of it is explained. What may be farther said concerning it will be con- sidered under the following Heads, which we propose to insist on in the general me- thod before laid down. [See Note L, p. 126.] The Objects and Acts of Saving Faith. We proceed, therefore, to speak concerning the various objects and acts of sav- ing faith. _ 1. Concerning its objects. Every thing which is the object of it must take its rise from God. We are now speaking concerning a divine faith ; and inasmuch t James ii. 19. u Matt, xiii. 5, 6, compared with ver. 20, 21. WITH JUSTIFICATION. Ill as saving faith supposes and includes an assent to the truth of divine revelation, we are hound to believe whatever God has revealed in his word ; so that as all scripture is the rule of faith, the matter which it contains is the object of faith. As scripture contains an historical relation of things, these are the objects of faith, and we are to yield an assent to what God reveals, as being of infallible verity. As it is a rule of duty and obedience, we are bound to believe so as to adore the sover- eignty of God, commanding us to submit to his authority, and having a right to give laws to our consciences ; and we are bound also to acknowledge ourselves his sub- jects and servants, under an indispensable obligation to yield the obedience of faith to him. As scripture contains many great and precious promises, these are the objects of faith ; as we are to desire and hope for the accomplishment of them, and to depend on the faithfulness of God for bringing it about, — particularly, we are to consider the promises as they are all yea and amen in Christ to the glory of God. As for the threatenings which relate to the wrath of God due to sin, and warnings to guard the soul against it, and induce us to abhor and hate it ; these are objects of faith, so far as that we must believe and tremble, and see the need we stand in of grace, which we receive by faith, to enable us to improve them, that, through the virtue of Christ's righteousness, we may hope to escape his wrath, and by his strength be fortified against the prevalence of corruption which has proved destruc- tive to multitudes. But the principal object of faith is God in Christ, our great Mediator. Thus our Saviour says, ' Ye believe in God, believe also in me.'1 This is sometimes styled coming to the Father by him, as it is elsewhere said, ' No man cometh unto the Father but by me ;' or it is styled coming to him as Mediator immediately, that in him we may obtain whatever he has purchased for us, and thereby may have access to God as our reconciled God and Father, and in so do- ing, obtain eternal life. Accordingly, he says, ' He that cometh to me shall never hunger ; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. ** 2. We are now led to consider the particular acts of saving faith in which we have to do with Christ as Mediator, whereby we have access to God through him. There are several expressions in scripture, by which these acts of saving faith are set forth. Some of these are metaphorical. In particular, faith is called a looking to him. Thus he is represented by the prophet as saying, ' Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.'2 Sometimes it is called coming to him, pursu- ant to the invitation he gives, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'a This coming is elsewhere explained, as in the scripture formerly mentioned, by 'believing in him.'b Moreover, as we hope for refreshment and comfort in believing, faith is set forth by the metaphorical expres- sion of ' coming to the waters, and buying wine and milk without money, and with- out price,'0 that is, receiving from him those blessings which tend to satisfy and exhilarate the soul, and which are given to such as have nothing to offer for them. Sometimes also faith is represented by fleeing to him ; or, as the apostle expresses it, 'fleeing for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,'d — alluding to the eminent type of faith contained in the manslayer's fleeing to the city of refuge from the avenger of blood, and therein finding protection and safety. This is a description more especially of faith as justifying. In this respect it is elsewhere described, as a 'putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, 'e or the glorious robe of his righteousness ; on which account we are said to be ' clothed with the garments of salvation, and covered with the robe of righteousness. 'f Again, when we are ena- bled to apprehend our interest in him by faith, together with the blessings which are the result, we are said to rejoice in Christ Jesus. There are many other expres- sions by which this grace is set forth in scripture. But those acts of it which we shall more especially consider, are our receiving Christ, giving up ourselves to him, and trusting in or relying on him. Faith is that grace whereby we receive Christ. It is said, • As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, 's This contains the application of an overture made by him, not merely x John xiv. 1. y Chap. vi. 35. z Isa. xlv. 22. a Matt. xi. 28. b John vi. 35. c Isa. lv. 1- d Heb. vi. 18. e Rom. xiii. 14. f Isa. lxi. 10. g John i. 12. 112 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH of something he has to bestow which might contribute to our happiness, but of him- self. Christ has many things to bestow upon his people, but he first gives himself; that is, he expresses a willingness to be their Prince and Saviour, their Prophet, Priest, and King, that, being thus related and adhering to him, they may be made partakers of his benefits. Accordingly, the soul by faith applies itself to him, and embraces the overture. Hereupon he is said to be ours ; and, as the conse- quence, we lay claim to those benefits which he has purchased for us as our Re- deemer. Christ is considered as the first promised blessing in the covenant of grace ; and 4 with him' God ' freely gives' his people ■ all things' they stand in need of which respect their everlasting salvation.11 This supposes the person re- ceiving him to be indigent and destitute of every thing which may tend to make him happy, brought into the greatest straits and difficulties, and standing in need of one who is able to afford relief to him. He has heard in the gospel that Christ is able to supply his wants, and that he is willing to come and take up his abode with him. Accordingly, the heart is open to embrace him, esteeming him alto- gether lovely and desirable, — and beholding that excellency and glory in his person which renders him the object of his delight, as he is said to be precious to them that believe.1 Looking upon him as God-man Mediator, he concludes that he is ' able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him,' and that all the treasures of grace and glory are purchased by him, and given into his hand to apply to those who have an interest in him. He expects to find them all in Christ, as the result of his being made partaker of him. Accordingly, he adheres to him by this which is called an appropriating act of faith ; whereby he who was before re- presented in the gospel as the Saviour and Redeemer of his people, the fountain of all they enjoy or hope for, and by whom they have access to God as their reconciled God and Father, is applied by the soul to itself, as the spring of all its present and future comfort and happiness. Another act of faith is giving up ourselves to Christ. As, in the covenant of grace, God says, ' I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people,' so faitli builds on this foundation. It first apprehends that he is able and willing to do his people good, and make them happy in the enjoyment of himself ; and with this encouragement the soul, as has just been observed, receives him, and in conse- quence devotes itself to him, as desiring to be amongst the number of his faithful servants and followers. God sanctifies or separates his people to himself as the objects of his discriminating grace and love ; and they desire, as the consequence of this, to give up themselves to him. Two things are supposed in this act of self- dedication. It supposes, first, a firm persuasion and acknowledgment of his right to us. It not only supposes him to have this right as the possessor of all things, or as God, — for as the potter has a right to his clay, so has the Creator to the work of his hands ; but it supposes that he has a right to us by purchase as Mediator, — in which character, faith, particularly saving faith, of which we are now speaking, has more especially an eye to him. • Ye are not your own, ' says the apostle, ' for ye are bought with a price. 'k Hence, this act of faith is an ascribing to him of that glory to which he lays claim by right of redemption. And as God has con- stituted him heir of all things, more especially of those who are called his peculiar treasure ; so the believer gives up himself to him. Before this, the matter in dis- pute was, Who is Lord over us? whether ought we to be at our own disposal or at his ? whether it be expedient to serve divers lusts and pleasures, or to be subject to him as our supreme Lord and Lawgiver? But the soul is thoroughly convinced, by the internal efficacious work of the Spirit, that our great Mediator is made of God both Lord and Christ, that no one has a right to stand in competition with him, and that we owe not only what we can do but even ourselves unto him ; and as the result of this conviction, it devotes itself to him by faith. — Again, our giving our- selves up by iaith to Christ, supposes that we are sensible of the many bless- ings which he has in store lor his people. We hence give up ourselves to him in hope of his doing all that for us, and working all that grace in us, which is neces- sary to our salvation. More, however, shall be said on this subject, when we con- h Rom. viii. 32. i 1 Pet. ii. 7. k 1 Cor. vi. 20. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 113 sider him as the ohject of trust. All that I shall add at present is, that, having this view of the person of Christ, as one who demands obedience, love, and gratitude from us, we give up ourselves entirely and without reserve to him. Thus the apostle says, 'They first gave their ownselves to the Lord;'1 and he exhorts the church to 'yield themselves unto God, as those that were alive from the dead,'m and to 'present their bodies,' that is, themselves, and not merely the lower or meaner part of themselves, 'a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is their reasonable service.'" As the result of thus giving up ourselves to Christ, we say by faith, ' Lord, truly I am thy servant, and desire to be so for ever. Work in me what thou requirest, and then command what thou pleasest. I am entirely at thy disposal ; do with me as seemeth good in thy sight ; only let all the dispensa- tions of thy providence be displays of thy love, and be made subservient to my salvation.' This is represented as our solemn act and deed ; whereby, with the most mature deliberation, we make a surrender of ourselves to him. The prophet speaks of it as if it were done by an instrument or deed of conveyance; and our consent to be his, is represented as a giving up our names to him : ' One shall say, I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob ; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.'0 This is done with the highest veneration, as an act of religious worship, and with the greatest humility, as being sensible that we give him nothing more than his own, that he is not profited hereby, and that the advantage redounds en- tirely to us. We do it with judgment. As faith always supposes a conviction of the judgment, it considers those relations which Christ stands in to his people, and endeavours to behave itself. in conformity to them. We are desirous hereby to give up ourselves to him as a prophet, to be led and guided by him in the way of salva- tion ; as a priest, to give us a right to eternal life as the purchase of his blood ; as an advocate, to plead our cause ; and as a king, to give laws to us, and defend us from the insults of our spiritual enemies, and advance us to those honours which he has laid up for his faithful subjects. We give up ourselves to him to worship him in all his ordinances, in hope of his presence and blessing to attend them, in order to our spiritual and eternal advantage ; and we do all this without the least reserve, and without desire to have any will separate from or contrary to his. Another act of faith consists in a fixed, unshaken trust and reliance upon him.. This, as was formerly observed, is a very common and known acceptation of the word 'faith.' As we depend on his promise as a God that cannot lie, and give up ourselves to him as one who has a right to us ; so we trust him as one in whom we can safely confide, and on whom we can lay the whole stress of our salvation. This act of faith is more frequently insisted on in scripture than any other, it being a main ingredient in all other graces which accompany salvation, and there being nothing by which God is more glorified. It is not one single perfection of the divine nature which is the object of it; but every thing which he has made known concerning himself, as conducive to our blessedness. We trust him with all we have, and for all we want or hope for. This implies a sense of our own insufficiency and nothingness, and a sense of his all-sufficient fulness. The former of these is what is sometimes styled a soul-emptying act of faith. It is that whereby we see ourselves to be nothing, not only as we cannot be profitable to God, or lay him un- der any obligations to us, as those who pretend to merit any good at his hand, but as unable to perform any good action without his assistance. In this respect it says, 'Surely, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. 'p Nothing tends more than this to humble and abase the soul before him. Hereby also we are led to another act, which more immediately contains the formal nature of faith ; in which it depends on the all-sufficiency and faithfulness of God, to supply our wants and bestow the blessings which he has promised. God the Father is the object of this trust or dependence, as the divine all-sufficiency is glorified, grace imparted, and the promises fulfilled by him, through a Mediator ; and Christ is the object of it, as the soul apprehends him to be full of grace and truth, and sees the infinite value of his merit, and his ability to make good all the promises of the covenant of 1 2 Cor. viii. 5. m Rom. vi. IS. n Chap. xii. 1. o Isa. xliv. 5. p Chap. xlr. 24. II. P 114 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH grace, and thereby to render us completely blessed. Our trusting Christ with all we have or hope for, supposes that there is something valuable which we either enjoy or expect; and that we are in danger of losing it, unless it be maintained by him who has undertaken to 'keep' his people 'by his power through faith unto salvation, 'i and to perfect what concerns them. We have souls more valuable than the whole world; and we 'commit the keeping of them to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator,'1- and merciful Redeemer, being assured that 'none shall' be able to 'pluck them out of his hand.'s We also commit all the graces which he has wrought in us to him, to be maintained and carried on to perfection. And since we are assured that all the promises are in his hand, and that he has engaged to make them good to us, we are encouraged to trust him for all that we expect, namely, that he will conduct us safely and comfortably through this world, and at last receive us to glory. In so doing, we have the highest satisfaction, or, as the apostle expresses it, ' We know whom we have believed,' or trusted, 'and are per- suaded that he is able to keep what we have committed unto him against that day,'* or the day of his second coming, when grace shall be consummated in glory. These acts of faith are generally styled, by divines, direct. In performing them, we have more immediately, to do with Christ, as our great Mediator, or God the Father in him. As they are, properly speaking, acts of religious worship, the object of them must be a divine person. But there is another sense of the word 'faith,' which as it does not imply any act of trust or dependence as the for- mer does, so it has not God for its immediate object as that has. This is what we call the refiex act of faith, or the soul's being persuaded that it believes, or that those acts of faith which have God or Christ for their object are true and genuine. This every one cannot conclude at all times, who is really enabled to put forth those direct acts of faith, which we have been speaking of; and it is the result of self-examination, accompanied with the testimony of the Holy Spirit to his own work. Some indeed have questioned the propriety of the expression which styles this an act of faith ; supposing that nothing can be so called, but what has a divine person for its object. But we have already considered that faith, in a sense differ- ent from that in which we have now explained it, may be conversant about divine things. Hence, as we may be said, by a direct act of faith, to trust in Christ ; so we may be persuaded, by this reflex act, that we do so. And this is more imme- diately necessary to assurance, together with that joy and peace which we are said to have in believing. [See Note M, page 130.] But this we shall have occasion to insist on under a following Answer." How Faith is Produced. We are now to consider the grace of faith as that which accompanies salvation, on which account it is called 'a saving grace ;' and also that it is wrought in the heart by the power of the Spirit, and by the instrumentality of the word. We do not suppose that every act of faith denominates a person to be in a state of salva- tion ; for there is a mere assent to the truth of divine revelation, which may, in a proper sense, be styled faith ; and there may be an external dedication to God, a professed subjection to him, which falls short of that faith which has been described, as it does not proceed from a renewed nature or a principle of spiritual life im- planted in the soul. There may be a willingness and a desire to be saved, when the heart is not purified by faith, — a hearing of the word with gladness, a rejoicing for a season, in the light which is imparted by it, and a doing of many things pur- suant to this, in persons who shall not be saved. But faith is often described as referring to and ending in salvation. Thus we are said to ' believe to the saving of the soul, x and to ' receive the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls.'' This consists more especially in those acts of faith which contain an entire subjec- tion of all the powers and faculties of the soul to Christ, arising from the views which it has of his glory, and its experience of his almighty power. This is not q 1 Pet. i. 5. r Chap. iv. 19 s John x. 28. t 2 Tim. i. 12. u See Quest, lxxx. x Heb. x. 39. v 1 Pet. i. 9. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 115 only the way to everlasting salvation, but the first-fruits of it. It is such a receiv- ing and resting on Christ for salvation as has been already described. This grace is farther said to be wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit. We formerly considered effectual calling as a work of divine power, and proved that the Spirit is the author of it,z and that they who are effectually called are en- abled to accept of and embrace the grace offered in the gospel. From this it is evident that faith is the fruit and consequence of our effectual calling ; and that, therefore, it must be a work of the almighty power and grace of the Holy Spirit. That it is so, farther appears from the account which we have of it in several scrip- tures. Thus the apostle Peter, describing those to whom he writes as having ' ob- tained like precious faith, through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,' and also as having ' all things that pertain unto godliness,' in which faith is certainly included, ascribes this to 'the divine power.'* Elsewhere also we read of 'the exceeding greatness of the power' of God exerted 'in them that believe. 'b When the work of faith is carried on, or fulfilled in the souls of those in whom it was begun, it is considered as an effect of the same power.0 And as all that grace which is the effect of divine power is ascribed to the Holy Ghost, when he is said, as acting in subserviency to the Father and Son, to demonstrate his personal glory ; so the work of faith, as included in that grace, is represented as his work. On this account he is called 'the Spirit of faith. 'd But what we shall more particularly consider is, that the grace of faith is wrought by the instrumentality of the word. We have already observed that the principle of grace, implanted in regeneration, is the immediate effect of the divine power, without the instrumentality of the word; but that when the Spirit works faith, and all other graces which proceed from that principle, then he makes use of the word. Thus the apostle says, ' Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.'6 As it is necessary, in order to our seeing any object, that the eye be rightly disposed and fitted for sight, and that the object be presented to it ; so there are two things necessary to faith, namely, the soul's being changed, renewed, quick- ened, and so prepared to act this grace, and the object's being presented to it, about which it is to be conversant. The latter is done by the word of God. Hence, the soul is first internally disposed to receive what God is pleased to reveal relating to the way of salvation by Jesus Christ before it believes ; and what he is pleased to reveal is contained in the gospel, which is adapted to the various acts of faith, as before described. As faith implies a coming to Christ, or receiving him ; the word of God reveals him to us as giving an invitation to sinners, encouraging them to come to him. Thus our Saviour says, ' If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. 'f As a farther inducement to come to him, it sets forth the advantages that will at- tend it, namely, that he will not reject them, how unworthy soever they be. He says, 'Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.'s There are also many other privileges which he will bestow on those who come to him, namely, tho blessings of both worlds, grace here, and glory hereafter, all which contain the very sum and substance of the gospel. — Again, if we consider faith as including a giving up ourselves to Christ to be entirely his ; the word of God represents him as having an undoubted right to all who do so, inasmuch as they are bought with the price of his blood, given to him as his own by the Father. And as they devote themselves to him to be his servants, it sets before them the privileges which at- tend his service, as they are delivered from the dominion of sin, and a servile fear and dread of hi3 wrath ; and lets them know the ease, pleasure, and delight which there is in bearing his yoke, and the blessed consequences in their having ' their fruit unto holiness, and the end life everlasting.'11 — Further, as faith looks to Christ for forgiveness of sin, in which respect it is called justifying faith ; so the word of God represents him to us, as having made atonement for sin, — as set forth' to be a pro- pitiation to secure us from the guilt to which we were liable, and from the con- demning sentence of the law, — as bearing the curse, and, in consequence, giving z See Sect. « Effectual Calling a Divine Work,' under Quest, lxvii, lxviii. a 2 Pet. i. 1. compared with the third verse. b Eph. i. 19. c 2 Thess. L 11. d 2 Cor. iv. 13. e Rom. x. 17. f John vii. 37. g John vi. 37. h Rom. vi. 22. 116 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH us a right to all the privileges of his children. It also represents this forgiveness as full, free, and irreversible ; and the soul, by faith, rejoices in its freedom from condemnation, and in that right and title to eternal life which is inseparably con- nected with it. — Again, as faith includes a trusting or relying on Christ, the gos- pel represents him as an all-sufficient Saviour, ' able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him;'1 and as faith trusts him for the accomplishment of all the promises, it considers him as having engaged to make them good, inasmuch as • in him they are yea and in him amen, unto the glory of God.'k The believer, therefore, runs no risk, or is at no uncertainty as to this matter ; for Christ's media- torial glory lies at stake. If there be the least failure in the accomplishment of any promise, or any blessing made over to his people in the covenant of grace which shall be conferred upon them, he is content to bear the blame for ever. But this is altogether impossible, since he who has undertaken to apply the blessings promised, is faithful and true, as well as the Father who gave them. This affords those ' strong consolation who are fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before them' in the gospel.1 Thus Christ is set forth ; and agreeably to this dis- covery made of him, faith takes up its rest in him, and therein finds safety and peace. The Degrees of Faith. We shall now consider faith as strong or weak, increasing or declining ; and also the various marks and signs of its being in these respective states. As habits of sin are stronger or weaker, the same may be said concerning habits of grace. It is one thing for them to be entirely lost ; and another thing to be in a declining state. Their strength and vigour may be much abated, and their energy frequently interrupted ; yet God will maintain the principle of grace, as we shall endeavour to prove under a following Answer.m Grace is not always equally strong and lively. The pro- phet supposes it to be declining, when he says, ' Revive thy work, 0 Lord, in the midst of the years.'11 Our Saviour's advice to the churches at Sardis and Ephesus implies as much, when he exhorts the former to ' strengthen the things which re- main, that are ready to die ;'° and when he bids the church at Ephesus ' remem- ber from whence they were fallen, and repent and do their first works, 'p Some are said, as Abraham, to be ' strong in faith, giving glory to God ;'i and others are reproved, as our Saviour does his disciples, when he says, ' 0 ye of little faith.'1* As our natural constitution is not always equally healthy and vigorous, nor our condi- tion in the world equally prosperous ; the same may be said concerning the habits of grace. Sometimes they are strong, and then, as the apostle says concerning his beloved Gaius,8 'the soul prospereth,' and we 'go from strength to strength,'1 from one degree of grace to another ; but at other times, we are ready to ' faint in the day of adversity,' and our 'strength is small.'u This cannot but be observed by all who are not strangers to themselves, or who take notice of the various frames of spirit which are visible in those whom they converse with. But it will be inquired, By what marks or evidences may we discern the strength or weakness of faith ? Though this will more evidently appear from what will be said under a following Answer, x when we are led to speak concerning the reason of the imperfection of sanctification in believers ; yet we shall not wholly pass it over in this place. Let it be observed, then, that the strength or weakness of faith, is to be judged of by the degree of esteem and value which the soul has for Christ, and the steadiness or abatement of its dependence on him. The greater diffidence or distrust we have of self, and the more we see of our own emptiness and nothingness, the stronger is our faith. On the other hand, self-confidence, or relying on our own strength, is a certain sign of the weakness of our faith. — Again, strong faith is that which carries the soul through difficult duties. Thus the apostle says, ' I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me.'"' Weak faith, on the contrary, i Heb. vii. 25. k 2 Cor. i. 20. 1 Heb. vi. 18. m See Quest, lxxix. n kIab- '•'• 2. o Rev. iii. 2. p Chap. ii. 5. q Rom. iv. 20. r Matt. vi. 30. ■ 3 John ii. t Psal. lxxxiv. 7- u Prov. xxiv. 10. X See Quest, lxxviii. y Phil. iv. 13. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 117 is ready to sink under the discouragements which it meets with. The former is • steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord;'35 the latter is like a reed shaken with the wind. Strong faith, as it is said of Job,a blesses God when he strips him of all earthly enjoyments, and rejoices that the soul is 'counted worthy to suffer shame for his name ;'b and it carries the believer above those fears which have a tendency to deject and dishearten him. ' He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.'0 Weak faith, on the contrary, is borne down with discouragements. The believer under its influence finds it hard to hold on in the performance of his duty ; and sees mountains of difficulties in his way, in consequence of which he is ready to con- clude that he shall not be able to get safely to his journey's end. He does not rightly improve the consideration of the almighty power of God, and his faithful- ness to his promise, in which he has engaged that ' the righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. 'd When we sustain losses and disappointments in the world, or things go contrary to our expectation, we are ready to say with the psalmist, ' Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ? e We sometimes con- cluflte also, that we have no interest in the love of God, because the dispensations of his providence are afflictive, and fill us with great uneasiness. In this case, fear looks upon every adverse providence, as it were, through a magnifying glass, and apprehends it to be but the beginning of sorrows ; for it cannot say with the pro- phet, ' I will trust and not be afraid ;f for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. '* — Moreover, the strength or weakness of faith may farther be discerned by our enjoying or being destitute of communion with God, — our conversing with him in ordinances, or being deprived of this privilege. We may conclude our faith to be strong, when we can say as the apostle does, 'Our conversation is in heaven,' or we live above. But when, on the other hand, we have too great an anxiety or solicitude about earthly things, and an immoderate love to the present world, we may conclude our faith to be weak. — The difference between strong and weak faith may also be discerned by the frame of our spirit in prayer. When faith is strong, the soul has a great degree of boldness or liberty of access to the throne of grace, —a greater measure of importunity and fervency, accompanied with an expecta- tion of the blessings prayed for, by a secret and powerful intimation from the Spirit as a Spirit of grace and supplication ; whence it infers that he who excites this grace will encourage it, as he ' says not to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.'h— . We might add, that strong faith may likewise be discerned, when it is accompanied with an assurance of an interest in Christ's righteousness, and of our right and title to eternal life founded thereon, or that God will guide us by his counsel and afterwards receive us to glory, and a persuasion wrought in the soul by the Spirit that nothing shall separate us from his love. Weak faith is attended with many doubts concerning our interest in Christ ; sometimes fearing that our former hope was no other than a delusion, our present experiences not real. The ground we stand on sinks under us ; and we are ready to conclude that we shall one day fall by the hands of our spiritual enemies. When I speak of these doubts and fears as an evidence of weak faith, I do not say that they are ingredients in faith ; for they are to be considered rather as a burden and encumbrance which attends it. Hence, though there be some good thing in us towards the Lord our God, or a small degree of faith like a grain of mustard-seed, these doubts proceed from the weakness of faith, as opposed to that which is strong, and which would denote the soul to be in a happy and flourishing condition. The Use of Faith in a Believer s Life. We are now led to speak concerning the use of faith in the whole conduct of our lives ; as every thing which we do in an acceptable manner, is said to be done by it. It is one thing occasionally to put forth some acts of faith, and another thing to live z 1 Cor. xv. 58. a Job i. 21. b Acts v. 41. c Psal. cxii. 7> d Job xvii. 9. e Psal. lxxvii. 9. f Isa. xii. 2. g Chap. xxvi. 4. h Chap. xlv. 19. 118 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH by faith. As tho latter is the most noble and excellent life ; so nothing short of it can, properly speaking, be called a good life, how much soever many are styled good livers who are wholly strangers to the grace of faith. The apostle Paul speaks of this way of living, and considers it as exemplified in himself, when he says, ' The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.*5 He speaks of faith as his constant work, or that which ran through the whole busi- ness of his life. Whether we are engaged in civil or in religious duties, they are all to be performed by faith. 1. Here we shall consider the life of faith, first, as it discovers itself in all the common actions of life. In. these we act as men ; but the faith which is the prin- cipal ingredient in them, and their chief ornament, denotes us to walk as Christians. This we are said to do when we receive every outward mercy as the purchase of the blood of Christ, as well as the gift of his grace, and consider it as a blessing bestowed by a covenant-God, who, together with outward things, is pleased to give himself to us ; which infinitely enhances the value of the blessing, and induces us to receive it with a proportionable degree of thankfulness. — Again, we live by iaith when we sit loose from all the enjoyments of this world, not taking up our rest in them as if they were our portion or chief good ; so that the esteem and value we havf for them is very much below that which we have for things divine and heavenly. When we use the things of this li.e to the glory of God, and account the best outward enjoy- ments nothing if compared with Christ ; or when, as the apostle says, ' we count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and do count them but dung, that we may win Christ ;'k our exercising faith in this way will quiet our spirits under afflictions, and induce us to submit to the disposing providence of God when our best outward enjoyments are removed, or we called to suffer the loss of all things for Christ's sake, or by his sovereign will. — Further, we live by faith when all the success which we hope for in our secular employments, is considered as a display of that care which Christ takes of his people, in which he overrules and orders all things for his own glory, and their welfare. We are, in consequence, persuaded that lie will cause whatever we take in hand to prosper, provided he sees that it is best for us ; and if not, we are disposed to acquiesce in his will. This is such an instance of faith as will put us upon doing every thing in the name and to the glory of Christ, and fortify us against any disappointment which may attend our expectation in every employment wherein we are engaged. — Further, we live by faith when outward blessings, instead of proving a snare and temptation to draw off our hearts from Christ, are a means to bring us nearer to him ; so that if our circumstances are easy and comfortable in the world, and we have more frequent opportunities offered to us to engage in religious duties than others, we are accord- ingly inclined to embrace them ; while every thing we enjoy, as an instance of dis- tinguishing favour from God, above what many in the world do, excites in us a due sense of gratitude, and an earnest desire and endeavour to use the world to his glory. — Again, we live by faith when adverse providences, which sometimes have a tendency to drive the soul from Christ, and occasion repining thoughts, as though the divine distributions were not equal, are made of use to bring us nearer to him, so that whatever we lose in the creature, we look for and endeavour to find in him ; when, with a submissive spirit, we can say that he does all things well for us, as we hope and trust that he will make even those things which run counter to our se- cular interests subservient to our eternal welfare ; and when, in consequence, we endeavour to keep up a becoming frame of spirit, in such a condition of life as has a tendency to cast the soul down and fill it with great disquietude. — Again, we live by faith when we devote and consecrate all we have in the world to God, consider- ing that, as we are not out own but his, so all we have is his ; when, in consequence, we are endowed with a public spirit, desirous to approve ourselves blessings to mankind in general, to the utmost of our power ; and when, after having done all, we not only say with David, ' Of thine own we have given thee,'1 but say as our Saviour taught his disciples to do, ' We are unprofitable servants.' — Finally, the life of faith discovers itself in the government of our affections, namely, as they are i Gal. H. 20. k Phil. iii. 8. 1 1 Chron. xxix. 14. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 119 •% kept within due bounds, set upon right objects, and rendered subservient to pro- mote Christ's glorj and interest. We are prevented from setting our affections immoderately on the things of this world, when faith shows us that there are far better things to draw them forth, which deserve our highest love. It also prevents our being worldly and carnal ; as though we were swallowed up with the things of sense, and had nothing else to mind, and religion were only to be occasionally en- gaged in ; or as though an holy, humble, self-denying frame of spirit were incon- sistent with worldly business. Faith suggests the contrary ; it puts us upon making religion our great business, and engaging in secular affairs rather as a ne- cessary avocation than as the chief end of living. It also puts us upon glorifying Christ in our secular concerns, as we manage them in such a way as he ordains. By faith the believer is kept in a spiritual frame, while abiding with God in the calling to which he is called. This we attribute more especially to the grace of faith, not only as it is connected with other graces, and, as will be observed under our next Heady excites them, but as it has its eye constantly fixed on Christ as its object, and by this steers its course, and takes an estimate of the valuableness and importance of all the affairs of this life by their subserviency to our salvation, and the advancement of his glory. 2. Faith discovers itself in the pei-formance of all religious duties, and in the exercise of all other graces. Thus, we read of the prayer of faith, whereby a soul has access to God as to a father, in the name of Christ, firmly relies on the promises which are established in him, and has a liberty to plead with him, and a hope of acceptance in his sight. Moreover, when we wait on God to hear what he has to impart to us in his word, faith, having experienced some degree of communion with him already, and had some displays of his love, puts the soul upon desiring more. Accordingly, the psalmist says, ' My soul thirsteth for thee ; my flesh longeth for thee, to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.'m And whatever other ordinances of divine appointment we are engaged in, we are encouraged by faith to hope for his presence and draw nigh to him in them, with a reverential fear, and delight in him. — Faith also puts us upon the exercise of those graces which are necessary for the right performance of gospel-worship in general. These are not only joined with it, but may be said to be excited by it; so that faith is, as it were, the principle of all other graces. Thus, when the heart is drawn forth in love to Christ, it may be said that ' faith worketh by love.'n When this love is accompanied with 'joy unspeakable and full of glory,' this we have in a way of ' believing.'0 What tends to excite the grace of love, is the view which faith takes of Christ's mediatorial glory and excellencies, and of the obligations we are under to love him from his love to us. This is a strong motive, inducing us to express our love to him by universal obedience ; which is called ' the obedience of faith, 'p — Again, when we exercise the grace of repentance, and thereby hate and turn from all sins, and are, in a peculiar manner, sensible, as we ought to be, oi the sin of unbelief, it is faith which gives us this sense of unbelief, as it is best able to see its own defects. When we confess sin, or humble ourselves before God for it, faith views it not only as a violation of the divine law, but as a display of the highest ingratitude. When we desire, in the exercise of repentance, to forsake sin, faith makes us sensible of our own weakness, and puts us upon a firm and steadfast dependence on Christ to enable us to do so. When, in the further exer- cise of repentance, our consciences are burdened with a sense of guilt, and unbelief is ready to suggest that our sins are so heinously aggravated that there is no room to hope for pardoning mercy, faith relieves us against these despairing thoughts, and encourages us to wait for the mercy of God, who will ' abundantly pardon, '* and with whom there is ' forgiveness, that he may be feared. 'r — Again, when we use endeavours to mortify sin, we are to do so by a fiducial view of Christ crucified ; and when we encourage ourselves to hope that the indictment brought against us for it was nailed to the cross of Christ, that there is ' no condemnation to us' as being in him,9 and that, as the apostle says, • our old man is crucified with him, m Psal. lxiii. 1, 2. n Gal. v. 6. o 1 Pet i. 8. p Rom. xvi. 26. q Isa. lv. 7. r Pgal. exxx. 4. 8 Rom. viii. 1. 12C THE CONNECTION OF FAITH I that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should no longer serve sin,'* all this is to be done by faith. — We might observe, also, that the grace of patience is connected with and is incited by faith. The apostle" joins faith and patience together, as supposing that faith affords a motive to patience. Elsewhere, too, in the account which we have of the great things which the Old Testament saints did and suffered by this grace, we read of what great things patience enables us not only to do but to bear. Hence, whatever graces are exercised under the afflictions of the present life, faith excites in us a resignation to the will of God, and considers them as the chastisements of a merciful Father, and as ' bringing forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby ;x and we are encouraged to bear them with such a composed frame of spirit that they seem light, and not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be re- vealed. This, faith has constantly in view, setting one against the other ; so that what would otherwise be a hinderance to us in our way, is improved by us to our spiritual advantage ; and we are enabled to go on, not only safely, but comfortably, till we arrive at the full fruition of what we now behold at a distance, and rejoice in the fiducial expectation of. How Faith is Attained or Increased. We are now brought to consider how faith is to be attained or increased, and what are the means conducive to these ends. Though faith, in common with all other graces, is wrought in us by the power of God, yet we are far from assert- ing that there is no duty incumbent on us, in the performing of which we are to hope and wait for the divine blessing, upon which all the success of it depends. To deny this, would give just occasion to charge the doctrine of efficacious grace with leading to carnal security or licentiousness ; a charge which many bring against it without ground. Though grace and duty are very distinct, they are not inconsist- ent with each other ; the former is God's work, the latter our act. The duties required of us, considered as expecting the divine grace and blessing to attend them, are a diligent waiting on God in all his ordinances, — looking into the state of our souls, by impartial self-examination, — calling to mind our past miscarriages, and what matter of humiliation we have for them in the sight of God, as also our natural aversion and inability to do what is good, our need of Christ's righteousness to take away the guilt we have contracted, and of his strength to subdue our corruptions and enable us to plead earnestly with him for these privi- leges. As for the unregenerate, they must pray and wait on him for the first grace, and say with Ephraim, ' Turn thou me, and I shall be turned. '? They must be earnest with him that he would bestow upon them the grace of faith, which is styled his gift ; that he would remove everything which is at present an obstacle or hinder- ance to this grace, and also all the prejudices which corrupt nature has entertain- ed against Christ and the way of salvation by him ; and that he would shine into their souls, to give them the knowledge of his glory in the face of Christ, reveal his arm, and incline them, by the internal working of his power, to receive the grace which is held forth in the gospel. These are duties incumbent on persons who are not called effectually, being destitute of regenerating grace. But, on the other hand, they who have ground to conclude that they have experienced this grace, though at present they apprehend that their faith is weak and on the de- cline, must be found waiting on God in his own way, and be importunate with him in prayer for the revival of his work, that so they may recover their former experiences. They must bless him for the privileges they once enjoyed, and be humbled for their past backslidings, whereby they have provoked him to withdraw from them. They must say with the church, * I will go and return to my first husband ; for then was it better with me than now ;'z and, as- it is elsewhere ex- pressed, ' Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously ; so will we render the calves of our lips.'a They must lament the dishonour which they have brought to t Rom. vi. 6, u Heb. vi. 12. x Chap. xii. 11. y Jer. xxxi. 18. i 11 os. ii. 7. a Chap. xiv. 2. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 121 God ; and consider how, by means of it, they have grieved the Holy Spirit, wounded their own consciences, and made work for a bitter repentance and humiliation be- fore God. They must be sensible that it is the same hand which wrought grace in them at first, which must now recover them from their fallen state, and, by exciting the principle of grace implanted, bring them into a lively frame. And when he has done this, they must still depend on him to maintain this frame of spirit ; considering that as the beginning so the progress of grace is owing to him who is the author and finisher of faith, who worketh in us that which is pleasing in his sight, and carries on his own work to perfection. Note I. The connexion of Faith with Justification — If there were a necessity for calling faith 1 the hand of the soul,' 'the appropriating act,' or ' the medium,' ' the condition,' or ' the instrument of justification,' or for applying to it any other name or description whatever not used in scripture, there would be intense interest in the discussions of theological writers as to which name or description is the most proper. All evangelical divines discard at once such names as obviously assign to faith a meritorious character, or represent it either as the sinner's own act, or as the reason of his obtain- ing justification ; but while, for the most part, they retain or select terms not found in scripture, and apparently to them somewhat expressive, they seem, in a considerable degree, embarrassed to harmonize the use of them with strict notions of the immediate connexion of justification with the imputation of Christ's righteousness, and of its being an act of God extraneous to the sinner, and affecting not his understanding or his heart, but his condition in reference to the divine law. In one instant the sinner lives, or passes from death to life : he lives as to both his acceptance with God, and his experiencing the commencement of personal holiness. On the grounds of Christ's merits he passes from under condemnation, and by the power of the Divine Spirit, he passes from under the uncontrolled dominion of depravity ; in the former respect, he begins to live in his posi- tion towards the divine law, and in the latter, he begins to live in his experience of personal holi- ness ; in the one view, he becomes alive to God, in being accepted in the Beloved, and in the other view, he becomes alive to God, in being a subject of the work of the life-giving, the sanctifying Spirit. In other words, he is at once justified and regenerated : he, at the same instant, is ac- cepted of him who justifies the ungodly, and becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. He is not first regenerated and then justified, or first justified and then regenerated ; but, in one change, in one transition, in one event, he begins to live both from the death of condemnation and the death of sin. What he receives is life; and this, though widely different in its aspect as to his relation to the divine law and its aspect as to his personal character, is strictly one in its nature, and one in its commencement — it is eternal life — life together with Christ : not for one instant, or in any circumstances, can we conceive of the life of acceptance with God existing apart from the life of begun personal holiness, or the life of begun personal holiness existing apart from the life of accept- ance with God. The two are not distinct or separate lives, but the one life of the soul viewed respectively in its enjoyment of the imputation of Christ's righteousness, and in its being the sub- ject of the operations of the Divine Spirit. Now, if there is, in point of fact, no priority in the order of justification and regeneration, and if the two, however different in their aspects and references, constitute jointly the instantaneous com- mencement of one spiritual life, there can be neither wisdom nor correctness of thinking in setting up and advocating doctrines based on the assumption, not only of the priority of the one to the other, but of the priority of occurrences belonging respectively to each. Yet it is a taking for granted of the latter sort of priority which occasions all speculations and disputes as to the relative connexion which faith has with justification. Most theological writers assume that faith goes be- fore justification, and, in consequence, institute an inquiry as to whether it is the condition, the in- strument, or the medium of our being justified ; and a few assume it to follow justification, and become divided in opinion as to whether it appropriates the righteousness of Christ, or, as the hand of the soul, receives the pardon which has been granted, or as to whether there are not even two Justifications, — one going before faith, and constituting the sinner righteous by union to the Savi- our, and another following faith, and constituting him happy in the reception of the peace which ■esults from his acceptance. These opinions all indicate embarrassment in so adjusting the position and describing the character of faith, as strictly and clearly to maintain that justification is altoge- ther of grace, an act of God, and based on the righteousness or sacrificial merits of the Saviour. Evangelical writers justly regard the exhibition of this doctrine in its integrity and in perfect lucid- ness as of essential importance ; but they see, at the same time, that faith has a connexion with justification altogether inseparable, — that wherever a sinner is justified he is necessarily a believer, — and they endeavour, each class in his own way, so to speak of the act of believing and the event of being justified, that while the latter is viewed as wholly of grace, the former shall be regarded as indispensable or co-existent. Most of them, however, lose sight of justification being strictly an art, and not a process, or a series of acts ; and in proportion as they do this, they depart from the simple phraseology of scripture, and involve their ideas in obscurity. Every epithet, every mode of discussion, in particular, which represents a priority of a sinner's believing to his being justified, entails consequences which, if not directly at war with the doctrine of grace, can be kept in appa- rent amity with it only by means of manifold and not very luminous explanations. Dr. Ridgeley justly objects to faith being called the condition of justification, because, as he ob- serves, " the word condition is generally used to signify that for the sake of which a benefit is con- ferred " Yet he adds, that " the word may be explained in such a way as is consistent with the doctrine of j ustification by faith ;" and he afterwards proceeds to speak of faith both as " the con- dition of our claim to Christ's righteousness," and as "the medium of our concluding that we ha.v« li. ^ 122 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH an interest in Christ's redemption." What he maintains is that, in speaking of the forgiveness o( sin, the putting on of Christ's righteousness, or the receiving of discharge from condemnation, the word 'condition' as applied to faith is wrong, and that the word then proper to be used is instru- ment. He would hence appear to make faith an instrument before the act of acquittal, and a con- dition or a medium <>fier that act, — the instrument of our receiving or having imputed to us Christ's righteousness, and the condition or medium of our concluding ourselves to have an interest in it, or experiencing a sense of acceptance. If I do not mistake the import and tendency of bis dis- tinction, he thus exhibits faith as both anterior and subsequent to the justifying act; so that, to be consistent, he must be viewed as exhibiting two acts of faith, each distinct in quality and office from the other, and holding a different place in' the order of priority. I am quite convinced, in- deed, that he never would have adopted any such consequence; and I mention it, only to show the confusion of idea occasioned by instituting distinctions of consecutiveness in the parts or connex- ions of justification, and applying to them epithets unsanctioned by scripture. Even, the word 'instrument' which Dr. Ridgeley prefers to express the main connexion of faith with justification, and which, if any distinction of priority were allowable, is probably the least objectionable term which can be found, is defined and illustrated by him in such a manner as to become but in a small degree less offensive*than the phraseology which he rejects. " When we are said," he observes, " to be justified by faith, it is by faith as apprehending, pleading, or laying hold on Christ's righteousness ;" and to illustrate what he means by it as an instrument, he says, " If a person were in a dungeon, as the prophet Jeremiah was, and a rope were let down to draw him out, his laying hold on it is the instrument, but the hand which draws him out is the principal cause of his release." Now, there is a life, an activity, a conditional connexion, a concurrent agency, in the idea of the endungeoned person seizing a rope and clinging to it while another per- son draws him from his dungeon, which is utterly repugnant to the doctrine of the sovereign and entirely divine agency of justification. So very much, in fact, of the idea of concurrent agency or concurrent causation is involved in the so-called instrumentality, that Dr. Ridgeley speaks of the hand which draws the prisoner out as ' the principal cause of his release,' — clearly implying that what he terms ' the instrument' is, in reality, a cause, and a cause not the less necessary and active that it is merely subordinate. He obviously does not mean to teach what his language imports ; yet, in nearly all he says respecting faith as an instrument — not only in his illustration of it from a pardoned criminal pleading his pardon and rendering his claim to it visible in open court before he obtains his discharge, but even in his very definitions — he makes more or less of an impression upon the mind, that it is really more a precurrent though subordinate cause than what may strictly be termed an instrument. The reason of this impression is obvious : an instrument is what is employed by an agent, and faith, when spoken of as the instrument in justification, is represented as employed by the sinner, or as that by which he lays hold of the righteousness of Christ, or by which he pleads that righteousness and receives acquittal. The idea of an instrument is therefore quite as embarrassing to correct notions of the entire sovereignty and divine agency of justification, as that either of medium, of condition, or of anything else on the part of man which is represented as connected with the divine act of acquitting the sinner, and as preceding it ; and both it and all kindred ideas — if we would have distinct conceptions of that all-important doctrine — would need either to be better expounded than they usually are, or laid entirely aside. Yet the invariable, the necessary connexion of faith with justification requires to be fully and prominently stated. But in what terms is the statement so to be made as to be free from objec- tion ? Obviously in the very terms of scripture, — in a translation or paraphrase of the expression, hxxiorwn ix. -ritrnut or liKaiuStvn; %x imrtiuf, as literal, or as faithfully representative of the sense of the Greek words, as English vocables can frame. As regards the connexion of faith with justi- fication, the entire force of either phrase depends upon the preposition »*. Now, this word is ill represented in English by the word ' by,' and very rarely, if ever, denotes the relation of strict in- strumentality, and still less that of agency or causation. Its literal or primitive meaning is ' of,' or ' out of.' In a figurative sense, or in expressing a moral or abstract relation, its prevailing signifi- cation ranges through almost every variety of mode which can be expressed by ' in connexion with,' ■ in relation to,' ' out of,' ' from,' ' of.' But what may be regarded as its distinctive or chief use is to give explicitness and energy to the expression of the principal idea conveyed — whether after a noun or after a verb— by the genitive or possessive case of nouns This idea, according to the de- finition of Moses Stuart, in his Grammar of the New Testament Dialect, " seems to be that of an essential and immediate relation or connexion of objects ;" and is so expansive as to include, besides the ideas of other subordinate relations or connexions, those of possession, source, occasion, object, subject, material, quality, place, time, and value. So many of these and other connexions as may be expressed fey 'of,' or ' out of,' are just those, or at least are peculiarly or specially those which, with added distinctness and energy, are designated by the preposition i*. If any one of them, to the exclusion of every other, were necessarily supposed to be intended in the phrase, Itxauoew* ix *iff-Ttu{, it would seem to be that of quality, — justification tx vritTttx being distinguished, quali- fyingly or adjectively, from justification t* t(y*». The phrase, however, appears to take •*, not in the sense of any one subordinate relation of the possessive case, but in the general sense, or in a sense approaching the general one, of essential and immediate connexion. Justification, in other words, seems to be represented in it, not as by faith, or on the condition of faith, or through the instrumentality of faith ; but simply hs of faith, — as inseparably connected with faith. Two texts of scripture — and to these other quotations might be added — will place in a strong light the use of ix in so general yet definite a sense of essential connexion as cannot justly be identified with any one subordinate relation designated by the possessive case. In this ' tabernacle we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with t» «*jit«{«>» ift*» t« %\ ouoanv our habitation which is of heaven." 1 If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall i r*T«g i »g ov{a»ev the Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him,' 2 Cor. WITH JUSTIFICATION. 123 y. 2 ; Luke xi. 13. Now, in what specific sense of the possessive case can a relation be affirmed between heaven and the glorified body of believers, or between heaven and the Giver of the bless- ings of salvation ? If any specific or subordinate sense whatever can be understood, must it not be one of the dative case, — not that of ' from ' or ' of,' but that of ' in?' But, as the case used is actually the possessive, and as »* belongs in its invariable use and in all its meanings to that case, what other relation can be intended but the general one — made by its particular application to be expressly specific — of necessary connexion ? The glorified bodies of believers are necessarily con- nected with heaven, — they can be enjoyed or can exist only in the heavenly state — they are strictly, as to inseparable relation, m***-*^* %\ ev^atev. This idea is not only distinct but graphic, and mani- festly would be utterly impaired by any attempt to fuse it into the notion of medium, quality, con- dition, object, instrumentality, or any other subordinate relation designated by the possessive case. If, then, the general but emphatic idea of inseparable connexion be a sense of the preposition i*, and a sense, from the nature of the case, less secondary than any subordinate idea of possession, quality, or instrumentality, persons who speak in the usual way of the relation between faith and justification, must feel themselves bound to show cause for departing from this sense in interpret- ing the phrase iixaieruvn u vnmat. Is there anything in any statement of scripture, or in the scrip- tural view of the abstract nature either of faith or of justification, to show that the relation be- tween these is one of condition, medium, or instrumentality? Does not every scriptural statement, on the contrary, and every scriptural view, exhibit faith and justification as related simply in the emphatic sense of inseparable connexion ? He who believes is justified ; and he who is justified believes. A sinner is ' saved by grace, through faith ; and that not of himself: it is the gift of God.' His believing is as truly a phasis of his salvation as his being justified. He believes through the operation upon his mind of the divine Spirit; and is justified by God's imputing to him the righteousness of Christ. Both his faith and his justification are of God : the former a gift or grace of the Holy Spirit, and the latter an act of God in Christ, — of the Father imputing the sacrificial merits of the Saviour, and accepting into his sovereign and complacent favour. Nor though dif- ferently viewed in the economy of salvation, do they seem, as respects their experience by the sin- ner, to be otherwise regarded than as constituting, along with regeneration, one event, — as related simply by such inseparable connexion as to be the commencement of his spiritual life. If, by a dis- tinction based upon supposed analogies in human operations, faith may be supposed to go before the imputation of Christ's righteousness ; then, by a similar distinction, life, on the other hand, may be supposed to go before faith, and the imputation of Christ's righteousness to go before life. One man, on the footing of human analogies and distinctions, may as truly say that he cannot con- ceive of the soul's believing before it be made alive, as another man, on the same footing, may say that he cannot conceive of its being acquitted from condemnation before believing. Hence, to sup- pose a priority either in the one way or in the other, not only goes beyond the simple statements of the Bible, but tends to produce confusion of idea. Believing, being acquitted on the ground of Christ's righteousness, and becoming a new creature, occur as one event ; and believing and being acquitted are exhibited prominently and constantly as related in inseparable and essential connex- ion, because faith looks at that truth which both discloses the redemptional work of the Saviour on the ground of which the sinner is made alive, and is the instrument of the divine Spirit in oper- ating upon the soul. The gospel unfolded by the Holy Spirit is 'the power of God unto salvation ;' it comes in demonstration and in power and in much assurance; it carries with it its own evidence, and cannot be seen without being believed. In the very act, therefore, of the Holy Spirit's unfold- ing it, he works faith in the soul. But, in the same instant that the sinner believes he lives, — lives as to both the imputation to bim of the righteousness of Christ, and the commencement of personal holiness in his own heart. ' Faith is the assured expectation 1-xo«til*k of things hoped for, the conviction iXty^'f of things not seen.' It is the act of a living soul, while the act in which the soul begins to live ; it realizes, both in conviction as to what he has accomplished, and in confident expectation of glorious and eternal results, the redemptional work of the Saviour ; and, if an order of priority could be contended for, it might be viewed both as actually laying hold of Christ's right- eousness, and as exulting or even as existing in a sense of that righteousness being already imputed. So close, so essential, so unique is its connexion with the soul's acquittal from condemnation, its union to Christ, its resting on his righteousness, its being an object of sovereign favour, that the two cannot be viewed apart in their occurrence or existence. How forcible, then, the apostle's declaration : ' Do we then make void the law through faith ? God forbid : yea, we establish the law.' The believing soul is necessarily, from the essential connexion of faith, a soul spiritually alive, — alive in union to Christ, in position toward the divine law, in enjoyment of the divine favour, in experience of the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit, and in the commencement of personal and persevering holiness ; it is alive in the begun enjoyment of ' life with Christ in God,' having its fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. How, then, could the apostles, by preaching faith do otherwise than establish the law ? How forcible, too, is the metonymy em- ployed in describing the case of Abraham, — ' his faith was counted to him lor righteousness !' Whether that righteousness be viewed as the righteousness of Christ imputed in justification or as the commencement of personal holiness in regeneration, faith has so essential a connexion with the former, and is so identified with the perception of the truth which the Holy Spirit employs as the instrument of the latter, that wherever it exists, and in the very act of its existing, the one right- eousness is imputed and the other righteousness is experienced. A believer is both a justified and a regenerated man : be who has faith in the record which God has given concerning his Son, has eternal life, — he lives both by the imputation to him of the righteousness of his great Surety, and the working of personal righteousness in his heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. The metonyme is hence peculiarly emphatic : ' Abraham believed in God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.' Before concluding this note, I may remark how very different the idea of instrumentality is p* 124 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH applied to the connexion which faith has with justification, and as applied to the relation which the divine word has to regeneration. An instrument, as was already observed, is that which an agent employs in producing an effect, or that in the use of which an agent does or acts. Now the person who is justified is he who believes : he it is who has faith, and who, in popular language on the sub- ject of justification, is said to lay hold by faith on Christ's righteousness, or to receive by faith his acquittal from condemnation, or the pardon of his sins and the acceptance of his person. But this receiving, this laying hold of, this believing, is not the act of justifying. ' It is God that justifieth.' Justification is directly, altogether, and in every sense, God's act. The sinner himself, then, being in no respect the agent in justification, and yet being the party who exercises faith, faith cannot be the instrument in justification. But in regeneration, on the contrary, the Holy Spirit is both the agent who regenerates, and he who employs the word in connexion with regenerating. The word regenerates, not as used by man, but as used by the Holy Spirit : it is employed directly and alto- gether by the Holy Spirit in making man a new creature ; and, wielded by ban in his own personal agency, it is with propriety regarded as his instrument. Accordingly, the two passages which con- nect the word with regeneration, (1 Peter i. 23; James i. 18.) represent the relation of the former to the latter to be that of instrumentality. In the one the preposition ?<« with a possessive case is used ; and in the other the dative case is used without any preposition. Now iia, when governing in the possessive a noun which does not designate a cause or an agent, peculiarly denotes instrumen- tality ; and the dative case in construction with a prior clause designating causation or agency, con- veys, without a preposition, emphatically the idea of an instrument. The two passages read, 1 Avayiyivvtlf*""! * * iiaXe-you ^tayrof &it>u xai fumret- 'B*»>fl9liJ avrixwrifi* hftas Kiyaj aXnQuat ;' and are translated in the authorized version, ' Being born again by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever,' ' Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.' — Ed.] [Note K. What is Faith ? — Faith is exhibited by Dr. Ridgeley under two phases, — as assent to what is true and good, and as an act of trust or dependence on him who is its object. Both these views of faith appear to be entertained with special reference to the faith of the gospel, but at the same time with comprehensive reference to faith in general. Dr. Ridgeley talks of the influences which affect faith, — the kinds and degrees of evidence by which the quality or strength of it is determined ; and, while settling what faith is as resting on divine testimony, he glances at its nature as exercised about matters of abstract science or merely human. Now faith or belief, understand it as we may and apply it as we will, seems to be just assent to evidence, — counting true propositions or statements submitted to the judgment. But though in matters of revelation it is necessarily an assent to what is true and good, — every portion of divine testimony being essentially in the highest sense both good and true ; it may, in other matters, par- ticularly in those of human testimony or of flippant report, be an assent to what is both false and mischievous. Men often believe a lie, a malign and insidious falsehood, as really as they believe a truth ; and they are affected in their heart and conduct by what they believe, as sensibly for evil if they believe a pestiferous error, as for good if they believe an infallible moral doctrine. Faith, in its own proper nature, is simply assent, opening up the avenues of the soul to have all its affections acted upon, and all its faculties propelled by the moral influences, be they evil or good, human or divine, of the statements believed. Every statement, be it what it may, has power to affect either the intellect or the heart, to modify the ideas, to act upon the faculties, to touch the intellectual or moral habits ; and it wields this power immediately over the heart and will, and propels to practical results in the conduct, just in the proportion of its being of a moral nature, addressing itself to the conscience, and unfolding motives to deter from one action and incite to another. Whatever is be- lieved affects man according to the nature of the proposition or statement, — intellectually if it be purely intellectual, morally if it be purely moral, moving the particular power or inciting the parti- cular affection to which it specially appeals. Faith or belief lays hold upon the statement as a mat- ter hitherto extraneous to the man, and brings it to bear upon his intellectual or moral nature as a matter internal to him, or a matter in contact with his mind. So long as any statement is not believed, it is as if it did not exist ; but whenever it is assented to, or counted true, or made a mat- ter of faith, it ceases to be a matter of indifference, and operates in a way suited to its own nature, and with a force proportioned to the amount of evidence which sustains it or the degree of faith with which it is received. The distinction, then, between faith in a statement as simply true, and faith in a statement as both true and good, — a distinction followed out to the result of a speculative assent, in the former case, and a practical assent seated partly in the understanding and partly in the will, in the latter, — seems to be without foundation. Some statements, such as the axioms and elements of mathema- tical science, contain in themselves nothing which appeals to the moral feelings, and of course do not excite them ; yet, whenever they are believed, they affect the mind to the whole amount of their influence, and, so far as they bear upon practice either in thinking or in conduct — in imparting ideas of mental calculation, or furnishing materials and motives for mathematical experiment— even they are really practical. Absolutely speculative believing, or believing which does not modify the thoughts and propel and influence mental or concrete action, seems, in a being constituted like man, an utter impossibility. One statement, indeed, has a practical influence, especially in reference to the will and affections, tenfold, or an hundredfold, or a thousandfold, more than another ; but the statement of higher influence differs from the statement of lower influence, not on account of the manner in which it is believed, or on account of its being both true and good while the other is merely true, but on account of its moral nature, or of its containing matter which directly appeals to the conscience or to the fears or desires of the heart. In proportion to the magnitude of moral import in a statement, or to the amount of motive and consideration affecting personal interest which it discloses, combined with the degree of evidence in which it is seen, or the strength of faith with which it is received, will be the energy with which it moves and incites and propels the affec- tions and will. But with regard to even a statement in the highest degree good and true, or dis- WITH JUSTIFICATION. 125 closing the loftiest considerations to affect the heart and the conduct, assent to the truth of it or the act of believing it, is immediately the affair, not of the will, but altogether of the understanding. The act of assent is the act of counting true — it is an intellectual act ; and simply brings the state- ment believed into contact with the affections and will, there to incite the one, and influence the decisions of the other. Except as the statement is counted true, or is brought by belief to disclose its moral influence, it exists entirely apart from the mind, and, as regards the individual, is a mere abstraction. But the counting of it true is not an act of volition, nor an act of desire, nor an act of any affection, but an act of the same intellectual kind as that in which a judgment is formed, or a relation discerned between one object and another. The understanding, discerning something to be affirmed, and perceiving the evidence on which it rests, counts the affirmation to be true ; just as the judgment, discerning a substance to exhibit a given quality, affirms the quality and the sub- stance to be related. While the act of judging concerns the relation of ideas in an affirmation or a proposition ; the act of believing quite as intellectually concerns the relation of evidence and affir- mation in a statement. But an act of the will, on the contrary, has reference only to conduct. A man believes, not because he wills a statement to be true, but because he discerns evidence of its being true. His will may act negatively in effectually indisposing him either to examine the state- ment or to consider the evidence which supports it ; but it does not act posit ively in reference to the relation between them when they come to be examined. A statement is understood, not by an act of volition, but by being made plain to the understanding ; and it is believed or counted true, not because a man wills its truth, but because he discerns evidence which convinces his judg- ment. ' With the heart,' indeed, we are told, ' man believeth unto righteousness.' But the cor- relative phrases 'heart' and 'bowels' had the same force in Hebrew idiom, which the correlative phrases 'head' and 'heart' have among us, — the former, in many connexions, designating the un- derstanding, and the latter the will and affections. Among other passages, in which ' the heart ' has the sense of ' the understanding,' see Matt. xiii. 15; Luke xxiv. 25 ; 1 Cor. ii. 9 ; Isaiah x. 7. and xliv. 19 ; Matt. xiii. 19; Eccl. i. 17; Luke ix. 47; John xii. 40; 2 Cor. iii. 15; Eph. iv. 18; Prov. ii. 2, 10; Dan. x. 12. I may perhaps be reminded, that to regard the belief of divine truth as distinct from any act of the will, is to exhibit faith as prior in occurrence to any renovating influence on the moral powers, and, in consequence, to speak inconsistently with the doctrine maintained in a former note, that faith and regeneration, and whatever things constitute the commencement of spiritual or eternal life ;n the soul, are of simultaneous origin. But if the view I have now given of faith may, in one re- spect, be construed to exhibit the exercise or first act of it as prior, it may, in another respect, be construed to exhibit it as posterior, to the influencing of the moral powers. Man's will, while he is in an unrenewed state, is utterly averse — indeed, without the operation of divine grace upon him, is unconquerably averse — to contemplate the truths of the gospel in their spiritual or only true light ; nor is it less averse to let his understanding glance at those high and demonstrative, but spiritual, evidences by which they are evinced to be infallibly free from error and truly divine. ' The carnal mind is enmity against God :' it performs volitions or acts of the will all in opposition both to the glorious gospel and its claims. Hence, a person who should construe distinctness of ideas into priority of occurrence, might allege just as reasonably that the removal of man's aversion to contemplate the gospel and its intrinsic evidences must go before faith. a« that faith must go be- fore the removal of his aversion to holiness. All which fairly follows from regarding faith as an act of the understanding apart from the will, is the distinctness merely, and not the consecutiveness, of the idea of believing the truth' and the idea of the moral influence of the truth affecting the heart. In any case, perhaps, a truth, correspondingly to its nature, affects the moral powers in the very act of its commending itself by its evidence to the assent of the understanding ; or, while it dis- closes its claims in such a manner as to drive unbelief or doubt from the mind, it at the same time puts forth its moral influence to make its appropriate impressions on the will and the heart. But, at all events, the distinctness of assent to truth from the effect of truth on the moral powers, affords no reason for conceiving of any priority of one thing to another in the commencement of spiritual life in the soul — in that wondrous work of the divine grace and power upon man in which a crea- ture who was dead in trespasses and sins becomes alive unto God. As to faith being " an act of trust or dependence on him who is its object," Dr. Ridgeley uses language inconsistent with himself. The object of faith is not a person but a proposition or a state- ment ; nor is it necessarily or always such a statement or proposition as has a person for its subject. The faith of the gospel, indeed, has for its object statements which all reveal the character of God, and the person respectively of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the economy of redemp- tion. But faith in its own nature — and it is of this Dr. Ridgeley speaks — may deal with statements respecting things as well as with statements respecting persons. A man may believe what is both true and good in science, in human laws, in measures for working out practical results, without reference to any persons by whom the science is elucidated, the laws framed, or the measures con- structed. In some instances he is not able, even if he tried, to institute a connexion between what he believes and such views of any person as should modify and still less constitute his faith. Trust, on the other hand, has reference entirely to a person. The difference between it arid faith, in fact, is just that the one has a person and the other has a statement for its object. The two are quite distinct in their nature, — faith being an act of the understanding, and trust an act of the heart ; and they exist together, and become inseparably connected, only when the statement believed ex- hibits a person in the relation of a superior, a protector, a benefactor, or a deliverer. A man may believe that certain principles of nursery discipline will tend to form good habits in his children, or he may believe that some neighbour with whom he has dealings possesses inclination and power to thwart him in his well-being; but, in the former case, he has no person brought before the view of his mind by his belief who can be the object of either trust or any other moral affection, and, in the latter case, he regards the person whom his belief exhibits to his view, not with trust, but with dis- 126 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH trust and aversion. When, however, the statement which we helieve places ourselves in the atti- tude of inferiors, sufferers, or needy, helpless, guilty, or ruined individuals, and exhibits to us a Being who has inclination and power to protect, deliver, succour, pardon, or bless us, our faith be- comes necessarily associated with trust, — faith in the statement, with trust in the person. A belief of the gospel, in particular, is essentially and inseparably accompanied with trust in God. We can- not, on the one hand, know the truth of the gospel, in its genuine light or heavenly evidence, with- out believing it ; nor can we know God in his true character, or as the gospel reveals him, without confiding in his love and depending on his sovereign favour. Yet faith in the divine testimony and trust in the divine character, though inseparable, are perfectly distinct. Dr. Ridgeley himself says, " Though faith," as an act of trust or dependence on him who is its object, " supposes, indeed, an assent of the understanding to some truth proposed ; yet this truth is of such a nature that it pro- duces in us a resting or reliance on one who is able, and has expressed a willingness, to do us good, and whose promise is such as we have ground to depend on." He thus, very justly, connects trust, not like faith with the force of the evidence by which a statement is supported, but with the quality of the truth to which the understanding assents — not with its being a truth which dissipates doubt and produces conviction, but with its being a truth which addresses the moral powers, ex- hibits us in the condition of dependent beings, and displays to us a Being who has power, inclina- tion, and faithfulness, to do us good. While faith reposes on the gospel as evinced by divine evi- dence of its truth, trust reposes on God as revealed in that gospel, our gracious benefactor, our deliverer from all evil, and the author of eternal salvation. We trust when we believe, and we be- lieve when we trust ; yet, in the one case, we exercise our understanding, and, in the other case, we exercise our will and affections. Hence, faith in the gospel, though always and inseparably ac- companied with trust, is no more to be viewed as identical with it, than it is to be viewed as iden- tical with love to God, adoration of his perfections, gratitude for the wondrous displays of his grace, hope of beholding his glory, peace or satisfaction in a sense of his complacency, and desire to be conformed to his image and to act obediently to his holy will. These are as truly elements of spiritual life, and as really inseparable from faith in the gospel, as trust or dependence ; and they are also as emphatically exhibited in the divine word as possessed or exercised by every regenerated, every savingly enlightened soul ; yet they are not faith itself, but, like trust or dependence, are separately inculcated, and exhibited as matters of distinct conception. Whatever may be said re- specting the inculcation of trust, and its existing inseparably with faith, may also be said respecting the inculcation and inseparableness of love or of any other element of renovated character. To speak of trust, therefore, as identical with faith, is to confound distinctions which are at once taught in the Bible, based on correct analyses, and conducive to clearness of conception. An objection may possibly be stated against the simple view which I have given of the faith of the gospel, that, by exhibiting faith as an act simply of the understanding, and as necessarily con- nected with the perception of the truth and its evidence, it would seem to make believing altogether human, and not the result of divine operation on the mind. The objection, however, is unfounded. For if man has, without divine influence, an unconquerable aversion to examine the gospel in its spirituality, Qr to look upon its intrinsic and divine evidences of being true, and if, in connexion with this aversion, he, as a natural man, ' receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned ;' it clearly follows that, how purely intellectual soever the act of believing may be, he can perform it only by having the aversion of his will subdued and the darkness of his mind illuminated by the power of the Holy Spirit. The act of believing is indeed his own — it is not the Holy Spirit but the man himself who believes ; yet his faith — as springing from a spiritual exhibition of truth and a convincing display of intrinsic evidence which only God can make to a mind deterred by a perverse will and a depraved heart from contemplating what is spiritual — is truly and emphatically ' the faith of the operation of God.*— Ed.] [Note L. Are there several kinds of Faith ? — The varieties of character described by Dr. Ridge- ley, in his discussion of the various kinds of faith, unquestionably exist, and differ from one another by very obvious, and, in some instances, opposite peculiarities. But what saith the scripture as to the origin and nature of the varieties which respectively distinguish them ? Do these varieties con- sist in the kinds of their faith, or in the kinds of their knowledge, their notions, and their moral feelings ? Do the various classes believe in different ways the same thing, or believe in the same way different things or things differently modified and understood ? This question — if we consider how grievously perplexed many a religious inquirer has been, and how agitated with suspense and anxiety many a sincere Christian, by discussions respecting different kinds of faith — is well worthy of investigation, and ought to be examined with care. The faith of miracles, even according to Dr. Ridgeley 's own showing, was a variety, not in the way of believing, but in the thing believed. All his illustrations of it have reference, not to the faith itself, but to the kind of truths with which it was conversant. Without attempting, then, to disturb or dispute any part of the account which he gives of it, — an account which, though ques- tionable perhaps in some subordinate particulars, seems in the main inexpugnable ; we may firmly ask on what pretence it is exhibited as a peculiar hind of faith ? If variety in the nature or classi- fication of truths believed constitutes variety in the species or modes of believing, there must, in reference to the doctrines of the Bible, be a doctrinal faith, — in reference to its precepts, a precep- tive faith, — in reference to its promises, a promissory faith, — in reference to its prophecies, a pro- phetic faith — in reference to its histories, a historiographical faith, — in reference to its mysteries, a mysterious faith ; and there must also, in reference to the respective sciences and avocational pur- suits of ordinary life, be a geographical, a geological, a mathematical, an astronomical, a chemical, a botanical, a mineralogical, a conchological, a mercantile, a commercial, an agricultural, a mechanical, and a political faith. But every one sees that these instances, and in a multitude of others, the varieties which exist, are varieties, not in the mode of believing, or in the nature, sDecies, or kind of WITH JUSTIFICATION. 127 faith, but simply and entirely in the things believed, — the classes of truths or principles to which assent is given. Why, then, should a variety in one set of truths only — in those which were con- cerned with the working of miracles — be regarded as belonging, not to the peculiarity of the truths, but to the peculiar way of believing them ? If the account which Dr. Ridgeley gives of what he calls historical faith, or of what some writers call speculative faith, were true, it would certainly present us with a variety in the mode of be- lieving. " An historical faith is that," he says, " whereby persons are convinced of the truth of what is revealed in the gospel, though it has very little influence on their conduct. Such have right notions of divine things, but do not entertain a suitable regard to them. Religion with them is little more than a matter of speculation. They do not doubt concerning any of the important doctrines of the gospel, but are able and ready to defend them by proper arguments ; yet though, in words, they profess their faith in Christ, in works they deny him." How remarkably does this short description differ in tone- at the commencement and at the close ! The persons described are said at the outset to be 'convinced of the truth of what is revealed in the gospel,' — to have 'no doubt concerning any of the important doctrines of the gospel ;' and yet, before the description closes, they come down from their soarings of ' right notions ' and assured faith of divine things, and are believers only in words and in profession, — ' in words they profess their faith in Christ, but in works they deny him.' So palpable an inconsistency in statement may surely suggest that the entire idea of the persons, or at least of their faith, is erroneous. To profess faith, — to ' profess faith in words,' is as different as can be from ' having no doubt of doctrines,' and being ' convinced of the truth.' But as, in the latter expressions, Dr. Ridgeley entirely over-estimates what he calls historical faith, and seems almost, if not altogether, to identify it with what he calls saving faith ; so, in the former expression, he quite as much under-estimates it, and seems to represent it as no faith whatever. The persons whom he describes, or rather means to describe, do much more than ' pro- fess' faith or believe merely 'in words :' they unquestionably believe something respecting revealed truth, and believe it just as really and intellectually as any other matter to which they yield their assent. But what do they believe ? This is the question of true importance, and the only one of real meaning, respecting them. Do they, as Dr. Ridgeley represents them, believe ' the truth of what is revealed in the scripture ?' Have they ' no doubt concerning any of the important doctrines of the gospel ?' Do they possess ' right notions of divine things ?' Far otherwise ; for, in this case, they must have been taught of God, and cannot fail to be genuine believers in the Saviour. Wrong notions of divine things, crude and carnal conceptions of the truth revealed in the scripture, posi- tive ignorance and unbelief as to the important doctrines, the true spiritual saving doctrines of the gospel, are what constitute the very peculiarity of their character. If they knew and thought aright respecting the truths of Christianity ; if they had right notions, spiritual, genuine, realizing con- ceptions of divine things ; if they saw the great doctrines of the gospel in their true light, and un- derstood them in their momentous and awfully impressive connexion with their own highest inter- ests for time and eternity ; they would cease to be spoken of as historical or speculative believers, and be certainly regarded as undoubted Christians. Their conceptions, their notions, their know- ledge of the gospel, and not their mode of believing it, is the source of their religious indifference, and the reason of their cold formality. They are to be set right by questioning them, not how they believe, but what they believe, — not whether they believe in the right way, but whether they believe the right thing. ' This is eternal life, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.' Let those who in words acknowledge Christ but in works deny him, come to the hnowledye of the truth, let them obtain correct views of the great salvation, let them under- stand the things of the Spirit of God, and see in the light of heaven — the only light which can dis- close it to them in its true colours — the glorious gospel of Christ ; and, simply in the correcting of their notions and the enlightening of their understanding, they will possess faith to the saving of the soul. Any man who was once a formal professor, but now, through divine grace, is a sincere and devoted follower of Christ, may most distinctly trace in his own experience a change, a glorious, gorgeous, wondrous change of views, in the transition he made from formality to spiritual life ; but he will search long and vainly to trace any difference which occurred in his mode of believing, or in the nature of his intellectual act of faith. Either totally new ideas were presented to his mind, or old ideas were presented in connexions so novel and so solemnly impressive, that a stream of ani- mating, strange, engrossive emotions burst upon his heart and deposited in his affections the germs of all holy thinking and acting. But beyond the reception of new and heavenly light, — a light which shone in upon his mind, and showed all its former notions to be darkness, — and a light which exhibited the gospel as he now saw it in such intrinsic and commanding evidence as to constrain his belief of all its disclosures ; — beyond the breaking in of this light, and the glow of abiding emotion which it kindled in his heart, he has no recollection, no consciousness of any change affecting his intellect, — still less of such a change as made him believe in a different manner, or with a different sort of intellectual act, from what he did before. Some writers regard what they call ' the faith of devils ' as another and distinct kind of faith. Dr. Ridgeley, however, views the possessors of ' historical faith ' and devils as believing in the same way. " Such as these," says he, referring to the former, " the apostle intends when he says, ' Thou believest that there is one God ; thou dost well : the devils also believe, and tremble.' He charges them with a vain presumption, in expecting to be justified by their faith; it being with- out works, or those fruits which were necessary to justify or evince its sincerity, or to prove that it was such a grace as accompanies salvation ; and, therefore, he gives it no better a character than that of a dead faith." Now, a man's believing that there is one God, if he at the same time believe that he himself is a transgressor, obnoxious to the divine anger, and without any means of escape or hope of obtaining pardon, will, like the belief of any other moral statement, work its appropriate effect, and produce in him terror and dismay. ' The devils also believe, and tremble.' On their mind as well as on man's, a moral statement, when believed, makes impressions corresponding to 128 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH its nature. They believe that there is one God, but they know, at the same time, that they have incurred his wrath by their wickedness, that they cannot make amends for their iniquities, that they have no refuge from his righteous indignation ; and- well may they tremble. But here is no idle, speculative, uninfluential, believing; here is no distinctiveness or peculiarity in the kind of in- tellectual act performed , here simply is believing accompanied with the common phenomena of all faith, — that the mind which believes is affected in a manner corresponding to the nature of the thing believed Let a man, while he believes that there is one God, believe at the same time that there is ' one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus ;' let him have distinct conceptions and corresponding belief, on the one hand, of his own ruined and helpless state as a sinner, and, on the other hand, of the fulness, freeness, and glorious adaptation of the divine plan of mercy to save him with an everlasting salvation ; and, while pangs of sorrow will rend his heart on account of the number and foulness and aggravations of his sins, he will experience hope toward God, and joy and peace in believing, — he will ' rejoice in Christ Jesus, and serve God in the spirit, and have no con- fidence in the flesh.' Let another man, on the contrary, believe that the Creator of the universe and the Judge of all the earth is not God infinite, — that he takes very slender notice of human con- duct, and has promulged over his creatures a law of not very rigid holiness, — that his claims upon the religious homage of men do not amount to more than the exaction of attendance on public or- dinances on Sabbath, or at most a routine observance of formal worship in the family, — that Chris- tian discipleship includes nothing higher than scientific or didactic acquaintance with the narratives and doctrines of the Bible, — and that the work of redemption secures salvation to all who come up to this standard of discipleship, and are free from offensive wickedness ; and this man, correspond- ingly to the nature of the principles which he believes, will be a formalist, a merely nominal Chris- tian, ' having the form of godliness and denying its power.' But the difference between him and the former character, is a difference, not in the manner of believing, but in the things believed ; it is not that the one has a historical faith or a faith of devils, while the other has a faith of totally another kind, but that the one believes principles which his depraved mind has transmuted and falsified from the statements of the Bible, while the other believes the very doctrines of the gospel, made plain to his understanding by light from heaven, and unfolded to him in their evidence and impressed upon him in their power by the operation of the Holy Spirit ; and both persons, while believing widely different things, exemplify in their respective experience that every man, believe what he may, is affected in his heart and conduct according, not to the manner of his believing, but to the nature and moral influence of the principles which he believes. The apostle James' distinction, then, between dead faith and living faith, has reference entirely to the nature of the results which follow, or to the kind and amount of moral influence exerted on the heart. A man who calls himself a believer in the gospel, but does not feel and act like a converted man, has a faith which, as to all the activities of Christian character, is ' dead,' and which, therefore, falls far short of resting on those words which are ' spirit and life,' — ' the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.' Such a man may ' say' that he believes the testimony which God has given concerning his Son ; but he no more really believes it, than a man who says to a brother or sister who is naked and destitute of daily food, ' Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, yet gives them not those things which are needful to the body,' is really possessed of Chris- tian benevolence. As, in the latter case, there is an utter destitution of the fraternal sympathy pretended ; so, in the former, there is an utter destitution of the faith professed. The character described is not one who believes the gospel, but believes it in a wrong way ; but he is one who does not believe it at all, or who believes only such caricatures and falsifications of it as make it quite ' another gospel,' and not the gospel of the grace of God,— not ' the truth as it is in Jesus.' In addition to the faith of miracles and historical faith — with the appendages which some writers make to the latter, of the faith of devils and dead faith — Dr. Ridgeley speaks also of temporary faith. This, he says, " differs from historical faith, only in being of short and uncertain duration, and in having a tendency, in some measure, to excite the affections, and so far to regulate the con- duct as to produce in those who have it a form of godliness." He quotes, however, only one text in which he alleges it to be mentioned, and not one in which it is called faith or believing the gos- pel. Our blessed Lord speaks of a class of persons who ' hear the word, and anon with joy receive it, yet who have not root in themselves, but endure for a while : for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by they are offended.' 'i hese are the persons who, it is alleged, have temporary faith, or believe the gospel in a different manner or by a different sort of act from both historical and saved believers. But is it not apparent, at a glance, that they actually do not believe the gospel, — that ' they have no root in themselves,' — that, strangers to divine grace, they want that spiritual illumination, those correct notions of divine things, which are essential to a belief of ' the truth as it is in Jesus,' — that, while they ' receive the word,' and receive it ' with joy,' they have mistaken views of its import, and cherish very different hopes, or hopes based on very uifferent foundations, from those which it sanctions, — that, therefore, like all formal or hypocritical professors of Christian discipleship, they are distinguished, not by believing right principles in a wrong way, but by believing principles which come far short of those spiritual, realizing views which are in- cluded in a real knowledge of the gospel ? A conception that the doctrine of Christ's substitutionary atonement opens a more luxurious way to heaven, than the doctrine of penance and self-mortifica- tion ; a notion that the gospel relaxes the severity of the law, and substitutes a sincere or a well- intended for a perfect obedience; an idea that Christianity conceals every awful manifestation of the divine character, and reveals God in an aspect of general or indiscriminate mercy ; even the low and grovelling fancy so powerful over many pretended followers of Christ in the days of his personal ministry, and so powerful still over multitudes living in circumstances where Christianity is fashionable or a matter of conventional propriety, that important temporal benefits, a good name in the world, social advantage, prosperity in temporal interests, may be attained by professing Christian discipleship ; — any of these may, and all of them often have been, quite sufficient to WITH JUSTIFICATION. 129 stamp upon men the character of the persons described in our Lord's parable, — to make them men wbo 'hear the word and anon with joy receive it,' but who have no root in themselves, and who, ' when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by are offended.' But do I need to point out that what ruins them is not wrong faith, but wrong principles, — that they err, not by believing the truth in a wrong way, but by transmuting the truth into error, and resting their faith upoti the latter ? The last kind of faith of which Dr. Ridgeley speaks is what he calls ' saving faith,' and what some writers call ' evangelical faith.' "What is thus denominated is the faith of a true disciple, — a subject of divine grace, or of the operations of the Holy Spirit, — a believer of the gospel rightly understood, and experienced in its power. Now the faith of such a man is unquestionably a grace ; it springs from the special work of the Divine Spirit on the soul, and cannot be produced or attained by man's own efforts. But is it therefore different as to the mode in which it is performed, or as to the kind of intellectual act in which it is exercised, from faith as directed to other statements than those of the gospel ? A natural man cannot of himself believe, just because he cannot of him- self knout, the things of the Spirit of God. He is unable to attain faith in spiritual, correct, realiz- ing views of the gospel, not because they must be believed by a mode of intellectual acting to which he is a stranger, but because ' they are foolishness to him, and are spiritually discerned.' He cannot of himself see either the reality or the intrinsic evidence of the gospel ; and, hence, must owe the faith which he may afterwards possess in it to the grace of God, to the gracious work of the Holy Spirit, who" alone can disclose it in that reality and evidence to his mind. He, accordingly, differs from a merely nominal or hypocritical professor of Christianity, not by the peculiar manner in which his mind operates or acts when believing, but by the divine illumination which he enjoys, — . by his perception, in heavenly light, of the doctrines of salvation, and the evidences which demon- strate them to be true. The apostles, when contrasting the natural and the spiritual state of true Christians, or when speaking of' the transition in which they became believers in Christ, make no allusion to the commencement in them of a new and peculiar way of believing, but describe them as having been formerly in darkness, but now light in the Lord, —as having received the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus, — as having had the eyes of their understanding enlightened, — as having been called into God's marvellous light. Whatever change is effected by grace on the intellect or understanding, they describe, not once as consisting in any new capacity imparted to it, or in its commencing to believe in a different manner or with a different sort of acting from before, but always as consisting in its being enlightened by heavenly teaching and convinced by heavenly evidence, — in its acquiring spiritual knowledge or correct ideas of the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Nor, when they addressed the ungodly and called on them to believe in Christ, do they ever seem to have entertained their hearers with discussions respecting kiwis of faith, or to have once hinted that believing the gospel was a different sort of intellectual act from believing ordinary statements. They appear, on the contrary, to have expended their whole concern in getting men to believe the right thing, — in placing luminously and impressively before them the great truths which were requisite to be believed ; and whether preaching these truths to Jews or to Gentiles, whether calling upon Greeks or barbarians, upon bond or free, upon the philosophers of Athens or the savages of the wilderness to believe them as the truths of salvation, they seem to have always taken for granted that their hearers knew well what believing of faith was. When men were duly instructed as to the doctrines they should believe, and as to the abso- lute necessity of looking to the Holy Spirit to explain and enforce them, their apostolic instructors, without adding a word respecting the nature of believing, seem to have declared to them what they esteemed 'the whole counsel of God.' One text, indeed, though only one, has the appearance of defining faith : ' Now faith is the confident expectation of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,' Heb. xi. 1. These words, however, are not a definition of faith, but a description ; and they describe it, not in itself, but in its results. By a metonymy — one of the most common rhe- torical figures either in ordinary language or in the sacred scriptures — they speak of faith, not in the act of performance, but in the habit of mind and state of moral feeling which that act induces, and represent it as a settled conviction of unseen realities and a confident hope of blessings hereafter to be enjoyed. They thus exhibit faith in the divine and life-giving and saving doctrines of the gospel, like faith in all the variety of sphere in which it is exercised, as affecting the heart and all the powers of the soul in exact accordance with the nature of the statements believed. Dr. Ridgeley makes still another distinction as to kinds of faith — he distinguishes between ' saving faith ' and 'justifying faith.' " There is this difference," says he, (last sentence of the sec- tion, " Inferences from the doctrine of Justification,") " between saving faith, as we generally call it, and justifying faith, — the former respects Christ in all his offices, the latter considers him only in his priestly office, or as set forth to be a propitiation for sin." Now, the real distinction in this case is, that justification is correlative with our Lord's work of atonement, while salvation is correlative with his whole work as mediator. But if, for this reason, faith in connexion with entire salvation is to be distinguished from faith in connexion with justification, it must also, for reasons exactly similar and of equal strength, be distinguished from faith in connexion with sanctification, with prayer, with con- solation, with hope, with resistance of temptation, and with triumph over the last enemy ; or if belief of the doctrines which have reference to our Lord's entire mediatorial work must be distinguished from belief of the doctrines which have reference to his work of atonement, it must also be distinguished from belief of those doctrines which have reference to his intercessory work, to his character as the head of the church, to his kingly government, to his second advent and judging the world, to the vari- ous works of the Holy Spirit, to the characters in which the Father is revealed in the economy of re- demption, and to all the various manifestations of Deity, by prophecy, promise, teaching, or miracle, made or narrated in the divine word. The varieties, kinds, or subdivisions of saving faith, would, in consequence, be unmanageable in their number and perfectly bewildering in their afflr-itie*. But the oracles of truth, — 'majestic in their own simplicity,' and gloriously alien in their manner II. ft # 130 THE CONNECTION OF FAITH from the ' complex' and mystifying conceptions of human reason — speak of the faith of the gosptk/ i;i all its parts, in all its offices, from its commencement in justification till its being matured into vision in the perfecting of the soul at death, in uniform phraseology, and under the one unqualified epithet of faith. They represent the sinner, when made alive to God, as justified by faith, — when conflicting with the world, as overcoming it by faith, — when sanctified by the Divine Spirit, as having their hearts purified by faith, — when approaching the throne of God in prayer, as drawing nigh in the full assurance of faith, — when standing in the grace of God, and rejoicing in the hope of his glory, as having access to it by faith, — when experiencing communion with Christ, as having him dwelling in their hearts by faith, — when walking with God, and living in union with the Saviour, as walking and living in faith, — when working righteousness, obtaining promises, stopping the mouths of lions, quenching the violence of fire, becoming strong out of weakness, waxing valiant in fight, turning to flight the armies of the aliens, seeing the promises afar off and being persuaded of them and embracing them, as doing all and embracing all through faith. In every part of salva- tion, whether justification or whatever else, they are simply said to believe. Though the particular truths on which their minds rest are different in different epochs, emergencies, relations, or works, their faith, as regards both its intrinsic nature and the divine illumination which exhibits to it the truth and its evidence, is strictly one. — Ed.] [Note M. Acts of Faith, Direct and Reflex."] — What is the impression which Dr. Ridgeley's ac- count of the various acts of saving faith would have upon the mind of a perplexed religious enquirer, or a young and feeble believer ? Would he not conclude that all the acts, in the distinctness with which they are described, are performed in the instant of the commencement of spiritual life, that receiving Christ as a Prophet, Priest, and King, a persuasion and an acknowledgment of his right to us by his purchase as Mediator, a surrender of ourselves to him in the way of solemn dedication to his service and animated hope of his working out our entire well-being, a soul-emptying sense of our own nothingness, a dependence on the all-sufficiency and faithfulness of God, and an assured re- liance or confidence in him for perfecting all which concerns us, are consciously experienced in the first moment of believing, or are all ingredients in the faith of a Christian in what circumstances or degree soever it is exercised? He would next think of his own experience; and, though for a while he might feel merely bewildered, agitated, or alarmed, he would be in hazard of sooner or later settling down into despondency, and writing bitter things respecting his soul. " If faith," he would be apt to say, " has so many acts, and these so distinct, so comprehensive, and involving such enlarged views of the divine character, and such emotions and purposes of self-emptying, hope, and holy confidence, I cannot, no, I cannot think otherwise than that I am an unbeliever, — just as much a stranger to faith as the most ungodly man who lives." How reviving to such a smitten soul would be the somewhat startling question, " Then, since you are an unbeliever, it is a matter of perfect indifference to you whether Christ is God or a mere man, or whether he died for you on the cross and intercedes for you in heaven, or not ?" " O, no 1" he might exclaim ; " any thing is indifferent rather than the glorious truths of the gospel. But for Christ's being just what the Bible represents him, the Great God our Saviour who died for our sins and rose again for our justification, I am certainly and eternally ruined. No, no ; the truth respecting Christ is not and cannot be a matter of indifference." The man would thus evince that he really believes, that Christ is precious to him, that he rejoices in Christ Jesus, serves God in the spirit and has no confidence in the flesh. Yet he is thrown into bewilderment and despondency by a systematic exhibition to him of ' the various acts of faith.' Talk to him of the ingredients, and acts, and exercises, and excursions of believing — telling him that faith is identical with all — and he sits down in darkness and sorrow ; but talk to him of the life-giving doctrines of the gospel, the exhibitions they give of the divine character and the statements they make of the grace and love and mediatorial work of the Redeemer, and he walks abroad in the light of heaven, and goes on his way rejoicing. What Dr. Ridgeley writes respecting the various acts of faith — apart from his identifying it with faith itself, or with faith in its own nature as distinguished from other graces — is clearly unobjec- tionable. Another man, entertaining simple views on the subject of faith, and throwing away the distinctions and refinements of the scholastic theology, would, in most instances, have said the same things in the same words, and in other instances similar things in somewhat different language, in describing the internal or experimental character of a Christian. A believer, even at the com- mencement of his spiritual life, and much more in the course of its progress, has substantially all the experiences which Dr. Ridgeley describes. Some of them, however, he possesses so slenderly that he cannot see a portraiture of them in a full-tinted description ; and most of them he is unable to identify with his act of believing, or with the exercise of the specific grace of faith. If believing alone include all the hope, confidence, self-renunciation, and various emotions, and holy habits re- presented, he must be utterly in a difficulty to discover how he is to add to his faith the numerous graces enjoined in the divine word, all as inherent as faith itself in the character of genuine disciple- ship. Let us be told simply that a man who believes the gospel receives Christ, renounces self- dependence, trusts in God, and hopes to become matured in every good word and work, and we feel no perplexity ; but,let us be told that self-renunciation, confidence in God, living hope and other emotions, and habits of the spiritual life are faith itself — faith regarded apart from every other Christian grace, or viewed in its own peculiar and distinguishing nature — and we either lie stunned from the infliction of a blow, or dash aside the uplifted wand, and request to have the texts of scrip- ture pointed out which warrant the representation we have heard. But if we are liable to be perplexed by what is said respecting 'the direct acts of faith,' we may po-sibly — if our minds should happen to be untainted with scholasticism — regard with unmixed wonder the account which is given of ' the reflex act of faith.' This act, as Dr. Ridgeley defines it, consists in " the soul's being persuaded that it believes, or that those acts of faith which have God or Christ for their object, are true and genuine." He, in other words, who performs the reflex act *f faith believes that he believes, or he has faith in his faith. Now, Dr. Ridgeley himself very WITH JUSTIFICATION. 13! justly remarks, " that as all scripture is the rule of faith, the matter which it contains is the object of faith." [See First subdivision of the section, " The Objects and Acts of Saving Faith."] But where does scripture say, respecting any living man whatever, that he believes or is a believer ? Such a proposition as " I, A. B., believe in Christ," or " Those acts of faith which 1, A. D., perform, and which have God or Christ for their object, are true and genuine," is entirely beyond the record ; and cannot, tnerefore, be a legitimate or a real object of a faith which rests entirely on the divine word. A man may believe that the blessings of redemption are divinely sufficient for him, divinely free for his acceptance, and divinely adapted to every need and capacity of his soul, — he may believe thart he is in exactly the predicament to need such a Saviour as the gospel reveals, and that Christ is exactly such a Saviour as will deliver him from all his evils, — he may believe that his heart and mind and body are in just the condition to require the manifestations of the gracious character of Deity and the internal operations of the Holy Spirit described in the scriptures, and that those manifestations and operations are divinely competent to work in him both to will and to do of God's good pleasure, — and he may even believe so firmly as to be assured of these truths, or to enjoy as really 'the assurance of faith,' as ' the assurance of understanding,' or ' the assurance of hope,' — he may do all this, while he looks simply on the Bible, seeing there, on the one hand, direct state- ments as to every matter relating to the divine character and the work of redemption, and, on the other, descriptions of the conduct, moral affections, ignorance and helplessness, of those whom Christ died to save, which hold up such a mirror to his mind that he sees the reflection of his like- ness, just as ' a natural man beholdeth his face in a glass ;' but if he believe more, — if he so in- dividualize his feelings and condition as to make them, distinctively and characteristically of him- self, a matter of revelation, — if he set up, not the truths respecting the gracious character of God and the mediatorial work of Christ and the peculiar offices of the Holy Spirit, but a proposition respecting the genuineness of his own believing, as the object of his faith, — if he fix his belief, not on statements of the divine word respecting the class or character of beings whom Christ died to save, but on a statement of his own making respecting himself as an individual, — he goes entirely beyond the limits of what God has commanded us to believe, and runs no small hazard of losing the true comfort of an assured or strong and unwavering faith in the Redeemer, of deluding himself with the false comfort derived from resting on his own experience, and even of substituting his own acts of believing for the work of the Saviour, and building his hopes of eternal well-being, not solely and immediately upon Christ, but chiefly or altogether upon his own faith. These conse- quences are far, very far, from having been intended or glanced at by Dr. Ridgeley ; yet they appear fairly to follow from the account he gives of the reflex act of believing — Ed.] ADOPTION. Question LXXIV. What is Adoption f Answer. Adoption is an act of the free grace of God, in and for his only Son Jesus Christ ; whereby all those that are justified, are received into the number of his children, have his name put upon them, the Spirit of his Son given to them, are under his fatherly care and dispensations, ad- mitted to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow-heirs with Christ in glory. In discussing this Answer, we shall observe the following method. First, we shall consider the various senses in which persons are the sons of God ; and particularly, how they are so called bj adoption. Secondly, we shall show the difference be- tween adoption as understood by men, and as it is applied in this Answer to God's taking persons into the relation of being his children ; whence it will appear to be an act of his free grace. Thirdly, we shall consider the reference the sonship of be- lievers has to the superior and more glorious Sonship of Jesus Christ, and how it is said to be for his sake. Lastly, we shall consider the privileges conferred on or reserved for those, who are the sons of God by adoption. The Various Senses of the name ' Sons of God.1 We shall here consider, then, the various senses in which persons are called the sons of God. 1. Some are called the sons of God, as they are invested with many honours or prerogatives from God as a part of his image. Thus magistrates are called 'the children of the Most High.'b 2. Others are called God's children, by an external federal relation, as members of the visible church. In this sense we are to understand the scripture in which b Psal. lxxxii. 6. 132 ADOPTION. it i> said, ' the sons of God saw the daughters of men,'c &c. When Moses went in to Pharaoh to demand liberty for the Israelites, he was ordered to say, ' Israel is my son, even my first-born.'d Though this privilege, by which the church is dis- tinguished from the world, is high and honourable ; yet it is not inseparably con- nected with salvation. For God says concerning Israel, when revolting and back- Blidiug from him, ' I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against nil'.'" Many of those also who are called ' the children of the kingdom, shall be cast into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 'f 3. The name ' sons of God ' is sometimes taken in a more large sense, as appli- cable to all mankind. Thus the prophet says, * Have we not all one father ? hath not one God created us?'s And the apostle Paul, when disputing with the Athe- nians, speaks in their own language, and quotes a saying taken from one of their poets, which lie applies to the great God, as 'giving to all life and breath, and all things;' on which account men are called ' his offspring.'11 4. Those are called the sons of God who are endowed with his supernatural image, and admitted to the highest honours and privileges conferred upon creatures. Thus the angels are called ' the sons of God.'1 5. Our Lord Jesus Christ is called the Son of God, in a sense not applicable to any other. His Sonship includes his deity, and his having, in his human nature, received a commission from the Father, to engage in the great work of our redemp- tion, as becoming surety for us ; which is the foundation of all those saving bless- ings which we enjoy or hope for. 6. Believers are called the sons of God, by a special adoption. This is to be particularly considered, as it is the subject of the present Answer. Adoption is a word taken from the civil law. The practice which it denotes was much in use among the Romans in the apostles' time ; in which it was a custom for persons who had no children of their own, and were possessed of an estate, to prevent its being divided, or descending to strangers, to make choice of such as were agreeable to them and beloved by them, whom they took into the political relation of chil- dren, obliging them to take their name upon them and to pay respect to them as if they had been their natural parents, engaging to deal with them as if they had been so, and accordingly giving them a right to their estates as an inheritance. This new relation, founded in mutual consent, is a bond of affection ; and the privilege arising from it is, that he who is in this sense a father, takes care of and provides for the person whom he adopts, as if he were his son by nature. Hence, civilians call adoption an act of legitimation, imitating nature, or supplying the place of it. The Difference between Divine and Human Adoption. We are now led to consider the difference between adoption as understood by men, and as it is applied in this Answer to God's taking persons into the relation of being his children. 1. When men adopt persons, or take them into the relation of children, they do it because they are destitute of children of their own to possess their estates, and so fix their love on strangers. But God was under no obligation to do this ; for if he designed to manifest his glory to any creatures, the holy angels were subjects capable of receiving the displays of it ; and his own Son, who had all the perfec- tions of the divine nature, was infinitely the object of -his delight, and in all re- spects fitted to be as he is styled, ' the heir of all things. 'k 2. When men adopt, they are generally inclined to do it by seeing some excel- lency or amiableness in the persons whom they fix their love upon. Thus Pharaoh's daughter took up Moses, and nourished him as her own son, because he was ' ex- ceediug fair.'1 Or it may be, she was moved by a natural compassion she had for him, besides the motive of his beauty ; as it is said, ' the babe wept, and she had compassion on him.'m Mordecai also adopted Esther, or took her as his own e Gen. vi. 2. d Exod. iv. 22. e Isa. i. 2. f Matt. viii. 12. g Mai. ii. 10. h Acts xvii. 25; compared with 28. i Job xxxviii. 7. k Heb. i. 2. 1 Acts vii. 20, 21. m Exod. ii. 6. ADOPTION. 133 daughter, 'for she was his uncle's daughter, and was fair and beautiful,' and an orphan, ' having neither father nor mother.'11 But when God takes any into the rela- tion of children, they have no beauty or comeliness, and might justly have been for ever the object of his abhorrence. Thus he says concerning the church of Israel, when he first took them into this relation, ' None eye pitied thee ; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live,'0 &c. It might indeed be said concerning man, when admitted to this favour and privilege, that he was miserable ; but misery, how much soever it may render the soul an object of pity, cannot, properly speaking, be said to be a motive or inducement whence the divine compassion took its rise. This appears from the account we have of the mercy of God, as founded only on his sovereign will or pleasure, as he says, ' I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion ;'p and also from the con- sideration of man's being exposed to misery by sin, which rendered him an object rather of vindictive justice than of mercy. His misery, therefore, cannot be the ground of God's giving him a right to an inheritance. Hence, adoption is truly said, in this Answer, to be an act of the free grace of God. 3. When men adopt, their taking persons into the relation of children, is not necessarily attended with any change of disposition or temper in the persons adopted. A person may be admitted to this privilege, and yet remain the same, in that re- spect, as he was before. But when God takes his people into the relation of chil- dren, he gives them not only those other privileges which arise thence, but also that temper and disposition which becomes those who are thus related to him. The Reference of the Sonship of Believers to the Sonship of Christ. We are next to consider the reference which the sonship of believers has to the superior and more glorious Sonship of Jesus Christ ; and how it is said to be for his sake. Here we must suppose that there is a sense in which Christ is said to be the Son of God, as the result of the divine decree. This contains an idea very dis- tinct from his being a divine person. For that was not the result of the will of the Father ; whereas it is said concerning him, ' I will declare the decree ; the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.'i Else- where, also, it is said, ' He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than ' the angels ; and this is represented as the consequence of God's saying to him, ' Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee,' and ' I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son ;'r which plainly refers to Christ as Media- tor.8 Now, when we consider this mediatorial Sonship of Christ, if I may so ex- press it, we are far from asserting that Christ's Sonship and that of believers is of the same kind ; for, as much as he exceeds them as Mediator, as to the glory of his person and office, so much is his Sonship superior to theirs. This being premised, we may now better understand the reference which the sonship of believers has to Christ's being the Son of God as Mediator. Let it be considered, then, that it is a prerogative and glory of Christ as the Son of God, that he has all things which relate to the salvation of his elect put into his hand. Hence, whatever the saints enjoy or hope for, which is sometimes called in scrip- ture their inheritance, agreeably to their character as the children of God by adop- tion, is considered as first purchased by Christ and then put into his hand. Ou this account it is styled his inheritance ; he being, pursuant to his having accom- plished the work of redemption, constituted heir of all things ; and' as such, not only having a right to his people, but being put in possession of all those spiritual blessings in heavenly places, wherewith they are 'blessed in him.'* It hence fol- lows that the sonship of believers, and their right to that inheritance which God has reserved for them, depends upon the sonship of Christ, which is infinitely more ii Esther ii. 7. o Ezek. xvi. 5. p Rom. ix. 15.. q Psal. ii. 7. r Heb. i. 4, 5. s [For an examination of the views which Dr. Ridgeley here ami elsewhere expresses of our Lord's Sonship, See Note ' The Sonship of Christ,' under Quest, ix, x, xi. — Ed.] t Euh. i. 3. 134 ADOPTION. glorious and excellent. As God's adopted sons, they have the honour conferred upon them of being ' made kings and priests ' to him.u These honours are conferred by Christ; and, in order to their being so, they are first given to him to bestow upon them. Thus lie says, ' 1 appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.'1 Christ is first appointed heir of all things as Mediator; and then his people, or his children, are considered as 'heirs of God,' as the apos- tle expresses it, 'and joint-heirs with Christ.' * Not that they have any share in his personal or mediatorial glory ; but when they are styled 'joint-heirs ' with him, we must consider them as having a right to that inheritance which he is possessed of in their name as Mediator. In this' sense we are to understand those scriptures which speak of God being first the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then, in him, our Father. Thus Christ says, ' I ascend unto my Father, and your Father ; and to my God, and your God.'z Elsewhere God is styled 'the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' and then ' the Father of mercies,' or our merciful Father.8 Again, the apostle says, ' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places, in Christ, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ, to himself.'b And inasmuch as he designed to ' bring many sons to glory, ' they being ' made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,' he first ' made the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.'0 In this respect, our right to the inheri- tance of children is founded in the eternal purpose of God relating to that right, and in the purchase of Christ as having obtained this inheritance for us. The Privileges of Adoption. We are now to consider the privileges conferred on or reserved for those who are the sons of God by adoption. These are summed up in a very comprehensive ex- pression which contains an amazing display of divine grace : ' He that overcometh, shall inherit all things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.'d It is a very large grant which God is pleased to make to them : ' they shall inherit all things.' God is not ashamed to be called their God ; and in having him, they are said to possess all things, which are eminently and transcendently in him. They have a right to all the blessings which he had designed for them, and which have a tendency to make them completely happy. In this sense we are to understand our Saviour's words in the parable: ' Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.' e Nothing greater than this can be desired or enjoyed by creatures whom the Lord delights to honour. Let us, however, be a little more particular in con- sidering the privileges which God confers on or has reserved for his children. 1. They are all emancipated, or freed from the slavery which they were before under either to sin or Satan. They who were once ' the servants of sin,' are, by adoption, 'made free from sin, and become the. servants of righteousness,' or be- come ' servants to God, have their fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.'f ' The Son makes them free ;' and therefore, ' they are free indeed. * They are described as having formerly 'served divers lusts and pleasures ;'h and are said to have been ' of their father, the devil,' and to ' have done his works,' or followed his suggestions,1 ensnared and ' taken captive by him at his will ;'k and, in conse- quence, they were in perpetual bondage, arising from a dread of the wrath of God, and from a ' fear of death ' impressed on their spirits by him who is said to have 'the power of death.'1 But they have now deliverance from these evils ; which cannot but be reckoned a glorious privilege. 2. They have God's name put upon them, and accordingly are described as ' his people, called by his name.'™ This is an high and honourable character, denoting their relation to him as a peculiar people ; and it belongs to them alone. Thus the church says, ' We are thine ; thou never bearest rule over them,'n namely, u Rev. i. 6. x Luke xxii. 29. y Rom. viii. 17. z John xx. 17. a 2 Cor. i. 3. b Eph. i. 3. compared with 5. c Heb. ii. 10. compared with Col. i. 12. d Rev. xxi. 7. e Luke xv. 31. f Rom. vi. 17. 18, 22. g John viii. 36. h Tit. iii. 3. i John vim. 44. k 2 Tim. ii. 26. 1 Heb. ii. 14, 15. m.2 Chron. vii. 14. n Isa. lxiiv. 19. ADOPTION. 135 thine adversaries ; ' they were not called by thy name.' God's adopted children have also Christ's name put on them. ' Of him the whole family in heaven and earth is named.'0 This signifies not only that propriety which he has in them as Mediator, but their relation to him as the ransomed of the Lord, — his sheep, whom he leads and feeds like a shepherd. They are also styled his children, when he says, • Behold I and the children which God hath given me.'P Indeed, when he is called a surety, or an advocate, or is said to execute certain offices as a Saviour or Redeemer, these are all relative terms ; and whatever he does in the capacities which they denote is in the name of his people, and for their advantage. Accord- ingly, it is said, ' Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wis- dom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.' i 3. They arc taken into God's family, and dealt with as members of it ; and ac- cordingly are styled 'fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.'r As the consequence of this, they have protection, provision, and communion with him. First, they have safe protection. As the master of a family thinks himself obliged to secure and defend from danger all who are under his roof, whose house is, as it were, their castle ; so Christ is his people's defence. Accordingly, it is said concerning him, ' A man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.'8 As the consequence of this, it is added, ' My peo- ple shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet rest- ing-places.'* ' They dwell on high ; their place of defence is the munition of rocks.'" He who has subdued their enemies, and will, in his own time, bruise them under their feet, will take care that they shall not meet with that disturbance from them which may hinder their repose or rest in him, or render their state unsafe, so as to endanger their perishing or falling from it.— Again, they enjoy the plentiful provisions of God's house. Hence, Christ is called their 'shepherd,'1 not only as leading and defending them, but as providing for them. ' He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. 'J As all grace is treasured up in him, and there is a fulness of it which he has to impart to the heirs of salvation which is sufficient to supply all their wants ; so they shall never have reason to complain that they are straitened in him. The blessings of his house are not only exhilarating but satisfying, and such as have a tendency to make them completely happy. — Further, they are ad- mitted to the greatest intimacy with Christ, and have sweet communion with him : ' The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.'z He deals with them as with 4 friends :' particularly, as he tells his disciples, in that ' all that he has heard of the Father,'3 that is, whatever he had a commission to impart for their direction or comfort, he 'makes known unto them;' which must needs be reckoned a very great privilege. If the queen of Sheba, when beholding the advantages which they who were in Solomon's presence enjoyed, could not but with an ecstasy of admira- tion say, ' Happy are thy men ; happy are thy servants, which stand continually before thee, that hear thy wisdom ;'b much more may they be said to be happy who are admitted into his presence in whom 'are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.'0 4. Another privilege which they enjoy, is access to God, as a reconciled Father, through Christ. They have liberty to ' come boldly to the throne of grace, that they may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.'d Whatever their straits and difficulties are, God holds forth his golden sceptre, invites them to come to him, asks, ' What is thy petition ?' and gives them ground to hope that it shall be granted, so far as it may redound to his glory and their good. And inasmuch as they are often straitened in their spirits, and unprepared to draw nigh to him, they have the promise of the Spirit to assist them; on which account he is called 'the Spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father.' e This privilege is said to be a consequence of their being sons : ' Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 'f By this means they have o Eph. iii. 15. p Heb. ii. 13. q 1 Cor. i. 31 r Eph. ii. 19. s Ish. xxxii. 2. t Ver. 18. U Chap, xxxiii. 16. x Psal. xxiii. 1. y Isa. xl. 11. z Psal. xxv. 14. a John xv. 15. It 1 Kings x. 8. c Col. ii. 3. <1 Heb. iv. 16. e Hum, viii. .15. f Gal. iv. 6. 136 ADOPTION. becoming conceptions of the Divine Majesty, a reverential fear of him, a love to liini, earnest desires of communion with him, and of being made partakers of what be ha- to impart. They have a right to plead the promises; and in so doing, are encouraged to hope for the blessings they contain. 5. As God's children are prone to backslide from him, and so have need of re- storing grace, he will recover and humble them, and thereby prevent their total apostasy, This he sometimes does by afflictions, which the apostle calls fatherly chastisements, and which he reckons not only consistent with his love, but evi- dences of it. ' Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth ;' and ' if ye be without chas- tisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and notsons.'s The apostle speaks here, of afflictions, not as considered absolutely m themselves, but as proceeding from the love of God, as designed to do them good, and as adapted to the present state, in which they are training up for the glorious inheritance reserved for them in heaven, and need some trying dispensations which may put them in mind of that state oi" perfect blessedness which is laid up for them. These afflic- tions are rendered subservient to their present and future advantage. In the pre- sent life, they ' bring forth the peaceful fruits of righteousness ' to them ; and when they are in the end perfectly freed from them, they will tend to enhance their joy and praise. This leads us to consider another privilege, which is so great that it crowns all those they are now possessed of. 6. They shall, at last, be brought into God's immediate presence, and satisfied with his likeness. The apostle, speaking of the perfect blessedness of the saints, when raised from the dead, and delivered from the bondage of corruption, and made partakers of the glorious liberty of the sons of God, calls it by way of eminence, 'the adoption, to wit, the redemption of their bodies.' This signifies, not only the full manifestation of their adoption, but their taking possession of their inheritance, which they are now waiting and hoping for, and which is too great for the heart of man to conceive of in this present state. ' Now,' says the apostle, ' are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.'h Hence, all the blessings which we have either in hand or in hope, the blessings of both worlds, the blessings which are conferred upon us from our conversion to our glori- fication, are the privileges which God bestows on those who are his adopted children. The Connection between Adoption and Justification. * From what has been said concerning adoption, we may take occasion to observe how, in some respects, it agrees with justification, or may indeed be reckoned a branch of it, and, in other respects, includes something which is an ingredient in sanctifi- cation. We formerly observed, when treating of justification, that, when God for- gives sin, he confers on his people a right to life, or to all the blessings of the cove- nant of grace, in which are contained the promises which belong to the life that now is, and that which is to come. These are the privileges which God's adopted children are made partakers of ; and in this respect some divines suppose that adoption is included in our justification.1 If justification be explained as denoting an immanent act in God, whereby the elect are considered, in the covenant between the Father and the Son, as in Christ their federal head ; they are then considered as the adopted children of God in Christ. Accordingly, when described as chosen in Christ unto eternal life, they are said to be 'predestinated unto the adoption of children ;'k which is a privilege to be obtained by Jesus Christ. In this respect all the elect are called Christ's 'seed that shall serve him,'1 whom he had a special regard to, when he made his soul an offering for sin, and concerning whom he had the promise made to him in the covenant which passed between the Father and him, that ' he should see them, and the pleasure of the Lord,' with respect to their everlasting salvation, 'should prosper in his hand.'m Now, when Christ is considered as the head of the elect, who g Htb. xii. 6, 8, 11. hi John iii. 2. i Vid. Turret. Theol. Elenct. Tom. 2. Loc. 16. § 7. k Luh- '• 5- 1 Psal. x.xii. 30. m Isa. liii. 10. SANCTIFICATION. 137 are in this sense called his sons whom he has engaged to bring to glory, faith is the fruit and consequence of adoption. Accordingly, the apostle says, ' Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.'11 But as justification is a declared act, and is said to be by faith ; so adoption, agreeing with it, is of the same nature. Accordingly we are said to be the ' chil- dren of God by faith ;'° that is, it is by faith that we have a right to claim the relation of children, together with the privileges which are the result of it. Moreover, as adoption includes a person's being made meet for the inheritance which God has reserved for him, and his being endowed with the temper and dis- position of his children, consisting in humility, heavenly-mindedness, love to him, dependence upon him, a zeal for his glory, a likeness to Christ, a having in some measure the same mind in us which was in him, it in this respect agrees with sanc- tification, — which is what we are next to consider. SANCTIFICATION. Question LXXV. What is sanctification f Answer. Sanctification is a work of God's grace, whereby they whom God hath, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit, applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man, after the image of God. having the seeds of repentance unto life, and of all other saving graces, put into their hearts; and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened, as that they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life. The meaning of the word ' Sanctify.' We shall show what we are to understand by the word ' sanctify.' Sanctifying is sometimes considered as what has God for its object. Thus he is said to ' sanctify himself,' when he appears in the glory of his holiness, and gives occasion to the world to adore that perfection. This he is sometimes represented as doing, when he punishes sin in a visible and exemplary manner. Thus, when God threat- ens to call for 'a sword,' and to 'plead against' a rebellious people 'with pestilence and with blood,' he is said, by this means, to 'magnify and sanctify himself,' so as to be ' known,' that is, as a holy God, ' in the eyes of many nations.' Likewise, when he fulfils his promises, and thereby advances his holiness, as when he brought his people out of captivity, and gathered them out of the countries in which they had been scattered, he is said to be 'sanctified in them.'P And he is sanctified by his people, when they give him the glory which is due to his holiness, as thus dis- placed and magnified by him. Thus, God's people are said to ' sanctify the Lord of hosts,' when they make him the object of their ' fear and of their dread. 'i This, however, is not the sense in which we are here to understand the word ' sanctify.' But we are to consider it as applied to men. In this respect it is taken in various senses. Sometimes it is used to denote their consecration or separation to God. Thus, our Saviour says, when devoting and applying himself to the work for which he came into the world, 'For their sakes I sanctify myself. * But this is not the sense in which it is to be understood in this Answer. More- over, it is often taken in scripture for persons being devoted to God to minister in holy things. Thus, Aaron and his sons were ' sanctified, that they might minister unto him in the priest's office.'3 It is sometimes taken also for an external federal dedication to God, to walk before him as a peculiar people in observance of his holy institutions. Thus, when Israel consented to be God's people, they are styled, 'holiness unto the Lord,'' 'the holy seed,'u and 'a holy nation.'1 And the church under the gospel-dispensation, as consecrated and professing subjection to Christ, n Gal. iv. 6. o Chap. iii. 26. p Ezek. xxxviii. 21—23. q Isa. viii. 13. r John xvii. 19. s Exod. xxviii. 41. t Jer. ii. 3. u Ezra ix. 2. x 1 Pet. ii. 9. II. S 138 SANCTIFICATION. or as separated to his service and waiting for his presence while engaged in all those ordinances which he has appointed in the gospel, is described as ' called to be saints ;'y and, as thus sanctified, they are related to him in an external and visible way. Neither is this, however, the sense in which the word is understood in this Answer. We are here to understand sanctification as a special discriminating grace, whereby persons are, not externally only, but really devoted to Christ by faith. It is the internal beauty of the soul ; whereby all the faculties being renewed, and a powerful effectual change wrought in them, they are enabled to turn from sin unto God, and exercise all those graces by which they ' walk in holiness and righ- teousness before him all the days of their lives,'2 till this work, which is gradually carried on here, shall be brought to perfection hereafter. What Sanctification includes. Sanctification, as described in this Answer, may be considered as including several graces which have been already insisted on, namely, regeneration, effectual calling, and faith. There is also another grace connected with it, which will be particularly insisted on under the next Answer, namely, repentance unto life. All these graces are said to be wrought by the powerful operation of the Spirit in those who were, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy. Regeneration is styled by some 'initial sanctification,' as all graces take their rise from the principle which is therein implanted. Effectual calling, or conversion, is that whereby we are brougfit into the way of holiness, and internally disposed to walk in it. Faith is that grace whereby this work is promoted ; as all holy actions proceed from it, as deriving strength from Christ to perform them. Repentance is that whereby the work of sanctification discovers itself in the soul's abhorring and fleeing from everything which tends to defile it, and approves itself to God as one who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity without the greatest detestation. But as these graces either have been or will be particularly insisted on in their proper place, we shall more especially consider sanctification as a progressive work. As such it is distinguished from them ; and, as the subject of it, we daily consecrate or de- vote ourselves to God, our actions have all a tendency to advance his glory, and, by the Spirit, we are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righ- teousness. It is therefore not merely one act of grace, but includes the whole pro- gress of the work of grace, as gradually carried on till perfected in glory. This is what we are particularly to consider. I. Sanctification includes a continual devotedness to God. As the first act of faith consists in making a surrender of ourselves to Christ, depending on his assist- ance in beginning the work of obedience in the exercise of all Christian graces ; so sanctification is the continuance of this surrender and dependence. When we are converted, we receive Christ Jesus the Lord ; and in sanctification we walk in him, exercise a daily dependence on him in the execution of all his offices, make his word our rule, and delight in it after the inward man. How difficult soever the duties are which he commands, we take pleasure in the performance of them, make religion our great business, and, in order to this, conclude that every thing we receive from him is to be improved to his glory. And as every duty is to be performed by faith ; so what was formerly observed concerning the life of faith, is to be considered as an expedient to promote the work of sanctification. II. In the carrying on of the work of sanctification, we are to endeavour, to our utmost, to guard against the prevailing power of sin, by all those methods which are prescribed in the gospel ; that so it may not have dominion over us. This is gen- erally styled the work of mortification. The apostle speaks of ' our old man being crucified with Christ, and the body of sin destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin;'a of our ' crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts ;' and of our 'mortifying the deeds of the body through the Spirit,' b— that is, by his assistance and grace, which is necessary to our success.0 This is a very difficult work, espe- f Rom, i. 7- z Luke i. 75. a Rom. v'u (J. b Gal. v. 24. c Rom. viii. 13. SANCT1FICATION. 139 cially considering the prevalence of corruption, — the multitude of temptations to which we are exposed, — the subtilty and watchfulness of Satan, who walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, — the treachery of our own hearts, which are so prone to depart from God, — the fickleness and instability of our reso- lutions,—the irregularity of our affections, and the constant efforts made by cor- rupt nature to gain the ascendency over them, and turn them aside from God. Cor- rupt nature sometimes gains the ascendency by presenting things in a false view, calling evil good, and good evil ; representing some things as harmless and not dis- pleasing to God, which are most pernicious and offensive ; endeavouring to lead us into mistakes as to the matter of sin or duty, and to persuade us that those things will issue well which are likely to prove bitterness in the end ; and attempting to make us believe that we are in a right and safe way, when in reality we are walking contrary to God, and corrupt nature is gaining strength. This, however, will be farther considered, when we speak concerning the imperfection of sanctification in believers.*1 Now, the difficulties which we have stated render it necessary for us to make use of those methods which God has prescribed for the mortification of sin. 1. We must endeavour to maintain a constant sense of the heinous nature of sin, as it is contrary to the holiness of God, a stain which cannot be washed away but by the blood of Jesus, the highest display of ingratitude for all the benefits which we have received, a bitter and an only evil, the abominable thing that God hates. It is to be considered not only as condemning, but as defiling ; that, by so con- sidering it, we may maintain a constant abhorrence of it, — and that not only of those sins which expose us to scorn and reproach in the eye of the world, but of every thing which is in itself sinful, as contrary to the law of God. 2. We must be watchful against the breakings forth of corrupt nature ; observe the frame and disposition of our spirits, and the deceitfulness of sin, which has a tendency to harden us ; and avoid all occasions of or incentives to it, ' hating even the garment spotted by the flesh, 'e ' abstaining from all appearance of evil.'f We may add, that we are frequently to examine ourselves with respect to our behaviour in every state of life ; whether sin be gaining or losing ground in us ; whether we make conscience of performing every duty, both personal and relative ; what guilt we contract by sins of omission, or the want of that fervency of spirit which has a tendency to beget a formal, dead, and stupid frame and temper of mind, and there- by hinder the progress of the work of sanctification. But that which is the prin- cipal if not the only expedient which will prove effectual for the mortifying of sin, is our seeking help against it from him who is able to give us the victory over it. 3. Whatever attempts we use against the prevailing power of sin, in order to the mortifying of it, must be performed by faith ; seeking and deriving that help from Christ which is necessary to our success. Hence, as the dominion of sin consists in its rendering us guilty in the sight of God, so that the conscience is burdened by reason of the dread which it has of the punishment which is due to us, and of the condemning sentence of the law to which we are liable ; and as its mortification, in this respect, consists in our deliverance from that which makes us so uneasy ; no expedient can be used to mortify it, but our looking by faith to Christ as a propi- tiation for sin, whereby we are enabled to behold the debt which we had contracted cancelled, the indictment superseded, and the condemning sentence repealed, whence the soul concludes that iniquity shall not be its ruin. This is the only me- thod we are to take when oppressed with a sense of the guilt of sin, which is daily committed by us. It was shadowed forth by the Israelites looking to the brazen serpent, a type of Christ crucified, when they were stung with fiery serpents, which occasioned exquisite pain, and would, without this expedient, have brought imme- diate death. Thus the deadly wound of sin is healed by the sovereign balm of Christ's blood applied by faith ; and we, by his having fulfilled the law, may be said to be dead to it, as freed from its curse and from all the sad consequences which would follow. Again, sin is said to have dominion over us, in all the powers and faculties of d See Quest, lxxviii. e Jude 23. f 2 Thess. v. 22. 140 SANCTIFICATION. our souls being enslaved by it, whereby, as the apostle expresses it, | we are carnal, sold under sin ;'* m our being weak and unable to perform what is good ; and in the corruption of nature being so predominant, that we are, as it were, carried down the stream, which we strive against, but in vain. Now, in this respect, sin is to be mortified by a fiducial application to Christ for help against it. We are to consider him as having undertaken to deliver not only from the condemning, but from the prevailing power of sin. His delivering us from this is a part of the work which he is now engaged in ; wherein he applies the redemption he purchased, by the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit, and the soul seeks to him for them. x\.s it is natural for us, when we are in imminent danger of present ruin, or are assaulted by an enemy whose superior force we are not able to withstand, to cry out to some kind friend for help; or when we are in danger of death, by some disease which nature is ready to sink under, to apply ourselves to the physician for relief ; so the believer is to apply to Christ for strength against the prevailing power of indwell- ing sin, and for grace to make him more than a conqueror over it ; and Christ, by his Spirit, enables us, as the apostle says, 'to mortify the deeds of the body.'h In order to our thus applying to Christ, we take encouragement from the promises of God, and from the connection which there is between Christ's having made satisfaction for sin, and his delivering his redeemed people from the power of it. The apostle says, ' Sin shall not have dominion over you ; for ye are not under the law,' that is, under the condemning sentence of it, 'but under grace,' ' as having an interest in that grace which has engaged to deliver from sin. In both these re- spects, we consider Christ, not only as able, but as having undertaken, to deliver his people from all their spiritual enemies, to relieve them in all their straits and exigencies, and to bring them off safe and victorious. This is the method which we are to take to mortify sin ; and it is a never-failing remedy. What was ob- served under the foregoing Heads, concerning our endeavouring to see the evil of sin, and exercising watchfulness against the occasions of it, are necessary duties, without which sin will gain strength. The victory over it, however, is principally owing to our deriving righteousness and strength, by faith, from Christ ; whereby he has the glory of a conqueror over it, and we have the advantage of receiving this privilege as applying ourselves to him, and relying upon him, for it. Having considered the way in which sin is to be mortified agreeably to the gos- pel-rule, we shall, before we close this Head, take notice of some other methods which many rest in, thinking thereby to free themselves from the dominion of sin, which will not answer that end. Some, who do not duly consider the spirituality of the law of God, have no other notion of sin than as it discovers itself in those gross enormities which are matter of public scandal or reproach in the eye of the world. Such sentiments of moral evil the apostle Paul had before his conversion ; he says, ' I was alive without the law once ;'k and, ' I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.' ' Sin' did not ' appear to be sin ;' l that is, nothing was thought sin by him but that which was openly scandalous, and deemed so by universal consent. He hence says elsewhere, that ' touching the righteous- ness which is in the law, he was blameless. 'm Ephraim also is represented as say- ing, ' In all my labour they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.'n Per- sons of the class to which we refer think they shall come off well, if they can say that they are not guilty of some enormous crimes ; so that none can charge them with those open debaucheries or other sins which are not to be mentioned among Christians. Or if, through any change in their condition of life, or by being deliv- ered from those temptations which gave occasion to them, or by their natural temper being less inclined to them than before, they abstain from such crimes, they call their abstinence a mortifying of sin ; though the most that can be said of it is, that sin is only curbed or confined, and their natural inclinations to it abated, while it is far from being dead. Others who will allow that sin is of a far larger extent, and in- cludes that which prevails in the heart, as well as that which renders itself visible in the life, and contains the omission of duties, as well as the actual commission g Rom. vii. 14. h Chap. viii. 13. i Chap. vi. 14. k Chap. vii. 9. comparetl with 7. 1 Verse 13. m Phil. iii. 6. n Hos. xii. 8. SANCTIFICATION. 141 of known sins, often take a preposterous method to mortify it. If they are sensi- ble of the guilt which is contracted, they use no other method to be discharged irom it, but to pretend to make atonement, either by confessing their sins, by using endeavours to abstain from them, or by the performance of some duties of religion by which they think to make God amends for the injuries they have offered to him. This, however, is so far from mortifying sin, that it increases its guilt, and causes it to take deeper root, and afterwards to break forth in a greater 'degree ; or it tends to stupify the conscience, so that they afterwards go on in the way of sin, with carnal security, and without remorse. Others think, that to mortify sin, is nothing else but to subdue and keep under their passions, at least to such a degree that they may not, through the irregularity and impetuous violence of them, com- mit those sins which they cannot but reflect upon with shame when brought into a more calm and considerate temper of mind. In order to this, they subject them- selves to certain rules, which the light of nature will suggest, and the wiser heathen have laid down, to induce persons to lead a virtuous life. They argue with them- selves, that it is below the dignity of human nature for men to suffer their passions to lead their reason captive, or to do that which betrays a want of wisdom as well as temper. If by this means the exorbitancy of their passions is abated, and many sins which it occasions are prevented, they conclude their lives to be unblemished, and sin subdued. Yet all they do is nothing but a restraining of the fury of their temper, or the giving of a check to some sins, while sin in general remains unmortified. ' As to the methods prescribed by some Popish casuists, of emaciating the body, or keeping it under by physic or a sparing diet, and submitting to hard penances, not only to atone for past sins, but to prevent them for the future ; these have not a tendency to strike at the root of sin, and therefore are unjustly called a mortifying of it. For though an abstemious regular way of living is conducive to some valu- able ends, and though without it, men are led to the commission of many sins ; yet it is no expedient to take away guilt, nor does it sufficiently subdue the enslaving, captivating, and prevailing power of indwelling sin, which discovers itself in various shapes, and attends every condition and circumstance of life. Equally useless are those common methods which many others take, and which are of a different nature. When persons resolve, though in their own strength, to break off their sins by re- pentance, or when they endeavour to strengthen their resolutions to lead a virtuous life, when these are weak and not much regarded by them, their efforts will not answer the designed end. Sin will be too strong for all their resolutions ; and the engagements with which they bind themselves will be but like the cords with which Sampson was bound, which were broken by him like threads. If we rely on our own strength, how much soever we may be resolved to abstain from sin at present, God will make us sensible of our weakness by leaving us to ourselves ; and then how much soever we resolve to abstain from sin, it will appear that it is far irom being mortified or subdued by us. We conclude, therefore, that mortification of sin cannot be performed, but by going forth in the name and strength of Christ, who is able to keep us from falling, or, when fallen, to recover us. This will be found in the end to be the best expedient for promoting this branch of our sanctification. III. In carrying on the work of sanctification, we are enabled to walk with God, or before him, in holiness and righteousness. We are first made alive in regener- ation ; and then we put forth living actions. The experience of this some call vivification, as distinguished from that part of sanctification which has been already considered, namely, mortification of sin. This is what we may call leading an holy life ; and we are to understand by it much more than many do. They suppose that it consists only in the performance of some moral duties which contain the external part of religion, without which there would not be the least shadow of holiness ; in performing those duties which we owe to men in the various relations, which we stand in to them ; or, at least, in keeping ourselves clear of those ' pollu- tions which are in the world through lust.'0 The Pharisee, in the gospel, thought himself an extraordinarily holy person, because he was no extortioner, nor unjust, nor adulterer, but fasted, paid tithes, and performed several works of charity. o 2 Pet. i. 4. 142 SANCTIFICATION. Many also are great pretenders to holiness, who have no other than a form of god- liness without the power of it, or who are more than ordinarily diligent in their attendance on the ordinances of God's appointment, though they are far from giving that attendance in a right way, and are like those whom the prophet speaks of, who are said to ' seek God daily, and to delight to know his ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God,' though at the same time, they are said to ' fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the list of wickedness. 'p That we may consider several other things which are contained in a person's leading an holy life, let it be observed that our natures must be changed. Sanc- tification always supposes and flows from regeneration. There must be grace in the heart, else it can never discover itself in the life. The root must be good, else the tree cannot bring forth good fruit. The spring of action must be cleansed, otherwise the actions themselves will be impure. Some persons, who are generally strangers to the internal work of grace, are very apt to insist much on the good- ness of their hearts ; and they sometimes plead this in excuse for the badness of their lives ; while, in reality, they never had a due sense of the plague and perverse- ness of their own hearts. Good actions must proceed from a good principle, otherwise persons are in an unsanctified state. And, as these actions must be conformable to the rule laid down in the word of God, and performed in a right manner, and to the glory of God as the end designed by them ; so they must be performed by faith, whereby we, being sensible of our own weakness and unworthiness, depend on Christ for assistance and acceptance. This exercise of faith and dependence must be our constant work and business ; whereby we are said to walk with God, as well as to live to him. Again, in order to our leading a holy life, we must make use of those motives and inducements which are contained in the gospel. In particular, we are to have in our view that perfect pattern of holiness which Christ has given us. He has 'left us an example that we should follow his steps. '^ Whatever we find in the life of Christ, prescribed for our imitation, should be improved to promote the work of sanctification. His humility, meekness, patience, submission to the divine will, his zeal for the glory of God and the good of mankind, and his unfainting perse- verance in pursuing the end for which he came into the world, are all mentioned in scripture, not merely that we should yield an assent to the account we have of them in the gospel-history, but that ' the same mind should be in us, which was also in him.'r • He,' says the apostle, ' that saith he abideth in him, ought him- self also to walk even as he walked.'8 We may add, that we ought to set before us the example of others, and be followers of them so far as they followed him. Their example, indeed, is as much inferior to Christ's, as imperfect holiness is to that which is perfect ; yet it is an encouragement to us, that, in following the foot- steps of the flock, we have many bright examples of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. — Another motive to holiness is the love of Christ, expressed in the great work of our redemption, and in that care and compassion which he has extended towards us in the application of it, in all the methods he has used in beginning and carrying on the work of grace ; in regard to which we may say, ' Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.' The love of Christ ought to be im- proved so as to ' constrain us, ' * as he has hereby laid us under the highest obliga- tion to live to him. And as love to Christ is the main ingredient in sanctification ; so when by faith we behold him as the most engaging and desirable object, it will afford a constant inducement to holiness. — Another motive to holiness, is our rela- tion to God as his children, and our professed subjection to him. As we gave up ourselves to him when first we believed, avouched him to be our God, and, since then, have experienced many instances of his condescending goodness and faithful- ness ; as he has been pleased to grant us some degrees of communion with him, through Christ ; as he has given us many great and precious promises, and, in various instances, made them good to us ; and as he has reserved an inheritance for all that are sanctified, in that better world to which they shall at last be brought ; so, on all these grounds, we should be induced to lead a life of holiness. ' Having p ha. lviii. 2. q 1 Pet. ii. 21. r Phil. ii. 5 si John ii. 6. t 2 Cor. v. 14. SANCTIFICATION. 143 these promises,' says the apostle, 'let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.'u Practical Inferences from the Doctrine of Sanctification. 1. From what has been said in explaining the doctrine of sanctification, we may infer the difference that there is between moral virtue, so far as it may be attained by the light of nature and the improvement of human reason, and that holiness of heart and life which includes all Christian virtues, and is inseparably connected with salvation. All who are conversant with the writings of the heathen moralists will find in some of them a great many things which tend to regulate the conduct of life, and precepts laid down which, if followed, bear a great resemblance to the grace of sanctification. In this matter, some who have been destitute of the light of the gospel have very much excelled many who bear the Christian name. When we find a lively representation of the universal corruption and degeneracy of human nature, the disorder and irregularity of the affections, and man's natural propensity to vice ; rules laid down for the attaining of virtue, by means of which men are directed how to free themselves from that slavery which they are under to their lusts ; and advice given to press after a resemblance and conformity to God ; these things carry in them a great show of holiness. A late writer x has collected several passages out of their writings with a design to prove that, though they were destitute of gospel-light, yet they might attain salvation ; inasmuch as they use many expressions which very much resemble the grace of sanctification. One of them, for example, speaking concerning contentment in the station of life in which providence had fixed him, says, "A servant of God should not be solicitous for the morrow. Can any good man fear that he should want food ? Doth God so neglect his servants, and his witnesses, as that they should be destitute of his care and providence?" And he adds, " Did I ever, Lord, accuse thee, or complain of thy government ? Was I not always willing to be sick when it was thy pleasure that I should be so ? Did I ever desire to be what thou wouldst not have me to be ? Am I not always ready to do what thou commandest ? Wilt thou have me to con- tinue here ? I will freely do as thou wiliest. Or, wouldst thou have me depart hence ? I will freely do it at thy command. I have always had my will subject to that of God. Deal with me according to thy pleasure. I am always of the same mind with thee. I refuse nothing which thou art pleased to lay upon me. Lead me whither thou wilt ; clothe me as thou pleasest. I will be a magistrate, or private person ; continue me in my country, or in exile ; I will not only submit to but defend thy proceedings in all things." We might also produce quotations out of other writings, whereby it appears that some of the heathen excelled many Chris- tians in the consistency of their sentiments about religious matters with the divine perfections ; as when they say, " Whatever endowment of the mind has a tendency to make a man truly great and excellent, is owing to an internal divine influence. "* Others, speaking of the natural propensity which there is in mankind to vice, maintained that, to guard against it, there is a necessity of their having assistance from God in order to their leading a virtuous life ; and that virtue is not attained by instruction, that is, not only by that means, but that it is from God, and is to be sought for at his hands by faith and prayer. Much to this purpose may be seen in the writings of Plato, Maximus Tyrius, Hierocles, and several others.z The principal use which I would make of the fact I have been illustrating, is to observe that it should humble many Christians, who are far from coming up to the Heathen in the practice of moral virtue. As for the sentiments of those who deny the necessity of our having divine influence in order to our performing in a right manner the duties Which God requires of us, they fall very short of what the light u 2 Cor. vii. 1. x See Whitby's Dis. &c, page 541, in which he quotes Arrian, as giving the sense of Epictetus, lib. i. cap. 9. lib. iii. cap. 5, 24, 26, 36, &c. y Vid. Cic. de natura Deorum, lib. ii. ' Nullus unquam vir magnus fuit, sine aliquo afflatu divine' z See Gale's Court of the Gentiles, book iii. chap. i. and chap. x. and Wits, de QScon. Feed, pages 4G 1—463. 144 i SANCTIF1CATI0N. of nature has suggested to those who have duly attended to it, though destitute of divine revelation. When I meet with such expressions as I have quoted, and many other divine things, in the writings of Plato, and what he says of the conversation of his master Socrates, both in his life and at his death, I cannot but apply in this case what our Saviour says to the Scribe in the gospel who answered him discreetly, ' Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.' a These things, it is true, very much resemble the grace of sanctification ; yet, in many respects, they fall short of it ; inasmuch as those who maintained them had no acts of faith in a Mediator, whom they were altogether strangers to, being destitute of divine revelation. It is not my design, at present, to inquire whether they had any hope of salvation, this sub- ject having been considered under a former Answer.b All that I shall here observe is, that some of the best of them were charged with notorious crimes, which a Chris- tian would hardly reckon consistent with the truth of grace. Plato was charged with flattering tyrants, and too much indulging pride and luxury ;c Socrates, with pleading for fornication and incest, and practising sodomy ; if what some have reported concerning them be true.d But, without laying any stress on the char- acter of particular persons, who, in other respects, have said and done many excel- lent things ; it is evident, that whatever appearance of holiness there may be in the writings or conversation of those who are strangers to Christ and his gospel, falls • short of the grace of sanctification. There is a vast difference between recommend- ing or practising moral virtues, as agreeable to the nature of man, and the dictates of reason ; and a person's being led in that way of holiness which our Saviour has prescribed in the gospel. This takes its rise from a change of nature wrought in regeneration, is excited by gospel-motives, is encouraged by promises of holy attain- ments, and proceeds from the grace of faith, without which all pretensions to holi- ness are vain and defective. What advances soever the heathen moralists may have made, in endeavouring to free themselves from the slavery of sin, they were very deficient as to its mortification. Being ignorant of that great atonement which is made by Christ, as the only expedient to take away the guilt of sin, they could not by any method attain a conscience void of offence, or any degree of hope concerning the forgiveness of sin, and the way of acceptance in the sight of God. Moreover, their using endeavours to stop the current of vice, and to subdue their inordinate affections, could not be effectual to answer that end, inasmuch as they were destitute of the Spirit of God, who affords his divine assistance in order to the attainment of it, in no other way than what is prescribed in the gospel. Hence, as 'without holiness no man shall see the Lord,' this grace is to be expected in that way which God has prescribed ; and every one who is holy is made so by the Spirit, who glorifies himself in rendering men fruitful in every good work, they being raised by him from the death of sin to the life of faith in Christ ; which is a blessing peculiar to the gospel. 2. Since holiness is required of all persons, as what is absolutely necessary to sal- vation, and is also recommended as that which God works in those in whom the gospel is made effectual to salvation ; we may infer that no gospel doctrine has the least tendency to lead to licentiousness. The grace of God may indeed be abused ; and men who are strangers to it may take occasion, from ' the abounding' of that grace, to ' continue in sin,' as some did in the apostle's days ; e but this is not the genuine tendency of the gospel, which is to lead men to holiness. Whatever duties it engages to, are all designed to answer this end ; and whatever privileges a Mark xii. 34. b See Quest. lx. c Vid. G. J. Voss. de Hist. Graec. page 22. d See Gale's Court of the Gentiles, part iii. book i. chap. 1, 2. This learned writer having, in some other parts of that work, mentioned several things which were praiseworthy in some of the philosophers, here takes occasion to speak of some other things w hich were great blemishes in them. Ill other parts of this elahorate work, he proves that those who lived in the first ages of the church, aiul were attached to their philosophy, were by this means, as he supposes, led aside from many Hi eat aud important truths of the gospel. Of this number were Origen, Justin Martyr, and several others. He farther supposes that what many of them advanced concerning the liberty of man's will as to what r.spects spiritual things, gave occasion to the Pelagians to propagate thos-e doctrines which were subversive of the grace of God; and that the Arian and Samosatian heresies took their ri-e rom the fame source. See part iii. book ii. chap. i. e ]{oin. vi. 1. SANCTIFICATION. 145 are offered in it, are all inducements to holiness. Are we ' delivered out of the hands of our' spiritual ' enemies ? ' It is ' that we should serve him in holiness and righteousness before him, all 4he days of our lives.,f As for the promises, they are an inducement to us, as the apostle expresses it, to ' cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.'s And every ordinance and providence should be improved by us, to promote the work of sanctification. 3. Let us examine ourselves whether this work be begun and the grace of God wrought in us in truth, and, if so, whether it be increasing or declining in our souls. As to the truth of grace, let us take heed that we do not think we are something when we are nothing, deceiving our own souls ; or rest in a form of godliness, while denying the power of it, or in a name to live, while we are dead. Let us think that it is not enough to abstain from grosser enormities, or engage in some exter- nal duties of religion, with wrong ends. If, upon inquiry into ourselves, we find that we are destitute of a principle of spiritual life and grace, let us not think that, because we have escaped some of the pollutions which are in the world, or do not run with others in all excess of riot, we therefore lead holy lives. But rather let us inquire whether the life we live in the flesh be by the faith of the Son of God, under the influence of his Spirit, with great diffidence of our own righteousness and strength, and firm dependence upon Christ ; and whether, as the result of this, we are found in the practice of universal holiness, and hate and avoid all appearance of evil, using all those endeavours which are prescribed in the gospel, to glorify him in our spirits, souls, and bodies, which are his. If we have ground to hope that the work of sanctification is begun, let us inquire whether it be advancing or declining ; whether we go from strength to strength, or make improvements in pro- portion to the privileges we enjoy. Many have reason to complain that it is not with them as in months past ; that grace is languishing, the frame of their spirits in holy duties stupid, and they destitute of that communion with God which they once enjoyed. Such ought to remember whence they are fallen, and repent, and do their first works ; and beg of God, from whom alone our fruit is derived, that he would revive the work of grace in them, and cause their souls to flourish in the courts of his house, and to bring forth much fruit unto holiness, to the glory of his own name and their spiritual peace and comfort. As for those who are frequently complaining of and bewailing their declensions in grace, who seem to others to be making a very considerable progress in it, let them not give way to unbelief, so far as to deny or set aside the experiences which they have had of God's presence with them ; for sometimes grace grows, though without our own observation. If they are destitute of the comforts of it or of the fruits of righteousness, which are peace, assurance, and joy in the Holy Ghost, let them consider that the work of sanctifica- tion, in the present state, is, at best, but growing up towards that perfection to which it has not yet arrived. If it does not spring up and flourish, as to those fruits and effects of it which they are pressing after but have not attained, let them bless God if grace is taking root downward, and is attended with an humble sense of their own weakness and imperfection, and an earnest desire for those spiritual blessings which they are labouring after. This ought to afford matter of thankful- ness, rather than have a tendency to weaken their hands, or induce them to con- clude that they are in an unsanctified state because of the many hinderances and discouragements which attend their progress in holiness. f Luke i. 74, 75. g 2 Cor. vii. 1. II, 146 REPENTANCE. REPENTANCE. Question LXXVI. What is Bepentance unto life? Answer. Repentance unto life is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God ; wherebv, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthini'ss and odiousness of "his sins, and upon the apprehension of God's mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, he so grieves for, and hates his sins, as that he turns from them all to God, purpos- ing and endeavouring constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience. In discussing this Answer we shall consider that the subject of repentance is a sinful fallen creature ; that, though this is his condition, he is naturally averse to the ex- ercise of repentance, till God is pleased to bring him to it ; that the Spirit of God brings him to repent ; and what are the various acts and effects of repentance. The Subjects of Bepentance. No one can be said to repent but a sinner. Whatever other graces might be exercised by man in a state of innocency, or shall be exercised by him when brought to a state of perfection ; there cannot, properly speaking, be any room for repentance. Some, indeed, have queried whether there shall be repentance in heaven. But it may easily be determined, that, though that hatred of sin in general and opposition to it which is contained in true repentance, is not inconsis- tent with a state of perfect blessedness, as it is inseparably connected with perfec- tion of holiness ; yet a sense of sin, which is afflictive, and is attended with grief and sorrow of heart for the guilt and consequences of sin, is altogether inconsistent with a state of perfection ; and these are some ingredients in that repentance which comes under our present consideration. We must conclude, therefore, that the subject of repentance is a sinner. Man's Natural Aversion to Bepentance. Though all sinners contract guilt, expose themselves to misery, and will sooner or later be filled with distress and sorrow for what they have done against God ; yet many have no sense of it at present, nor repentance or remorse for it. These are described as 'past feeling, 'h as 'hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,'1 as obstinate, and having 'their neck as an iron sinew, and their brow as brass. 'k There are several methods which they take to ward off the force of convictions. Sometimes they are stupid, and hardly give themselves the liberty to consider the difference which there is between moral good and evil, or the natural obligation we are under to pursue the one and avoid the other. They consider not the all- seeing eye of God, which observes all their actions, nor the power of his anger, who will take vengeance on impenitent sinners. They regard not the various aggra- vations of sin, nor consider that God will, for those things, bring them to judg- ment. Hence, impenitency is generally attended with presumption ; whereby the person concludes, though without ground, that it shall go well with him in the end. Such an one is represented as blessing himself in his heart, saying, ' I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination,' or as it is in the margin, in the stubborn- ness ' of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst.'1 Or if, on the other hand, he cannot but conclude that with God is terrible majesty, that he is a consuming fire, and that none ever hardened themselves against him and prospered, and if he does not fall down before him with humble confession of sin and repentance for it, he will certainly be broken with his rod of iron and dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel, — broken with a tempest, and utterly destroyed, when his wrath is kindled. Then he resolves that some time or other he will repent, but still delays and puts off repentance for a more convenient season ; and though God gives him space to do it, h E*h. iv. 19. i Heb. iii. 13. k Isa. xlviii. 4. 1 Deut. xxix. 19. REPENTANCE. 147 he repenteth not.m Thus he goes on in the greatness of his way, till God visits him with the blessings of his goodness, and brings him to repentance. Repentance wrought by the Divine Spirit. We are thus led to consider that repentance is God's work ; or, as is observed in this Answer, that it is wrought by the Spirit of God. Whether we consider it as a common or as a saving grace, it is the Spirit that convinces or reproves the world of sin. If it be of the same kind as that which Pharaoh, Ahab, or Judas had, it is excited by a dread of God's judgments, and his wrath breaking in upon conscience, when he reproves for sin, and sets it in order before their eyes. If they are touched with a sense of guilt, and, in consequence, stopped for the present, or obliged to make a retreat, and desist from pursuing their former methods, it is God, in the course of his providence, that gives a check to them. But this comes short of that repentance which is said to be unto life, or which is styled a saving grace ; which is wrought by the Spirit of God, as the beginning of that saving work which is a branch of sanctification, and shall end in complete salvation. This is expressly styled, in scripture, ' repentance unto life, 'D inasmuch as every one who is favoured with it shall obtain eternal life ; and it is connected with con- version and remission of sins, which will certainly end in eternal salvation. Thus it is said, ' Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. '° For this reason it is called a saving grace, or a grace which accompanies salvation ; on which account it is distinguished from that repentance which some have who yet remain in a state of unregeneracy. It is also called ' repentance to salvation, not to be repented of ;'p that is, it shall issue well ; and he who thus repents, shall, in the end, have reason to bless God, and rejoice in his grace, who has made him partaker of it. The Means of Repentance. We shall now consider the instrument or means whereby the Spirit works this grace. It is said to be ' wrought in the heart of a sinner, by the word of God,' as all other graces are, except regeneration, as was formerly observed. We must first suppose the principle of grace implanted, and the word presenting mo- tives and arguments leading to repentance ; and then the understanding is enlight- ened and disposed to receive what is imparted. The word ' calls sinners to repent- ance.'i Hence, when this grace is wrought, we are not only turned by the power of God, but ' instructed 'r by the Spirit's setting home what is contained in the word, whereby we are led into the knowledge of those things which are necessary to repentance. The word contains a display of the holiness of the divine nature and law, and of our obligation, in conformity to it, to exercise holiness of heart and life ; as God says, ' Be ye holy, for I am holy.'8 It contains also a display of the holiness of God in his threatenings, which he has Renounced against every transgression and disobedience, which shall receive a just recompence of reward ; and in all the instances of his punishing sin in those who have exposed themselves to its penalty, that hereby he might deter men from it, and lead them to repent- ance. Accordingly, the apostle speaks of the law of God as ' holy, and the com- mandment holy, just, and good ;'1 and of its leading him into the knowledge of sin, by which means it appeared to be sin, that is, opposite to an holy God, and, as he expresses it, 'became exceeding sinful.' — Moreover, by the word of God persons are led into themselves ; and by comparing their hearts and lives with it, are en- abled to see their own vileness and want of conformity to the rule which he has given them, the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of their hearts, and what occasion there is to abhor themselves, and repent in dust and ashes. Thus the apostle, in the place just mentioned, speaks of himself as 'once alive without the law ; but when the commandment came, sin revived and he died, ' and he concluded himself to be ' carnal, m Rev. ii. 21. n Acts xi. 18. o Chap. iii. 19. p 2 Cor. vii. 10. q Matt. ix. 13. r Jer. xxxi. 19. s Lev. xi. 44. t Rom. vii. 12, 13. 148 REPENTANCE. sold under sin.*11 This is a necessary means leading to repentance. — We may add that God makes use, not only of the word, but of his providences to answer this end. Hence, he speaks of a sinning people, when ' carried away captive into the land of the enemy,' as 'bethinking' themselves, and afterwards ' repenting and making sup- plication to him.'x We read also of sickness and bodily diseases as ordained by God to bring persons to repentance. Thus Elihu speaks of a person being ' chastened with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain ; his soul drawing nigh to the grave, and his life to the destroyers ;'* and then represents the person thus chastened, and afterwards recovered from his sickness, as acknow- ledging that he had ' sinned and perverted that which is right, and that it profited him not.' The apostle likewise speaks of ' the goodness of God' in the various dispensations of his providence, as ' leading to repentance. 'z But these dispensa- tions are always to be considered in conjunction with the word, and as impressed on the consciences of men by the Spirit, in order to their attaining this desir- able end. — In order, however, that we may insist on this matter more particularly, we must take an estimate of repentance, either as it is a common or a special grace. In both these respects it is from the Spirit, and wrought by the instrumentality of the word, applied to the consciences of men ; but there is a vast difference between the one and the other in the application of the word, as well as in the effects and consequences. 1. As to those who are brought under convictions, but not made partakers of the saving grace of repentance, the Holy Spirit awakens them, and fills them with the terrors of God, and the dread of his vengeance, 'by the law,' by which ' is the know- ledge of sin,' and ' all the world becomes guilty before God.'a These are what we call legal convictions ; whereby the wound is opened, but no healing medicine ap- plied. The sinner apprehends himself under a sentence of condemnation, but at the same time cannot apply any promise which may afford hope and relief to him ; groans under his burden, and knows not where to find ease or comfort, and dreads the consequences as what would sink him into hell. God appears to him as a consum- ing fire ; his arrows stick fast in his soul ; the poison of them drinketh up his spirits. If he endeavour to shake off his fears, and to relieve himself against his despairing thoughts, he is, notwithstanding, described as being like ' the troubled sea,' when it 'cannot rest,' which 'casts forth mire and dirt.'b This is a most afflictive case ; concerning which it is said, that though ' the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, a wounded spirit who can bear?'c [See Note N, page 152.] Thus it is with some when convinced of sin by the law. But there are others who endeavour to quiet their consciences by using indirect methods, thinking to make atonement for their sin, and by some instances of external reformation to make God amends, and thereby procure his favour, but to no purpose ; for ' sin taking occasion by the commandment, works in them all manner of concupiscence. 'd And if they grow stupid, which is often the consequence, their sense of sin is entirely lost, and their repentance ends in presumption, and a great degree of boldness in the commission of all manner of wickedness. 2. We shall now consider how the Spirit works repentance unto life, which is principally insisted on in this Answer. This is said to be done by the word of God ; not by the law without the gospel, but by them both, the one being made subser- vient to the other. The law shows the sinner his sin, and the gospel directs him where he may find a remedy. The one wounds and the other heals. ' The law enters,' as the apostle expresses it, ' that the offence might abound ;'e but the gospel shows him how 'grace does much more abound,' and where he may obtain forgiveness. By this means he is kept from sinking under the weight of guilt which lies on his conscience. The gospel also leads him, from motives which are truly excellent, to hate and abstain from sin ; for which reason his repentance is called evangelical. u Rom. vii. 9, 14. x 1 Kings viii. 46, 47. y Job xxxiii. 19, 27. z Rom. u. 4. a Rom. iii. 20. compared with 19. b Isa. lvii. 20. c Prov. xviii. 14. d Rom. vii. 8. e Rom. v. 20. REPENTANCE. 149 The Difference between Legal and Evangelical Repentance. That we may better understand the nature of this repentance, we shall consider how it differs from that which we before described, which arises only from convic- tion of sin by the law, which a person may have who is destitute of this grace of repentance which we are speaking of. Repentance, of what kind soever it be, in- cludes a sense of sin. But if the sense of sin be such as an unregenerate person may have, it includes little more than a sense of the danger and misery which he has exposed himself to by sins committed. The principal motives leading to it are the threatenings which the law of God denounces against those who violate it. De- struction from God is a terror to him who has such a sense of sin ; and if this were not the consequence of sin, he would be so far from repenting of it, that it would be the object of his chief delight. Besides, that guilt which he charges himself with is principally such as arises from the commission of the most notorious crimes, which expose him to the greatest degree of punishment. Repentance unto life, on the contrary, brings a soul under a sense of the guilt of sin, as it is contrary to the holy nature and law of God, which the least, as well as the greatest sins, are opposed to, and contain a violation of. He, therefore, who has this repentance, charges himself not only with open sins which are detestable in the eyes of men, but with secret sins which others have little or no sense of, — sins of omission as well as sins of commission ; and he is particularly affected with the sin of unbelief, inasmuch as it contains a contempt of Christ and of the grace of the gospel. He is sensible not only of those sins which break forth in his life, but of that propen- sity of nature whereby he is inclined to rebel against God. Hence, the sense of guilt which he entertains differs, in some respects, from that which those are brought under who are destitute of saving repentance. But that in which they more especially differ is, that saving repentance includes a sense of the filth and odious nature of sin, and so considers it as defiling, or contrary to the holiness of God, and rendering the soul worthy to be abhorred by him. Hence, as the sense of guilt excites fear, and a dread of the wrath of God ; so this sense of the odious nature of sin fills him with shame, confusion of face, and self-abhorrence. These are inseparably connected with the grace of repentance. Accordingly, they are joined together, as Job says, ' I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes ;'f or as God describes his people when he promises that he will bestow this blessing on them, ' Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities, and for your abominations. '& Before this they set too high a value upon themselves, and were ready to palliate and excuse their crimes, or insist on their innocence, though their iniquity was written in legible characters, as with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond, and to say with Ephraim, ' In all my labour they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin, 'h and resembled the rebellious people con- cerning whom the prophet Jeremiah says, that ' though in their skirts were found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents,' they had the front to say, ' Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me.'1 When, however, God brings them to repentance, and heals their backslidings, they express themselves in a very different way : ' We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us ; for we have sinned against the Lord our God.'k Now, this is such an ingredient in true repentance as is not be found in that which falls short of being a saving grace. In the latter case, the sinner is afraid of punishment indeed, or perhaps he may be filled with shame because of the reproach which attends his vile and notorious crimes in the eyes of the world ; yet he is not ashamed or confounded, as consider- ing how vile he has rendered himself in the eye of a holy God. There is another thing observed in this Answer which is an ingredient in repent- ance unto life. This repentance is connected with faith, inasmuch as he who is the subject of it apprehends the mercy of God in Christ to such as are penitent ; and this effectually secures him from that despair which sometimes, as was before f Job xlii. 6. g Ezek. xxxvi.^1. h Hos. xii. 8. i Jer. ii. 34, 35. k Chap. iii. 25. 150 REPENTANCE. observed, attends a legal repentance, as well as affords him relief against the sense of guilt with which this grace is attended. The difference between legal and evan- gelical repentance does not so much consist in the former representing sin as more aggravated, or in inducing him who is the subject of it to think himself a greater sinner than the other ; for the true penitent is ready to confess himself the chief of sinners. He is far from extenuating his sin ; being ready on all occasions to charge himself with more guilt than others are generally sensible of. But that which he depends upon as his only comfort and support is the mercy of God in Christ, or the consideration that there is forgiveness with him that he may be feared. This is what affords the principal motive and encouragement to repent- ance, and has a tendency to excite the various acts of it. The Various Acts of Evangelical Repentance. We are thus led to consider what are the various acts of repentance unto life, or what are the fruits and effects produced by it. 1. The soul is filled with hatred of sin. When he who truly repents looks back on his past life, he bewails what cannot now be avoided, charges himself with folly and madness, and wishes, though to no purpose, that he had done many things which he has omitted, and avoided those sins, together with the occasions of them, which he has committed, the guilt of which lies with great weight upon him. How glad would he be if lost seasons and opportunities of grace might be recalled, and the talents which were once put into his hand, though misimproved, regained ! But all these wishes are in vain. These, how- ever, are the after-thoughts which will arise in the minds of those who are brought under a sense of sin. Sin wounds the soul. The Spirit of God, when convincing of it, opens the wound, and causes a person to feel the smart of it, and gives him to know that ' it is an evil thing, and bitter, that he has forsaken the Lord his God.'1 This sometimes depresses the spirits, and causes him to walk softly, to • sit alone and keep silence, 'm being filled with an uneasiness which is very afflictive to him. At other times it gives vent to itself in tears, ' I am weary, ' says the psalmist, ' with my groaning ; all the night make I my bed to swim ; I water my couch with my tears.'11 In this case, the only thing which gives the penitent relief or comfort is, that the guilt of sin is removed by the blood of Christ, which tends to quiet his spirit, which would otherwise be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. We may add that sin is always the object of his detestation, even when there is an abatement of that grief which, by the divine supports and comforts, he is protected against. He hates sin, not merely because of the sad consequences of it, but as it is in itself the object of abhorrence. His heart is hence set against all sin ; as the psalmist says, ' I hate every false way.'0 This hatred discovers itself by putting him upon fleeing from it, together with all the occasions of it, or incentives to it. He not only abstains from those sins which they who have little more than the remains of moral virtue are ashamed of and afraid to commit, but hates every thing which has the appearance of sin ; and this hatred is irreconcilable. As for- giveness does not make sin less odious in its own nature ; so whatever experience he has of the grace of God in forgiveness, or whatever measure of peace he enjoys, whereby his grief and sorrow are assuaged, his hatred of sin not only remains but increases. 2. He, therefore, turns from sin unto God. He first hates sin, and then flees from it ; seeing it to be the spring of all his grief and fears,— that which separates between him and his God. Thus Ephraim, when brought to repentance, and re- flecting with a kind of indignation on his past conduct, when addicted to idols, is represented as saying, • What have I to do any more with idols ?'c So the true penitent, who has hitherto been walking in those paths which lead to death and de- struction, now inquires after the way of holiness, and the paths of peace. As he has hitherto walked contrary to God, now he desires to walk with him ; and having wearied himself in the greatness of his way, and seeing no fruit in those things 1 Jer. ii. 19. m Lam. iii. 28. n Psal. vi. 6. o Jsal. cxix 104. p Hos. xiv. & REPENTANCE. 151 whereof he is now ashamed, and being brought into the utmost straits, he deter- mines to return to his God and Father. In doing this he purposes and endeavours to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience. Accordingly, the apostle exhorts those who had received good by his ministry that, ' with purpose of heart, they would cleave unto the Lord.'i This purpose is not like those hasty resolutions which unconverted sinners make, when God is hedging up their way with thorns, and they are under the most distressing apprehensions of his wrath. Then they say as the people did to Joshua, ' We will serve the Lord ;'r though they are not sensible how difficult it is to fulfil the engagements which they lay themselves un- der, or of the deceitfulness of their own hearts, and the need they stand in of grace from God to enable them so to do. This purpose to walk with God does not so much respect what a person will do hereafter ; but it contains a resolution which is immediately put in execution ; and so is opposed to the penitent's former obsti nacy, when determining to go on in the way of his own heart. Thus the prodigal son, in the parable, no sooner resolved that he would ' arise and go to his Father,'* than he arose and went. True repentance is always attended with endeavours after new obedience ; so that a person lays aside that sloth and indolence which was inconsistent with his setting a due value on or improving the means of grace. As the result of this, he now exerts himself, with all his might, in pursuing after those things by which he may approve himself God's faithful servant. And hereby he discovers the sincerity of his repentance. This he does, or rather is enabled to do, by that grace which at first began and then carries on this work in the soul, and by which he ' has his fruit unto holiness, and the end' thereof 'everlasting life.'* Practical Inferences from the Doctrine of Repentance. 1. From what has been said we may infer that, since repentance is a grace which accompanies salvation, and consequently is absolutely necessary to it, it is an in- stance of unwarrantable and bold presumption, for impenitent sinners to expect that they shall be made partakers of the benefits which Christ has purchased, while they continue in a state of enmity, opposition, and rebellion against him, or that they shall be saved by him in their sins, without being saved .from them. For ' he that covereth his sins, shall not prosper ; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them, , shall have mercy. 'u 2. Since repentance is the work of the Spirit, and his gift, we infer that what- ever endeavours we are obliged to use, or whatever motives or inducements are given to lead us to it, we must not conclude that it is in our own power to repent when we please. It should, therefore, be the matter of our earnest and constant prayer to God, that he would turn our hearts, give us a true sight and sense of sin, accompanied with faith in Christ ; as Ephraim is represented, saying, ' Turn thou me, and I shall be turned.'1 3. Let not those who have a distressing sense of their former sins, how great so- ever they have been, give way to despairing thoughts ; but let them lay hold on the mercy of God in Christ, extended to the chief of sinners, and improve it to encour- age them, from evangelical motives, to hate sin, and forsake it. There will be a tendency to remove their fears while they look on God, not as a sin-revenging judge, but a reconciled Father, ready and willing to receive those who return to him with unfeigned repentance. 4. Since we daily commit sin, it follows that we stand in need of daily repent- ance. Moreover, repentance being a branch of sanctification, as the latter is a progressive work, so is the former. We are not to expect that sin should be wholly extirpated while we are in this imperfect state ; and therefore it is constantly to be bewailed, and by the grace of God working effectually in us. avoided ; that, in con- sequence, we may have a comfortable hope that the promise shall be fulfilled, ' They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.'* q Acts xi. 23. r Josh. xxiv. 21. s Luke xv. 18, comp. with 20. t Rom. vi. 22. u Prov. xxviii. 13. x Jer. xxxi. 18. y pga]. exxvi. 5.' 152 THE CONNECTION AND THE DIFFERENCE [Note N. Legal Convictions of Sin. — That there are " persons brought under convictions of sin, but not made partakers of the saving grace of repentance," is beyond doubt. But are we to believe that their convictions result from the work of the Holy Spirit on their soul, or, in other words, that, like all convictions which the Divine Spirit produces, they spring up in connexion with an exhibition to the mind of the work of Christ and the plan of mercy ? To discuss this question here would only be to repeat in substance what was said in a former note, under the title " Common Grace." But I may remark that when the Saviour spake of the Comforter coming to reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, he added, ' He will guide you into all truth ; * * * he shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you,' — that when, through the prophet Zechariah, he promised to pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications, he said, * They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him,' — that the inspired comment upon the declaration, ' I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,' points us to the scenes of the day of Pentecost when ' all were rilled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance,' and when, in connexion with the exhibition of Christ as the Saviour, men not only were ■ goaded in their heart,' but ' received the word gladly,' — and that, in general throughout the scrip- tures, the economical work of the Divine Spirit is represented as a work of grace and a work con- nected with salvation, while such conviction of sin as he produces is exhibited as resulting by means of a disclosure to the mind, not only of the claims of the divine law, but of the mediatorial work of the Redeemer. Convictions of sin, therefore, which are not attended with the saving grace of re- pentance, would seem to arise wholly from the effects of God's general moral administration, making impression upon man's natural conscience. They are, accordingly, found to be experienced by men in all varieties of circumstances, — not only as enjoying the ministration of the gospel and its or- dinances, but as living amidst the ignorance and stupidities of heathenism. Mere conscience, when roused by peculiar occurrences, has proverbially an agitating and even terrific power ; and it pro- duces or entertains convictions of sin, self-accusations of guilt, which, whether weak or strong, are distinguished from the hallowing convictions produced by the operation of the Holy Spirit, just by their being unaccompanied with ' the saving grace of repentance.' While conviction accompanied with grace is just repentance, or a part of it, conviction unaccompanied with grace is unmingled self-accusation or remorse. Hence, persons who experience the latter may be to the full^as miser- able as Dr. Ridgeley describes. It is doubtful, however, whether the passage which he quotes has reference to the misery arising from their convictions : ' The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.' The words would rather seem to describe the wretchedness arising from the depravity of their nature, — the turbulence and tempestuousness of their unholy passions, — the tumult and agitation of proud and angry tempers, and of ungovernable and rabid lusts, which continually cast up, in the thoughts and conduct, pollution and vfleness and every thing at war with tranquillity or repose Ed.] THE CONNECTION AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JUSTI- FICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. Question LXXV1I. Wherein do Justification and Sanctification differ f Answer. Although Sanctification be inseparably joined with Justification ; yet they differ, in that God, in Justification, imputeth the righteousness of Christ; in Sanctification, his Spirit infuseth grace, and enableth to the exercise thereof; in the former sin is pardoned, in the other it is sub- dued ; the one doth equally free all believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall into condemnation, the other is neither equal in all, nor in this life perfect in any, but growing up to perfection. Tms Answer being principally a recapitulation of what is contained in those which have been already insisted on, wherein the doctrine of justification and sanctifica- tion are particularly explained, we shall not much enlarge on it. But as there are some who suppose that one of these graces may be attained without the other ; and as others confound them, as though to be justified and to be sanctified implied the same thing ; we shall briefly consider, first, what is supposed in this Answer, namely, that justification and sanctification are inseparably joinod together, and next, what is directly contained in the Answer, namely, somo things in which justi- fication and sanctification differ. The Connection between Justification and Sanctification. Sanctification and justification are inseparably joined together ; so that no one has a warrant to claim the one without the other. This appears from the fact that they are graces which accompany salvation. When the apostle connects justilica- BETWEEN JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 153 tion and effectual calling together in the golden chain of our salvation,2 he includes sanctification in this calling. Elsewhere, when Christ is said to be ' made righte- ousness and redemption' to us for our justification, he is, at the same time, said to be made 'wisdom and sanctification. 'a We are also said to be 'saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, ' b which is the beginning of the work of sanctification, 'that, being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.' Speaking of some who were once great sinners, and afterwards made true believers, the apostle says, that they were 'washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.'c And when God promises to pardon and ' pass by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage,' d he also gives them ground to expect that he would ' subdue their iniquities.' The former of these he does in justification ; the latter, in sanctification. From the connection which there is between justification and sanctification, we infer that no one has ground to conclude that his sins are pardoned, and that he shall be saved, while he is in an unsanctified state. For as such a supposition tends to turn the grace of God into wantonness ; so it separates what he has joined together, and, in those who entertain it, is a certain evidence that they are neither justified nor sanctified. Let us therefore give diligence to evince the truth of our justification, by our sanctification ; or that we have a right and title to Christ's righteousness, by the life of faith, and the exercise of all those other graces which accompany or flow from it. The Difference between Justification and Sanctification. We have, in this Answer, an account of some things in which justification and sanctification differ. 1. ' In justification God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us ; whereas, in sanctification the Spirit inmseth grace and enableth to the exercise thereof.' What it is for God to impute Christ's righteousness has been already considered. We shall at present, therefore, make only one additional remark. The righteousness whereby we are justified is, without us, wrought out by Christ for us, — so that it is 'by his obedience,' as the apostle expresses it, that 'we are made righteous ;'e and that which Christ did as our surety, is placed to our account and accepted by the justice of God as if it had been done by us. In sanctification, on the other hand, the graces of the Spirit are wrought and excited in us ; and we are denomi- nated holy, and our right to eternal life is evinced, though not procured. 2. In justification sin is pardoned ; in sanctification it is subdued. The former takes away its guilt ; the latter its reigning power. When sin is pardoned, it shall not be our ruin ; yet it gives us daily disturbance and uneasiness, makes work for repentance, and is to be opposed by our dying to it, and living to righteousness. This is, therefore, sufficiently distinguished from justification ; which is also to be considered as a motive or inducement leading to it. 3. Justification equally frees all believers from the avenging wrath of God, in which respect it is perfect in this life, so that a justified person shall never fall into condemnation ; whereas, the work of sanctification is not equal in all, not perfect in this life, but growing up to perfection. For understanding this, let us consider that when we speak of justification as perfect in this life, or say that all are equally justified, we mean that when God forgives one sin, he forgives all ; so that, as the apostle says, ' there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. 'f And he adds, ' Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? it is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? it is Christ that died.'s Were it not so, a person might be said to be justified, and not have a right to eternal life, which implies a contradiction ; for though he might be acquitted, as to the guilt charged upon him by one indictment, he would be condemned by that which is contained in another. We may hence infer, that all justified persons have an equal right to z Rom. viii. 30. a 1 Cor. i. 31. b Tit. iii. 5. c 1 Cor. vi. 11. d Micah vii. 18, 19. e Rom. v. 19. f Chap. viii. 1. g Verses 33, 34. II. U 154 THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCT1FICAT10N. conclude themselves discharged from guilt, and the condemning sentence of the law of God ; though all cannot see their right to claim this privilege by reason of the weakness of their faith. Sanctihcation, on the other hand, is far from being equal in all ; for the best of believers have reason to complain of the weakness of their faith, and the imperfection of all other graces which are wrought in them by the Spirit. If it be inquired whence this imperfection of sanctification arises, a reply will be given under the following Answer. THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCTIFICATION. QUESTION LXXVIII. Whence ariseth the imperfection of sanctification in believers? Answer. The imperfection of sanctification in believers ariseth from the remnants of sin abiding in everv part of them, and the perpetual 1 listings of the flesh against the spirit, whereby they are often foiled with temptations, and fall into many sins, are hindered in all their spiritual services, and their best works are imperfect and defiled in the sight of God. In this Answer, we may consider, first, that there is something supposed, namely, that the work of sanctification is imperfect in this life, or that there are the rem- nants of sin still abiding in the best of men ; secondly, in what the imperfection of sanctification more especially discovers itself, and in particular, what we are to understand by the lusting of the flesh against the spirit ; and thirdly, the conse- quences of this, namely, their being foiled with temptations, falling into many sins, and being hindered in their spiritual services. The Imperfection of Believers. The thing supposed in this Answer, that the work of sanctification is imperfect in this life, must be allowed by all who are not strangers to themselves. It is said, ' There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.'h Fine gold is not without a mixture of some baser metal or alloy ; even so, our best frames of spirit, when we think ourselves nearest heaven, or when we have most communion with God, are not without a tincture of indwelling sin, which is easy to be discerned in us. Whatever grace we exercise, there are some defects attending it, with re- spect either to the manner of its exerting itself, or to the degree of it. Perfection, therefore, how desirable soever it be, is a blessing which we cannot at present attain to. And if it be thus with us when at the best, we shall find that, at other times, corrupt nature not only discovers itself, but gives us great interruption and disturb- ance ; so that the work of sanctification seems to be, as it were, at a stand, and we are induced to question the truth and sincerity of our graces. If, notwithstanding this, we have sufficient ground to conclude that our hearts are right with God ; we are still obliged to say with the apostle, that we are ' carnal, sold under sin, ' and that, 'when we would do good, evil is present with us.'' This is an undeniable proof of the imperfection ot the work of sanctification. The contrary opinion is maintained by many ; who pretend that perfection is attainable in this life. To gain countenance to their opinion, they refer to some scriptures in which persons are characterized as 4 perfect ' men, and to others in which perfection is represented as a duty incumbent on us. Thus our Saviour says, ' Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect ;'k and the apos- tle, in his valedictory exhortation to the church, advises them to ' be perfect,' as well as ' of one mind,' as they expected that the God of love and peace should be with them.1 These scriptures, however, speak not of a sinless perfection, but of such a pertection as is opposed to hypocrisy ; as Hezekiah says concerning himself, that he had ' walked before the Lord in truth, and with a perfect heart. 'm The perfection of those who are thus described in scripture, is explained as denoting their uprightness. h Eccl. vii. 20. i Rom. vii. 14, compared with 21. k Matt. v. 48. 1 2 Cor. xiii. II. m isa. xxxviii. 3. THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCTIFICATION. 155 Thus Job is described as ' a perfect and upright man, one that feared God and eschew- ed evil ;'n though he elsewhere disclaims anj pretensions to a sinless perfection, and says, ' If I say I am perfect, mine own mouth shall prove me perverse.' ° So when Noah is said to have been ' perfect in his generations, ' the statement is explained as denoting that he was a 'just ' or an ' holy man,' and one that ' walked with God.'? As for scriptures which speak of perfection as a duty incumbent on us, they are to be understood, not concerning a perfection of degrees, but concerning the perfection of grace, as to those essential parts of it without which it could not be denominated true and genuine. True grace is perfect indeed, as it contains those necessary in- gredients whereby an action is denominated good in all its circumstances, in opposi- tion to that which is so only in some respects ; and therefore it must proceed from a good principle, a heart renewed by regenerating grace ; it must be agreeable to the rule which God has prescribed in the gospel, and be performed in a right man- ner and for right ends. Thus a person may be said to be a perfect man, just as a new-born infant is denominated a man, as having all the essential perfections of the human nature, though not arrived at that perfection, in other respects, to which it shall afterwards attain. Accordingly, grace, when described in scripture as perfect, is sometimes explained by a metaphorical allusion to a state of perfect manhood, in opposition to that of children. In this manner the apostle speaks of some, whom he represents as ' being of full age,' — where the same word is used ' which is else- where rendered ' perfect ;' and these he opposes to others whom he had been speak- ing of as weak believers, or 'babes ' in Christ.1" Elsewhere also he speaks of the church, which he styles ' the body of Christ,' as arrived at a state of manhood, and so calls it ' a perfect man,' which had attained ' the measure of the stature of the ful- ness of Christ ' — still alluding to that stature at which persons arrive when they are adult ; and these he opposes in the following words, to children, who, through the weakness of their faith, were liable to be ' tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.'3 Moreover, in other places where Christians are described as perfect, there is a word used which signifies their having that internal furniture whereby they are prepared or disposed to do what is good. Thus the apostle speaks of 'the man of God ' being ' perfect,' * that is, ' throughly furnished unto all good works.'" Elsewhere also he prays for those to whom he writes, that God would 'make them perfect in,' or for, ' every good work,' to the end 'that they may do his will.'1 This is such a perfection as is necessary to our putting forth any act of grace ; and therefore does not in the least infer that perfection which they plead for whom we are now opposing. Indeed, they take occasion to defend their doctrine, not merely from the sense they give of those scriptures which speak of persons being perfect, — which they can- not but suppose may be otherwise understood ; but the main thing from which they defend it is the opinion that God does not require sinless perfection of fallen man, inasmuch as that is impossible, — and that therefore he calls that perfection which includes our using those endeavours to lead a good life which are in our own power. This opinion is agreeable to the Pelagian scheme, and to that which the Papists maintain ; who make farther advances on the Pelagian hypothesis, and assert, not only that men may attain perfection in this life, but that they may arrive at such a degree of it as exceeds the demands of the law, and perform works of supereroga- tion. This doctrine is calculated to establish that of justification by works. What may be alleged in opposition to it is, that it is disagreeable to the divine perfections, and a notorious making void of the law of God, to assert that our obligation to yield perfect obedience ceases, because we have lost our power to perform it ; as though a person's being insolvent, were a sufficient excuse for his not paying a just debt. We must distinguish between God's demanding perfect obedience as an outstanding debt, which is consistent with the glory of his holiness and sovereignty as a law- giver ; and his determining that we shall not be saved, unless we perform it in our ii Job i. 1, compared with 8. o Cliap. ix. 20. p Gen. vi. 9. q TtXuei. r l!< t>. v. 13, i4. s Eph. iv. 13, 14. t Ajt/«,-. u 2 Tim. iii. 17. x The word is xarafrirai; which signifies to give them an internal disposition or fitness for the performance oi the duties which they were to engage in. lleb. xiii. 21. 156 THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCTIFICATION. own persons. Wo also distinguish between his connecting a right to eternal life with our performing perfect obedience, as what he might justly insist on according to the tenor of the first covenant, as our Saviour tells the young man in the gospel, ' If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments ;'? and his resolving that we shall not be saved, unless we are able to perform it. The gospel proposes another expedient, namely, that they who were obliged to yield perfect obedience, and ought to be humbled for their inability to perform it, should depend on Christ's righteous- ness, which is the foundation of their right to eternal life ; in which respect they are said to be perfect or 4 complete in him.'z This is the only just notion of per- fection, as attainable in this life. To conclude this Head, it is very unreasonable for a person to suppose that God will abate some part of the debt of perfect obe- dience, and so to call our performing those works which have many imperfections adhering to them, a state of perfection. To do this, is to make it an easier matter to be a Christian than God has made it. Thus concerning the thing supposed in this Answer, namely, that the work of sanctification is imperfect in this life. Why Believers are allowed to be Imperfect. But before we pass to another subject, we shall inquire why God does not bring this work to perfection at once ; which he could easily have done, and, as is cer- tain, will do when he brings the soul to heaven. Now, let it be considered in gen- eral, that it is not meet for us to say unto God, Why dost thou thus ? especially considering that this, as well as many of his other works, is designed to display the glory of his sovereignty ; which very eminently appears in the beginning, carrying on, and perfecting the work of grace. We may as well ask the reason, why he did not begin the work of sanctification sooner, or why he makes use of this or that instrument or means rather than another to effect it. These things are to be resolved into his own pleasure. But as it is evident that he does not bring this work to perfection in this world, we may adore his wisdom in this arrangement, as well as his sovereignty. 1. Hereby he gives his people occasion to exercise repentance and godly sorrow for their former sins committed before they were converted. Perfect holiness would admit of no occasion to bring past sins to remembrance ; but when we sin daily, and have daily need of the exercise of repentance and godly sorrow, we have occasion to entertain a more sensible view of past sins. When corrupt nature dis- covers itself in those who are converted, they take occasion to consider how they have been transgressors from the womb. Thus David, when he repented of his sin in the matter of Uriah, at the same time that he aggravated the guilt of this crime as it justly deserved, he called to mind his former sins from his very infancy, and charged that guilt upon himself which he brought into the world : ' Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.'a And when Job considers God's afflictive providences towards him, as designed to bring sin to remembrance, and desires that he would 'make him to know his transgression and his sin ;' he adds, ' Thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniqui- ties of my youth. 'b Sins committed after conversion were brought to mind, and ordered as a means to humble him for those which were committed before it. As for sius committed before conversion, they cannot, till he who has committed them be converted, be said to be truly repented of ; for to say that they can would be to suppose the grace of repentance antecedent to conversion. Hence, if the work of sanctification were to be immediately brought to perfection, perfect holiness would here be as much attended with perfect happiness as it is in heaven, and consequently godly sorrow would be no more exercised on earth than it is there. But God, in or- dering the gradual progress of the work of sanctification, attended with the remains of sin, gives occasion to many humbling reflections, tending to excite unfeigned repentance, not only for sins committed after they had experienced the grace of God, but for those great lengths they ran in sin before they tasted that the Lord was gracious. On this account, he does not bring the work of sanctification to perfection in this present world. y Matt xix. 16. z Col. ii. 10. a Psal. li. 5. b Job xiii. 23, 26. THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCTIFICATION. 157 2. Another reason of this dispensation of providence is, that believers, from their own experience of the breakings forth of corruption, together with the guilt they contract thereby, and the advantage they receive in gaining any victory over it, may be qualified to administer suitable advice and warning to those who are in a state of unregeneracy, that they may be persuaded to see the evil of sin, which at present they do not. 3. God farther orders this, that he may give occasion to his people to exercise a daily conflict with indwelling sin. He suffers it to give them great disturbance and uneasiness, that they may be induced to endeavour to mortify it, and be found in the exercise of such graces as are adapted to an imperfect state. These graces cannot be exercised in heaven ; nor could they be exercised on earth, were believers to be brought into a sinless state and remain in it while here ; particularly there could not be any acts of faith, in managing that conflict whereby they endeavour to stand their ground while exposed to the difficulties which arise from the per- petual lustings of the flesh against the spirit. How the Imperfection of Sanctification is displayed. We are now led to inquire in what the imperfection of sanctification more especially discovers itself. This it does in the weakness of every grace which we are at any time enabled to act, and in the many failures we are chargeable with in the perfor- mance of every duty incumbent upon us ; so that, as appears from what was said under a former Head concerning perfection as not attainable in this life, if an exact scrutiny were made into our best actions, and they weighed in the balance, they would be found very defective. But the imperfection of sanctification more parti- cularly appears, as is observed in this Answer, from the perpetual lustings of the flesh against the spirit. Thus the apostle speaks of ' the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,'0 and of the contrariety of the one to the other, ' so that we cannot do the things that we would ;' and he points himself out as an instance when he says, ' I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing ; for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. The good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I do. 'd This reluctance and opposition to what is good, he lays to the charge of sin which dwelt in him, which he considers as having, as it were, the force of a law. In par- ticular, he styles it 'the law of his members warring against the law of his mind ;' which is the same thing as the lusting of the flesh against the spirit. It hence appears that, when God implants a principle of grace in regeneration, and carries on the work of sanctification in believers, he does not wholly destroy or root out those habits of sin which were formerly in the soul, but enables us to militate against and overcome them by his implanting and exciting a principle of grace. Hence arises this conflict which we are to consider. Indwelling sin is constantly opposing the principle of grace ; but it does not always prevail against it. The event or success of this combat is various, at dif- ferent times. When corrupt nature prevails, the principle of grace, -though not wholly extinguished, remains inactive, or does not exert itself as at other times. All grace becomes languid, and there appears but little difference between the be- liever and an unbeliever. He falls into very great sins, whereby he wounds his own conscience, grieves the Holy Spirit, and makes sad work for a bitter repent- ance, which will afterwards follow. But as the principle of spiritual life and grace is not wholly lost, it will some time or other be excited, and then will oppose the flesh or the corruption of nature, and maintain its ground against it ; and, as the result, those acts of grace will be again put forth which were before suspended. Having thus given an account of the conflict between indwelling sin and grace, we shall now more particularly show how the habits of sin exert themselves in those who are unregenerate, where there is no principle of grace to oppose them, and then how they exert themselves in believers, what opposition is made to them by the c Gal. v. 19. d Rom. vii. 18—23. 158 THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCTIFICATION. principle of grace in them, and how it comes to pass that sometimes the one prevails, and sometimes the other. 1. We shall consider those violent efforts which are made by corrupt nature, in those who are unregenerate. Though there is no principle of grace in such per- sons to enable them to withstand these ; yet they have a conflict in their own spirits. There is something in nature which, for a time, keeps them from comply- ing with temptations to the greatest sins ; though the flesh, or that propensity which is in them to sin, will prevail at last, and lead them from one degree of im- piety to another, unless prevented by the grace of God. Here the conflict is be- tween corrupt nature and an enlightened conscience. This is the case more especially in those who have had the advantage of a religious education, and the good example of some whom they have conversed with, whereby they have con- tracted some habits of moral virtue which are not immediately extinguished. It is not an easy matter to persuade them to commit those gross and scandalous sins which others, whose minds are blinded, and whose hearts are hardened to a greater degree by the deceitfulness of sin, commit with greediness and without remorse. The principles of education are not immediately broken through ; for in this case men meet with a great struggle in their own breasts, before they entirely lose them ; and they proceed, by various steps, from one degree of wickedness to an- other.6 A breach is first made in the fence, and afterwards widened by a continu- ance in the same sins, or by committing new ones, especially such as have in them a greater degree of presumption. The individual is hence 'disposed to comply with temptations to greater sins ; though it would be to no purpose to tempt him to be openly profane, blaspheme the name of God, or cast off all external forms of reli- gion, and abandon himself to those immoralities which the most notoriously wicked and profligate sinners commit without shame, till he has paved the way to them by the commission of other sins which lead to them. That which at first prevents or restrains him from the commission of them, is something short of a principle of grace : we call it the dictates of natural conscience, which often checks and reproves him. His natural temper or disposition is not at present so far vitiated as to allow of anything which is openly vile and scandalous, or to incline him to pursue it. He abhors it, and, as it were, trembles at the thought of it. Thus, when Hazael was told by the prophet Elisha of all the evil which he would do to the children of Israel, that he would ' set their strongholds on fire, slay their young men with the sword, dash their children, and rip up their women with child,' he entertained the thought with a kind of abhorrence, and said, ' But what! is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing ?'f Yet afterwards, when king of Syria, we find him of another mind ; for he was a greater scourge to the people of God than any of the neighbouring princes, and ' smote them in all the coasts of Israel.'? Now, that which prevents these greater sins is generally fear or shame. Men's consciences terrify them with the thoughts of the wrath of God to which they would expose themselves by committing them ; or they are apprehensive that such a course of life would blast their reputation amongst men, and be altogether inconsistent with that form of godliness which they have had a liking to from their childhood. But as these restraints do not proceed from the internal and powerful influence of regenerating grace, being excited by lower motives than those which the Spirit of God suggests in those who are converted, ■ — as natural conscience is the main restraint, corrupt nature first endeavours to counteract its dictates, ami by degrees gets the mastery over them. When con- science reproves the transgressors, they first offer a bribe to it by performing some moral duties to silence its accusations for presumptuous sins, and pretend that their crime falls short of those committed by many others. At other times, they com- plain of its being too strict in its demands of duty, or severe in its reproofs for sin. If all this will not prevail against it, and if it still perform the office of a faithful reprover, the sinner resolves to stop his ears against convictions. If even this will e It is a true observation which some have laid down in this known aphorism, ■ Nemo repente fit turpissimus.' f 2 Kings viii. 12, 13. U Chap. x. 32. THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCTIFICATION. 159 not altogether prevent his being made uneasy, he betakes himself to those diversions which may give another turn to his thoughts ; he will not allow himself time for serious reflection ; he associates with those whose conversation will effectually tend to extinguish all his former impressions of moral virtue. By this means ho at last stupifies his conscience, so that it becomes, as the apostle expresses it, 'seared with a hot iron ;'h and so he gets, as I may express it, a fatal victory over himself, and henceforth meets with no reluctance or opposition in his own breast, while, ' being past feeling, he gives himself over unto lasciviousness, to work uncleanness ' and all manner of ' iniquity with greediness.'1 2. We are now led to consider the conflict which is between the flesh and the spirit in those in whom the work of sanctification is begun. Here we shall first observe the lustings of the flesh ; and then the opposition it meets with from the principle of grace implanted and excited in them, which is called the lusting of the spirit against it. Now, as to corrupt nature exerting itself in believers to prevent the actings of grace, what gives occasion to it is the Spirit's withdrawing his powerful influences ; which, when the soul is favoured with them, have a tendency to prevent those pernicious conse- quences which otherwise ensue. God withdraws these powerful influences some- times in a way of sovereignty, to show the believer that it is not in his own power to avoid sin when he will, or that he cannot, without the aids of divine grace, with- stand those temptations which are offered to him to commit it. Or God withdraws these influences with a design to let him know what is in his heart, to give him occasion to humble him for past sins or present miscarriages, and to make him more watchful for the future. — Again, there are some things which present them- selves in an objective way, which are as so many snares laid to entangle him. Cor- rupt nature makes a bad improvement of these ; so that his natural constitution is more and more vitiated by giving way to sin, and defiled by the remains of sin which dwelleth in him. The temptation is generally adapted to the corrupt inclination of his nature, and Satan has a hand in it. Thus, if his natural temper incline him to be proud or ambitious, immediately the honours and applause of the world are presented to him ; and he never wants examples of those who, in an unlawful way, have gained a great measure of esteem in the world, and made themselves consi- derable in the stations in which they have been placed. If he is naturally addicted to pleasures, of what kind soever they be, something is offered which is agreeable to corrupt nature, and which seems delightful to it, though it is in itself sinful. If he is more than ordinarily addicted to covetousness, the profits and advantages of the world are presented as a bait to corrupt nature, and groundless fears are raised in him of being reduced to poverty, which, by an immoderate pursuit after the world, he is tempted to guard against. If his natural constitution inclines him to resent injuries, Satan has always his instruments ready at hand to stir up his corruption and provoke him to wrath, by offering either real or supposed injuries; magnifying the former beyond their due bounds, or inferring the latter without duly consider- ing the design of those whose innocent behaviour sometimes gives occasion to them, and, at the same time, overcharging his thoughts with them as though no expedient could be found to atone for them. If his natural constitution inclines him to sloth and inactivity, the difficulties of religion are set before him to discourage him from the exercise of that diligence which is necessary to surmount them. If, on the other hand, his natural temper leads him to be courageous and resolute, corrupt nature endeavours to make him self-confident, and thereby to weaken his trust in God. Or if he is naturally inclined to fear, something is offered to him which may tend to his discouragement, and to sink him into despair. These are the methods used by the flesh, when lusting against the spirit. Let us next consider the opposition of the spirit to the flesh, or how the principle of grace in believers inclines them to make a stand against indwelling sin, which is called the lusting of the spirit against the flesh. The grace of God, when wrought in the heart in regeneration, is not an inactive principle ; for it soon exerts itself, being excited by the power of the Spirit, who implanted it. There henceforth is, or ought to be, a constant opposition made by it to corrupt nature. This is the h 1 Tim. iv. 2. i Eph. iv. 19. 160 THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCT1FICATION. case, not only as the believer, with unfeigned repentance, mourns on account of corrupt nature, and exercises that self-abhorrence which the too great prevalence of it calls for ; but as it leads him to implore help from God against it, by whose assistance he endeavours to subdue the corrupt motions of the flesh, or, as the apostle expresses it, to ' mortify the deeds of the body, 'k that, in consequence, they may not be entertained, or prove injurious and destructive to him. Moreover, as there is something objective, as well as subjective, in this work, since the power of God never excites the principle of grace without presenting objects for it to be con- versant about ; so there are several things suggested to the soul which, if duly weighed and improved, are a means conducive to its being preserved from a com- pliance with the corrupt motions of indwelling sin. These are of a superior nature to those made use of by an enlightened conscience, in unregenerate persons, to prevent their committing the vilest abominations. Indeed, they are such — espe- cially some of them — as, from the nature of the thing, can be used by none but those in whom the work of grace is begun. Accordingly, a believer considers not onlv the glorious excellencies and perfections of Christ, which he is now duly sen- sible of, as he is said to be precious to them that believe ; but he is also affected with the manifold engagements which he has been laid under to love him, and to hate and oppose every thing which is contrary to his glory and interest. The love of Christ constraineth him ; and therefore he abhors the thoughts of being so un- grateful and disingenuous as he would appear to be, should he fulfil the lusts of the flesh. The sense of redeeming love and grace is deeply impressed on his soul. He calls to mind how he has been quickened, effectually called, and brought into the way of peace and holiness ; and therefore cannot entertain any thoughts of relaps- ing or returning again to folly. Here he considers the great advantage which he has received ; which he would not lose on any terms. The delight which he has had in the ways of God and godliness, has been so great, that corrupt nature can- not produce any thing which may be an equivalent for the loss of it. He is very sensible that the more closely he has walked with God, the more comfortably he has walked. Besides, he looks forward, and, by faith, takes a view of the blessed issue of the life of grace, or of those reserves of glory which are laid up for him in another world ; and he is, in consequence, inclined to cast the utmost contempt on every thing which has the least tendency to induce him to relinquish or abandon his interest in them. — Again, he considers and improves the bright examples which are set before him to encourage him to go on in the way of holiness ; takes Christ himself for a pattern, endeavouring, so far as he is able, to follow him ; walks as they have done who have not only stood their ground, but come off victorious in the conflict, and are reaping the blessed fruits and effects of victory. He also con- siders as an inducement to him to oppose the corrupt motions of the flesh, that he has by faith, as his own act and deed, in the most solemn manner, given up himself to Christ entirely, and without reserve, and professed his obligation to obey him in all things, and to avoid whatever has a tendency to displease him. He hence reckons that he is not his own, or at his own disposal, but Christ's, whose he is, by a double right, not only as purchased by him, but as devoted and consecrated to him. He therefore says with the apostle, ' How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?'1 He communes with himself to this effect: ' I have given up my name to Christ ; and I have not, since doing so, seen the least reason to repent of what I did. I have not found the least iniquity in him, neither has he been a hard master ; but, on the other hand, he has expressed the greatest tenderness and compassion to me ; and to his grace alone it is owing that I am what I am. Shall I, then, abandon his interest, or prove a deserter at last, and turn aside into the enemy's camp? Is there any thing which can be proposed as a sufficient motive for my doing so ?' Such thoughts as these, through the prevail- ing influence of the principle of grace implanted and excited by the Spirit, are an effectual means to keep him from a sinful compliance with the motions of the flesh, and to excite him to make the greatest resistance against them. We have thus considered the opposition which there is between the flesh and the k Rom. viii. 13. 1 Chap. vi. 2. THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCTIFICATION. 161 spirit, and how each of these prevails bj turns. We might now observe the con- sequence of the victory obtained on either side. When grace prevails, all things tend to promote our spiritual peace and joy ; and we are fortified against tempta- tions, and not only enabled to stand our ground, but made more than conquerors through him that loved us. But it is not always so with a believer. He some- times finds that corrupt nature prevails ; and then many sad consequences follow, which not only occasion the loss of the peace and joy which he had before, but ex- pose him to many troubles which render his life very uncomfortable. The Consequences of the Prevailing Power of Indwelling Sin. We are thus led to consider what are the consequences of the prevailing power of indwelling sin. When the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and God is pleased to withhold his grace, the soul is subjected to many evils. These are mentioned in the remaining part of this Answer. 1. A believer is foiled with temptation. Satan, by this means, gains ground against him, and pursues the victory which the flesh has obtained against the spirit. His conflicts are now doubled, arising, as the apostle expresses it, not only from ' flesh and blood, ' but from ' the rulers of the darkness of this world. 'm His difficulties increase upon him ; his enemies are more insulting, and he less able to stand his ground against them ; his faith is weakened, and his fears are increasing, so that he is perpetually subject to bondage. Sometimes he is inclined to think that he shall one day fall, and that whatever he formerly thought he had gained will be lost by the assaults of his spiritual enemies. At other times he is disposed to question whether ever he had the truth of grace or not. In this case his spirit must needs be filled with the greatest perplexity, and almost overwhelmed within him. He is destitute of that boldness or liberty of access to the throne of grace, and that comfortable sense of his interest in Christ, which once he had ; and he finds it very difficult to recover those lively frames which he has lost, or to stand his ground against the great opposition made by corrupt nature, which still in- creases as faith grows weaker. 2. Another consequence of the power of indwelling sin, is the believer's fall- ing into many sins. We are not to suppose, indeed, that he shall be so far left as to fall into a state ol unregeneracy, or lose the principle of grace which was implanted in regeneration. Yet when this principle does not exert itself, and cor- rupt nature, on the other hand, is prevalent, it is hard to say how far he will run into the commission of known and wilful sins. As for sins of infirmity, they can- not be avoided, when we are in the best frame. But in this case we shall find a person committing presumptuous sins, so that if we were to judge of his state by his present frames, without considering the former experiences which he had of the grace of God, we should be ready to question whether his heart were right with God. Sins of omission generally follow. He cannot draw nigh to God with that frame of spirit which he once had, and therefore is ready to say, ' What profit should I have if I pray unto him?'n and sometimes concludes that he contracts guilt by attempting to engage in holy duties. We may add, as is farther observed in this Answer, that he is hindered in all his spiritual services. Thus the apostle says, ' When I would do good, evil is present with me.'0 He finds his heart disposed to wander from God, and his thoughts taken up with vanity. On this account it may be truly said, that his best works are not only imperfect, but defiled in the sight of God, who searcheth the heart, and observes the various steps by which it treach- erously departs from him. Nor can the believer find any way to recover himself till God is pleased to revive his work, take away the guilt which he has contracted, recover him out of the snare into which he has fallen, and so cause the work oi grace again to flourish in the soul as it once did. Practical Inferences from the Imperfect State of Believers. We shall conclude with some inferences from what has been said concerning the m Epb. vi. 12. n Job xxi. 15. o Rom. vii. 21. II. X 162 THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCTIFICATION. imperfection of sanctification in believers, together with the reasons and conse- quences of it. 1. Since sinless perfection is not attainable in this life, we should take occasion to give a check to our censorious thoughts concerning persons or things, so as not to determine persons to be in an unconverted state, because they are chargeable with many sinful infirmities, which are not inconsistent with the truth of grace. Some abatements are to be made for their being sanctified but in part, and having the remnants of sin in them. Indeed, the greatest degree of grace which can be attained here, comes far short of that which the saints have arrived at in heaven. Accordingly, the difference between a believer and an unregenerate sinner does not consist in the one being perfect and the other imperfect ; for when we consider the brightest characters given of any in scripture, their blemishes as well as their graces are recorded, so that none but our Saviour could challenge the world to convict or reprove them of sin. The apostle speaks of Elias, as ' a man subject to like passions as we are ;'p and he might have spoken similarly of many others. Hence, when we are sensible of our own imperfections, we ought to inquire whether the spots we find in ourselves are like the spots of God's children ? or whether our infirmities may be reckoned consistent with the truth of grace ? Should we be able to draw a favour- able conclusion, then, though it affords matter for humiliation that we are liable to any sinful failures or defects, it will be some encouragement to us, and matter of thanksgiving to God, that notwithstanding this our hearts are right with him. That we may be, in some measure, satisfied as to this matter, we must distin- guish between a person's being tempted to the greatest sins which are inconsistent with the truth of grace, and his complying with the temptation. A temptation of this kind may offer itself ; and, at the same time, grace may exert itself in an eminent degree, by the opposition which it makes to it, whether it arises from indwelling sin or from Satan. — Again, when we read of some sins which are incon- sistent with the truth of grace, such as those which the apostle speaks of, when he says that ' neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God, '•* and elsewhere, that ' the fearful and unbelieving,' as well as those who are guilty of other notorious crimes, shall 'have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone,'1, we must distinguish between those who are guilty of these sins in a less degree than what is intended, when they are said to exclude from the kingdom of heaven ; and others who are guilty of them, in a notorious degree, with greater aggravations. Thus unbeliev- ing fears in those who are called to suffer for Christ's sake, if they do not issue in a denial of him, are not altogether inconsistent with the truth of grace, though they render a person guilty before God. The least degree of covetousness, in the same way, though it is not to be excused, does not exclude from the kingdom of hea- ven ; but the prevailing love of the world, or the immoderate pursuit of it in those who use unlawful means to attain it, or have a rooted habitual desire after it more than after Christ, or put it in his room, is to be reckoned a mark of unregen- eracy. — Further, we must distinguish between sinful infirmities, and allowed in- firmities, or those who sin through surprise, being assaulted by an unforeseen tempta- tion, when not on their guard, and those who commit the same sin with deliberation. The latter gives greater ground to fear that a person is in a state of unregeneracy than the former. — We must also distinguish between sins committed and repented of, with that degree of godly sorrow which is proportioned to their respective aggra- vations ; and the same sins committed and continued in with impenitency. The latter gives ground to conclude that a person is in an unconverted state, though not the former. The difference arises not merely from the nature of the crimes, for we suppose the sins in themselves to be the same ; but from other evidences which a person has or has not of his being in a state of grace. 2. From what has been said concerning the opposition which there is between natural conscience and corrupt nature in the unregenerate, we may infer that it is a great blessing to have a religious education, as it has a tendency to prevent many p James v. 17. q 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. r Rev. xxi. 8. THE IMPERFECTION OF SANCTIFICATION. 163 enormities which others who are destitute of it run into. They who have had this privilege ought to bless God for it, and make a right improvement of it. But as those principles which take their rise from it are liable, unless the grace of God prevent, to be overcome and lost ; let us press after something more than this, and be importunate with God, whose providence has favoured us thus far, that he would give us a better preservative against sin, or that its prevailing power may be pre- vented by converting grace. 3. From the opposition which corrupt nature makes in believers to the work of grace, we may infer that the standing of the best of men, or their not being charge- able with the greatest sins, is owing not so much to themselves as to the grace of God, by which we are what we are ; that therefore the glory of our being pre- served from such sins belongs entirely to him ; that we have reason, when we are praying against our spiritual enemies, to beg that God would deliver us from the greatest of them, namely, ourselves ; and that he who has a sovereignty over the hearts of all men, and can govern and sanctify their natural tempers and disposi- tions, would keep us from being drawn away by these ; and that we ought to walk watchfully, and be always on our guard, depending on the grace of God for help, that indwelling sin may not so far prevail as to turn aside and alienate our affections from him. 4. From what has been said concerning the flesh and the spirit prevailing by turns, we infer the uncertainty of the frame of our spirits, and what changes we are liable to, with respect to the actings of grace or the comforts which result from it. This somewhat resembles the state of man as subject to various changes with respect to the dispensations of providence ; sometimes lifted up, at other times cast down, and not abiding long in the same condition. Thus we are enabled at some times to gain advantage over indwelling sin, and enjoy the comforts which arise thence ; at other times, when the flesh prevails, the acts of grace are interrupted, and its comforts almost, if not entirely, lost. What reason have we, therefore, to bless God that, though our graces are far from being brought to perfection, and our frames so various, yet he has given us ground to conclude that grace shall not whollj he lost, and that our state, as we are justified, is not liable to the same uncertainty, so that that which interrupts the progress of sanctification does not bring us into an unjustified state, or render us liable to condemnation ? 5. From the inconveniences we sustain by the flesh prevailing against the spirit, as we are foiled by temptation, fall into sins, and are hindered in spiritual services, we infer the great hurt which sin does to those who are in a justified and sanctified state, as well as to those who are under the dominion of it. It is hence a vile and unwarrantable way of speaking to say, as some do, that because nothing shall sepa- rate them from the love of Christ, or bring those who are justified back again into an unjustified state, therefore sin can do them no hurt; as though all the consequences of the prevalency of corrupt nature, and the dishonour we bring to God, and the guilt we contract, could hardly be reckoned prejudicial. This is such a way of speaking as confutes itself in the opinion of all judicious and sober Christians. — Again, we might infer from the consequences of the prevalence of corruption, as we are liable hereby to be discouraged from duty or hindered in the performance of it, that we ought, if we find it thus with us, to take occasion to inquire whether some secret sin be not indulged and entertained by us, which gives occasion to the prevalence of corrupt nature, and for which we ought to be humbled. Or if we have lived in the omission of those duties which are incumbent on us, or have pro- voked God to leave us to ourselves, and so have had a hand in our present evils, we have occasion for great humiliation. And we ought to be very importunate with God for restoring grace, not only that our faith may not fail, but that we may be recovered out of the snare in which we are entangled, and may be brought off victorious over all our spiritual enemies. 164 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. Question I, XXIX. May not true believers, by reason of their imperfections, and the many tempta- tions and sins they are overtaken with, fall away from the state ofgrac: ? Answer. True believers, by reason of the unchangeable love of God, and his decree and cove- nant to give them perseverance, their inseparable union with Christ, his continual intercession for them, ami the Spirit and seed of God abiding in them, can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. General View of the Doctrine of Perseverance. It is natural for persons, when they enjoy any blessing, to be solicitous about their retaining it ; otherwise the pleasure which arises from it, if it is likely to be short and transitory, is rather an amusement than a solid and substantial happiness. The same may be said of those graces and privileges which believers are made par- takers of, as the fruits and effects of the death of Christ, These are undoubtedly the most valuable blessings. It hence highly concerns us to inquire whether we may assuredly conclude that we shall not lose them, and so fail of that future bless- edness which we have had so delightful a prospect of. The saints' perseverance has been denied not only by many since the Reformation, and, in particular, by Papists, Socinians, and Remonstrants, but also by the Pela- gians of old, and by all those whose sentiments bear some affinity to their scheme, or are derived from it. Indeed, when persons endeavour to establish the doctrines of conditional election, universal redemption, &c. ; or when they explain the na- ture of human liberty so as to make the grace of God to be dependent on it for its efficacy in the beginning and carrying on of the work of conversion and sanctification ; and accordingly assert, that the will has an equal power to determine itself to good or evil, — that the grace of God affords no other assistance to promote the one or guard against the other than what is objective, or, at least, than by supporting our na- tural faculties, — and, if there be any divine concourse, that it consists only in what respects the external dispensations of providence, as a remote means conducive to the end, the event depending on our own conduct or disposition to improve these means ; I say, when persons maintain these and similar doctrines, it is not to be wondered if we find them pleading for the possibility of a believer's falling totally and finally from the grace of God. They who have brought themselves into a state of grace, may apostatize or fall from it. If a man's free-will first inclined itself to exercise those graces which we call special, such as faith, repentance, love to God, &c, it follows that he may lose them and relapse to the contrary vices, and may plunge himself into the same depths of sin and misery whence he had escaped. Accord- ing to this scheme, there may be, in the course of our lives, a great many instances of defection irom the grace of God, and recovery to it, and finally, a drawing back unto perdition. Or if a person be so happy as to recover himself out of his last apostacy before he leaves the world, he is saved ; otherwise, he finally perishes. This is a doctrine which some defend ; but the contrary to it we shall endeavour to maintain, as being the subject insisted on in this Answer. But before we proceed to the defence of it, it may not be amiss to premise some- thing which may have, at least, a remote tendency to dispose us to receive convic- tion from the arguments which may be brought to prove it. We may consider that the contrary side of the question is in itself less desirable, if it could be de- fended. It is certain that the doctrine of the possibility of the saints falling from grace, tends very much to abate that delight and comfort which the believer has in the fore-views of the issue and event of his present state. It is a very melan- choly thought to consider that he who has now advanced to the very borders of heaven, may be cast down into hell ; that though he has at present an interest in the special and discriminating love of God, he may afterwards become the object of his hatred, so as never to behold his face with joy in a future world ; that, though his feet are set upon a rock, his goings are not established ; that, though he is walk- ing in a plain and safe path, he may be ensnared, entangled, and fall, so as never to rise again ; that though God is his friend, he may suffer him to fall into the PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 165 hands of his enemies, and be in consequence ruined and undone, as though his own glory were not concerned in his coming off victorious over them, or connected with the salvation of his people. Hence, as this doctrine renders the state of believ- ers very precarious and uncertain, it tends effectually to damp their joys, and blast their expectations,' and subject them to perpetual bondage ; and it is a great hin- derance to their offering praise and thanksgiving to God, whose grace is not so much magnified towards them as it would be, had they ground to conclude that the work which is now begun should certainly be brought to perfection. On the other hand, the doctrine which we are to maintain is in itself so very comfortable that, if we were at present in suspense concerning its truth, we cannot but desire that it may appear to be agreeable to the mind of God. It is certainly a very delightful thing for us to be assured, that what is at present well, shall end well ; that they who are brought to believe in Christ, shall for ever abide with him ; and that the work of grace which, at present, affords so fair and . pleasing a prospect of its being at last perfected in glory, shall not miscarry. This will have a tendency to enhance our joy in proportion to the ground we have to conclude that the work is true and gen- uine ; and it will excite our thankfulness to God, when we consider that he who is the author will also be the finisher of faith. It is certain, therefore, that this doc- trine deserves confirmation. We shall endeavour to establish our faith in it according to the following method : — First, we shall consider what we are to understand by persevering in grace, or falling from it. Secondly, we shall prove that the best believers would certainly fall from grace, were they left to themselves ; so that their perseverance in grace is principally to be ascribed to the power of God, which keeps them through faith unto salvation. Thirdly, we shall consider what ground we have to conclude that the saints shall persevere in grace ; and so explain and illustrate the several argu- ments insisted on in this Answer, and add some others taken from several scrip- tures by which this doctrine may be defended. Lastly, we shall endeavour to an- swer some objections which are generally brought against it. Explanation of the Doctrine of Perseverance. We shall consider what we are to understand by persevering in grace, or falling from it. 1. When we speak of a person as persevering in grace, we suppose that he has the truth of grace. We do not mean that a person may not fall away from a pro- fession of faith ; or that no one can lose that which we generally call common grace, which, in many things, bears a resemblance to that which is saving. We have already shown that there is a temporary faith whereby persons appear religious while their doing so comports with their secular interests ; but when they are called by reason of persecution or tribulation, which may arise for the sake of the gospel, to forego their worldly interests, or quit their pretensions to religion, they fall away, or lose that grace which, as the evangelist says,8 they * seemed to have.' We read of some whose hope of salvation is like the spider's web, or the giving up of the ghost ; but these are described not as true believers, but as hypocrites. It is beyond dispute that such may apostatize, and not only lay aside the external practice of some religious duties, but deny and oppose the doctrines of the gospel, which they once assented to the truth of. 2. It is certain that true believers may fall into very great sins ; but yet they *hall be recovered and brought again to repentance. We must distinguish, there- fore, between their dishonouring Christ, disobeying his commands, and thereby provoking him to be angry with them ; and their falling away totally from him. We formerly considered, when we proved that perfection is not attainable in this life, that the best men are sometimes chargeable with great failings and defects. Indeed, sometimes their sins are very heinously aggravated, their conversation in the mean while discovering that they are destitute of the actings of grace, and that to such a degree that they can hardly be distinguished from those who are in s Luke viii. 18. ICC) PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. an unregenerate state. It is hence one thing for a believer not to be able to put forth those acts of grace which he once did ; and another thing for him to lose the principle of grace. It would be a very preposterous thing to say, that, when David sinned in the matter of Uriah, the principle of grace exerted itself ; yet it was not wholly lost. It is not the same in this case as in the more common instances of the saints' in- firmities, which they are daily chargeable with, and in which the conflict which there is between the flesh and the spirit appears ; for when corrupt nature exerts itself to such a degree as to lead persons to the commission of deliberate and pre- sumptuous sins, they hardly appear at the time to be believers. Yet if we com- pare what they were before they fell, with what they shall be when brought to re- pentance, we may conclude that they did not, by their fall, bring themselves alto- gether into a state of unregeneracy. 3. It is beyond dispute that, as a believer may be destitute of the acts of grace, so he may lose the comforts of it, and sink into the depths of despair. Of this we have several instances recorded in scripture, which correspond with the experiences of many in our day. Thus the psalmist at one time says, that he was ' cast down,' and 'his soul disquieted within him.'1 At another time he says, ' The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me.' Elsewhere also he complains, ' Will the Lord cast off for ever ? will he be favourable no more ? is his mercy clean gone for ever ? doth his promise fail for evermore ? ha,th God forgotten to be gracious ? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ?'u Again, a believer is represented as being altogether destitute of a comfortable sense of the divine love, when complaining, ' Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead ? Shall the dead arise and praise thee ? Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction? Thy fierce wrath goeth over me, thy terrors have cut me off.'x It is certain, too, that when at any time he falls into very great sins, which seem in- consistent with a state of grace, he has no present evidence that he is a believer, and is never favoured with a comfortable sense of his interest in Christ. Nor is the joy of God's salvation restored to him, till he is brought unfeignedly to repent of his sin. Former experiences will not evince the truth of grace, while he remains impenitent. It is a bad sign when any one, who formerly appeared to have the truth of grace, but is now fallen into great sins, thinks himself to be in a state of grace, without the exercise of true repentance ; for his thinking so can be deemed little better than presumption. Yet God, whose mercy is infinitely above our deserts, will, in the end, recover him ; though, at present, he does not look like one of his children. 4. There are some who suppose that a believer may totally, though not finally, fall from grace. They hold this opinion because they conclude, as they have suffi- cient warrant to do from scripture, that believers shall not fall finally, inasmuch as the purpose of God concerning election must stand ; and that if they had not been chosen to salvation they would never have been brought into a state of grace. They suppose that persons, before they fell, were in a state of sanctification, and thus were partakers of a blessing which is inseparably connected with salvation. Hence, though they consider them, in their present state, as having lost the grace of sanc- tification, and so to have fallen totally ; yet they believe that they shall be re- covered, and therefore not fall finally. Sanctification is Christ's purchase ; and where grace is purchased for any one, a price of redemption is paid for his deliver- ance from condemnation ; and consequently he shall be recovered and saved at last, though, at present, he is, according to their opinion, totally fallen. These suppose that, not only the acts of grace, but the very principle and the reason of it may be lost, because they cannot see how great and notorious sins, such as those committed by David, Peter, Solomon, and some others, can consist with a principle of grace. This opinion indeed cuts the knot of some difficulties which seem to attend the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, though falling into great sins. I think it may easily be proved, however, and we shall endeavour to do so, that be- t Psal. xlii. 5. and cxvi. 3 u psal. lxxvii. 7—9. x Psal. lxxxviii. 6, &c PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 167 lievers shall be preserved from a total as well as from a final apostasy ; or that, when they fall into great sins, they do not lose the principle of grace, though it be at the time inactive. This we shall take occasion to insist on more particularly under a following Head, when we consider the argument mentioned in this Answer for the proof of the doctrine of perseverance taken from the Spirit and seed of God abiding in a believer, as that which preserves him from a total as well as a final apostasy. Perseverance the result of the Divine Power and Will. We shall now consider that the best believers would certainly fall from grace, were they left to themselves ; so that their perseverance in grace is principally to be ascribed to the power of God, which keeps them through faith unto salvation. This is particularly observed in this Answer ; which lays down several arguments to prove the doctrine of the saints' perseverance in grace, and supposes that perse- verance to be founded on God's power and will to maintain it. God is styled ' the preserver of men,'? inasmuch as he upholds all things by the word of his power", so that independency on him is inconsistent with the idea of our being creatures ; and we have no less ground to conclude that his power maintains the new creature, or that grace which took its rise from him. ' Should he fail or forsake us, we could not put forth the least act of grace, much less persevere in grace. When man at first came out of the hands of God, he was endowed with a greater ability to stand than any one, excepting our Saviour, has been favoured with since sin entered into the world ; yet he apostatized, not from any necessity of nature, but by adhering to that temptation which he might have withstood. Then how unable is he to stand in his present state, having become weak, and, though brought into a state of grace, having been renewed and sanctified only in part, and having still the re- mains of corruption, which maintain a constant opposition to the principle of grace? Our perseverance in grace, therefore, cannot be owing to ourselves. Accordingly, the apostle ascribes it to a divine hand, when he says, ' we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.'2 A late celebrated writer, on the other side of the question, a attempts to evade the force of this argument to prove the doctrine of perseverance, though, I think, without much strength of reasoning. He says that all who are preserved to salva- tion are kept by the power of God, but not that all believers are so kept. We re- ply, that all believers whose character answers that of the church to which the apos- tle writes, shall be saved, namely, all who are ' begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them;' whose ' faith,' after it has been tried, shall be ' found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 'b I say, these shall certainly be saved ; and if all who are thus pre- served to salvation are kept by the power of God, every thing is conceded which we contend for. But the writer referred to adds, that when they are said to be kept through faith, the meaning is, they are kept if they continue in the faith. Now, their continuance in the faith was put out of all dispute, by what is said con- cerning them in the words going before and following, as now referred to. Besides, the writer's argument amounts to no more than this ; they shall be kept by the power of God, if they keep themselves ; or they shall persevere if they persevere. To this argument I need make no reply. But as our main design in this Head is not to prove that believers shall perse- vere, a point which we reserve to our next, but to show that whatever we assert concerning their perseverance takes its rise from God ; we shall consider this as plainly contained in scripture. Thus the apostle Paul speaks of the Lord's 'deliv- ering him from every evil work, and preserving him to his heavenly kingdom.'0 The apostle Jude speaks of believers as ' sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called,' or as being first called, and then preserved by God the y Job vii. 20. z 1 Pet. i. 5. a See Whitby's discourse, &c. p. 463. b 1 Pet. i. 3, 4, 7. c 2 Tim. iv. 18. Jude verse 1, 1G8 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. Father, through the intervention of Christ, our great Mediator, till they are brought to glory. And our Saviour, in his affectionate prayer for his church, a little before he left the world, says, ' Holy Father, keep, through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me.'d These words not only prove that the perseverance of the saints is owing to God, but that the glory of his own name is concerned in it ; so that it is not from ourselves, but from him. There is also a scripture in which our Saviour speaks of the perseverance of his ' sheep ' in grace, and of his giving them eternal life ; and he adds, • They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.'e It is owing, therefore, to his care, as the great Shepherd of the sheep, and to his power, which is superior to that of all those who attempt to destroy them, that they shall persevere in grace. Proofs of the Doctrine of Perseverance. We shall now consider what ground we have to conclude that the saints shall persevere in grace, and so explain and illustrate the arguments insisted on in this Answer, together with some others which may be taken from the sense of several scriptures, by which this doctrine may be defended. 1. The saints' perseverance in grace may be proved from the unchangeable love of God, and his decree and purpose, relating to their salvation, in which it is dis- covered and executed. That God loved them with a love of good-will, before they were inclined to express any love to him, is evident ; because their love to him is assigned as the effect and consequence of his love to them, as the apostle says, 'We love him because he first loved us.'f The love of God to his people, there- fore, must be considered as an immanent act ; whence it follows, that it was from eternity, since all God's immanent acts are eternal. This is particularly expressed by the prophet when he says, ' The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.'s Were this language meant of a love that shall never have an end, it would plainly prove the doctrine we are defend- ing ; but as the words which immediately follow, ' Therefore, with loving-kindness have I drawn thee, ' seem to intimate that the love is that which was from everlasting, his drawing them or bringing them into a converted state being the result of it, it fol- lows that this everlasting love is the same as his eternal purpose or design to save them. Now, if there be such an eternal purpose relating to their salvation, it neces- sarily infers their perseverance ; and that there was such a design in God was proved under a former Answer.h Besides, they who are the objects of this eternal purpose of grace are frequently described in scripture as believers, inasmuch as faith and salvation are inseparably connected together. Hence, the execution of God's purpose in giving faith, necessarily infers the execution of it in saving those who believe. That the purpose of grace is unchangeable, was formerly proved ; ' and may be farther argued from what the apostle says concerning ' the immutability of his counsel,' shown to ' the heirs of promise,', as the ground of that 'strong consola- tion ' which they have ' who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them. 'k Now, if God cannot change his purpose relating to the salvation of believers, it necessarily follows that they shall certainly attain salvation, and conse- quently shall persevere in grace. It will be objected that, though God may be said to love his people while they retain their integrity, yet they may provoke him by their sins to cast them off ; so that the present exercise of divine love to them is no certain argument that it shall be extended to the end, or that, by virtue of it, he will enable them to persevere, and then bring them to glory. Now, we do not deny that believers, by their sins, may so far provoke God, that, if he should mark their iniquities, or deal with them according to the demerit of them, he would cast them off for ever. Still he will not do this, because his doing it would be inconsistent with his purpose to recover them from their backslidings, and forgive their iniquities. Moreover, it cannot be denied d John xvii. 11. e Chap# x 28. f 1 John iv. 19. g Jer. xxxi. 3. Tri "eSt* *"' xiii' * See Sect- ' The Etern>ty» Wisdom, Unchangeableness of the Pur- pos.-s <,' Unction, under Quest, xii, xiii. and Sect. * The immutability of God,' under Quest, ix, x,xi. k ik-u. vi 1 j, 18. PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 169 that, notwithstanding God's eternal love to them, there are many instances of his hatred. and displeasure expressed in the external dispensations of his providence, which are as often changed as their conduct towards him is changed. But this fact does not infer a change in God's purpose. He may testify his displeasure against them, or, as the psalmist expresses it, ' visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquities with stripes j'1 and yet he cannot change his resolution to save them, but will, by some methods of grace, recover them from their backslidings, and enable them to persevere in grace, since ' his counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure.' 2. Another argument to prove the saints' perseverance, may be taken from the covenant of grace, and the many promises respecting their salvation which are con- tained in it. That this may appear, let it be considered that, as was observed un- der a former Answer,"1 Christ was appointed to be the head of this covenant. Accordingly, there was an eternal transaction between the Father and him, in which all things relating to the everlasting salvation of the elect, whom he therein represented, were stipulated, in their behalf. In this covenant, God the Father pro- mised, not only that Christ should 'have a seed to serve him,'n but that he 'should see his seed,' that ' the pleasure of the Lord,' with relation to them, ' should pros- per in his hand,' and that he should 'see of the travail of his soul, and be satis- fied,'0 which implies that he should see the fruits and effects of all that he had done and suffered for them in order to their salvation. Nor is this said respecting some of them, but respecting all ; and it could not have had its accomplishment, were it possible for them not to persevere in grace. Again, in this covenant Christ has undertaken to keep them, as the result of his becoming a surety for them ; in doing which, he not only engaged to pay the debt of obedience and sufferings which was due from them, which he has already done, but that he would work all that grace in them which he purchased by his blood. Now, he has already begun this work in them ; though it is not yet ac- complished. Can we suppose, then, that he will not bring it to perfection, or that he will not enable them to endure to the end, that they may be saved ? This would argue the greatest unfaithfulness in him, who is styled 'faithful and true.' Moreover, as there are engagements on Christ's part relating to this matter, and as, in pursuance of these, they are said to be in his hand ; so the Father has given them an additional security, that they shall be preserved from apostacy. They are hence said to be also 'in his hand,' whence 'none can pluck them out ;' and it is thence argued that ' they shall never perish.'? We may observe, too, that the life which Christ is said to give them is not only the beginning of life, in the first grace which they are made partakers of in conversion, but is called ' eternal life,' which certainly denotes the completing of the work of grace in their everlasting salvation. Further, the promises contained in the covenant of grace, relate not only to their sanctification here, but to their salvation hereafter. On this account it is called 'an everlasting covenant,' and the mercies of it, 'the sure mercies of David j'0- that is, either those mercies which David, who had an interest in this covenant, was given to expect, or mercies which Christ had engaged to purchase and bestow, who is here, as elsewhere, r called David, inasmuch as David was an eminent type of him, as well as because he was his seed according to the flesh. That the latter is the more probable sense of the two, appears from the following words, in which he is said to be 'given for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.' Now, if these mercies are in Christ's hand to be applied, it is no wonder that they are styled ' sure mercies.' We might here consider the covenant of grace as contain- ing all the promises which respect the beginning, carrying on, or completing of the salvation of his people. These relate, not only to what God will do for them, but to what he will enable them to be and do, in those things which concern their faithfulness to him ; whereby they have the highest security that they shall be- have themselves as becomes a covenant-people. Thus he assures them that he will be to them a God, that is, that he will glorify his divine perfections in bestowing 1 Psal. lxxxix. 32. m See Quest, xxxi. n Pial. xxii. 30. o Isa. liii. 10, 11. p John x. 28, 29. q Isa. lv. 3 4. r Hos. iii. 5. II. Y 170 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. on them the special and. distinguishing blessings of the covenant; and that they shall be to him a people, that is, shall so behave themselves that they shall not, by apostacy from him, oblige him to disown his relation to them or exclude them from his covenant. He has encouraged them to expect, not only those great things which he would do for them provided they yielded obedience to his law, but also that he would 'put his law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts,' whereby they might be disposed to obey him. And when he says that they • shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord,' he gives them to understand that they should not only teach or instruct one another in the knowledge of God, which respects their being favoured with the external means of grace, but that they ' should all know him, from the least of them unto the greatest.' This denotes that they should have, not only a speculative knowledge of divine truth, but a saving knowledge of it, such as is in- separably connected with 'life eternal.'8 That this knowledge is intended appears from its being accompanied with or flowing from forgiveness of sin ; for it is immediately added, ' I will forgive their iniquity,' and this is expressed with a peculiar emphasis. Now, their enjoying forgiveness of sins, connected with a saving knowledge of divine truth, is certainly inconsistent with their falling from a justified state, especially as it is said, ' I will remember their sin no more.'* Elsewhere, also, when God speaks of his 'making an everlasting covenant' with his people,11 he promises that 'he will not turn away from them to do them good ;' and, inasmuch as they are prone, by reason of the deceitfulness of their hearts, to turn aside from him, he adds, ' I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.' Here it is not only said that he will not turn from them, if they fear him ; but he gives them se- curity in this covenant, that they shall fear him. Can we conclude, then, that they, in whom this covenant is so far made good that God has put his fear in their hearts, which is supposed in their being believers, shall not attain the other blessing pro- mised, namely, that of their not departing from him ? Moreover, the stability of this covenant, as a foundation of the saints' perseverance, is set forth by a meta- phor, taken from the most fixed and stable parts of nature ; and it is said to exceed these in stability, ' The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but my kindness shall not depart from thee ; neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee.'x The principal objection which is brought to enervate the force of the argument taken from those promises of the covenant which respect the saints' perseverance, is, that either these promises are to be considered as conditional, and the conditions of them as not fulfilled, in which case they are not obligatory, so that God is not bound to give salvation to those to whom he has promised it on these conditions ; or else they are to be considered as made to a political body, namely, the Jewish nation, in which case they respect, not their eternal salvation, but only some temporal deliverances of which they were to be made partakers, and which belonged to them generally as a church, — everlasting salvation never being con- sidered as a blessing which shall be applied to whole nations, how much soever a whole nation may partake of the common gifts of divine bounty which are be- stowed in this world. — In answer to this objection, in both its branches, I need only refer to what has been said elsewhere. As to the former branch of it, we have endeavoured to show how those scriptures are to be understood which are laid down in a conditional form, without supposing that they militate against the ab- soluteness of God's purpose, or its unchangeableness, and independency on the conduct of men.? As to the latter branch of it, what has been said in answer to an objection of a similar nature, brought against the doctrine of election by Dr. Whitby, and others, who suppose that the blessings which the elect are said in scripture to be made partakers of respect the nation of the Jews or the church in general, and not a particular number chosen out of them to salvation, and that the promises which are directed to them are only such as they were given to ex- pect as a church or political body of men, may well be applied to our present pur- « John xvii. 3. t Jer. xxxi. 33, 34. u Chap, xxxii. 40. x l»a. liv. 10. y See vol i. pages 289—292. et alibi passim. PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 171 pose, and serve as an answer to this objection.2 In this place, therefore, I shall add but a few remarks bj way of reply. If any expressions are annexed to the promises of the covenant which give occa- sion to some to conclude that they are conditional, we must take heed that we do not understand them as denoting the dependence of God's determinations on the arbitrary will of man ; as though his purpose relating to the salvation of his people were indeterminate, and it were a matter of doubt with him, as well as with us, whether he should fulfil it or not, because it is uncertain whether the conditions of it shall be performed. To suppose this is inconsistent with the divine perfections. But if, on the other hand, we suppose that the grace or duty annexed to the pro- mise must have some idea of a condition contained in it, this may be understood according to the tenor of God's revealed will, as denoting nothing else but a condi- tion of our expectation, or of our claim to the blessing promised ; and then nothing can be inferred from it, but that some who lay claim to or expect salvation, without performing the condition of it, may apostatize, and miss it ; which does not in the least militate against the doctrine we are defending. We may add that, when such a condition is annexed to a promise, (for I will not decline to call it so in the sense just stated,) and there is another promise added, in which God engages that he will enable his people to perform it, the condition is then equivalent to an abso- lute promise. Of this kind are those conditions which are mentioned in the scrip- tures formerly referred to. When God promises that he will be a God to his people, that he will forgive their iniquities, and never reverse the sentence of forgiveness, or remember their sins any more, and that he will never turn away from them to do them good, he, at the same time, promises that he will put his law in their in- ward parts, and write it in their hearts, and put his fear in their hearts, and so enable them to behave themselves as his people, or to be to him a people. When, again, God sets forth the stability of his covenant, and intimates that it should not be removed, he adds that his kindness shall not depart from them. Nor does this kindness respect merely some temporal blessings which he would bestow upon them, but his extending that grace to them which should keep them faithful to him. Hence, he says that ' in righteousness they should be established ;' words which contain a promise that he would maintain grace in them, without which they could hardly be said to be established in righteousness, as well as that he would perform the other things promised to them in this covenant. The other branch of the objection we are examining, considers that the promises are given to the church in general, or to the Jews as a political body of men ; and that they cannot be supposed to respect their everlasting salvation, but only some temporal blessings which they should enjoy. Now, this point is to be determined by the express words contained in the promise. If God tells those to whom the promises are made that he will do that for them which includes more than the blessings which they are supposed to enjoy of a temporal nature, we are not to con- clude that there is nothing of salvation referred to in them, when the words thus seem to imply the contrary. Besides, though these promises are said to be given to the Jews as a political body of men, and there are some circumstances in them which have an immediate and particular relation to that people ; yet the promises of special grace and salvation were to be applied only by those among them who believed. Moreover, the same promises are to be applied by believers in all ages ; else we must understand the texts which contain them as only an historical relation of things which do not belong to us, — an interpretation which would tend very much to detract from the spirituality and usefulness of many parts of scripture. To make this appear, we might consider some promises which, when first made, had a particular relation to God's dealings with his people in the circumstances in which they were then placed, but which are, notwithstanding, applied in a more extensive manner to New Testament believers in all ages. Thus, when God says to his people, in the scripture formerly referred to, ■ All thy children shall be taught of the Lord,'a whatever respect the promise may have to the church of. the Jews, our Saviour applies it in a more extensive way, as belonging to believers in all z See Sect. ' The Meaning of Election,' under Quest, xii, xiii. a Isa. liv. 13. 172 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. ajes, when he says, « Every man, therefore, that hath heard and learned of the l-'ather, cometh unto me.'b Again, God promises Joshua that ' he would not fail nor forsake him,' and encourages him thereby 'not to fear nor be dismayed,'0 when he was to pass over Jordan into the land of Canaan, and afterwards to engage in a work which was attended with many difficulties. Now, this promise is applied by the apostle as an inducement to believers in his day to be ' content with such things as they have ;' for after exhorting them to be so, he adds, that what God told Joshua of old was written for their encouragement, namely, that ' he would never leave them, nor forsake them.'d We cannot therefore but conclude, that the objection we have been considering is of no force in either of its branches to overthrow the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, as founded on the stability of the promises of the covenant of grace. 3. The saints' perseverance in grace may be farther proved from their insepar- able union with Christ. Not only is this union federal, as he is the head of the covenant of grace, and they his members, whose salvation, as was observed under the last Head, he has engaged to bring about ; but he may be considered also as their vital head, from whom they receive spiritual life and influence ; so that as long as they abide in him, their spiritual life is maintained as derived from him. If we consider the church, or the whole election of grace as united to him, it is called ' his body,'e 'the fulness of him that filleth all in all;'f and every believer being a member of this body, or a part, if I may so express it, of this fulness, if it should perish and be separated from him, his body would be defective, and he would sustain a loss of that which is an ingredient in his fulness. Moreover, as this union includes that relation between Christ and his people which is," by a metaphorical way of speaking, styled conjugal,^ and accordingly is mutual, as the result of his becoming theirs by an act of grace, and they his by an act of self-dedication ; so it is the foundation of mutual love, which is abiding. The love is certainly abiding on his part ; because it is unchangeable, as founded on a covenant engagement which he cannot violate ; and though their love to him is in itself subject to change through the prevalency of corrupt nature, which too much inclines them to be un- steadfast in this marriage covenant, yet he will recover and bring them back to him. He will not deal with them as persons do with strangers, whom they exclude from their presence or favour, if they render themselves unworthy of it ; but as persons who stand in a nearer relation to him, and accordingly are the objects of his special love, and shall not be cast off for ever, how much soever he may resent their unworthy behaviour to him. Not to be separate from Christ, is, according to the apostle's expression, not to ' be separated from his love ;' and this, he says, he was ' persuaded ' he should not be. ' I am persuaded, ' says he, ' that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'h Accordingly it is said, that Christ 'having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.'1 Here I cannot but take notice of a very jejune and empty sense which some give of this text, to evade the force of the argument taken from it to prove the doctrine we are maintaining. By ' his own ' they mean no other than Christ's disciples, whom he was at the time conversant with. Indeed, they apply whatever Christ says, in some following chapters, to them, exclusive of all others. When, for exam- ple, he says, * Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world ;'k and ' Because I live, ye shall live also;'1 they suppose that he speaks of them in particular. So, in interpreting the text before us, they understand the clause, 'having loved his own which were in the world,' to mean his own disciples, as though he had a propriety in none but them ; and the clause ' he loved them to the end,' to mean, not to the end of their lives, for that would prove the doctrine we arc maintaining, but to the end of his life, which was now at hand ; and his love to them, they suppose to be expressed in his condescending to wash their feet. But b John vi. 45. c Josh. i. 5, 6. d Heb. xiii. 5. e Col. i. 24. f Eph. i. 28. g See pagea 3, 4. h Rom. viii. 35, 38, 39. i John xiii. i. k Chap. xv. 19 1 Chap. xiv. 19. PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 173 if this were the sense of the words, his love to them would not be so extraordinary a privilege as it really is ; for it would be only an instance of human and not divine love. Indeed, our happiness consists, not only in Christ's loving us to the end of his life, but in his continuing to express his love in his going into heaven to prepare a place for us, in his there making continual intercession on our behalf, and in his coming again in the end, to receive us to himself, that where he is we may be also. 4. The saints' perseverance farther appears from Christ's continual intercession for them. This was particularly explained under a foregoing Answer.m The apos- tle, speaking of his ' ever living to make intercession ' for his people, infers that ' he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.'n But this Christ could not be said to do, should he leave the work which he has begun in them imperfect, and suffer those who come to him by faith, to apostatize from him. We formerly considered Christ's intercession as including his appearing in the pre- sence of God, in behalf of those for whom he offered himself a sacrifice while on earth. We considered also that what he intercedes for shall certainly be granted him, not only because he is the Son of God in whom he is well-pleased, but because he pleads his own merits, and because to deny him what he merited, would be, in effect, to deny the sufficiency of his sacrifice, as though the purchase had not been fully satisfactory. We must conclude, therefore, as he himself said on earth, that 'the Father heareth him always.' It is also evident that he prays for the perse- verance of his people. He says to Peter, ' I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.'0 And there are many things in the affectionate prayer, mentioned in John xvii., which he put up to God immediately before his last sufferings, which respect his people's perseverance in grace. Thus he says, • Holy Father, keep, through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are ;'p and, ' I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil ;'q that is, either that he would keep them from the evil which often attends the condition in which they are in the world, that so the work of grace may not suffer, at least not miscarry thereby ; or that he would keep them from the evil one, that so they may not be brought again under his dominion. He also prays • that they may be made perfect in one ;'r that is, not only that they may be perfectly joined together in the same design, but that their unanimity may continue till they are brought to a state of perfection, and ' that the world may know that God has loved them, even as he has loved Christ.' Moreover, he declares his will ; which shows that his intercession is founded on justice, and accordingly is of the nature of a demand, rather than of a supplication for what might be given or denied, and his ' will ' is, ' that they whom the Father has given him may be with him where he is, that they may behold his glory.'8 Now, all these expressions are very inconsistent with the supposition, that it is possi- ble that they whom he thus intercedes for may apostatize, or fall short of salvation. It is objected by some, that this prayer respects none but his disciples, who were his immediate friends and followers, and not believers in all ages and places in the world. But the contrary is evident from several things which are mentioned in it. For instance, he says, that ' the Father hath given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as he hath given him.'4 The sense of these words will sink too low, if we suppose that he intends, ■ Thou hast given me power to dispose of all persons and things in this world, that I may give eternal life to that small number which thou hast given me, namely, my disciples.' He obviously speaks of that universal dominion which he has over all persons and things, which were committed to him with the view that all those who were put into his hand to be redeemed and saved, should attain eternal life. Again, he says, * I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world, thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.'u Did Christ manifest the divine name and glory to none but those who were his disciples ; and were there none but they who had kept his word ? Moreover, when he says that they whom he prayed for are the Father's, and adds, ' All mine are thine, and m See vol. i. Quest, lv. ti Heb. vii. 25. o Luke xxii. 32. p John xvii. 11. «l John xvii. 15. r Verse 23. 3 Verse 24. t Verse 2. u Verse 6. 174 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. thine are mine, and I am glorified in them,'x is the number of those whom Christ has a right to, and the Father has set apart for himself, in whom he would show forth his glory as the objects of his love, and in whom Christ as Mediator was to be glorified, so small that it included only the eleven disciples ? Or, does it not rather respect all who have believed, or shall believe, from the beginning to the end of time ? And again, when he speaks of ' the world hating them, because they are not of the world,'-v and of their being exposed to the evils which are in the world, or the assaults of Satan who is their avowed ftnemy ; is this applicable only to the disciples ? And when he says, 'Neither pray I for these alone,' that is, for those who now believe, 'but for them also which shall believe ;'z does it not plainly intimate that he had others in view besides his disciples ? These, and several other passages in this prayer, are a sufficient evidence that there is no weight in the objection, to overthrow the argument we are maintaining. 5. Believers' perseverance in grace may be proved from the Spirit and seed of God abiding in them. When they were regenerated, it was by the power of the Holy Ghost, as condescending to come and take up his abode in them. Thus we often read of their being acted by, and under the influence of the Holy Ghost, who is said to dwell where he is pleased to display his divine power and glory ; and if these displays are internal, then he dwells in the heart. Our Saviour speaks of him as ' another Comforter ' given, ' that he may abide ' with his peo- ple 'for ever.'a This indwelling of the Spirit is very distinct from that extra- ordinary dispensation which the church had, when they were favoured with in- spiration ; for the apostle speaks of it as a privilege peculiar to believers as such : ' Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.'b The meaning of these words cannot be that those have no interest in Christ who have not the extraordinary afflatus of the Spirit, such as the prophets had. We must suppose, therefore, that the privilege spoken of is one which believers have in all ages. Now, if the Spirit is pleased to condescend thus to take up his abode in the soul, and that for ever, he will certainly preserve it from apostasy. We may add, that there are several fruits and effects of the Spirit's dwelling in the soul, which afford an additional proof of this doctrine. Thus believers are said to have ' the first-fruits of the Spirit ;'c that is, they have those graces wrought in them which are the beginning of salvation ; and as the first-fruits are a part of the harvest which will follow, these are the foretastes of the heavenly blessedness which God would never have bestowed upon them had he not designed to preserve them from apostasy. Moreover, believers are said to be ' sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of their inheritance. 'd The earnest, as given by men, is generally deemed a part of payment ; and upon any receiving it, they are satisfied that they shall, at last, receive the full reward. And shall believers miss of the heavenly blessedness, who have such a glorious pledge and earnest of it ? Again, if we consider ' the Spirit ' as ' bearing witness with their spirits, that they are the children of God ; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint- heirs with Christ;' and that 'they shall be glorified together' with him;e is this testimony invalid, or not to be depended on ? Yet it could not be depended on were it possible for them to fall from a state of grace. This testimony, as will be observed under the next Answer, is what we de- pend very much upon, in order to our attaining assurance that we are in a state of grace, and that we shall persevere in it. At present, we shall take it for grant- ed that there is such a thing as assurance, or that this blessing is attainable. The use which I would make of this supposition to maintain our present argu- ment, is, that the Spirit's having any hand in working or encouraging this hope that we have of the truth of grace, and consequently that we shall persevere in it to salvation, argues that the hope is warrantable, and not delusive ; for he who is the author or giver of it cannot deceive our expectation, or put us upon looking for that which is not a reality. It hence follows that it is impossible x John xyii. 9, 10. y Verses 14, 15. z Verse 20. a Chap. xiv. 16. o Kom. vin. 9. c Verse 23. d Eph. i. 13 14. e Rom. vi.i. 16, 17- PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 175 that they should apostatize to whom ' God has given ' this ' good hope through grace,' so that they should fail of that 'everlasting consolation,' which is connected with it.f This consequence will hardly he denied by those who are on the other side of the question ; and we may observe, that they who oppose the doctrine of perseverance, always deny that of assurance, especially as proceeding from the testimony of the Spirit. Yet that we may not be misunderstood, we do not say, that every one who has a strong persuasion that he shall be saved, shall be saved ; for such a persuasion is no other than enthusiasm. But our argument, in short, is, that if there is a witness of the Spirit to the truth of grace which cannot be charged with enthusiasm, then the doctrine we are maintaining is undeniably true. This will more evidently appear from what will be said in defence of the doctrine of assurance under our next Answer. We proceed, therefore, to the other branch of the argument we have mentioned to prove this doctrine, namely, that believers have the seed, of God abiding in them. This is founded on what the apostle says in 1 John iii. 9, ' Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.' For understanding this, let us consider that, by the words 'he cannot commit sin,' the apostle does not intend that such a one is not a sinner, or that there is such a thing as sinless perfection attainable in this life ; for that is contrary, not only to the whole tenor of scripture and daily experience of man- kind, but to what he had expressly said, ' If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'s In this text he is doubtless speaking of persons committing sins which are inconsistent with the truth of grace ; as he says, in a foregoing verse, ' Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.'h The sin he speaks of is such as argues a person to be in a state of unregeneracy. .Accordingly, when he says, ' He that committeth sin is of the devil,'1 he certainly speaks of such a commission of sin as argues us to be under the reigning power of the devil. That this may plainly appear to be his meaning, we may observe that he elsewhere distinguishes between 'a sin that is unto death,' and a sin that is 'not unto death. 'k Here he does not mean, as the Papists suppose, that some sins de- serve eternal death, and others not ; the former oi which they call mortal sins, the latter venial. But he is speaking of a sin which is inconsistent with the principle of grace, and the sin which is consistent with it. The former is sometimes called ' the pollution that is in the world through lust ;n the latter, ' the spot of God's children.'111 The least sin deserves death, though they who commit it shall not perish, but be brought to repentance ; but the ' sin unto death ' is wilful sin, com- mitted and continued in with impenitency ; and with this limitation we are to un- derstand the apostle's words, ' He who is born of God doth not commit sin.' We shall now consider the reason assigned why the person he speaks of cannot in this sense commit sin, namely, he is ' born of God,' and ' the seed of God abid- eth in him.' To be born of God is what is elsewhere styled regeneration, or being born of the Spirit ; in which there is a principle of grace implanted, which is here called ' the seed of God.' Indeed, this metaphorical way of speaking is very ex- pressive of the thing intended. For as in nature the seed produces fruit, and in things moral the principle of action produces action, as the principle of reason pro- duces acts of reason ; so in things spiritual, the principle of grace produces acts of grace ; and this principle being from God, which has been largely proved under a foregoing Answer,n it is here called ' the seed of God.' Now, this seed of God, or this principle, is not merely said to be in the believer, as that which for the present is the ground of spiritual actions ; but it is said to 'remain in him.' As, elsewhere, Christ speaks of the Spirit as ' abiding' with his people ' for ever ;'° so here the apostle speaks of the principle of grace wrought by the Spirit as abiding, that is, continuing for ever. He hence infers that a believer 'cannot sin.' If he had been speaking only of its being implanted, but not abiding, all that could be inferred would be that he does not sin. But as he argues that he cannot sin, that is, apos- tatize, we must understand that the principle abides in him continually. Now, this f 2 Thess. ii. 16. g 1 John i. 8. h Chap. iii. 6. i Ver. 8. k Chap. v. 16, 17. 1 2 Pet. i. 4. m Deut. xxxii. 5. a See Sect. ' Effectual Calling a Divine Work,' under Quest, lxrii, lxviii. o John xir. 16. PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. plainly amounts to the argument we are maintaining, namely, that because the seed of God abides in a believer, he cannot apostatize or fall short of salvation. They who are on the other side of the question seem to find it very difficult to evade the force of this argument. Some suppose that the apostle intends no more than that he who is born of God should not commit sin. But this interpretation is not only remote from the sense of the words t cannot sin,'P but does not sufficiently distin- guish one who is born of God from another who is not so ; for it is as much a truth that an unregenerate person ought not to sin, as that a regenerate person ought not to do so. Others suppose the apostle to mean that believers sin with difficulty, or are hardly brought to commit sin. But as this also does not answer to the sense of the words ' cannot sin, ' so it is inconsistent with that beautiful gradation which we may observe in the words. To say that the believer does not sin, and then if he commits sin it is with some difficulty, does not correspond with the climax which the apostle makes use of when he says he does not commit sin, yea, he cannot. Others suppose the apostle's meaning is, that he who is born of God cannot sin unto death, or apostatize so as to fall short of salvation, so long as he makes a right use of the principle of grace which is implanted in him ; but that, by oppos- ing and afterwards extinguishing it, he may become an apostate. But we may observe that the apostle attributes his perseverance in grace, not to his making use of the principle, but to his having it, or to its abiding in him. And he sufficiently guards against the supposition of its being possible that the principle of grace may be wholly lost ; for then this seed could not be said to abide in him, nor would the inference deduced from its abiding in him, namely, that he cannot sin, be just. We have thus considered the latter branch of the present argument to prove the saints' perseverance in grace, taken from the seed of God abiding in believers. But there is one thing which must be observed before I dismiss this Head, namely, that the principle of grace, which is signified by this metaphor, though it exists and abides in a believer, does not always exert itself so as to produce those acts of grace which would otherwise proceed from it. This cannot be better illustrated than by a similitude taken from the soul, which is the principle of reason in man. Though it is as much the principle of reason in an infant in the womb as it is in any, yet it is altogether inactive ; for most allow that infants have not the exercise of thought or acts of reason. And when a person is newly born, it hardly appears that this principle is deduced into act ; and in those in whom it has been deduced into act, it may, through the influence of some bodily disease with which it is affected, be rendered stupid and almost inactive, or at least so disordered that the actions which proceed from it cannot be styled rational. Yet still it remains a principle of reason. The same may be said concerning the principle of grace. It is certainly an inactive principle in those who are regenerate from the womb ; and it may cease to exert itself, and be with equal reason styled an inactive principle in believers, when they fall into very great sins to which it offers no resistance. This we shall take occasion to apply under a following Head, when we shall consider some objections which are brought against this doctrine by those who suppose that believers, when sinning presumptuously, as David, Peter, and others, are said to have done, fell totally, though not finally. There was indeed a total suspension of the activity of this principle, but yet the principle itself was not wholly lost. But more of this in its proper place. We are bound to conclude, therefore, that because this principle abides in believers, they can neither totally nor finally apostatize, — that they can neither fall from a state of grace, nor fail at last of salvation. We have thus endeavoured to explain and show the force of those arguments which are contained in this Answer, to prove the doctrine of the saints' persever- ance. There are several others which might have been insisted on. In particular, the doctrine may be proved from the end and design of Christ's death ; which was, not only that he might purchase to himself a peculiar people, but that he might purchase eternal life for them. We cannot think that this invaluable price would have been given for the procuring of that which should not be applied ; for in this view Christ would be said to die in vain. When a person gives a price for any p The words are >u ivimr»i ap.xeTa.11t1, PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 177 thing, it is with the design that he, or they for whom he purchased it, should he put into the possession of it ; and if this be not done, the price which was given is reckoned lost, and the person who gave it disappointed. This argument may be considered as having still more weight, if we observe that the salvation of those whom Christ has redeemed, redounds not only to their happiness, but to the glory of God the Father, and of Christ our great Redeemer. God the Father, in giving Christ to be a propitiation for sin, designed to bring more glory to his name than by all his other works. Accordingly, our Saviour appeals to him in the close of his life, ' I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.'i The work was his ; there was a revenue of glory which he ex- pected by it ; and this glory did not consist only in his receiving a full satisfaction for sin, that so he might take occasion to advance his grace in forgiving it, but it consisted also in his people being enabled to ' bear much fruit.'1" The glory of God the Father, therefore, is advanced by the application of redemption, and conse- quently by bringing his redeemed ones to perfection. The Son is also glorified, not merely by his having those honours which his human nature is advanced to as the consequence of his finishing the work of redemption, but by the application of re- demption to his people. Accordingly, he is said to be ' glorified in them,'s that is, his mediatorial glory is rendered illustrious by all the grace which is conferred upon them. Certainly, therefore, he will be eminently glorified, when they are brought to be with him, where he is, to behold his glory. Now, can we suppose that, since the Father and the Son designed to have so great a glory redound to them by the work of our redemption, they will sustain any loss of it for want of the application of it to those for whom it was purchased ? If God designed, as the con- sequence of the work of redemption, that the saints should sing that new song, 4 Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ;' and if God the Father, and the Son, are joined together, and their glory celebrated in this song, by the redeemed ascribing ' blessing, honour, glory, and power, unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever,'* then certainly they will not lose this glory, and the saints shall be brought into that state where they shall have occasion thus to praise and adore them. If it be objected that God the Father, and the Son, will be glorified, though many of his saints should apostatize, and so the death of Christ be to no purpose with respect to them, because all shall not apostatize, the answer is plain and easy, — that though he could not be said to lose the glory he designed by the salvation of those who persevere, yet some branches of his glory would be lost by reason of the apostasy of others who fall short of salvation ; and it is a dishonour to him to suppose that he will lose the least branch of it, or that any of those for whom Christ died should be for ever lost. We might add, that for the same reason that we suppose one whom Christ has redeemed should be lost, all might be lost ; and so he would lose all the glory he designed to have in the work of redemption. This appears from the fact that all are liable to those temptations which, if complied with, have a tendency to ruin them. All are supposed to be renewed and sanctified only in part ; so that the work of grace meets with those obstructions from corrupt nature which would cer- tainly prove too hard for all our strength, and baflle our utmost endeavours to per- severe, did not God appear in our behalf, and keep us by his power. Now, if all need strength from him to stand, and must say that without him they can do nothing, we must either suppose that that grace is given to all saints which shall enable them to persevere, or else that it is given to none. If it be given to none, and all are left to themselves, then that which overthrows the faith of one, would over- throw the faith of all; and we might conclude that whatever God the Father or the Son have done, in order to the redemption and salvation of the elect, might be of none effect. I might produce many other arguments in defence of the saints' perseverance ; but shall conclude this Head with two or three scriptures, whereby the truth of that doctrine will farther appear. Thus our Saviour says to the woman of Sama- q John xvii. 4. r Chap. xv. 8. s Chap- xvii. 10. t Rev. v. 9. compared with 13. u. a 178 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. ria, ' Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst ; hut the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into ever- lasting life.'u Here, by the water which Christ gives, is doubtless understood the gifts and graces of the Spirit. These are not like the waters of a brook, which often deceive the expectation of the traveller; but they are ' a well of water,' inti- mating that a believer shall have a constant supply of grace and peace, till he is brought to the rivers of pleasure which are at God's right hand, and is made par- taker of eternal life. — Again, our Saviour says, ' He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life;'* that is, it is as surely his as if he were in the actual possession of it. He farther intimates, too, that those who believe in him are not only justified for the present, but shall not come into condemnation. Now, this certainly implies that their salvation is so secure that it is impossible for them to perish eternally. — Another scripture which plainly proves this doctrine, is 2 Tim. ii. 19 : ' Nevertheless the foundation of God stand- eth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' In these words the apostle encourages the church to hope for perseverance in grace, after they had had a sad instance of two persons of note, namely, Hymeneus and Philetus, who had not only ' erred from the truth,' but ' overthrown the faith of some;' and he cautions all who make a profession of religion, as they would be kept from apostatizing, to de- part from iniquity. His words are as if he had said, " Since many of you are ready to fear that your faith shall be overthrown, as well as that of others, by the sophis- try or cunning arts of those apostates who lie in wait to deceive, you may be as- sured that the state of those is safe who are built upon the foundation which God has laid, that ' chief corner-stone, elect, precious,' namely, Christ, ' on whom he that believeth shall not be confounded.' "* Or the meaning is, that the instability of human conduct shall not render it a matter of uncertainty, whether they who are ordained to eternal life shall be saved or not ; for their being saved depends on God's purpose, which is a sure foundation, and has this seal annexed to it, whereby our faith as to our being saved may be confirmed, that they whom God has set apart for himself, and lays a special claim to as his chosen and redeemed ones, whom he has foreknown and loved with an everlasting love, shall not perish eter- nally, because the purpose of God cannot be frustrated. But inasmuch as there i3 no special revelation given to particular persons, that they are the objects of this purpose of grace ; all who name or profess the name of Christ ought to use the utmost caution that they be not ensnared ; let them depart from all iniquity, and not converse with those who endeavour to overthrow their faith. Indeed, all who are faithful shall be kept from iniquity by God, as they are here given to under- stand that it is their duty to endeavour to depart from it ; and consequently they shall be kept from apostasy. This seems to be the sense of these words ; and it is agreeable to the analogy of faith, as well as a plain proof of the doctrine which we are maintaining. A late writer,2 by 'the foundation of God, which standeth sure,' supposes the doctrine of the resurrection to be intended, which Hymeneus and Philetus denied, saying that it 'was past already.' This doctrine, says he, which is a fundamental article of faith, ' standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth who are his ;' that is, he loveth and approveth of them. But though it is true that the resur- rection is spoken of in the foregoing verse, and we do not deny that it is a funda- mental article of faith ; yet it does not seem to be what is intended by the word ' foundation ' in this text. For if by the resurrection we understand the doctrine of the general resurrection of the dead, I cannot see where the force of the apostle's argument lies, namely, that there shall be a general resurrection, because the Lord knoweth who are his ; for the whole world are to be raised from the dead. But if by the resurrection we are to understand a resurrection to eternal life, so that they who are known or beloved of God shall have their part in it, and if the apostle's reasoning be, that they who believe shall be raised to eternal life ; this interpreta- u John iv. 14. x Chap. v. 24, y 1 Pet. ii. 6. z See Whitby's Discourse, &c. pages 67, 68, 463. PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 179 non, so far from militating against the argument we are maintaining, is agreeable to the sense we have given of the text, and makes for us rather than against us. As to what is farther advanced by the author just referred to, namely, that the words 1 The Lord knoweth them that are his,' are to be taken for that regard which God had to his apostles and ministers, this sense of the text seems too great a strain on the words, and is so much different from the scope of the apostle, as well as disagreeable to the caution given, that ' every one who names the name of Christ should depart from iniquity,' that no one who reads the scriptures without preju- dice, can easily adopt it. I shall mention but one scripture more for the proof of the doctrine of the saints' perseverance ; and that is 1 John ii. 19, • They went out from us, but they were not of us : for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us ; but they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us.' For understanding this, let it be considered that the apostle is speak- ing of some who were formerly members of the church, who afterwards turned apostates and open enemies to Christ and his gospel. It is plain that the words ' they went out from us,' and ' they were not of us,' must be taken in different re- spects ; for it would imply a contradiction to say that a person departed from the faith and communion of the church, when he never embraced it or had communion with it. But if the two phrases be differently understood, these persons left the faith and communion of the church because they were Christians only in pretence, and did not heartily embrace the faith on which the church was built, and were not really made partakers of that grace which the apostles and other faithful members of the church had received from God, as being effectually called by it. The sense is thus very plain and easy : there were some false professors, who made a great show of religion, and were admitted into communion with the church ; and, it may be, some of them preached the gospel and were more esteemed than others. But they apostatized ; for they had not the truth of grace, but were like the seed which sprang up without having root in itself, which afterwards withered. If, however, they had had this grace, it would have been abiding ; and so they would, 'without doubt,' says the apostle, 'have continued with us;' but by their apostasy it appears that they were not, in this sense, of our number, that is, believers. They who understood this scripture, not of persons who were members of the church, but of ministers who first joined themselves with the apostles, and after- wards deserted them and their doctrine, advance nothing which tends to overthrow the argument we are maintaining. For, according to that interpretation, we may understand the words thus ; they pretended to be true ministers of Jesus Christ, and doubtless, to be, as the apostles were, men of piety and religion, for in other re- spects, they were of them visibly, whilst they preached the same doctrines ; but afterwards by departing from the faith, it appeared that, though they were min- isters, they were not sincere Christians, for if they had, they would not have apostatized. Examination of Objections against the Doctrine of Perseverance. We shall now proceed to consider the objections which are usually brought against the doctrine of the saints' perseverance in grace. I. It is objected that there are several persons mentioned in scripture, who ap- pear to have been true believers, and yet apostatized, — some totally, as David and Peter, — others not only totally but finally, in which number Solomon is included. Others, also, are described as apostates, such as Hymeneus and Alexander, who are said ' concerning faith, to have made shipwreck,' and who are hence supposed to have had the grace of faith. Judas likewise is reckoned to have been a true believer, whom all allow afterwards to have proved an apostate. 1. As to the case of David and Peter, it is true, that their fall was very noto- rious, that the former seems to have continued some months in a state of impeni- tency, and that when they fell, there appeared no marks of grace in either of them. Peter's sin, indeed, was committed through surprise and fear ; yet it had such aggravating circumstances attending it, that if others, whose character is less esta- ISO PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. blished than his was, had committed the same sin, we should be ready to conclude that they were in a state of unregeneracy. And David's sin was committed with such deliberation, and was so complicated a crime, that if any believer ever lost the principle of grace, we should have been inclined to suppose that he did so. Yet what gives us ground to conclude that this principle was not wholly extin- guished either in Peter or in him at the time that they fell, and therefore that they were not total apostates, is what we formerly observed, that the principle of grace may be altogether inactive and yet abide in the soul, agreeably to the sense we gave of that scripture, ' His seed abideth in him.' If what has been already said concerning the possibility of the principle of grace remaining, though it makes no resistance against the contrary habits of sin, be of any force, a then these instances, and others of a similar nature on which one branch of the objection is founded, will not be sufficient to prove the possibility of the total apostasy of any true believer. 2. As to the case of Solomon, that he once was a true believer, is allowed on both sides. For it is said concerning him, soon after he was born, that 'the Lord loved him ;'b on which account he gave him the significant name, Jedidiah, ' the beloved of the Lord.' It is certain, also, that, in the beginning of his reign, his piety was no less remarkable than his wisdom. This appears from his great zeal, expressed in building the temple of God, and establishing its worship ; and also from the extraordinary instance of devotion with which he dedicated or conse- crated this house to God,c and the prayer put up to him on that occasion. It ap- pears also from God's appearing to him twice. In his first appearance, he conde- scended to ask him, what he should give him ; and upon Solomon's choosing ' an understanding heart' to judge his people, he was pleased with him, and gave him several other things which he asked not for, so that there were ' not any among the kings like unto him.'d From all this it is taken for granted that he once was a believer. But, on the other hand, we must, if we duly weigh the force of the ob- jection, set the latter part of his life against the former ; and then we find him guilty of very great sins. Not only did he multiply wives and concubines, beyond what any of his predecessors had done ; but ' his heart was turned away after other gods, and,' as is expressly said, 'was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. 'e It is also said that ' the Lord was angry with Solo- mon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had ap- peared to him twice. 'f On this occasion, he determined to rend part of the king- dom from his son ;S which came to pass accordingly. Now, all this is said to have been done ' when he was old ;'h and in the remaining part of his history, we read of several who were ' stirred up as adversaries' to him,1 and of little but trouble and uneasiness that he met with. This seemed to continue to his death, an account ol which we have in 1 Kings xi. chapter throughout ; which contains the history of his sin and troubles, but does not contain the least intimation of his repentance. For this reason he is supposed, in the objection, to have apostatized totally and finally. The main strength of this objection lies in the supposition that Solomon did not repent of his idolatry which he committed in his old age, or, as is supposed, in the latter part of his life, — a supposition which is based on the alleged silence of scripture as to this matter, especially in that part of it which gives an account of his fall and death. But what is alleged is not sufficient to support the weight of the objection, and to oblige us to regard him as an apostate ; for there is nothing in the account we have of him in scripture which appears to preclude the idea that he might have sufficient time for repentance, between his fall and his death. It is said, indeed, that in his old age his wives turned him aside ; but this they might do, and yet he not die an apostate ; for sometimes that part of life which is called old age comprises several years. Hence, when he began to be in his declining age, he might sin, and afterwards be brought to repentance. And as for the scripture speaking first of his fall, and then of his death, it does not follow that the one oc- ■ See pages 175. 176. b 2 Sam. xii. 24, 25. c 1 Kings viii. 1, et seq. d Chap. iii. 5, 9, 10, 12, 13. e Chap. xi. 4. f Ver. 9. g Ver. 13. h Ver. 4. i Ver. 14, 23, 26. PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 181 curred immediately after the other ; since the history of the blemishes and troubles of his life is but short. On the other hand, there are several things which may give us ground to conclude, that he repented after his fall. In particular, we have an intimation of his repentance in that communication of God respecting him in which it is supposed that God would suffer him to fall, and a provisionary encour- agement is given to expect that he should be recovered. He says, ' I will chastise him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men ; but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away be- fore thee.'k The same thing is repeated in Psal. lxxxix. 30 — 34, in which his fall is supposed, and his recovery from it particularly mentioned ; as though God had designed that this should be a supplement to his history, and remove the doubts which might arise with relation to his salvation. There are also some things in other parts of scripture which plainly refer to the part of his life between his fall and his death, which give sufficient ground to conclude that he was a true penitent. None can deny that he was the inspired writer of Ecclesiastes ; inasmuch as it is said, in the title or preface set before it, that they are ' the words of the preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem.' Now, if we duly weigh several passages in that book, we shall find many things in which he expresses the great sense he had of the vanity of his past life. He says, for example, ' I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly.'1 Here, by 'madness and folly,' he doubtless intends what was so in a moral sense, when he indulged his sinful passions, and what, therefore, respects the worst part of his life. This he farther insists on when he says, ' Whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labour, 'm or in all those things which afterwards were matter of grief and uneasiness to me. Here he ob- serves how he did, as it were, take pains to bring on himself a long train of miser- ies which troubled him afterwards. And then he plainly expresses his repentance, when he says, ' All was vanity and vexation of spirit,' and there was 'no profit un- der the sun;'n as though he had said, ' I turned from God to the creature, to see what happiness I could find in it, but I met with nothing but disappointment.' He had ' no profit in those things, whereof he was now ashamed.' It is probable, that God showed him the vanity of his pursuits, by his chastening him, or visiting his transgressions with the rod, and his iniquities with stripes, as he had promised to do, and so brought him to experience ' vexation of spirit.' This phrase is a plain intimation of that godly sorrow which proceeded from a sense of sin, which made him, beyond measure, uneasy ; and this vexation or uneasiness was so great that he says, ' I hated life,' that is, I hated my past wicked life, and abhorred myself for it, ' because the work that is wrought under the sun, is grievous unto me,' that is, the work which I wrought was such as gave me grief of heart, 'for all is vanity and vexation of spirit,'0 that is, this is all the consequence of what I did. It can- not be supposed that he was weary of his life for the same reasons that many others are, who are deprived of the blessings of common providence, and reduced to that condition which makes them miserable as to their outward circumstances in the world. It was the uneasiness he found in his own spirit, the secret wounds of con- science and bitterness of soul arising from a sense of sin, which made him thus com- plain. Elsewhere, too, he seems to be sensible of his sin, in heaping up vast trea- sures. The doing of this he calls ' loving silver ;' and he adds, what seems very applicable to his own case, that he who is guilty of it, ' shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase ; this is also vanity ;'p that is, this had been an instance of his former vanity. He adds farther, ' The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much ; but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.' q If by this we understand that the increase of riches sometimes gives disturbance to and stirs up the corruptions of those who possess them, and if the passage thus understood be applied to himself, it is an ac- knowledgment of his sin. Or, if we understand by it that the abundance of a rich man will not give him rest at night, when his mind is made uneasy with a sense of k 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15. 1 Eccl. i. 17. m Chap. ii. 10. n Verse 11. o Eccl. ii. 17. P Chap. v. 10. q Verse 12. 182 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. the guilt of sin, and if it be applied to his own case when he is fallen, it intimates that his repentance not only gave him uneasiness by day, but took away his rest by night. It seems also not improbable, that what gave him farther occasion to see the vanity of his past life, was the sense of mortality impressed on him ; for he says, * It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feast- ing ; for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart ;' r that is, he will or ought to improve the sense of his own frailty, which we may conclude he had done ; and therefore he adds, ' Sorrow is better than laughter ; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. 's — It may be objected indeed, that all these expressions, and many others of a similar nature, which might have been referred to, which are expressive of great repentance, are not applicable to himself. Now, though I cannot but think that the contrary seems very probable ; yet there is something farther added, which he expressly applies to himself, and which refers to his unlawful love of women : ' I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands. Whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her ; but the sinner shall be taken by her. Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher.'' If these things be not expressive of repentance, it is hard to say what are. We may add that, as he expresses a grief of heart for his past sins, so he warns others that they may not be guilty of that which he him- self found more bitter than death. Accordingly, having described the arts used by the wicked woman to betray the unthinking passenger, he cautions every one to take heed of declining to her ways ; inasmuch as the consequence will be, that ' a dart will strike through his liver,' and he is ' as a bird that hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.'u He also adds, ' She hath cast down many wounded ; yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. 'x So that we find in Solomon two of the greatest evidences which we can have of sincere repentance ; namely, a great degree of sorrow for sin, and an earnest desire that others would avoid it, by giving those cautions which are necessary to prevent their falling into the snare in which he had been entangled. — Moreover, something is spoken in Solomon's commenda- tion, after his death. This may be gathered from its being said that, during the three first years of Rehoboam's reign, which God approved of, ' he walked in the way of David and of Solomon ;** where we may observe that Solomon is joined with his father David. Hence, as there were abatements to be made for the blemishes in David's reign ; the reign of Solomon had in it great blemishes. But as one re- pented, so did the other, and therefore ought not to be reckoned an apostate. We may add, that he was a penman of scripture ; and it does not appear that God con- ferred this honour upon any who apostatized from him. On the other hand, they have the general character given of them by the apostle Peter, that they were all * holy men of God.'z Thus, then, we must conclude Solomon to have been, till we have greater evidence to the contrary than they can produce who say he was an apostate. 3. There are others mentioned in the objection, namely, Hymeneus and Alex- ander, whose apostasy we have no ground to doubt of ; but we cannot allow that they fell from or lost the saving grace of faith. It is one thing to fall from the profession of faith, and another thing to lose the grace of faith. Hence, the only thing to be proved in answer to this branch of the objection, is, that these persons, who are described as apostates, never had the truth of grace, or that they fell only from that visible profession of it, whereby they were reckoned to be, what in reality they were not, namely, true believers. Now, the apostle speaks of them as having 1 departed from the faith, ' namely, the doctrines of the gospel ; and their doing this was attended with blasphemy, for which they were ' delivered unto Satan,' which is a phrase used by the apostle here and elsewhere, for persons being cut off from the communion of the church. Hence, he advises Timothy to ' hold faith and a good conscience, which some having put away, concerning faith, have made shipwreck,' as these had done. Now, the main force of the objection seems to lie in this, that r Eccl. vii. 2. s Verse 3. t Verses 26, 27. u Prov. vii. 23. compared with the foregoing verses. x Verses 26, 27. y 2 Chron. xi. 17. * 2 Pet. i. 21. PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 183 they who have made shipwreck of faith were onco true believers ; and that, there- fore, such may apostatize, and so fall short of salvation. But by ' faith ' here is meant the doctrines of the gospel, which are often styled ' faith. ' Thus it is said that the apostle ' preached the faith which once he destroyed.'* Elsewhere also it is said, 'before faith came,' that is, before the gospel-dispensation began, and those doctrines were preached, which, under that dispensation, were to be published to the world, 'we were kept under the law.'b Again, ' Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith ?'c that is, by hearing those doctrines which are contained in the gospel. Hence, what the apostle charges the apostates with, is making shipwreck of faith, considered objectively. They once, indeed, held the truth, but it was in unrighteousness ; they had right notions of the gospel, which they afterwards lost. Now, the apostle advises Timothy not only to ' hold faith,' that is, to retain the doctrines of the gospel as one who had right senti- ments of divine truths, but to hold it 'with a good conscience.' For I take the expression, 'hold faith and a good conscience,' to contain an hendyadis ; and so it is the same as if he had said, ' Be not content with a mere assent to the truths of the gospel, but labour after a conscience void of offence towards God, that thou mayest have its testimony that thy knowledge of divine truth is practical and ex- perimental, and then thou art out of danger of making shipwreck of faith, as these have done, who held it without a good conscience.' It is not said they made ship- wreck of a good conscience ; for that they never had. What is said is, ' Concerning faith,' which they once professed, 'they made shipwreck.' The same thing may be said concerning Judas. He apostatized from the faith which he once made a very great profession of, being not only one of Christ's dis- ciples, but sent forth with the rest of them to preach the gospel and work miracles ; yet it is evident that he had not the saving grace of faith. Our Saviour, who knew the hearts of all men, was not deceived in him, though others were ; for it is said, 1 He knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.'d The principal force of the objection, however, is put in this way: Judas must needs have been a believer, because he was given to Christ ; and our Saviour says, that ' those who were given to him were kept by him, and none of them was lost but the son of perdition. 'e His being styled ' the son of perdition ' argues him an apostate, and his having been ' given to Christ ' denotes that he was once a true believer ; so that he fell totally and finally. In answer to this, some conclude that they who are said to have been ' given to Christ,' are such as were appointed, by the providence of God, to be his servants in the work of the minis- try. Now, it is said concerning them, that they were given to Christ to be employed by him in this service, and that all of them were kept faithful, except the son of perdition. If this be the sense of their being given to him, it does not necessarily infer their being made partakers of special grace. It is one thing to be given to Christ, to be employed in some peculiar acts of service in which his glory is con- cerned ; and another thing to be given to him, as being chosen and called by him to partake of special communion with him. If Judas had been given to him in the latter sense, he would not have been a son of perdition, but would have been kept by him, as the other disciples were ; but as he was given to Christ only that he might serve the design of his providence in the work of the ministry, he might be lost, or appear to be a son of perdition, and yet not fall from the truth of grace. If, on the other hand, by being 'given to Christ,' we understand a being given to him as objects of his care and special love, we must suppose that all who were thus given to him were kept by him ; and in this sense Judas, who is called ' the son of perdition,' and was not kept by him, was not given to him. Accordingly, the par- ticle ' but' is not exceptive, but adversative ; and the passage is as if our Lord had said, ' All that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost ; but the son of perdition is lost.' I have not preserved him ; for he was not the object of my special care and love. He was not given me to save ; therefore he is lost. Now it is cer- tain that the particle ' but ' is used in this sense in many other scriptures, particu- larly that in which it is said, ' There shall in no wise enter into it,' that is, the a Gal. i. 23, b Chap. iii. 23. c Ver. 2. d John vi. 64. e Chap, xvii, 12. 184 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. heavenly Jerusalem, ' any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abo- mination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life ;* which is as if it had been said, ' Ungodly men shall not enter in ; but they that are written in the Lamb's book of lite shall.'* Thus much concerning the objec- tion taken from particular persons who are supposed to have fallen from grace. II. The next objection is taken from what the apostle Paul says concerning the church of the Jews, whom he describes as apostatized from God. It is evident that they are to this day given up to judicial blindness, and not in the least disposed to repent of that crime for which they were cast off. Concerning these, he says that they once were holy : ' If the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy ; and if the root be holy, so are the branches ;'h and afterwards he speaks of ' their casting away,' and of 'some of the branches being broken off, because of unbelief.'* Now, say the objectors, if the whole church apostatized, we must conclude that at least some of them were true believers. Hence, true believers may fall from the grace of God. Now, that the church of the Jews apostatized, and were cut off for their unbelief, is sufficiently evident. But we must distinguish between the apostacy of a profess- ing people such as the church of the Jews were, who first rejected God, and then were cast off by him, and the apostacy of those who were truly religious amongst them. The apostle himself gives us ground for this distinction, when he says, ' They are not all Israel which are of Israel ; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children. 'k Elsewhere, also, he distinguishes between one who is a Jew, as being partaker of the external privileges of the covenant which the Jewish church was under ; and a person's being a Jew, as partaking of the sav- ing blessings of that covenant. He says, ' He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter ; whose praise is not of men but of God.'1 A church may lose its external privileges, and cease to have the honourable character given it of being a church, — the greatest part of them may be blinded ; when, at the same time, 'the election,' that is, all among them who were chosen to eternal life, 'obtain it.' The apostle observes this,™ and, in doing so, intimates that some who were members of the Jew- ish church were faithful. These were preserved from the common apostacy, being converted to the Christian faith. Their privileges as members of a church were lost ; but they still retained their spiritual and inseparable union with Christ, which they had as believers, and not as the result of their being the natural seed of Abra- ham. They were made, partakers of the blessings which accompany salvation ; and therefore were not separated from the love of God in Christ ; whilst formal profes- sors and hypocrites, who were Abraham's natural seed, but not his spiritual, were cast off by Christ. III. It is farther objected that there are some who have the character of righ- teous persons, concerning whom it is supposed that they may fall away or perish. The objectors particularly refer to Ezekiel xviii. 24, ' When the righteous turn- eth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live ? All his righte- ousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned : in his trespass that he hath tres- passed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.' The objectors refer also to Hebrews x. 38, in which it is said, ' The just shall live by faith ; but if any man,' or, as the word should be rendered, ' if he draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.' They hence infer that, as the righteous man may turn from his righteousness, and draw back to perdition, the doctrine of the saints' per- severance cannot be defended. 1. As to the former of these scriptures, we must consider the sense of it agree- ably to the context, and the scope and design of the prophet. He had often re- proved the people for those vile abominations which they were guilty of, and had denounced the threatenings of God, which should have their accomplishment in r Rev. xxi. 27. g See several other scriptures in which n fttt is taken adversatively, Matt. xxiv. 36; Gal. i. 7; Rev. ix. 4. h Rom. xi. 16. i Verses 15, 17, 19, 20. k Rom. ix. 6, 7. 1 Chap. ii. 28, 29. m Chap. xi. 7. PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 185 their utter ruin. Particularly, he foretells the judgments which should sweep away many of them before the captivity, and others that should befall them in it. This is the subject principally insisted on by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The people were, in consequence, sometimes represented as disliking the doctrine, desiring that 'smooth things' might be prophesied to them, and that 'the Holy One of Israel might cease from before them.'n At other times they are represented as complaining of the hardship of the dispensation, intimating that it was unjust and severe, and, at the same time, justifying themselves, as though they had done nothing which deserved it, and as though it was to befall them wholly for the sins of their fathers. Accordingly, there was a proverbial expression often made use of by them, mentioned in the second verse of this chapter, ' The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' But by this' they did not understand that we expect to perish eternally for our fathers' sins ; in which sense it must be taken if the objection in question has any force. Now God, by the prophet, tells them that they had no reason to use this proverb, and so puts them upon looking into their past conduct, and inquiring whether they had not been guilty of the same sins which their fathers were charged with ; and he assures them, that if they could exculpate themselves from these, they should be delivered, and not die, that is, not fall by those judgments which either should go before or follow the captivity, — for that, as we have observed elsewhere,0 seems to be the sense of 'dying,' according to the prophetic way of speaking. For understanding this scripture, then, we must consider that the prophet addresses himself to ' the house of Israel.' These are represented as complaining that ' the way of the Lord was not equal,'? or that God's threatenings or judgments, which were the forerunners of the captivity, were such as they had not deserved. He hence tells them that he would deal with them according to their deserts. ' When the righteous, 'i that is, one whose conversation formerly seemed to be unblemished, and who appeared not guilty of such enormous crimes as were committed by others — which may be sup- posed, and yet the person not be in a state of grace,— when such an one ' turneth away from his righteousness, and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth,' that is, becomes openly vile and profligate, 'shall he live ?' can he expect any thing else but that God should follow him with exemplary judg- ments, or that he should be involved in the common destruction ? ' In his sin that he hath sinned, shall he die.' On the other hand, 'When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness;'1" that is, when they who have been guilty of these abominations shall reform their lives, or turn from their idolatry, murders, adul- teries, oppressions, and other vile crimes which the people in general were charged with by the prophet, and which are assigned as the reason of God's sending the dreadful judgment of the captivity ; I say, if there be such an instance of reforma- tion, ' he shall save his soul alive ;' that is, either he shall be delivered from the captivity, or shall be preserved from those temporal judgments which either went before or followed after it. This reformation, followed by deliverance from these judgments, amounts to something less than saving grace, and a right to eternal life, which is inseparably connected with it. Hence, if nothing else than what has been stated be intended by ' the righteous ' and 'the wicked man ;' and if the judg- ments threatened, or their deliverance from them in case of reformation, includes no more than temporal judgments and temporal deliverance ; it is evident, that the passage does not in the least suppose that any true believer shall apostatize or fall from a state of grace. As we may distinguish between eternal death and temporal judgments ; so we must distinguish between a person's abstaining from the vilest abominations as a means to escape these judgments, and his exercising those graces which accompany salvation. There may be an external reformation in those who have no special grace, if nothing farther be regarded than a person's moral charac- ter, or inoffensive behaviour in the eye of the world. If we consider him onlv as abstaining from those sins which are universally reckoned disreputable among per- sons who make any pretensions to religion, and if in this respect he be denominated n Isa. xxx. 10, II. o See Sect. 'Extent of the Atonement,' under Quest, xliv. p Ezek. xviii. 25. q Verse 24. r Verse 27. II. 2 A 186 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. a righteous man ; he may turn away from his righteousness and become immoral andprofligate, and so be reckoned among the number of apostates. He cannot be said, however, to apostatize or iall from the grace of God ; since moral virtue, or the exercise of righteousness in our dealings with men, is as much inferior to sav- ing grace, as a form of godliness is to its power. 2. As to the other scripture mentioned in the objection, it is generally urged against us as an unanswerable argument, in the express words of it, to prove the possibility of the saints' apostasy. Our translation of it is charged with a wilful mistake, to serve a turn, and make the text speak what it never intended; since all, it is alleged, who understand the original must allow that it ought to be ren- dered, ' If he draw back,' which supposes that the just man may apostatize, or draw back unto perdition. But though the words, according to the form in which they are laid down, contain a supposition, it does not infer the being or reality of the thing supposed ; s but only this, that if such a thing should happen, it would be attended with what is laid down as a consequence. This is very agreeable to our common mode of speaking. We say, for example, that if a virtuous person should commit a capital crime, he will fall under the lash of the law as much as though he had made no pretensions to virtue. Yet it does not follow, that such an one shall do it, or expose himself to this punishment. On the other hand, if a king should say to a criminal, as Solomon did to Adonijah, ' If he will show himself a worthy man, there shall not an hair of him fall to the earth, ' it cannot be inferred that he will behave himself so that his life shall be secured to him. The proposi- tion is true, as there is a just connection between the supposition and the conse- quence ; yet this does not argue that the thing supposed shall come to pass. So it is with the scripture under our present consideration. The proposition is doubt- less true, that if the just man should draw back, so as to become a wicked man ; if he should lose the principle of grace which was implanted in regeneration, and abandon himself to the greatest impieties ; he would as certainly perish as though he had never experienced the grace of God. But it must not be inferred from this, that God will suffer such an one, who is the object of both his love and his care, thus to fall and perish, so that his soul should have no pleasure in him. — Again, if we suppose the person here spoken of, whom we consider as a true believer, to draw back, we may distinguish between backsliding or turning aside from God by the commission of very great sins, and apostasy, — or between drawing back, by be- ing guilty of great crimes, so as to expose himself to sore judgments, and drawing back to perdition. The just man, in this text, is said, indeed, to draw back ; but he is distinguished from one who draws back to perdition. Accordingly, it is said in the following verse, ' We are not of them who draw back to perdition ; but of them that believe, to the saving of the soul.' Such a drawing back as this, though it shall not end in perdition, inasmuch as the person shall be recovered and brought to repentance, shall yet be attended with very great marks of God's displeasure against believers for those sins which they have committed. Accordingly, ' his soul having no pleasure ' in them, denotes that he would, in various instances, as a display of his holiness, reveal his wrath against relapsing believers, who shall nevertheless be recovered and saved at last. If these things be duly considered, the objection seems to have no weight, even though it should be allowed that the words upon which it is principally founded are not rightly translated. — I cannot see sufficient reason, however, to set aside our translation ; it being equally just to render the words, ' If any man draw back.'* For as the supplying of the words 1 any man,' or * any one,' is allowed in many other instances, both in the Old and the New Testament ; so there is not the least incongruity in their being supplied in the text under consideration.11 Now if they be supplied, the sense which we b It is a known maxim in logic, ' Suppositio nihil ponit in esse.' t E«v ivrorrtiXtireu. u It is certain, that the particles ni, -wh. and others of similar import, are often left out, and that the defect is to he supplied in the translation. Thus it is in Job xxxiii. 27. where the Hebrew word, which might have been rendered ' and he shall say,' is better rendered * and it any say,' &c. In Gen. xlviii. '2, instead of ■ he told Jacob,' it is better rendered * one told Jacob,' or ' somebody told him.' In Mark ii. 1, tk, which is left out in the Greek text, is supplied in the translation, in which we do not read ' after days,' but ' after some days.' See Nold. Concord. Partic. pages 41, 42, PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 187 give of it, will appear very agreeable to the context. For the meaning is, • The just shall live by faith ;' or, as in one of the foregoing verses, they who ' know in themselves that they have in heaven a better and an enduring substance' shall live by faith ; but as for others who do not live by faith, having only a form or show ot religion, whose manner is to forsake the assembling of themselves together,1 these are inclined to ' draw back.' Let them know, therefore, that ' if any one,' or who- soever, ' draws back,' it will be at their peril ; for it will be to their own ' perdition/ Yet, saith the apostle, that true believers may not be discouraged by the apostasy of others, let them take notice of what is said in the following words, ' We are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.' These things being duly considered, it will be sufficiently evident that this text does not militate against the doctrine of the saints' perseverance. IV. There is an objection brought against the doctrine we have been endeavour- ing to maintain, taken from what the apostle says in Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6, ' It is impos- sible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.' The force of this objection lies in two things, namely, that the persons are described as total and final apostates, and that, ac- cording to the account we have of their former condition, they appear to have been true believers. This is thought, by some who defend the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, to be one of the most difficult objections which we generally meet with against it. Those especially who cannot see how it is possible for a person to make such advances towards true godliness, and yet be no other than an hypocrito or formal professor, are obliged to take a method to set aside the force of the ob- jection which I cannot agree with. They allege that when the apostle says ' it is impossible' that such should be 'renewed again to repentance,' the word 'impossible' denotes nothing else but that the thing is exceedingly difficult, not that they shall eventually perish. It is supposed that they are true believers ; that their recov- ery, after such a notorious instance of backsliding shall be attended with difficul- ties so great that nothing can surmount them but the extraordinary power of God ; and that though he will recover them, yet they shall feel the smart of their back- sliding as long as they live, — that they shall be saved, ' yet so as by fire.'y But in which several texts of scripture are produced to the same purpose, and among the rest, this in Heb. x. 38, which we are at present considering as what ought to be rendered ' if any one draw back. In this and similar instances we may observe that the verb personal has an impersonal signification, or that which is properly active is rendered passively. So Eccl. ix. 15, rra xym is not rendered ' and he found in it,' &c, but ' now there was found in it.' Many other instances of the like nature are to be observed in the Hebrew text in the Old Testament ; and sometimes this mode of speaking is imitated by the Greek text in the New. I might also observe, with respect to the scripture under our present consideration, that the learned Grotius observes that nt ought to be supplied, and that consequently the text ought to be rendered as it is in our translation, ' if any man draw back.' This he observes as what is agreeable to the grammatical construction of the words, with- out any rtgard to the doctrine we are maintaining, with respect to which he is otherwise minded. x Heb. x. 25. y To give countenance to this sense of the word 'impossible,' they refer to some scriptures in Ivhich it does not denote an absolute impossibility of the thing, but only that if it comes to pass it will he with much difficulty. Thus it is said, Acts xx. 16, that the apostle Paul 'hasted, if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost;' where his making haste argues that the thing was in itself not impossible but difficult. In Rom. xii. 18. we are exhorted, 'if it be possible, as much as in us lieth, to live peaceably with all men.' This shows that it is hard indeed so to do, but that we are nevertheless to useour utmost endeavours to do it; which does not argue that the thing is in itself altogether impossible. There is another scripture which they bring to justify this sense of the words, namely, Matt. xix. 23 — 26, in which our Saviour's design is to show the difficulty of a rich man's entering into the kingdom of heaven. This he compares to a 'camel's going through the eye of a needle;' by which very few suppose that the beast so called is intended, but a cable- rope, which is sometimes called a camel. Thus the Syriac and Arabic versions translate the word. And a learned writer observes that the Jews, in a proverbial way, express the difficulty of a thing by that of a cable-rope passing through the eye of a needle. See Buxt. Lex. Talmud, page 1719, and Boehart lliero. Part. 1. lib. ii. cap 3. And ' by needle' is not meant that which is used in work- ing, hut an iron through which a small rope may be easily drawn, though it was very difficult to rorce a camel, or cable rope, through it. They suppose, therefore, that our Saviour is not speaking ol a ttimu which is absolutely impossible, but of what is exceedingly difficult; and that this may be 188 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. though the word ■ impossible' may be sometimes taken for that which is very diffi- cult, I cannot but conclude that the apostle is here speaking of that which is im- possible with respect to the event, and therefore that he is giving the character of apostates who shall never be recovered. This appears, not only from the heinous- ness of the crime, as they are said to ' crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame ;' but from what is mentioned in the following verses, in which they are compared to 'the earth that bringeth forth thorns and briars, which is rejected, and nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned ;' and from their being distinguished from those who shall be saved, concerning whom the apostle was 'persuaded better things, and things that accompany salvation.' I think, therefore, he is speaking here concerning a total and final apostasy. But that this may not appear to militate against the doctrine we are maintaining, I shall endeavour to show that, notwithstanding the character the apostle gives of the persons he speaks of, they were destitute of the truth of grace ; so that no- thing is said concerning them, but what a formal professor may attain to. They are described as ' once enlightened ;' but this a person may be, and yet be destitute of saving faith. If by being ' enlightened ' we understand their having been baptized, a sense in which the word is taken by some critics, and in which it was used in some following ages, it might easily be alleged that a person might be baptized and yet not be a true believer. But as I question whether, in the apostles' age,z baptism was expressed by illumination, I would rather understand by it their having been convinced of the truth of the gospel, or their having yielded an assent to the doctrines contained in it. Now this a person may do, and yet be destitute of saving faith ; which is seated not merely in the understanding, but in the will, and therefore supposes him not only to be rightly informed with respect to those things which are the object of faith, but to be internally and effectually called. — Again, they are said to have ' tasted the good word of God.' This de- scription agrees with the character we formerly had of those who had a temporary faith, a who seemed for a while pleased with the word, and whose affections were raised in hearing it. Thus, Herod is said to have ' heard John the Baptist gladly, and to have done many things ;' and certain hearers of the word are compared by our Saviour to the seed sown in stony ground, which soon sprang up, but afterwards withered away. Now, a person may hear the word in this way, and yet not have saving faith ; for it is one thing to approve of and be affected with the word, and another thing to mix it with that faith which accompanies salvation. As all men desire to be happy, a person may with pleasure entertain those doctrines contained in the word which, relate to a future state, of blessedness, and at the same time be far from practising the duties of self-denial, taking up the cross and following Christ, mortifying indwelling sin, and exercising an entire dependence upon him and resig- nation to him in all things. To do this includes much more than what is expressed by ' tasting the good word of God.' — Further, the persons are described as having ' tasted the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and of the powers of the world to come.' All these expressions, I humbly conceive, carry in them no more than this, that they had been enabled to work miracles, or that they had a faith of miracles, which has been already described,1* and has been proved to fall very short of saving faith.0 The characters given of them, therefore, do not inferred from his reply to what the disciples objected, • Who then can be saved ?' when he says, ' With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.' And to apply this to the scripture under consideration, they suppose that the apostle, when he speaks of the ' renewing' of those persons "to repentance,' does not intend that which is absolutely impossible, but that it cannot be brought about but by the extraordinary power of God, with whom all things are possible. z We do not find the word used in that sense till the second century, by Justin Martyr [Vid. ejusd. Di;d. 2.] and Clemens Alexandrinus [in Paedag. lib. i. cap. 6j. Now, we are not altogether to take our measures in explaining the sense of the words used in scripture from those who some- times mistiike the sense of the doctrine contained in it. Yet, even if we take the word in this sense, it does not militate against our argument, since a person may be baptized who is not in a ■ •tate of grace and salvation. a See Sect. ' The Various Kinds of Faith,' under Quest, lxxii, lxxiii. b See Sect. ' The Various Kinds of Faith,' under Quest, lxxii, lxxiii. c There seems to be a hendyadis in the apostle's node of speaking. By the ' heavenly gift' we are to understand extraordinary gifts, which are elsewhere called 'the Holy Ghost,' Acts xix. 2, PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 189 argue that they were true believers ; and consequently the' objection, which depends on the supposition that they were, is of no force to prove that saints may totally or finally fall from grace.d V. The next objection 'against the doctrine we have been maintaining is taken from Heb. x. 29, ' Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done de- spite unto the Spirit of grace ?' The crime here spoken of is of the most heinous nature, and the greatest punishment is said to be inflicted for it. Now, say the objectors, inasmuch as these are described as having been ' sanctified by the blood 01 the covenant,' it follows that they were true believers, and consequently true believers may apostatize and fall short of salvation. The force of the objection lies principally in the words, ' The blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanc- tified.' This expression is taken by divines in two different senses. 1. Some take the word 'he' in the same sense as it is taken in the objection, as referring to the apostate ; and then the difficulty which occurs is, how such a one could be said to be sanctified by the blood of the covenant, and yet not be regene- rated, effectually called, or a true believer. To solve this, they suppose that by • sanctification ' we are to understand only a relative holiness, which those have who are made partakers of the common grace of the gospel. Thus it is said, ' Is- rael was holiness unto the Lord,'e or, as the apostle Peter expresses it, ' an holy nation. 'f They were God's people by an external covenant relation, and by an explicit consent to be governed by those laws which he gave them when they first became a church, s and publicly avouched him to be their God, and he avouched them to be his peculiar people, which was done upon some solemn occasions.11 Yet many of them were destitute of the special grace of sanctification, as including a thorough and universal change of heart and life. Moreover, it is supposed that this privilege of being God's people by an external covenant relation, together with all those common gifts and graces which attend it, was purchased by and founded on the blood of Christ, which is called 'the blood of the covenant,' inasmuch as he was ' given for a covenant of the people ;H and, pursuant to this, he shed his blood to procure for them the external as well as the saving blessings of the covenant of grace. The former of these, the persons here described as apostates are supposed to have been partakers of, as the apostle says, ' To them pertaineth the adop- tion, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises. 'k They worshipped him in all his ordinances, as those whom the prophet speaks of, ' who seek him daily, and delight to know his ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God ; they ask of him the ordinances of justice, and take delight in approaching to God;' and yet these things were not done by faith.1 , In this respect persons may be sanc- tified, and yet afterwards forfeit, neglect, despise, and forsake these ordinances, and lose the external privileges of the covenant of grace which they once had, and so become apostates. This is the most common method used to solve the difficulty contained in the objection. But I would rather acquiesce in another way which may be taken to account for the sense of those words, ' The blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified.' 2. The word ' he ' may be understood as referring, not to the apostate, but to our Saviour, who is spoken of immediately before. Thus the apostate is said to ' trample under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant, wherewith He,' that is, Christ, 'was sanctified, an unholy thing.' That this sense may ap- pear just, it may be observed, that Christ was, in two respects, sanctified or set apart by the" Father, to perform all the branches of his mediatorial office. He was because they were from the Holy Ghost as effects of his power, and wrought to confirm the gospel- dispensation, \\ hich is called ' the world to come,' Heb. ii. 5, and therefore they are styled ' the powers of the world to come.' d [For some remarks on Heb. vi. 4 — 6, and the apostates whom it describes, see Note ' Is any Sin Unpardonable?' appended to Sect. ' For Whom Praver is not to be made,' under Quest, clxxxiv. —Ed.] e Jer. ii. 3. f 1 Pet. ii. 9. g Exod. xxiv. 3. h Dmt. xxvi. 17, 18. i Isa. xln. 6. k Rom. ix. 4. 1 Isa. lviii. 2. .90 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. so set apart as he was foreordained or appointed by him, to come into the world fr shed his blood for the redemption of his people. Accordingly, his undertaking u redeem them, is called his sanctifying or devoting himself to perform this work. • For their sakes,' says he, ' I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 'm This he did in pursuance of the eternal transaction between the Father and him, relating to their redemption. But it will be said, that this was antecedent to his dying for them ; and that hence he could not, properly speaking, be said, in this respect, to be ' sanctified by the blood of the covenant.' We add, therefore, that he was also sanctified or set apart by the Father, to apply the work of redemption after he had purchased it. His sanctification was, in the most proper sense, the result of his shedding his blood, which was the blood of the covenant. Hence, as he was ' brought again from the dead,' as the apostle says, 'through the blood of the everlasting covenant,'11 all the blessings which he in consequence applies to his people are the result of his being sanctified or set apart to carry on and perfect the work of our salvation, the foundation of which was laid ■vn his blood. Moreover, that they who, in the passage under consideration, are described as apostates, had not formerly the grace of faith, is evident from the context, which distinguishes them from true believers. The apostle seems to speak of two sorts of persons. He speaks first of some who had cast off the ordinances of God's wor- ship, 'forsaking the assembling of themselves together,' and these are distinguished from those whom he dehorts from this sin, who had the grace of faith, whereby they were enabled to ' draw near to God in full assurance thereof, having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and their bodies washed with pure water.' jjoncerning these he says, * We are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but ef them that believe to the saving of the soul.'0 We must conclude, therefore, that others are intended in the text under our present consideration, who were not true believers. It hence does not appear from this text that true believers may totally or finally fall from a state of grace. The apostates spoken of in this and the foregoing objection, were probably some among the Jews, to whom the gospel was preached, who embraced the Christian faith, being convinced by those miracles which were wrought for that purpose, but who afterwards revolted from it, and were more inveterately set against Christ and the gospel than they had been before they made this profession. Accordingly, as they had formerly approved of the crimes of those who crucified Christ, in which respect they are said to have crucified him ; now they do, in the same sense, crucify him afresh. And as they had been made partakers of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost ; afterwards they openly blasphemed him, and did so with spite and malice. These texts, therefore, not only contain a sad instance of the apostasy of some, but prove that they were irrecoverably lost. This comes as near the account we have in the gospels of the unpardonable sin, as any thing mentioned in scripture. What has been said, however, to prove that they never were true believers, is a sufficient answer to this and the foregoing objection. VI. Another objection against the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, is taken from 2 Peter ii. 20 — 22, ' For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome ; the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.' They are also said in the following verse, to 'turn from the holy com- mandment delivered unto them;' and their doing so is compared to the ' dog turn- ing to his own vomit again ; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.' Now, though every one must conclude that the persons whom the apostle here speaks of plainly appear to be apostates ; yet there is nothing in their character which argues that they apostatized or fell from the truth of grace ; and it is only such whom we are at present speaking of. It may be observed that the apostle is so far from including these apostates in the number of those to whom he writes this and the foregoing epistle, whom he describes as ' elect, according to the fore- m John xvii. 19. n Heb. xiii. 20. u ^nnp. x. 39. PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 191 knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit,*unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,' and as having been 'begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance reserved for them in heaven,' and as such as should be ' kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, 'p that he plainly distinguishes them from them. For in the first verse of the chapter" whence the objection is taken, it is said, ' There shall be false teachers among you, and many shall follow their pernicious ways.' He does not say many who are now of your number, but many who shall be joined to the church, when these false teachers arise. These persons, indeed, are represented as making a great show of religion, by which they gained reputation among some professors whom they seduced by means of it ; and therefore it is said that ' they had escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,' and that they had 'known the way of righteousness.' Such might indeed be joined to the church afterwards ; but they did not now belong to it. And what is said concerning them amounts to no more than an external visible re- formation, together with their having attained the knowledge of Christ and divine things ; so that they were enlightened in the doctrines of the gospel, though they made it appear, by the methods they used to deceive others, that they had not ex- perienced the grace of the gospel themselves, and therefore they fell away from their profession, and turned aside from the faith which once they preached. It is one thing for a formal professor, who makes a great show of religion, to turn aside from his profession, to all excess of riot ; and another thing to suppose that a true believer can do so, and that to such a degree as to continue in apostasy. This the grace of God will keep him from. [See Note 0, page 194.] VII. Another objection against the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, is taken from the parable of the debtor and creditor, in Matt, xviii. 26, &c, ' The servant,' we are told, ' fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compas- sion and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.' But afterwards, upon the servant's treating with great severity one of his fellow-servants who owed him a very incon- siderable sum, his lord exacted the debt of him which he had before forgiven him, and so 'delivered him to the tormentors,' till he should pay all that was due to him. ' So likewise,' says our Saviour, ' shall my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye, from your hearts, forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.' From this it is inferred, that a person may fall from a justified state, or that God may forgive sin at one time, and yet be provoked to alter his resolution and inflict the punishment which is due to it at another ; an inference which is altogether incon- sistent with the doctrine of the saints' perseverance in grace. Now, we must observe that our Saviour does not design in his parables that every word or circumstance contained in them should be applied to signify what it seems to import. But there is some truth in general intended to be illustrated by the parables ; and this is principally to be regarded in them. Thus the parable of 'the judge which feared not God, neither regarded man,'i who was moved by a widow's importunity to 'avenge her of her adversary,' and after a while resolved to do so because the widow 'troubled him,' is applied to 'God's avenging his own elect, which cry day and night unto him.' Now, we must observe that it is only in this circumstance that the parable is to be applied, without any regard had to the injustice of the judge ; or to his being uneasy by reason of the importunity which the widow expressed in pleading her cause with him. — Again, in the parable of ' the steward,' we read that he was accused of having wasted his lord's goods;1" and apprehending that he should be soon turned out of his stewardship, he takes an unjust method to gain the favour of his lord's debtors, by remitting a part of what they owed him, that by this means they might be induced to show kindness to him when he should be turned out of his service. It is said, indeed, that * the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely ;'s though our Saviour does not design, in the account he gives of his injustice, to give the least counte- nance to it as if it were to be imitated by us. Nor by his lord's commending p 1 Pet. i. 2—5. q Luke xviii. 2, &c. r Chap. xvi. 1, &c. s Verse 8. 192 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. him as acting wisely for himself, does he intend that it is lawful or commendable for wicked men to pursue similar measures to promote their future interest. But the only thing in which the parable is applied, is, that we might learn from it, that * the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light ;' and that men ought to endeavour, without the least appearance of injustice, to gain the friendship of others, by using what they have in the ^orld in such a way that they may be induced, out of gratitude for those favours which they conferred upon them, to show respect to them ; but principally, that in performing what was really their duty, they might have ground to hope that they shall be approved of God, and received into everlasting habitations. Now, to apply this rule to the parable whence the objection is taken, we must consider that the design of it is not to signify that God changes his mind, as men do, by forgiving persons at one time and afterwards condemning them ; as though he did not know, when he extended this kindness to them, how they would behave towards others, or whether they would improve or forfeit this privilege. To suppose this would be contrary to the divine perfections. But the only design of the par- able is to show, that if they who now conclude that God has forgiven them, do not forgive others, they will find themselves mistaken at last ; and that, though, accord- ing to the tenor of the divine dispensations, or the revealed will of God, which is our only rule of judging concerning this matter, they think they are in a justi- fied state, it will appear that the debt which they owed was not cancelled, but shall be exacted of them to the utmost, in their own persons. All, therefore, which can be proved from the parable is, that a man may fall from or lose those seeming grounds which he had to conclude that his sins were forgiven. We are not to sup- pose that our Saviour intends that God's secret purpose, relating to the forgiveness of sin, can be changed ; or that he who is really freed from condemnation at one time, may fall under it at another. Hence, what is said in this parable, does not in the least give countenance to the objection founded on it, or overthrow the doc- trine we are maintaining. VIII. Another objection is taken from what the apostle Paul says concerning himself, in 1 Cor. ix. 27, ' I keep under my body and bring it into subjection ; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.' It is certain, say the objectors, that the apostle was a true believer ; yet he con-" eludes that, if he did not behave himself so as to subdue or keep under his corrupt passions, but should commit those open, scandalous crimes which they would prompt him to, he should in the end become a castaway, that is, apostatize from God, and be rejected by him. But though the apostle had as good ground to conclude that he had experienced the grace of God in truth, as any man, and was often favoured with a full assurance of his having done so ; yet he did not attain this assurance by immediate revela- tion, in the same way as he received those doctrines which he was to impart to the church as a rule of faith ; for then it would have been impossible for him to have been mistaken as to this matter. If this be supposed, then I would understand what he says concerning his being 'a castaway,' as denoting what would be the consequence of his 'not keeping under his body,' but not as implying that corrupt nature should so far prevail that he should fall from a sanctified state. If he did not attain assurance by immediate revelation, he had it in the same way as others have, by making use of those marks and characters which are given of the truth of grace. Accordingly, he argues that, though at present he thought himself to be in a sanctified state, from the same evidences that others conclude themselves to be so, yet if corrupt nature should prevail over him, which it would do if he did not keep his body in subjection, or if he were guilty of those vile abominations which unre- generate persons are chargeable with, then it would appear that this assurance was ill-grounded, his hope of salvation delusive, and he no other than a hypocrite ; and so, notwithstanding his having preached to others, he would be found, in the end, among those who were false professors, and accordingly be rejected of God. We may hence observe, that it is one thing for a person to exercise caution and use means to prevent sin, which, if he should commit it, would prove him a hypocrite ; and another thing for one who is a true believer, to be suffered to commit those sins by which he would apostatize from God, and so miss of salvation. P^TtS^VrcmNC'E IN GRACE. 193 IX. What we have just stated will serve to answer another objection which is usually brought against the doctrine we are maintaining. This objection is, that the doctrine is inconsistent with that holy fear which believers ought to have of fall- ing, as an inducement to care and watchfulness in the discharge of their duty ; as it is said, ' Happy is the man that feareth alway.'1 But we must distinguish be- tween that fear of caution, which is a preservative against sin, and includes a watch- fulness over our actions, that we may not dishonour God ; and an unbelieving fear, that though we are in a state of grace, and are enabled to exercise that diligence and circumspection which becomes Christians, yet we have no foundation whereon to set our foot, or ground to hope for salvation. Or, it is one thing to fear lest we should, by giving way to sin, dishonour God, grieve his Spirit, wound our own consciences, and do that which is a disgrace to the gospel, through the prevalency of corrupt nature, whereby we shall have ground to conclude that we thought ourselves some- thing when we were nothing, deceiving our own souls ; and another thing to fear that we shall perish and fall, though our hearts are right with God, and we have reason to expect that we shall be kept by his power, through faith, unto salvation. Practical Inferences from the doctrine of Perseverance. We shall conclude this Answer with a few inferences from what has been said to prove the doctrine of the saints' perseverance. 1. Since we do not pretend to assert that all who make a profession of religion are assured that they shall never apostatize, but only true believers, let unbelievers take no encouragement from what we have said to conclude that it shall be well with them in the end. Many are externally called, who are not really sanctified ; they presume that they shall be saved, but without ground, inasmuch as they con- tinue in impenitency and unbelief. Such have no warrant to take comfort from the doctrine we have been maintaining. 2. We may, from what has been said, observe the difference between the security of a believer's state, as his hope is fixed on the stability of the covenant and on its promises relating to his salvation, together with the Spirit's witness with ours con- cerning our own sincerity ; and that which we generally call carnal security, where- by a person thinks himself safe, or that all things shall go well with him, though he make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof. This is an unwarrantable security in a state of unregeneracy, or it is a licentiousness, which the doctrine of perseverance does not in the least give countenance to. 3. From what has been said concerning the apostacy of some from that faith which they once made a profession of, we may infer that it is only the grace of God experienced in truth, which will preserve us from turning aside from the faith of the gospel. The apostle speaks of some who, by embracing those doctrines which were subversive of the gospel, had ' fallen from grace, 'u that is, from the doctrines- of grace ; concerning whom he says, ' Christ profited them nothing,' or was 'become of no effect to them, 'x that is, the gospel, which contains a display of the glory of. Christ, was of no saving advantage to them. All the sad instances we have of many who are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, and are made a prey to those who lie in wait to deceive, proceed from their being destitute of the grace of God ; which would have a tendency to preserve them from turning aside from the faith of. the gospel. 4. Let us be exhorted to be as diligent and watchful against the breakings forth of corruption, and endeavour as much to avoid all occasions of sin, as though per- severance in grace were to be ascribed to our own endeavours, or as though God had given us no ground to conclude that he would enable us to persevere. Yet, . let us, at the same time, depend on his assistance, without which this blessing can- not be attained ; and hope in his mercy and faithfulness ; and lay hold on the pro- mises which he has given us, that it shall go well with us in the end, or that we shall have all joy and peace in believing. 5. Let us endeavour not only to persevere, but to grow in grace. These two . t Prov. xxviii. 14. u Gal. v. 4. x Chap. v. 2 4. II. . x 2 B 194 PERSEVERANCE IN GRA6E. blessings are joined together ; as it is said, ' The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.'* 6. The doctrine of perseverance has a great tendency to support and fortify be- lievers under the most adverse dispensations of providence to which at any time they are liable, and to comfort them under all the assaults of their spiritual ene- mies. For though these may be suffered to discourage or give them interruption in the exercise of those graces which they have experienced, yet grace shall not be wholly extinguished. Sometimes, also, by the overruling providence of God, those things which in themselves have a tendency to weaken their faith, shall be ordered as a means to increase it ; so that when they can do nothing in their own strength, they may be enabled, by depending on Christ, and receiving strength from him, to prevail against all the opposition they meet with, and at last come off ' more than conquerors, through him that loved them.'2 y Job xvii. 9. z Rom. viii. 37. [Note O. The characters described in 2 Pet. ii. 21, 22 The proverb which the apostle quotes, is, ' As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly,' Pro v. xxvi. 11. The character whom he describes, therefore, is a fool, — one who, notwithstanding his knowledge, or rather by misconceiving and perverting it, had never become ' wise unto salvation.' ' Swine ' and ' dogs ' are not sheep — they are not new creatures — they form no part of the flock, and never were admitted to the fold of the good Shepherd ; but, according to the uniform imagery of scripture language, they are enemies of purity, lovers of corruption, false teachers, perverters of truth, depraved and wicked men. ' Give not that which is holy to the dogs,' says our blessed Lord, * neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.' The dogs of whom Peter speaks are expressly said by him to have been 'false teachers,' verse 1. Now this very class of persons are called dogs also by the prophet Isaiah and the apostle Paul. ' His watch- men are blind ; they are all ignorant ; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark ; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber ; yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand,' Isa. lvi. 10, 11. 'Beware of dogs, beware of evil-workers, be- ware of the concision,' Phil. iii. 2. Moreover, Peter says, respecting those whom he describes, that ' they have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,' Verse 15. Now, as they ' escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,' so Balaam 'heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, and saw the vision of the Almighty, and, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open, said, I shall see him, but not now ; I shall be- hoid him, but not nigh ; there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth,' Numb. xxiv. 16, 17 ; and, as Balaam, on the one hand, became rebukeable even by a dumb ass for the madness of opposing what he knew, so the persons described by Peter ' turned from the holy commandment delivered unto them.' They and 'the mad prophet' were the same class of persons, and possessed a common character. Though they, for a time, escaped the pollutions of the world, they were always denied and swayed by unsubdued pollution of heart. While externally ' washed,' they were internally altogether vile ; and even when outwardly clean, they were but washed swine, unrenewed in their nature, filthy in their inclinations, prepared to roll themselves anew in the mire, governed by habits and possessing dispositions altogether alien from those of the sheep of Christ's pasture. — Ed.] ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. Qdestion LXXX. Can true believers be infallibly assured that they are in the estate of grace, and that they shall persevere therein unto salvation? Answer. Such as truly believe in Christ, and endeavour to walk in all good conscience before him, may, without extraordinary revelation, by faith grounded upon the truth of God's promises, and by the Spirit enabling them to discern in themselves those graces to which the promises of life are made, and bearing witness with their spirits that they are the children of God, be infallibly as- sured that th'ey are in the estate of grace, and shall persevere therein unto salvation. We have considered a believer as made partaker of those graces of the Holy Spirit which accompany salvation, and by which his state is rendered safe. We have considered also that he shall not draw back unto perdition, but shall attain the end of his faith, even the salvation of his soul. But it is necessary for the establishing of his comfort and joy, that he should know himself to be interested in this privilege. It is a great blessing to be redeemed by Christ, and sanctified by the Spirit ; but it is a superadded privilege to know that we are so, or to be assured that we are in ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. 195 a state of grace. This is the subject insisted on in the present Answer. In dis- cussing it we shall observe the following method. First, we shall say something concerning the nature of assurance, and how far persons may be said to be infalli- bly assured of their salvation. Secondly, we shall endeavour to prove that this blessing is attainable in this life. Thirdly, we shall consider the character of those to whom it belongs. Lastly, we shall consider the means whereby it may be attained. The Nature and Degrees of Assurance. We shall speak first concerning the nature of assurance, and how far persons may be said to be infallibly assured of their salvation. Assurance is opposed to doubting, which is inconsistent with it. He who has attained this privilege, is car- ried above all those doubts and fears respecting the truth of grace, and his interest in the love of God, which others are exposed to, and by which their lives are ren- dered very uncomfortable. It may be considered also as containing something more than our being enabled to hope that we are in a state of grace ; for though such hope affords relief against despair, yet it falls short of assurance, which is sometimes called a 'full assurance of hope.'a And it certainly contains a great deal more than a probability or a conjectural persuasion relating to this matter ; which is the only thing that some will allow to be attainable by believers, especially they who deny the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, and lay the greatest stress of man's salvation on his own free-will, rather than the efficacious grace of God. All that they will own as to this matter is, that persons may be in a hopeful way to salvation, and that it is probable they may attain it at last ; but that they cannot be fully assured that they shall, unless they were assured concerning their perse- verance. This, however, they suppose, no one can be ; because, as they think, the carrying on of the work of grace, as well as the beginning of it, depends on the free- will of man, and because, according to their notion of liberty, as was observed under another Answer,b he who acts freely may act the contrary. They hence conclude that, as every thing which is done in the carrying on of the work of grace is done freely ; no one can be assured that this work shall not miscarry ; so that none can attain assurance. This is what some assert, but we deny. It is observed in this Answer, not only that believers may attain assurance that they ' are in a state of grace, and shall persevere therein unto salvation,' but that they may be ' infallibly assured' of this, and so possess the highest degree of assurance. How far this is attainable by believers, may be the subject of our farther inquiry. It is a matter of dispute among some, whether assurance admits of any degrees ; whether a person can be said to be more or less assured of a thing ; or whether that which does not amount to the highest degree of certainty, may be called as- surance. This is denied by some, for this reason, that assurance is the highest and strongest assent which can be given to the truth of any proposition ; so that the least defect of evidence on which it is supposed to be founded, leaves the mind in a proportionable degree of doubt as to the truth of it ; in which case there may be a probability, but not an assurance. If this method of explaining the meaning of the word be correct, it is beyond dispute that they who have attained assurance of their being in a state of grace, may be said to be 'infallibly assured.' Whether this be the sense of that expression in this Answer, I will not pretend to determine ; neither shall I enter any farther into this dispute, which amounts to little more than what concerns the propriety or impropriety of the sense of the word ' assurance.' All that I shall add concerning it, is that, according to our common mode of speak- ing, it is reckoned no absurdity for a person to say he is sure of a thing, though it be possible for him to have greater evidence of the truth of it, and consequently a greater degree of assurance. Thus the assurance which arises from the possession of a thing cannot but be greater than that which attends the mere expectation of it. i Hence, whatever be the sense of the ' infallible assurance' which is here spoken of, we cannot suppose that there is any degree of assurance attainable in this life, concerning the happiness of the saints in heaven, equal to that which those have Heb. vi. 1 1. b See Sect. ' The Change wrought in Effectual Calling,' under Quest, lxvii. 196 ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. who are actually possessed of that blessedness. To suppose this would be to confound earth and heaven together, or expectation with actual fruition. As to our assurance, there is among some another matter of dispute which I am not desirous to enter into, namely, whether it is possible for a believer to be as sure that he shall be saved, as he is that he exists, or that he is a sinner and so stands in need of salvation ; or whether it is possible for a person to be as sure that he shall be saved, as he is sure of that truth which is matter of pure revelation, namelv, that he that believes shall be saved ; or whether it is possible for a person to be as sure that he has the truth of grace, as he may be that he performs any actions, whether natural or religious, such as speaking, praying, reading, hear- ing, «fec. ; or whether we may be as sure that we have a principle of grace, as we are that we put forth such actions as seem to proceed from that principle, when engaged in the performance of some religious duties. If any are disposed to defend the possibility of our attaining assurance in so great a degree as this, thinking it to be the meaning of what some divines have asserted, agreeably to what is contained in this Answer, that a believer may be ' infallibly assured of his salvation,' I will not enter the lists with them ; though I very much question whether it will not be a matter of too great difficulty for them to support their argument, without the least appearance of exception to it. I would not, however, extenuate or deny the privileges which some saints have been favoured with, who have been, as it were, in the suburbs of heaven, and had not only a prelibation but a kind of sensation of the enjoyments of it, and expressed as full an assurance as though they had been actually in heaven. It cannot be denied that this, in various instances, has amounted as near as possible to an as- surance of infallibility. And that such a degree of assurance has been attained by some believers, both in former and later ages, will be proved under a following Head. Now, this, I am apt to think, is what is intended in this Answer by the possibility of a believer's being infallibly assured of salvation. But let it be con- sidered that these are uncommon instances, in which the Spirit of God, by his im- mediate testimony, has favoured persons with as to this matter, and are not to be reckoned as a standard, whereby we may judge of that assurance which God's chil- dren desire and sometimes enjoy, which falls short of it. When God is pleased to give a believer such a degree of assurance as carries him above all his doubts and fears with respect to his being in a state of grace, and fills him with those conse- quent joys which are unspeakable and full of glory ; the believer possesses that assurance which we are now to consider, and which, in this Answer, is called an infallible assurance. But as to whether it is more or less properly called ' an in- fallible assurance,' we have nothing farther to add. The Attainableness of Assurance. We shall now proceed to prove that this privilege is attainable in the present life. 1. We observe, then, that if the knowledge of other things which are of less im- portance be attainable, certainly it is possible for us to attain that which is of the greatest importance. This argument is founded on the goodness of God. If he has given us sufficient means to lead us into the knowledge of things which respect our comfort and happiness in this world;, has he left us altogether destitute of those means whereby we may conclude that it shall go well with us in a better ? God has sometimes been pleased to favour his people with some intimations con- cerning the blessings of common providence, which they might expect for their encouragement, under the trials and difficulties which they were to meet with in the world. Our Saviour encourages his disciples to expect that, notwithstanding their present destitute circumstances, as to outward things, their Father, who ' knoweth that they had need of them,' would supply their wants ; so that they had no reason to be over-solicitous in ' taking thought what they should eat and drink, and wherewithal they should be clothed.'0 God, that he may encourage the faith of his people, gives them assurance that ' no temptation shall befall them, but what c Matt. vi. 31, 32. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. 197 is common to men,' or that they shall not he pressed down, so as to sink and de- spair of help from him, under the burdens and difficulties which, in the course of his providence, he lays on them. Now, if he is pleased to give such intimations to his people, with respect to their condition in this world, that they may be assured that it shall go well with them as to many things which concern their outward circumstances ; may we not conclude that the assurance of those things which concern their everlasting salvation may be attained ? Or, if the promises which respect the one may be depended on, so as to afford relief against all doubts and fears which may arise from our present circumstances in the world ; may we not, with as good reason, suppose that the promises which respect the other, namely, the carrying on and perfecting of the work of grace, afford equal matter of encouragement ? May we not hence conclude, that the one is as much to be depended on as the other ; so that, as the apostle says, ' they who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before them, may have a strong consola- tion ' arising thence ?d It will be objected that the promises which respect outward blessings are not always fulfilled ; so that we cannot be assured concerning our future condition, as to outward circumstances in the world ; though godliness, as the apostle says, ' hath promise of the life that now is,' as well as of ' that which is to come.' This, say the objectors, appears from the uncommon instances of affliction which the best men often meet with, and which others are exempted from. It is hence inferred that the promises which respect the carrying on and completing of the work of grace, will not afford that assurance of salvation which we suppo'se a believer may attain to as founded on them. Now, we reply, that the promises of outward bless- ings are always fulfilled, either in kind or in value. Sometimes the destitute state of believers, as to the good things of this life, is abundantly compensated with those spiritual blessings which are bestowed on them at present, or are reserved for them hereafter. Hence, if their condition in the world be attended with little else but affliction, they have no reason to say that they are disappointed ; for while they are denied lesser blessings, they have greater instead. Their assurance of the ac- complishment of the promises of outward blessings, therefore, must be understood with this limitation. But as to spiritual blessings which God has promised to his people, there is no foundation for any distinction of their being made good in kind or in value. If the promise of eternal life be not made good accord- ing to the letter of it, it cannot, in any sense, be said to be accomplished. Hence, as God gives his people these promises, as a foundation of hope, we may conclude that the assurance of believers relating to their salvation, is as much to be de- pended on as the assurance they have, founded on the promises of God, concern- ing any blessings which may tend to support them in their present condition in the world. 2. That assurance of justification, sanctification, and salvation, may be attained in this life, is farther evident from the obligations which persons are under to pray for these privileges, and to bless God for the experience which they have of the one, and the ground which they have to expect the other. That it is our duty to pray for them is no less certain than that we stand in need of them. This, then, being taken for granted, it may be inferred that there is some way by which we may know that our prayers are answered. To think that there is not such a way would be a very discouraging consideration. Nor, if there were not such a way, could the experience of answer to prayer be alleged as a motive to the performance of the duty ; as the psalmist says, ' 0 thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.'6 Nor could any believer have the least reason to say as he does else- where, ' Verily God hath heard me ; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. 'f The apostle also says that, ' if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us;'s and, in the following words, he adds, ' We know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.' It follows, therefore, that we may know, from the exer- cise of faith in prayer for the forgiveness of sin, that our iniquities are forgiven. The same may be said concerning prayer for all other blessings which accompany d Heb. vi. 18. e Psal. lxv. 2. f Psal. bcvi. 19. g 1 John v. 14, 15. 198 ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. salvation ; so that it is possible for us to know whether God has granted us these blessings or not. It may be objected, that it is not absolutely necessary that an humble suppliant should have any intimations given him that his petition shall be granted ; or that it would be a very unbecoming thing for such an one to say, that he will not ask for a favour, if he be not sure beforehand that it will be bestowed. We answer, that we are not only to pray for saving blessings, but to praise God for our experi- ence of them. Thus it is said, * Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me ;'h and ' Praise is comely for the upright.'1 Now, this supposes that we know that God has be- stowed upon us the blessings we prayed for. If the psalmist calls upon his soul to • bless the Lord for forgiving him all his iniquities,' k we must suppose that there was some method by which he attained the assurance of the blessing which he praises God for. 3. Some have attained the privilege of assurance ; and therefore it is not impos- sible for others to attain it. That some have been assured of their salvation, is evident from the account we have in several scriptures. Thus the apostle tells the church he writes to, ' God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salva- tion;'1 and he says concerning himself, ' I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day.'m It is objected that though some persons of old experienced this privilege, yet it does not follow that we have any ground to expect it ; since they attained it by extra- ordinary revelation, in that age in which they were favoured with the spirit of in- spiration, whereby they arrived at the knowledge of things future, even such as it was impossible for them otherwise to have known. At least, say the objectors, they could not, without these extraordinary intimations, have arrived at any more than a probable conjecture concerning this matter. Now, continue they, that by these means some obtained assurance, is not denied, while to pretend to more than this, is to suppose that we have it by extraordinary inspiration, which, at present, can be reckoned no other than enthusiasm. We answer, that though God does not give the church, at present, the least ground to expect extraordinary intimations concerning their interest in spiritual and saving blessings, as he formerly did ; yet we must not conclude that there is no method whereby they may attain the assurance of that interest in a common and ordinary way, by the internal testi- mony of the Spirit, — a testimony, as will farther appear under a following Head, which differs very much from enthusiasm, since it is attended with and founded on those evidences which God has given in scripture, of their being in a state of grace, and which they, in a way of self-examination, are enabled to apprehend in themselves. That this may appear, let it be considered that there never was any privilege conferred upon the church by extraordinary revelation, while that dispensation was continued in it, but the same, or some other which is equivalent to it, is still conferred in an ordinary way, provided it be absolutely necessary for the advanc- ing of the glory of God, and their edification and consolation in Christ. If this were not true, the church could hardly subsist ; much less would the present dispensa- tion of the covenant of grace excel the other which the church was under in former ages, as to those spiritual privdeges which they have ground to expect. It is, I think, allowed by all, that the gospel- dispensation, not only in the beginning of it, when extraordinary gifts were conferred, but in its continuance, now that they have ceased, excels that which went before it, with respect to the spiritual privileges which are conferred in it. Now, if God was pleased formerly to converse with men in an extraordinary way, and thereby to give them an intimation of things relating to their salvation, but at present withholds not only the way and manner of making such intimation to his people, but the blessings conveyed thereby ; it wdl follow that the church is in a worse state than it was before, or else it must be supposed that these privdeges are not absolutely necessary to enable them to glorify God, which they do by offering praise to him, and to their attaining that peace and h Psal. 1. 23. i Psal. xxxiii. 1. k Psal. ciii. 2, 3. 11 Thess. v. 9. m 2 Tim. i. 12. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. 199 joy which they are given to expect in a way of believing. If the church were desti- tute of this privilege, it would be in a very unhappy state, and retain nothing which could compensate the loss of those extraordinary gifts which have now ceased. They who insist on the objection, and charge the doctrine of assurance with savour- ing of enthusiasm, are obliged, by their own method of reasoning, to apply the same objection to the doctrine of internal, special, efficacious grace, which, under a foregoing Answer,11 we proved to be the work of the Spirit ; and if these internal works are confined to the extraordinary dispensation of the Spirit, then the church is at present as much destitute of sanctification as it is of assurance. We must hence conclude, that the one no more savours of enthusiasm than the other ; or that we have ground to hope for assurance of salvation, though not in an extraordi- nary way, as much as the saints had in former ages. Our Saviour has promised his people the Spirit to perform what is necessary for carrying on the work of grace in all ages, even when extraordinary gifts should cease. Thus he says, ' The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.'° Elsewhere, also, it is said, 'Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. 'p And as to the privilege of assurance, it is said, * We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.'** Besides, there are many other promises of the Spirit, which, though they had their accomplishment, as to what respects the conferring of extraordinary gifts, in the first age of the church, yet have a farther accomplish- ment in what the Spirit was to bestow on the church in following ages, though in an ordinary way. This seems very evident from scripture, inasmuch as the fruits of the Spirit are said to appear in the exercise of those graces which believers have in all ages, who never had extraordinary gifts. Thus it is said, ' The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. 'r Now, if these graces be produced by the Spirit, as they are called his ' fruits,' and the exercise of them be not confined to any particular age of the church, we must suppose that the Spirit's energy extends itself to all ages. — Again, believers are said to be ' led by the Spirit ;'s and their being so is assigned as an evidence of their being ' the sons of God.' On the other hand, it is said, ' If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.'' We may hence conclude that there was, in the apostle's days, an effusion of the Spirit common to all be- lievers, besides that which was conferred in an extraordinary way on those who were favoured with the gift of inspiration ; otherwise, having the Spirit would not have been considered as a privilege belonging only to believers, and being destitute of it an evidence of a person's not belonging to Christ. As to the extraordinary dispensation of the Holy Ghost, it was not inseparably connected with salvation. For many had it who were Christians only in name, and had nothing more than a form of godliness ; and, on the other hand, many true believers brought forth those fruits which proceeded from the Spirit in an ordinary way, who had not these extraordinary gifts conferred on them. Moreover, the apostle speaks of believers 'through the Spirit mortifying the deeds of the body.'u Now, if the work of mor- tification be incumbent on believers in all ages, then the influences of the Spirit, enabling to this work, may be expected in all ages. To apply this to our present argument, — the Spirit's bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, which is the foundation of that assurance which we are pleading for, is, toge- ther with the other fruits and effects of the Spirit just mentioned, a privilege which believers, as such, are given to desire and hope for, and which they stand in as much need of as those who had this or other privileges conferred on them in an extra- ordinary way in the first age of the gospel church. — We might add, that the extra- ordinary gilts of the Spirit were conferred on particular persons, and not on whole churches ; while assurance is considered by the apostle as a privilege conferred on the church to which he writes, that is, the greatest part of them, whence the deno- n See Sect. ' Effectual Calling- a Divine Work,' under Quest, lxvii, lxviii. o John xiv. 26. p 1 John ii. 20. q 1 Cor. ii. 12. r Gal. v. 22, 23. * Rom. viii. 14. t Ver. 9. u Rom. viii. 13. 200 ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. ruination is taken. On this account, the apostle, speaking to the believing Corinthians, says, ' We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. * Here he does not mean only himself and other ministers, but the generality of believers at that time who are described as walking by faith. There are many things said concerning them in the foregoing and following verses, which make it sufficiently evident that he intends more than himself and other ministers, when he speaks of their having assurance ; since many had it who were not made partakers of extra- ordinary gifts. We must not conclude, therefore, that the church has at present no ground to expect this privilege ; or that they are liable to the charge of enthu- siasm if they claim it. But that the objection which we are examining may farther appear not to be sufficient to overthrow our argument, we may appeal to the experience of many believers in the present age, who pretend not to extraordinary revelation. Let it be considered, then, that many, in later ages, since extraordinary revelation has ceased, have attained this privilege, and consequently it is now attainable. To deny this would be to offend against the generation of God's people, of whom many have given their testimony to this truth, and have declared what a comfortable sense they have had of their interest in Christ, and what sensible impressions they have enjoyed of his love shed abroad in their hearts, whereby they have had, as it were, a preliba- tion of the heavenly blessedness. This assurance has been attended with the most powerful influence of the Spirit of God, enabling them to exercise those graces which correspond with these comfortable experiences, whereby they have been car- ried through and enabled to surmount the greatest difficulties which have attended them in life. Many, too, have been supported and comforted therewith at the ap- proach of death ; so that the sting of death has been taken away, and they have expressed themselves with a kind of triumph over it, in the apostle's words, ' 0 death, where is thy sting ? 0 grave, where is thy victory V? — That some have been favoured with this invaluable privilege, is undeniable. The account we have in the history of the lives and deaths of many who have been burning and shining lights in their generation, puts it out of all doubt. And if this were not sufficient, we might appeal to the experience of many now living ; for there is scarcely any age or place in which the gospel comes with power, but we have some instances of the Spirit's testimony to his own work, whereby it comes, with much assurance, a com- fortable sense of God's love, peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which are the first-fruits and earnest of eternal life. But since this point will be particu- larly insisted on, and farther proofs given of it under a following Answer,2 we may at present take it for granted, that many have been assured of their being in a state of grace, who have not made the least pretension to inspiration ; while to charge them with enthusiasm, or a vain ungrounded delusion, is to cast a reflection on the best of men, as well as on one of the highest privileges which we can enjoy in this world. — I am sensible that it will be objected that, though some have indeed ex- pressed such a degree of assurance, yet this will afford conviction only to those who have it, who are the best judges of their own experience, and of the evidence on which their assurance is founded, but is not a sufficient proof to us, with respect to whom it is only a matter of report. It may also be said, on the other hand, that it is possible these persons might be mistaken who have been so sure of their own salvation. It is very unreasonable, however, to suppose that all have been mistaken or deluded who have declared that they have been favoured with this blessing. Charity will hardly admit of such a supposition ; and if there be no possibility of attaining this assurance, they must all have been deceived who have concluded that they had it. Moreover, this privilege has been attained, not only by a few persons, and these the more credulous part of mankind, or by such as have not been able to assign any marks or evidences tending to support it ; but by many believers who, at the same time, have been far from discovering any weakness of judgment, or disposition to unwarrantable credulity. Yea, they have enjoyed it at a time when they have been most sensible of the deceitfulness of their own hearts, and x 2 Cor. v. 1. y 1 Cor. xv. 55. z See Quest, lxxxiii. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. 201 could not but own that there was a peculiar hand of God in it ; and the same per- sons, when destitute of the Spirit's testimony, have acknowledged themselves to have used their utmost endeavours to attain it, but in vain. It is alleged, indeed, that though we suppose assurance true to a demonstration to those who have it, as being matter of sensation to them, it is only matter of report to us ; and that we are no farther bound to believe it, than we can depend on the credibility of their evidence who have declared that they have experienced it. But if there be such a thing as certainty founded on report, to deny which would be the greatest degree of scepticism, and if the truth of assurance has been transmitted to us by a great number of those who cannot be charged with any thing which looks like a disposi- tion to deceive either themselves or others, we are bound to believe, from their own testimony, that there is such an assurance to be attained by those who pretend not to receive it by extraordinary inspiration from the Spirit of God. The Character of the Persons who enjoy Assurance. We are now led to consider the character of the persons to whom this privilege belongs. They are described, in this Answer, as ' such as truly believe in Christ, and endeavour to walk in all good conscience before him.' These only have ground to expect this privilege. It is an assurance of our having the truth of grace that we are considering ; which supposes a person truly to believe in Christ. Accord- ingly, it is distinguished from that unwarrantable presumption whereby many per- suade themselves that they shall be saved, though they be not sanctified. It is not ' the hope of the hypocrite ' we are speaking of, which shall ' perish ' and be ' cut off;' ' whose trust shall be as the spider's web,' which shall be swept away with the besom of destruction, and be like ' the giving up of the ghost,' which shall end in everlasting despair.a What we are speaking of is a well-grounded hope, such as is accompanied with and supported by the life of faith ; so that we are first enabled to act grace, and then to discern the truth of it in our own souls, and accordingly reap the comfortable fruits and effects which attend this assurance ; as the apostle prays in behalf of the believing Romans, that ' the God of hope would fill them with all joy and peace in believing. 'b An unbeliever, therefore, has no right to this privi- lege. Indeed, from the nature of the thing, it is preposterous for a person to be assured of that which in itself has no reality ; as the apostle says, ' If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.'0 And if faith be necessary to assurance, it follows, as is farther observed in this Answer, that they who have attained this privilege walk in all good conscience before God ; where- by the sincerity of their faith is evinced. Accordingly, the apostle says, ' Our re- joicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincer- ity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world. 'd • The Means of attaining Assurance. We are now to consider the means by which assurance is to be attained, namely, not by extraordinary revelation, but by faith, founded on the promises of God. As to the former, we have already considered that assurance may be attained without extraordinary revelation ; as it has been experienced by some in the present dispen- sation of the gospel, in which extraordinary revelation has ceased. Indeed, it may be observed, in the account the scripture gives of this privilege, that it does not appear that, when extraordinary revelation was granted to many in the first age of the gospel, the design of it was to lead men into the knowledge of their own state, so that they should by means of it attain assurance of their interest in Christ and right to eternal life. The main design of inspiration was to qualify ministers in an extraordinary way to preach the gospel ; as the necessity of affairs seemed then to require it. It was necessary also for the imparting of some doctrines which could not otherwise be known. Inasmuch, too, as it was an extraordinary dispen- a Job viii. 13, 14, and chap. xi. 20. b Bom. xv. 13. c Gal. vi. 3. d 2 Cor. i. 12. II. 2 C 202 ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. sation of divine providence, it was an expedient to give conviction to the world con- cerning the truth of the Christian religion ; since God herehy was pleased to con verse in an immediate way with men, to testify the great regard he had to his church, and to promote the great ends of inspiration in propagating that religion which was then to be setup in the world. But we do not find that by extraordinary revelation the work of grace was ordinarily wrought or carried on; nor was it God's instituted means without which believers could not attain assurance, for, in that age of extraordinary inspiration, they arrived at that privilege in the same way in which we are to expect to attain it. It is true, God occasionally intimated, by immediate revelation, that he would save some particular persons, and that their ' names were written in the book of life ;'e but these were special and extraordinary instances of divine condescension ; and it is not designed by them that others should expect to attain the privilege of assurance in the same way. Hence, it will be hard to prove that the apostle Paul, and others whom he speaks of, who were assured of their sal- vation, though they received the knowledge of other things by inspiration, were led into the knowledge of their own state in such a way, much less may we expect to attain assurance by extraordinary revelation. We are now led to consider the ordinary means whereby we may attain assurance. This means is, in this Answer, said to be faith, grounded on the truth of God's promises, and the Spirit's testimony, whereby we are enabled to discern in our- selves those graces which accompany salvation. Accordingly, in order to our arriv- ing at a comfortable persuasion that we shall be saved, there must be revealed those promises of life and salvation which are contained in the gospel. These are re- motely necessary to assurance ; for without a promise of salvation we can have no hope of it. Yet though these promises are contained in the gospel, many are desti- tute of assurance. Again, it is necessary, in order to our attaining assurance, that there should be some marks and evidences revealed in the word of God as a rule for persons to try themselves by, in order to their knowing that they are in a state of grace. Now, we may say concerning this rule, as well as concerning the promises of salvation revealed, that, though it is necessary to assurance, yet it is only an objective means for our attaining it; inasmuch as we are hereby led to see what graces experienced, or duties performed by us, have the promise of salvation annexed to them. Hence, it is further necessary that we should discern in our- selves those marks and evidences of grace to which the promise of salvation is an- nexed ; otherwise we have no right to lay claim to it. Accordingly, it is our duty to look into ourselves, and observe what marks of grace we have, whence we may, by the Spirit's testimony with ours, discern ourselves to be in a state of grace. We shall, then, in examining this subject, consider the following points ; — that in order to our attaining assurance, we must exercise the duty of self-examination ; what we may truly call a mark or evidence of grace, whereby we may discern that we are in a state of salvation ; and that we are to depend on, hope, and pray for, the testimony of the Spirit with our spirits, that we are the children of God, and that the evidences of grace are found in us. * I. In order to our attaining assurance, it is necessary that we exercise the duty of self-examination, which is God's ordinance for this end. It is certainly a duty and privilege for us to know ourselves, — not only what we do, but what we are ; for without knowing this, whatever knowledge we may have of other things, we are chargeable with great ignorance in a matter of the highest importance ; nor can we be sufficiently humble for those sins we commit, or thankful for the mercies we receive. If we reckon it an advantage to know what is done in the world, and are very inquisitive into the affairs of others, it is much more necessary and reasonable for us to endeavour to know what more immediately relates to ourselves ; or if we are very desirous to know those things which concern our natural or civil affairs in the world, whether we are in prosperous or adverse circumstances ; ought we not much more to inquire, how matters stand with us as to what concerns a better world ?— Again, we cannot know the state of our souls, without impartial self-ex- amination. This is evident from the nature of the thing. As inquiry is the means e Phil. iv. 3. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. 203 for our attaining knowledge ; so looking into ourselves is a means of attaining self- acquaintance. — Further, self-examination is a duty founded on a divine command, and an ordinance appointed for our attaining the knowledge of our state. Thus the apostle says, ' Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves. 'f Now, whatever duty God has commanded us to engage in, as ex- pecting any spiritual privilege to attend it, is properly an ordinance for the attain- ing of that privilege ; and its being so is an argument to enforce the performance of that duty. Having thus proved self-examination to be a Christian's duty, we shall now con- sider how it ought to be performed. Here let it be observed that, as it is God's ordinance, we are to have a due regard to his presence, and consider him as an heart-searching God, and depend on his assistance, without which it cannot be per- formed to any great advantage. But more particularly, we are to engage in this duty deliberately. It cannot well be performed while we are in a hurry of business. As every thing is beautiful in its season, so we ought to redeem time and to retire from the world, to apply ourselves to this as well as other secret duties. We have the more need to do this, that a rash and hasty judgment concerning any thing is generally faulty, and must be reckoned an evidence of weakness in him who passes it, and will be much more so when the thing to be determined is of such vast hn- {>ortance. — Again, the duty of self-examination ought to be done frequently ; not ike those things which are to be performed but once in our lives, or only upon some extraordinary occasions, but often, at least so often that no presumptuous sin may be committed, or any extraordinary judgment inflicted on us, or mercy vouchsafed to us, without a due observation being made of it, in order to our improving it aright to the glory of God and our own edification. We cannot, however, exactly determine what relates to the frequency of this duty, any more than we can pre- scribe to those who are in a way of trade and business in the world, how often they are to cast up their accounts, and set their books in order, that they may judge whether they go forward or backward in the world. Yet, as the neglect of these mercantile duties has been detrimental to many, as to their worldly affairs ; so the neglect of self-examination has been often found an hinderance to our comfortable procedure in our Christian course. So far, however, as we may advise concern- ing the frequency of this duty, it would redound much to the glory of God and our own advantage if, at the close of every day, we would call to mind the experiences we have had, and observe the frame of spirit with which we have engaged in all its business. This the psalmist advises when he says, ' Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.'* Moreover, it is advisable for us to perform this duty whenever we engage in other solemn stated religious duties, whether pub- lic or private, that we may know what matter we have for prayer or praise, what help we want from God against the prevalency of corruption or temptation, what answers of prayer we have received from him, or what success we have had under any ordi- nance in which we have engaged, as well as what the present frame of our spirit is when drawing nigh to God in any holy duty. The duty of self-examination ought to be performed with great diligence. To arrive at a knowledge of ourselves, and the secret working of our hearts and affec- tions in what respects things divine and heavenly, or to discern the truth of grace, so as not to mistake that for a saving work which has the external show of godli- ness without the power of it, requires great diligence and industry. Accordingly, the psalmist, in speaking concerning the performance of this duty, says, ' I com- mune with mine own heart, and my spirit made diligent search.'1' The thing to be inquired into is not merely, whether we are sinners in general, or exposed to many miseries in this life in consequence of being so, for this is sufficiently evident by daily experience. But we are to endeavour after a more particular knowledge of ourselves ; and, accordingly are to inquire whether sin hath dominion over us to sucli a degree that all the powers and faculties of our souls are enslaved by it, and whether we commit sin in such a way as denominates us, as our Saviour expresses it, 'servants of sin,'1 or, whether sin be loathed and abhorred, avoided and repented f 2 Cor. xiii. 5. g Psal. iv. 4. b Psal. lxxvii. 6. i John viii. 34. 204 ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. of. As to our state, we are to inquire whether we have ground to conclude that we are justified, and in consequence delivered from the guilt of sin, and the con- demning sentence of the law ; or whether we remain in a state of condemnation, and the wrath of God ahideth on us. We must inquire whether the work of grace be really begun, so that we are effectually called, and enabled to put forth spiritual actions from a renewed nature ; and whether this work is going forward or declin- ing, what is the strength or weakness of our faith. We are to inquire also what is the general tenor of our actions ; whether the ends we design in all reli- gious duties are right and warrantable ; whether our improvement in grace bears any proportion to the means we are favoured with. Moreover, we are to examine whether we perform all those relative duties which are incumbent on us, so as to glorify God in our conversation with men; whether we endeavour to*do good to them, and receive good from them, and so improve our talents to the glory of God, from whom we received them. These and similar things are to be inquired into ; and our examining ourselves respecting them will be more immediately subservient to the attaining of the privilege of assurance. Self-examination ought to be performed with the greatest impartiality. Con- science, which is to act the part of a judge and a witness, must be faithful in its dictates and determinations, the matter in question being one of the greatest im- portance. Hence, in passing a judgment on our state, we must proceed according to the rules of strict justice, not denying, on the one hand, what we have received from God, or resolutely concluding against ourselves that there is no hope, when there are many things which afford matter of peace and comfort to us ; nor, on the other hand, are we to think ourselves something when we are nothing. Some are obliged to conclude, as the result of this inquiry into their state, that they are un- regenerate and destitute of the saving grace of God. This sentence those are obliged to pass on themselves who are grossly ignorant, not sensible of the plague of their own hearts ; who are altogether unacquainted with the way of salvation by Jesus Cbrist, or the method prescribed in the gospel for a sinner's justification or freedom from the guilt of sin, in a fiducial application of Christ's righteousness, which is the only means conducive to it ; and who know not what is included in evangelical repentance, how sin is to be mortified, and what it is to depend on Christ in the execution of his offices of prophet, priest, and king. At least, if they have not such a degree of the knowledge of these things, though they cannot fully and clearly describe them, as may influence their practice, and excite those graces which all true converts are enabled to exercise, they have ground to conclude that they are in a state of unregeneracy. We may add, that a person must conclude against himself that he is destitute of the grace of God, if he allows himself in the omission of known duties, or the commission of known sins, and is content with a form of godliness without the power of it, or values and esteems the praise of men more than of God. Such must conclude that their hearts are not right with him. Again, we must examine ourselves concerning our state, with a resolution, by the grace of God, to make a right improvement of that judgment which we are bound to pass on ourselves. If we apprehend that we are in a state of unregeneracy, we are not to sink into despair ; but we are to wait on God in all his appointed means and ordinances, in order to our obtaining the first grace, that, by the powerful in- fluences of the Spirit, there may be such a true change wrought in us that we may have ground to hope better things concerning ourselves, even things which accom- pany salvation. If, on the other hand, we find that we have experienced the grace of God in truth, we must be disposed to give him all the glory, to exercise a con- tinued dependence on him for what is still lacking to complete the work, and, as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, to walk in him. — Finally, this duty must be performed with judgment. We are to compare our hearts and actions with the rule which is prescribed in the word of God, whereby we may know whether we have those marks and evidences of grace whence we may conclude that we have a good foundation to build on, and that our hope is such as shall never make ashamed. II. We are thus led to consider what we may truly call a mark or evidence of grace, whereby we may discern that we are in a state of salvation. In order to our un- derstanding this, we must consider two rules. First, every thing which is a mark ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. 205 or evidence of a thing, must be more known than that which is designed to be evinced by it. The sign must always be more known than the thing signified by it ; inasmuch as it is a means of our knowing that which we are at present in doubt about ; as when the finger is placed in a cross-road, to direct the traveller which way he is to take. Again, a mark or evidence of a thing must contain some essential property of that which it is designed to evince. Thus the inferring of consequences from premises is an essential property belonging to every intelli- gent creature, and to none else. It is hence a mark or evidence of an intelligent creature. So to design the best end, and use those means which are conducive to it, is an essential property of a wise man, and consequently a mark or evidence of wisdom. On the other hand, there are some things which are not essential pro- perties, but accidental, as a healthful constitution is to a man, or a particular action which has some appearance but not all the necessary ingredients of wisdom and goodness to a wise or good man. Now, let these rules be applied to our present purpose, in determining what we may call marks or evidences of grace. With re- spect to the former of them, namely, that a mark must be more known than the thing which is evinced by it, we may conclude that eternal election, and the Spirit's implanting a principle of grace in regeneration, cannot be said to be marks or evi- dences of sanctification, since these are less known than the thing designed to be evinced. As to the other rule, namely, that a mark must contain an essential property of that which it evinces, it follows from it, that our engaging in holy duties without the exercise of grace, or our extending charity to the poor when it does not proceed from faith or love to God, &c., is no certain evidence of the truth of grace ; for a person may perform these duties and yet be destitute of grace, while that which is essential to a thing is inseparable from it. — I could not but think it necessary to premise these general observations respecting marks of grace ; inasmuch as some have entertained prejudices against all marks of grace, and seemed to assert that a believer is not to judge of his state by them. Nothing seems more absurd than this opinion. If they who adopt it have nothing to say in its defence, but that some assign those things to be marks of grace which are not so, and thereby lead themselves and others into mistakes about them ; what has been premised concerning the nature of a mark or evidence, may, in some measure, guard against this prejudice, as well as prepare our way for what may be said con- cerning them. In treating this subject, we shall consider, first, those things which can hardly be reckoned marks of grace ; and, secondly, what marks we may judge of ourselves by. 1. As to what are not to be reckoned marks of grace, we are not to conclude that a person is in a state of grace, merely because he has a strong impression on his own spirit that he is so. Such an impression is accidental, and not essential to grace ; and many are mistaken with respect to it. It is not to be doubted that they whom our Saviour represents as saying, * Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works ?'k had a strong persuasion founded on this evidence, that they were in a state of grace, till they found themselves mistaken, when he commanded them to ' depart from him.' Nothing is more obvious than that many presume that they are something when they are nothing. Indeed, a persuasion that a person is in a state of grace, merely because he cannot think otherwise of himself, the thing being impressed on his spirit, without any other evidence, lays him too open to the charge of enthusiasm. Again, an external profession of religion, discovered in the performance of several holy duties, is no certain sign of the truth of grace ; for this many make who are not effectually called. Of such Christ speaks when he says, ' Many are called, but few are chosen,'1 We may add, that persons may have some degree of raised affections when attending on the ordinances, some sudden flashes of joy when they hear of the privileges of believers, both in this and in a better world ; though their conversation be not agreeable to their confident and presumptuous expectation. On the other hand, some have their fears very much awakened under k Matt. vu. 22. 1 Chap. xx. 16. 206 ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. the ordinances, as the subject of their meditations has a tendency to excite such fears ; others have such a degree of sorrow that it gives vent to itself in a flood of tears, as Esau is said to have ' sought the blessing with tears ;'m but still there is something else wanting to evince the truth of grace. I do not deny that it is a great blessing to have raised affections in holy duties. But when these are experi- enced only in particular instances, and are excited principally by some external motives or circumstances attending the ordinance the persons are engaged in ; and when the impressions made on them wear off as soon as the ordinance is over ; we can hardly determine them, on the evidence of these raised affections, to be in a state of grace. The affections, indeed, are warmed in holy duties; but their being so is like iron heated in the fire, which, when taken out, soon grows cold again, and not like that natural heat which remains in the body of man, which is an abiding sign of life. This subject, however, is to be treated with the utmost caution ; in- asmuch as many are apt to conclude that they have no grace, because they have no raised affections in holy duties, as truly as others presume that they have grace merely because they experience such affections. Let it be considered, then, that when we speak of raised affections not being a certain mark of grace, we consider the persons who experience them as being destitute of other evidences which con- tain some essential properties of grace. The affections are often raised by insigni- ficant sounds, or by the tone of the voice, when there is nothing in the matter de- livered which is adapted to excite any grace, the judgment not informed thereby, nor the will persuaded to embrace Christ as offered in the gospel. There may be transports of joy in hearing the word, when, at the same time, corrupt nature re- tains its opposition to the spirituality of the divine truth. A person may conceive the greatest pleasure in an ungrounded hope of heaven, as a state of freedom from the miseries of this life, when he has no favour or relish of that holiness which is its glory, in which respect his conversation is not in heaven. He may also be very much terrified with the wrath of God, and the punishment of sin in hell ; when, at the same time, he has not a due sense of the vile and odious nature of sin, or an abhorrence of it. Such instances of raised affections we intend when we speak of them as no marks or evidences of the truth of grace. But, on the other hand, when, together with raised affections, there is the exercise of suitable graces, and the impression of the raised affections remains after their fervency is abated or lost, a good sign is afforded of grace ; though, when they are not accompanied with the exercise of any grace, they afford no mark or evidence of the truth of it. Now, that we may not be mistaken as to this matter, we ought to inquire, not only what it is that has a tendency to raise the affections, but whether our understandings are rightly in- formed in the doctrines of the gospel, and our wills choose and embrace what is therein revealed. If we find it a difficult matter for our affections to be raised in holy duties, we ought farther to inquire whether this may not proceed from our natural constitution. And if the passions are not easily moved with any other things in the common affairs of life, we have then no reason to conclude that our being destitute of raised affections in the exercise of holy duties is a sign that we have not the truth of grace, especially if Christ and divine things are the objects of our settled choice, and our hearts are fixed, trusting in him. Further, the performance of those moral duties which are materially good, is no certain sign of the truth of grace. I do not say that this is not necessary ; for when we speak of a mark of grace, as containing what is essential to it, we distinguish between that which is a necessary prerequisite, without which no one can have grace, and that which is an essential ingredient in it. Where there is no morality, there is certainly no grace ; but if there be nothing more than morality, there is wanting an essential ingredient by which this matter must be determined. A person may abstain from gross enormities, such as murder, adultery, theft, reviling, extortion, covetousness, &c, and, in many respects, perform the contrary duties, and yet be destitute of faith in Christ. The Pharisee, whom our Saviour mentions in the gospel, had as much to say on this subject as any one ; yet his heart was not right with God, nor was i m Heb. xii. 17. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. 207 his boasting approved by Christ. There are multitudes who perform many re- ligious duties, when their doing so comports with their secular interests, — they ad- here to Christ in a time of prosperity, but in a time of adversity they fall from him, — and then, that which seemed to be most excellent in them is lost, and they appear to be, what they always were, destitute of the truth of grace. 2. We now proceed to consider what are those marks by which persons may safely conclude themselves to be in a state of grace. In order to our determining this matter, we must consider what are the true and genuine effects of faith, as men- tioned in scripture. There are other graces which accompany or flow from it ; as when faith is said to 'work by love,'n or to enable us to 'overcome the world,'0 or despise its honours, riches, and pleasures, especially when standing in competition with Christ, or drawing our hearts aside from him. This effect it produced in Moses, when he ' refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, chposing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a sea- son, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt;'? and in others, who ' confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,' i who ' desired a better country, that is, an heavenly,' whose 'conversation was in heaven. 'r Moreover, we are to inquire whether faith has a tendency to 'purify the heart, ' s and so puts us upon abhorring, fleeing from, watching and striving against, every thing which tends to corrupt and defile the soul ; and whether it tends to ex- cite us to universal obedience, called ' the obedience of faith,'* and a carefulness to ' maintain good works, ' u which proceed from it and are evidences of its truth ; as the apostle says, ' Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works, 'x or as our Saviour says, ' The tree is known by its fruit.' But that we may more particularly judge of the truth of grace by its marks and evidences, we must consider its beginning and progress, or with what frame of spirit we first embraced and closed with Christ, and what our conversation has been since that time. As to the former of these, our judging of the truth of grace by the beginning of it, we are to inquire what were the motives and inducements which inclined us to accept Christ. Did we first see ourselves lost and undone, as sinful, fallen creatures ; and were we thence determined to have recourse to him for salvation, as the only refuge we could betake ourselves to ? Did we first consider ourselves as guilty ; did this guilt sit very uneasy upon us ; and, in order to the removal of it, did we betake our- selves to Christ for forgiveness ? Did we first consider ourselves as weak and un- able to do what is good, and so apply ourselves to him for strength against indwell- ing sin, and victory over the temptations which prevailed against us ? — Moreover, we ought to inquire whether it was only a slavish fear and dread of the wrath of God, and the punishment of sin in hell, which gave the first turn to our thoughts and affections, so as to put us on altering our course of life ; or, whether, besides this, we saw the evil of sin arising from its intrinsic nature, and its opposition to the holiness of God ; and whether our so seeing it was attended with shame and self-abhorrence, with a perception of the excellency and loveliness of Christ, with a feeling that he was ' precious' to us 'as he is to them that believe. '* We ought farther to inquire, what were the workings of our spirits when we first closed with Christ. Did we close with him with judgment, duly weighing what he demands of us in a way of duty, as well as what we are encouraged to expect from him ? Were we made willing to accept him in all his offices, and to have respect to all his com- mandments ? Were we earnestly desirous to have communion with him here, as well as to be glorified with him hereafter ? Were we content to submit to the cross of Christ, to bear his reproach, and to count this preferable to all the glories of the world ? Were we willing to be conformed to an humbled suffering Jesus, and to take our lot with his servants, though they might be reckoned the refuse and offscouring of all things ? — Again, we ought to inquire whether we acted thus with reliance on his assistance, as being sensible of the treachery and deceitfulness of our own hearts, and of our utter inability, without the aids of his grace, to do what is good. Did ti Gal. v. 6. o 1 John v. 4. p Heb. xi. 24—26. q Verses 13, 16. r Phil. iii. 20. s Acts xv. 9. t Rom. xvi. 26. u Tit. iii. 8. x Jame* ii. 18. y I Pet. ii. 7. 208 ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. we, accordingly, give up ourselves to him in hope of obtaining help from him, iu order to the right discharge of every duty ? Did we reckon ourselves nothing, and Christ all in all, that all our springs are in him ? This was a good beginning of the work of grace ; and will prepare the way for this grace of assurance which we are now considering. Some will object against what has been said concerning our inquiring into, or being able to discern, the first acts of faith, or that frame of spirit wherewith we first closed with Christ, that they know not the time of their conversion, if ever they were converted. They cannot remember or determine what was the particular ordinance or providence which gave them the first conviction of sin and of their need of Christ, and induced them to close with him. Much less can they tell what were the workings of their hearts at such a time. It is impossible for them to trace the footsteps of providence, so as to point out the way and manner in which this work was begun in their souls. Objectors will infer, therefore, that the frame of spirit in which persons first closed with Christ, which so few are able to discern, is not to be laid down as a mark or evidence of grace. — Now, I am not insensible that the case described is that of the greatest number of believers. There are very few who, like the apostle Paul, can tell the time and place of their conversion and every circumstance leading to it ; or who are like those converts who, when the gospel was first preached by Peter, ' were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do ?'* or like the jailer, who broke forth into an affectionate inquiry very similar to this, ■ Sirs, What must I do to be saved ?'a though the ordinance leading to it was of a different nature. Sometimes the way of the Spirit of God in the soul at first, is so discernible that it cannot but be observed by those who are brought into a state of grace. Others, however, know nothing of this, especially they who have not run in all excess of riot, and been stopped in their course on a sudden by the grace of God ; in whom the change made in conversion was real, though it could not, from the nature of the thing, be so plainly discerned in all its circumstances. Some have been regenerate from the womb ; and others have had a great degree of re- straining grace, and been trained up in the knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel from their very childhood, and retain the impressions of a religious education. These cannot so easily discern the first beginnings of the work of grace in their souls. Yet they may and ought to inquire, whether they ever found, in the course of their lives, such a frame of spirit as has been already described, which believers have when the work of grace is first begun. Nor is it very material for them to be able to discern whether these were the first actings of grace or not. The main thing to be determined is, whether they have ground to conclude that ever they experienced the grace of God in truth. In this case, the most which some can say concerning themselves, is, as the blind man says in the gospel, when the Pharisees were inquisitive about the restoring of his sight, and the way and manner in which it was done, ' Whereas I was blind, now I see.'b The true convert says, ' Whereas I was once dead in trespasses and sins, I am now alive, and enabled to put forth living and spiritual actions to the glory of God.' This evidence will give as much ground to believers to conclude that they are in a state of grace, as though they were able to determine when they were first brought into it. Again, we may judge of the truth of grace by the method in which it has been carried on, whether we are able to determine the way and manner in which it was first begun, or not. Sanctification is a progressive work. Hence, in order to our concluding that we are in a state of grace, it is not enough for us to set our faces heavenwards, but we must make advances towards it, and be found in the daily _ exercise of grace. A believer must not only set out in the right way, but he must hold on in it. He must live by faith, if he would conclude that the work of faith is begun in truth. It is not sufficient to call upon God, or implore help from him when under some distressing providences, and afterwards to grow remiss in or lay aside the duty of prayer, — it must be our constant work. A true Christian is dis- tinguished from an hypocrite in its being said concerning the latter, ' Will he de- z Acts ii. 37. a Cbap. xvi. 30. b John ix. 25. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. 209 light himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?'c denoting that a true believer will do so. He is either habitually or actually inclined to it ; and that in such a way as is attended with the daily exercise of those graces which are the fruits and effects of faith, whereby we may conclude that he is in a state of grace. III. Thus far we have considered those marks or evidences of grace which, in order to our attaining assurance, we must be able to discern in ourselves. But a believer may understand what are the marks of grace contained in scripture, and, at the same time, inquire into the state of his soul to know whether he can appre- hend in himself any evidences of the truth of grace, and yet not be able to arrive at a satisfaction as to this matter, s© as to have his doubts and fears removed. Let it be considered, therefore, that he must depend on, hope, and pray for the testi- mony of the Spirit with his spirit, that he is a child of God. It will be a difficult matter for us to conclude that we have the truth of grace, till the Spirit is pleased to shine on his own work. But when he does this, all things will appear clear and bright to us; though formerly we might have walked in darkness, and had *no light. In speaking concerning this inward testimony of the Spirit, which is necessary to enable a believer to discern in himself the marks of grace, on his doing which his assurance of salvation is founded, let it be premised that, as it is a branch of the Spirit's divine glory, by his internal influence, to deal with the hearts of his people ; so he does this in various ways, according to the various faculties of the soul, which are the subjects of his influence. In particular, when by his power he renews the will, and causes it to act those graces which are the effects of his divine power, he is said to sanctify a believer. But when he deals with the understand- ing and conscience, enabling us to discern the truth of the work of grace that we may take the comfort of it, he is described in scripture as a witness to our being in a state of grace, or as witnessing with our spirits that we are in that state ; and the consequence is, that ' the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, we know what is the hope of his calling.'*1 Accordingly, he gives us to discern that he has called us by his grace ; and that, as the result of his having done so, he has granted us a hope of eternal life. This testimony of the Spirit is a privilege plainly mentioned in scripture. Nor must we suppose that none had it but those who had extraordinary revelation ; since it is so necessary to a believer's attaining peace and joy, which the church is certainly not less possessed of in the present dispensation than it was in former ages. That the Spirit gives his testimony to the work of grace in the souls of be- lievers, though extraordinary revelation has ceased, is evident from what is matter of daily experience. For there are many instances of those who have used their utmost endeavours in examining themselves to know whether they had any marks of grace, who have not been able to discern any, though they have been thought to be sincere believers by others, till, on a sudden, light has broke forth out of dark- ness, and their evidences for eternal life cleared up, so that all their doubts have been removed. This attaining of assurance they could not but attribute to a divine hand ; inasmuch as formerly they could meditate nothing but terror to themselves. In this case, what the apostle prays for with respect to the church, ' that the God of hope would fill them with all joy and peace in believing, that they might abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost, 'e is experienced by them. On this account they are said to be ' sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise 'f whereby their hope is established, and whereby that is now confirmed to them which they were betore in perplexity about. We have therefore as much ground to conclude that the Spirit is the author of assurance in believers, as we have that he is the author of sanctification. But that this doctrine may not appear liable to the charge of enthusiasm, let it be considered that the Spirit never gives his testimony to the truth of grace in any in whom he has not first wrought it ; for to do this would be, as it were, a setting his seal to a blank. We may add, that, at the time when he gives his testimony to the truth of grace in believers, he excites the lively exercise of it, whereby they are enabled to discern that it is true and genuine ; so that their assurance, though it c Job xxtu. 10. d Epb. i. 18. e Kom. xv. 13. f.Eph. i. 13. II. 2d. 210 DESTITUTION OF ASSURANCE. is not without some internal impressive influences which they are favoured with, yet is not wholly dependent on these. Hence, if you demand a reason of the hope which is in them, though they ascribe the glory of that hope to the Holy Spirit, as enabling them to discern the truth of grace, yet they are able to prove their own- selves, after having examined themselves whether they are in the faith, by discover- ing their evidences of the faith of God's elect. This fact argues that their assur- ance is no delusion. DESTITUTION OF ASSURANCE. Question LXXXI. Are all true believers, at all times, assured of their present being in the estate of grace, and that they shall be saved f Answer. Assurance of grace arid salvation not being of the essence of faith, true believers may wait long before they obtain it; and after the enjoyment thereof, may have it weakened and inter- mitted through manifold distempers, sins, temptations, and desertions; yet are they never left with- out such a presence and support of the Spirit of God as keeps them from sinking into utter despair. Having considered some believers as favoured with assurance of their being in a state of grace, we are, in this Answer, led to speak of others who are destitute of it. Here something is supposed, namely, that assurance of grace and salvation is not of the essence of saving faith. Again, some things are inferred from this supposi- tion ; first, that true believers may wait long before they obtain assurance ; secondly, that, after the enjoyment of assurance, it may be weakened and intermitted through bodily distempers, sins, temptations, and divine desertions ; yet, thirdly, that they are never left without the support of the Spirit of God, and so are kept from sink- ing into utter despair. Assurance not of the Essence of Faith. As to the thing supposed in this Answer, namely, that assurance of grace and sal- vation is not of the essence of faith, many persons who, in other respects, explain the nature of faith in such a way as is unexceptionable, assert that assurance is of the essence of it. Now, in this we cannot but think they express themselves very un- warily ; at least, they ought to have more clearly discovered what they mean by faith, and what by assurance, than they appear to do. If by assurance being of the essence of faith, they mean that no one has saving faith but he who has an assur- ance of his own salvation ; they not only assert what is contrary to the experience of many believers, but lay a stumbling-block in the way of weak Christians, who will be induced to conclude that, because they cannot tell whether they are true believers or not, they are destitute of saving faith. On this account, it is necessary for us to inquire how far the opinion in question is to be allowed, and in what re- spect denied. It is certain that there are many excellent divines in our own and foreign nations, who have defined faith by assurance ; which they have supposed so essential to it, that without it no one can be reckoned a believer. It may be they were inclined thus to express themselves in consequence of the sense in which they understood several texts of scripture, in which assurance seems to be considered as a necessary ingre dient in faith. Thus it is said, t Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assur- ance of faith. '» Again, the apostle speaks of assurance as a privilege which belonged to the church to which he wrote, • We know that if our earthly house of this taber- nacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 'h Elsewhere, also, he so far blames their not knowing themselves, or their being destitute of this assurance, that he will hardly allow those to have any faith who were without it : ' Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?'* From such expressions as R Heb. x. 22. h 2 Cor. v. 1. i Chap. xiii. 5. DESTITUTION OF ASSURANCE. 2ll those, they who plead for assurance being of the essence of faith are ready to con- clude that they who are destitute of it can hardly be called believers. But that this matter may be set in a trtie light, we must distinguish between assurance of the object, namely, the great and important doctrines of the gospel, being of the essence of faith ; and assurance of our interest in Christ being so. The former we will not deny ; for no one can come to Christ who is not assured that he will receive him, or trust in him till he is fully assured that he is able to save him. But the latter we must take leave to deny ; for if no one is a believer but he who knows himself to be so, then he who doubts of his salvation must be concluded to be no believer. This is certainly a very discouraging doctrine to weak Christians ; and, according to it, when we lose the comfortable persuasion we once had of our interest in Christ, we are bound to question all our former experiences, and to determine ourselves to be in a state of unregeneracy. But to do this would be in effect to with- hold from God the glory of that powerful work which was formerly wrought in us, which we then thought to be a work of grace. — If, indeed, they mean by assurance being of the essence of faith, that an assurance of our interest in Christ is essential to the highest or most comfortable acts of faith, meaning by this doctrine that we ought to be incited to press after assurance if we have not attained it, and that God is very much glorified by it, and a foundation laid for our offering praise to him for the experience we have had of his grace, which a doubting Christian cannot be said to do ; we have nothing to say against it. Or if they should assert that doubting is no ingredient in faith, nor a commendable excellency in a Christian ; we do not oppose them. All we are contending for is, that there may be a direct act of faith, or a faith of reliance, in those who are destitute of assurance that they are in a state of grace. This is the thing supposed in this Answer, when it is said that assurance is not of the essence of faith. That this may be better understood, and we be led into the sense of scriptures, such as those just mentioned and others of a similar kind, which describe believers as having assurance, let it be considered that there are many scriptures in which believers are said to have such an assurance as respects only the object of faith, namely, the person, offices, and glory of Christ, and the truth and promises of the gospel, — an assurance which we do not deny to be of the essence of faith. Thus the apostle prays for the church, ' That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ. 'k Else- where he says, 'Our gospel came to you in much assurance.'1 And he exhorts persons to ' draw near to God, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. 'm Now, it is probable that, in these and several other scriptures of similar import, he means no more than an assurance of the object of faith. As for the scripture n where he seems to assert that all who are destitute of this privilege are ' reprobates, ' some understand the word which we translate ' reprobates,' as signifying only injudicious Christians ; and if this be its meaning, the thing which it denotes is not inconsis- tent with the character of believers. Others, however, with an equal degree of probability, render it 'disapproved;'0 and so the meaning is, ' If you know not k Col. ii. 2. 1 1 Tbess. i. 5. m Heb. x. 22. n 2 Cor. xiii. 5. o Though the word adexipoi is sometimes used to signify such as are rejected as objects of God's hatred, as in Heb. vi. 8, and consequently is inconsistent with the character of believers; yet in other places it may be taken according to its grammatical construction, as opposed to Soxipoi, which sig- nifies persons approved, 2 Tim. ii. 15; and so it signifies a person whose conduct is blameworthy, or whose actions are not to be approved of. Now, this may be applied to some who are not alto- gether destitute of faith; though they are not able to vindicate themselves in all respects as blame- less. That the apostle uses the word in this sense here, seems probable from the application he makes of it to himself. It is said, verse 3, ' Ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me,' $oxipr,» £»ruri; and, verse 6, he says, ' I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.' So we render the words tXtrifr h iri yvuinaSi. in fifiiis ovx trpt* xloxifAoi ; but it would lie more agreeable to what is said in verse 4, if we should render them, ' I trust that ye shall know that we are not disapproved, or that ye shall find u proof of Christ's speaking in us.' In verse 7. he farther says, ' I pray to God, not that we should appear approved,' ov% hm kpui loxifon Qavw/tvi, that is, not so much that ye should find a proof of Christ speaking in us, but that ye should do that which is honest; as if he had said, 'I am more concerned for you than for myself. ' Though we ' he as reprobates,' iifttii Si us xioxi/tm aiftiv, that is, whether you think we have a proof ot Christ's speak- ing in us or not, or of his approving us in the course of our ministry, my great concern is that you 212 DESTITUTION OF ASSURANCE. your ownselves, that Christ is in you, you are greatly to be blamed, or disapproved ; especially as your not knowing this proceeds from your neglect of the duty of self- examination ; by which means you have no proof of Christ's being in you, who are so ready to demand a proof of his speaking in his ministers, 'p It does not appear from this text, then, that every one who endeavours to know that he is in a state of o-race by diligent self examination, but cannot conclude that he is so, must be de- termined to be destitute of faith ; which would necessarily follow from our assert- in°- that assurance of our interest in Christ is of the essence of saving faith. — There are other scriptures which speak of assurance as a distinguishing character of Chris- tians in general ; which are usually brought to prove that assurance is of the essence of faith. Thus, ' We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis- solved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 'q Again, ' We know that we are of God.'r There are also several places in the New Testament in which the apostle addresses his discourse to whole churches, as having assurance as well as the grace of faith. Thus the apostle Peter speaks of them as ' loving Christ, believing in him, rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls ;'s which could hardly be said of them, if they were destitute of assurance of their own sal- vation. All, however, that I would infer from these and similar scriptures is, that it seems probable that assurance was a privilege more commonly experienced in that age of the church than it is in our day. There may be two reasons assigned for this. First, the change which passed upon them when they were converted, was so apparent that it was hardly possible for it not to be discerned. They turned from dead idols and the practice of the vilest abominations, to serve the living God ; which two extremes are so opposite, that their being brought from the one to the other could not but be remarked by themselves, and consequently more visible to them, than if their conversion had been otherwise. The other principal reason is, that the church was called at that time to bear a public testimony to the gospel, by endur- ing persecutions of various kinds ; and some of them were to resist even unto blood. Now, that God might prepare them for these sufferings, and that he might encour- age others to embrace the faith of the gospel, which was then in its infant-state, he was pleased to favour them with this great privilege. And it may be hereafter, if God should call the church to endure like trials, that he will in mercy grant them a greater degree of assurance than is ordinarily experienced. Nevertheless, it may be questioned whether those scriptures which speak of assurance as if it were a privilege common to the whole church, are not to be understood as applicable to the greater part of them, rather than to every individual believer among them. For though the apostle, in one of the scriptures before-mentioned, considers the church at Corinth as enjoying this privilege, and as concluding that it should go well with them in another world when this earthly tabernacle was dissolved ; yet, in the same epistle, he speaks of some of them as not knowing their ownselves, that Jesus Christ was in them. The apostle John also, notwithstanding his saying to the church, ' We know that we are of God,'4 which argues that many of them had assurance, plainly intimates that all had it not ; for he says, ' These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.'u Though, too, in another scripture, just mentioned, the apostle Peter speaks to the church to which he writes, as having 'joy unspeakable and full of glory ' consequent upon their faith, which argues that they had assurance ; yet he exhorts others of them to ' give diligence to make their calling and election sure ;'x so that these are supposed, at that time, not to have had it. From all this it may be con- may be approved. It is plain, therefore, that the apostle uses the word *iexi/*ou to examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith, and to prove your ownselves; and if you know not your- selves, you are in this respect blameworthy, or to be disapproved; especially because you sei-m to have been negligent as to the duty of self-examination.' Whether he who is diligent in the exer- cise of this duty, and yet cannot apprehend that he is in a state of grace, be iu this respect to be disapproved or not, it is certain that he who is a stranger to himself, because of the neglect of the duty, is disapproved. P j2 £°.r- *'"•; ?• q 2 Cor. v. 1. r 1 John v. 19. s 1 Pet. i. 8, 9. t 1 John v. 19. u Verse 13. x 2 Pet. i. 10. DESTITUTION OF ASSURANCE. 213 eluded, that assurance of grace and salvation is not of the essence of saving faith ; which is the thing supposed in this Answer. Assurance may not be soon attained. We proceed to 'consider the first of those things which are inferred from this sup- position, namely, that a believer may wait long before he attains assurance. This appears from daily experience and observation. The sovereignty of God discovers itself in it, as much as it does when he makes the ordinances effectual to salvation in giving converting grace to those who attend upon them. Some are called early to be made partakers of the salvation which is in Christ ; others late. The same may be said with respect to God's giving assurance. Some are favoured with this privilege soon after or when first they believe ; others are like those whom the apos- tle speaks of, ' who, through fear of death, are all their lifetime subject to bondage. '* Many have often inquired into the state of their souls, and been unable to discern any marks or evidences of grace in themselves, whose conversation is such that others cannot but conclude them to be true believers. Their spirits are depressed ; doubts and fears prevail, and tend to make their lives very uncomfortable ; they wait and pray for the evidence and sense of God's love to them, but cannot imme- diately find it. This state of feeling the psalmist speaks of, either in his own per- son, or as representing the case of many who had the truth of grace but not the •assurance of it, when he says, ' 0 Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee ; I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up ; while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.'2 God suffers it to be thus with his people for wise ends. Hereby he lets them know that assurance of his love is a special gift and work of the Spirit ; without which they remain destitute of it, and cannot take comfort from either former or present experiences. Assurance may be weakened and intermitted. We observe next, that they who once enjoyed assurance may have it weakened and intermitted. Whether it may be entirely lost, will be considered under a following "Head, when we speak concerning the supports which believers have, and how far they are kept by these from sinking into utter despair. It is one thing to fall from the truth of grace ; another thing to lose the comfortable sense of it. The joy of faith may be suspended, when the acts and habits of faith remain firm and unshaken. As the brightest morning may be followed with clouds and tem- pests ; so our clearest discoveries of our interest in the love of God may be fol- lowed with the withdrawment of the light of his countenance, and we be left under many discouraging circumstances concerning our state, having lost the assurance we once had. If it be inquired, what reason may be assigned for this ? I answer, that it must, in a great measure, be resolved into the sovereignty of God, who will bring his people to heaven which way he pleases, and may take away those comforts which had their first rise from himself ; and, at the same time, none must say, why dost thou thus ? We may observe some particular reasons, however, which the providence of God points out to us, to which we may in other respects ascribe our want of assurance ; and these may be reduced to four heads, particularly men- tioned in this Answer. 1. The weakening or intermitting of assurance is sometimes occasioned by mani- fold distempers, or bodily diseases. The soul and body are so closely joined to and dependent on each other, that the one can hardly suffer without the other. Hence it is that bodily distempers affect the mind, excite and give disturbance to the passions, a circumstance which greatly adds to the uneasiness which follows these distempers. When the spirits are depressed, and we are under the preva- lence of a melancholy disposition, we are often inclined to think that we are not in a state of grace ; and though we were formerly disposed to comfort others in simi- lar cases, we are now unable to take the least encouragement ourselves. All things y Heb. ii. 15. z Psal. lxxxviii. 1. compared with ver. 15. 214 DESTITUTION OF ASSURANCE. look black and dismal ; our former hope is reckoned no other than delusive ; and we are brought to 'the very brink of despair. It may be observed, too, that these sad and melancholy apprehensions concerning our state increase or abate, as the distemper which gives occasion to them more or less prevails. Now, that we may be able to determine whether our want of assurance proceeds from some natural cause, or bodily distemper, we must inquire whether we formerly endeavoured to walk in all good conscience in the sight of God, to hate every false way, and make religion the great business of life, so that we cannot assign any reigning sin as the cause of our present desponding frame ; and also whether we have been diligent in per- forming the duty of self-examination, and have been sensible that we stood in need of the Spirit's witness with ours, in order to our arriving at a comfortable persua- sion that we are in a state of grace. If, as the result of these inquiries, we cannot see any cause but the unavoidable infirmities to which we are daily liable leading to this dejection of spirit, we may probably conclude that it arises from a distemper of body. But in order to our determining this matter, we must farther inquire whether some afflictive providence has not had an influence upon us, to bring us into a melancholy temper ; and whether our depression of spirit does not appear in what relates to our secular, as well as our spiritual concerns. If this be the case, though it be very afflictive, it is not attended with that guilt which it would be, had it been occasioned by some presumptuous sin. In this case, too, there are other medicines to be used besides those which are of a spiritual nature, and are contained in the gospel, but what these are, it is not our business in this place to determine. 2. There are many sins which are the occasion of a person's being destitute of assurance. As all the troubles of life are brought upon us by sin ; so are all our doubts and fears, arising from the want of a comfortable sense of or interest in the love of God. It pleases God in the method of his providence, thus to deal with his people, that he may humble them for presumptuous sins ; more especially those which are committed against light and conviction of conscience, that he may bring to remembrance their sins of omission, or neglect to exercise those graces, in which the life of faith consists, that they may feel the effect of their stupidity, indiffer- ence, and carnal security, or their engaging in religious duties in their own strength, without dependence on the Spirit and grace of God, or a due sense of their inability to perform any duty in a right way. Or sometimes, as was formerly observed, they want assurance because they do not practise self-examination, which is God's ordinance for the attaining of this privilege ; or if they do practise it, they neglect to give that glory to the Holy Spirit which is due to him, by depending on his enlightening influence to bring them to a comfortable persuasion of their interest in Christ. 3. Assurance is often weakened and intermitted through manifold temptations. Satan is very active in this matter, and shows his enmity against the interest of Christ in the souls of his people, as much as lies in his power. Hence, though it is impossible for him to ruin the soul, by rooting out the grace which is implanted in it ; yet he tries to disturb its peace, and weaken its assurance, and, if not pre- vented, to hurry it into despair. In this case the general design of his temptations is to represent God as a sin-revenging Judge, a consuming fire, to present to our view the threatenings by which his wrath is revealed against sinners, and to endea- vour to set aside the promises of the gospel from which alone relief may be had. Moreover, he puts us upon considering sin, not only as heinously aggravated — and it may for the most part be so considered with justice — but also as altogether un- pardonable ; and, at the same time, pretends to insinuate to us that we are not elected, or that Christ did not die for us, and that, therefore, what he has done and suffered will not redound to our advantage. Now, there is apparently the hand of Satan in this matter; inasmuch as he attempts, by false methods of reasoning, to persuade us that we are not in a state of grace, that God is an enemy to us, and that therefore our condition is desperate. Here he uses the arts of the old serpent, that he may deceive us by drawing conclusions against ourselves from false pre- mises. He induces us to reason that, because we daily experience the internal workings of corrupt nature, which incline us to many sins, both of omission and of DESTITUTION OF ASSURANCE. 215 commission, there is no room for us to expect mercy and forgiveness from God. From our barrenness also and unprofitableness under the means of grace, our im- provements not being proportioned to the obligations we have been laid under, or from our having great reason to charge ourselves with many declensions and back- slidings, which aiford matter for deep humiliation, and should put us upon sincere repentance, he endeavours to persuade us that we are altogether destitute of special grace. Again, whenever we are unprepared or indisposed for the right performance of holy duties, and our affections are not suitably raised in them, but grow stupid, remiss, and careless, he puts us upon concluding that it is a vain thing for us to draw nigh to God, and that he has utterly rejected both our persons and our ser- vices. Or if we are not favoured with immediate answers to prayer, and sensible communion with God in the performance of that duty, he tempts us to infer that we shall never obtain the blessing we are pressing after, and that we may as well lay aside this duty, and say, ' Why should I wait on the Lord any longer ?' If by this method he cannot discourage us from engaging in holy duties, he sometimes injects blasphemous thoughts or unbecoming conceptions of the divine Majesty, which fill the soul with the greatest grief and uneasiness, that in consequence of these he might give us occasion to conclude that we sin in persisting in holy duties. By all these temptations he endeavours to plunge us into the depths of despair. He tempts us also as to the purpose of God relating to the event of things. When we are led to determine that we are not elected, we come to this conclusion without sufficient ground. In presenting the question to us, he deceives us by pursuing false methods of reasoning, and puts us upon presuming to enter into those secret things which do not belong to us, or to infer that God has rejected us, be- cause we deserve to be cast off by him for our sins, instead of giving diligence to make our calling and election sure. It is one thing not to be able to conclude that we are elected ; and another thing to say that we are not so. The former is the consequence of our present doubts and desponding apprehensions concerning our state ; the latter is plainly a temptation of Satan. This we are often subject to, when we have lost that assurance of our interest in Christ which we once enjoyed. 4. A believer's want of assurance is, for the most part, attended with, and arises from, divine desertion. Not that we are to suppose that God will cast off his peo- ple, whom he has foreknown, effectually called, and preserved hitherto, so as to forsake them utterly ; for to suppose this is inconsistent with his everlasting love, and the promises of the covenant of grace which respect their salvation. What we understand by divine desertion, is God's withdrawing his comforting presence, and withholding the witness of his Spirit to the work of grace in the soul ; whence arise those doubts and fears which attend the want of assurance. Thus God says to his people, * For a small moment have I forsaken thee ; but with great mercies will I gather thee.'a In this respect they are destitute of God's comforting pre- sence ; though at the same time they may be favoured with his supporting presence, and those powerful influences which are necessary to maintain the work of grace, which at present appears to be very weak and languishing. The State of Believers who want Assurance. We are thus led to consider the last thing mentioned in this Answer, namely, that, though believers are thus described, they are not left without such a presence and support of the Spirit of God as keeps them from sinking into utter despair. This observation ought to be explained and considered with certain limitations, lest, while, on the one hand, we assert that which affords matter of encouragement to believers when they have some degree of hope, we should, on the other hand, throw discouragements in the way of others who will be apt to imagine, when they are ready to sink into despair, that what they experience is wholly inconsistent with any direct act of faith. I dare not say that no believer was ever so far deserted as to be left for a while to despair of his interest in Christ ; for scripture and daily experience give us instances of some, whose conversation in many respects discovei's a Isa. liv. 7. 216 DESTITUTION OF ASSURANCE. them to have had the truth of grace, whom God has heen pleased, for wise ends, to leave to the terror of their own thoughts, and who have remained for some time in the depths of despair ; while others have gone out of the world under a cloud, concerning whom there has been ground of hope that their state was safe. It is some- what difficult, therefore, to determine what is meant in this Answer, by a believer's being kept from sinking into utter despair. If the meaning is, that they have the supports of the Spirit of God, so as to be kept from relapsing into a state of unre- generacy, in their despairing condition, that may be easily accounted for ; or, if the meaning is, that believers are not generally given up to the greatest degree of despair, especially such as is inconsistent with the exercise of any grace, that is not to be denied. I would rather say, however, that, though a believer may have despairing apprehensions concerning his state, and though the guilt of sin may lie upon him like a great weight so as to depress his spirits ; yet he shall not sink into endless misery ; for though darkness may continue for a night, light and joy shall come in the morning. Accordingly, though there are many who are far from hav- ing assurance, yet they are, at some times, favoured with a small glimmering of hope, which keeps them from utter despair. Again, if they are in deep despair, yet they are not so far left as not to desire grace, though they conclude themselves to be destitute of it, or not to lament the loss of those comforts and inability to exercise those graces which once they thought themselves possessed of. Further, a believer, when in a despairing way, is notwithstanding enabled, by a direct act of faith, to give himself up to Christ, though he cannot see his interest in him, and to long for those experiences and comforts which he once enjoyed ; and when he is at the worst, he can say with Job, ' Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.'b Moreover, in this case a person has generally such a degree of the presence of God that he is enabled to justify him in all his dealings with him, and lay the blame of all the troubles which he is under on himself ; and this is attended with shame and confu- sion of face, self-abhorrence, and godly sorrow. Finally, despairing believers have, notwithstanding, such a presence of God with them as keeps them from abandoning his interest, or running with sinners into all excess of riot, which would give occa- sion to others to conclude that they never had the truth of grace. From what has been said concerning true believers being destitute of assurance, and yet having at the same time some degree of the presence of God, we may draw several inferences. First, this is not inconsistent with what was said concern- ing a believer's perseverance in grace. Yet it must be considered with this limitation, that though the truth of grace shall not be lost, the comforts and evi- dences of it may and often are. — Again, this should put us upon circumspect walk- ing and watchfulness against presumptuous sins, which, as was formerly observed, are often the occasion of the loss oi assurance ; and also on the exercise of a faith of reliance on Christ, for maintaining the acts of grace, as well as restoring its comforts. — Further, this should instruct believers what to do when destitute of the privilege of assurance. We have observed that want of assurance is attended with divine desertion, which is generally occasioned by sins committed. Therefore let us say with Job, ' Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.'c " Let me know what are those secret sins by which I have provoked thee to leave me destitute of thy comforting presence ; enable me to be affected with, and humbled for them, and un- feignedly to repent of them, and to exercise that faith in Christ which may be a means of my recovering that hope or assurance of which I am at present destitute." -—Again, what has been said concerning a believer's being sometimes destitute of assurance, should put us upon sympathizing with those who are in a despairing way, and using endeavours to administer comfort to them, rather than to censure them or conclude them to be in an unregenerate state ; as Job's friends did him, because the hand of God had touched him, and he was destitute of his comforting presence. — Finally, from what has been said concerning that degree of the presence of God which believers enjoy, which has a tendency to keep them from utter despair, at least from sinking into perdition, how disconsolate soever their case may be at pre- sent, we may be induced to admire the goodness and faithfulness of God in his b Job xiii. 15. c Chap. x. 2. COMMUNION WITH CHRIST IN GLORY. 217 dealings with his people, who will not lay more on them than he will enable them to bear. Though they are comfortless and hopeless, yet they shall not be destroyed ; and, in the end, they shall be satisfied with God's loving-kindness ; and, when the clouds are all dispersed, they shall have a bright and glorious day in his immediate presence, where ' there is fulness of joy,' and at his ' right hand,' where 'there are pleasures for evermore. 'd COMMUNION WITH CHRIST IN GLORY. Question LXXX1I. What is the communion in glory, which the members of the invisible church have with Christ f Answer. The communion in glory, which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is, in this life, immediately after death ; and at last perfected at the resurrection and day of judgment. After having considered believers, or the members of the invisible church, as en- joying the privilege of union with Christ, and, as the immediate consequence of it, communion with him, it was observed that this communion is either in grace or in glory. Their communion with him in grace consists in their partaking of the vir- tue of his mediation, in their justification, adoption, and sanctification. These have been particularly considered, together with other graces and comforts which accompany and flow from them. We are now led to speak concerning the com- munion which believers have with Christ in glory. This is the highest privilege they are capable of receiving. It consists in his giving them some bright dis- coveries of the glory which they behold and enjoy by faith in this life, and also of that which shall be immediate, and in some respects complete, after death. And, at the resurrection and day of judgment, it shall be brought, in all respects, to the utmost degree of perfection ; when their joy, as well as their happiness, shall be full, and continued throughout all the ages of eternity. These are the subjects insisted on in several following Answers, which remain to be considered in this first part of the Catechism. EARNESTS OF GLORY, AND APPREHENSIONS OF WRATH. Question LXXXIII. What is the communion in glory, with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy in this life ? Answer. The members of the invisible church have communicated to them in this life, the first-fruits of glory with Christ, as they are members of him their head, and so, in him, are inter- ested in that glory which be is fully possessed of; and as an earnest thereof, enjoy the sense of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, and hope of glory; as, on the contrary, the sense of God's revenging wrath, horror of conscience, and a fearful expectation of judgment, are to the wicked the beginning of their torments which they shall endure after death. There are two sorts of persons mentioned in this Answer, namely, the righteous and the wicked,, and the different condition of each of them is considered. With respect to the righteous, who are here styled 'the members of the invisible church,' there are several invaluable privileges which they are made partakers of in this life, in which they are said to have a degree of communion in glory with Christ. In par- ticular, they have this communion in glory with Christ, as they enjoy the first- fruits or earnest of that glory which they shall have with him hereafter ; as they are members of him, their head, and accordingly may be said, in some respects, to be interested in that glory which he is fully possessed of; and as they have a com- fortable sense of his love to them, attended with peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, and an hope of glory. On the other hand, we have an account of the dreadful condition of impenitent sinners, when God sets their iniquities in order d Psal. xvi. 11. II. 2 E _=,' 218 EARNESTS OF GLORY, before them. This is represented in a very moving way. They are said to be tilled with ' a sense of God's revenging wrath, horror of conscience, and a fearful expectation of judgment ;' and these are considered as the beginning of those tor- ments which they shall endure after death. Earnests of Glory. There are several invaluable privileges enjoyed by the righteous in this life, which are styled the first-fruits or earnest of glory. Though Christ has reserved the fulness of glory for his people to the time when he shall bring them to hea- ven ; yet there are some small degrees of glory, which they enjoy in their way to it. The 'crown of righteousness,' as the apostle speaks, is 'laid up for them, which the righteous Judge shall give them at that day,'e namely, when he shall come to judgment. Then their joy shall be full ; they shall be satisfied in his likeness, and made completely blessed. Yet there are some prelibations or fore- tastes which they have of glory, for their support and encouragement while they are in this imperfect state. We are not to suppose, however, that the present en- joyments which believers experience in the highest degree, do fully come up to those which are reserved for them. There is a great difference as to the degree. As a child newly born has something in common with what he shall have when arrived at a state of manhood, but, in several degrees, and other circumstances, falls short of it ; or as a few drops are of the same nature as the whole collection of water in the ocean, while there is a very small proportion between one and the other, so the brightest discovery of the glory of God which we are capable of enjoying in this world, or the most comfortable foretaste which believers have of heaven, falls very much short of that which they shall be possessed of when they are received into it. There are also very great alloys, and many things which tend to interrupt and abate their happiness, agreeably to the imperfection of the present state. What- ever grace they are enabled to act, though in an uncommon degree, is attended with a mixture of corruption ; and as their graces are imperfect, so are the com- forts that arise from them, which are interwoven with many things very afflictive. Hence, they are not what they shall be ; but are travelling through this wilder- ness to a better country, and are exposed to many evils in their way thither. Again, all believers do not enjoy those delights and pleasures which some are favoured with in their way to heaven. The comforts as well as the graces of the Holy Spirit, are bestowed in a way of sovereignty, to some more, and to others less. Some have reason to say with the apostle, ' Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.'f Others are filled with doubts concern- ing their interest in him, and go mourning after him all the day ; and if they have at sometimes a small glimpse of his glory, by which they conclude themselves to be, as it were, in the suburbs of heaven, they soon lose it, and find themselves to be in the valley of the shadow of death. When the disciples were with Christ at his transfiguration, which was an emblem of the heavenly blessedness, and when his • face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light,' they had occa- sion to say, ' It is good for us to be here ;' yet before they had done speaking, or had time to reflect on their present enjoyment, they were deprived of it by ' the cloud overshadowing them.'s So the believer is not to expect uninterrupted com- munion with God, or perfect fruition of him here. What we are at present to consider, however, is that degree of communion with God which some enjoy, which is here called the first-fruits and earnest of glory. The scripture sets it forth under both these expressions. Believers are said to re- ceive the first-fruits of it, or as the apostle styles it, 'the first-fruits of the Spirit, 'h that is, the graces and comforts of the Holy Ghost. These are the first-fruits of that blessedness which they are said to wait for, which is called 'the adoption,' that is, those privileges which God's children shall be made partakers of, or ' the glorious liberty ' which they shall hereafter enjoy. The name ' first-fruits ' is used in allu- sion to the cluster of grapes which they who were sent to spy out the land of Canaan, c 2 Tim. iv. 8. f 2 Cor. ii. 14. g Matt. xvii. 2—5. h Rom. viii. 23. AND APPREHENSIONS OF WRATH. 219 were ordered to bring to the Israelites in the wilderness, that hereby they might be encouraged in their expectation of the great plenty which was to be enjoyed when they were brought into it. Or it has reference to the feast of in-gathering before the harvest, when the Israelites were to bring the sheaf which was first to be cut down, and ' wave it before the Lord,'1 with thankfulness and joy, in expectation of the full harvest, which would be the reward of the industry and labour of the hus- bandman. Thus believers are given not only to expect the glory of God, but to rejoice in hope of it. — Again, communion with God is also called an earnest of glory. Thus believers are said to be ' sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of their inheritance. 'k Elsewhere likewise it is said, ' God hath given unto us the earnest of his Spirit.'1 An earnest is a small sum, given in part of payment ; whereby they who receive it, are encouraged to expect the whole. So a believer may conclude that as surely as he now enjoys those spiritual privileges which accompany salvation, he shall not fail of that glory of which they are an earnest. In this re- spect God is pleased to give his people a wonderful display of his condescending love, that they may hereby be led to know what the happiness of the heavenly state is, in a greater degree than can be learned from all the descriptions which are given of it by those who are destitute of this privilege. Heaven is the port to which every believer is bound, the reward of all those labours and difficulties which he sustains in his way to it ; and to quicken him to greater diligence in pursuing after it, it is necessary that he should have his thoughts, meditation, and conversation there. The reason why God is pleased to give his people some foretastes of it, is that they may love and long for Christ's appearing, when they shall reap the full harvest of glory. Now, this earnest, prelibation, or first-fruits of the heavenly blessedness, which believers enjoy in this life, is considered in this Answer, first, as it is included in that glory which Christ is possessed of as their Head and Mediator ; and secondly, as they have those graces wrought in them, and comforts flowing thence, which bear some small resemblance to what they shall hereafter be made partakers of. 1. Christ's being possessed of the heavenly blessedness, as the Head of his people, is an earnest of their salvation. For understanding this, let it be considered that our Lord Jesus sustained this character, not only in what he suffered for them that he might redeem them from the curse of the law, but in the glory which he was afterwards advanced to. Thus it is said, ' He is risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. ' m Accordingly, they are said to be ' risen with him,'n as regards that communion which they have with him in his resurrection. Again, when he ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, his people are said 'to sit together in heavenly places in him.'0 Not that we are to suppose that they are made partakers of any branch of his medi- atorial glory, or are joined with him in the work which he there performs as their exalted Head ; but we are to understand, that his being considered as their repre- sentative appearing in the presence of God for them, is a foundation of their hope that they shall be brought thither at last. Hence, when he was about to depart out of this*world, he gave an intimation to his people whom he left behind him that he ' went to prepare a place for them;'? and assured them that, ' because he lives, they shall live also.'i 2. The graces and comforts of the Holy Spirit, which believers are made par- takers of, may also be said to be a pledge and earnest of eternal life. Heaven is a state in which that grace is brought to perfection, which at present is only begun in the soul. The beginning of it, however, affords ground of hope that it shall be completed. As a curious artist, when he draws the first lines of a picture, does not design to leave it unfinished ; or he that lays the foundation of a building, de- termines to carry it on gradually, till he has laid the top-stone of it ; so the work of grace, when begun by the Spirit, is a ground of hope that it shall not be left un- finished. As God would never have brought his people out of Egypt with an high hand and an outstretched arm, and divided the Red sea before them, if he had not designed to bring them into the promised land ; so we may conclude that, when i Lev. xxiii. 10, 11. compared with Diut. xxvi. 10, 11. k Eph. i. 13, 14. 1 2 Cor. v. 5. iu 1 Cor. xv. 20. n Col. iii. 1. o Eph. ii. 6. p John xiv. 3. -t q Verse 19. '220 EARNESTS OF GLORY, God has magnified his grace in delivering his people from the dominion of darkness, and translating them into the kingdom of his dear Son, — when he has helped tljem hitherto, and given them a fair and beautiful prospect of the good land to which they are going, — he will not leave his work imperfect, nor suffer them to fall and perish in the way. Christ in believers, is said to be ' the hope of glory ;'r and the joy which they have in believing, is said to be not only ' unspeakable,' but ■ full of glory ;'8 that is, it bears a small resemblance to that joy which they shall be filled with when brought to glory, and therefore may well be styled the earnest or first- fruits of it. That this may farther appear, let it be considered that the happiness of heaven consists in the immediate vision and fruition of God, where the saints behold his face in light and glory,* and enjoy all those comfortable fruits and effects arising thence, which tend to make them completely happy. Thus it is said that ' they shall see him as he is,'u and that 'they shall enter into the joy of their Lord.'x Believers, it is true, are not in all respects said to be partakers of this blessedness here ; and their highest enjoyments bear but a very small proportion to it. Yet, when we speak of some as having the foretastes of it, we must consider that there is something in the lively exercise of faith and of the joy which arises from it, when believers have attained a full assurance of the love of God, and have those sensible manifestations of his comfortable presence with them, which bears some small resemblance to a life of glory. That which in some respects resembles the beatific vision, is a sight of God's reconciled face, and of their interest by faith in all the blessings of the covenant of grace. It is true, the views which they have of the glory of God here, are not immediate, but at a distance ; and therefore they are said to ' behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord.'? We see things at a distance through a perspective glass, which enlarges the object, and brings it, as it were, near to the eye, though in reality it be at a great distance from it ; and so gives us a clear discerning of that which could otherwise hardly be discovered. So faith gives us clearer views of this glory than we could have any other way. Hereby we are said 'to see him that is invisible.'2 Thus, when God bade Moses go up to the top of Pisgah, and strengthened his sight, Moses took a view of the whole land of Canaan ; though, without this strengthening of his sight, he could have beheld only a small part of it. So when God not only gives an eye of faith, but strengthens it in proportion to the views he designs it shall take of the heavenly state which lies at so great a distance, the soul is enabled to see it, and, in seeing it, has a faint emblem of the beatific vision. Moreover, as heaven is a state in which the saints have the perfect fruition of those blessings which tend to make them completely happy ; the view which a be- liever is enabled by faith to take of his interest in Christ, and of the glory he shall be made partaker of with him, is sometimes attended with such an ecstasy of joy and triumph, as is a kind of anticipation of that glory which he is not yet fully possessed of. Such an one is like an heir who wants but a few days of being of age ; who does not look upon his estate with that distant view which he formerly did, but with the satisfaction and pleasure arising from his being ready to enter into the possession of it. Or he is like one who, after a long and tedious voyage, is within sight of his harbour, which he cannot but behold with a pleasure which very much resembles that which he shall have when he enters into it. The joy of which we speak is more than a mere hope of heaven ; it is a full assurance, attended with a kind of sensation of those joys which are inexpressible, which render the believer a wonder to himself, and afford the most convincing proof to others that there is something real and substantial in the heavenly glory, which God is pleased to favour some of his people with the prelibations of. That some have enjoyed such manifestations of the divine love, and been filled with such raptures of joy, accompanying their assurance of salvation," is evident from the experience which they have had of it in some extraordinary and memorable occurrences in life, and, m other cases, at the approach of death. Of this there are multitudes of instances r Col. i. 27. a 1 Pet. i. 8. t See Quest, lxxxvi, xc. u 1 John iii. 2. x Matt. xxv. 21. y 2 Cor. iii. 18. z Heb. xi. 27. AND APPREHENSIONS OF WRATH. 221 transmitted to us in history. I shall content myself with a brief extract of some passages which we meet with in the life and death of some who appear to have had as comfortable a foretaste of the joys of heaven as it is possible for any one to have in this world. The first I shall mention is the eminently learned and pious Dr. Rivet ; who, in his last sickness, seemed to be in the very suburbs of heaven, signifying to all about him, what intimate communion he had with God, his fore-views of the heavenly state, his assurance of being admitted into it, and how earnestly he longed to be there. In the very close of his life, one who stood by him could not forbear expressing himself to this effect : "I cannot but think that he is now enjoying the vision of God." This gave him occasion to signify, as well as he was able to express himself, that it was so. The account of this and of much more to the same pur- pose, is not only mentioned by the author of his last hours, but is taken notice of m a public funeral oration, occasioned by his death. a A very worthy writer,b speaking concerning that excellent servant of Christ, Mr. Rutherford, recites some of his last words, which are very remarkable : " I shall shine, I shall see him as he is, and all the fair company with him, and shall have my large share. It is no easy thing to be a Christian ; but as for me, I have got the victory, and Christ is holding forth his arms to embrace me. I have had my fears and faintings, as another sinful man, to be carried through creditably ; but as sure as ever he spake to me in his word, his Spirit witnessed to my heart, saying, Fear not. He had accepted my suffering, and the outgate should not be matter of prayer, but of praise." A little before his death, after some faint- ing, he said, " Now, I feel, I believe, I enjoy, I rejoice, I feed on manna, I have angels' food, my eyes shall see my Redeemer ; I know that he shall stand, at the latter day, on the earth, and I shall be caught up in the clouds to meet him in the air. I sleep in Christ ; and when I awake I shall be satisfied with his like- ness ; 0 for arms to embrace him!" To one who was speaking concerning his laboriousness in the ministry, he cried out, " I disclaim all. The port I would be in at, is redemption and forgiveness of sins through his blood." Thus, full of the Spirit, yea, as it were, overcome with sensible enjoyment, he breathes out his soul, his last words being these : " Glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land." I may add the account given of that great man Dr. Goodwin, in some memoirs of his life, composed out of his own papers published by his son ;c who intimates that he rejoiced in the thoughts that he was dying, and going to have a full and unin- terrupted communion with God. " I am going," said he, " to the three Persons with whom I have had communion. They have taken me ; I did not take them. I shall T)e changed in the twinkling of an eye. All my lusts and corruptions I shall be rid of, which I could not be here ; those croaking toads will fall off in a moment." Referring to the great examples of faith mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, he said, "All these died in faith. I could not have imagined I should ever have had such a measure of faith in this hour ; no, I could never have imagined it. My bow abides in strength. Is Christ divided ? No, I have the whole of his righteousness ; I am found in him, not in my own righteousness, which is of the law, but in the righteousness which is of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Christ cannot love me better than he doth. I think I cannot love Christ better than I do. I am swallowed up a Vid. Dauberi orat. Funeb. ad front, et Hor. Noviss. ad calc. Tom. 3. Riveti operum : in which he is represented as saying, '• Nolite mei causa dolere, ultima haec momenta nihil habent funesti ; corpus languet quidem, at anima robore et consolatione plena est, nee impe xai ^XaTav *iqi ti atfUageius ^vx*l(, xai ruv xaf ahov x-gitnav. km akXa rmauTCC, B^cc^/navav raura Xiyti. r Vi». Dioj;. I.aert. in Vit. Thai. s Vid. Cic. Tusc. Quaust. lib. i. 232 THE FUTURE STATE. intimates, that their souls existed in a separate state.* In other places, also, he represents some suffering punishment for their crimes committed on earth ;u which plainly argues, whatever fabulous account we have of the nature of the punishment, or the person suffering it, that it was an opinion generally received at that time, that the soul existed in a separate state. Indeed, this may be inferred from the doctrine of demons, or the superstitious worship which the heathens paid to the souls of those heroes who formerly lived on earth, who, as they thought, had done some things which rendered them the peculiar favourites of God, and the objects of worship by men, and whose souls, as they believed, existed with God in great hon- our and favour in a separate state.1 But passing this by, it may be farther observed that whatever notions some of the heathens had of the immortality of the soul in general, they were very much at a loss, many of them, in determining the place, or many things relating to the state, in which they were. Hence, many asserted, with Pythagoras, the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, or of their passing from one body to another, and being condemned to reside in vile and dishonourable bodies, as a punishment for sins committed in former bodies. This doctrine, though it perverts, yet does not overthrow, that of the soul's immortality. Others of the heathen seemed to doubt whether, after four or five courses of transmigration of souls from one body to an- other, they might not at last shrivel into nothing. It must also be acknowledged that there was a considerable party among them who adhered to the sentiments of Epicurus, who denied the immortality of the soul, supposing it to be material. The Sadducees likewise are represented, in scripture, as imbibing that notion ; they are said to have 'denied both angels and spirits. 'y In this respect they adopted Epicurus' philosophy, as to his denying the immortality of the soul, or its existence in a future state. z We may observe, however, that notwithstanding all that has been said concern- ing this doctrine, by the better and wiser part of the heathen in their writings, their notions seem to have been very defective. If we trace them farther than t Vid. Horn. Iliad 23. lin. 65, et seq. Uu.fr ctvru fiiyJo; te xai ofifiecru x-aX nxvia, Kcci Qtvnv' xai Tota, vrioi xict "V"sra 1'*° 2t» i' ceo' v-Kio xaficcXr,;, xai fi.it *(>cf ftvDo* ttittlr. Here, after he had killed Hector, he addresses himself to his friend Patroclus, signifying that he had done this to revenge his death ; on which, the poet brings in Patroclus as appearing to him. u Vid. Odys. lib. xi. lin. 575, et seq. in which he speaks of the punishment of Tityus and Tan- talus. In this, as well as many other things, he is imitated by Virgil. See jEneid. lib. vi. lin. 595, et seq. x See this argument managed with a great deal of learning and judgment by Mede, in his ' Apos- tasy of the Latter Times.' He proves, from many of their own writers, that the gods whom the heathens worshipped, were the souls of men deified or canonized after death, chap. iv. and Voss. de orig. &c idol. lib. i. cap. xi, xii, xiii, who refers to Lact. lib. i. de fals. Relig. cap. v. whose words are these ; Quos imperiti, et insipientes, tanquam D. o» et nuncupant, et auorant, nemo est tarn inconsideratus, qui non intelligat fuisse mortales. Quomodo ergo, inquiet aliquis, Dii crediti sunt? Nimirum quia reges maxiini, ac potentissimi fuerunt, ob merit a virtutum suarum, aut munerum, aut artium repertarum, cum chari fuissent iis, quibus imperitaverant, in memoriam sunt conseerati. Quod si quis dubitet, res eorum gestas, et facta, consideret: quae uni versa turn poetae, turn historici veteres, prodiderunt. Et August, de Civ. Dei, lib. viii. cap. v. Ipsi etiam majorum gentium Dii, quos Cicero in Tusculanis, tacitis nominibus videtur attingere, Jupiter, Juno, Satur- nus, Vulcanus, Vesta, et, alii plurimi, quos Varro conatur ad mundi partes, sive elementa trans- fer n>, homines fuisse produntur. Et Cic. lib. i. de nat. Deor. Quid, qui aut fortes, aut claros, aut pollutes viros tradunt post mortem ad Deos pervenisse; eosque ipsos quos, nos colere, precari, venerarique soleamus? y Acts xxiii. 8. z Some have wondered how the Sadducees could deny angels, and yet receive the five books of Moses, in which there is so frequent mention of the appearance of angels; and it might as well be wondered how they could make any pretensions to religion while they denied the immortality of the soul. But as to both points, it may be said concerning them, that they were the most irreli- gious part of the Jewish nation. To make them consistent with themselves is past the skill of any who treat on this subject. Some suppose that they understand all those scriptures which speak concerning the appearance of angels, as importing nothing else but a bodily shape, appearing for a time, and conversing with those to whom it was sent, moved and actuated by the divine power, and then disappearing and vanishing into nothing. THE FUTURE STATE. 233 what concerns the mere separate existence of the soul, or if they attempt to speak any thing concerning its happiness in a future state, they then discover that they know but little of the matter. Many of them, also, though they cannot deny the soul's immortality, seem to hesitate about it. We may therefore say with the apostle, that 'life and immortality are brought to light through the gospel ;'a that is, if we would be sure of the immortality of the soul, and know its state and enjoy- ments in another world, we must look farther than the light of nature for it ; and in seeking for arguments in scripture, we shall find great satisfaction concerning this matter, which we cannot do from the writers before-mentioned. That some of the heathen were in doubt about this important truth, is very evident from their writings. Plato himself,b notwithstanding the many things which he represents Socrates as saying concerning a state of immortality after death, yet when endea vouring to convince his friend Cebes about that matter, and apprehending that he had so far prevailed in the argument as to have forced his antagonist to allow that the soul survives the body, though he held that it transmigrated into other bodies, seems to concede this point to him, and adds, that it is uncertain whether the soul, having worn out many bodies, may not at last perish with one that it is united to ; c and he farther says to him, " I must now die, and you shall live ; but which of us is in the better state, God only knows. "d As for Aristotle, though, in many places of his writings, he seems to maintain the immortality of the soul ; yet in others, it appears that he is in doubt about it, and seems to assert that neither good nor evil happens to any man after his death.6 The Stoics, also, who did not altogether deny this doctrine ; yet supposed that, in process of time, the soul would be dis- solved. '* Even Cicero himself, notwithstanding all he says in apparent harmony with this doctrine, yet sometimes speaks with great hesitation about it.s And not- withstanding what Seneca says concerning the immortality of the soul, as has been before observed, yet he speaks doubtfully of it.h We must, therefore, have re- course to scripture, and to those consequences which are deduced from it, as well as those things which may be inferred from the nature of the soul, to prove that it is immortal. 1. For the proof of this doctrine, let it be considered that the soul is immaterial. This appears from its being capable of thought, whereby it is conversant about and takes in ideas of things divine and spiritual, which no creature below man can do. It has a power of inferring consequences from premises, and accordingly is the sub- ject of moral government, capable of conversing with God here, and of expecting rewards or punishments from him hereafter. All this cannot be produced by matter and motion. As for matter, it is in itself altogether inactive ; and when motion is impressed upon it, the only change made is in the situation and contexture of its parts, — a change which cannot give it life, sensation, or preception, much less a 2 Tim. i. 10. b In Pbaed. C His words are these: KtCtif Jf ft»i d»\i rturt fit> tfioi ^vy^ai(tiy, w«X«££an»T!£«v yt avai "Vu^in ruftaroc aXXa toSi aSnXet iravri, ftti ToXXk in tuftaTK xai xcXXaxis xarar^i^ara h ^"X*1 T0 '-«^-"""a<«», tafia. KxtaXiieovaa, vwv aurn wrtXXvtirxf xai ri tcvro t»vts Bavmrcs, ^v^ns aXtigei' iffu atjfia. y mi avrtX- Xvpivov ovhit iravtreu. (1 'Orort^oi S« hfiuv i£%ovrai ixt afiuvc* t^myfia, «S»X»> icxtTt irXtii 1 rtf hm. e VkI. Ejusd. mural, lib. lii. cap. ix. i Vi.^j, Sinus, a bosom, coast, or haven. m Vnl. Tertull. Apologet. cap. xlvii. Et si pa<-adisum nominemus, locum divinse amaenitatis *e- cipieudis sanctorum spiritibus destinatum, materia quadam ignese illius Zonae segregatum. n 2 Cor. xii. 4. o Verse 1. p See Whitby in loc q See also bis notes on Luke xxiii. 43. THE FUTURE STATE. 241 it enters into and continues in a state of inactivity, without any power to exercise the faculty of thinking, and, in consequence, whilst remaining in this state, must be incapa- ble of either happiness or misery. They assert, not that there shall be no rewards and punishments in a future state, but that there will be a deferring of these till the last day. This doctrine was generally maintained by the Socinians, as may be seen in several of their writings referred to by a learned author who opposes them.r The arguments by which it is usually supported, are taken partly from the possibility of the soul's being destitute of thought, and partly from those scriptm*es which compare death to a sleep ; by which they understand a cessation of action, not only in the body, but likewise in the soul. In defence of the notion that it is possible for the soul to be without the exercise of thought, they argue that the soul of a new- born infant, or at least of an infant before it is born, has no ideas ; and that though there is a power of reasoning which is essential to the soul, yet this is not deduced into act, so as to produce thought or actual reasoning, whence moral good or evil would proceed, and a sense of happiness or misery arise from it. This notion is carried somewhat farther by a late celebrated writer.8 He himself, indeed, takes no notice of the tendency of his assertion to support the opinion concerning the soul's sleeping at death ; yet others make a handle of it, to defend that opinion with a greater show of reason than what was formerly discovered in maintaining this argument. He asserts that the souls of those who are adult do not always think ; that particu- larly when a person is in a sound sleep he has no thought, how much soever there may be the exercise of thought, though confused and irregular, in those who, be- tween sleeping and waking, not only dream a thousand things which they never thought of before, but also remember their dreams when they awake. That a per- son in a sound sleep has no dreams, and consequently is destitute of thought, he attempts to prove. He remarks that when any one is suddenly waked out of a sound sleep, he can give no account of what he had been thinking of ; and he sup- poses it impossible for a person who was thinking, to forget the next moment what his thoughts were conversant about. This is the principal argument by which he supports this notion ; and he has so far the advantage, that it is impossible for us to prove the contrary from any thing which we know or experience concerning our- selves. The argument, however, will not appear very convincing, when we consider that there are innumerable thoughts which we have when awake, which we can hardly give an account of the next minute. Besides, if the thoughts are very active in those who dream, — who are as much asleep as others who do not dream, though their sleep may not be so refreshing, I cannot see how the consequence can be inferred, that sleep is inconsistent with thought. Moreover, a person who is de- lirious or distracted, undoubtedly thinks, though his thoughts are disordered ; but when the delirium or distraction is over, he can no more remember what he thought of than a person who is waked out of the soundest sleep. The argument in ques- tion, therefore, tends rather to amuse, or embarrass the cause they maintain, than to give sufficient conviction. Now, from this method of reasoning it is inferred that,, when the soul is separate from the body, it is altogether destitute of the exercise of thought, which is what they mean by the soul's sleeping. To give farther counte- nance to this matter, they produce several scriptures in which death is compared to a sleep. Thus, when God speaks of the death of Moses, he says, ' Behold, thou r Vid. Hoornbeek Socin. Confut. torn. iii. lib. v. cap. i. who quotes some passages out of several Socinian writers. Of these I shall mention what is said by only two of them, with whom several others of their brethren agree. Vid. Socin. in Epist. v. ad Volkel. Tantum id n ihi videtur statui posse, post hanc vitam, animam. sive animum hominis ncn ita per se subsistere ut praemia ulla paenasve sentiat ; vel etiam ista sentiemii sit capax, quae mea finna opinio facile potest colligi ex inultis quae a me dicuntur, etc. Et Smalc. in Exam. Error, page 33. Animam vel spiritum hominis post mortem aliquid sentire, vel aliqua re perfrui, nee ratio permittit nee scriptura testatur: Ut enim corpus sine anima, sic etiam anima sine corpore, nullus operationes exercere-potest ; et per- inde sit ac si anima illorum nulla esset, etiamsi suo modo sit, quia scilicet nullius rti sensum habeat, aut per se voluptate aliqua Irui possit. And elsewhere the same author is so hardy as to term the contrary doctrine no other than a fable, in lib. de Dei Filio, cap. vi. page 43. Quod vero de vita aniinarum disserit, hoc instnr fabulae est, etc. Spiritum hominis ad Deum redire testatur sacra scriptura, at eum vivere vita, ut ait Smiglecius, spirituum, et vel aliquid intelligere, vel voluptate frui, hoc extra, et contra scripturam dicitur. s See Locke's Essay concern ng Human Understanding, lib. ii. cap. i. § ix. to the xixth. II. 2 11 242 the FUTrm: state. shalt sleep with thy fathers.'' Joo also speaks of sleeping in the dust ;m and concern- ing the resurrection after death, he says, ' Man lieth down and riseth not ; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sloop.'* David prays, • Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.'? And our Saviour, speaking concerning Lazarus, when dead, says, ' Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep;'2 which he afterwards explains, when he says, * Lazarus is dead.'a There are several other scriptures to the same purpose, which they bring to prove that the soul sleeps in death, taking the word ' sleep ' in its literal sense. Now, in reply to their arguments, we reply that as to the possibility of the soul being rendered incapable of thinking, when separate from the body ; it is no just way of reasoning to infer from the possibility of a thing, the actual being of it Hence, if it could be proved to a demonstration, as the author above-mentioned supposes he has done, though I think without sufficient ground, that sleep deprives a person of thought; it will not follow that the soul, when separate from the body, ceases to think. When the powers and faculties of the soul are deduced into act, experience tells us that they are greatly improved and strengthened. The exercise of them, therefore, cannot be so easily impeded as is pretended ; especially when we consider that the soul does not derive its activity from the body, which contri- butes very little to its ideas of things immaterial, which are not the objects of sense. And how much soever bodily diseases may weaken or interrupt the soul in its act- ings, we do not find that they so far destroy those powers, but that, when the dis- temper ceases, the former actings return, like the spring of a watch which may be stopped by something that hinders the motion of the wheels, and which, when this is removed, continues to give motion to them as it had done before. The body, at most, can be considered but as a clog and impediment to the activity of the soul ; and we may hence infer that, in a state of separation, the soul is so far from being impeded in its actings, that it becomes more active than before. — But what I would principally insist on as sufficient to overthrow the doctrine we are opposing, is the account which we have in many scriptures, and several just consequences which may be deduced from them, by which it will appear that nothing which has been said concerning the possibility of the soul's being inactive, when separate from the body, can enervate the force of the argument to support the contrary doctrine. It is true, the scripture often represents death as a sleep, as in the places formerly mentioned. Death is also sometimes described as a state of rest, which is of the same import with sleep ; but this is explained as a state of peace, holiness, and happiness, and not a cessation from action. Thus it is said, ' He shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. ' b This is plainly meant of the death of the righteous, as appears from the preceding verse, where it is said, ' The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart.' Now, these are said to ' enter into peace ;' which supposes that they are capable of the enjoyment of those blessings which the soul shall then be possessed of. They are also said to 'walk in their uprightness ;' which signifies their being active in what respects the glory of God, which is very inconsistent with the soul's sleeping, when separate from the body. Rest and sleep are metaphorical expressions, when ap- plied to this doctrine. Now nothing is more common than for such figurative ways of speaking to be used in the sacred writings ; so that it is very absurd for us to understand the words in a literal sense in the instance before us. We will now proceed to consider the proofs we have from scripture of the soul's being in a state of activity when separate from the body. The first scripture which may be brought to prove this, is 2 Cor. xii. 2 — 4, where the apostle says con- cerning himself that he was ' caught up into the third heaven,' and knew not whe- ther he was, at the same time, ' in, or out of the body.' If he was in the body, his senses were locked up, and he must be supposed to have been in a trance ; which militates against the supposition that the soul's power of acting may be impeded either by sleep or some bodily disease, in which there is not the exercise of the t Deut. xxxi. 16. u Job vii. 31. x Chap. xiv. 12. y Psal. xiii. 3. z John xi. 11. a Verse 14. b Isa. lvii. 2. THE FUTURE STATE. 243 senses. Or if, on the other hand, he was ' out of tjie body,' his • hearing unspeak- able words' plainly proves our argument, — that the soul is capable of action, and consequently of enjoying the heavenly glory, when separate from the body. More- over, this is evident from our Saviour's words to the penitent thief on the cross, ' Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.'0 To be 'in paradise' is certainly to be in heaven in a state of complete blessedness, where the soul delights itself in the enjoyment of God, which is altogether inconsistent with a state of insensibility. Were it otherwise, it ought rather to have been said, thou shalt be with me in paradise after the resurrection of the body, than to-day. The method which some take to evade the force of this argument, who say that ' to-day' refers, not to the time of his being admitted into heaven, but to the time when Christ spake these words, is so low and trifling, that it does not deserve an answer. — There is another scripture which fully proves our doctrine, namely, ' I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.'*1 Here the apostle takes it for granted that, as soon as he departed out of this world, he should be with Christ. This denotes that he should be in his imme- diate presence, beholding his glory ; and is inconsistent with the supposition that the soul sleeps at death. Besides, he says, • This is far better ;' and he could not have said so, if the notion we are opposing were true. For it is much better for a saint to be serving Christ's interest in this world, and made so eminently useful in promoting his glory as the apostle was, than to be in a state of inactivity, in which the soul is not capable of doing any thing for him, or of enjoying any thing from him. Indeed, there is no comparison between the two states ; so that when he said he was ' in a strait' which he should choose, the matter, had it been referred to him, might easily have been determined in favour of his continuing in this world ; for here he was useful, — while, in a state of inactivity, he would not only be useless, but incapable of enjoying those privileges which he was made partaker of here. — Further, we have another argument taken from 2 Cor. v. 8, ' We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.' Here presence with the Lord is inferred from absence from the body, without any intimation of waiting till the soul is united again to the body, before being admitted into Christ's presence. — Again, our doctrine appears from the words of Solomon, in Eccles. iv. 2, ' I praised the dead, which are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive. ' By these words we are to understand that the state of believers, when they die, is much more happy than it can be in this life. Now this supposes that they are capable of happiness, and consequently that the soul, when separated from the body, is not in a state of insensibility, which is altogether inconsistent with happiness. We may add what our Saviour says in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus : ' The beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments. 'e In this parable we have an account of the different state of the souls of the righteous and of the wicked at death, and not merely what shall follow after the resurrection of the body. For when the rich man is represented as being in torments, he says, in a following part of the parable, ' I have five brethren ;' and he would have had ' Lazarus sent to testify to them, lest they should also come into that place of torment ;' and he is told, ' They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.'f Now all this plainly intimates that the parable refers to the state of separate souls before the resurrection, whilst others enjoyed the means of grace ; and consequently it proves that the soul, when separate from the body, is capable of happiness or misery, and, what is more, is fixed in the one or the other of them. An objection is founded on those scriptures which speak of the happiness or misery of men, as deferred to the end of the world. It is intimated in the parable of the tares, that ' the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from the just ; t and the former are said to be 'cast into a furnace of fire ;'h and the latter, namely, the righteous, are said to shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.'1 c Luke xxiii. 43. d Phil. i. 23. e Luke xvi. 22, 23. f Verses 28, 29. g Matt. xiii. 9. h Verses 49, 50. i Verse 43. 244 THE FUTURE STATE. Moreover, our Saviour speaks 0/ his people as ' blessed, and recompensed at the resurrection of the just.'k The apostle Paul also expresses his hope of 'a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, should give him at that day,'1 that is, the day of his coming to judgment. Several other scriptures likewise speak of what is consequent to the resurrection. — Now, we observe, in reply, that these scriptures respect, not the beginning, but the consummation of the happiness of the saints, or their complete blessedness in soul and body. This, however, is not in- consistent with the happiness which separate souls enjoy before the resurrection. Nor is the misery which is consequent upon the resurrection inconsistent with that which sinners endure belore it, when their souls are separate from their bodies. Thus concerning the happiness of the souls of believers at death. II. We are now led to consider what is farther observed in this Answer, concern- ing the soul's waiting for the full redemption of the body. The justified soul, though it continues under the dominion of death, is notwithstanding united to Christ ; and accordingly believers are said to rest in their graves as in their beds, till the re- surrection. 1. The souls of believers are described as ' waiting for the full redemption of their bodies.' This is the same expression which the apostle uses, Rom. viii. 23; where ' redemption' denotes a full discharge from the state of confinement in the grave, in which the body was rendered incapable of answering the end for which it was re- deemed by Christ, while the soul was, at the same time, destitute of that happiness which its reunion therewith shall convey to it. The soul's enjoyments were all spiritual, and, in their kind, perfect ; yet it was naked, or, as the apostle expresses it, ' unclothed ;' it wanted that which was designed to be a constituent part of the human nature, and without which it was indisposed for those actions and enjoy- ments which arise from its union with the body. This reunion with the body it is said to wait for, as a desire of reunion therewith is natural to it ; yet it waits without impatience, or any diminution of its intellectual happiness. 2. As to the bodies of believers, they are said to continue united to Christ. This is the result of their being redeemed by him, and of his condescending to dwell in them by his Spirit. His love extends itself to their lower part, as well as to their souls. ' Nothing,' as the apostle says, ' shall separate' a believer ' from his love ;' no ' not death itself. 'm On this account they are said to 'sleep in Jesus, 'n or to 'die in the Lord.'0 They are indeed buried in the grave, and seem to lie ne- glected like common dust ; yet it is said, ' Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. 'p Christ reckons every particle of their dust among 'his jewels ;'i and is no more ashamed to own them as his peculiar care, than he was when they were in their most flourishing state in this world. For this reason they are also said to ' rest in their graves as in their beds.' This is a scripture-expres- sion, as the psalmist says, ' My flesh shall rest in hope;'r and the prophet Isaiah, ' He shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds.'8 The body, indeed, re- mains under the external part of the curse due to man for sin ; yet, as will be abundantly demonstrated when death shall be completely swallowed up in victory, it is freed from that which is the most bitter ingredient of it. In this the bodies of believers have the advantage of all others. The frame of nature indeed is dis- solved ; there is no visible mark of distinction from the wicked put upon them in the grave ; yet there is a vast difference in God's account. This a writer elegantly compares to the removing of the tabernacle in the wilderness. When the Israelites changed their stations, all the parts of the tabernacle were carefully taken down and delivered to the Levites' charge, in order to its being raised again with honour. On the contrary, the house incurably infected with the leprosy, was plucked down with violence, and thrown into an unclean place with execration. The bodies of the saints are committed to the bosom of the earth, as the repository Christ has appointed for them ; whence he will call them forth at last, when their souls shall be again united to them in the glorious morning of the resurrection. k Luke xiv. 14. 1 2 Tim. iv. & m Rom. viii. 38, 39. n 1 Tbess. iv. 14. o Rev. xiv. 13. p Psal. cxvi. 15. q Mai. iii. 17. r Psal. xvi. 9. s Isa. lvii. 2. THE FUTURE STATE. 245 The Misery of the Wicked at Death. We shall now consider the misery which the souls of the wicked endure at death. This is stated in the latter part of this Answer. We have here a different scene opened, the final state of the wicked described in words adapted to strike dread and terror into those who have at present no sense of their future misery. Their souls are considered as cast into or shut up in hell, their bodies imprisoned in the grave, and both the objects of divine wrath. We shall have occasion, under a following An- swer,* farther to speak concerning the punishment which shall be inflicted on sinners, whose torments shall be inexpressible, both in body and in soul, after the day of judg- ment. At present, therefore, we shall consider only the misery which the souls of the wicked shall undergo before they are united to their bodies. The soul which carries out of the world with it the power of reflecting on itself as happy or miserable, immediately sees itself separate from the comfortable presence of God, the fountain of blessedness. What tends to enhance its misery beyond what it is capable of in this life, will be the enlargement of its faculties. Its apprehension shall be more clear, and its sensation of the wrath of God more pungent, when it is not oppressed with the drowsiness and stupidity which characterized it in the present life. Nor will it be possible for it to delude itself with those vain hopes which it once con- ceived of escaping that misery which it is now plunged into ; when all the waves and billows of the Almighty shall overwhelm and swallow it up. The soul is, in a peculiar manner, the subject of misery, as it is made uneasy by its own thoughts ; which are compared to the worm that dieth not. While the sinner looks back- wards, and calls to mind the actions of his past life, and all his sins are charged upon him, his soul is filled with such a sense of guilt and confusion as is inexpres- sibly tormenting ; and when he looks forwards, there is nothing but what adminis- ters despair, which increases his misery to the highest degree. These torments the soul endures before it is reunited to the body, and thereby rendered receptive of others, which we generally call the punishment of sense. The place of punishment is the same that is allotted for soul and body, namely, hell. This is called outer darkness ; which is an expression used to signify the greatest degree of misery. As for their bodies, they dread the thoughts of being united to them again ; inasmuch as the reunion will bring with it new accessions of torment. They are considered as liable to a double dishonour ; not only that which arises from their being in a state of corruption in common with all mankind, but in their being detained in the grave, as prisoners to the justice of God, whence they shall not be released as persons acquitted or discharged, but remanded from that prison to another, from which there is no deliverance. But more of this under a following Answer. t Quest, lxxxix. [Note P. Christ's Preaching to the Spirits in Prison, — Our Lord went at death, not to do any work in a middle state, but to be with his Father and reveal himself in paradise to the saved. On the eve of his death, he said to his disciples, ' I go to my Father ;' on the cross, he said to the peni- tent thief, ' To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise ;' and at the moment of expiring, he said to the Father, ' Into thy hands I commit my spirit.' Nor did he go in person to ' the spirits in prison ' of whom the apostle Peter speaks ; but he went and preached to them by the Spirit, — the Holy Ghost, who spoke in all the prophets and holy men of old, and testified of Christ. Just as he went to ' the spirits ' in question, so he went to the Ephesians who, in the days of the apostolic ministry, were converted to the Christian faith. ' Having slain the enmity by the cross,' says the apostle Paul, addressing the Ephesian believers, • he came and preached peace to you who were afar off,' Eph. ii. 17- As, by the ministry of Paul, but not in his own person, he 'came and preached' to the Ephesians ; so, by the ministry of Noah, but not in his own person, ' he went and preached to the spirits in prison.' Noah was 'a preacher of righteousness,' (2 Pet. ii. 5.) or of the way of mercy ; and he just as really as Paul * prayed men in Christ's stead, as though God did beseech them by him, to be reconciled to God.' The time, therefore, at which Christ preached to 'the spirits in prison,' was ' the days of ^oah,' when the ark was a-preparing. ' The spirits,' too, were not only disobedient but objects of long-suffering : they were persons who were disobedient ■ when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah :' they were not condemned men enduring the miseries of final wrath, but disobedient hearers of divine warnings which told them of wrath to come, and favoured objects of the divine long-suffering which ' waited' for their repentance. Nor is it strange that they are called ' spirits,' — ' souls ' or ' spirits ' being a current designation of living 246 THE FUTURE STATE. men, in even the historical parts of scripture. See Gen. xii. 5; xlvi. 15, 18, 22, 25, 26, 27 Exod. i. 5; xii. 4; Josh. x. 28, 30, 32; xi. 11, and many other texts. The 'prison,' then, ii\ which they were confined, was simply the doomed world, converted into a vast dungeon from which the impenitent could not escape, and walled round by denunciations of the divine anger which should certainly be executed. They were persons 'in keeping,' or ' under guard,' i» 0i»x<**»>. Ac- cordingly, they were not, as the Romish gloss on the passage represents, delivered from ' the guard ' which was over them, or ' the prison' in which they were shut up; for only 'a few, that is, eight souls,' Noah and his family, who held a common position with them, 'were saved.' Even these, also, were saved, not by fire, but ' by water,' — not by the action of purgatorial flame, but by being borne aloft in the ark on the surface of the flood, — ' the like figure whereunto,' adds the apostle, ' even baptism doth also now save us — not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God — by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.' To crown all, the persons described were guilty of what Romanists call ' mortal sin,' or rather of all mortal sins combined ; hikI, therefore, could not, according to the church of Rome's own doctrine, have been allowed ad- mission to her supposed purgatory. Scarcely, then, can there be a more reckless perversion of the A»i> ou uavi/tov avroif, &c. THE RESURRECTION. 253 short, and the expression on which rests the whole stress of the supposition, of their having denied the doctrine of. the resurrection, is a little ambiguous, namely, that the bodies of men are corruptible, and their matter not perpetual ; for this may be un- derstood as agreeing with the common faith concerning man's mortality, and the body's turning to corruption, and not remaining in the same state in which it was. His account, therefore, seems to leave it doubtful, whether they asserted or denied the resurrection. It is also supposed that Philo denied this doctrine, from several passages observed in his writings, which a late learned writer takes notice of.m Philo's, however, was only the opinion of a single person, who, according to his general character, seemed to be halting between two opinions, namely, the doctrine of Moses, and the philosophy of Plato. I take his sentiments about this matter to be nothing else but an affectation of thinking or speaking agreeably to the Platonic philosophy ; which had probably given such a tincture to his notions, that he might deny the resurrection. And if the Essenes, before-mentioned, should be allowed to have denied it, they received it from their attachment to the same, or at least the Pythagorean, philosophy. But we cannot hence conclude that the doctrine of the resurrection was denied by the main body of the Jews, or the greater part of them, or by any excepting those who were led out of the way by the writings of the philosophers. Accordingly, the apostle Paul warns the church to ' beware of philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ,'11 as foreseeing that some of them in after-ages would, in many respects, corrupt the doctrines of the gospel, by accommodating them to or explaining them by what they found in the writings of the heathen philosophers, as Origen, Justin Martyr, and some others did ; and he seems to take the hint from what had been observed relating to the corruption of the Jewish faith, by those who were attached to the philosophers. Thus concerning the opinion of those Jews, who are supposed to have denied the doctrine of the resurrection. On the other hand, there are several Rabbinical writers, who sufficiently inti- mate their belief of this doctrine ; though, it is true, some of them infer it from such premises as discover great weakness in their method of reasoning. The learned Bishop Pearson observes that they produce several places out of Moses' writings, which, when the resurrection is believed, may, in some sort, serve to illustrate it, but can, in no degree, be thought to reveal so great a mystery.0 Dr. Lightfoot produces other proofs, which they bring for this doctrine, as little to the purpose ;* of which all the use that can be made is, that we may observe from them that they believe the doctrine we are maintaining to be contained in scripture. Whether or not they were able to defend it by showing the force of those arguments on which it is founded, is not much to our present purpose ; my design in referring to their writings being to prove that this doctrine was embraced by the Jews, in the ages before, as well as in those after, our Saviour's time. It is true, the Talmud and other writings which are generally quoted for the proof of it, are of later date ; and m See Dr. Hody on the Resurrection, &c, pages 56 — 59. n Col. ii. 8. o See Bishop Pearson on the Creed, Artie. 11, who observes, from their writings, that because, in the formation of man, mentioned in Gen. ii. 7, Moses uses the word *ttl»*i, and in the formation of beasts, verse 19, the word IIPI, the former having two jods, the latter but one, the beasts are made but once, but man twice, that is, once in his generation, and the second time in his resurrection. And they strangely apprehend a proof of the resurrection to be contained in the malediction, Gen. iii. 19, ' Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return ;' as if it had been said, ' Thou art now dust while thou livest; and, after death, thou shalt return unto this dust, that is, thou shalt live again, as thou dost now.' And those words in Exod xv. 1, ' Then sang Moses and the children of Israel,' they render ' he shall sing,' namely, after the resurrection, in the life to come, and thence infer this doctrine. These arguments could afford but very small satisfaction to the Sadducees, while they omitted to insist on other pregnant proofs. p See vol. ii. Heb. and Talmud. Exercitat. on John iv. 25, wherein he says, that they pretend to prove it from Deut. xxxi. 16, where God says to Moses, • Thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and rise again ;' which is an addition to, as well as a perversion of, the text, which says, ■ The people shall rise up and go a whoring,' &c. And, page 541 and 787» he represents them as proving it from Josh. viii. 30, where it is said that 'Joshua built an altar unto the Lord,' which they translate, *he shall build an altar,' supposing this to be after the resurrection. And, Psal. lxxxiv. 4, 'Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee,' they suppose is meant of their praising God after the resurrection. See many other absurd methods of reasoning to the same purpose, referred to by him in the same place. 254 THE RESURRECTION. the most ancient of the Chaldee paraphrases now extant, is supposed to have been written about that time, or at least but little before it. Nor are there any uninspired writings relating to the Jewish affairs, more ancient, except those which we generally call Apocryphal ; which most suppose to have been written about one hundred and fifty years before the Christian era. Now, it is very evident that about that time the doctrine of the resurrection was believed by the Jewish church ; for the author of the book of Maccabees, in the history of the martyrdom of the seven brethren in the reign of Antiochus,'* represents some of them in the agonies of death, as expressing firm belief of a resurrection to eternal life, their mother, in the meanwhile, encouraging them from the same consideration. These, it is more than probable, the apostle includes in the number of those noble Old Tes- tament worthies who were ' tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might ob- tain a better resurrection ; 'r which is an undeniable evidence that the church at that time believed the doctrine of the resurrection. All that I shall add under this Head is, that how weak soever the reasoning of some Jewish writers concerning this subject has been, there are others who give substantial proofs from the Old Testament ; a circumstance which argues not only that they believed it, but that their belief proceeded from a just conviction of its truth. They give the same sense of some of those scriptures which are generally produced in proof of it which we do.8 The first scripture which we shall take notice of is what contains the vision con- cerning ' the valley which was full of bones,' which were ' very dry.?t God says to the prophet, ' Son of man, Can these bones live ?' and the prophet replies, ' 0 Lord God, thou knowest.' Afterwards we read of God's ' laying sinews, and bringing up flesh upon them, covering them with skin, and putting breath into them,' and their being immediately after restored to life. I am sensible that they who are on the other side of the question, pretend that this passage is no proof of a resurrection ; because the design of the vision was to illustrate and make way for the prediction mentioned in the following verses, concerning the deliverance of God's people from the Babylonish captivity. But what has weight with me is, that God would never have made use of a similitude to lead them into this doctrine, taken from a thing which they had no manner of idea of. If, however, we suppose that they believed that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, agreeably to the literal sense of the words made use of to illustrate the deliverance from Babylon, then the argument is plain and easy, and is as if it had been said, ' As certainly as you have ground to believe that the dead shall be raised at the last day, — an event which, though it could not be brought about by any natural means, yet shall be effected by the power of God ; so your deliverance, how unlikely soever it may appear to those who look no farther than second causes, shall come to pass by God's extraordinary power and providence, and will be as life from the dead." But it is farther objected that, when the prophet was asked by God whether 'these dry bones could live,' he seemed to be in doubt about it ; so that he had no idea of the resurrection of the dead. We reply, that his doubt respected an event which should immediately follow. He knew that God could put liie into these bones ; but whether he would do it now or not, he could not tell. His doubt, therefore, does not imply any disbelief of the doctrine of the resurrection at the last day. Indeed, this scripture, how little soever it may seem to some to make for the doctrine we are maintaining, is alleged by others as an undeniable proof of it. Tertullian expressly says, that the vision re- q 2 Maccab. vii. 9, 1 1, 14, 23, 29. r Heb. xi. 35. s Thus Josephus Jaccbiades, referred to by Witsius in Symb. Exercit. xxvi. § 41, in explaining the famous text in Daniel xii. 2, says, Et tunc fiet miraculum resurrectionis mortuorum : Nam multi dormientium in terra pulverulenta expergiscentur, hi ad vitam seternam, qui sunt sancti; illi vero ad opprobria et detestationem seternam ; qui sunt impii. Quorum resurrectionis causa est, ut impii lateantur palam, suam fidem esse falsam, et eosqui ipsis fidem habuerint, prosecutos f'uisse vanitatem atque evanuisse, ipsique agnoscunt suos majores lalsitatem possedisse. And Menasseh Ben Israel, de Resurr. Mort. lib. ii. cap. viii. proves it from the same scripture. More to the same purpose may be seen in Dr. Hody on the Resurrection, page 72. et seq., who quotes several of the Talmudical writers, as signifying their belief of this doctrine; and especially Pocock in Maimon. Port. Mos. cap. vi. who produces a multitude of quotations to the same purpose; in which some assert this doctrine without proof, others establish it by more solid arguments, and some mix a great many nbsurd notions with it, which we shall at present pass over. t Ezek. xxxvii. 1. et seq. THE RESURRECTION. 255 corded in it would have been a very insignificant one if this doctrine were not true.u Jerome speaks to the same purpose, supposing that God would never illustrate any truth which the Jews were in doubt of, by a similitude taken from an incredible fic- tion." And Menasseh Ben Israel, a learned Jew, supposes this text to be an express and infallible proof of the resurrection ; and his viewing it in this light plainly argues that he thought the Jews, in former ages, were convinced of this doctrine by itJ But supposing this scripture not to be reckoned sufficient to evince the truth of the doctrine, there is another which has more weight, ' I know that my Kedeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God ; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me.'z Job, as is generally supposed, lived in Moses' time ; so that, if it can be made to appear that he professed his faith in the doctrine of the resurrection, we may conclude that the church was acquainted with it in the early ages. Now, nothing seems more evident, from the plain sense of the words, than that he here professes his faith in the doctrine, and encourages himself from the hope of future blessedness, both in soul and body, at Christ's second coming in the last day. It is with a great deal of difficulty that they who deny this doctrine, are obliged to account for the sense of this text, so as to evade the force of the argument taken from it. They suppose that Job intends nothing but a firm persua- sion that he should be recovered from the state of misery in which he then was, which affected not only his mind, but his body, as it was ' smitten with sore boils, from the sole of his foot unto his crown,'8 his flesh being 'clothed with worms,' and his 'skin broken and become loathsome. 'b They accordingly understand him to say, * I shall be redeemed from this affliction, and brought into a happy state before I die.' They thus suppose that the words are to be taken in a metaphorical sense, and hence do not prove the doctrine of the resurrection. But this will appear to be a very great perversion of the sense of this text, if we consider in how solemn a manner he introduces the passage : ' Oh that my words, ' says he, ' were now writ- ten ! Oh that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead, in the rock for ever ! ' This language seems to import that he had some- thing to communicate, which was of far greater moment than the account of his deliverance from the afflictions he was under in this world. It hence seems more agreeable to understand the words as denoting the great and important truth, in which all believers are concerned, relating to Christ's second coming, and the happiness which his saints shall then enjoy in soul and body. This deserves to be written with a pen of iron, that it may be transmitted to all generations. Again, it is evident that he is here speaking of something which should be done, not while he lived, but in the end of time ; for he considers his ' Redeemer ' as ' standing in the latter day upon the earth.' The person whom he here speaks of as his Redeemer, is doubtless our Saviour, who is frequently described, both in the Old and New Testament, under that character. If at any time God the Father is called the Redeemer of his people, it may be observed that he is never said, in redeeming them, to make himself visible to their bodily eyes, or to stand upon earth, — much less to do this in the latter or last day, in which Christ is said to come again in a visible manner, to raise the dead and judge the world. Now, this Job intends when he says, ' In my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.' Moreover, it is also evident that he intends something which should befall him after his death, and not merely a deliverance from his present misery in this world ; for he speaks of his ' skin ' or body as de- voured by ' worms,' and of ' his reins as consumed within him,' — language which can u Vid. Tertull. de Resurrect. Cam. cap. xxx. Non posset de ossibus figura componi, si non id ipsum, et ossibus eventurum esset. x Vid. Hieron. in Ezek. xxxvii. Nunquam poneretur similitudo resurrectionis, ad restitutionem Israelitici populi significandam, nisi staret ipsa resurrectio, et futura crederetur ; quia nemo de rebus non extantibus incerta confirmat. y Vid. xMenasseb Ben Isr. lib. i. de Resurrect, cap. ii. § 4. Hie textus expressus est, et infalli- bilis quo sine omne dubio resurrectio probatur. z Job xix. 25 — 27. a Chap. ii. 7. b Chap. vii. 5. 256 THE RESURRECTION. mean only a state of corruption in death. Further, it does not appear that Job had any intimation concerning the change of his condition in this world, before God turned his captivity, having first made him sensible of his error in ' uttering that which he understood not,' when, notwithstanding the injuries he had received from them, he testified his reconciliation to his friends by praying for them.'0 In- deed, he was so far from expecting happiness in this life that he says, ' Mine eye shall no more see good, 'd that is in this world ; and he hence takes occasion to meditate on his own mortality in the following words, ' The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more ; thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.' After this he prays, 'Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, 'e &c. Besides, immediately before he speaks of his * Redeemer ' as ' living, ' and of the deliverance which he should obtain in 'the latter day,' he earnestly desires the compassion of his friends: ' Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, 0 ye my friends ; for the hand of God hath touched me.' Now, this does not well agree with the supposition that he had any expectation of a state of happiness in this world. In that case he would not have needed their pity. He might only have convinced them of the truth of his expectation, and it would have given a turn to their behaviour towards him ; for we find that, when God blessed his latter end more than his beginning, every one was as ready to comfort him concerning the evil that the Lord had brought upon him, and show their very great respect to him by offering him presents, as any were before to reproach him. On the whole, therefore, it is very evident that Job is speaking, not concerning his deliverance from his present evils in this world, but of a perfect deliverance from all evil in the great day of the resurrection. We must hence conclude that the doctrine of the resurrection is plainly asserted in this scripture. Indeed, Jerome says that no one who wrote after Christ has more plainly maintained the doctrine of the resurrection than Job, who lived before him, does in this scripture. f There is another scripture from which, if I do not mistake the sense of it, Job appears to have had a steady faith in the doctrine of the resurrection, and to have been firmly persuaded concerning his happiness when raised from the dead. This scripture is in chap. xiv. 13 — 15, where he says, ' Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret until thy wrath be past ;' that is, till a full end is put to all the afflictive providences which men are liable to in this world, namely, till the day of Christ's second coming ; ' or that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me ;' that is, that thou wouldst deliver me from the evils which I now endure. As to the former of these expedients, namely, his deliverance by death, he counts it a blessing, because he takes it for granted that 'if a man die he shall live again, '* and therefore says, ' all the days of my appointed time,' that is, not of the appointed time of life, but the time appointed that he should lie in the grave, in which he desired that God would hide him, — ' all the days of my appointed time I shall wait,' or remain, 'till my change come,' that is, till I shall be changed from a state of mortality to that of life. And he goes on in the following words, ' Thou shalt call,' that is, by thy power thou shalt raise me, ' and I will answer thee,' or come forth out of my grave ; and hereby thou wilt make it known that thou ' hast a desire to the work of thine hands.' It may be objected to this sense of the words, that Job says, ' Man lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more ; they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep ;'h so that he is so far from expecting relief from his misery in the resurrection, that he seems plainly to deny it. I answer, that he does not deny the doctrine of the resurrection in the words, ' They shall not be raised from the dead till the heavens be no more;' he only seems to conclude that the dead should rise when the frame of nature was changed, as it will be at the last day, in which the heavens shall be no more. I confess this sense is not commonly given of these verses, nor any argu- c Job xlii. 3, 10. d Chap. vii. 7- e Chap. xiv. 13. f Vid. Hieron. Epist. 61. ad Pammacb. de error. Job. Hieros. Quid bac prophetia manifesting ? Niillns tain npert& post Christum, quam iste ante Christum de resurrectione loquitur. g Verse 14. The words are put in the form of an interrogation, which sometimes argues a strong negation, but not always, since here it seems to imply a concession that he should live again. b Job xiv. 12. THE RESURRECTION. 257 ment drawn from them to prove a resurrection from the dead ; so that I would not he too tenacious of my own sense of them. Yet I cannot hut think it more proba- hle than the common sense ; and if so, the passage may he considered as a proof of the doctrine which we are maintaining. There is another scripture which plainly proves the doctrine of the resurrection, ' Many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.'1 This scripture is brought by several Rabbinical writers as a proof of this doctrine ; and the words are so express that it will be very difficult to evade the force of them. It is true, some modern writers, who are ready to conclude that the Old Testament is silent as to the doctrine of the resurrection, take the words in a metaphorical sense, and understand them to mean, the deliverance of the church from those grievous persecutions which they were under in the reign of Antiochus. Accordingly, ' sleeping in the dust ' is taken by them for lying in holes and caves of the earth, the Jews being forced to seek protection there from the fury of the tyrant. But this cannot be properly called ' sleeping in the dust of the earth ;' nor is their deliverance from this persecution consistent with ' the contempt ' which should be cast on some who were raised out of the dust ; nor could the happiness which others enjoyed in this deliverance be called 'everlasting life.' Besides, it must be a straining of the metaphor to a great degree, to apply to their wise men and teachers, after this deliverance, the words, 'They shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.' This interpretation, then, has such difficulties attending it, that every person who is not prepossessed with prejudice must adopt the literal sense of the text, and confess that it proves the doc- trine of the resurrection. The only difficulty which is pretended to be involved in this literal sense is its being said, ' Many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake,' while the doctrine we are defending is that of an universal resurrection. But as we shall have occasion to notice this difficulty under a following Head, we choose to refer it to its proper place, where, according to our designed method, we are to con- sider that all who have lived from the beginning to the end of time shall be raised. There are other scriptures in the Old Testament which might be brought to prove this doctrine. Thus God says, ' I kill, and I make alive ;'k and Hannah, in her song, says, ' The Lord killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.'1 I know that 'death' and 'life ' are sometimes taken for, good and evil ; but why should deliverance from the miseries of this life be repre- sented by the metaphor of a resurrection, and this attributed to the almighty power of God, if the doctrine of the resurrection was reckoned by the church at that time no other than a fiction or chimera, as it must be supposed to have been if they had no idea of it, as not having received it by divine revelation ? We might, as a farther proof of this doctrine, consider the three instances nar- rated in the Old Testament of persons raised from the dead, namely, the Shuna- mite's child, by the prophet Elisha,™ — the man who was cast into his sepulchre, and ' revived and stood on his feet when he touched Elisha's bones, 'n and the widow of Zarephath's son, by the prophet Elijah. In the last of these cases, it is said, Eli- jah ' cried to the Lord, and said, 0 Lord my God, I pray thee let this child's soul come unto him again ;' and accordingly the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.0 We must hence conclude that the doctrine of the resurrection was not unknown to the prophet ; for had he not known it, he could not have di- rected his prayer to God in faith. These instances of a resurrection of particular persons could not but give occasion to the church at that time to believe the possi- bility of a resurrection at the last day ; for it might as reasonably be expected that God will exert his power by raising the dead then, as that he would do it at this time, unless there were something in this possible event contrary to his moral per- fections. But the resurrection appeared to them, as it does to all who consider him as the governor of the world, and as distributing rewards and punishments to every one according to their works, as not only agreeable to these perfections, but, in some respects, necessary for the illustration of them. We must conclude* therefore, that i Dan. xii. 2. k Deut. xxxii. 39. 11 Sam. ii. & m 2 Kings iv. 35. u Chap. xiii. 21. 0 1 Kings xvii. 21, 22. II. 2 K 258 THE RESURRECTION. as they had particular instances of a resurrection, which argued the general resur- rection possible, they might easily believe that it should be future ; which is the doctrine that we are maintaining. We may add that the patriarch Abraham believed the doctrine of the resurrec- tion ; and of course had it some way or other revealed to him, before the word of God was committed to writing. This appears from what the apostle says when speaking concerning his offering Isaac, that ' he accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead.'P These words render it evident that he was verily persuaded when he bound Isaac to the altar, and lifted up his hand to slay him, that God would suffer him to do it, otherwise the command to offer him up would have been no trial of his faith ; so that his being prevented from laying his hand on him was an unexpected providence. Now, how could he solve the difficulty which would necessarily follow upon his slaying Isaac ? Had he expected that God would give him another seed instead of Isaac, such an event would not have been an accomplishment of the promise which was given to him, namely, that ' in Isaac his seed should be called.' The only thing, therefore, which he depended on, was that when he had offered him, God would raise him from the dead, and by doing so would fulfil the promise which was made to him concerning the numerous seed which should descend from him. Hence, it cannot be supposed that Abraham was a stranger to the doctrine of the resurrection. There are other scriptures by which it appears that the doctrine of the resurrec- tion was revealed to the church under the Old Testament dispensation, either from the sense of the words themselves, or from the explanation of them in passages of the New which refer to them. Thus it is said, ' Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption ;'i words which the apostle Peter quotes to prove the resurrection of Christ.1" If David, therefore, knew that the Messiah should be raised from the dead — which, as will be considered un- der a following Head, is a glorious proof of the doctrine of the resurrection of the saints — we cannot suppose that he was a stranger to the latter doctrine. — Again, it is said, • He will swallow up death in victory.'3 These words occur immediately after a prediction of the glorious provision which God would make for his people under the gospel dispensation, which is called, by a metaphorical way of speaking, ' A feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined ;'* and of the gospel's being preached to the Gentiles, which is expressed by his ' destroying the face of the covering, and the vail that was spread over all nations.'" The passage may hence be well supposed to contain a prediction of something consequent on these events, namely, the general resurrec- tion.— Moreover, there is another scripture to the same purpose, ' I will ransom them from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from death. 0 death, I will be thy plagues ; 0 grave, I will be thy destruction.'1 Now, both this scripture and the for- mer one are referred to by the apostle, as what shall be fulfilled in the resurrection of the dead. He says, ' Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 0 death, where is thy sting ? 0 grave, where is thy victory ?'J We cannot but think, therefore, that the prophets, and the church in their day, understood the words in the same sense. — There is still another scripture in the Old Testament, in which the premises are laid down whence the conclusion is drawn in the New for the proof of this doctrine, namely, that which narrates how God revealed himself to Moses. z This our Saviour refers to, and proves from it the doctrine of the resurrection against the Sadducees. ' Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ; for he is not a God of the dead, but of the living.'* This argument was so convincing that "certain of the Scribes said, Master, thou hast well said ; and after that, they,' that is, the Sadducees, 'durst not ask him any question at all ;' so that it silenced, if it did not convince them. There are some, indeed, who, though they conclude that it is a very strong proof of the immortality of the soul, which the Sadducees denied, since that which does p Heb. xi. 19. q psal. xvi. 10. r Acts ii. 24—27. s Lm. xxv. 18. t Isa. xxv. 6. u Chap. xxv. 7. x Hos. xiii. 14. y 1 Cor. xv. 54, 55. » Exod. iii. 6. a Luke xx. 37, 38. THE RESURRECTION. 259 not exist cannot be the subject of a promise ; yet are not able to see how the resur- rection can be proved from it ; though it is brought by our Saviour for that pur- pose. But that the force of it may appear, we must consider what is the import of the promise contained in the covenant, that ' God would be the God of Abraham.' This is explained elsewhere, when he told him, ' I am thy shield, and thy exceed- ing great reward. 'b Abraham, therefore, was given to expect, at the hand of God, all the spiritual and saving blessings of the covenant of grace. But these blessings respect not only the soul, but the body ; and as they are extended to both worlds, the promise of them is an evident proof of the happiness of the saints in their bodies in a future state, and consequently that they shall be raised from the dead. 2. We are now led to consider those arguments to prove the doctrine of the re- surrection which are contained in the New Testament, in which it is more fully and expressly revealed than in any other part of scripture. Here we may first take notice of those particular instances in which our Saviour raised persons from the dead in a miraculous way, as the prophets Elijah and Elisha did under the Old Testament dispensation. Thus he raised Jairus' daughter, whom he found dead in the house.0 He raised also the widow's son at Nain, when they were carrying him to the grave ; and he did this in the presence of a great multitude.*1 He like- wise raised Lazarus from the dead,6 in a very solemn and public manner, after he had been dead four days, his body being then corrupted and laid in the grave, whence Christ called him, and he immediately revived and came forth. These instances of the resurrection of particular persons tended to put the doctrine of the general resurrection out of all manner of doubt. Indeed, it was, at this time, hard- ly questioned by any excepting the Sadducees. Accordingly, before Christ raised Lftzarus, when he only told his sister Martha that he 'should rise again,' she, not then understanding that he designed immediately to raise him from the dead, ex- pressed her faith in the doctrine of the general resurrection : ' I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day ;'f on which occasion our Saviour re- plied, ' I am the resurrection and the life, ' » denoting that this work was to be per- formed by him. Moreover, this doctrine was asserted and maintained by the apostles, after Christ had given the greatest proof of it in his own resurrection from the dead. It is said that they preached through Jesus, the resurrection from the dead.'h The apostle Paul standing before Felix, and confessing his belief of all things which are written in the law and the prophets, immediately adds that he had ' hope towards God, which they themselves also allow,' that is, the main body of the Jewish na- tion, ' that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the un- just.' He, however, not only asserts but proves it with very great strength of reason- ing, in the fifteenth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians. The argument which he there insists on, is taken from Christ's resurrection. ' If there be no re- surrection, then is Christ not risen.'1 Now, Christ's resurrection is a doctrine which could not be denied by any who embraced the Christian religion ; .since it was the very foundation of it. But if any one should entertain the least doubt about it, he adds, ' If Christ be not raised from the dead, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins, 'k that is, your hope of justification hereby is ungrounded, 'and they also which are fallen asleep in Christ, are perished.' But this none of them could deny ; so that they must have concluded that he had risen from the dead. If it be inquired how this argument proves the general resurrection, he farther says, 4 Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.'1 Christ's resurrection removes all the difficulties which might afford the least matter of doubt concerning the possibility of the resurrection of the dead ; and his being raised as ' the first-fruits of them that slept,' or as the head of all the elect, who are said to have communion with him in his resurrection, or to be ' risen with him,'m renders the doctrine of the resurrection of all his saints undeniably certain. As the first-fruits are a part and pledge of the harvest ; so Christ's resurrection is a b Gen. xv. 1. c Matt. ix. 25. d Luke vi . 11, 14, 15. e Jobn xi. 43, 44. f John xi. 24. g Ver. 25. h Acts iv. 2. i 1 Cor. xv. 13. k 1 Cor. xv. 17. 1 Ver. 20. m Col. iii. 1 260 THE RESURRECTION. pledge and earnest of the resurrection of his people. Thus the apostle sajs else- where, * If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.'11 Our Saviour, also, when he was discoursing with his disciples concerning his death, and his resurrection which would follow, told them that, though he should be separated for a time from them, and ' the world should see him no more,' yet ' they should see him again ;' and he assigned this as a reason, ' Because I live ye shall live also:'0 as if he had said, 'Because I shall be raised from the dead, and live for ever in heaven, you who are my favourites, friends, and followers, shall also be raised and live with me there.' The resurrection of believers, therefore, is plainly evinced from Christ's resurrection. I might produce many other scriptures out of the New Testament, in which this doctrine is maintained ; but we shall proceed to consider what proofs may be de- duced from scripture consequences. It may here be observed that our Lord Jesus Christ has, by his death and resurrection, purchased an universal dominion over his subjects, or a right to dispose of them in such a way as will be most conducive to his own glory and their advantage. Thus the apostle speaks of him as ' dying, rising, and reviving, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living ;' and he infers thence that ' whether we live or die we are the Lord's. 'p Christ being Lord over the dead is expressed in other terms, by his ' having the keys of hell and death ;' and this is stated to be the consequence of his 'being alive ' after his death, or of his resurrection from the dead.0' We conclude, therefore, that he has a power, as Mediator, to raise the dead. We may add, that he has engaged to do this work, as truly as he did to redeem the souls of his people. When believers are said to be given to him, or purchased by him, it is the whole man that is included. Accordingly, he purchased the bodies as well as the souls of his people, as may be argued from our obligation consequent on his redeeming us to ' glorify him in our bodies' as well as 'in our spirits, which are God's. 'r They are both under his care ; and he has undertaken that his people's bodies shall not be lost in the grave. His having done so is very emphatically expressed, when he is represented as say- ing, ' This is the will of the Father which hath sent me,'8 or is contained in the commission which I received from him, when he invested me with the office of Mediator, ' that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.' What should be the reason that he here speaks of things rather than persons, if he had not a peculiar regard to the bodies of be- lievers ? As these are the subjects of his power when raised from the dead, so they are the objects of his care ; and therefore he will raise them up at the last day. We might farther consider Christ's dominion as extended to the wicked as well as the righteous. He is not, indeed, their federal head ; but he is appointed to be their Judge. Hence, though they are neither the objects of his special love, nor redeemed by his blood, nor the dutiful and obedient subjects of his kingdom, he has a right tt> demand them to come forth out of their graves, to appear before his tri- bunal ; for it is said, ' God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assur- ance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.'1 Elsewhere, also, it is said, that he was ' ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.'" Hence, we read that he shall 'sit upon the throne of his glory ;' that 'before him shall be gathered all nations ;'x and that, as is stated in the following verses, he shall determine the final state, both of the righteous and the wicked. Now, this general judgment is described more particularly as being immediately after the universal resurrection. It is said, ' I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, 1 — language, as will be observed under our next Answer, which respects his judging the world ; and in order to this, it is farther said, that * the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them ; and they were judged every man according to their n Rom. viii. 11. 0 J0hn xiv. 19. p Rom. xiv. 8, 9. q Rev. i. 18. r 1 Cor. vi. 20. 8 John vi. 39, 40. t Acts xvii. 31. u Chap. x. 42. x Matt. xxv. 31, 32. y Rev. xx. 12, 13. THE RESURRECTION. 261 works.' Besides, as Christ is represented as a Judge, it is necessary that he should execute his vindictive justice against his enemies, and punish them as their sins deserve. But this respects not only the soul but the body. Hence, Christ, that he may secure the glory of his justice, shall raise the bodies of sinners, that he may punish them according to their works ; and therefore he is said to be the object of fear, because he is ' able to destroy both soul and body in hell.'z We have thus endeavoured to prove the doctrine of the resurrection by argu- ments taken from the Old and the New Testament, and from those scripture con- sequences whence it may be plainly deduced. How much soever, then, it may be thought a strange and incredible doctrine, by those who have no other light to guide them but that of nature ; it will be generally believed by all whose faith is founded upon divine revelation, and who adore the infinite power and impartial justice of God, the governor of the world. Indeed, it is not attended with such difficulties arising from the nature of the thing, as many pretend ; since we have several emblems in nature which seem to illustrate it. These are very elegantly represented by some of the Fathers, and especially by Tertullian ;a whom the learned and excellent Bishop Pearson refers to and imitates in his style and mode of expression.b His words are these, " As the day dies into night, so doth the summer into winter. The sap is said to descend into the root, and there it lies buried in the ground. The earth is covered with snow, or crusted with frost, and becomes a general sepulchre. When the spring appeareth, all begin to rise ; the plants and flowers peep out of their graves, revive, and grow, and flourish. This is the annual resurrection. The corn by which we live, and for want of which we perish with famine, is notwithstanding cast upon the earth, and buried in the ground, with a design that it may corrupt, and being corrupted, may revive and multiply. Our bodies are fed with this constant experiment, and we continue this present life by succession of resurrections. Thus all things are repaired by cor- rupting, are preserved by perishing, and revive by dying. And can we think that z Matt. x. 28. a Vid. Min ut. Fel. in Octav. § 33. Vide adeo quam in solatium nostri Resurrectionem futuram omnis natura meditatur. Sol demergit, et nascitur ; astra labuntur, et redeunt ; flores occidunt, et reviviscunt ; post senium arbtista frondescunt; semina non nisi corrupta revirescunt ; ita corpus in sepulchro ut arbores in hyberno occultant viiorem ariditate mentita. Expectandum nobis etiam corporis ver est, &c. b See bis Exposition on the Creed, Artie, xi. and Tertull. de Resurr. Cam. cap. xii. Aspice nunc ad ipsa quoque exempla divinae potestatis: Dies moritur in noctem, et tenebns usquequaque sepelitur. Funestatur muudi honor, omnis substantia denigratur. Sordent, silent, stupent cuncta; ubique justitium est, quies rerum. Ita lux amissa lugetur ; et tamen rursus cum suo cultu, cum dote, cum sole, eadem et iutegra et tota universo orbi reviviscit, interficiens mortem suam noctem, rescindeus sepulturam suam tenebras, haeres sibimet existens, donee et uox reviviscat, cum suo et ilia suggestu. Redaccenduntur enim et stcllarum radii, quos matutina successio extinxerat. Redu- cuntur et siderum absentia?, quas temporalis distinctio exemerat. Redornantur, et specula luiire quae irenstruus Humerus adtriverat. Revolvuntur hyemes et restates, et verna, et autumna, cum suis viribus, moribus, fructibus. Quippe etiam terrre de coelo discipliua est, arbores vestire poet spolio, flores denudcolorare, herbas rursus imponere, exhibere eadem quae absumpta sunt semina; nee prius exhibere quam absumpta : Mira ratio : De fraudatrice servatrix : Ut reddat, intereipit : Ut custo- diat, perdit : Ut integret, vitiat : Ut etiam ampliet, prius decoquit. Siquidem uberiora et cultiora restituit quam exterminavit. Re vera fcenore interitu, et injuria usura, et lucro damno : Semel dixerim univnsa conditio recidiva est. Quodcunque con veneris, fuit: Quodcunqiie amiseris, nihil non iteruin est. Omnia in statum redeunt, quum abscesserint; Omnia incipiunt, quum desierint. Ideo tiniuntur, ut fiant. Nihil depirit, nisi in salutem. Totusigitur hie ordo revolubilis rerum, testatio est resurrectionis mortuorum. Operibus earn pi aescripsit Deus ante, quam literis: Viribus pi aedi- cavit ante, quam vocibus. Praemisit tibi naturam magistram, submissurus et prophetiain quo fa- c.lius credas prophetiae, discipulus naturae: Quo statim admittas, quum audieris, quod ubique jam viiieris: Nee dubites Deum carnis etiam resuscitatorem, quern omnium norisrestituoiem. Et utique si omnia homini resurgunt, cui procurata sunt, pond non homini, nisi et carni, quale est ut ipsa depe- reat in totuin, propter quam et cui nihil deperit? Et Vid. Ejusd. Apologet. cap. xlviii. in which he proves the resurrection of the body from the possibility of that being restored to a former being, with the same ease with which it was made out of nothing; and shows bow Goii has impressed upon this world many testimonies of the resurrection; and then he adds, Lux quotidid interfecta re- splendet, et tenebrre, pari vice decedendo succedunt, sidera defuncta vivescunt, tempora, ubi fim- untur, incipiunt, fructus consummautur, et redeunt. Certe semina non nisi corrupta et dissolutu foecundius surgunt, omnia pereundo servantur, omnia de interitu relormautur. Tu homo tantiim nonien, hi intelligas te, vel de titulo Pythiae discens, dominus omnium morientium et resuigentium, ad hoe morieris, ut pereas? 262 THE RESURRECTION. man, the lord of all theso things, which thus die and revive for him, should be de- tained in death, as never to live again ? Is it imaginable that God should thus restore all things to man, and not restore man to himself ? If there were no other consideration but of the principles of human nature, of the liberty and remuner- ability of human actions, and of the natural revolutions and resurrections of other creatures, it were abundantly sufficient to render the resurrection of our bodies highly probable." Examination of Objections against the Resurrection. "We shall now consider some objections which are generally brought against the doctrine of the resurrection. Some things, indeed, are objected against it, which are so vain and trifling, that they do not deserve an answer. The followers of Aristotle, for example, assert that it is impossible for a thing which is totally de- stroyed, to be restored to that condition in which it was beiore.c And some have been so foolish as to think that those nations who burnt their dead bodies, put an eternal bar in the way of their resurrection ; since the particles being so changed and separated by fire as they are, can never return again to their former bodies ; or that those bodies which have been swallowed up by the ocean, so that the par- ticles of which they consisted have been dissolved by water, and every one of them separated from the other, can never be again restored to their former situation. Such objections as these, I say, do not deserve an answer ; because they consider the resurrection as if it were to be brought about in the same way in which effects are produced by second causes, according to the common course of nature, without any regard to the almighty power of God, which can easily surmount all the diffi- culties which, they pretend, lie in the way of the resurrection. There are other objections, taken from a perverse sense of some texts of scripture, without consi- dering the drift and design of these, or what is added in some following words, which sufficiently overthrows the objection. Thus some produce as an objection that scripture in which it is said, ' That which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts ; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast ; all go unto one place, and all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. 'd This text we formerly noticed as brought against the immortality of the soul ; and it is also alleged against the resurrection of the body, by those who conclude that the body shall be no more raised from the dead than the bodies of brute creatures. But this is rather a cavil or a sophism, than a just way of reasoning ; inasmuch as the following words plainly intimate that men and beasts are compared together only as to their mor- tality, not as to what respects their condition after death ; so that it is no sufficient argument to overthrow the doctrine of the resurrection. These and similar objec- tions are so trifling that we shall not insist on them. There are, however, three or four that we shall lay down, and consider what answers may be given to them. 1. It.is objected against the doctrine of the resurrection, that, though the power of God can do all things possible to be done, yet the raising of the dead, at least in some particular instances, is impossible, from the nature of the thing ; so that we may say, without any reflection cast on the divine Omnipotency, that God can- not raise them, at least not so that every one shall have his own body restored to him. Thus there are some instances of cannibals, or men-eaters, who devour one another, by which means the flesh of one man is turned into the flesh of another. In those instances also which are more common, the bodies of men, being turned into dust, produce food, like other parts of the earth, for brute creatures, and some of the particles of which they consisted are changed into the flesh of these crea- tures, and these again are eaten by men ; so that the particles of one human body, after having undergone several changes, become a part of another. There can- not, therefore, say the objectors, be a distinct resurrection of every one of those bodies that have lived in all the ages of the world. But it cannot be proved that, in those instances mentioned in the objection, when c This is what they generally intend by that aphorism, ' A privatione ad habitum non datur regregsu*.* r d Eccl. iii. 19, 20, 21. THE RESURRECTION. 263 one man preys upon another, or when brute creatures live upon grass produced by the ground made fertile by the bodies of men turned to corruption, and, it may be, con- taining some of the particles of these bodies, — it cannot, I say, be proved that, in these instances, the particles of the bodies of men are turned into nourishment, and so become a part of human flesh ; since providence did not design them to be for food. If so, 'then it is not true in fact, that the particles of one human body become a part of another. But, suppose it were otherwise, and suppose the objection to have as much weight as possible, we may farther observe that it is but a very small part of what is eaten which is turned into flesh ; so that those particles of one human body which by this means are supposed to pass into another, make up but a very inconsiderable part of the latter. Hence, if some few particles of one human body in the resurrection are restored again to that body to which they at first belonged, the doctrine of the resurrection of the same body will not be overthrown. If the body of a man lose a few ounces of its weight, no one supposes that it is not the same body. So when the bodies of men are raised from the dead, if the far greater part of the particles of them are re-collected and united together, they may truly be said to constitute the same body. The facts alleged in the objection, therefore, do not overthrow the resurrection of the same body from the nature of the thing. 2. It is farther objected, especially against the possibility of the resurrection of the same body which was once alive in this world, that the bodies of men, while they live, are subject to such alterations that it can hardly be said that we are the same when we are men as when we were children. The expenditure of those par- ticles which are insensibly lost by perspiration, and the daily gaining of others by nutrition, make such an alteration in the contexture of the body, that, as some suppose, in the space of about seven yearsv almost all the particles of the body are changed, some lost and others regained. Now, if it be supposed that the same body we once had shall be raised, it is hard to determine whether those particles of which it consisted when we were young, shall be gathered together in the resur- rection, or the particles of the emaciated or enfeebled body which was laid down in the grave. We are obliged to take notice of such objections as these, because they are often alleged in a cavilling way, against the doctrine of the resurrection. The answer that I would give to this, is, that the more solid and substantial parts of the body, such as the skin, bones, cartilages, veins, arteries, nerves, fibres, that compose the muscles, with the ligaments and tendons, are not subject to the change which is mentioned in the objection by evaporation or perspiration, which more especially respects the fluids, and not the solids of the body. These remain the same in men as they were in children, excepting what respects their strength and size. Now, if the body, as consisting of these and some of the particles which it has lost, which the wisdom of God thinks fit to re-collect, be gathered together in the resur- rection ; we may truly say that the same body which once lived, notwithstanding the change made in the fluids of it, is raised from the dead. [See Note R, p. 269.] 3. There is another objection which is sometimes brought against the doctrine of the resurrection of the just, especially against their being raised with the same body which they once had. This objection is founded on the supposed inconsistency of their resurrection with their living in the other world, called heaven ; which is gen- erally distinguished from the earth, as being a more pure, subtile, and ethereal re- gion, and therefore not fit to be an habitation for bodies compounded of such gross matter as ours are, which are adapted to the state and world in which they now live. To suppose them placed in heaven, say the objectors, is inconsistent with the nature of gravity ; so that we may is well conclude a body which naturally tends to the earth as its centre, to be capable of living in the air, at a distance from the surface of the earth, as we may conclude that it is possible for such a body to live in heaven. They hence argue, that the bodies of men, at the resurrection, must be changed so as to become ethereal ; and by advancing this position, they in effect overthrow the doctrine of the resurrection, as respecting, at least, the re- storing of the bodies of men to the same form which once they had. — Moreover, this objection is improved by another supposition, which gave the Socinians occa- sion to assert that the same body shall not be raised, namely, that if the bodies of 264 THE RESURRECTION. men should be the same as they are now, they would be rendered incapable of that state of immortality which is in heaven. They argue, as was formerly observed, that because man's body at first was to be supported by food, breathe in proper air, vuid be protected from dissolution only by being guarded against things which might tend to destroy its temperament, man would have been liable to mortality, though he had not sinned, or in other words, death was then the consequence of nature ; and from the same premises they conclude that, at the resurrection, we must not have such bodies as we now have, but ethereal. To give countenance to this opin- ion, they refer to the apostle's words, ' Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; ' e and to his speaking of ' celestial bodies ' as distinguished from ' terrestial, ' f and of the body being raised 'a spiritual body.'s They generally refer also to a scripture in which our Saviour speaks of believers, in the resurrection, being • as the angels of God ;'h which they understand as signifying at least that their motion will no more be hindered by the weight of the body, than the motion of an angel is ; so that their bodies must be of another kind that what we suppose they shall be in the resurrection. Now, as to the inconsistency of bodies like ours living in the upper world, as being contrary to the nature of gravitation, it may be answered that, according to the generally received opinion of modern philosophers, gravity arises from an ex- ternal pressure made upon bodies which are said to be heavy or light, according to their force. Hence, those bodies which are in the upper regions, above the atmo- sphere, are equally adapted to ascend or descend, — a fact which sufficiently answers that part of the objection. A learned writer takes notice of it ;* and if it be not acquiesced in, he advances another hypothesis ; which, because it has something of wit and spirit in it, I shall take leave to.mention, though I must suspend my judg- ment concerning it, as to whether it be true or false. He says that perhaps our heaven will be nothing else but an heaven upon earth ; and that it seems more natural to suppose that, since we have solid and material bodies, we shall be placed as we are in this life, in some solid and material orb. This supposition he thinks agreeable to the apostle Peter's words, when he speaks of ' a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness ;'k whence he concludes, that either this world shall be fitted to be the seat of the blessed, or some other which has a solid basis like it. To give countenance to this opinion, he refers to some ancient writers. He particularly tells us, that Maximus speaks of it as the opinion of many in his time ; and that Epi- phanius brings in Methodius in the third century as asserting the same thing. — As to that part of the objection, that bodies like those we have now are unmeet for the heavenly state, inasmuch as they cannot be supported without food and other con- veniences of nature, which tend to the preservation of life in this world ; it may be answered, that it is not necessary to suppose that the body shall be raised with such qualities that it will stand in need of food, rest, or other conveniences of na- ture, which at present tend to the support of life. The apostle seems to assert the contrary when he says, * Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats ; but God shall destroy both it and them.'1 There is certainly a medium between asserting, with some, that we shall be raised with an ethereal body, in all respects unlike that which we have at present ; and maintaining, that we shall have such bodies as are liable to the imperfections of the present state, and supported in the same way in which they now are. As to what the apostle says concerning * flesh and blood not inheriting the kingdom of heaven,' he does not mean that our bodies shall be so changed that they shall in no respect consist of flesh and blood. And when he speaks of ' celestial ' and ' spiritual ' bodies, it is not necessary for us to suppose that he intends aerial or ethereal bodies.* But this will be more particularly con- sidered under a following Head, when we speak of the circumstances in which the bodies of believers shall be raised from the dead. As to the scripture in which glorified believers are said to be ' as the angels of God in heaven, ' it respects their being immortal and incorruptible, or, as the context seems to intimate, that they need not marriage to perpetuate their generations in that world. We have no * i S» Y' 50* f Ver- 40' 8 Ver. 44. fa Matt. xxii. 3a l See Hody on the Resurrection, &c. pages 205—208. k 2 Pet. iii. 13. 1 1 Cor. vi. 13. THE RESURRECTION. 265 occasion, therefore, to strain the sense of the words, so as to suppose that our Sa- viour intends, in his saying ' they shall he as angels, ' that they shall cease to he like what they were when men on earth. 4. The last objection which we shall mention, is taken from the resurrection not being agreeable to the goodness of God, extended to those who are made partakers of eternal life, inasmuch as it is a bringing of them into a worse condition than the soul was in when separate from the body. This objection is generally brought by those who adopt the mode of speaking often used by Plato™ and his followers, that the body in this world, is the prison of the soul, which at death is set at liberty. They hence suppose that its being united to the body again, is no other than its being condemned to a second imprisonment ; which is so far from being a favour conferred, that it rather seems to be a punishment inflicted. Others, with Celsus, reckon it a dishonour for the soul to be reunited to a body which is corrupted.11 Others say that the body is a great hinderance to the soul in its actings ; that it frequently inclines it to the exercise of some of those passions which tend to make men uneasy, and in consequence unhappy ; and that it may in some way or other operate thus in a future state. There is no great difficulty in answering this objection ; in which there is not a due difference put between the present and the future state of believers. The only thing which might give occasion to men to conclude that their souls are imprisoned in this world, is that they are abridged of that happiness which they shall be pos- sessed of in another ; which the apostle calls ' the glorious liberty of the children of God.'° As for the reproaches which some of the greatest enemies to Christianity have cast on this doctrine, these are not sufficient to beget the least dislike of it in the minds of serious and unprejudiced Christians. What though the body be turned to corruption I It shall be raised incorruptible, and in glory ; and therefore shall be a palace fit to entertain its noble inhabitant. What though it has, in this world, offered many temptations to the soul to sin, by which the latter has been sometimes overcome and exposed to passions which have defiled it, and made it very uneasy ! Is this to be objected against its being raised from the dead in such a state of perfection, that it shall never more contract any guilt, or render the soul unhappy, by any inconvenience arising from it ? But this will farther appear, when we speak, under a following Head, of the condition in which the body shall be raised. The Resurrection Universal. We proceed to consider the resurrection of the dead as universal, including all who have lived, or shall live, from the beginning of time, till Christ's second com- ing, excepting those who shall be found alive, on whom a change shall pass which is equivalent to a resurrection. I. All the dead shall be raised. This is expressly mentioned in the vision of John, ' I saw the dead, both small and great, stand before God ; and the books were opened ; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them ; and they were judged every man according to their works.'? Here the Judge is represented as demand- ing the bodies of men of all ranks, conditions, and ages, out of those places where they have been lodged, with a design to reward or punish them according to their works. Now, if the justice of God is to be displayed in this solemn and awful trans- action, and the bodies, as well as the souls of men, are the subjects on which judg- ment must pass ; it follows that the resurrection will be universal. Thus our Sa- viour says, ' All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done m Vid. Plat, in Cratyl. who brings in Socrates as gravely punning on the word rv/ta as if it were ctifia,' sepulchrum;' and supposing that this name was given it to denote that the soul suffers punishment for its faults, by being detained or shut up in this prison. Seneca speaks to the same purpose: Corpus hoc, animi pondus, et poena est, permanente illo urgetur, in vinculis est. Vid. Sen. Epist. 65. n Vid. Orig. in Loc. supra citat. o Rom. viii. 21. p Rev. xx. 12, et siq. II. 2 L 266 THE RESURRECTION. evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.,q This is so evident a truth, founded on the divine perfections, as well as express words of scripture, that it is strange to find that any who allow that the dead shall be raised should deny it. We meet, however, with several expressions in Rabbinical writers, which seem to speak of the resurrection as a peculiar privilege belonging to some but not to alL Accordingly, they have a proverbial expression, that, though the rain descends on the just and on the unjust, yet the resurrection of the dead belongs only to the just.r This they infer from the words of the prophet Daniel, ' Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.'8 These words contain a difficulty whicn most have found it an hard matter to solve agreeably to the sense of the prophet. He says, in the words immediately following, that, as the consequence of the resur- rection of which he speaks, * some shall awake to everlasting life, and some to ever- lasting shame and contempt.' Here he divides the world into two parts, and con- siders the one as happy, the other as miserable ; so that he must, doubtless, speak of a universal resurrection. But the great difficulty lies in these words, ' Many of them that sleep in the dust shall arise.' Some conclude that this expression con- tains an exception of others who shall not arise. Thus some Jewish writers seem to have understood it. I rather think, however, that the word 'many,' there, im- ports nothing else but ' multitude,' that is, the whole number of those that sleep shall awake.' It is somewhat hard to determine what the Rabbinical writers in- tend when they seem to confine the resurrection to the Israelites. Some of them do this in order to exclude from it, not only the wicked, but those who had not ad- dicted themselves to the study of the law, whom they call the Gnam Haaretz. Thus they are represented in scripture as giving them but a very indifferent char- acter, ' The people that knoweth not the law are accursed.'" By this means they bring the number of those who shall be raised from the dead into a very narrow compass. Nevertheless they speak of future rewards and punishments in another world. Hence, some have thought that, when they exclude all but the Israelites, and, of them, all but those who were in the greatest reputation amongst them, they understand nothing else by the resurrection, but that which they fancied would happen in the days of the Messiah ; in which, they suppose that some of the Jews shall be raised from the dead before the general resurrection at the last day. In this sense we may easily understand their exclusive account, when they speak of many who shall not be partakers of this privilege. But if their opinion be extended to the resurrection at the last day, I am apt to think that they intend a resurrec- tion to eternal life. So some understand the common proverb just mentioned, as to the rain descending upon all, while the resurrection belongs only to the just, to mean that though the rain descends upon the wilderness and barren ground, yet it is only some places which are made fruitful by it, and that in the same way, though the re- surrection shall be universal both of the righteous and the wicked, yet the resur- rection to eternal life belongs only to the just.x All that I shall observe at present q John v. 28, 29. r Beneficium pluviae ad omnes spectare, resurrectionem mortnorum ad justos tantum. s Dan. xii. 2. t The words are, »3wsD 0*31, multi ex dormientibus. Now, it is certain that D*2*), is often trans- lated 'a multitude,' or 'multitudes,' and signifies the same with an, or the Greek word ra wXr,ies, as in Gen. xvii. 4 ; Fsal. cix. 30, and in several other places. But the principal difficulty lies in the sense ot the particle Mem, which is prefixed to the following word ; and is generally supposed to be taken distributively. Accordingly, the sense must he, 'many.' that is, 'a great number,' or part, taken out of them ' that sleep, shall awake.' I am apt to think, however, that the piefix Mem here, is not taken distributively but denotes the following word to be in the Genitive case, as Lamed and Beth often do ; and if so, the words may be rendered, ' The multitude of them that sleep shall awt, ' the multitude,' or all mankind. The apostle speaks in Rom. v. 15, of * many,' as ' being dead by the offence of one,' and ' by one man's disobe- dience many being made sinners;' which none who allow all the world to have fallen in A(iam, will suppose to be taken in any other sense. See other instances of the like nature in Glass. Phil. Sacr. lib. v. Tract, i. cap. xv.' u John vii. 49. x Viil. Poc. Not. Misc. in Mimom. Port. Mos. cap. vi, who treuts largely on this subject, and gives an account of the opinions of several Rabbinical writers concerning this matter; which ren- ders it needless for me to refer to particular places. THE RESURRECTION 267 is, that this is not altogether disagreeable to the scripture mode of speaking. For while, in some places, it asserts the resurrection of the whole world ; in others, by the resurrection we are to understand nothing else but a resurrection to eternal life. Thus the apostle Paul, when he speaks of his ' attaining unto the resurrec- tion of the dead,'* intends his obtaining a glorious resurrection. Our Saviour also, when speaking concerning the happiness of the saints in another world, says that they shall be • counted worthy, ' or meet, ' to obtain that world, and the resurrec- tion from the dead.'2 So that whatever is said by Jewish writers, tending to limit to some particular persons the resurrection of the dead to eternal life, it does not appear but that even they held, in other respects, a general resurrection, both of the just and the unjust ; which is as demonstrable as is the resurrection in general. 2. They who are found alive at Christ's second coming, shall undergo a change which, though it cannot be called a resurrection, will be equivalent to it. The apostle Paul gives an account of this, as what was before unknown to the church : ' Behold I show you a mystery ; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. 'a Elsewhere, also, he speaks of them when thus changed, as ' caught up in the clouds, together with ' saints that are raised from the dead, ' to meet the Lord in the air.'b This change is no less an effect of almighty power than a resurrection ; for hereby their bodies, though never separated from their souls, are brought into the same state as the bodies of others shall be when reunited to them, and are rendered incorruptible and immortal, as the bodies of all other saints shall be, and made partakers of the same glory with which they are said to be raised. We have an emblem of the change in Christ's transfiguration, when there was such a change made for the present on his body, that his face shone as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. There was, moreover, not only a resemblance, but a kind of specimen of it, in the translation of Enoch and Elijah, whose bodies were formerly liable to corruption and all the other infirmities which attend the present life, but were made, in a moment, celestial and glorious. The body of our Saviour, also, though raised from the dead incorruptible and immortal, yet, during the space of forty days, while he continued on earth, was not made so glorious as it was immediately after the cloud received him into heaven ; when it underwent such a change as was agreeable to the place and state into which he then entered. Even so the bodies of the saints, at last, shall, by this change, be made meet for heaven, and shall be received with other saints into it. The condition in which the Body shall be raised. We shall now consider the condition in which the body shall be raised. 1. We shall notice first the circumstances of honour and glory which respect more especially the resurrection of the just. The apostle describes them as 'raised in glory.'0 The same body, indeed, is raised which lived on earth. Its identity he illustrates by ' a grain of wheat ' springing up, and changed into a full grown ear. Though this is greatly improved, and very much altered from what it was when cast into the ground, yet 'every seed,' as he observes, 'has its own body.'d We may hence infer that the same body shall be raised from the dead, though with very different qualities. There are, in the account he gives of the bodies of the saints alter the resurrection, several things mentioned by the apostle which some have attempted to explain in a way which is hardly consistent with a resurrection of the same body. The Socinians generally maintain that the body shall be altogether new, as to its substance, as well as its qualities. Others speak of it as an aerial body ; supposing that the gross and heavy matter of which it formerly consisted, is not adapted to an heavenly state, and would render it not altogether free from a liability to corruption. This opinion a late writer mentions as having been espoused by some of the Fathers, and he "speaks very favourably of it. Inasmuch as the apostle calls it ' a spiritual body,'0 and seems to distinguish it from 'flesh and v Phil. iii. 11. z Luke xx. 35. a 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52. b 1 Thess. iv. 17. c I Cor. xv. 43. d Ver. 38. e Ver. 44. 268 THE RESURRECTION. blood,' which 'cannot inherit the kingdom of God ;,f he thinks that, though the same flesh and blood may rise from the grave, it will then or afterwards, receive such a change as will render it spiritual and incorruptible, that so, perhaps, when it comes to heaven, it will not be flesh and blood ; or, that it will be clothed with such an heavenly body as will keep it from a possibility of corruption. Accordingly, he supposes that the apostle is to be understood as saying, that flesh and blood un- changed and unclothed with its heavenly body, cannot inherit the kingdom of God; that the body with which it shall be invested, will be thin, aerial, spiritual, bright, and shining ; and that, in that respect, it may be called celestial. * The reason he assigns why 'flesh and blood,' namely, such as is subject to corruption here, 'can- not inherit the kindgom of God,' is that the flesh may be cut and divided, and the blood let out, which would subject it to corruption. Hence, he argues, it must be changed, and 'put on incorruption. ' This account of the bodies of the saints after the resurrection, seems, indeed, to be a medium between the two extremes, of those who suppose that the body shall differ but little from what it was while on earth, and of those who conclude it to be nothing else but an aerial body ; yet it takes several things for granted which I cannot readily concede. What he farther adds on this subject, however, is unde- niably true, namely, that the body, which before was subject to filth and deformity, is raised in glory and splendour, ' shining like the sun.'h That which was once 'vile,' is 'fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body,'1 and freed from all defect or deformity of its members, and from any dishonourable parts, not subject to weakness by labour, decays by age, to impotency and wasting by diseases, but nimble, strong, active, and that without intermission or molestation, grief, pain, or lassitude. It is raised a spiritual body, possessed and acted by the Holy Spirit ; and advanced so far to the perfection of spirits as to be free from grossness, ponderosity, from needing rest, sleep, or sustenance ; and is fitted for a spiritual and celestial state, in which our bodies shall wholly serve our spirits, and depend upon them, and therefore may be styled spiritual. If we stop here, without giving too much scope to wit and fancy, in advancing things too high for us, and confess that we know not, or at least know but little, the affairs of an unseen world, or ' what we shall be, ' k we say enough to give us occasion to conclude that it is a glorious and desir- able state, and the change wrought is such as fully answers our most raised ex- pectations, and is agreeable to a state of perfect blessedness. Thus concerning the condition or circumstances in which the saints shall be raised. There is one thing which must not wholly be passed over, which is farther ob- served in this Answer, namely, that the bodies of the just shall be raised by the Spirit of Christ. This the apostle expressly states : ' If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.'1 The bodies of believers, which were in this world the temple of the Holy Ghost, and were under his divine influence while living, shall not cease to be the objects of his care when dead ; and as an instance of his regard to them, as well as denot- ing the subserviency of them to their attaining that complete redemption which Christ has purchased for them, the Spirit, in a peculiar manner, demonstrates his personal glory in raising them from the dead. Others, on the other hand, are said to be raised only by the power of Christ. 2. We shall now consider the circumstances in which the wicked shall be raised, namely, in dishonour, or, as the prophet Daniel expresses it, ' to shame and ever- lasting contempt.' Some marks of dishonour shall doubtless be impressed on their bodies. They shall be raised with all those natural blemishes and deformities which rendered them the object of contempt. That part which the body bore in f 1 Cor. xv. 50. g Vid. Whitby in 1 Cor. xv. 44, 50. If by the bright and shining body which this autbor speaks of, he means that it shall be invested with some rays of glory in. the heavenly state, as many others suppose, I think, none will deny his position, since it agrees well with what the apostle says con- cerning the body's being made like to Christ's glorious body, and also with what the prophet Daniel says, chap, xii 2, concerning their 'shining as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars;' or, as our Saviour says, Matt. xiii. 43. ' Thev shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.' h Matt. xiii. 4a i Phil. lii. 21. " k 1 John iii. 2. 1 Rom. viii. 11. THE RESURRECTION. 269 tempting the soul to sin, shall tend to its everlasting reproach ; and when reunited to it, those habits of sin which were contracted shall incurably remain, as well as the tormenting sense of guilt consequent upon them ; so that the body shall be ex- posed to the wrath of God for ever. The resurrection of the bodies of the wicked, therefore, which renders them immortal, brings upon them endless misery. More- over, it is said to be brought about by Christ, as an offended Judge ; and as the consequence of it, they are summoned to his tribunal that he may render to every one according to his works. We are thus led to consider Christ as coming to judge the world ; which is that solemn transaction that will immediately follow after the resurrection. [Note R. The Identity of the Human Body. — The objections against the doctrine of the resurrec- tion, from the same particles belonging to different bodies, and the same body undergoing great changes as to its constituent particles, are merely a play upon the somewhat subtle subject of phy- sical identity, and scarcely deserve a very serious reply. The decompositions, recombinations, and numerous transmutations capable of being performed in a process of chemical experiment, would silence an argument an hundred times stronger than the strongest which can be based on the prin- ciple of the sceptic's reasoning respecting the resurrection, and, if he chose to maintain that prin- ciple, would involve him, in the face of demonstrable facts, in inextricable difficulty and self-contra- diction Astounding as the analyzing and transmuting processes of chemistry are, even they can throw little light on the question of identity as to the particles or constituent parts of any one com- pound, organized, animated substance. How monstrous, then, is it, in defiance not only of that science but of all the knowledge which man has ever yet attained, to pronounce peremptorily, as the sceptics presume to do, on what does or on what does not affect the identity of an organized body ! Let them look at a matter incomparably simpler — let them consider so seemingly obvious, so apparently very definable an object as a river ; and, according to their reasonings, either there can be no rivers in the world, or there is no identity whatever in any one of them, and no conceiv- able distinctiveness between ocean, cloud, and stream. All the respective particles of water which flow on any given day in any one river, have flowed before and may flow again in scores or hundreds of other streams, and have existed before, and will exist again, as portions both of the great deep and of the vapours of the sky. Nor may a sceptic escape by saying, that the channel, and not the water, constitutes the river ; for he may remember that some rivers have materially or almost en- tirely altered their course, and still remain the same, and he will easily see, too, that a channel, apart from water, is only a hollow stripe of earth, possessing as little the character of a river as that of a Roman road. But a better illustration of physical identity occurs in the history of the butterfly. How few, how very few, if any, of the original particles of the incipient caterpillar remain in the body of the winged insect 1 Not only, in its growth from the larva state to that of the full-formed caterpillar, in its transition thence to that of a chrysalis, and in its transition again to that of the butterfly, does it experience both a loss and an accession of particles surprisingly great, but it undergoes wondrous changes in organization, and eventually exists in a condition affording hardly one trace of resemblance to that which belonged to it at the commencement of its being. Yet he who should doubt or question its identity, would be compelled to adopt principles of reasoning and practise rebuttings of testimony and observation, which would upset belief in all identity and in all physical realities whatever. The identity of organized or mutable bodies, then, would seem to consist, not in the sameness of their particles, but in their relative position to some connecting or concomitant substance. Any given river of to-day is the same; which it was centuries ago, simply by its consisting of waters which have their source in certain highlands and pursue their course through a certain valley ; an insect in a butterfly state is the same being which existed as a caterpillar, simply because successive changes in its organization and in its loss and accession of particles have occurred in connexion with one animating principle or animal life ; an oak of the forest is identical with the acorri whence it sprung, or a cornstalk of the field, with its fifty or fourscore ears of corn, is identical with the seed whence it vegetated, simply because its continuous succession of particles, in its transition from a seminal to a matured state, occurred in connexion with the same vegetable properties, or with the substratum or organic peculiarity which constitutes the distinctiveness or specific nature of the plant. Now, where, with- these facts and thousands of similar ones before us, is the difficulty of conceiving the perfect identity of the incorruptible body of the resurrection, with the corruptible body which is consigned to the grave? Suppose the loss and accession of particles while the body is in life to be ever so extensive and frequent, and suppose any amount of the aggregate particles to belong successively to different bodies, we have only to see a continuous succession or connecting chain of particles between the body of the present life and the body of the resurrection, — or at most to see this succession in connexion with the distinctive peculiarity of a human body and in relation to the animating soul — in order to recognise, in an emphatic sense of the phrase, a perfect identity. The particles, be their history what it may, which constitute the body of a man an hundred years old, occupy just the same relation to the rational soul which animates them, as the particles which preceded them ; and they have been acquired through a process of consecutiveness, and in an uni- formity of relationship, in strict though intermediate identity with the particles which constituted his body when he was born. His possessing now, or his having possessed before, particles which once belonged to other bodies, or his having at various periods of his life thrown off particles which other bodies have already incorporated, do not, in the remotest degree, impair the perfect identity of his present body with his body when an infant. How, then, or by what laws, can his bodily 270 THE RESURRECTION. identity be affected by the comparatively fewer changes which shall take place between the putri- faction of his body and its resurrection"? Changes such as are made the ground of the sceptic's objections take place chiefly while the body is animated on earth ; loss and accession and constant alteration of particles occur in the processes of animated existence ; even participation of particles which have belonged to other bodies, or throwing off particles which other bodies incorporate, occurs, in most eases, far more in the multitudinous and bulky changes of the body's life and ac- tivities, than in the summary and unique events of its dissolving into corruption ; so that if doubts and difficulties are to be raised as to either the possibility or the fact of identity, they may be di- rected much more efficiently against the identity of the body of the sexagenarian with the body of the infant, than against the identity of the body of the resurrection with the body which is committed to the dust. Man's original body is, in all its particles, derived through the medium of the body of his mother ; and, so long as he is a suckling, it derives all its accessions of particles by milk drawn from her paps In the animal food which he afterwards eats, he incorporates the directly consti- tuent particles of the bodies of brutes ; and in the vegetable on which he feeds, and even the water which he drinks and the air which he inhales, he almost, certainly, during his life, receives into his body minute but accumulating particles which once belonged to other human bodies. Yet numerous and great and constant as are the transmutations of his body, both in the accessions which it receives from other bodies, and in its exudations or losses of particles which other bodies in their turn incorporate, neither these bodies nor his own are, in the remotest degree, affected in their identity. How, then, can transmutations of a similar kind, but in the aggregate neither so great nor so direct, after the body is consigned to the grave, have any destructive or modifying effect? If the body of the resurrection but be consecutively connected with the body of the sepulchre, and occupy relationship or union to the same animating soul, it will possess just the constituents of identity with it, which the body of the living man advanced in years possesses with the body of the same man when he was a suckling. These constituents will, without a doubt, exist, and can as- suredly be as little marred or hindered by the transmutations of the grave as by the transmutations of animated existence. It is clear, then, that the identity of a body, at any two stages or in any two states of its being, does not depend on the sameness of its particles. If, however, a certain amount of sameness of particles should be contended for as necessary to its identity, we can easily show that this sameness is more certain in the abstract, and may, in most cases, embrace a larger amount of particles, between the body of the resurrection and the body of the sepulchre, than between the body of advanced age and the body of infancy. If the allegations of some philosophers be correct, that, while the fluids and unguous parts of an animated body are very rapidly changed, even the hardest particles of the bones are renewed in the course of seven years, the body of any adult has ceased to possess even one particle which belonged to the body of the same person when an infant; but even if such alle- gations be exaggerated, and if the most compact and durable parts of the body be of comparatively long continuance, still the body of a sexagenarian cannot be proved, and with difficulty can even be conceived, to retain any of the particles which belonged to it when he hung upon his mother's breast. Suppose, however, the body at death to be disposed of in any imaginable way, — suppose it to be interred in some spot of earth, where it mingles with the surrounding dust, — suppose it to be re- duced to ashes, and either gathered into an urn, or scattered on the winds of heaven, — or suppose it to be devoured by a monster of the sea or of the land, and its flesh reduced to dust in common with the monster's body, while its bones are left to moulder away on the spot where the devourer made his horrid repast, — in either of these cases the departed soul will have left behind it a specific and considerable amount of the particles which actually constituted its body at death, and, by the power of God collecting the particles together and reconstructing them into organic form, it may be reunited to them in the day of the resurrection. While the soul of a man, when he is sixty years of age, is united to a body probably containing not one particle which belonged to it when he was an infant, it may most certainly, at the resurrection, be united to a body containing many of the very particles which belonged to it when he resigned it at death. Regard the question of physical identity, therefore, as we will, sceptics are bound either to deny the identity of the very bodies they themselves at present possess, and so to deny the identity of all organized and mutable sub- stances whatever, or to admit the very obvious demonstrableness of the identity of the body which shall be raised in immortality with the body which is entombed in corruption Ed.] THE FINAL JUDGMENT. Question LXXXVIII. What shall immediately follow after the resurrection ? Answkr. Immediately after the resurrection shall follow the general and final judgment of angels and men, the day and hour whereof no man knoweth, that all may watch and pray, and be ever ready for the coming of the Lord. Our Lord Jesus Christ having finished the work which he undertook to perform, in gathering in his elect, and bringing that grace which he wrought in them to per- fection ; the only thing then remaining to be done, will be his receiving them into his immediate presence to behold his glory, and his banishing others for ever from him, with marks of infamy and detestation. In order to this, he will raise the dcud, THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 271 and give a summons to the whole world of angels and men, to appear before his tribunal in that day in which he is appointed by the Father to judge the world in righteousness. This is the subject insisted on in the present Answer. In discuss- ing it, we shall observe the following method. First, we shall prove that there shall be a day of judgment. Secondly, we shall consider the person, the charac- ter, and the solemn appearance of the great Judge to whom this work is committed. Thirdly, we shall consider the persons to be judged, — angels and men. Fourthly, we shall consider the manner in which he shall proceed in judging them. Lastly, we shall state some circumstances concerning the place where, and the time when, this great and awful work shall be performed. Proofs of the Final Judgment. "We are here to prove that there shall be a day of judgment. This is as evident a truth as that there is a providence, or that God is the governor of the world. Every intelligent creature, being the subject of moral government, affords an argu- ment for the proof of this doctrine. We must consider intelligent creatures as under a law which God has given as that by which they are to be governed. Hence arises our obligation to duty, and our being rendered accountable to the great Lawgiver, as to our obedience to or violation of his law. Now, God is obliged in honour to make a scrutiny into or take an account of our behaviour, that it may be known whether we have obeyed him or rebelled against him. This is evident from the concern which the glory of his own perfections has in calling us to account, and from the promises and threatenings annexed to his law, which he is obliged to fulfil or execute. It follows, then, that God will display his glory as the Judge of the world. The fact that there will be a final judgment, is plainly revealed in scripture. It was foretold in the early ages of the world, as contained in the prophecy of Enoch, recorded in the epistle of Jude, ' Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.'m Though these words might have a peculiar reference to the judgment which God would execute in the destruction of the old world ; yet it is plain from the application made of them by the apostle, that they look as far as the final judgment, which shall be in the end of time. The same truth appears like- wise from what is said in Eccl. xii. 14, ' God shall bring every work into judg- ment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.' There are, indeed, many displays of God's judicial hand in the present dispensations of his providence ; as he is said to be ' known by the judgment which he exe- cuteth.'n The visible tokens of his regard to his saints in this world, as well as the public and dreadful display of his vengeance poured forth upon his enemies, pro- claim his glory as God, the Judge of all. But as sin deserves greater punishments than what are inflicted here ; as the promises which God has made for the encour- agement of his people, give them occasion to look beyond the present scene of affairs ; and especially as the divine dealings with men, as to outward things, cannot so clearly be accounted for while we behold the righteous oppressed, and many of the wicked having, as it were, more than heart can wish ; we must evidently con- clude that there is a time coming when matters will be adjusted, and when, as the psalmist says, * a man shall say,' or every one shall have occasion to say, * Verily there is a reward for the righteous ; verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.'0 Moreover, this doctrine is not only revealed in scripture, but is impressed on the consciences of men. Though they take never so much pains to extinguish their apprehension or dread of it, it is impossible for them to succeed. That secret re- morse or terror which sinners feel within their own breasts, which makes them restless and uneasy, especially when they perceive themselves to stand on the con- fines of another world, is an undeniable argument that there is a future judg- m Jude 14, 15. n Psal. ix. 16. o Psal. lviii. 11. 272 THE FINAL JUDGMENT. ment. What was it that made Belshazzar's countenance to change? Why did his ' thoughts trouble him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another,' when he saw 'the hand-writing on the wall,' in the midst of all his mirth and jollity ?p Was he afraid of the united forces of the Per- sians and Modes, who at the time invested the capital city in which he was ? Did he know that he should be slain before the morning ? These things were most re- mote from his thoughts ; for he apprehended himself safe from any danger which might arise from that quarter. Was he afraid of punishment from men ? His con- dition in the world set him above the dread of any such event. It was only the sense he had of a future judgment from God, that produced these effects in him. It was this too which made the heathen governor 'tremble,' when the apostle 'reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.'q And when Paul was disputing with the Athenians, though they mocked and treated what he said about the resurrection with ridicule, yet none of them had any thing to object against the doctrine that ' God would judge the world in righteousness.'1" It may be observed, that the doctrine of future rewards and punishments, as the result of a sentence passed on men after death, is so often mentioned by heathen writers, that it is evident they either received it by tradition, or understood it by the light of nature. When they enter into particular explanations of it, indeed, we meet with little but what is fabulous and trifling. Some of them suppose the re- wards and punishments to be in other bodies, agreeably to the doctrine of the trans- migration of souls. Others speak of fictitious lakes and rivers in the other world, where men are doomed to abide, at least, for some time. They knew nothing, however, respecting the day of judgment, or the appearance of the whole world before Christ's tribunal ; for this is a matter of pure revelation.8 The Person and Appearance of the Judge. We are now to consider the person, character, and solemn appearance of the great Judge to whom this work is more especially committed. This is a doctrine which can be known in no other way than by divine revelation. The light of nature, indeed, discovers to us that God shall judge the world ; but something more than this may be learned from scripture, as well as those circumstances of glory with which the work shall be performed. 1. We read that the person who is to perform this great work, is the Lord Jesus Chrst. Of him it is said, he shall 'judge the quick and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdom ;** and elsewhere, ' We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. 'u If we consider his glory as a divine person, he is fit to engage in it. For as he knows all things, he can judge the secrets of men, which no mere crea- ture can do ; and as he has all the other perfections of the divine nature, he can display and glorify them, in such a way as is necessary, in determining the final estate of men, and rewarding every one according to his work. We may observe also, that this work is a branch of his mediatorial dignity, and is included in the p Dan. v. 6. q Acts xxiv. 25. r Chap. xvii. 31. s We often read in heathen writers, of JEacus, Minos, and Rbadamanthus, as appointed to pass a judgment on every one at death, fix them in their respective places of residence, and determine their rewards and punishments. These are generally supposed to have lived ahout Moses' time, and are commended for the exercise of justice, and for making laws, some of which they are sup- posed to have received from heaven ; and as the reward of their conduct, they are said to have had the honour of being judges of men at death, conferred upon them. Some have been ready to conclude that the account which the heathen give of these three famous lawgivers and judges is nothing else but a corruption of a tradition which they had received concerning Moses, the great lawgiver to the Israelites, set forth by different names, with several things fabulous added. They who have a mind to see a very learned and critical disquisition on this subject, may consult Huet Demonst. Evang. Prop. iv. § 9 — 13. As for the variety of punishments which these judges inflicted, the Jakes and rivers of fire to which they condemn the guilty, see Plato's account of them, transcribed by Eusebms, in Praep. Evan. lib. xi. cap. xxxviii. Eusebius thinks that some things mentioned by flato i enr a resemblance to the punishment of sin which we read of in scripture; and these tbingi be supposes he received by tradition, from some who were acquainted with divine revelation, as he did many other things which he speaks of in his writings. t 2 Inn. iv. 1. u 2 Cor. v. 10. *. THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 273 execution of his kingly office. That he should perform it was contained in the com- mission which he received of the Father. Thus it is said, ' The Father judgeth no man,'x that is, not in a visible manner, or by any delegated power which he is invested with, ' but hath committed all judgment to the Son, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.'? We may add, that it is a part of the work which was incumbent on him in the application of re- demption ; which cannot be said to be brought to the utmost perfection, till the day of judgment. Thus, when he speaks concerning his 'coming in a cloud with power and great glory ;' he bids his people then ' lift up their heads, inasmuch as their redemption draweth nigh.'z We might also add, that it was very expedient that he should judge the world, since he was unjustly judged and condemned by the world. The cause must have a second hearing, that his enemies, at whose bar he once stood, may be fully convinced, to their eternal confusion, that he was not the person whom they took him to be, and that he did not deserve the treatment and rude insults which he met with from them, when he stood at their tribunal. They asked him the question, ' Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed ?' And he replied, ' I am ; and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.'* Here he applied to himself what the pro- phet Daniel said concerning him ;b and thus intimated that his coming to judge the world would be the most visible and incontestable proof of his mediatorial glory, with which he was invested as the Son of man. The high priest, on hearing his answer, rent his clothes, apprehending that he spake blasphemy ; after which they all condemned him to be guilty of death. It is expedient, therefore, that this visible proof of his Sonship and mediatorial glory should be given, and that he should per- form this great work which was incumbent on him, as he gave them to expect. It is his 'coming with clouds, that every eye shall see,' which shall oblige ' them which pierced him, and all the kindreds of the earth,' who set themselves against him, 'to wail because of him.'c Moreover, it was necessary that he should judge the world, in order that he might publicly vindicate his people, who have been judged and condemned by the world for his sake ; and that his cause and interest, which have been trampled on by them, might be defended in the most public and glorious manner so as to afford an everlasting conviction that he whom men de- spised, whose glory was set light by, whose gospel was rejected and persecuted, is a person worthy of universal honour and esteem. Thus concerning the person who is appointed to judge the world, and the character in which he shall do it./ 2. We are now led to consider the solemnity of his appearance when engaging in the work. The work being the most glorious which ever was performed since the world was created, and the honour redounding to Christ as the result of it, be- ing the last and highest degree of his state of exaltation ; it cannot but be supposed that he will appear with those ensigns of majesty and regal dignity which become his character as the Judge of quick and dead. Accordingly we have an account of his ' appearing in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. 'd ' His own glory' respects the rays of his divinity shining forth ; whereby it will appear that he has a natural right to summon the whole world before him. This cannot but strike a terror into his enemies, and enhance the joy and triumph of his friends, and excite the adoration which is due to so glorious a person. His appearing in 'his Father's glory,' denotes that this is the highest display of his mediatorial dignity ; the reward of his having perfectly fulfilled the commission given him by the Father, and fully answered the end for which he became incar- nate. And his appearing in 'the glory of his holy angels,' implies the reverence and homage which they will pay to him, into whose hands they are given as min- istering spirits to fulfil his pleasure, and who always rejoice in the advancement of his kingdom. The angels shall not indeed be employed in raising the dead, for. that is a work too great for finite power ; but we read of their ministry as subser- vient to the glory of this solemnity, as consisting in their appearing with Christ as his retinue. So it is said that he shall ' come in his glory, and all the holy angels z Luke xxi. 27, 28. a Mark xiv. 61—64. d Luke ix. 26. 2 M x John v. 22. b Dan. vii. 13. y Ver. 27- c Rev. i. 7. It. 274 THE FINAL JUDGMENT. ■with him.'e These indeed make up his train ; but do not convey to him the least branch of that glory or character he is invested with. It is their honour to attend him, whose servants they are. Their work is to praise and adore him, and to show their readiness to fulfil his pleasure, without desiring to usurp the least branch of Ins glory. The first thing they are represented as doing, is their attending his coming with a shout, or their transmitting to the whole world the word of command first given forth by Christ, whereby all men shall be summoned to appear before him. This shall doubtless be attended with universal joy and triumph expressed by them. As to its being said that Christ shall ' come with the sound of a trum- pet,^ either the expression is to be considered as an allusion to the custom of call- ing the hosts together, which was done by the sound of a trumpet ; s or we may understand it in a literal sense to denote some sound like that of a trumpet, which shall be heard throughout the world, and which shall have a tendency to excite the joy and triumph of the saints, and to strike terror into the wicked. Now, as this trumpet gives an alarm to all to appear before Christ's tribunal ; the angels are represented as assisting in bringing them thither. It is by them that the saints ' which remain alive, shall be caught up' with others ' in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air ;'h and it is said they shall 'gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other.'1 Elsewhere, our Saviour, speaking of 'the end of the world,' which he calls 'the harvest,' represents the angels as ' reapers ;'k and he explains his meaning to be, that ' at the end of the world the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just.'1 This plainly intimates that they are to gather the elect together. Inasmuch, too, as there must be a separation between the righteous and the wicked, so that the one shall be set at Christ's right hand, the other at his left ; it is more than pro- bable that this shall be done by the ministry of angels.m And then the Judge is represented as 'sitting on his throne. 'n This is called elsewhere 'a judgment- seat,' agreeably to his character as a judge ; and it is here styled his throne, as expressive of the majesty and royal dignity with which he shall perform this great work. The Persons Judged. We are now led to consider the persons who are to be judged. These are said to be aagels and men, that is, all who are summoned to appear before Christ's tri- bunal. Whether the holy angels are included in the number of those whom Christ will judge, it is not safe for us to pretend to determine, since scripture is silent on the subject. That they are the subjects of moral government is evident, because they are intelligent creatures ; and it follows that as such they are accountable to God for their behaviour. It is also certain that they are employed by our Saviour in 'fulfilling his pleasure ;' and in connection with their being thus employed, they are ' sent forth by him to minister to the heirs of salvation.'0 On this account it may not be reckoned foreign to the work of the day, for Christ to give a public testimony to their faithfulness in the discharge of every work which has been com- mitted to them ; especially as the saints who, in some respects, may be said to have been their charge and care, have received no small advantage from the good offices which they have performed for them by Christ's appointment. More than this, however, I think cannot be determined, with respect to their being judged by Christ. Many conclude, therefore, that, properly speaking, they are not included in the number of those who shall be judged by him ; either because they are re- presented as attending him when he comes to judgment, and are never spoken of e Matt. xxv. 31. f 1 Thess. iv. 16. g Numb. x. 2, &c See Quest, lvi. h 1 Thess. iv. 17. i Matt. xxiv. 31. This is the most common sense of these words. They are supposed by some indeed, to be taken in a figurative sense, for the preach'ng of the gosptl throughout the world after the destruction of the Jewish state; which thev think is principally intended by what is mentioned in the foregoing verses. Most conclude, however, that several things in this account of Christ's glorious appearance, are not without some allusion, at least, to what shall be more eminently accomplished, when he shall come to judgment. k Matt. xm. 39. 1 Verse 49. m Matt. xxv. 32. n Verse 31. o Heb. i. 14. THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 2»5 as standing before his tribunal as persons whose cause is to be tried oy him ; or because they are considered, as having been long before confirmed in holiness and happiness, as beholding the face of God in heaven, and consequently not to be dealt •with as those who are to undergo a farther scrutiny in order to their having a new sentence passed upon them. As to the fallen angels, they are to be brought as criminals before Christ's tri- bunal, in order to his passing a righteous sentence upon them. Whether the charge of their apostasy from God shall be again renewed, and sin traced to the very first spring and fountain of it, we know not. But all the guilt which they have contract- ed since they were, by a former sentence, cast out of heaven, shall be laid to their charge. All that they have done against the interest of God in the world, begun in the seduction of our first parents, and continued ever since, with all those methods of revenge and subtilty whereby they have opposed the kingdom of Christ in the world, and endeavoured to ruin his people, will be alleged against them, as well as the bold attempt they made on him in his own person, whilst he was in his state of humiliation. Accordingly, the fallen angels, though represented as cast down to hell, are yet said to be ' delivered into chains of darkness, and reserved unto judgment.'? This they are at present apprehensive of, and are accordingly said ' to tremble 'i at the forethoughts of it. That they shall be judged at the last day may be inferred also from what they said to our Saviour, ' Art thou come to torment us before the time?'1" Moreover, as the result of the final judgment, it is said that 'the devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,'8 that- is, ad- judged to endure a greater degree of torment in proportion to the increase of his guilt. But what is more particularly insisted on in scripture, and what we are immediate- ly concerned in, is that men shall be judged by Christ. That they shall be so is set forth in universal terms. The apostle says, ' We must all appear before the judg- ment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, ac- cording to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.'* Men of all ranks and conditions must appear there, 'small and great,'" ' quick and dead,'x that is, those who died before or shall be found alive at his coming, ' the righteous and the wicked, 'y and among these, not only those who have lived under the gospel dispen- sation, but others who have had no other light but that of nature, as it is said, ' As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law.'z We have no account in scripture, indeed, of the last class being adjudged to eternal life, for their doing by nature some things that axe contained in the law. To suppose this, is to be wise above what is written. Indeed, it seems contradictory to those scriptures which assert the necessity of faith in Christ to salvation. But this class are generally described as suffering punishment proportioned to their works. Thus we read of ' the men of Nineveh,' a ' the queen of the south, 'b ' the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon,'c and ' those of Sodom and Gomorrah, 'd as 'appearing in judg- ment,' and being exposed to a less degree of punishment than those who sinned against greater light. But there is not the least intimation given of their being discharged from condemnation. Our Saviour, indeed, speaks of ' the servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself to do according to it, who should be beaten with many stripes,' that is, exposed to a greater condemnation. Yet he, at the same time, intimates that 'the servant who did not know it,' that is, who sinned under greater disadvantages for want of gospel revelation, ' should be beaten with few stripes,' or adjudged to suffer a less degree of punishment. The Pelagians, indeed, have endeavoured not only to exempt the heathen from the consequences of the final judgment ; but some have insinuated that they shall not be concerned in it at all. Thus one e supposes that the persons who are repre- sented as appearing at Christ's tribunal/ and sentenced by him according to their works, are only those who made a profession of the Christian religion. The princi- pal argument which he- brings to support this opinion is, that they on whom a sen- p 2 Pet. ii. 4 ; Jude ver. 6. q James ii. 19. r Matt. viii. 29. s Rev. xx. 10. t 2 Cor. v. 10. u Rev. xx. 12. x 2 Tim. iv. 1. y Eccl. iii. 17. z Rom. ii. 12. a Matt. xii. 41. b Ver. 42. c Chap. xi. 22. d Matt. xi. 24. e Curcellaeus in Dissert, de necessit. coguit. Christ. § vi. f Matt. xx;-. 276 THE FINAL JUDGMENT. ter.ce of condemnation is passed, are accused of not ministering to Christ's mem- bers ; that this ministering is interpreted as not giving him meat when he was hungry, or drink when he was ' thirsty, &c. ; and that this charge cannot be brought against those who never heard of Christ, or that if it could, they might excuse themselves by alleging that it was impossible for them to show respect to him whom they never knew. But though our Saviour's design here, is to aggra- vate the condemnation of those who sinned under the gospel, and to charge some with crimes of the highest nature ; yet there is nothing mentioned to exclude others so as to give occasion to suppose that the judgment of the great day will respect those only who have sat under the sound of the gospel. We have hence ground to conclude that, as the resurrection of the dead will be universal, so all who have lived, or shall live, from the beginning to the end of time, shall be the subjects of the judicial proceedings in that solemn and awful day. The Manner of the Judgment. We now proceed to consider the manner in which Christ shall proceed in judging the world. It is evident that the design of this glorious transaction is to determine the final state of all men ; which will be done in a public and visible manner, that it may appear that the Judge of all does right. The transaction differs very much from that particular judgment which is passed on every one at death ; in which, though the state of men is unalterably determined, yet it is not done in an open and visible manner, but with a design that the cause should be tried again in that day which is appointed for it. The account we have in scripture of the manner in which this shall be done, bears some resemblance to the proceedings in human courts of judicature. The day is set in which causes are to be tried; the judge appears with the ensigns of his authority ; he being seated on the tribunal, the per- sons to be tried appear before him ; the cause is heard ; and as all are to be judged according to law, the law is supposed to be known, or the particular statute which is the rule of judgment is produced, and whatever charge is brought against any one is drawn up in the form of an indictment, and supported by sufficient evidence ; and the persons are then acquitted or condemned. In allusion to this process of judgment we read of Christ's appearing in a visible manner, seated on a throne of judgment ; or of ' the Son of man appearing with all the holy angels with him,' — of his ' sitting upon the throne of his glory, and all nations being gathered before him '* — 'the judgment set, and the books opened.'11 The righteous, who are a part of those who shall stand before Christ's tribunal? shall be separated from the wicked ; the former placed at his right hand, the latter at his left. With respect to the wicked, an indictment shall be brought in, in which they shall be charged with the violation of the holy law of God, with all the aggra- vating circumstances of their crimes, the detail of which is contained in the books which are said to be opened. This charge shall be supported by evidence ; in which case men shall be witnesses against one another, so far as they have been ap- prized of each other's behaviour, or immediately concerned in it. It is not impro- bable also, that as the holy angels are conversant in this lower world, and as they are sometimes represented as being present in worshipping assemblies,' and observ- ing the actions of men,k that they shall appear as evidences against the wicked. It may be observed too, that the Judge himself will be a witness against the crimi- nals ; which is not usual in human courts of judicature, though it does not savour of the least injustice. Thus it is said, ' I will come near to you in judgment ; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.'1 The divine Omniscience will put the charge out of all manner of doubt. There can be no appeal from it ; for it is impossible g Matt. xxv. 31, 32. h Dan. vii. 26; Rev. xx. 12. i 1 Cor. xi. 10. k I Tim. v. 21. 1 Mai. in. 5. THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 277 for God, either to be deceived himself, or to deceive others. Besides, there shall be the testimony of conscience, whereby persons shall stand self-convicted. Theii 'own hearts shall condemn them,' as well as 'God, who is greater than their hearts. 'm Thus it is said that ' the consciences of men bear witness, and their thoughts, in the mean while, accuse or else excuse one another, i*i the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.' Accordingly, ' every mouth shall be stopped, and all the world ' of the ungodly 'become guilty,'11 or appear by their own confession to be so, ' before God.'° And in order to this, there shall be a particular dispensation of providence, whereby those sins which have been long since forgotten, shall be brought to remembrance. This seems intimated in our Saviour's words in the parable : ' Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime, receiv- edst thy good things, 'p &c; and also in God's 'setting the iniquities' of sinners 'in order before their eyes ;'i and this will have a greater tendency to support the charge than ten thousand witnesses. As to the things which shall be brought into judgment, or be charged and proved, they are mentioned in a very particular manner. Thus it is said, ' God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.'r Elsewhere he is represented as 'executing judgment upon all, and convincing all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.'s Our Saviour particularly intimates,* that their behaviour, under the means of grace, shall be inquired into, and that what they have done against him and his interest in the world, shall be alleged against them. But now that we are speaking concerning those matters which shall be produced in judgment against the wicked, it may be inquired whether the smallest sins committed by them shall be brought into judgment against them. This seems to be intimated by our Sa- viour when he says, ' Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.'11 From this statement some take occasion to com- plain of the severity of the divine dispensations, as if it were intended that persons shall be condemned to suffer eternal punishments for a vain thought. But no one will bring this as an objection against the methods of the divine proceeding in the great day, who duly considers the infinite evil of sin ; or that the least sin deserves a sentence of banishment from God, as it is an affront to his sovereignty, and oppo- site to his holiness. Let it be considered, however, that no person in the world shall have reason to complain that he is separated from God, or rendered eternally miserable, only for a vain thought, or for a sin of infirmity, as though he had been guilty of nothing else. When our Saviour says that ' every idle word shall come into judgment,' the meaning is, that every such sin shall tend to fill up the measure of their iniquity ; so that the punishments which they shall be exposed to, shall be for this, in conjunction with all other sins. Every sin brings guilt with it; and all sins taken together, smaller as well as greater, enhance the guilt. Hence our Sa- viour's meaning is, that every sin exposes men to a degree of condemnation, in pro- portion to the aggravation of it ; though those sins which are of a more heinous nature, bring with them a greater degree of condemnation. Thus concerning the charge brought against the wicked. The next thing to be considered, is the trial of the righteous, who are said to stand before Christ's judgment-seat. Here it may be observed that no indictment shall be brought against them, at least, with the Judge's approbation ; for they were acquitted and discharged, when brought into a justified state ; and as the conse- quence of their having been so, ' none,' as the apostle says, ' shall lay any thing to their charge,' since 'it is God that justifieth.'* If any thing be alleged against them by the enemies of God, who loaded them -with reproach, and laid many things to their charge in this world of which some have been just, and others unjust and malicious, the great and merciful Judge will appear as an advocate on their be- half, and will vindicate them from those charges which are ungrounded, and will farther allege, as a foundation of their discharge from the guilt of all others, that m 1 John iii. 20. n Rom. ii. 15, 16. o Chap. iii. 19. p Luke xvi. 25. q Psal. 1. 21. r Eccl. xii. 14. s Jurie 15. t Matt. xxv. 42, 43. u Chap. xii. 36. x Rom. viii. 33. 273 THE FINAL JUDGMENT. lie has made a full atonement for them. Hence, when their sins are sought for, they shall not he found in judgment, or charged upon them to their shame, confu- sion, or condemnation ; hut they shall he pronounced righteous, as interested in Christ's righteousness. The great Judge shall evince that they are so, by produc- ing those grace! which were wrought in them, which are inseparably connected with their justification, though not the foundation of it, that so the method of the divine proceedings may be vindicated, and it may appear that, as ' without holiness no one shall see the Lord,' so they are holy, and accordingly possess that internal quality which denotes them to be persons whom God designed to save. This I take to be the meaning of our Saviour's address to the righteous, when he pronounces them 4 blessed,' and invites them to ' come and inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world ; for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink, '-v &c. Here the word ' for' is taken demonstratively, and not causally ; and denotes that they were such as might .expect to be admitted to this honour and blessedness, having those marks and characters of his children upon them to which the promise of salvation was annexed ; not as though any thing done by them was the cause of their salvation. It hence appears that the graces of God's people shall be published before angels and men, to the praise of the glory of him who was the author of them. But there is a difficult question proposed by some, namely, Whether shall the sins of God's people be published in the great day ; though it is certain they shall not be alleged against them to their condemnation ? This is one of the secret things which belong to God, which he has not so fully or clearly revealed to us in his word ; so that we can say little more about it than what is matter of conjecture. Some have thought that the sins of the godly, though forgiven, shall be made mani- fest, that so the glory of that grace which has pardoned them may appear more illustrious, and their obligation to God farther enhanced. They also think that the justice of the proceedings of that day requires it ; since it is presumed and known by the whole world that they were prone to sin as well as others, — that, before conversion, they were as great sinners as any, — and that, after it, their sins had a peculiar aggravation. Why, then, they ask, should not their sins be made public, as a glory due to the justice and holiness of God, as being infinitely opposite to all sin ? This they farther suppose to be necessary, that the impartiality of divine justice may appear. Moreover, if God, by recording the sins of his saints in scrip- ture, has perpetuated the knowledge of them, and if it is to their honour that the sins there mentioned were repented of, as well as forgiven, why may it not be sup- posed that the sins of believers shall be made known in the great day ? Besides, that they shall be made known seems agreeable to those scriptures which state that every word and every action shall be brought into judgment, whether it be good, or whether it be bad. — On the other hand, it is supposed by others, that though the making known of sin which is subdued and forgiven, tends to the advancement of divine grace ; yet it is sufficient to answer this end, as far as God designs it shall be answered, that the sins which have been subdued and forgiven, should be known to those who committed them, who, in consequence of hav- ing received pardon, have matter of praise to God. Again, the expressions of scrip- ture whereby forgiveness of sin is set forth, are such as seem to argue that those sins which were forgiven shall not be made manifest. Thus they are said to be 'blotted out,'2 ' covered, 'a ' subdued,' ' cast into the depths of the sea ;'b and ' re- membered no more,'0 &c. Besides, Christ's being a Judge, does not divest him of the character of an Advocate, whose part is rather to conceal the crimes of those whose cause he pleads, than to divulge them. We may add, that the law which requires duty, and forbids the contrary sins, is not the rule by which they who are in Christ are to be proceeded against, for if it were, they could not stand in judg- ment ; but they are dealt with according to the tenor of the gospel, which forgives and covers all sins. Furthermore, it is argued that the public declaring of all their sins before the whole world, notwithstanding their interest in forgiving grace, would y Mi bM Matt. xxv. 34, 35. z Isa. xliii. 25. a Psal. xxxii. 1. " icah vii. 19. c Jcr. xxxi. 34. THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 279 fill them with such shame as is hardly consistent with a state of perfect blessedness. Lastly, the principal argument insisted on, is that our Saviour, in Matt, xxv., in which he gives a particular account of the proceedings of that day, makes no men- tion of the sins, but only commends the graces, of his saints. Such arguments as these are alleged to prove that it is probable the sins of the saints shall not be ex- posed to public view in the great day. But after all that has been said, it is safest for us not to be too peremptory in determining this matter, lest, by pretending to be wise beyond what is clearly revealed in scripture, we betray our own folly and too bold presumption, or assert that which is not right of this glorious Judge. Thus concerning the method.iu which Christ shall proceed in judging the world. The Place and Time of the Judgment. We are now to consider some circumstances relating to the place where, and the time when, this great and awful work shall be performed, at least, so far as it is convenient for us to inquire into this matter, without giving too much scope to a vain curiosity, or desire to be wise above what is written. 1. As to the place, it does not seem probable that it shall be upon the surface of the earth ; because we read that 'they which are ' found 'alive ' at Christ's coming, ' shall be caught up together with them/ that is, the others who are raised from the dead, 'in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.' This statement immediately follows the account which the apostle gives of the Lord's ' descending from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ;'d which is the signal to be given of the immediate appearance of the Judge. Hence, their being ' caught up in the clouds,' denotes that Christ shall judge the world, in some place above this earth ; otherwise they must be supposed to be caught up thither, and afterwards obliged to descend thence to the place from which they were taken ; which does not seem probable. This is all that we dare assert, concerning the place where this great and solemn transaction shall be performed. I the rather observe this, because some are of opinion that the valley of Jehosh- aphat is designed to be the place. They found this opinion on the prediction of the prophet Joel,e ' I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people. 'f This, however, seems to be a prophecy of some signal victory which the church should gain over its enemies ; which shall have its accomplishment before Christ comes to judgment, and be no less remarkable than that which God gave Jehoshaphat over the Moab- ites, Ammonites, and the inhabitants of mount Seir, mentioned in 2 Chron. xx. ; on which occasion the place where it was obtained, was called ' the valley of Bera- chah,' which signifies blessing. The prophet seems, by 'the valley of Jehoshaphat,' not to point out any particular place known by that name, but rather to allude to the signification of the word, as importing the judgment of the Lord. So that no- thing else is intended by it but that God shall, in the latter day, probably when those scriptures shall have had their accomplishment, which relate to the conver- sion of the Jews, execute some remarkable judgment against the heathen, amongst whom they were scattered. It cannot, therefore, with the least shadow of justice, d 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17. e Joel iii. 2. f Of this opinion are some amongst the Papists, and particularly Cornelius a Lapide, Vid. ejusd. Comment, in loc. who describes it as a place situated at the loot of the mount of Olives, in or near the place where our Saviour was in his agony, betrayed arid delivered by Judas, into the hands of his enemies. This will he, according to him, the fitt>st place for Christ to execute judgment upon them, and to appear in his triumphant and glorious manner for this purpose. The same opinion is mentioned by many Jewish writers, who maintained it. Thus the author of the Cbaldee Para- phrase on Canticles viii. 5, sa\s. that the dead shall be raised, and the mountain of Olives shall be clelt, and all tne dead of Israel shall come out hence; and that the just who died in the captivity, and consequently wt-re buried in or near that place, shall come through the caverns of the earth, that they may here arise to judgment. Several ltabbiuical writers adopt this chimera; which is mentioned also in both the Talmuds. And man) ol the modem Jews, as is observed bv some late travellers into the Holy Land, are so fond of bur) ing their dead in or near this place, that they might not have far to come under the earth, when they rise from the dead, and must appear here at the day of judgment, that they pay a certain sum of money for the privilege of burying their dead there. See Hody on the Resurrection, pages 70, 71. 280 THE FINAL JUDGMENT. be argued from this scripture, that the place called the ' valley of Jehoshaphat,' is that where all the nations of the earth shall be gathered to judgment. Besides, some have observed, that how great soever this valley may be, it is not large enough to hold the vast multitudes that shall be convened on this occasion. 2. As to the time when Christ shall judge the world, it is called, in scripture, 'a day.'g This does not signify that the whole work shall be performed in the space of time which we generally call a day ; for that space can hardly be sufficient for per- forming the many things which are to be done. Some have thought that the whole process shall take up no less than a thousand years ; and suppose, that the apostle Peter intimates as much, when, speaking concerning the day of judgment, he says, ' One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.'h In this sense the excellent Mr. Mede understands that scripture.1 But as the idea is not more clearly explained by other scriptures, speaking to the same purpose, I dare not be too peremptory in adopting it. I would rather conclude that the time of the continuance of the last judgment is called ' a day,' as denoting a season appointed for the despatch of a work, whether it be longer or shorter. Thus Christ calls that season in which the gospel was preached to the Jews, ' their day.'k It is the safest way for us to acknowledge this point to be a secret which belongs not to us to inquire into. • As to the time when Christ shall come to judgment, or when this glorious day shall begin, this also is considered as a matter kept secret, not only from us, but from all creatures. Thus our Saviour, speaking concerning it, says, ' Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.'1 This is particularly intimated in the Answer we are explaining ; and the reason assigned why it is kept secret from us is, that all may watch and pray, and be ready for the coming of the Lord, which is certainly a matter of the highest importance. It is evident that if God had either revealed the time of Christ's coming to judg- ment, or let men know how long they should continue in this world before that judg- ment which is passed on all at death, the corruption of our nature might have taken occasion to put off all thoughts about it till it was at hand. Hence, our Saviour, in wisdom, as well as in kindness to his people, has represented his coming under the similitude of ' a thief in the night ;'m and accordingly says, ' Therefore be ye also ready : for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.'n Thus concerning the day of judgment. As to the consequences of it, and the sentence which shall be pronounced on the righteous and the wicked, these shall be treated under the two following Answers. Practical Inferences from the Doctrine of the Final Judgment. All that I shall add at present are some practical inferences from this doctrine of Christ's coming to judgment. 1. What has been observed concerning Christ's coming to judge the world in his own glory, and that of his Father, and of his holy angels, should fill us with high and honourable thoughts of him ; and since the angels reckon it an honour to attend him as ministering spirits in that great day, we should be excited to an holy ambi- tion to approve ourselves his servants in all things, and to account it our honour that he will esteem us such. 2. Since Christ, at his coming to judgment, will bring all things to light, and impartially state and try the cause of every one, who shall be rewarded according to his works ; we ought to feel protected against all unbelieving thoughts which may arise in our minds, concerning the seemingly unequal distributions of provi- dence, in God's dealing with the righteous and the wicked, as to the outward affairs g Actsxvii. 31. h2Pet. iii. 8. i See his works, lib. iii. in Comment. Apoeal. page 662, and his Remains, chap. xi. page 748, in which he is followed by some others. The learned Gale, in his Court of the Gentiles, Part I. book iii. chap. vii. page 78, speaks of some Jewish writers as maintaining, that the world shall continue bOOO years, and that from thence to the 7000lh shall he the day ot judgment. He also mentions this as an opinion which Plato had received by conversing with some of them; and concludes, that this is the j-r. at Platonic year, which is mentioned bv that philosopher and his followers. k l.ukc x.x. 42. Matt. xxiv. bti. " m 1 Tfaess. v. 2. a Matt. xxiv. 44. THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 281 of life. We ought also to feci convinced that, though we know not his design in the various afflictive providences wherewith we are exercised, since we are not to expect those blessings here which he has reserved for his people at Christ's appear- ing to judgment ; yet, if he is pleased to bestow them upon us hereafter, wc shall then have the highest reason to admire his wisdom, goodness, and faithfulness, in the whole method of his providential dealings with us. 3. This doctrine tends to reprove the atheism and profaneness of those, who make a jest of or scoff at the day of judgment; like those the apostle Peter mentions, whom he. calls 'scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.'0 It also reproves those who abuse the day of God's patience ; and because his coming to judgment is delayed, take occasion to commit the vilest crimes. Our Saviour speaks of some as acting thus, and inti- mates that he will ' come in a day when they looked not for him, and shall cut them asunder, and appoint them their portion with hypocrites. 'P 4. This doctrine should stir us up to universal holiness, and the greatest circum- spection and diligence in the service of God. Accordingly, the apostle, when speaking concerning Christ's coming to judgment, with those displays of terrible majesty which shall attend it, says, ' What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness ; looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God ?'°- 5. Since we expect that Christ will judge the world at the last day, it behoves us to be often judging and trying ourselves ; examining how matters stand between God and us ; and whether we behave ourselves in such a way that we may be meet for Christ's coming, and have boldness in the day of judgment. As the apostle says, ' If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged, 'r that is, with the judgment of condemnation. 6. It is an inexpressible advantage when we can conclude, upon good grounds, that this great Judge is our Friend, our Saviour, our Advocate, and that, living and dying, we shall be found in him ; for in that case, though he come in such a way as will strike the utmost terror and confusion into his enemies, we shall be found of him in peace ; and the consequence of this day's solemnity shall be our admission into his immediate presence, and being for ever blessed in it. FINAL PUNISHMENT. Question LXXXIX. What shall be done to the wicked at the day of judgment f Answer. At the day of judgment the wicked shall be set on Christ's left hand ; and upon clear evidence, and full conviction of 'their own consciences, shall have the fearful, but just sentence of condemnation pronounced against them ; and thereupon 6hall he cast out from the favourable presence of God, and the glorious fellowship with Christ, his saints, and all his holy angels, into hell, to be punished with unspeakable torments both of body and soul, with the devil and his angels for ever. Having, under the last Answer, taken a view of Christ as coming to judgment, and the whole world as seated at his tribunal, the wicked on his left hand, and the righteous on his right, the books opened, the cause tried, and the evidence pro- duced ; we are now to consider the sentence which will be past on each of them, together with the consequences. In particular, we have an account in this Answer, of a sentence of condemnation, pronounced against the wicked, and the punish- ment inflicted on them in execution of it. This our Saviour expresses in words full of dread and horror : ' Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ; and these shall go away into everlasting punishment.'8 This includes an eternal banishment and separation from him, in whose favour there is life. As sin is the object of his detestation, it being contrary to the holiness of his nature, they who o 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4. p Matt. xxiv. 48—31. q 2 Pet. iii. 11, 12. r 1 Cor. xi. 31. s Matt, xxv. 41, 45. II. 2 N 282 FINAL PUNISHMENT. are found in open rebellion against him shall not 'stand in his sight.'* As they did not desire his special and gracious presence, which his saints always reckoned their chief joy, in this world, they shall be deprived of it in the next. And when they are commanded to depart from him, they are described as ' cursed,' that is, bound over to suffer all those punishments which the vindictive justice of God will inflict, and which are contained in the threatenings denounced by his law which they have violated, and to be sent down into hell, to be punished with unspeak- able torments, both in body and soul, with the devil and his angels for ever. Accord- ingly, there are three things to be considered, relating to the punishment of sin- ners in another world, namely, the kind of it, its degree, and its eternal duration. The Nature of the Punishment. As to the kind of punishment ; it is generally considered in two respects, namely, the punishment of loss and the punishment of sense. 1. The punishment of loss includes a separation from God, the fountain of bless- edness ; a being destitute of every thing which might administer comfort to them ; and, as the consequence of this, a deprivation of fellowship, not only with Christ, but with his saints. Not that they were ever the objects of their love or delight, but, on the other hand, their conversation was distasteful and burdensome, espe- cially when it was in itself most savoury and spiritual ; yet it is reckoned to be one ingredient in their misery, as our Saviour states, when he first speaks of ' the workers of iniquity' as commanded to 'depart from him,'u and then tells them, ' Ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the king- dom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.' Here the happiness of others is con- sidered as what will raise their envy, and prove a torment to them. 2. There is the punishment of sense. This is set forth by unspeakable torments to be endured both in soul and body ; and because no pain is so exquisite as that which is occasioned by fire, it is called 'unquenchable and everlasting fire.'x As for the inquiry which some make whether the fire be elementary or material, like that which is in this world, it savours more of curiosity than what tends to real ad- vantage. As it is called ' a fire prepared for the devil and his angels,' some have a little hesitated about this matter, concluding it impossible for material fire to affect spirits ; but I am not desirous to enter too far into this disquisition. It is, indeed, a hard matter for us to determine whether or how far a spirit is capable of the punishment of sense, any otherwise, than as, by reason of its union with the body, it has an afflictive sensation of the evils which that immediately endures. Hence, some have thought that, when we read of the fire of hell, it is to be taken in a metaphorical sense, to denote those punishments which are most exquisite and have a tendency to torment both soul and body in different respects. The soul may be tormented as the wrath of God has an immediate access to it, to make it miserable. And though this cannot be styled the punishment of sense in the same respect as that is of which the body is the more immediate subject ; yet if we understand the word ' sense ' as importing an intellectual perception of those miseries which it un- dergoes,, whereby it is made uneasy, and, in a moral sense, subject to pain, as we sometimes speak of the pain of the mind, as well as that of the body, then it may be said to endure the punishment of sense, though it is a spiritual substance. There are various ways by which the wrath of God may have access to the soul, to make it miserable. This punishment is sometimes compared to fire, as it is beyond expression dreadful. Accordingly, God, when inflicting it, is styled, ' a consum- ing fire ;'J and elsewhere ' his jealousy' is said to ' burn like fire.'2 Hence, some have described the punishment of sin in hell, as including the insupportable weight of the wrath of God lying on the consciences of men, and sinking them into perdi- tion ; whereby it appears to be ' a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.'a A judicious divine considers this as the effect of God's immediate presence, as a sin-revenging Judge. He does not, therefore, understand that text in which t Psal. v. 5 u Luke xiii. 27, 28. x Matt. iii. 12 ; Chap. xxv. 41. y Heb. xii. W. z psau jxxjx. 5. a Heb. x. 31. Jb'INAL PUNISHMENT. 283 it is said, ' They shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord,'b as denoting an exclusion from his comforting presence, which is an undoubted truth, and the more generally received sense of it, but he speaks of the presence of God, as well as his power, as the immediate cause of their destruction ; just as the psalmist joins these ideas together when he says, '■ Who knoweth the power of thine anger ?'c This interpretation seems most agreeable to the^gramma- tical construction of the words.d Thus concerning that punishment whicn is more immediately adapted to the soul. As for the punishment of sense which the body shall endure, whether it be com- pared to fire as containing some effects not unlike those produced by fire, or whether it signifies only that the punishment shall be most exquisite, as no pain is so terri- ble as that which is the effect of fire, I will not pretend to determine. There are, indeed, other expressions, as well as fire, by which it is set forth in scripture, namely, '^cutting asunder,'8 ' tearing in pieces,' f • drowning men in destruction and perdition, 's ' a being bound hand and foot,' and 'cast into outer darkness, 'h or into * a furnace of fire,'1 or • a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 'k Some of these are, doubtless, metaphorical expressions,- by which the punishment of sin is set forth ; but whether they are all so, we must not be too positive in determining. Some, however, suppose that they are, because the glory of heaven is described by the metaphors of ' streets of gold, gates of pearl,'1 ' rivers of pleasure,'111 &c, and the wrath of God is metaphorically described, when he is called 'a consuming fire.'n Now, as the glory of heaven is represented by metaphors, denoting that it is incon- ceivably great ; so, if we suppose that the punishment of sin in hell is set forth by metaphorical ways of speaking, we cannot, from the metaphors used to describe it, take, in all respects, an estimate of its quality. Yet, from such expressions we must conclude in general that it is inexpressibly terrible, and that it respects both soul and body, and in different senses is called the punishment of sense. The Degree of the Punishment. We now come to consider this punishment as to its degree. This is generally described as being various, in proportion to the aggravations of sin committed. Accordingly, they who have sinned under the gospel dispensation, are considered as exposed to a greater degree of punishment than others who have not had those advan- tages. Thus the apostle says, ' Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God ?'° Our Saviour, speaking concerning the Scribes and Pharisees, who were notorious hypocrites, and whose religion was no more than a pretence, and made subservient to the vilest practices, tells them that 'they should receive the greater damnation, 'p that is, a greater de- gree of punishment, as they had contracted greater guilt, than others. The apos- tle likewise speaks of some who had had great advantages through ' the riches of God's goodness and forbearance ' towards them, but yet were ' impenitent ' and hardened in sin ; and these he says ' treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath, 'i that is, add greater degrees to the punishment which they shall en- dure in another world. The Duration of the Punishment. We are now to consider the punishment which sinners are liable to in the world b 2 Thess. i. 9. c Psal. xc. 11. d See this largely insisted on by Dr. Goodwin, in his Works, vol. iii. book xiii. His critical re mark in chap. ii. seems very j list, viz. that «wa is casual here, as well as in many other scriptures which he refers to. His strongest argument to prove that it is to betaken so in this verse, is, that, us lie observes, avro must he applied to ' the glory of his power,' as well as to ' his presence ;' so that ii it denotes a separation from the one, it must also denote a separation from the other; whereas in. one suppose? that this punishment consists in a separation from the power of God, but that it is to he eonsidi red as the effect thereof. t- Matt. xxiv. 51. f Psal. 1. 22. g 1 Tim. vi. 9. h Matt xxii. 13. i Muri. xiii. 42. k Rev. xix. '20. 1 Chap. xxi. 21. m Psal. xxxvi. 8. i» litb. x.i. 29. o Chap. x. 29. p Matt, xxiii. 14. q Horn ii. 5. 284 FINAL PUNISHMENT. to come, as to its duration ; in which respect, it shall be without intermission, and eternal. That there shall be no relaxation of punishment, may be proved from what our Saviour says in the parable ; ' the rich man,' who was tormented in flames, could not obtain ' one drop of water to cool his tongue.'1" Thus we read that the wicked * drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mix- ture, into^the cup of his indignation;' that 'the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever ;' and that ■ they have no rest day nor night.'3 Our Saviour speaks of the two main ingredients in the punishment of sin ; namely, the torment- ing sense which conscience shall have of the wrath of God, due to it ; and the punish- ment of sense, which is compared to that which proceeds from fire ; and both are described as eternal: ' Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.'1 That the punishment of sin in another world will be eternal, may be argued from the impossibility of their obtaining a discharge from the sentence of condemnation under which they are, unless satisfaction be given to the justice of God for sins committed. This cannot be given by the person who suffers; inasmuch as his suf- ferings are due to him in execution of the sentence of the Judge, and agreeably to the demerit of sin. The latter being, as it is usually expressed, objectively infinite, because committed against an infinite God, and containing a contempt of his sover- eignty and other perfections which are infinite, deserves a punishment proportion- able to it. And as the sufferings of finite creatures are no other than finite, and consequently bear no proportion to the demands of infinite justice, they must be infinite in duration, that is, eternal. — It may be observed also, that at the same time that persons are suffering for past sins, they are committing others. This is not like God's furnace which is in Sion, by means of which he designs, not to con- sume, but to refine and purge away the dross and the tin ; for it cannot in any in- stance be said, that this is overruled for good. Hence, the habits of sin are in- creased rather than weakened by it ; and consequently sinners are set at a farther distance from God, from holiness and happiness ; and as their sin is still increasing, their punishment must be eternal. — We may add, that there is no Mediator appoint- ed between God and them, none who has undertaken to pay this debt for them, and procure their discharge. Accordingly, the apostle says concerning those who have ' sinned wilfully, after they had received the knowledge of the truth ; there remain- eth no more sacrifice for sin ;'u no advocate to plead their cause ; no ordinances in which the glad tidings of salvation are published, nor any golden sceptre of mercy held forth to invite them to come in, or give them hope of finding acceptance in the sight of God ; no covenant of grace which contains any promise that will afford re- lief ; and no inclination in their own souls to return to God with an humble sense of sin, and desire to forsake it. Hence arises everlasting despair, beyond expres- sion tormenting, which the apostle calls ' blackness of darkness for ever.'x This is a very awful and awakening subject. Many are as little desirous to hear of it, as the people were to hear the account which the prophet Isaiah gave them of approaching judgments ; and therefore they say, ' Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.'* But as there is such a passion in men as fear, and as this is often made subservient to their spiritual advantage ; it pleases God, in wis- dom and mercy, sometimes to reveal those things in his word which have a ten- dency to awaken our fears, and to set before us death as well as life, the threaten- ings as well as the promises, that we may see it to be our duty and interest to flee from the wrath to come, and to use those precautions prescribed in the gospel which may have a tendency, through divine grace, to prevent our sinking into everlasting perdition. They who cast off fear, and think themselves safe, because the rod of God is not upon them, generally cast off a sense of duty, and say unto God, ' De- part from us ; for we desire not the, knowledge of thy ways. 'z Hence, these sub- jects are to be insisted on as warnings to induce men to avoid the rock on which multitudes have split and perished ; not to lead them to despair. r Luke xvi. 26. s Rev. xiv. 10, 11. t Mark ix. 44, 46, 48. u Heb. x. 26. x Jude, verse m. v isa. xxx. ii. z Job xxi. 9, 1 1. FINAL PUNISHMENT. How the Doctrine of Final Punishment is to be preached. There is great need of prudence, however, in applying every truth in such a way that it may be of advantage ; which renders the work of those that are employed in preaching the gospel exceedingly difficult. Every one must have those doc- trines inculcated and applied to him, which are adapted to his respective condition, as well as founded on the word of God. We therefore subjoin two remarks for direction. 1. Such subjects as those which relate to the final punishment of the wicked, though they are not to be concealed, as being a part of the counsel of God, and a means ordained by him to answer some valuable ends ; yet are not only or princi- ?ally to be insisted on, as if there were no passion to be wrought upon but fear, t is the stupid person who is to be awaked out of his lethargy by violent methods. The man who says, ' I shall have peace, though I walk according to the corrupt inclinations of my own heart ; the danger is over ; or no ill consequences will fol- low the wilful impenitency and unbelief which is like to prove destructive to one ;' or the person who is willing to deceive himself, and endeavours to extenuate his sin, apprehending that the consequences of it will not be so pernicious as they really are, or that the mercy of God will save him though he remain in open rebellion against him, as if there were no arrows in his quiver, or vials of wrath to be poured forth on his enemies ; — these ought to be dealt with by representing God as a con- suming fire, with whom is terrible majesty ; and they must be told of the punish- ment of sin in this and another world, that they may see their danger before it be too late to escape. If it be said that the terrors of God have a tendency to drive persons to despair, we reply that the persons We are speaking of are so far from despairing of the mercy of God, that they are inclined to abuse it ; and that that which is likely to be their ruin, is the contrary extreme, presumption, which leads them to turn the grace of God into wantonness. 2. As for others who are humbled under a sense of sin, whose flesh trembles for fear of God's judgments, there is not so much occasion to insist on these awakening subjects, when we have to do with them ; for to do so would be like adding fuel to the fire. If the heart be broken and contrite, and is apt to meditate little else but terror ; such subjects as are encouraging are to be insisted on. Thus when the prophet Jeremiah had been reproving the people for their abominations, and threatening many sore judgments which God would execute upon them, he applies, healing medicines : • Is there no balm in Gilead ? is there no physician there ? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered ?'a Elsewhere, also, when he had been reprehending them for their idolatry, and putting them in mind of those judgments they had exposed themselves to, he encourages them to ' cry unto God, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth. Will he reserve his anger for ever ? will he keep it to the end ?'b God, in his usual method of deal- ing with sinners, first excites their fear by charging sin on the conscience, and putting them in mind of the dreadful consequences of it, in which respect, as the apostle expresses it, ' The law enters that the offence might abound ;' and then he shows them that the soul may take encouragement when humbled under a sense of its own guilt, that ' where sin hath abounded, grace hath much more abounded.'0 — The gospel is designed to administer comfort to those who are distressed under a dread of the wrath of God. Hence, there are promises as well as threatenings ; and each are to be applied as the occasion requires ; so that the happiness of heaven is to be set in opposition to the punishment of sin in hell. Accordingly, as the Answer we have been explaining contains a very awful and awakening subject ; so, in the next, we are led to consider a doctrine which is full of comfort to those who have an interest in Jesus Christ. a Jer. viii. 22. Chap. iii. 4, S. c Rom. v. 20. 286 FINAL BLESSEDNESS. FINAL BLESSEDNESS. •• Qcestion XC. What shall be done to the righteous at the day of judgment f Answer. At the day of judgment, the righteous being caught up to Christ in the clouds, shall be set on his right hand, and there openly acknowledged and acquitted ; shall join with him in the judging of reprobate angels and men, and shall he received into heaven: where they shall be fully and for ever freed from all sin and misery, filled with unconceivable joys, made perfectly holy and happy, both in body and soul, in the company of innumerable saints and holy angels, but especially in the immediate vision and fruition of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity: And this is the perfect and full communion which the members of the in- visible church shall enjoy with Christ in glory at the resurrection and day of judgment. We have, in this Answer, an account of the great honours and privileges which the saints shall be advanced to and partake of, as the consequence of that sentence which Christ will pass on them, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- dom prepared for you from the foundation of the world ;'d which are words con- taining a gracious invitation to them to take possession of that glory which shall tend to make them completely and for ever happy. We have alre'ady considered the righteous as caught up to Christ in the clouds. Either this is done by the ministry of angels, or else their bodies will be so changed that they shall be able to mount upward as easily as they now are to walk upon the surface of the earth. We have also considered them as set at Christ's right hand. Whether this has any regard to the place of their situation, we cannot determine ; but, according to the scripture mode of speaking, it certainly denotes the highest honours conferred upon them. These will be not only spiritual but external and visible ; whereby it shall appear to all, that they are Christ's peculiar friends and favourites. That they should be thus dealt with by so glorious a person, while they were in themselves unworthy of his notice, will tend to raise in them the highest astonishment, and shall afford matter of eternal praise. What is farther observed concerning them in this Answer, is contained in the following Heads. First, they shall be opefily acknowledged and acquitted. Secondly, they shall join with Christ in the judging of reprobate angels and men. Thirdly, they shall be received into heaven ; and there they shall be freed from sin and misery, filled with unspeakable joy, made perfectly holy and happy, both in body and soul, and admitted into the company of saints and holy angels, and have the immediate vision and fruition of God to all eternity. The Saints Acknowledged and Acquitted. They shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted. Our Lord Jesus was not ashamed to own his people, when he condescended to take their nature upon him, and dwell among them ; or, as the apostle expresses it, ' He is not ashamed to call them brethren. 'e He gives them many tokens of his approbation, by those spiri- tual privileges which he bestows on them here. But at last he shall own them publicly, in the presence of the whole world, as a people whom he has chosen, re- deemed, and sanctified, and in whom he has brought the work of grace to perfection. He overlooks all their former failures and defects, and looks upon them as adorned with perfect beauty, appearing without spot before him, and having now nothing which may be offensive to his holy eye, or denote them unmeet for the relation which they stand in to him, and the blessings which they shall enjoy with him. Moreover, it is said that he shall openly acquit them, that is, declare publicly that he has given satisfaction for all their offences, and that therefore they are for ever pronounced clear from the guilt of them. It is not improbable, also, as was former- ly observed, that their former sins shall not be so much as mentioned, being all covered, and if sought for, shall not be found. But it is certain that if they shall be mentioned, it shall not be to their confusion or condemnation ; for it shall be a Matt. xxv. 34. e Heb. ii. 11. FINAL BLESSEDNESS. 287 declared that the justice of God has nothing to lay to their charge ; and, in con- sequence, they shall be delivered from that fear, shame, and distress, which they had formerly been subject to, through the afflicting sense of the guilt and preva- lence of sin. When, however, they are represented as thus acquitted, we are not to suppose that their sins were not fully pardoned before, or that justification in this life is imperfect, as to what concerns their right to forgiveness or eternal life. The debt was fully cancelled, and a discharge given into Christ's hands in behalf of all his elect, on his making satisfaction to the justice of God. But this was not their visible discharge ; and not being a declared act, it could not be claimed by them, nor was it applied to them, till they believed ; and then they might say, 'Who shall lay any thing to our charge? It is God that justifieth.' Yet their justification, as it is declared to faith, and apprehended by it, could not be said to be, in all respects, so apparent, or so attended with those comfortable fruits and effects which are the consequence of it, as it is when they are pronounced justified by Christ at death. And even then the discharge is not so open and visible to the whole world, as it shall be in the day of judgment. The Saints Joining Christ in Judging. It is farther said that the saints shall join with Christ in judging reprobate angels and men. This is very often asserted by those who treat on this subject ; and it seems to be founded on the sense which is commonly given of the apostle's words in 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3, ' Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world ?' and, 1 Know ye not that we shall judge angels ?' We must take heed, however, if we apply that scripture to the case before us, that we do not advance anything which tends in the least to derogate from the glory of Christ, who alone is fit for, and ap- pointed to perform, this great work. Hence, if we suppose that the apostle is here speaking concerning the judgment of the great day, the saints are said to judge the world in a less proper sense. But whatever be the sense in which we explain it, we must'not think that they shall be assessors with Christ in his throne of judg- ment. It is one thing for them to be near his throne in the capacity and station of favourites ; and another thing for them to be in it. If they are in any sense said to judge the world, it must be understood, not as if the trying of the cause or the passing of the sentence, were committed to them, but rather of their approving what Christ shall do. This they are represented as doing, when Christ is set forth as 'judging the great whore, 'f namely, the antichristian powers. They so far join with him in doing this, that they ascribe glory and honour to him, and say, ' Righte- ous are his judgments.' There is another sense in which some understand this scripture concerning 'the saints judging the world,' namely, as denoting that the pub- lic mention which shall be made of the graces of the saints, their faith, repentance, love to God, and universal holiness, will have a tendency to condemn those whose conversation in this world has been the reverse of theirs. Their having forsaken all and followed Christ, and accounted all things but loss that they might win him, the choice which they have made of suffering rather than of sinning, which appears to be an instance of the highest wisdom, shall condemn the wickedness and folly of those who have exposed themselves to inevitable ruin and misery by being otherwise minded. Thus Noah is said to have 'condemned the world by his faith, '& when, in obedience to the divine command, he ' prepared an ark to the saving of his house ;' which the world then thought to be the most preposterous action which ever was performed, though they were afterwards, to their cost, convinced of the contrary. ' The men of Nineveh,' also, and 'the queen of the south,' it is said, shall 'rise in the judgment with that generation, and condemn it,'h that is, shall do so objectively, rather than formally ; as their respective behaviour tended to expose the impenitency and unbelief of the Jews, whom Christ there reproves. If the saints' judging the world, be understood in either of these senses, it is an undoubted truth ; but more than this I dare not assert. We may take occasion to inquire, however, whether the text on which this doc- f Rev. xix. 2. g Heb. xi. 7. h Matt. xii. 41, 42. 288 FINAL BLESSEDNESS. trine is founded, may not be explained in another sense, as denoting some privilege which the saints were to enjoy in this world, when the empire should become Chris- tian. Magistrates and judges should then be chosen out of the church ; and in this respect they should 'judge the world.' This seems to me the most probable sense of the apostle's words. It is that in which an excellent and learned writer under- stands them;1 and it is very agreeable to the context, in which believers are dis- suaded from 'going to law before the unjust, and not before the saints. 'k The apostle here signifies the inexpediency of exposing those controversies, before hea- then magistrates, which ought to be compromised in the church ; as though the Christians thought themselves unfit to judge the smallest matters ; for he speaks only of such matters, not of capital offences, which were to be tried only by the civil magistrate. Now to enforce his advice, he says, ' Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?' It is objected to this sense of the text, that, at the same time when ' the saints ' are said to 'judge the world,' the apostle speaks of them as 'judging angels,' a work which comes not within the province of civil magistrates, though we suppose them to be Christians. But when the apostle speaks of the ' saints judging angels,' his language is brought in occasionally, the former sense of 'judging ' being more agreeable to the context. Since he is insisting on an honour which should be con- ferred on the church, he farther enlarges on that subject, and so speaks of their 'judging angels,' as denoting that the consequence and success of the gospel would be an evident conviction to the world, that the devil's empire was weakened, and that he had no right to reign over the children of disobedience as he formerly had done. Thus our Saviour speaks of Satan's kingdom being destroyed by the preach- ing and success of the gospel, ' Now is the judgment of this world ; now shall the prince of this world be cast out.'1 Elsewhere also it is said, ' Now is come salva- tion and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down.'m Moreover, the apostle may have a particular reference to . their power of casting out devils, not only in that but in some following ages, — a power which our Saviour, before he left the world,11 pro- mised they should have, and which is known to have continued in the church till the third century. ° It is farther objected that there is another scripture which seems to favour the opinion that the saints shall judge the world in the last day, namely, our Saviour's words in Matt. xix. 28, ' Ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' That, it is alleged, which makes this sense more probable is what he mentions in the following verse as a reward which they who had ' forsaken all for his name's sake,' should enjoy, namely, 'Ye shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life.' We reply, that our Saviour, in one of these verses, may, without any strain on the sense of the words, be under- stood as giving his people to expect some honours which should be conferred on them here, and in the other, those which they should receive in another world. As to the honours which were to be conferred on them here, namely, their ' sitting on thrones,' star differeth from another star in glory ; so also is the resurrection of the dead.' Here the apostle is speaking concerning the happisess of the saints after the resurrection. He does not compare them with what they were when they left the world, for then they had no glory, being ' sown in corruption and dishonour ;' but ho seems to compare the glory of one saint, after the resurrection, with that of an- other. Accordingly, he illustrates it by the brightness of the heavenly luminaries ; every one of which has a glory superior to terrestrial bodies. Yet he seems to in- timate, that if we compare them together, the glory of the one exceeds that of the other. Thus the glory of the least saint in heaven is inconceivably greater than that of the greatest on earth. The glory, indeed, is full and complete in its kind ; yet when compared with the glory of others, it may in some circumstances fall short of it. z Matt. xx. 9. a Verses 15, 1G. b Chap. xiii. 43. 296 FINAL BLESSEDNESS. Another argument brought by some to prove this doctrine is taken from the par- able of the talents.0 There the reward is proportioned to the respective improve- ment of the talents by those who received them ; and it seems to have reference to some blessings which they were to receive in another world. Our Saviour com- pares himself to one who ' travels into a far country,' and after a long time, returns and reckons with his servants. Now, by the former is meant his ascension into heaven, and by the latter his return to judgment ; so that the rewards spoken of which differ in degree, must respect some peculiar glory which he will confer on his people in another world. Indeed, the whole chapter seems to refer to the same thing. The preceding parable of the wise and foolish virgins denotes the behaviour of persons here, and the consequence of it hereafter ; and the latter part of the chap- ter expressly speaks of Christ's coming to judgment, and dealing with every one according to his works. If, therefore, the improvement of the talents respects some advantages which .one is to expect above another, it seems to intimate that there are degrees of glory. This is farther argued from the higher degree of grace which some have in this world than others ; which is a peculiar honour bestowed on them, and is sometimes considered as the fruit and consequence of their right improvement of the graces which they had formerly received. Their enjoyment of it may be considered as laying a foundation for greater praise ; so that the soul must be enlarged in pro- portion to the grace received, in order that it may give to God the glory due to his name, as the result of what it enjoys. Hence, if we take an estimate of God's future from his present dispensations, it not only removes some objections which are sometimes brought against this doctrine, but adds farther strength to the arguments taken from the scriptures before-mentioned, to prove it. But notwith- standing all that has been said on this subject, it is the safest way for us to con- fess that we know but little of the affairs of another world, and much less of the cir- cumstances of glorified saints, considered as compared with one another. Nor are we to conclude, if there are degrees of glory, that the highest of these is founded on the merit of what any have done or suffered for Christ, or, on the other hand, that the lowest is inconsistent with complete blessedness ; which shall be proportioned to their most enlarged desires, and as much as they are capable of containing. Thus concerning the question proposed by some as to whether there are degrees of glory. There is another which has some affinity to it, which I would not wholly pass over, namely, whether the saints in heaven shall not have some additional improve- ments, or make progressive advances, in some things which may be reckoned a farther ingredient in their future happiness. This is to be insisted on with the utmost caution, lest any thing should be advanced which is inconsistent with the complete blessedness which they are immediately possessed of. I do not think, however, that it will detract from it, if we should venture to assert, that the under- standing of glorified saints shall receive very considerable improvements, from those objects which shall be presented to them, and from the perpetual discoveries which will be made of the glorious mysteries of divine grace, whereby the whole scene of providence, and its subserviency to their eternal happiness, shall be opened, to raise their wonder, and enhance their praise. As it is not inconsistent with the perfect blessedness of the angels, to desire to know more of this mystery, which they are said to 'look into ;'d and as their joy is increased by those new occasions which daily present themselves ; why may not the same be said with respect to the saints in heaven, especially if we consider that this will redound so much to the glory of God, as well as give us more raised ideas of that happiness which they shall be possessed of? Practical Inferences from the Doctrine of Final Blessedness. We shall conclude with some practical inferences from what has been said in this Answer, concerning the happiness of the saints in heaven. C Matt. xxv. 14, et seq. d 1 Pet. i. 12. FINAL BLESSEDNESS. 297 1. We may learn the great difference which there is between the militant and triumphant state of the church. Here believers meet with perpetual conflicts ; but hereafter they shall be crowned with complete victory. Now, they walk by faith; but then faith shall be swallowed up in vision, and hope in enjoyment. The saints of God are, at present, in their minority, having a right to their inheritance, but not the possession of it. Their desires are enlarged, and their expectations raised ; but nothing can give them full satisfaction till they arrive at that state of perfection to which God will at last bring them. 2. The account which we have of the happiness of heaven being of a spiritual nature, and accompanied with perfect blessedness, and of the enjoyments of heaven being of a corresponding nature, may tend to reprove the carnal conceptions which many entertain concerning it, as though it were no other than what Mahommed promised his followers ; who fancy that they shall have there those delights which are agreeable to the sensual appetites of such as have no other ideas of happiness than that it consists in the pleasures of sin. Nor is it enough for us to conceive of the heavenly blessedness as merely a freedom from the miseries of this life, though this is an ingredient in it ; nor must we think of it as if it had no reference to the bringing of those graces which are begun here to perfection, or as if it did not con- sist in the blessed work of admiring and adoring the divine perfections, and im- proving the displays of these in the Mediator, a work in which the saints shall for ever be engaged. 3. Let us not content ourselves merely with the description which we have in the word of God of the glory of heaven, but inquire whether we have a well-grounded hope that we have a right to it, and are found in the exercise of those graces which will be an evidence of our fitness. It is a very low and insignificant thing for us to be convinced that the glory of heaven contains all those things which shall render those who are possessed of it completely happy, if we have no ground to claim an interest in it ; and if we have this ground of hope, it will have a tendency to excite practical godliness, which is inseparably connected with eternal life, and affords an evidence of our right to it. But without this godliness, our hope will be delusive, and we shall be chargeable with an unwarrantable presumption, in ex- pecting salvation without sanctification. 4. If we have any hope concerning future blessedness, it ought to be improved by us, to support and comfort us under the present miseries of life. Thus the apostle exhorts the church to which he writes, to ' comfort one another with these words, 'e or from considerations of the heavenly glory. Our hope should also be an inducement to us to bear afflictions with patience, since these ' work for us an ex- ceeding and eternal weight of glory. 'f 5. Let the hope we have of the privileges to be enjoyed hereafter, put us upon the greatest diligence in the performance of those duties which are incumbent on us, as expectants of this inheritance ; and let us endeavour to have our conversa- tion in heaven, and be frequently meditating on the blessed employment of that state, and be earnest with God that we may be made more meet for it, and in the end received to it. 6. If we are enabled by faith to conclude that we have a right to the heavenly inheritance, let us be frequently engaged in the work and employment of that in- heritance, so far as is consistent with the present imperfect state. Let us be much in praising and blessing God, who has prepared these glorious mansions for his people ; and let us set a due value on the blood of Christ, by which they were purchased, and give glory to the Holy Ghost, who has given us the earnest of them, and who, having begun the work of grace, will, we trust, carry it on to perfection. e 1 TheaB. iv. 18. f 2 Cor. iv. 17 n. 2 p 298 MORAL OBLIGATION. MORAL OBLIGATION. Question XCI. What is the duty that God requireth of man ? Answer. The duty which God requireth of ma*i, is obedience to his revealed will. Question XCII. What did God at first reveal unto man as the rule of his obedience f Answer. The rule of obedience revealed to Adam in the state of innocency, and to all mankind in him, beside a special command, not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was the moral law. Havixg, in the former part of the Catechism, been led to consider what we are to believe concerning God, and those works of nature and grace wherein he has dis- played his glory to man, whether considered as created alter his image, or as hav- ing lost it by sin, and as afterwards redeemed, and made partaker of those blessings which are consequent on redemption ; we are now to consider him as under an in- dispensable obligation to yield obedience to God. They who have received most grace from him, are laid under the strongest ties and engagements to yield obe- dience. Man Bound to Obey God. We observe, then, that obedience is due from man to God. Our obligation to obey results from the relation we stand in to him as creatures ; who ought to say with the psalmist, ' 0 come let us worship and bow down ; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. *& Our obligation results particularly from our being intelligent creatures, having excellencies superior to all others in this world, whereby we are rendered capable, not only of subserving the ends of his providence, but performing obedience as subjects of moral government. But our obligation becomes highest when we are considered as redeemed, justified, and sanctified, and made partakers of all the blessings which accompany salvation. Accordingly, the apostle says, ' Ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 'h Obedience may be considered, not only as our duty, but as our highest wisdom ; as it is said, ' The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, is understanding.'1 Hereby, in some measure, we answer the end for which we came into the world ; and to render it is our interest, inasmuch as it is conducive to our present and future blessedness, and inseparably connected with it. We are to be very sensible, however, that to yield obedience is out of our own power ; as our Saviour says, « Without me ye can do nothing. 'k We should, therefore, exercise a constant dependence on him who works in his people both to will and to do, of his own good pleasure. We might here consider the nature and properties of that duty and obedience which we owe to God. 1. If it be such as we hope God will accept or approve, it must proceed from a renewed nature, and, in consequence, from a principle of love to God as a recon- ciled Father ; not from a slavish fear and dread of his wrath, as a sin-revenging Judge. Thus the psalmist says, * There is forgiveness with Uue, that thou mayest be feared.'1 2. It ought to be without the least reserve, including a ready compliance with whatever he commands. In performing it, we ought to approve ourselves to him as our Sovereign Lord and Lawgiver, and consider that we are under his all-seeing* eye. Accordingly, his glory is to be assigned as the highest end of all we do. 3. It ought to be performed with constancy. It does not consist merely in a sud- den fit of devotion, arising from the dictates of an awakened conscience, or the dread we have of his wrath, when under some distressing providence ; but it ought to be the constant work and business of life. 4. When we have done or suffered most for God, we are not only to consider our- selves as 'unprofitable servants,'111 as our. Saviour expresses it ; but we must lament g Psal. xcv. 6. h 1 Cor. vi. 20. i Job xxviii. 28. k John xv. 5. 1 Psal. cxxx. 4. m Luke xvii. 10. MORAL OBLIGATION.. 299 our imperfections, and be deeply humbled for the iniquities which attend our holy things, inasmuch as ' there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sin- neth not.'n Connexion of Revelation with Moral Obligation. In order to our yielding obedience, it is necessary that God should signify to us, in what instances he will be obeyed, and the manner in which obedience is to be performed ; otherwise it would be rather a fulfilling of our own will than of his. None but those who are authorized by God to communicate his will, and who re- ceive what they impart to us by divine inspiration, can, without the boldest pre- sumption, assume to themselves the prerogative of prescribing to us a rule of duty to God. It follows that obedience must be to his revealed will. The secret purposes of God are the rule and measure of his own actings : but his revealed will is the rule of our obedience. ' Secret things belong unto the Lord our God ; but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and to our children.'0 The Law of God as the Mule of Obligation. The will of God, as thus made known to us, is called a Law. Now, let us con- sider that a law is the decree or revealed will of a sovereign, designed to direct and govern the actions of his subjects, and thereby to secure his own honour and their welfare. If this be applied to the law of God, we must consider him as our Lord and Sovereign, whose will is the rule of our actions ; and he, being infinitely wise and good, is able and inclined to direct us in those things which are conducive to his own honour and our safety and happiness. This he has been pleased to do ; and accordingly has given us a law as the rule of life. The laws of God are in part such as take their rise from his holy nature. Ac- cordingly, our obligation to yield obedience to these proceeds, not only or principally from the command of God, but from their being agreeable to his divine perfections; which must be assigned as the reason of his prescribing them as matter of obliga- tion. These are all reducible to what we call, in general, the law of nature ; which, because it is agreeable to the dictates of reason, is called by way of eminence the moral law. Thus when we consider ourselves as creatures, we are led to confess that we are subject to God, and therefore bound to obey him. When we think of him as a God of infinite perfection, our obedience must be agreeable to that perfec- tion. Because he is a Spirit, our obedience must be performed in a spiritual man- ner ; and as he is a holy God, he is to be worshipped with reverence and holy fear. Thus far we are induced to yield obedience by the law of nature. — But, on the other hand, there are many laws relating to the circumstances or manner in which God will be worshipped, which are founded in his sovereign will. These we call positive laws. Of this kind was that law given to our first parents, not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ; and doubtless, there were many other laws given to them relating to their conduct of life and mode of worship, though they are not particularly mentioned in the short history we have of the state of man be- fore the fall. — As for the moral law, it is said, in one of the Answers we are explain- ing, to have been revealed to Adam in his state of innocency, and to all mankind in him. Its being revealed to man, must be supposed to be a less proper way of speaking ; inasmuch as the method of discovery by revelation is more especially applicable to positive laws. Hence, I would rather choose to express it, as in a fore- going Answer, p by God's writing his laws in the hearts of our first parents, or im- pressing the commands of the moral law on their nature ; so that by the power of reasoning with which they were endowed, they might attain to the knowledge of them. Accordingly, man, by the light of nature, knew all things contained in the moral law. As to what is farther said in this Answer, that the moral law was given to man in innocency, we considered this subject elsewhere. And as all mankind were re- n Eccl. vii 20. o Deut. xxix. 29. p See Quest, xvii. 300 THE NATURE AND USES OF THE MORAL LAW. presented by him, we are to understand these words as meaning that it was given to all mankind in him. But these things having been insisted on in another place, as also what relates to his having been prohibited from eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, I shall pass them over, and proceed to speak more particularly concerning the moral law, together with the uses of it to all sorts of men. THE NATURE AND USES OF THE MORAL LAW. Question XCIII. What is the moral law? Answer. The moral law is the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing and binding everv one to personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity and obedience thereunto, in the frame and disposition of the whole man. soul and body, and in performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he oweth to God and man ; promising life upon the fulfilling, and threatening death upon the breach, of it. Question XC1V. Is there any use of the moral law to man, since the fall? Answer Although no man, since the fall, can attain to righteousness and life by the moral law; yet there is great use thereof, as well common to all men, as peculiar either to the unregenerate, or the regenerate. Question XCV. Of what use is the moral law to all men f Answer. The moral law is of use to all men, to inform them of the holy nature and will of God, and of their duty, binding them to walk accordingly ; to convince them of their disability to keep it. and of the sinful pollution of their nature, hearts, and lives; to humble them in the sense of their sin and misery, and thereby help them to a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and of the perfection of his obedience. Question XC VI. What particular use is there of the moral law to unregenerate men f Answer. The moral law is of use to unregenerate men, to awaken their consciences to flee from wrath to come, and to drive them to Christ; or, upon their continuance in the estate and way of sin, to leave them inexcusable, and under the curse thereof. Question XCVII. Wfiat special use is there of the moral law to the regenerate ? Answer. Although they that are regenerate, and believe in Christ, be delivered from the moral law as a covenant of works, so as thereby they are neither justified nor condemned; yet beside the general uses thereof common to them with all men, it is of special use, to show them how much they are bound to Christ lor his fulfilling it, and enduring the curse thereof in their stead, and for their good ; and ihereby to provoke them to more thankfulness, and to express the same in their greater care, to conform themselves thereunto, as the rule of their obedience. The Nature of the Moral Law. In these Answers we have, first, a description of the moral law. I. This law is a declaration of the will of God to mankind, that so we may not be destitute of a rule to guide and regulate our behaviour, both towards God and man. This is the first idea contained in a law. But there is another, which re- spects the obligation which we are laid under by the law, arising from our being creatures, and consequently subject to God, who, as the supreme Governor, has an undoubted right to demand obedience from us to every thing which he prescribes and reveals to us as a rule for our direction. Moreover, that which God requires of us in this law, is, personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity and obedience to its precepts. 1. Our obedience must be personal, that is, it is not to be performed by proxy. Whatever services we may expect from men, we must not conclude that they can perform obedience for us to God, and fulfil the obligation which we are personally laid under. Yea, we may proceed farther, and assert that the obedience which Christ has performed for us, does not exempt us from an obligation to yield perfect obedience. Obedience, indeed, is not to be performed by us with the same view with which he performed it. This will be farther considered under a following Head, where we shall show, that though the law is not to be obeyed by us as a cove- nant of works, yet we are obliged to obey it as a rule of life. 2. Our obedience to the law of God must be perfect. The same obligation THE NATURE AND USES OF THE MORAL LAW. 301 which man was under at first, to yield perfect obedience, remains still in force, though we are not able to perform it. The insolvency of man by the fall, did not cancel or disannul this debt.i How much soever God may own and approve the sincerity of his people, which is all the perfection that fallen man can arrive at in this world ; yet we must not suppose that hereby we fulfil the obligation which God, as a Lawgiver, has laid us under. This I the rather take notice of, that there may not be the least ground to suppose that we make void the law : we rather establish it, and assert the right which God has to that perfection of obedience which is due from us, though unable to perform it. 3. Our obedience must be perpetual, without backsliding from God, or the least remissness in our duty to him. There is no abatement or dispensation allowed, which may give countenance to the least defect of this obedience. Thus the psalmist says, ' I will never forget thy precepts ;'r and, ' Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.'8— Moreover, this obedience is to be performed with the whole man, and in particular, by the soul, with the ut- most intenseness, in all its powers and faculties. Accordingly, our understandings are to be rightly instructed, as to the matter and manner of performing it ; our wills to be entirely subjected to the will of God ; and our affections engaged in his service, being sanctified and excited by the Spirit, to the end that duty may be performed with delight, arising from the love which we bear to him whose servants we are. Our obedience is to be performed also with our bodies. The former in- cludes that obedience more especially which is internal ; this, that which is exter- nal. This is what is styled a lower sort of obedience ; and if we rest here, it is far from being acceptable, as the apostle says that 'bodily exercise profiteth little.'* Yet as the body is an instrument of the soul in acting, that service which is per- formed in it is absolutely necessary. Hence, all religious worship is to be engaged in with a becoming reverence which is external, as well as with that which is in- ternal ; without which the soul cannot be said to engage in any religious duties in a becoming manner. — Again, this obedience includes holiness and righteousness. The former of these respects more especially our duty to God, which, being a branch of religious worship, ought to be performed with a reverential fear of his divine Majesty, and a due regard to his infinite purity, and entire dedication and consecration of ourselves to him, as becomes those who are sanctified by his Spirit, and enabled to exercise all those graces whereby we may approve ourselves his faithful servants and subjects. The latter more especially respects those duties which we owe to men, in the various relations we stand in to them, and which are incumbent on us as enjoined by God. II. The moral law is farther considered as having a promise of life annexed to it, and a threatening of death upon the breach of it. This is what is generally called the sanction annexed to the law. A law without a sanction would not be much regarded, especially by those who have not a due sense of their obligation to obedience. Persons are very much disposed to inquire, when a command is given, what the consequence of their obeying or disregarding it will be ; and this being made known beforehand, is a strong motive to obedience. If God is pleased, out of his abundant grace, to encourage his people, by giving them to expect some blessings which he will bestow on those who obey him, it is, in some respect, ne- cessary that his doing so should be known. But especially as punishment, in pro- portion to the nature of the crime, will be the consequence of disobedience, it is becoming the divine perfections to let it be known that the wages of sin is death. Now, this sanction was not only annexed to the moral law, but equally impressed on the nature of man, who could not but know that rebellion against God would be punished with a separation from him, and that all those miseries which it de- serves would attend it, in proportion to its respective aggravation. q It is a known maxim in the civil law, Cessante capacitate subditi non cessat obligatio. r Psal. cxix. 93. s Psal. cxlv. 2. t 1 Tim. iv. 8. 302 , THE NATURE AND USES OF THE MORAL LAW. The Uses of the Moral Law. We have an account of the use of the moral law since the fall ; and that either with respect to mankind in general, or the unregenerate and regenerate. Here it is observed that no man since the fall can attain righteousness and life by it ; sc that it is not to be used with that view. We may hence infer that this end might have been attained by man before the fall, according to the tenor of the covenant which he was under, the sum and substance of which was, that 4 the man that doeth these things shall live by them.'u Eternal life was promised to man in innocency ; and he was then able to yield sinless obedience, which was the condition of his obtaining it. But it is impossible for fallen man thus to obey. How perfect soever his obedience may be for the future, it is supposed, from the nature of the thing, that it cannot be sinless, after sin has been committed ; and it would be a reflection on the justice and holiness of God, for us to conclude that he will accept of imper- fect obedience, instead of perfect. It follows that a right to life is not to be ex- pected from our imperfect obedience to the law ; as the apostle says, ' By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified, 'x in God's sight. In this respect our own righteousness is represented, not only as faulty and defective, but as altogether insufficient to procure an interest in the divine favour, or to exempt us from the punishment which is due to us for sin. It is one thing to say that eternal life is connected with obedience, so that no one can have the least ground to expect the former without the latter, and another thing to say that eternal life is founded upon obedience, or that it gives us a right and title to it. We are not to conclude, however, that the law is of no use. For, 1. It is of use to all men, in several respects. It informs us of the holy nature and will of God, and of our duty to him. This is the first idea we have of a law,* which signifies more especially a doctrine ; and, as the grand scope of it respects our being taught what we are obliged to as commanded by a lawgiver, it signifies a law. The divine perfections are eminently stamped on it in very legible charac- ters : his sovereignty, as having a right to demand obedience ; his holiness in the matter of it, and in the obligation it lays us under to be * holy in all conversation ; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy;'z and therefore this perfection is set forth in those threatenings which are annexed to it, whereby ' the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.'a As the law is designed to discover our secret faults, that we may be humbled for them, and a multitude of sins may be prevented ; so it sets forth, not only the holiness, but the goodness of God. Indeed, there is nothing enjoined in it as our duty, but what includes some advantage. Thus the psalmist describes it as ' more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey and the honey- comb ;' and adds, that ' in keeping thereof there is great reward. 'b Again, the moral law is of use to all men, as it binds them to perform that which is enjoined in it as matter of duty. This is another idea contained in a law; namely, it is that which binds the consciences of men, that so we may not vainly and presumptuously conclude, to our own destruction, that we may live as we list, or say, Who is Lord over us ? It is a great instance of the care and goodness of God, that he has taken this method to prevent that ruin which would arise from our withdrawing the allegiance which we owe to him, and to lay us under the strictest engagement to seek after that blessedness which is connected with obe- dience to him. Further, we are convinced by the moral law of our inability to keep its precepts, and of the sinful pollution of our nature, hearts, and lives, as an expedient to hum- ble us under the sense of sin and misery. The law being spiritual, we are con- vinced by it that 'we are carnal, and sold under sin,' as the apostle expresses it ;c and he also says, ' I had not known sin, but by the law.'d When we consider our- u Rom. x 5. x Chap. iii. 20. v Thus the word rmn, is derived from m*, didicit, or vi*n inonstravit. z 1 Pet. i. 15, 16. a Rom. i. 18. b Psal. xix. 10, 1 1. c Rom. vii. 14. d Verse 17. THE NATURE AND USES OF THE MORAL LAW. 303 selves as being obliged to yield perfect obedience, and compare our hearts and lives with the law which requires this, we shall see nothing but holiness and purity on the one hand, and a wretched mass of corruption and impurity on the other. God demands perfect obedience, while we are unable of ourselves to perform any obedience ; and our best duties being attended with many imperfections, we are led to be humbled under a sense of sin, whatever thoughts we formerly had of our- selves. When ' the law enters, sin will abound ;'e and if we were apprehensive that 'we were alive,' as the apostle expresses it, 'without the law, when the commandment comes, sin revives and we die, ' f and see ourselves exposed to the miseries threatened against those who violate it. Hence arises a clear sight of the need which persons have of Christ, and of the perfection of his obedience. When we find that we are condemned by the law, and that righteousness is not to be attained by our own obedience to it, we are led to see our need of seeking it elsewhere ; and when the gospel gives us a discovery of Christ, as ordained by God to procure for us righteousness, or a right to eternal life by his obedience, we see the need we have of faith in him, whereby we derive from him that which could not be attained by our own conformity to the law, 2. The moral law is of use in particular to the unregenerate. We considered, under the former Head, that it is of use to all men, among whom the unregenerate are included, as it gives them a discovery of the pollution and guilt of sin ; and now we are led to inquire into the consequence of this. Sin may be charged on the conscience, and the guilt of it make it very uneasy, so that a person may ap- prehend himself under the condemning sentence of the law ; and yet he may re- ceive no saving advantage. He may have a sight of sin, and not be truly humbled for it or turned from it. In some, corruption is excited by conviction ; and the soul grows worse than it was before. Thus the apostle says, ' Sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. '& Others, when filled with a dread of the wrath of God, are inclined to stretch out their hand against him, and strengthen themselves against the Almighty ; resolving, some way or other, to disentangle themselves, though, by such conduct, they render their condition much worse. These are compared to ' a wild bull in a net, full of the fury of the Lord ;'h or, as our Saviour says concerning Paul, before his con- version, ' they kick against the pricks.'1 Every step they take to free themselves from the horrible pit and miry clay into which they are cast, sinks them deeper into it. Others are convinced of sin by the law, and, at the same time, despair of obtaining mercy. They complain with Cain, ' My punishment is greater than I can bear ;'k or, as it is in the margin, ' Mine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven.' These see themselves lost, or condemned by the law ; but have no sight of Christ as coming into the world to save sinners, or, at least, to save the chief of them. The wound is opened ; but there are no healing medicines applied. There are others also, whose condition is no less dangerous, in whom ' the wound is healed slightly,' who 'say, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.'1 They are, indeed, convinced of sin ; and their conviction is attended sometimes with an ex- ternal humiliation, arising from the dread of God's judgments. This effect it had in Pharaoh™ and Ahab.n They are willing also to part with some particular sins, while they indulge others, that by this partial reformation they may free them- selves from the condemning sentence of the law. But all this is to no purpose ; sin gains strength, and the guilt of it is still increased. This is a wrong method to flee from the wrath to come. Hence, when convictions of sin have a good issue, in inciting those who experience them to flee from it, they have recourse to Christ. This is called a being driven to Christ ; by which we are to understand that they see themselves under an unavoidable necessity of going to him, as not being able to find peace or solid rest elsewhere. But as this effect is in a peculiar manner ascribed to the gospel, the law being only the remote means of it, I would rather express it by their being drawn to him, or encouraged by the grace contained in the gospel, to close with him by faith ; and then the work e Rom. v. 20. f Chap. vii. 9. g Ver. 8. b Isa. li. 20. i Acts. ix. 5. k Gen. iv. 13. 1 Jer. vi. 14. m Exod. x. 16, 17. nl Kings xxi. 27—29. 304 THE NATURE AND USES OF THE MORAL LAW. is rendered effectual, and convictions end in a saving conversion. But if it be otherwise, or they apply themselves to indirect means to ease themselves of the burden which lies on them, they are farther described as left inexcusable, and still emaining under the curse and condemning sentence of the law. 3. The moral law is of use to the regenerate. In considering this, it may be ob- served that there is something supposed in the Answer which treats on this subject, namely, that they who believe in Christ are delivered from the law as a covenant of works. This is the only sense in which we are to understand those scriptures which speak of believers as ' not being under the law, '° and as being * dead to the law, 'p having been ' redeemed from its curse. "* The moral law is to be considered in two respects, as a rule of life, and so no one is delivered from it ; or as a covenant of works, in the same sense in which it was given to man in innocency, the condition of which was his performing perfect obedience, in default whereof he was liable to a sentence of death. In the latter respect a believer is delivered from it. This deliverance is the great privilege which believers are made partakers of in the gos- pel ; which sets forth Christ as our surety, performing perfect obedience for us, and enduring the curse we were liable to. Hence, though the law was a covenant of works to him, it ceases to be so to those who are interested in him. Accordingly, it is added, that they are hereby neither justified nor condemned. They are not justified by it ; for the apostle says, ' By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified.'1" Justification is to be expected only from him who is 'the Lord our Righteousness ;'8 'in whom all the seed of Israel shall be justified, and glory.'4 Nor are they condemned by the law ; for that they should be so is inconsistent with a justified state. Thus the apostle says, ' There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. 'u We must distinguish, however, between a believer's actions being condemned by the law, or his being reproved by it, and laid under convic- tion, for sins daily committed ; and his being in a condemned state, according to the sentence of the law. We are far from denying that a believer is under an obligation to condemn or abhor himself, that is, to confess that he deserves to be condemned by God, for the sins which he commits ; for were God to mark these, or to punish him according to the demerit of them, he could not stand. Thus the psalmist says, though speaking of himself as a believer, and consequently in a jus- tified state, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant ; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.'1 This a believer may say, and yet not conclude himself to be in a state of condemnation ; inasmuch as he sees himself by faith to have ground to determine that he is delivered from the law, and so not condemned by it, as a covenant of works. It is observed, on the other hand, in the Answer under our present considera- tion, that the moral law is of use to a believer, in those respects in which it is of use to all men. He is hence laid under the strictest obligation to perform all the duties which we owe to God and man, and to be humbled for those defects which he has reason to charge himself with, which call for the daily exercise of repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. But as to the special use of the moral law to those who are regenerate, as dis- tinguished from all others, it is said to show them how much they are bound to Christ for his fulfilling it, and enduring its curse in their stead and for their good. Christ is said to be ' the end of the law for righteousness ;'J that is, he has answered the end and demand of the law, by performing that obedience which it requires, and thereby procuring a justifying righteousness, which is applied to every one who believes. This lays them under a superadded obligation to obedience, peculiar to them as believers ; so that they are engaged to the practice of universal holiness, not only from the consideration of the sovereignty of God commanding them in common with all others, but from 'the love of Christ,' which does as it were ' con- strain them' to obey.2 Hereby also they are said to be provoked to more thank- fulness, as they have greater inducements to it than any others ; and this gratitude cannot be better expressed than by the utmost care to approve themselves to him 0 Rom. vi. 14. p Chip. vii. 4. q Gal. iii. 13. r Rom. iii. 20. » Jer. xxiii. 6. 1 lsa. xlv. '25. ii Rem. viii. I. x Psal. cxliii. 2. y Rom. x. 4. z 2 Cor. v. 14. THE NATURE AND USES OF THE MORAL LAW. 305 in all thing?. The grace of God, therefore, is so far from leading to licentiousness, that all who have experienced it are put by it upon the exercise of that ohedience which they owe to. God as their rightful Lord and Sovereign, and to Christ as their gracious Redeemer, whom they love entirely, and therefore keep his com- mandments. Strictures on Antinomianism. I cannot but here take occasion to observe, not only with dislike, but a just in- dignation, how some, under a pretence of religion, sap the very foundation of it, while they frequently make mention of the gospel, and the liberty wherewith Christ has made his people iree, and at the same time abuse it, not only by practising but pleading for licentiousness. The Epicureans were libertines among the heathen, and the Sadducees among the Jews ; but these were vile and profligate out of prin- ciple, either denying the being of a God, or disowning his perfections as well as future rewards and punishments ; so that it is no wonder that they had no regard to the divine law. But I want words to express the wickedness of those who per- vert the gospel of Christ, so as to make it appear to exempt them from the obliga- tion which all are under to universal obedience. The apostle had to do with some such in his day; and he represents them as saying, 'Is the law sin?'a a question which may be paraphrased, ' Since we are delivered from the condemning sentence of the law, may we not take encouragement thence to sin ?' or, as he elsewhere brings them in as saying, ' Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ?'b To both these questions he replies, with the greatest detestation, ' God forbid.' Afterwards, in an early age of the church, the Nicolaitansc and Gnostics, and among them, the Valentinians, held these pernicious opinions, and encouraged themselves in the practice of the greatest immoralities. d Augustin speaks also of the Aerians and Eunomians, who lived in his time, who pretended that any who persisted in the vilest crimes, would receive no detriment, provided they adhered to the sentiments which they advanced.* There are many likewise in later ages, whose sentiments have been, in this respect, subversive of all religion ; and from their denying the obligation we are under to yield obedience to the law of God, are justly called Antinomians. But that we may not appear to be unjust to the characters of men, let it be con- sidered that we are not here speaking of the charge of Antinomianism, which some who defend or oppose the doctrines of grace bring against each other, supposing that their respective sentiments lead to licentiousness. The Papists and Pelagians pretend, though unjustly, that the doctrine of predestination, efficacious grace, and the final perseverance of the saints, is liable to this charge ; while they, on the other hand, lay themselves open to the same charge, by advancing doctrines which have the most pernicious tendency, as subversive of practical godliness, in various instances, — particularly by their asserting that God, in the gospel- covenant, dis- penses with imperfect obedience instead of perfect, and that this is only such as we are able to perform without the aids of divine grace. We leave each party, how- ever, to defend their scheme from this imputation. As to others who are more especially known by the character of Antinomians, they are of two sorts. The first are such as openly maintain that the moral law is not a rule of life in any sense ; that good works are not to be insisted on as having any reference to salva- tion ; that, therefore, if persons presume, as they, according to them, ought to do, that Christ died for them, and that they were justified before they had a being, they may live in the practice of the greatest immoralities, or give countenance to those who do so, without entertaining the least doubt of their salvation ; and that it is a preposterous thing, for those who thus presumptuously conclude themselves to be justified, to confess themselves guilty of sin, since to do so would be to deny that they are in a justified state, — or in any sense to pray for the pardon a Rom. vii. 7- b Chap. vL 1. c Rev. ii. 6. d Vid. Cav. Hist. Lit. torn. i. page 30. e Vid. Aug. de Haeres. cap. liv. where speaking of Eunomius, he says, Fertur etiam usque adeo fuisse bonis moribus inimicus, ut asseveraret, quod nihil cuique obesset, quorum libet perpetratio ac perseverantia peccatorum, si hujus quae ab illo docebatur, ridei particeps esset. II. 2 Q 306 THE NATURE AND USES OF THE MORAL LAW. of sin, since to do this would argue that sin is not forgiven. Nor can the}', with any tolerable degree of patience, entertain the least exhortations to practical god- liness ; because they pretend that they are exempted from the obligation to per- form any branch of it, by their not being under the law. Nay, some of them have been so impudent and daringly wicked as to 'assert that, if they should commit murder, adultery, or any other crimes of a similar nature, even this would be no bar in the way of their salvation ; and that the most vile sins which can be com- mitted, will do them no hurt, nor in the least affect their eternal state. I have, indeed, sometimes thought that this representation of Antinomianism was only a consequence deduced from some absurd doctrines which have been maintained ; or that so much of hell could never put on the mask or show of religion in any de- gree ; and that this character belonged to none but those who are open and pro- fessed atheists. But though my lot has not been cast among persons of so vile a character, yet I have been informed by those whose souls have been grieved with their conversation, that there are some in the world who thus set themselves against the law of God. There are others, indeed, who are styled Antinomians, whose conversation is blameless, and are not therefore to be ranked with these men, or judged Antino- mians in practice ; who nevertheless, do great disservice to the truth, and, it may be, give occasion to some to be licentious, by advancing unguarded expressions which will admit of a double construction, without condescending to explain some bold positions which they occasionally lay down. Thus, when they maintain eternal justification, without considering it as an immanent act in God, or as his secret determination not to impute sin to those who are given to Christ, but ascribe that to it which is only to be applied to justification, as it is the result of God's revealed will, in which respect it is said to be by faith ; and when they encourage persons from hence to conclude that their state is safe, and maintain that it is the duty of every one to believe that he is thus justified ; they certainly advance positions which have a tendency to lead some out of the way of truth and holiness, whether they design so or not. Again, when others speak diminutively of good works, as though they were in no sense necessary to salvation, because they are not the matter of our justification ; some may take occasion to think that they may be saved without them. — Further, when others deny the law to be a rule of life, or assert that believers have nothing to do with it ; though, it may be, they mean nothing else but that it is not that rule according to which God proceeds in justifying his people or in giving them a right to eternal life, or that a believer is not under the law as a covenant of works ; yet many would be ready to think that their words had a different meaning, and so be led out of the way by them, how far soever this might be from their inten- tion.— Moreover, if a person seems studiously to avoid confessing sin or praying for forgiveness, some would be ready to judge of his sentiments by his practice ; and certainly our denying either of these to be a duty in any sense, is not only con- trary to scripture, but inconsistent with the humility and faith which are essential to practical godliness. Or when persons deny that self-examination is a duty, and speak of all marks and evidences of grace, though never so just and agreeable to the scripture-account of them, as legal, or as a low way of a person's coming to the knowledge of himself, or suppose that these marks and evidences are unnecessary, as being inconsistent with the Spirit's testimony ; this has a tendency to lead to pre- sumption, which is a degree of licentiousness. — Again, when they assert that God is not angry with his people for their sins, nor, in any sense, punishes them for them, without distinguishing between fatherly chastisements, and the stroke of vindictive justice, or the external and sensible effects of that hatred which God cannot but exercise against sin, and his casting them out of a justified state ; such doctrines lead some persons to licentiousness, whatever be the secret meaning of those who advance them. We have an instance of this, as the historian observes/ in Agri- cola, who was Luther's townsman, and great admirer. He, as is probable, did not thoroughly understand what Luther maintained concerning the subserviency of the law to the gospel, and its having no place in the justification of a sinner ; or else, f See Sleid. Comment, de Stat. Relig. et Repub. lib. xii. THE NATURE AND USES OF THE MORAL LAW. 307 from some unguarded expressions which Luther was sometimes apt to make use of, this friend of his took occasion to advance some Antinomian tenets, namely, that repentance ought not to be urged from the consideration of the breach of the law, that the gospel ought to be preached to sinners before they are brought under con- viction by the law, and that, how scandalous and debauched soever persons be in their lives, yet, if they do but believe the promises of the gospel, they shall be jus tilled. In these doctrines, Agricola was followed by a party of men. Accordingly Antinomianism is said to have taken its rise, in this part of the world, from that time. Luther, on the other hand, was forced to take a great deal of pains to rec- tify his mistakes ; which, though it tended to Agricola's conviction, yet did not put a stop to the spread of his errors, which he had before propagated. As for those who were charged with Antinomianism in England, in the last cen- tury, such as Dr. Crisp, Eaton, Saltmarsh, Town, and others, whatever their design might be, and how much soever they were remote from the charge of Antinomi- anism in practice ; though it be alleged by some in their vindication that the prin- cipal thing they had in view was to bear their testimony against the prevailing doctrine of Arminianism, which was studiously propagated by some persons of great character and influence in the nation ; yet we cannot but conclude that they would have done more service to the cause of truth, had they been more cautious in explaining their sentiments, and saved those who had favourable thoughts of them, in other respects, the trouble of producing some expressions out of their writings, to convince the world that they did not hold those dangerous notions which were charged upon them. It is too evident to be denied, that many have under- stood their opinions in the worst sense ; who have hence been ready to charge the most important doctrines of the gospel with leading to licentiousness. One result has been, that some are more sparing in defending those truths which ought to be insisted on and explained, though in words more intelligible and unexceptionable. THE JUDICIAL AND THE CEREMONIAL LAW. Question. XCVIH. Where is the moral law summarily comprehended f Answer. The moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments, which were delivered by the voice of God upon mount Sinai, and written by him in two tables of stone, and are recorded in the twentieth chapter of Exodus; the four first commandments containing our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man. Having considered the moral law, as written on the heart of man at first, and the knowledge of it as in some degree attainable by all who exercise their reasoning powers ; we are, in this and some following Answers, led to consider that epitome or abstract of it which was given to the Israelites by the voice of God upon mount Sinai, which is contained in the Ten Commandments. But as we are considering this instance of divine condescension to them, it may not be reckoned altogether foreign to our present design, to give some brief account of those other laws which God gave, together with the moral law, most of which were communicated from mount Sinai. We may observe, therefore, that, together with the moral law, there were several forensic or judicial laws given by God for the government of the people of Israel, which more especially respected their civil rights. And there were other laws which had a more immediate subserviency to their attaining the knowledge of those things which related to the way of salvation by the promised Messiah, which are more fully revealed in the gospel. These are what we call the ceremonial law. Both are to be considered before we come to speak concerning the moral law, as summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments. The Judicial Law. We shall speak first concerning the judicial law. It cannot be supposed that so great a people, so much interested in the care of God, to whom he condescended 308 THE JUDICIAL AND THE CEREMONIAL LAW. to be their king, should be without a body of laws for their government. Accord- ingly, there were some given them by him, which were founded in and agreeable to the law of nature and nations ; which all well-governed states observe to this day, such as that murder should be punished with death, and that theft should be punished with restitution or some other punishments which may best tend to deter men from it. Moreover, there were other judicial laws given to Israel, which had a more immediate tendency to promote their civil welfare, as a nation dis- tinguished from all others in the world ; which laws expired when their civil polity was extinct. These were the following : — 1. Such as tended to prevent the alienation of inheritances from the respective families to which they were at first given. God commanded, that if a man died without children, his brother should marry his widow to raise up seed to him, to inherit his estate and name.* 2. If an Israelite had become poor, and was obliged to sell his land for the pay- ment of his debts, the purchaser was to admit any of his family to redeem it ; or, if they could not, he was, nevertheless, to restore the land at the year of jubilee, which was every fiftieth year.h 3. If an Hebrew servant was sold for the payment of debts, which he could not otherwise discharge, his master was obliged to release him after six years' service.1 But if the servant chose to stay with his master longer than that time, out of the love he bare to him ; then he was to have his ear bored, as a token that he should serve him, without being subject to the aforesaid laws, which made provision for his discharge after a certain number of yeara.k 4. The land was to lie untilled, and the vineyards and olive-yards were to be free for every one to come and eat of the fruit of them every seventh year. This law was designed more especially for the relief of the poor amongst them, who had no distinct inheritance of their own.1 5. They were prohibited from taking usury of an Israelite, though they might of a stranger. The reason of this law might be that they might exercise brotherly kindness and charity to one another, in which sense the law is in force to this day ; especially when the poor borrow money to supply themselves with necessary food, in which case it is now unlawful to take usury. Or the reason of it was, that the Israelites lived upon their farms or cattle, by which they seldom got more than what was a necessary provision for their families ; so that the paying of usury whenever they were necessitated to borrow money, would have proved their ruin in the end. Hence they were not to take usury of an Israelite, but of a stranger they might ; because these enriched themselves by merchandise, and were gainers in a way of trade by what they borrowed. 6. All the males were to come up to Jerusalem, to appear before God, and per- form public worship in the temple three times a-year, namely, at the solemn festi- vals,— the passover, pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles.m 7. Six cities of refuge were appointed for those to flee to for protection, who killed any one by accident ; though a near kinsman, as an avenger of blood, might kill the manslayer before he came to one of these cities. The design of this law was to induce them to take care that none might lose their lives through inadver- tency. And there was provision made in these cites for the manslayer to dwell safely ; whereby a just difference was put between such an one, and a wilful mur- derer.11 Thus concerning the judicial laws. The Ceremonial Law. We now proceed to consider the ceremonial laws which were given them, the design of which was to lead them into the knowledge of Christ, and the way of salvation by him, then to come.0 These may be considered under six heads, which we shall briefly notice. g Deut. xxv. 5, 6; Matt. xxii. 24. h Levit. xxv. 11—13, 25—27. i Exod. xxi. 2. k Exod. xxi. 5, 6. 1 Chap, xxiii. 10. m Deut. xvi. 16, 17. n Numb. xxxv. 15, 26, 27. O Heb. x. 1 ; Gal. iii. 24, 25. THE JUDICIAL AND THE CEREMONIAL LAW. 309 1. It was ordained that all their males should he circumcised. Circumcision was designed to be a visible mark put on the church, whom God had set apart for himself, that they might be distinguished from the world. But the principal de- sign of it was, that it might be a sign or seal of the blessings of the covenant of grace, in which God promised that he would be ' a God to them ;' and by observ- ing this rite, they were to own themselves as his people.p 2. There were various ways, whereby persons were reckoned unclean, and ordi- nances appointed for their cleansing. They were rendered unclean by eating those birds, beasts, fishes, and creeping things, which God had pronounced unclean, and not designed for food.** Moreover, they were polluted by touching the dead bodies of such unclean birds, beasts, fishes, or creeping things.1- Again, some diseases, in- cident to the bodies of men, which were more than ordinarily noisome, rendered them unclean, such as the issue, leprosy,8 &c. Besides, the clothes they wore, the houses they lived in, the beds on which they lay, their ovens, and the vessels used in eating or drinking, were, on several accounts, deemed unclean ; and accordingly were either to be cleansed or destroyed, otherwise the owners of them would be polluted by them.* This law was designed to signify how odious and abominable sin, which is a moral pollution, is in God's account, who is 'of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.'11 We might also observe that there were various ordinances appointed for their cleansing, in order to which, several sacrifices were to be offered, and divers washings with water. x The former signified the way of our being delivered from sin by the blood of Christ, as the procuring cause of forgiveness -J the latter, our being cleansed from sin by the internal, powerful influences of the Holy Spirit, in regeneration and sanc- tification.2 3. There were holy places, such as the tabernacle and temple, with their vessels and ornaments. The tabernacle was erected according to the pattern which God showed to Moses in the mount ;a and was so framed that it might be taken to pieces, and removed from place to place, as often as the host of Israel changed their station in the wilderness. Accordingly, there were Levites appointed to take it down and set it up ; and also waggons, with oxen, to carry it, excepting those parts of it which belonged to the holiest of all, which were to be carried on men's shoulders.1* The temple was the fixed place appointed for public worship at Jerusalem ; first built by Solomon, and afterwards rebuilt by Zerubbabel. Both this and the tabernacle signified that God would dwell in the midst of his people, and accept that solemn and instituted worship which was to be performed by his church in all ages. The temple was designed to be a type of the incarnation of the Son of God, who is styled ' Emmanuel, God with us ;' and who, in allusion to it, calls his body a tem- ple.'0 Moreover, the courts of the tabernacle and temple, and the ministry per- formed in them, had each its respective signification annexed to it. That in which the priests came daily to minister, wherein gifts and sacrifices were offered, pre- figured Christ's offering himself a sacrifice upon earth, for the sins of his people. And the inner court, which was the holiest of all, into which none but the high priest was to enter, and that with blood and incense, signified Christ's * entering into heaven, to appear in the presence of God for us.'d As for the vessels of the tabernacle and temple, some of these were in the first court, which is also called ' the sanctuary ; in which was the candlestick, the table, and the show-bread, 'e the laver and the altar ;f all which were designed for types. The candlestick signified the church, and the preaching the gospel therein ; whereby light is held forth to the worlds The show-bread set up, signified the communion which the members of the church have with Christ, and with one another ;h as he styles himself the 'bread of life,' or, 'the bread of God, which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.'1 The laver signified that, when we draw nigh to God, our persons and our services ought to be pure and holy. To this the p Gen. xvii. 7, 10. q Lev. xi. r Verse 31. s Lev. xv. 2, et seq. and chap. xiii. t See a particular account hereof in Lev. xi. 15. u Hab. i. 13. x Lev. xiii xv. y Heb. ix. 13. 14; Eph. i. 7- z Ezek. xxxvi. 23—27; Heb. x. 22; Tit iii. 5, 6. a Exod. xxv. 40. b Numb. vii. 6. c John ii. 19. d Heb. ix. 24. e Lev. xxiv. 2 7; Heb. ix. 2. f Exod. xxx. 18. g Rev. i. 20; Matt. v. 14. b. 1 Cor. x. 17. i John vi. 33. 310 THE JUDICIAL AND THE CEREMONIAL LAW. apostle alludes, when he says, ■ Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.'k The altar, which was holy, and sanctified the gift that the high-priest offered on it,1 so that 'every thing that touched it was holy,'"1 signified that the divine nature of Christ added an infinite worth to what he did in the human, in which he offered himself a sacrifice to God. These were the vessels in the outer court. — Those in the inward court, or holiest of all, ' in which were the golden cen- ser, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy- seat,'11 were a symbol and type of God's special presence with his people, which is their glory, or of the Son of God's dwelling with us in our nature. The mercy-seat, which was placed over the ark, signified that the mercy of God was displayed to sin- ners through Christ. The cherubim of glory with their wings spread, overshadow- ing and looking down upon the mercy-seat, signified that the angels behold and ad- mire the stupendous work of our redemption.0 The altar of incense, and the golden censer, were types of the intercession of Christ for his people ; and the fragrancy of the incense typified the acceptableness of that intercession in the sight of God. There were, besides, three more things in the holiest of all, which are particularly men- tioned. One was 'the pot of manna,' which was miraculously preserved from cor- ruption throughout their generations, as a memorial of the bread which God had fed them with in the wilderness, and a type of Christ, the bread of life, who was to come down from heaven.P There was also Aaron's rod, which was preserved in memory of the won.ders which were wrought by it in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness. It is said also to have 'blossomed and yielded almonds ;'i which seemed to typify the flourishing state of the gospel, which is called, ' the rod of God's strength.'1 Moreover, the two tables of the law were put into the ark, whereby the exceeding holiness of the law was signified, and also that it should be fulfilled and magnified by Christ, when he came to dwell among us. Thus we have given a brief account of the holy vessels of the temple and the tabernacle. We might have added that there were various ornaments of the temple and the tabernacle. They were adorned with silver, gold, and precious stones, carved, and curious needle-work ; which rendered them exceedingly rich and beautiful. The temple, in particular, was the wonder of the world, far surpassing all other build- ings, either before or since.8 Its splendour may be supposed to shadow forth the spiritual beauty and glory of the gospel-church, and of the heavenly state, in which the church shall be brought to its utmost perfection.1 Thus concerning those holy places, which were immediately designed for worship. There were other holy places, such as the land of Canaan, which was styled ' the holy land,' while the inhabitants of it were called 'a holy nation,' or 'the people of his holiness.'11 As this was a place where God gave them rest, and a settlement, after forty years' travel in the wilderness, it was a type of that rest which the church was to expect from Christ under the gospel.* Moreover, Jerusalem was an holy city ;y because thither the tribes went up to worship,* and God was present with them there.* 4. There were laws which respected those whom God had appointed to be minis- ters in holy things. These were the Priests ; the Levites, who were to assist the former in some parts of their office ; but especially the High-priest, who was the chief or head of them all, and who is considered as an eminent type in several respects of Christ's priestly office.b There were also various ceremonies instituted, which were observed in the consecration of them. In particular, they were to be washed with water ;° ablution with which was a rite used in the consecration of persons and things, and signified that they who ministered in holy things should be holy in their conversation. Moreover, there were several garments to be made and put on them, which are styled 'holy,' and designed 'for glory and for beauty. 'd These k Heb. x. 22. 1 Matt, xxiii. 19. m Exod. xxix. 37. n Heb. ix. 3—5. o 1 Pet. i. 12. p John vi. 48 — 50. q Numb. xvii. 8. r Psal. ex. 2. s Exod. xxv. 3_7; 1 Chron. xxix. 2—5. t Rev. xxi. 11—23. u Isa. Ixiii. 18. x Isa. xi. 10 ; Heb. iv. 9. y Nehvm. xi. 1 ; Matt. iv. 5. z Psal. exxii. 4. a Ezek. xxxvii. 27, 28. b Heb. v. 1—5. c Exod. xxix. 4. il Chap, xxviii. 2, et seq. THE JUDICIAL AND THE CEREMONIAL LAW. 311 signified the dignity and holiness of Christ's priesthood. In particular, the breast- plate, adorned with precious stones, on which the names. of the children of Israel were engraven, which was worn only by the high-priest, and with which he was to go into the holy of holies, signified the concern of Christ's people in the execution of his priestly office, and his representing them when appearing in the presence of God for them. Again, the priests were anointed with the precious ointment com- pounded for that purpose ;e whereby they were set apart or consecrated to minister in the priest's office, and were types of Christ. On this account he is said to be ' anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. 'f 5. There were laws respecting the temple-service, or the gifts and sacrifices which were to be offered there. There were many gifts presented or devoted to God ; some of which were designed, not for sacrifice, but to testify their acknowledgment of God's right to all we are and have. Among these, the first ripe fruits were offered, or presented, as gifts to him.s As for those things which were designed for sacrifice, they were offered, and their blood poured forth on the altar ; which signified the ex- piation of sin by the blood of Jesus.h That part of the high-priest's office, which re- spected his carrying the blood with the incense, into the holiest of all, was a type of Christ's ' entering into heaven, there to appear in the presence of God' for his people.1 6. There were laws which respected the holy times or festivals appointed for solemn worship. Some of these festivals were monthly, as the new moons ; others annual, as the passover. The latter was not only a commemorative sign of their having been formerly delivered from the sword of the destroying angel, when he slew the first-born of Egypt ; but it typified our deliverance from the stroke of vindictive justice, on which account Christ is called ' our passover. 'k There was also the feast of harvest, in which the first-fruits were presented to God as an ac- knowledgment that he has a right to the best of our time and service. There was likewise the feast of tabernacles ; which not only called to remembrance their dwelling in tents in the wilderness, but was an acknowledgment that we are stran- gers and sojourners upon earth, and was also a type of Christ, who was expected to come and pitch his tabernacle among us in his incarnation. — There are many other laws, both judicial and ceremonial, which I might have mentioned ; but as these things are only spoken of occasionally, in connection with their having been im- parted by God to Israel, by the hand of Moses, from mount Sinai, about the same time that the ten commandments were given,1 we shall add no more concerning them. The Legislation from Horeb. We proceed to consider what is particularly mentioned in this Answer, concern- ing God's giving the abstract of the moral law contained in the ten commandments. This was delivered by a voice ; in respect to which God is said to have ' talked with them face to face.'"1 But at the same time there were many ensigns of ter- rible majesty attending the delivery of this law. ' The mountain burned with fire.'n There were 'lightnings, thunderings, and earthquakes, and the sound of a trumpet, that waxed louder and louder ; which made the people, and Moses himself, exceed- ingly tremble.'0 There was also the ministry of angels, who performed that part of the work which they were employed in on this solemn occasion. This is de- scribed in a majestic style, becoming the subject insisted on, when it is said, ' The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them ; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints ; irom his right hand went a fiery law.'P Their ministry might probably consist in their forming the thunder, lightnings, and tempest. Yet the law was not originally from them, but given im- mediately by God. The design of its being given in such an awful and majestic way, was that God might hereby set forth his greatness, and fill them with a rever- ential fear of him ; and to intimate that, if they did not yield obedience to him, e Exod. xxx. 25, 30. f Psal. xlv. 7. g Exod. xxix. 29. h Heb. ix. 22, 23, 26. i Heb. ix. 24. k 1 Cor. v. 7. 1 Dtut. iv. 12, 13. m Chap. v. 4. ii Exod. xix. 18. o Chap. xx. 18 ; Heb. xii. 18, 19. p Deut. xxxiii. 2. 312 RULES FOR UNDERSTANDING they were to expect nothing else but to be consumed by the fire of his jealousy. It was au intimation, however, not that he designed to destroy them, but that he designed to prove them ; as it is said, that ' his fear might be before their faces, that they should not sin.'i What we may farther observe is, that, after God had delivered the ten commandments by words, he wrote them with his own finger on two tables of stone. In these ten commandments, written on the two tables, the whole moral law is summarily comprehended. This is particularly explained in several following Answers. RULES FOR UNDERSTANDING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Question XCIX. What rules are to be observed for the right understanding of the Ten Com- mandments ? Answer. For^the right understanding of the Ten Commandments, these rules are to be observed, I. That the law is perfect, and bindeth every one to full conformity in the whole man unto the righteousness thereof, and unto entire obedience for ever, so as to require the utmost perfection of every duty, and to forbid the least degree of every sin. This implies that, how unable soever we are to yield perfect obedience, yet it does not cease to be a duty ; and that, though some sins are smaller than others, yet the least is contrary to the law of God, and therefore not to be committed by us. II. That it is spiritual, and so reacheth the understanding, will, affections, and all other powers, of the soul, as well as words, works, and gestures. This denotes that obedience ought to be performed in a spiritual manner. God is to be worshipped with our spirits ; without which, all external modes of worship will avail nothing. Nevertheless, external worship is to be performed and expressed by words, works, and gestures ; and it therefore supposes that our understandings are rightly -informed, or that we do not worship an unknown God, — that our wills express a readiness to obey him out of choice, and without the least reluctance, — and that our affections must centre in him, we performing the duties incumbent on us, with the utmost delight and pleasure. III. That one and the same thing, in divers respects, is required or forbidden, in several com- mandments. Thus covetousness is forbidden in the tenth commandment. Yet as by this sin the world is loved more than God, it is a breach of the first commandment, and as such is styled ' idolatry.'1" IV. That as, where a duty is commanded, the contrary sin is forbidden ; and where a sin is for- bidden, the contrary duty is commanded : so, where a promise is annexed, the contrary threatening is included ; and where a threatening is annexed, the contrary promise is included. Thus the fifth commandment requires us to honour our superiors. It hence for- bids our reproaching them, or doing any thing dishonourable or injurious to them.8 The eighth commandment forbids stealing ; and it also requires the contrary duty, namely, that we should labour for a competent maintenance, that we may not be exposed to any temptation to steal. Thus it is said, ' Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.'* Moreover, as there is a pro- mise of long life annexed to the fifth commandment, this promise includes the con- trary threatening to those that break it. Thus it is said, ' The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.'u On the other hand, whatever threatening is annexed to any commandment, the contrary promise is included, and belongs to those who repent of, abhor, and turn from the sin forbidden. Thus it is said, ' At what instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up q E.\od. xx. 20. r Col. iii. 5. s Matt. xv. 4. t Eph. i^ 28. u Prov. xxx. 17 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 313 and to pull down, and to destroy it ; if that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that 1 thought to do unto them.'* V. That what God forbids, is at no time to be done; what he commands, is always our duty, and yet every particular duty is not to be done at all times. Thus sin is, under no pretence, to be committed. Accordingly, Moses, when he was in a prosperous condition in Pharaoh's court, though he might have pre- tended that his greatness, and the advantages which Israel might have expected from it, would be an excuse for his continuing to enjoy the pleasures of sin there ; yet he was sensible that these considerations would not exempt him from guilt. Hence, ' he forsook Egypt, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin.' ? — Again, what God commands is always a duty ; so that there is no season of life in which it ceases to be so, for example, praying, reading, hearing the word, &c. Yet these duties are not actually to be engaged in every moment of our lives. It is always our duty to visit the sick, com- fort the afflicted, defend the oppressed ; but such objects do not always present themselves to us, so as to render it our duty at all times. VI. That, under one sin or duty, all of the same kind are forbidden or commanded, together with all the causes, im ans, occasions, and appearances thereof, and provocations thereunto. Thus, according to the fourth commandment, it is our duty to sanctify the Sab- bath, and consequently to avoid every thing which may be a means or occasion of our breach of it. In the sixth commandment murder is forbidden ; so is likewise all sinful passion or anger with our brethren without a cause. z In the seventh, adultery is forbidden; so is also 'looking on a woman to lust after her.'* And as we are obliged to ' abstain ' from every sin forbidden, so ' from all appearance of evil,'b or what may be an occasion of it. Thus ' fathers' are 'not to provoke their children to wrath;'0 and according to the moral reason of the command, we are not to provoke any one to wrath, or do that which may excite their corruptions. VII. That what is forbidden or commanded to ourselves, we are bound, according to our places, to endeavour that it may be avoided or performed by others, according to the duty of their places. Not to endeavour to prevent sin in others, is, in effect, to commit it ourselves. Thus Eli contracted the guilt of his son's crimes, by not endeavouring to prevent them. Persons are said to 'hate their brethren in their hearts' who 'do not rebuke them, but suffer sin upon them.'d And Abraham is commended for his having 'commanded his household after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord.'e It is hence a duty for parents to instruct their children in the ways of God.' f VIII. That, in what is commanded to others, we are bound according to our places and callings, to be helpful to them, and to take heed of partaking with others in what is forbidden them. That we are to be helpful to others, in that which is their duty, appears from our obligation to endeavour that God may be glorified. Hence, we are, to our utmost, to promote their faith and joy in Christ. Thus the apostle says, 'We are helpers of your joy.'s On the other hand, we ought to take care that we do not partake with others in their sin. Thus the psalmist says, ' When thou sawestga thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. 'h • x Jer. xviii. 7, 8. y Heb. xi. 25. z Matt. v. 22. a Matt. v. 28. b 1 Thess. v. 22. c Eph. vi. 4. d Lev. xix. 17. e Gen. xviii. 19. f Deut. vi. 6, 7. g 2 Cor. i. 24. h Psal. 1. 18. h. 2 a 314 THE PREFACE AND SUM OF THE PREFACE AND SUM OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Qukstion C. What special things are we to consider in the Ten Commandments? Answer. We are to consider in the Ten Commandments, the preface, the substance of the com- mandments themselves, and several reasons annexed to some of them, the more to enforce them. Question CI. What is the preface to the Commandments? Answer. The preface to the Commandments is contained in these words, ' I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,' wherein God manifesteth his sovereignty, as being Jehovah, the eternal, immutable, and almighty God, having his being in and of himself, and giwng being to all bis words and works j and that he is a God ill covenant, as with Israel of old, so with all his people ; who, as he brought them out of their bon- dage in Egypt, so he delivereth us from our spiritual thraldom; and that therefore we are bound to take him for our God alone, and to keep all his commandments Question CII. What is the sum of the four Commandments, which contain our duty to God? Answer. The sum of the four Commandments containing our duty to God, is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind. These Answers contain some things necessary to be observed. I. The substance of each commandment is to be considered by us ; or what it is which God enjoins or forbids in it. We find that every commandment contains a distinct head of duty, and is to be explained according to the rules laid down in the foregoing Answer. We find also that some of them have reasons annexed to them ; and it is an instance of God's condescending goodness, that, besides the consideration of our obligation to obey whatever he commands because it is his will, we may have other motives to enforce obedience. What these reasons or motives are, will be considered in their proper place. II. Here is a general preface, which God has set before the commandments, and which contains several motives to obedience. Some of these, indeed, were pecu- liarly adapted to the Israelites, whereby they were put in mind of their late de- liverance out of the land of Egypt. Yet if we consider the moral reason of the preface, as it, together with the matter of the commandments to which it is pre- fixed, may be applied to God's people in all ages, we shall find that it extends farther than to show the obligation which Israel was under, as delivered from the Egyptian bondage. 1. We observe, then, that God reveals himself as the Lord, whose name alone is Jehovah, a God of infinite sovereignty and almighty power, as well as faithful to his promises. Hence, whatever he obliges us to do, or gives us encouragement to expect from him, we have the highest motive and inducement to do and expect. 2. He styles himself his people's God ; and so puts them in mind of that relation which they stand in to him, as the result of the covenant of grace, in which he gives them a warrant to lay claim to those spiritual blessings which he bestows on a people nigh unto him. This is considered as a farther obligation to obedience. The covenant of grace respects either the external dispensation of it which belongs to the church in general, that is, to all who are made partakers of the glad tidings o#salvation which are contained in the gospel; or else that particular claim which believers have to the saving blessings which are made over to them in it, which respects all those graces which God is pleased to give his* people here, and that glory which he has reserved for them hereafter ; and this must certainly be reck- oned the highest motive to duty. 3. As to God's having brought Israel ' out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,' it is to be extended farther than that particular providence, which was then fresh in their memories. It denotes all the deliverances which God is pleased to vouchsafe to his people, whether temporal or spiritual, — in par- ticular, that which was procured for us by Christ, from the bondage and thraldom of sin and Satan, the condemning sentence of the law, together with the salvation which is inseparably connected with it. This deliverance is to be improved by us as an inducement to yield universal obedience to all God's commandments. There are borne, indeed, who think that we should call the preface a part of the first THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 315 commandment ; and so the meaning is, ' Thou art to know, and practically con- sider, that I am the Lord thy God,' as containing the affirmative part of the com- mandment ; and then follows the negative, ' Thou shalt have no other gods.' Or they suppose the sentence to be a reason annexed to this commandment in par- ticular. But it seems most probable that it is a preface to all the commandments ; and that, accordingly, it is to be applied as a motive to enforce obedience to every one of them. III. We have farther an account of the sum of the four commandments which contain our duty to God. Here we may observe, that the sum of all the command- ments is love. This is what the apostle intends, when he says, ' The end of the commandment is charity,' or rather 'love,' as it ought to be rendered.1 Accord- ingly, he says, ' He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.'k This love hath either God or man for its object, and comprises the duties which we owe to God or man. All these duties are reduced to this general Head, that hereby we may understand that obedience, whether it be to God or man, is to be performed with delight. Without this, it will be a burden to us and unacceptable to him, who has obliged us to love him and keep his commandments, because he first loved us. These commandments, as they respect our duty to God and man, are comprised in two tables, which are to be divided according to their respective objects. Some ancient writers, indeed, have very injudiciously supposed that the five first com- mandments belong to the first table, and the others to the second ; and so make an equal division of them. The Papists, on the other hand, have assigned but three to the first table, making the second commandment an appendix to the first ; and, that the number ten may be complete, they divide the tenth commandment into two. The reason urged by them for this matter, will be considered in its proper place. We are bound to conclude, however, that the first four commandments con- tain the duties of the first table ; and are those which respect the duties which we owe immediately to God. These are to be performed, as our Saviour says, ' with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind.'1 This is an idea superior to that which is contained in the duty we owe to man. The six last commandments contain the duties of the second table, of which our neighbour is the more imme- diate object. That this division of the commandments is just, appears from what the apostle says when, speaking concerning the duty contained in the fifth com- mandment, • Honour thy father and mother,' he calls it 'the first commandment with promise.'111 Now, it is not the first commandment which has a promise annexed to it, since the second commandment contains a promise of mercy to ' thousands of them that love God and keep his commandments ;' nor is it the first of the ten commandments. The apostle, therefore, can intend nothing by calling it ' the first commandment with promise, ' but that it is the first of the second table. Now, that we are considering the commandments as contained in two tables, and distinguished with respect to their more immediate object, we may farther ob- serve that, though the duties of both tables are enjoined by the authority of God, and consequently are equally binding, so that the obedience which is acceptable in his sight must be so extensive that we must ' have respect to all his command- ments ;'n yet the duties of the first table, in which we have to do with God as the more immediate object of them, are to be considered as acts of religious wor- ship, in performing which we not only confess our obligation to obey him, but adore and magnify his divine perfections as the highest end and reason of our obedience. This feature is not included in the idea of the duties which we owe to our neigh- bour, as contained in the commandments of the second table. These, indeed, are to be religiously observed, not from any circumstance respecting our neighbour, but as duties which we perform in obedience to God.0 — Again, though the principal and most excellent branch of religion consists in our obeying the commandments of the first table ; yet our obedience is not only defective, but unacceptable to God, ii we neglect to perform those of the second. On the other hand, the performance of the duties of the second table is not sufficient to denominate a person a religious man, who lives in the neglect of those which are contained in the first. — Further, the i 1 Tim. i. 5. k Rom. xiii. 8. 1 Luke x. 27. m Eph. vi. 2. n Psal. cxix. 6. o Tlie former of these are generally styled the elicit acts of religion, the latter imperate. 316 THE DUTIES REQUIRED IN duties which we owe to our neighbour, as contained in the second table, are, for the most part, to give way to those which we owe to God, as enjoined in the first; especially when they are considered as standing in competition with them. Thus we are obliged, in the fifth commandment, to obey our parents or superiors ; yet, if they command us to bre*ak the Sabbath, profane the name of God, or attend on such worship as he has not required, we are to disobey them, or to 'obey God rather than men.'P Accordingly, it is said, ' If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go, and serve other gods ; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him.'i This our Saviour calls ' hating father and mother, wife, children, and brethren, 'r without which we cannot be his disciples. By this language he intends that, if the love which we otherwise owe them be inconsistent with that obedience which he requires of his followers, or if we cannot oblige them, and at the same time perform the duties which we owe to him, the inferior obligation must give way to the superior. THE DUTIES REQUIRED IN THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. Question CIII. Which is the first commandment? Answer. The first commandment is, " Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Question CIV. What are the duties required in the first commandment ? Answer. The duties required in the first commandment, are the knowing and acknowledging of God to be the only true God, and our God ; and to worship and glorify him accordingly, by think- ing, meditating, remembering, highly esteeming, honouring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fear ing of him, believing him, trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in him, being zealous for him, call- ing upon him, giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission to him, with the whole man, being careful in all things to please him, and sorrowful when in any thing he is offended, and walking humbly with him. The duties required in this commandment, are contained in three general Heads. 1. We are obliged to know God. This supposes that our understanding is rightly informed as to what relates to the divine perfections as displayed in the works of creation and providence, by which we are led into the knowledge of his eternal power and Godhead. This is called the natural knowledge of God. But that knowledge which we are to endeavour to attain, who have a brighter manifestation of his perfections in the gospel, is of a far more excellent and superior nature. For we see in the gospel, the glory of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; or behold the perfections of the divine nature as displayed in and through a Mediator. To know God thus, is to possess that knowledge which is absolutely necessary to sal- vation ; as our Saviour says, • This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.'8 By means of it we know, not only what God is, but our interest in him, and the foundation which we have of our being accepted in his sight. 2. We are farther commanded to acknowledge God, or make a visible profession of our subjection to him, and, in particular, to Christ, as our great Mediator. His name, interest, and glory, should be most dear to us ; and we are, on all occasions, to testify that we count it our glory to be his servants, and to make it appear that he is the supreme object of our desire and delight. Thus, the psalmist says, 1 1 cried unto thee, 0 Lord ; I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living;'1 and, 'Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.'u 3. We are farther obliged by this commandment to worship and glorify God, pursuant to what we know and the profession we make of him as the true God and our God. To worship and glorify God, is to ascribe all possible glory and perfec- tion to him, and to have our hearts suitably affected therewith, as sensible of that p Acts iv. 19. q Deut. xiii. 6, 8. r Luke xiv. 26. s John xvii. 3. t Psal. cxlii. 5. u Psal. lxxiii. 25. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS 317 infinite distance which we stand at from him. This is considered under several Heads, which contain the substance of what is required in this commandment. — First, we must make God the subject of our daily meditation : calling to mind what he is in himself, and what he is to us, or does for us. This is to be considered as a means to preserve us from sin, and a spur to duty, a motive to holy fear and re- verence.— Again, we are to honour, adore, and fear him for his greatness. Thus the psalmist says, • Who in heaven can be compared unto the Lord ? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord ? God is greatly to be feared in the assemblies of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. 'x — Further, as God is the best good, and has promised that he will be a God to us ; so he is to be desired, loved, delighted and rejoiced in, and chosen by us. Thus the prophet says, ' With my soul have I desired thee in the night ;'* and the church, ' I sat down under his shadow with great delight ;'z and the apostle, 'Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.'a — Further, as he is a God of truth, we are to believe all that he has spoken ; and, in particular, what he has revealed in his promises or threatenings, relating to mercies which he will bestow, or judgments which he will inflict. Thus our Saviour says, ' If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me ?'b And it is said that, when '■ Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses. 'c — Again, as he is able to save to the uttermost, and faithful in fulfilling all his promises, we are to trust him with all we have from him, and for all those bless- ings which we hope to receive at his hands. Thus the prophet says, ' Trust ye in the Lord for ever ; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. 'd And the apostle speaks of his ' having committed ' all to him,e as the consequence of what he knew him to be. — Again, when the name, interest, and glory of God are oppqsed in the world, we are to express an holy zeal for them. Thus the prophet Elijah says, ' I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts ; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword. 'f As to what concerns our conversation in general, we are to be 'not sloth- ful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.'s — Further, as he is a God who hears prayer, we are daily to call upon him, ' 0 thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.'h — Moreover, as he is the God of all our mercies, we are to thank and praise him for them. Thus the psalmist says, * 0 give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.'' — Further, his sover- eignty and dominion over us call for subjection and obedience, and a constant care to please him, and to approve ourselves to him in all things. Thus the apostle says, 4 Submit yourselves to God;'k and the psalmist speaks of a person's ' cleansing hia way, by taking heed thereto according to his word.'1 — Again, as he is an holy, jeal- ous, and sin-hating God, we are to be filled with grief and sorrow of heart when he is offended, either by ourselves or others. Thus Ephraim says, ' I was ashamed, yea, even confounded ; because I did bear the reproach of my youth. 'm And the psalmist says, ' Rivers of water run down mine eyes, because they, ' that is, the world in general, 'keep not thy law.'n — Finally, a sense of our unworthiness and daily in- firmities should excite us to ' walk humbly with God.' This is enjoined as a neces- sary duty,0 and is called a being 'clothed with humility. 'p Thus concerning the duties required in this commandment. That which may be farther observed is, that it is fitly placed before all the other commandments, because what it enjoins is, from the nature of the thing, necessary to our performing the duties which are required in them. The object of worship must first be known before we can apply ourselves, in a right manner, to perform any duty prescribed, whether respecting God or man. — It may be also farther consid- ered, that it is not an easy matter to keep this commandment, because of the spirit- uality and vast extent of the duty enjoined, and because of the many graces which are to be exercised by those who would perform it aright. Hence, we ought ear- x Psal. lxxxix. 6, 7- y Isa. xxvi. 9. z Cant. ii. 3. a John xxi. 15. b John viii. 46. c Exod. xiv. 31. d lsa. xxvi. 4. e 2 Tim. i. 12. f 1 Kings xix. 10. g Rom. xii. 11. h Psal. lxv. 2. i Psal. cxxxvi. 1. k James iv. 7- 1 Psal. cxix. 9. m Jer. xxxi. 19. n Psal. cxix. 136. o Muah vi. 8. pi Pet. v. 5. 318 THE SINS FORBIDDEN IN nestly to beg of God that our hearts may be set right with him, and inclined and excited by him to perform it. This is a peculiar blessing to be desired and expected from the Holy Spirit. Thus the psalmist says, • Incline my heart unto thy testi- monies.'^ THE SINS FORBIDDEN IN THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. Question CV. What are the sins forbidden in the first commandment? Answer. The sins forbidden in the lirst commandment, are, Atheism, in denying, or not having a God ; Idolatry, in having, or worshipping more gods than one, or any with, or instead of, the true God ; the not having and avouching him for God, and our God ; the omission or neglect of any thing due to him required in this commandment, ignorance, forgetfulness. misapprehensions, false opinions, unworthy and wicked thoughts of him, bold and curious searching into his secrets, all pro- faneness, hatred of God, self-love, self-seeking, and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will, or affections upon other things, and taking them off from him, in whole or in part ; vain credulity, unbelief, heresy, misbelief, distrust, despair, incorrigihleness, insensibleiiess under judgments, hardness of heart, pride, presumption, carnal security, tempting of God, using unlawful means, and trusting in lawful means, carnal delights and joys; corrupt, blind, and indiscreet zeal, lukewarmness, and deadness in the things of God, estranging ourselves, and apostatizing from God, praying or giving any religious worship to saints, angels, or any other creatures, all compacts, and consulting with the devil, and hearkening to his suggestions, making men the lords of our faith and conscience, slighting and despising God and his commandments, resisting and grieving of his Spirit, discontent, and impatience at his dispensations, charging him foolishly lor ihe evils he inflicts on us, and ascribing the praise of any good we either are, have, or can do, to fortune, idols, ourselves, or any other creature. Question C VI. What are we especially taught by these words before me in the first command- ment f Answer. These words before me, or ' before my face,' in the first commandment, teach us, that God who seeth all things, takes special notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god ; that so it may be an argument to dissuade from it, and to aggravate it, as a most impu- dent provocation, as also to persuade us to do, as in his sight, whatever we do in his service. The sins forbidden in this commandment may be reduced to two general Heads, atheism and idolatry. Atheism. By atheism men are so far from taking God for their God, that they deny that there is a God, or, at least, that he is what he has revealed himself to be. Thus the wicked man, who is styled 'a fool,' is represented as 'saying in his heart, There is no God.'r Atheism is either speculative or practical. The former is that which is seated in the minds and consciences of men ; who are so far blinded, perverted, and deluded as to think that there is no God. There are, indeed, very few among these who are so bold and profane as to deny this truth when they at- tend to the dictates of nature, or duly exercise those reasoning faculties with which God has endowed them ; by neglecting to do which, they must be reckoned but one remove from brutes. Some, it is true, are ready to wish that there were no God ; or, inclined to deny those divine perfections which are essential to him, they cast contempt on his government, or, it may be, deny a providence ; which is, in effect, to deny that there is a God. It must be observed, however, that none pro- ceed to this degree of wickedness, till, by a long continuance in sin, they are given up to judicial hardness of heart, and blindness of mind.s And even these have been forced, at times, to confess that there is a God, with whom is terrible majesty ; when he has broken in on their consciences, and filled them with the dreadful ap- prehensions of his wrath, as a sin-revenging Judge. — But where there is one speculative atheist, there are a thousand practical ones, who live without God in the world ; a\id these are described in this Answer, as being guilty of those sins which none who duly consider his divine perfections would venture to commit. To en- q Psal. cxix. 36. r Psal. xiv. 1. s Rom. i. 28; Eph. iv. 17 20. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. 319 large on every one of those instances, particularly mentioned in this Answer, in which this sin is supposed to consist, would require a distinct treatise, and be in- consistent with our designed brevity in explaining the ten commandments. All, therefore, that we shall attempt at present, shall be to consider some instances in which practical atheism discovers itself, together with the aggravations of this sin ; and then we shall inquire what judgment we are to pass concerning those who com- plain of atheistical and blasphemous thoughts, and consider whether this be a de- gree of that atheism which we are speaking of, and what are the causes of this sin, and the remedies against it. 1. We shall first consider the instances in which practical atheism discovers itself. Among these are the following : — To be grossly ignorant, and know nothing of God but the name, — being utter strangers to those perfections whereby he makes himself known to the world ; or to entertain carnal conceptions of him, as though he were altogether such an one as ourselves.* — Never seriously to exercise thoughts about God, though we know, in some measure, what he is. This forgetfulness is a degree of atheism, and will be severely punished by him.u — To maintain corrupt doctrines and dangerous heresies, subversive of the fundamental articles of faith, and contrary to the divine perfections. Of this kind are those doctrines which militate against his sovereignty and dominion over the wills, consciences, and affec- tions of men ; when we conclude that his counsels and determinations may be dis- annulled or defeated ; or when we suppose that he changes, as we do ; or when, under a pretence of advancing one perfection, we set aside the glory of another ; when, in order to magnify his mercy, we disregard his holiness or justice, and so presume that we shall be happy without being holy ; or when we give way to de- spairing thoughts, from the consideration of his vindictive justice, without improv- ing the displays of his mercy, as set forth in the gospel.— - Again, to repine and quarrel at his providence, and pretend to find fault with the dispensations of it ; or charge God foolishly, and go about to prescribe laws to him, who is the Governor of the world, and may do what he will with the work of his hands. — To refuse to engage in those acts of religious worship which he has appointed, or to attend on his ordinances, in which we may hope for his presence and blessing. — To behave ourselves, in the conduct of our lives, as though we were not accountable to him, and had no reason to be afraid of his judgments ; when we set our affections on other things, and take them off from him ; when we are guilty of wilful impeni- tence and unbelief, and are incorrigible under divine rebukes ; when our hearts and lives are estranged from him, as though we desired not the knowledge of his ways ; when we resist and grieve his Spirit, are discontented and impatient under his hand, or ascribe that to second causes or to chance which is under the direction of his pro- vidence. In these and many other instances, persons are notoriously guilty of practical atheism, which is forbidden in this commandment. 2. We are now to consider the aggravations and dreadful consequences of this sin. It is contrary to the light of nature, and the dictates of conscience, a disre- garding of those impressions which God has made of his glory on the souls of men. In those who have been favoured with the revelation of the grace of God in the gospel, in which hfs perfections have been set forth to the utmost, it is a shutting of our eyes against the light, and casting contempt on that which should raise our admiration, and excite in us the highest esteem of him whom we practically disown and deny. — Again, it is directly opposite to all religion, and entirely inconsistent with it, and opens a door to the greatest degree of licentiousness. To live without God in the world, is to give the reins to our own corruptions. It is not merely a sin of infirmity or inadvertency, but a running in all excess of riot ; and therefore the consequence of it must be dreadful ; for that which strikes at the very being of God, cannot but expose the sinner to the sorest condemnation. 3. But there are some sins mentioned in this Answer, which contain a degree of practical atheism, and which believers themselves are prone to fall into and com- plain of, such as forgetfulness of God, unbelief, distrust of his providence, insensi- bility under judgments, too great a degree of hardness of heart, pride, carnal t Psal. 1. 21. u Psal. ix. 17, and 1. 22. 320 THE SINS FORBIDDEN IN security, discontent and impatience under his dispensations. That believers are subject to these sins may tend very much to discourage them, and make them con- clude that they are not in a state of grace ; especially when they find, as sometimes they do, atheistical and blasphemous thoughts suggested to their minds. We must hence inquire what judgment we are to pass concerning those who are ready to charge themselves with practical atheism, especially as to those unbecoming thoughts and conceptions which they sometimes have of the divine Majesty? whether this be altogether inconsistent with the truth of grace, together with the causes of it, and the remedies against it ? It is certain that the best of God's people are sanctified but in part, and there- fore are prone to commit those sins which seem to involve a denial, at least, a neglect, of that regard which we ought to have for the divine perfections, and especially when we are followed not only with vain but with blasphemous thoughts, which give great disturbance to us when engaged in holy duties. This state of mind ought to be reckoned a very great affliction, and occasion many searchings of heart ; since sometimes it brings much guilt with it. Yet we are not always to conclude from it that we are in a state of unregeneracy. It is the prevalency of corruption, or the dominion of sin, which is inconsistent with the truth of grace, not the remains of it. A person may have faith, who yet complains of unbelief. He may have a due regard to God, as to what respects the course and tenor of his actions ; and yet, in many instances, be chargeable with forgetfulness of him. He may have a love to him, and yet sometimes be guilty of indiscreet zeal, on the one hand, or of lukewarmness and deaduess of heart, on the other. His mind and affections may be sanctified ; and yet he be sometimes followed with atheistical and blasphemous thoughts. — We have instances in scripture of good men, who have spoken not only unadvisedly, but, as we may term it, wickedly with their lips. Thus Job is justly reproved by Elihu for charging God with ' finding occa- sions against him ; putting his feet in the stocks, and marking all his paths;'1 as though his dealings with him had been unjust and severe ; especially when he says at the same time, ' I am clean, and without transgression ; I am innocent ; neither is there iniquity in me.'y Jonah, also, when he was reproved by God for his pas- sionate behaviour towards him, vindicated himself, and said, ' I do well to be angry, even unto death.'2 These are expressions which savour of a degree of atheism ; and so do those unbecoming conceptions of God whereby our thoughts are sometimes defiled and depraved. But it is one thing to be guilty of this through surprise and the prevalency of temptation, and another thing to have these thoughts indulged by and lodged in us unrepented of. — Moreover, there are some instances in which believers are afflicted with atheistical and blasphemous thoughts, when it is hard to say that they contract guilt by them, or, at least, their being afflicted with them must be reckoned only an infirmity arising from the present imperfect state. It must especially be thus viewed when the thoughts are injected by Satan, and are without the consent of our wills, but treated with the utmost abhorrence, constantly bewailed and resisted with all our might ; more particularly when we take occasion from them to exercise those graces which discover that we have other apprehen- sions of God than what are suggested at those times when we are hurried by these temptations, and can scarcely say that we have the government of our own thoughts ; especially if we are enabled to say, at such a time as our Saviour did, when un- advisably tempted by Peter, who was at the time the devil's instrument to per- suade him to relinquish the work which he came into the world to perform, ■ Get thee behind me Satan, thou art an offence to me.'a Let us now consider the causes of such atheistical and blasphemous thoughts. Sometimes they proceed from a neglect of waiting on God in his ordinances, or from indulging a carnal and stupid frame of spirit in them, and not maintaining that holy reverence, or becoming sense of his all-seeing eye, which we ought always to have. Moreover, there is nothing that has a greater tendency to produce them, than our conversing with those who make religion the subject of their pro- x Job xxxiii. 10, 11. y Ver. 9. z Jonah iv. 9. a Matt. xvi. 23 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. 321 •fane wit aad drollery ; especially if we do this out of choice, and do not at the same time testify a just abhorrence of it. As for those remedies which are to be made use of to protect against and cure the sinfulness of our thoughts in such instances ; it behoves us to repent of those sins which may have been the occasion of them or have given rise to them. And is it is not in our own power to govern our hearts or affections, or restrain the breakings forth of corruption ; it is necessary for us to commit our souls into Christ's hands, with earnest supplications to him that he would sanctify, regulate, and cleanse our thoughts, and bring us into and keep us in a good frame. We ought also to desire, seek after, and improve all opportunities of conversing with " those whose discourse is holy and profitable. b By this means our affections may be raised, and our thoughts tinctured with divine things, which will leave an abid- ing impression behind them.c Idolatry. Wo proceed now to consider this commandment as forbidding idolatry. When it is said, ' Thou shalt have no other gods,' the meaning is, ' Thou shalt not wor- ship idols, or set a creature in the place of God, or pay that regard to it which is due to him alone.' Here it may not be inconvenient to consider the difference between idolatry, as it is a breach of the first and of the second commandment. As it is a breach of the first commandment, it contains a giving of divine honour to that which is not God ; but as it is a sin against the second commandment, it is a wor- shipping of God by the creature, to whom an inferior kind of worship is given. Thus when the Papists worship God by images, supposing them to be an help to their devotion, or a means of performing that worship which they pretend to be given ultimately to God ; or when they ascribe any branch of divine glory to saints or angels ; notwithstanding what they say to exculpate themselves from the breach^ of the first commandment, they are justly chargeable with the breach of the second. We are here to consider the idolatry more especially which is forbidden in the first commandment. This is either what is more gross, such as that which is found among the heathen ; or that which is more secret, and may be found in the hearts of all, and is discovered by the practice of multitudes of Christians, who profess the utmost detestation of idolatry in the other sense. 1. We shall first consider idolatry in the former sense, together with the rise and progress of it. As to its rise, we may observe, that it proceeded from the ignorance and pride of man, who, though he could not but know, by the light of nature, that there is a God, yet, being ignorant of his perfections, or of what he has revealed himself to be in his word, was disposed to frame those ideas of a God which took their rise from his invention. Accordingly, the apostle says, • When ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.'d When iniquity abounded in the world, and men withdrew from the ordinances of God, and cast contempt on them, they invented and worshipped new gods. In this man- ner some suppose Cain and his posterity acted, when ' he went out from the pre- sence of the Lord ;'e and ' the sons of God,' that is, the church, when they con- tracted marriages with ' the daughters of men, 'f and joined with them in idolatry; so that it is no wonder if persons leave the true worship of God, that they should choose to themselves other gods. When men acted thus, God gave them up to judicial blindness; so that ' they worshipped the host of heaven, *s as the apostle says the heathen did. As to the idolatry which was practised among the Israelites, it took its rise from the fond ambition which they had to be like other nations, who were abhorred of God. They counted the religion of the heathen a fashionable religion ; and find- ing the true worshippers of God to be fewer in number than the rest of the world, so that, as the prophet says, they were 'like a speckled bird,' despised and hated by the heathen 'round about them,'h they approved and learned the heathen's b Mai. iii. 16. c Luke xxiv. 32. d Gal. iv. 8. e Gen. ir. 16. f Gen. vi. 2. g Acts vii. 42. b Jcr. xii. 9. II. 2 s 322 THE SINS FORBIDDEN IN ways. It was this which occasioned Solomon to cleave to them in love -,'1 which was not much unlike the argument used by Demetrius and his followers why Diana should be worshipped, namely, ' because all Asia and the world worshipped her.'* The devil was permitted, for the trial of the faith of God's people, and as an in- stance of his righteous judgment on his enemies, to abuse the unthinking part of the world by various signs and lying wonders. Thus we read of prophets, and dreamers of dreams, who gave forth signs and wonders which God sometimes j udicially suffered to come to pass ; whereby many took occasion to 'go after other gods.'1 Antichrist also is said ' to come after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders. 'm These signs and lying wonders were managed by the craft and covetousness of the priests, who made a gain of them, and amused the common people by them. The heathen oracles, so much spoken of by ancient writers, which gave countenance to their idolatry, are reckoned by some to have been no other than a contrivance of those who had little else but secular interest in view. When they predicted things future, or revealed secrets, they generally did so in doubtful expressions ; so that whether the thing really came to pass or not, the end designed might be answered. Now there was doubtless a hand of Sa- tan in this matter, to harden the world in that idolatry which was then practised by them. The gods they worshipped were as numerous as the countries and king- doms where idolatry prevailed. Every nation, yea, every city, had its particular god and distinct modes of worship. — Some worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, supposing that their regular motion and influence on earthly bodies was not to be attributed to the all-wise providence of God, but to some intelligent being which resided in them, and gave them that motion and influence on account of which they worshipped them as gods. This worship of the heavenly bodies was practised by some in the early age in which Job lived ; n and the Israelites were warned against it.° Afterwards we read of ' idolatrous priests, who burnt incense to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven ;' and dedi- cated ' horses and chariots to the sun.'P — Again, others worshipped the earth, and many creatures therein, especially those from which they received more than an ordinary advantage. Thus the Egyptians worshipped the river Nile ; by the over- flowing of which their country was rendered fertile. Some who lived in maritime towns worshipped the sea, thinking thereby to prevent an inundation from it. And the Philistines worshipped Dagon ; inasmuch, as living near the sea, it afforded them plenty of fish. — Others worshipped those parts of the earth which they most delighted in ; such as gardens, woods, groves, springs, h Ejib. vi. 5, & ■'* J i Eph. vi. 4. RELATIVE DUTIES. 375 into them those things which are spiritual. It is, indeed, a difficult matter to speak to them about divine things, so as to lead them into the knowledge of them, and requires a great measure of wisdom and faithfulness. One of the first duties which they owe to their children, is acknowledging God's right to them, putting them un- der his care, giving them up to him, hoping and trusting in Christ that he will be- stow on them the saving blessings of the covenant of grace, and that in their early life. Moreover, as children soon discover themselves to have a corrupt nature, this ought to be checked and guarded against, as much as is in our power. All habits of sin are of an increasing nature, and though it is difficult to prevent them, we shall find it much more difficult to root them out. Now, that we may instil into the minds of children the principles of religion, as soon as they are capable of receiving instruction, various things are to be observed. First, parents must take great care that they neither speak nor act any thing before their children, which may tend to corrupt their minds, or which may afford a bad example of pernicious consequence for them to follow ; nor ought they to suffer those passions to break forth which may render them mean and contemptible in the eyes of their children, or give them occasion, by example, to indulge the same pas- sions.— Again, they must take heed that they do not, on the one hand, exercise severity for trifles, or for those inadvertencies which children are chargeable with, or, on the other, too much indulge them in that incorrigibleness and profaneness which they sometimes see in them. — Further, they must separate from them all companions or servants from whom they may imbibe the principles of sin, and oblige those who have the immediate care of their education to instil into them the principles of religion, and, at the same time, to recommend to them the pleasure, beauty, and advantage of holiness in all, but especially in young ones. — Further, the examples which we have, either in scripture, or our own observation in the world, of those who have devoted themselves to God and been early religious, are to be frequently inculcated for their imitation, with all the affecting and moving ex- pressions which it is possible for the parents to use, and with a particular applica- tion of these examples to their children's case. On the other hand, the miserable consequences which have attended persons neglecting to embrace the ways of God in the days of their youth, and the sore judgments which have often followed, are also to be set before them ; as it is said, ' His bones are full of the sin of his youth.' k — Again, reproofs for sin are to be given, with a zeal and concern for the glory of God, and yet with such affection as may convince children that, in those things in which they are ready to think their parents their enemies, they appear to be their greatest friends. — Moreover, they who have the care of children, ought, on the one hand, to take heed that they do not lead them into, or give them occasion to rest in, a formal or external appearance of religion ; and, on the other hand, they are not to use any methods which may induce them to think that a burden or a re- proach which they ought to esteem their delight and honour. — Further, those op- portunities are more especially to be embraced, in which instructions are most likely to be regarded by them ; as when they are inquisitive about divine things. An inquisitive state of mind should give the parent occasion to be particular in ex- plaining to them matters about which they make inquiry. Thus God commands Israel, ' When thy son asketh thee in time to come, What mean the testimonies and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord thy God commanded you ? say unto him, we were Pharaoh's bondsmen ;n and so they were to relate to their chil- dren those dispensations of providence towards them which gave occasion to these statutes which he had appointed. — Finally, parents should let their children know that their obedience to God's commands will always entitle them to the greatest share in their affection, that this may be a motive and inducement to their per- forming it. 2. We are now to consider the duty which masters owe to their servants. They ought to recommend the good ways of God to them, endeavouring to persuade them to be religious ; and, by their exemplary conversation in their families, whereby they adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, afford them an additional k Job xx. 11. 1 Deut. vi. 20, 21. \ 376 RELATIVE DUTIES. motive to become so. They ought likewise to encourage religion in their servants, as well as diligence and industry. For, as the one tends to the advantage of those to whom their service is due ; the other tends to the glory of God, and the good of tho souls of those who are found in the practice of it. Masters should also en- deavour to instruct their servants in the principles of religion, especially if igno- rant. Moreover, they should allow them sufficient time for religious duties ; which, if needful, ought to be taken out of that time in which they would otherwise be employed in their service. This they ought to do, considering that the best Chris- tians are likely to make the most faithful servants. 3. We are now to consider the duty of magistrates towards their subjects. They ought to endeavour to promote their liberty, safety, and happiness, by the justice and clemency of their administration. Thus it is said, ' He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.'m By this means thev will lay their sub- jects under the highest obligation to duty and obedience ; and the respect which they have from them, will render the station in which they are more agreeable. They ought also to defend the rights of subjects, when injured, against their op- pressors ; that they may appear to be, as it were, their common fathers, to whom they have recourse in all difficulties, and from whom they find redress. They ought farther to encourage and support the common design of Christianity, by sup- pressing irreligion and profaneness, and every thing which is a scandal to the Chris- tian name, or a reproach to a well-ordered government. 4 The Sins of Superiors against Inferiors. We are now led to consider the sins of superiors. One sin in their behaviour towards their inferiors, is pride and haughtiness. They commit this when they treat those who are below them with contempt and disdain ; as though, because they are not, in many respects, their equals, they were not their fellow-creatures. This sin discovers itself either in reproachful words or actions. Thus the Phari- sees treated those whom they apprehended inferior to them in gifts or station in the church, with contempt ; so that they often made use of that aphorism, • This people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed.'11 — Another sin of superiors is, when masters exact severe and unmerciful labour, beyond what is reasonable, of their servants. This is little better than the oppression of the Egyptian task-masters ; who com- manded the Israelites to make brick without straw,0 and beat them, and dealt severely with them, because they could not fulfil their unreasonable exactions. Sin is committed by those who, being princes or generals, exercise inhuman cruelty, contrary to the law of nature and nations, towards their conquered enemies, when they have them in their power. This David seems to have been charged with, as a blemish in his reign ; when he put the men of Rabbah, after he had con- quered them, ' under saws, and under harrows of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kilns. Thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon.' Such conduct seems hardly justifiable by martial law, and therefore must be reckoned a failing in him ; unless indeed the Ammonites had done something extraordinary to deserve it, or had used Israel in a similar manner ; for in that case it might be reckoned a just reprisal upon them.P We may add, that magistrates do not behave to their subjects as they ought, and therefore commit sin, when they inflict punish- ment beyond what the law directs, or the crime deserves. Small offences are not to be punished with death, as capital crimes are ; since the punishment must be greater or less, in proportion to the crime. Thus God enjoined a certain number of stripes for some crimes committed ; and if the rulers inflicted a greater number, * their brother would seem vile unto them, 'i that is, they would treat him with greater severity than the nature of the crime demanded. Again, superiors sin, when they take advantage of the necessities of the poor, in buying or selling. This is called a 'grinding the faces of the poor.'1" — Further, masters or parents sin, in giving undue correction to their servants or children for m 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. n John vii. 49. o Exod. v. 15, 16. p 2 Sam. xii. 31. q Deut. xxv. 2, 3, r Isa. iii. 14, 15. RELATIVE DUTIES. 377 small faults ; as when they punish the neglect of some punctilios of respect which are due to them, with greater severity than they do open sins against God ; or when they are transported with unreasonable passion for trifles. By this conduct they render themselves hated by their dependents, and provoke them to wrath, rather than promote the end of chastisement, which is the glory of God and their good. This the apostle forbids parents to do ;8 and he also speaks of ' the fathers of our flesh chastising us after their own pleasure, ** as being disagreeable to the divine dispensations, and consequently not to be justified in those who practise it.— Again, superiors sin, when they command those things of their inferiors which are in themselves sinful, which they cannot in their consciences comply with ; or when they demand those things which are impossible, and are enraged against them for not doing them. — Finally, superiors sin, when they surmise that their inferiors have committed a fault, which they resent and punish, without suffering them to vindicate themselves, though they request this favour in the most submissive way. This is to extend their authority beyond the bounds of reason. The Duties of Equals. We shall now consider the duties of equals. They ought to encourage and strengthen the hands of one another in the ways of God ; which is the great end and design of Christian societies. They ought to sympathize with one another in their weakness, warning and helping each other, when exposed to temptations or overcome by them. They ought to defend one another when reproached by the enemies of God and religion. They ought to love one another, and rejoice in each other's welfare. Finally, they ought to withdraw from the society of those who are a reproach to the good ways of God, or endeavour to turn them aside from them. The Sins of Equals. We shall now consider the sins of equals. One sin is to entertain unjust and unfriendly quarrels, contrary to that love which ought to be amongst brethren. — Another sin is to affect or usurp pre-eminence over one another ; as Diotrephes did, whom the apostle speaks of, who ' loved to have the pre-eminence amongst them.'u Christ's disciples themselves were sometimes liable to this charge ; especially when 'there was a strife among them, which of them should be accounted greatest.* This our Saviour is so far from commending in them, that he reproves them for it. — Again, it is a great sin, when equals endeavour to make breaches amongst those who are otherwise inclined to live peaceably with one another. This is the wretched employment of tale-bearers, busy-bodies, make-bates, and slanderers, who delight to raise and propagate false reports ; as the psalmist supposes some inclined to do, who are distinguished from those who ' do not backbite with their tongue, nor take up a reproach against their neighbour, '* &c. This sin is reckoned one of those things which the Lord hates.z — Further, equals are guilty of sin, when they insult and take occasion to expose their brethren, for those weaknesses and infir- mities which they see in them, not considering that they also are liable to the same themselves. — Finally, they are guilty when they endeavour to ensnare and entice others to sin. This vile practice Solomon takes notice of ;a and he cautions those who are tempted, against consenting to or complying with those who entice them. g Eph. vi. 4. t Heb. xii. 10. u 3 Jobn 9. x Luke xxii. 24. y Psal. xv. 8. z Prov. vi. 19. a Chap. i. 10, 15. u. 3b 378 THE REASONS ANNEXED TO THE REASONS ANNEXED TO THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. Question CXXXIII. What is the reason annexed to the fifth commandment the more to enforce it f Answer. The reason annexed to the fifth commandment, in these words, " That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee," is an express promise of long life and prosperity, as far as it shall serve for God's glory, and their own good, to all such as keep his com- mandment. The reasons annexed to the fifth commandment are included in the promise of long life to such as keep it. It is inquired by some, whether this promise is to be ap- plied to none but the Israelites ; since there is mention of the land which the Lord gave them, namely, Canaan. Now, though the Israelites might make a particular application of it to themselves ; yet it extends to men in all ages and places. Ac- cordingly, the apostle Paul, mentioning this commandment, and the promise an- nexed to it, instead of those words, ' That thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,' uses a mode of expression which is applicable to us as well as them, ' That thou mayest live long on the earth. 'b 1. Here we may inquire whether this promise be made good as to the letter of it, to all who keep this commandment ; especially as we find, that, according to the common methods of providence, some good men live but a short time in this world, while the wicked often live to a great age. That the lives of some good men have been short, needs not be proved. Abijah, the best of Jeroboam's family, in whom some good thing was found towards the Lord God of Israel, died when a child.0 Josiah, who was one of the best of the kings that reigned over Judah, lived but thirty-nine years ; for it is said that ' he was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years. 'd Enoch excelled all the patriarchs who lived before the flood, and was more honoured than they in being translated to heaven, without dying ; yet he continued but a little while in this world, if we compare the time he lived here with the time which men generally lived before the deluge. He lived but three hundred and sixty-five years ; while several others are said to have lived above nine hundred years. Joseph, also, who was the most re- markable for showing honour to parents, and performing the duties belonging to other relations, of any we read of in scripture, lived but an hundred and ten years ; e while Levi, who had been a reproach to his father, and a dishonour to the family in general, lived an hundred thirty and seven years. f 2. We shall now consider how such dispensations of providence may be accounted for, consistently with the promise annexed to this commandment. Now, it may be observed that, when God takes his saints out of the world when young, his doing so is sometimes a peculiar instance of compassion to them, in taking them from the evil to come. Thus Josiah died, as was but now hinted, when young ; but death was in mercy to him, that he might not see the evil which God would bring on Judah for their sins.s Again, God's people are, at their death, possessed of a better world, which is the best exchange ; so that, were the matter referred to their own choice, they would choose heaven before the longest life, and the best advantages they can enjoy in this world. Further, old age is not a blessing, unless it be adorned with grace. ' The hoary head is,' indeed, 'a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness;'11 but not otherwise. Good men are not destroyed by the blast of God's wrath ; but gathered, like a shock of corn, when fully ripe. They are meet for, and then received into, a better world. Hence, ' the child ' dying in Christ is said 'to die an hundred years old;'1 while ■ the sinner, being an hundred years old, is accursed.' 3. We shall now inquire how far, or in what respects, we are to hope for and de- sire the accomplishment of the promises of temporal good things. Temporal good things are to be desired, not ultimately for themselves, but as subservient to the glory of God. And long life in particular is a blessing, so far as it affords more b Eph. vi. 2, 3. c 1 Kings xiv. 12, 13. d 2 Kings xxii. 1. e Gen. 1. 26. i Exod. vi. 16. g 2 Kings xxii. 20. h Prov. xvi. 31. i Isa. lxv. 20. THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 379 space to do service to the interest of Christ in the world. They are to be desired, also, with an entire submission to the will of God, and with a resolution to acknow- ledge that he is righteous, and to magnify his name though he deny them to us, considering that he knows what is best for us, and may do what he will with his own. We are further to desire that God would give us temporal good things in mercy, as pledges of eternal happiness, and not in wrath. Thus the psalmist says, ' There be many that say, Who will show us any good ? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.'k 4. We shall now inquire with what frame of spirit we ought to bear the loss of temporal good things, which we have been encouraged by God's promise to hope for. Here let it be considered that, if God does not fulfil his promise in the way and manner which we expect, in granting us temporal good things ; yet we must justify him, and condemn ourselves ; for none can say that he does no^ forfeit all blessings daily. We are hence to say, ' Let God be true, and every man a liar. He is a God of infinite faithfulness ; but we are unfaithful, and not steadfast in his covenant.' Again, we are not to conclude that our being deprived of temporal good things which we expected, is a certain sign that we have no right to or inter- est in those better things which accompany salvation ; as the wise man says, ' No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before him.'1 Further, we are to reckon the loss of temporal good things as a trial of our faith and patience ; and endeavour, under such disappointments, to make it to appear that the world was not the main thing we had in view, but that Christ and spiritual blessings in him were the spring of all our religion. 5. It may farther be inquired what those things are which tend to make a long life happy, and for which alone it is to be desired. Life is sometimes attended with miseries which induce a believer to desire to depart and be with Christ, as the weary traveller desires rest. Now, though, in the promise annexed to the fifth commandment, we have no mention of any thing bu^ long life ; yet the apostle, when explaining it, adds that those who keep it shall have a prosperous life, with- out which long life would not be so great a blessing. Thus he says, ' That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long upon the earth.'™ Now, there are three things which tend to make a long life happy. First, experience of growth in grace, in proportion to our advances in age, according to that promise, ' They shall bring forth fruit in old age ; they shall be fat and flourishing.'11 Secondly, a re- taining of our natural abilities, and of that strength and vigour of mind which we formerly had. This some are deprived of, through the infirmities of old age ; and so they may be said to outlive themselves. It was a peculiar blessing which God granted to Moses, concerning whom it is said, ' He was an hundred and twenty years old when he died,' and yet 'his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abat- ed.'0 Thirdly, old age is a blessing when our usefulness to others, in our day and generation, is continued. Thus Joshua died an old man ; but it was a peculiar blessing that he was useful to the end. For in the very close of his life * he made a covenant with the people in Shechem ;'p and laid strict commands on them to behave themselves towards God as they ought to do. k Psal. iv. 6. 1 Eccl. ix. 1. m Eph. vi. 3. n Psal. xcii. 14. o Deut. xxxiv. 7« p Josh. xxiv. 25. compared with 29. 380 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. Question CXXXIV. Which is the sixth commandment t Answer. The sixth commandment is, "Thou shalt not kill." Question CXXXV. What are the duties required in the sixth commandment? Answer. The duties required in the sixth commandment are, all careful studies, and lawful en- deavours to preserve the life of ourselves, and others, by resisting all thoughts and purposes, sub- duing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices, which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any ; by just defence thereof against violence, patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit, a sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labour, and recreations, by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness, peace- able, mild, and courteous speeches and behaviour, forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil, comforting and succouring the dig- tressed, and protecting and defending the innocent. Question CXXXVI. What are the sins forbidden in the sixtk commandment f Answer. The sins forbidden in the sixth commandment are, all taking away the life of ourselves, or of others, except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defence ; the neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means of preservation of life ; sinful anger, hatred, envy, de- sire of revenge, all excessive passions, distracting cares, immoderate use of meat, drink, labour, and recreations; provoking words, oppressing, quarrelling, striking, wounding, and whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any. The Duties Enjoined in the Sixth Commandment. In explaining this commandment, we shall first consider the positive part of it, or the duties required in it. We should use all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life, and the life of others ; and consequently we should avoid all those pas- sions, and other things, which maj afford an occasion to take it away, and live in the constant exercise of the duties of temperance and sobriety, as to what respects ourselves, and of meekness, gentleness, and forgiveness of injuries, as to what con- cerns others. In this commandment it is supposed that life is the most valuable blessing of nature. Hence, to take it away, is to do the utmost injury which can be attempted against us. The valuableness of the life of man appears in four things. First, it is the result of the union of the soul with the body ; which is the principle of those actions that are put forth by us as intelligent creatures. Hence, life is to be esteemed in proportion to the excellency of the soul ; which is the no- blest part of the creation, angels excepted. Again, nothing can compensate or satisfy for the taking away of the life of man, how much satisfaction soever may be given for the loss of other things. Further, man is the subject of the divine image ; which supposes us to have a more excellent life than any other creatures in this lower world, and is assigned as a reason of our obligation to preserve life.** Fi- nally life is given and continued to us, in order that the most valuable ends may be attained, conducive to the glory of God, the advancement of religion in the world, and the promoting of our everlasting happiness. We may hence take an estimate of its excellency ; and it contains the highest motive to us, to yield obe- dience to this commandment. This leads us to consider the means whioh we are to use, to preserve our own lives, and the lives of others. As to the preservation of our own lives, we are not to rush presumptuously into danger of death, without a divine warrant ; for to do so is to be prodigal of life. We are also to exercise sobriety and temperance, avoid- ing gluttony, drunkenness, lust, and all exorbitant passions ; which tend to impair the health, as well as defile the conscience. Moreover, when occasion requires it, we are to have recourse to the skill of physicians, and make use of those medicines which may conduce to repair the weakness and decays of nature. As to our en- deavours to preserve the lives of others, we are to caution them against those things which would tend to destroy their health, and, by degrees, their lives. We must also discover and detect all secret plots and contrivances which may be directed q Gen. ix. 6. _, THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 381 against them ; and we are to support and relieve those who are ready to perish by extreme poverty, yea, though they were our enemies.1" We are also to defend those who are in imminent danger of death.8 Nevertheless, we must not use un- warrantable means, though it were to save our own lives. In times of persecution, for example, we are not to renounce the truths of God, or give occasion to the com- mon enemy to revile them, or speak evil of them, by avoiding to suffer for the cause of Christ. Preferring a profession of the truth to the preservation of life, was that noble principle by which the martyrs whom the apostle speaks of were actuated. 1 They were tortured, not accepting deliverance ;'* that is, when they were exposed to the most exquisite torments, and their lives offered them if they would deny Christ, they would not accept of deliverance on so dishonourable terms. Neither are we, at any time, to tell a lie, or do that which is contrary to truth, though it were to save our lives. The Sins Forbidden in the Sixth Commandment. We shall now consider the sins forbidden in this commandment. These are either the taking away of life, or the doing of that which has a tendency to take it away. 1. It is unlawful to take away the life of another. But this is to be considered with some exceptions or limitations. Life may be taken away in lawful wars. Thus we read of many wars begun and carried on, and much blood shed in them, by God's direc- tion, and with his approbation and blessing ; on which account, it is said that ' the war was of God. ' u Yet, when wars are proclaimed merely to satisfy the pride and avarice of princes, as in Benhadad's war against Ahab,x or in the war of the Romans on the countries round about them, merely to enlarge their own dominions by ruin- ing others, or in those which the devil excites and antichrist carries on against the church, for their faithfulness to the truth ;? the law of God is broken, and all the blood shed in them is a breach of this commandment. — Again, it is no violation of this commandment, to take away the life of offenders, guilty of capital crimes, by the hand of the civil magistrate ; for the doing of this is elsewhere commanded, and magistrates are appointed for that end.2 [See Note T, page 386.] — Further, it is no breach of this commandment, when a person kills another without design, or the least degree of premeditated malice. Yet the utmost caution ought to be used, that persons may not lose their lives through the carelessness and inadver- tency of others.— Moreover, in some instances, a person may kill another in his own defence, without being guilty of the breach of this commandment. But this is to be considered with certain limitations. If there be only a design or conspiracy against our lives, but no immediate attempt made to take them away ; we are to defend ourselves, by endeavouring to put him who designed the execrable act out of a capacity of hurting us ; and we are to do this by having recourse to the protec- tion of the~ law, whereby he may be restrained, or we secured. This was the method which Paul took, when the Jews had bound themselves with an oath to slay him. He informed the chief captain of their conspiracy, and had recourse to the law for his safety.3 If, again, there be a present attempt made against our lives, we should rather choose to disarm the enemy, or flee from him, than take away his life. But if this cannot be done, so that we must either lose our own life or take away his, we do not incur the least guilt, or break this commandment, if we take away his life to preserve our own ; especially if we were not first in the quarrel, nor gave occasion to it by any injurious or unlawful practices. Here it may be inquired whether it be lawful for two persons to fight a duel, upon a set challenge or provocation given. Now, when a war between two armies may be terminated, and the shedding of much blood prevented by a duel, it is not unlawful ; provided it be by mutual consent, and with the approbation of those on both sides who have a right of making war and peace ; and if the matter in con- r Rom. xii. 20 ; Job xxxi. 19, 20, 22. s Psal. Ixxx'u 3, 4; Prov. xxiv. 11, 12. t Heb. xi. 35. u I Chron. v. 22. x 1 Kings xx. 1, et seq.^ y Rev. xii. 17; Chap. xiii. 7» * Deut. xvii. 8—10; Rom. xiii. 4. a Acts xxiii. 21. 382 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. troversy may be thus decided, without tempting providence. We have a remark- able instance of this, in the duel fought between David and Goliah.b It is unlaw- ful, however, for two persons, each seeming too prodigal of his life, to give and accept a challenge, and in prosecution of it to endeavour to put an end to each other's life, merely to gratify their own passion or pride. This, though falsely called honour, will, in reality, render them vile in the eyes of God, and notoriously guilty of the breach of this commandment. Here we may consider the wicked practice of those who have obliged the poor wretches, who were under their command, to murder one another for their diver- sion. This Joab and Abner did, when they said, ' Let the young men arise and play before us ; and every one thrust his sword in his fellow's side.'0 There is also an unlawful diversion, which, though not altogether so barbarous and cruel, is, in some respects, a breach of this commandment, namely, when persons fight with and wound one another, without design of killing, merely to get a little money, while entertaining a number of unthinking persons with their folly. In this case they that fight, and they that look on, are equally guilty.d Thus concerning the • sin of killing one another. We shall now explain two or three difficulties which occur in scripture, relating to the actions of some good men, who seem to have been guilty of the breach of this com- mandment, but really were not so. It is inquired, whether Elijah was chargeable with the breach of it in destroying Baal's prophets, when ' he ordered that none of them should escape ; and he brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.'6 Now, it may be observed that it was not a small inoffensive error which these prophets of Baal were punished for ; but apostacy from God. That the per- sons deserved the punishment they received appears from various considerations. They were the advisers and ringleaders of all Israel's idolatry, and the abettors and principal occasion of the violent persecution which then raged against the Lord's prophets and true worshippers. Again, had they only been false prophets, and not persecutors, they were, according to the law of God, to be put to death/ Fur- ther, their punishment was inflicted after a solemn appeal to God, and an answer from heaven by fire, which determined, not only who was the true God, but who were his prophets, and consequently whether Elijah deserved death as an impostor, or Baal's prophets. Moreover, Ahab himself was present, and all his ministers of state, who had a right to execute justice on false prophets ; and, it is highly pro- bable, that they consented to their death, and that many of them had an imme- diate hand in it. Their acting thus might be occasioned by a sudden conviction in their consciences, proceeding from the miracle which they had just before observed, or from the universal cry of the people against the false prophets. The occurrence, therefore, was plainly of the Lord, to whom Elijah brought a great deal of honour, and was far from being chargeable with the breach of this commandment. It is farther inquired whether Abraham's offering Isaac was a breach of this commandment. This is proposed as a difficulty by those who do not pay that defer- ence to divine revelation which they ought, nor consider that God cannot command any thing which is contrary to his periections, and that his people do not sin in obeying any command which is given by him. — However, that this matter may be set in a just light, let it be considered that God, who is the sovereign Lord of life, may take it away when and by whom he pleases. Hence, Isaac had no more rea- son to complain of any wrong or injury done him by God, in ordering his father to sacrifice him, than any one else has who dies by his immediate hand, in the com- mon course of providence.— Again, Abraham could not be said to act with the temper and disposition of a murderer ; which those have who are guilty of the breach of this commandment, who kill persons in a passion or out of envy or malice, being void of all natural affection and brotherly love. Abraham acted plainly in obedience to God's command. His hand was lifted up against one whom he loved as well as his own life, and it may be better ; and, doubtless, he would rather have been, had God so ordered it, the sacrifice than the offerer. — Further, he acted, as b 1 Sam. xvi* c 2 Sam. ii. 14—16. . d Prov. xxvi. 18, 19. e 1 Kings xviii. 40. * Deut. xiii. 6—9. THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 383 is more than probable, with Isaac's full consent. Hence some think that Isaac's faith was no less remarkable in the affair than that of Abraham. His willingness to be offered, evidently appears, from the fact that Abraham was in his feeble and declining age, and Isaac in his full strength ; for it was not a little strength which was sufficient to carry wood enough to answer this occasion, which we read Isaac did>' Besides, if Isaac had resisted, none was at hand to assist Abraham against him ; and, doubtless, he would have striven in this matter as one who desired to be overcome. We must suppose, therefore, that the transaction was so far from being a breach of this commandment, that it was one of the most remarkable in- stances of faith in scripture ; and that God's design in ordering it was, that it might be a type whereby he would lead Abraham into the glorious mystery of his not sparing his own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and of Christ's willingness to lay down his life a ransom for his people. Some charge Moses with having been guilty of the breach of this commandment, in killing the Egyptian.11 But to vindicate him from this charge, let it be con- sidered that the Egyptian whom he slew, not only smote an Hebrew, but did so wrongfully. As is observed in Acts vii. 24, there was no offence given or just rea- son for this injurious treatment ; and to oppress or abuse one who is in a miserable condition, as the Hebrews were at that time, is an heinous crime in God's ac- count.— Moreover, to ' smite,' in scripture, is often taken for to 'slay ;' so that it is not improbable, that the Egyptian slew the Hebrew ; or if he did not, the injury he inflicted might be such as deserved death. Now, this punishment would have been executed in another manner, had not Israel been denied, at that time, the protection of the law. — Again, Moses was, at this time, raised up and called by God, to be a ruler and a judge, to defend the cause of his oppressed people ; and in this action he first began to fulfil his commission. The people, indeed, refused to own him, and seemed to join with those who designed him evil for his interfer- ence ; but for this reason their deliverance was put off forty years longer, while he was an exile in the land of Midian.1 Now, to slay a public enemy and oppressor, and, as is probable, one who had forfeited his life, and to do this with a commis- sion from God to act as a ruler and a judge over his people, cannot be reckoned a breach of this commandment. Thus concerning the violation of this command- ment, as including the murdering of our neighbour. 2. This commandment is notoriously broken by those who lay violent hands on themselves. We have in scripture an account of no good man who was ever suf- fered to do this, but only of men of the most infamous character, such as Saul, Ahithophel, Judas, and others. This is a sin which is attended with many aggra- vations. It is to act as though our lives were at our own disposal. But they are to be considered as a talent which we are intrusted with by God to improve for his glory ; and he alone has a right to dispose of them at his pleasure. — Again, self- murder argues, and arises from, the highest discontent and impatience under the hand of God ; which is contrary to that temper which we ought to exercise as Christians, who profess subjection to him. — Further, it is contrary to nature and that principle of self-preservation which God has implanted in us. Indeed, he who does it, not only acts below the reason of a man, but does that which even brutes themselves are not inclined to. — Moreover, it is a giving place to and a gratifying of the devil, who acts agreeably to his character, as a murderer from the beginning, when he tempts men to destroy both soul and body at once. — Again, it is a pre- sumptuous and bold resolving that, whatever measure of duty God has prescribed for us to fill up in this world, we will serve him no longer. If martial law punishes deserters with death, is there not a severe punishment due to those who do, as it were, desert the service of God by self-murder? Nothing is more certain than this, that if duty be enjoined by God, the time in which it is to be performed is also fixed by him, and not left to our own determination. — Further, self-murder is a rushing hastily into eternity, not considering the consequence, nor the awful tribunal of Christ, before which they must immediately appear, and give an account of this, as well as other sinful actions of life. — Finally, self-murder is done with such a frame g Gen. xxii. 6. b Exod. ii. 11, 12. i Acts vii. 24, 25, compared with 30. 384 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. of spirit, that a person cannot by faith commit his soul into the hands of Jesus Christ ; for to do so requires a better temper of mind than any one can be supposed to have who murders himself. Here it may be inquired, since, as was before observed, no good man was ever guilty of this crime, whether Samson did not break this commandment in pulling down the house upon his own head, as well as upon the Philistines. Now, Samson's life, at this time, was a burden to himself, useless to his brethren, a scorn to the open enemy, and an occasion of their ascribing their deliverance to their idol, and pro- bably would soon have been taken away by them. These circumstances, though they would not, in themselves, have been sufficient to justify this action ; yet might justify his desire that God would put an end to his life, and release him out of this miserable world ; especially if the event would redound more to his glory than any thing he could do for the future, or had done in the former part of his life. Be- sides, it plainly appears that God, in answer to his prayer, not only gave him leave to take away his own life, together with the lives of his enemies, but also wrought a miracle to enable him to do it. It was therefore a justifiable action, and no breach of this commandment.k 3. We shall now consider the heinous aggravation of the sin of taking away the life of another unjustly, and the terrible judgments which those who are guilty of it have ground to expect. According to the divine law, this sin is to be punished with death, by the hand of the civil magistrate.1 Thus Joab, who had deserved to die for murders formerly committed, was slain according to David's order by Solomon ; though he sought protection by taking hold of the horns of the altar.m Many other crimes might be expiated by sacrifices, which God ordained should be offered for that end ; but no satisfaction was to be accepted for this sin but the blood of the murderer.11 And it is a matter of dispute with some whether kings, who may par- don many crimes by virtue of their prerogative, can, according to the laws of God, pardon murder, without being supposed to extend their clemency beyond its due bounds ? — Again, God often gives up those who are guilty of the sin of murder to the terrors of a guilty conscience, which is a kind of hell upon earth ; as in the in- stances of Cain, Lamech, and others.0 — Further, such are followed with many re- markable instances of divine vengeance ; so that the blast of providence attends all their undertakings. Thus David, after he had killed Uriah, was followed with such rebukes of providence, that the latter part of his life was rendered very uneasy ; and what the prophet foretold was fulfilled, that ' the sword should never depart from his house,' that is, as long as he lived.? — Again, the judgments of God for this sin are often transmitted to posterity. Thus Simeon and Levi's murder of the Shechemites was punished in the tribes that descended from them ; who, ac- cording to the patriarch's prediction, were ' divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel. '* Saul's slaying the Gibeonites was punished in David's time by a famine which it occasioned.1" And the murders which the Jews had committed on the prophets in former ages, were punished in the destruction of their state and nation ; when ' all the righteous blood that had been shed upon the earth, came upon them.'s — Fur- ther, the lives of murderers are often shortened, and they brought to the grave with blood. Thus Absalom perished by the just judgment of God, for the murder of his brother, as well as his other crimes. And in this the psalmist's observation holds true, that ' bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.'* 4. This commandment may be broken otherwise than by the taking away of the life of our neighbour. A breach of it may be committed by a person in his heart, when he has not an opportunity to execute his malicious designs, or is afraid to exe- cute them on account of the punishment from men which will follow. Thus the apostle says, ' Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.'" Of this we have an instance in wicked Ahab, who ' hated Micaiah, because he prophesied not good concerning him, but evil.'1 It is more than probable that his hatred would have broken forth into murder, could he have laid hold on the least shadow of pretence k Judges xvi. 28— 30. 1 Deut. xix. 11, 12. m 1 Kings ii. 28, 29. n Numb. xxxv. 31. o Gen. iv. 18 — 15. and 23, 24. p 2 Sam. xii. 9, 10. q Gen. xlix. 7. r 2 Sam. xxi. 1. 8 Matt, xxiii. 35. t Psal. Iv. 23. u 1 Jobn.iii. 15. x 1 Kings xxii. 9. THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 385 which might have put a colour on so vile an action. Jezebel also was guilty of this sin, who threatened to murder the prophet Elijah.? The Jews, likewise, were guilty of it who were filled with malice against our Saviour ; for which reason, they would have put him to death at that time, but they feared the people.7- — Moreover, while this sin reigns in wicked men, there are some instances of it even in good men. Thus David carried his resentment too far against Nabal, though a churlish and un- grateful man, when he resolved in his passion, not only to take away his life, which was an unjustifiable action, but to destroy the whole family, the innocent with the guilty. a He was afterwards sensible of his sin in this passionate resolution ; and blessed God for his preventing it, by Abigail's prudent management. There is another instance of sinful and unaccountable passion which cannot be excused from a degree of heart-murder, in Jonah ; who was very angry because God was gra- cious, and spared Nineveh, on their repentance. In this fit of passion he desires that God would take away his life, justifies his anger, and, as it were, dares him to cut hirn off; which was as bad a frame as ever any good man was in. All this, too, took its rise from pride, lest some should think him a false prophet, who did not rightly distinguish between what God might do and would have done had they not repented, and what he determined to do, namely, to give them repentance, and so to spare them : I say, rather than be counted a false prophet, which it may be was a groundless surmise, he was angry with God .for sparing it. b Here it will be inquired whether all anger is sinful, or a breach of this command- ment? Now, as the apostle says, ' Be angry and sin not ;'c the words imply that there may be anger which is not sinful, but which, on the other hand, may rather be styled a zeal for God. Of this kind was that anger which our Saviour expressed against the Scribes and Pharisees, when he calls them 'serpents, a generation of vipers ;'d and when he whipped the buyers and sellers out of the temple, on which occasion it is said, ' The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.'e The apostle also reproved Elymas the sorcerer, who endeavoured to ' turn away the deputy from the faith,' with words that seemed full of anger, when he addressed himself to him in this manner, ' 0 full of all subtilty, and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ?'f And Peter could not reprove that vile hypocrite, Simon Magus, when he offered to purchase the conferring of the Holy Ghost, without expressing some anger and resentment, as the cause required, when he said, ' Thy money perish with thee,'s &c. Yet, that he might let him know that it was only zeal for God that pro- voked his anger, he gave him friendly advice to repent of his wickedness.h We may hence take occasion to inquire what the difference is between sinful anger or passion, and an holy zeal for God. Now, an holy zeal for God leads us rightly to distinguish between the person reproved, and his actions which give us occasion for reproof; so that we hate the sin, but not the person who commits it. Thus the psalmist says, ' I hate the work of them that turn aside.'' But sinful anger is principally directed against the person with whom we are offended. — Again, the honour of God is the only motive which excites holy zeal ; but pride or evil surmise is generally the occasion of sinful anger. Thus Jehu's executing the ven- geance of God in cutting off Ahab's wicked family, was right, as to the matter of it ; yet it had a great mixture of ambition, pride, and private hatred of them, as those who he thought would stand in competition with him for the crown. Besides, he desired the applause and esteem of the people for the action, and therefore said to Jonadab, 'Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.'k Hence, true zeal for God is attended with many other graces ; and sinful anger with many sins. — Further, holy zeal for God inclines us to express anger against his enemies with sorrow and reluctance, being grieved for their sin, and at the same time desiring their reformation and salvation ; but sinful anger meditates revenge, is restless till it has accomplished it,1 and is pleased with having opportunities of executing it.— Moreover, holy zeal sets aside or is not much concerned about injuries, as directed v 1 Kings xix. 2. z Mark xi. 18. a 1 Sam. xxv. 21, 22. b Jonah iv. 1 4. c Eph. iv. 26. d Matt, xxiii. 33. e John ii. 15, 17. f Acts xiii. 10. g Acts viii. 20 21. h Verse 22. i Psal. ci. 3. k 2 Kings x. 16. 1 Prov. iv. 16. n. 3c 3S6 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. against ourselves ; but considers them as they reflect dishonour on the name of God, or are prejudicial to his interest in the world. Thus David said concerning Edom, ' Happy shall he be that dasheth thy little ones against the stones ;'m when, at the same time, he professed that it was tor Jerusalem's sake that he desired the ruin of his enemies, and not his own ; tor he says, that he ' preferred Jerusalem above his chief joy. 'n Sinful anger, however, designs or wishes evil to others, to promote our own interest and advantage. We shall now consider the aggravations of sinful passion. It unfits a soul for holy duties. Accordingly, our Saviour advises his people, first to ' be reconciled to their brethren, and then come and offer their gift. '° If we attempt to reprove sin, or persuade to duty, in a passion, it will tend to take away the force and hinder the success of the arguments we use. Sinful anger will occasion sorrow and shame, when reflected on in our most serious thoughts. It will expose us to Satan's temp- tations, and occasion a multitude of sins ; and accordingly is called by the apostle, a 'giving place to the devil. 'p It magnifies the smallest injuries, and excites our resentments beyond their due bounds. We do not consider, as we ought to do, that the injuries done against us are very small when compared with the sins we com- mit, whereby we dishonour God. Further, sinful anger is opposite to a Christian temper, very much unlike that frame of spirit which our Saviour has recommended concerning loving our enemies, i and is also contrary to his example, ' who when he was reviled, reviled not again.'1* Finally, as it is a stirring up of our own corrup- tions ; so it tends to stir up the corruptions of others, and provoke them to sin, as one flame kindleth another, and so increaseth itself.8 We shall further inquire how we are to deal with those whom we converse with, who are addicted to passion or anger. We are to exercise a calm, meek, and hum- ble disposition, bearing reflections with patience, and replying to them with gen- tleness ; especially when it is more immediately our own cause, and not the cause of God, which is concerned. ' A soft answer turneth away wrath.'1 'He that is slow to wrath, is of great understanding.'11 Let us take heed, also, that we do no- thing which tends to stir up the passions of any. If a superior is disposed to be angry, let us prudently withdraw from him. If it be an inferior, let us reprove him with faithfulness. If it be an equal, let us take away the edge of his anger, by meekness, love, and tenderness towards him, having compassion on his weakness. Let us bear injuries without revenging them, and 'overcome evil with good.'x m Psal. cxxxvii. 9. n Verse 6. o Matt. v. 23, 24. p Eph. iv. 27. q Matt. v. 44. r 1 Pet. ii. 23. s Prov. xxvii. 17- t Chap. xv. 1. u Prov. xiv. 29. x Rom. xii. 19, 21. [Note T. The Judicial Law. — The Civil Punishment of Death. — Are Christians — men who live under the New Testament dispensation, and recognise the doctrines and principles of the gospel — warranted, in any circumstances, to take away a man's life in punishment of his crimes ? Most per- sons reply in the affirmative ; yet they are exceedingly divided in opinion as to the circumstances or kinds of offence which warrant the infliction of death. All of them, however, who maintain any appearance of consistency in their reasonings, are of two classes, — those who regard the ju- dicial law of Moses as a permanent model for every criminal code, and those who regard every pe- culiar part of the Mosaic legislation as having been abolished by Christ, and who place their opinions on the authority of the permanent statements of revelation. The former plead for the civil penalty of death in connexion with several crimes ; while the latter plead for it in connexion chiefly, if not solely, with the crime of wilful murder. Dr. Ridgeley is of the class who appeal to the enactments of the judicial law ; and he even seems to maintain that these enactments, just in the state in which they were made for the Israelites, are still in force. He does not anywhere say, in as many words, that the judicial law is permanently and universally binding ; but, in several instances, when expounding the decalogue, and especially when treating of the results of transgression in the present life, he quotes its provisions in the same manner, and with the same drift, as if they were precepts of the moral law. In the passage, for example, to which this Note is appended, and in another about the middle of the section in which it occurs, he refers to the enactments recorded in Deut. xvii. 8 — 10, and xix. 11, 12, on the subject of wilful murder, and exhibits them as permanent and universal authority for the civil magistrate inflicting on the perpetrator of that crime the punishment of death. Similar appeals he makes also on the subject of theft, and in other parts of his exposition of crime as affecting civil society. He probably — we may almost say, he certainly — would not have pronounced the entire judicial law to be of .the same permanent and universal authority as the law of the ten commandments, had he 'ooked the subject in the face, or proposed it to himself for investigation ; yet, by the course he THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 387 pursues in the instances in which he appeals to it, he fairly assumes the principle of its entire au- thority, and its binding: power upon the conscience. No reason can be assigned for'appealing to its enactments on the subject of murderers and thieves, which will not fully and equally apply to its enactments on all subjects whatever. Hence, to interweave any portion of its provisions with the precepts of the moral law. or to represent them as bearing with the same force on the general con- science as the permanent revelations of the divine will, is just in principle to contend that the ju- dicial law, in its own proper nature, was not designed to be peculiar to the Israelites, but is of universal and enduring obligation. Now, it will not, I think, be difficult to show, both that the judicial law was framed exclusively for the Israelites, and that it was actually abolished by the introduction of the New Testament dispensation. Not a few statutes were, in their very nature, adapted or applicable only to the Israelites. A king was ineligible unless he was a descendant of Jacob, and was forbidden to mul- tiply horses, or to cause his people to return to Egypt, Deut. xvii. 15, 16. Daughters who pos- sessed any inheritance were prohibited from allying themselves in marriage to any man who was not of the same tribe as their father, Numb, xxxvi 6 — 13. Certain cities were appointed within the Israelitish territory, as sanctuaries for the manslayer, and were placed under peculiar regula- tions for his protection, Deut. xix. 1 — 10. Every seventh year was made a year of release or of cancelling of all debt between Israelite and Israelite ; strangers, however, or those who did not belong to the Israelitish commonwealth, being excluded from the benefits of the statute, Deut. xv. 1 3. A man who had two wives was enjoined, if he hated the mother of his eldest son, and loved the mother of a younger son, to preserve the rights of the son of the hated- wife, and not to allow the son of the loved wife to usurp the place of the first-born, Deut. xxi. 15 — 17. Garments of va- rious sorts of stuff, as of woollen and linen, were forbidden to be used, Deut. xxii. 1 1 . When a woman taken captive in war, was thought by any man to be a desirable wife, she was enjoined to be carried to his house, to have her head shaven and her nails pared, to put off the raiment of her captivity, to bewail her father and her mother a full month, and then, if he should be pleased with her, to become permanently the man's wife, but if not, to be allowed to go whithersoever she chose, only not to be sold by him as a captive, Deut xxi. 10—18 When the Israelites made war against a city, they were commanded, if an answer of peace were made to them, to make the people tributaries and bondsmen, and, if an answer of defiance were given, to besiege them, and afterwards smite all the males with the sword* and they were commanded also to carry on a war of extermination against the people inhabiting the territory assigned them for an inheritance, — to ' save alive nothing that breathed,' but ' utterly to destroy' the Hittites and the Amorites, the Ca- naanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, so that they might not learn from them the abominations of their idolatry, Deut. xx. 10 — 18. Such are some of the enactments of the judicial law, similar, in their peculiar nature, and in the individuality of their adaptation, to others which might be quoted. Now, who will say that these enactments, and such as these, are of permanent and universal authority, or that they were made with reference to any other people than the Israelites, or to any other time than the duration of the Israelitish commonwealth ? Yet they stand on the same basis, and possess the same economical character, and are part of the same code, as those laws respecting retaliation, and theft, and murder, which are quoted in support of the opinion, that the civil magistrate is warranted in inflicting the punishment of death. Either, there- fore, that opinion, as based on the provisions of the judicial law, must be abandoned, or the enact- ments which I have quoted, and others of a similar complexion, so manifestly adapted to the pecu- liar circumstances, and polity, and geographical position of the Israelites, ought to be embodied in the civil and criminal codes of every land. ■ . For proof that the judicial law was abolished by the introduction of the Christian dispensation, we do not need to go farther than to one of the two chapters whence Dr. Ridgeley draws his autho- rity for the civil magistrate putting a murderer to death. The nineteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, after having stated the enactments respecting the cities of refuge, the inflicting of capital punish- ment upon wilful murderers, and the circumstances which should affect the validity of testimony, states, with particular reference to the injury done by a false witness, and with comprehensive allusion to all cases of murder, killing, and maimir.g, the doctrine of retaliation, — concluding with the words, ' Thine eye shall not pity ; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.' The same doctrine of retaliation, in nearly the same words, is, in two other passages, (Exod. xxi. 23; Lev. xxiv. 20,) taupht as a general principle of the judicial law, and in im- mediate connexion with statements respecting the capital punishment of murder, and the appropriate penalty for various bodily injuries inflicted by men or by brutes. Now, by turning to our Lord's sermon on the mount, we find that he quoted the words in which this doctrine is stated, with the express design of announcing that the principle which they inculcate, and, in consequence, all the enactments with which it was connected, or the entire judicial code in which it was engrossed, had "eased to be authoritative, and were now superseded by the benign influence of principles which ire of universal obligation. ' Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth : But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away,' Matth. v. 38 42. His design, from the seventeenth verse to the end of the fifth chapter, seems to be to show that the law in all its parts, or all the revelation made of the divine will, has its fulfilment in connexion with his mediatorial work. ' Think not,' he said, ' that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil.' He then intimates, by allusion to the righteousness on which the scribes and Pharisees depended, compared with the righteousness which qualifies for entering into that ' reign of heaven,' fcastXua. -rev cv^avov, which is ' within men,' and which is 'peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,' (Luke xvii. 21 ; Rom. xiv. 17 ; 1 Cor. iv. 20 that 388 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. the ceremonial law derived all its significancy from its foreshadowing his priestly work ; so that it was necessarily abolished when he actually entered his priestly office. He next, by three examples, taken from the laws respecting murder, alultery, and divorce, shows that the moral law is to be understood so spiritually and comprehensively as to have cognizance of the thoughts and the affec- tions ; so that it maintains its authority and accomplishes its design in our world, only in connexion with his mediatorial administration. He then, by examples on the subjects of making oaths, of retaliating injuries, and of treatment of enemies, exhibits the notions which the Jews entertained of the judicial law, and shows that our manner of giving testimony, and our conduct toward those who injure or hate us, are to be regulated, not as they supposed by principles connected with the policy of the Israelitish commonwealth, but by principles which are applicable to all the nations and individuals of the earth, and which recognise the whole human race as a family of brethren, every one of whom is bound to love and cherish his fellows; so that the judicial law possesses signi- ficance, and fulfils its ulterior design, only when beheld in the retro-pect as part of that peculiar system which prefigured the work of the Messiah for the benefit of the human family, and the dis- tinguishing constitution of his spiritual, separated church. He thus teaches that the three depart- ments of the law are all, in the highest sense, fulfilled in connexion with his administration, — that the moral law is understood only when its precepts are written on the heart and put in the mind, in establishing with men who believe on him the covenant which was ratified with his blood, — that the ceremonial law is understood only when it is seen pointing, in all its rites, to ' the everlasting righteousness which he brought in,' and the one offering which he made once for all for man's trans- gression,— and that the judicial law is understood, not when interpreted, as among the Jews of his day, to be a literal rule of moral duty, but when regarded, in its institutions and in the polity with which it was connected, as teaching lessons quite as typical in their nature, or as peculiar and tem- porary in their character, as the economical and privileged condition of the people over whom it was established. Connected, too, as the particular enactment, ' An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,' is, in all the three places in the Pentateuch where it occurs, with the statutes respecting the punishment of injuries and murder, our Lord's language, ' Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil,' bears with direct force upon just that part of the judicial law which is quoted in defence of the civil magis- trate's inflicting capital punishment. Either, in fact, the judicial must be viewed as having been abolished by the introduction of the Christian dispensation, or it must be regarded, not merely as a model for Christian legislators, but as part of the moral law, or as obligatory upon man simply as an accountable being. The whole of what was strictly or distinctively the law of Moses, originated after the exodus from Egypt, and ■■■ as superseded at the advent of our Lord. Its institutes were a shadow of which the mediatorial dispensation is the substance ; and they are exhibited as in themselves mere form or letter, the spirit of which is to be found in the work and lessons of the Redeemer. ' The law was given by Moses ; but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.' Whatever was set up by the Jewish legislator belonged to a state of things which was oidy introductory to the truth or reality set up by the Saviour. The law, as given by Moses, or that portion of divine revelation which was given in the organizing of the Jewish economy, was 'the pedagogue of the church until Christ,' i v»ftm *•«/«- yays hp*>* yfyonDi tt{ ~K^i railayuyo* arftu. The law, as given by Moses, then, or what constituted distinctively and properly the Mosaic law, was all abolished at the advent of the Messiah. What is usually termed the moral law, however, or the law summed up in the ten commandments, formed no part of the abolished law ; nor, on the other hand, did it firm a distinctive part of the law as given by Moses, but was in force from the beginning of the world, and continued to be of universal obligation, and was merely reduced to a written form and repromulged with special solemnity after the exodus of the Israelites. Can the same thing be said respecting the judicial law ? Were its enactments known from the beginning ? were they obligatory upon all men ? were they merely repromulged, and not originated, at the organization of the Israelitish commonwealth ? No man will say that they were, or will pretend that, as to at least the period of their origin and the design of their original adaptation, they were other than a portion of the distinctive law of Moses. What follows, then, but that, along with the enactments of the ceremonial law, they were divested of their authority by the glorious event which gave the whole Mosaic institute its significancy — which 'brought forth judgment unto truth?' (Comp. Isa. xlii. I — 3; Matt. xii. 14 — 21.) To argue, therefore, from any statement of the judicial law in support of opinions respecting a Christian country's criminal code, or respecting the propriety of the civil magistrate inflicting the punishment of death, is just as inconclusive as to argue, from statements of the ceremonial law, in support of opinions respecting the proper manner, or the concomitant circumstances, of performing the duties of the Christian ministry. We come now to glance at the opinion which vindicates the infliction of capital punishment on the principles of general revelation, apart from the authority of the judicial law. This opinion, with reference chiefly if not solely to the punishment of wilful murder, is based almost entirely on the text, ' Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' So concentratedly is evidence made to rest on this text, that, if it can be satisfactorily explained in a way not to support the permanent right of punishing wilful murder with death, any other texts which are appealed to will, almost certainly, be surrendered. Before remarking on the text itself, I would ask whether, among the institutions of divine ap- pointment which existed in the patriarchal ages, or in the times before the giving of the Mosaic law, there were any which — incorporated, in modified forms, in that law — were abolished at the introduction of the New Testament dispensation? The offering of animals in sacrifice, the holding of the priestly office, the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, — were not these institutions of THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 3R9 divine appointment, as ancient as the days of Adam, and yet abolished at the advent of the Mes- siah ? Particular reasons, indeed, may be assigned for their abolition, — reasons perfectly clear and convincing; yet to what do these reasons amount, but that the institutions were specifically adapted to a state of things which was precurrent to the light and spirituality and fulness of the Christian dispensation? Nor were institutions specifically adapted to that precurrent state of things, such only as directly prefigured the work of the Messiah, but did not affect man's social conduct, — or such only as corresponded with the institutions of the ceremonial law, but did not correspond with those of the judicial. The law of the seventh-day Sabbath was not a ceremonial institution ; and, as to some details of its observance and the penalties of its violation, it became as truly incorporated with the judicial law, as, in its basis, or in its embodying abstractly the doctrine of a sabbatic rest, it was an integral part of the moral. In connexion, too, with the very text, ' Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed,' there is recorded a divine institution which would seem to class with neither the moral law nor the ceremonial : ' And surely your blood of your lives will I require ; at the hand of every beast will I require it,' Gen. ix. 5. This statute was afterwards repromulged, in an enlarged or more detailed form, as an enactment of the judicial law : ' If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die : then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten ; but the owner of the ox shall be quit. But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman ; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him. If the ox shall push a man-servant or maid-servant ; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned,' Exod. xxi. 28 — 32. No one can doubt — especially if he take the trouble to examine the connection with a series of judicial enactments in which it occurs — that this enactment belonged to that distinctive or peculiar polity which perished with the Israelitish commonwealth. Nor can there be reasonable question that the prior enactment made to Noah was of the same temporary character. The very incorporation of it afterwards with the judicial law, is presumptive evidence that it was so. But, even apart from that fact, who will say that the penal infliction of death upon every brute which sheds human blood, is of permanent and universal obligation? There are, then, at least two insti- tutions of a prefigurative character — the institution of priesthood and the institution of sacrifice — prior in date to the Mosaic law, and there are also at least two institutions not of a prefigurative character — the institution of the seventh-day Sabbath, and the institution of penally treating brutes which took away human life — likewise prior in date to the Mosaic law, which were superseded by the altered arrangements and the fuller revelations of the New Testament dispensation. Now, since other institutions besides those of the judicial and the ceremonial law were abolished, a question is fairly raised whether one of these was not the institution of man's inflicting capital punishment upon a wilful murderer? The ante-Mosaic institutions which became abolished, were, in all the instances we have noticed, such as, after the exodus from Egypt, became incorporated with the Mosaic law. But the institution of capital punishment for murder was just as really an:l characteristically incorporated with that law, as the institutions of priesthood, sacrifice, and the seventh-day Sabbath. Does not this fact afford somewhat strong presumptive evidence that, like them, it partook of the distinctive or differential character of the Mosaic law, as precurrent and intro- ductory to another state of things, and, in consequence, shared in the temporariness of its duration ? Let us remark, however, the connexion in which the institution was established : — ' And surely your blood of your lives will I require ; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man ; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed : for in the image of God made he man,' Gen. ix. 5, 6. Who does not see that the enactment here has a twofold reference, — that, while the punishment of shedding human blood is the subject of it, that punishment is viewed in reference both to man and to beast ? The same statute which enacts that the man guilty of shedding human blood should be put to death, enacts also that the beast guilty of shedding human blood should be put to death ; and it clearly speaks in reference to both, in the summary statement, ' Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.'— To be consistent, therefore, every person who regards it as authority for the civil magistrate inflicting capital punishment on a murderer, ought to insist on his equally inflicting penal death on any ox or other beast which gores or kills a man. The Mosaic law, accordingly, when incorporating the one part of the statute, incorporated al>o the other ; and so, in common consistency, ought every code which is framed on the assumption that the statute continues to be authoritative. Or if any party believe that the obligation has passed away to in- flict penal death upon a brute which has shed human blood, he is bound, on his own principles, to believe also that the authority has passed away for inflicting capital punishment on a murderer. But does the statute in question refer, after all, to the punishment of wilful murder ? Does it not refer rather to the simple killing of a man without divine sanction, be the quality or aggravations of the action what they may ? The statute has certainly one limitation ; and expresses it with great distinctness : ' Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' Here is explicit divine sanction for man putting the slayer of man to death, and consequent exemption of the former from the scope of the statute which he executes : the enactment, in its very terms, exempts the judicial slayer of one who slays. But is there any other limitation ? Do not the terms employed distinctly include — with the exception of judicial executioners, or persons acting under divine sanc- tion all slayers of man whatever,— the slayer by inadvertence, the slayer through carelessness, and the slayer who intended to do no more than maim or wound, as well as the slayer from malice and murderous rage ? No reason is found either in the language employed, or, so far as I am aware, in any known ante-Mosaic institution, for exempting any of the classes. But if, on the contrary, the statute be viewed in the light which is thrown upon it by its subsequent incorporation with the 390 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. Mosaic law, it will lie seen to have distinctly included all, or, at the least, to have admitted limita- lions in reference to unintentional slaying which come far short of its being directed only against wilful murder. An Israelite who had undesignedly taken away human life, no matter by how mere an accident or with how much freeness soever from carelessness or culpable oversight, was not protected from the legal 'avenger of blood ' unless he fled to a city of refuge, and obtained a public verdict declaring him entitled to protection within its walls ; and even after he reached the city, and was pronounced by • the congregation ' free from the guilt of intentional murder, he could not, till the time of the high priest's death, pass to the outside of the city's gates, even for the shortest period or the shortest distance, without incurring the hazard of the legal loss of his life : see Numb. xxxv. 9_34, compared with Lev. xxiv. 17 — 22; Exod. xxi. 12 — 14; Deut. xix. 4 — 13. Thus any slayer of man, however different in character, and however removed in degree of guilt, from a wilful mur- derer, was obnoxious, even under the detailed and extended jurisprudence of the Israelitish com- monwealth, to penal death, and was able to escape it only by instantly and carefully availing himself of a special means of protection. Would not the inference, then, appear clearly to follow, that the original or ante-Mosaic statute respecting the shedding of human blood, had reference, not to murder only, but to killing of every inferior degree of aggravation ? This inference is greatly strengthened by what the Mosaic enactment says respecting the avenger of blood. The whole scope of the lan- guage as to the cities of refuge, and the unintentional manslayer, and the mutual and legal position of parties concerned in an act of shedding human blood, seems to assume that the avenger of blood, or near kinsman of the person slain, possessed a legal right, without waiting any public verdict, or institut- ing himself any inquiry into motives or degrees of guilt, to inflict upon the culprit, whether murderer, culpable homicide, or accidental manslayer, the penalty of death. Now, whence could this right have been derived, or on what authority could it have been pleaded, except the original statute, ' Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed?' We are once more to remember, too, that this statute was directed, not only against every man, but also against every beast, who shed human blood. But surely no pretence will be made to distinguish degrees of guilt in the bite of dogs, the goring of oxen, or the kick of horses, — to distinguish between murder and manslaughter on the part of creatures which, if not destitute of what is or resembles reason, are altogether desti- tute at least of a moral sense ? Yet if a distinction cannot be made in reference to brutes which shed human blood, it is difficult to see how a statute which applies alike to them and men, or which makes provision in the same language for both, can allow it to be made in reference to men who shed human blood. Just as we interpret the statute with regard to brutes which kill, so should we interpret it with regard to men who kill. It would, therefore — somewhat obviously, I think — ap- pear to have been enacted against all shedding of human blood whatever, manslaughter as well as wilful murder; and as, if quoted to support the doctrine of permanent authority to inflict capital punishment, it would prove too much, it must be regarded as having been adapted simply to an elementary 'state of society, — as having probably had connexion with the peculiar circumstances of the patriarchal dispensation, — or more probably still, as having concurred with the minor enactment against eating the blood of animals, to exhibit the value of ' blood in which is the life,' and inculcate indirectly the great doctrine of sacrifice, — and as having, through the medium of subsequent incor- poration with the Mosaic law, passed down the current of temporary but significant institutions which were precurrent and introductory to the full revelations of the Christian dispensation. I cannot, without writing matter which might fill a pamphlet or a small volume, attempt to do justice to the question of capital punishment; and — forbearing either to notice subordinate argu- ments in favour of the practice, or to state and illustrate any of some reasons which might be urged against it — must content myself with having examined the chief defence of it in the case of wilful murderers, as founded on the provisions of the Mosaic law, and on the enactment communicated to Noah. Yet before concluding this note, I may add one or two general remarks. If the principal arguments in defence of punishing murder with death under the Christian dispen- sation, have been proved to be inconclusive, or built on mistaken premises, the subordinate argu- ments which are sometimes made to follow in their wake may fairly be expected to admit of easy refutation. If, too, the grand authority usually pleaded for capital punishment in the case of mur- der, have been proved peculiar to an age whose characteristic or distinctive institutions were super- seded by the full revelation attending and following the Messiah's advent, it will hardly be pleaded in favour of capital punishment for other crimes. If, further, the chief of those defences of capital punishment for murder which are founded on the divine word, have been shown to rest on mistaken views or mistaken interpretation, other defences of the practice which are founded on mere expe- diency will scarcely be allowed to possess soundness or influence. An overthrow, or even a serious shaking, of the strongest arguments founded on appeal to the Bible for punishing wilful murder with death, will be felt, by every philanthropist and every cautious jurist, sufficient reason for his solemnly pausing before he commit himself to the advocacy or the continued sanction of capital punishment in any shape, or for any offence whatever. One principle clearly and very frequently stated in the New Testament is, ' Avenge not your- selves : vengeance is mine — I will recompense, saith the Lord.' Under the old economy, men were employed, both upon ordinary and upon extraordinary occasions, as ministers of the divine anger, and were furnished with special oracles for direction in their work ; but, under the new economy, they are no longer employed in the same way, or at least are not employed by receiving a commis- sion or command, and can become instruments of vengeance only by that controlling administration which makes even the wrath of man to praise God, and brings good out of evil. Duty, or obligation to obey, or a command of heaven, now, in no case, calls upon man to take vengeance or to retaliate, but. in every case, binds him to show mercy, to practise kindness, to exercise placability, to cherish love to all persons, even to private and inveterate enemies. Nor does the association or incorporation of men into communities, churches, or states, affect, in any degree, the character of the law under which they are placed as individuals. Man, be he situated how he may, is not removed from under THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 391 the law which is established over him as an accountable being, and as a subject of the New Testa- ment dispensation. A civil magistrate, or an administrator of equity in civil affairs, or a speculator in jurisprudence, either will entirely shut his eyes to the light of revelation, and act essentially in the same way as a practical infidel does in private life'; or he will acknowledge the principles, and bow to the authority, and yield to the guidance of revelation, and act in essentially the same way, or at least in the same spirit, as a sincere Christian does in the domestic circle. Benevolence, or an enlightened regard to the best interests or the only true welfare of those toward whom he acts, will oblige him, indeed, to practise as really physical severity upon offenders as amenity towards the unoffending ; but, for just the same reason, it also obliges a private Christian in the domestic circle as really to lift the rod against a naughty child or to inflict privation upon an unfaithful servant, as to distribute smiles and encouragements among the obedient and the gentle Transition from a private to a magisterial or civil sphere, does not and cannot alter the nature of a man's moral re- sponsibilities • it can, at the utmost, do no more than multiply or enlarge his occasions for exercising the benevolence, which is in all circumstances unqualifiedly incumbent upon him, in the way of privation and restraint upon its object, rather than in the way of encouragement and sympathy. The civil magistrate is warranted or empowered to inflict punishment, therefore, not on the prin- ciple of retaliation or of taking vengeance, but on the principle of benevolence or of doing good. His work is not to award retribution for actions, but to maintain equity among men, and promote the benefit of all Punishment, in his hands, is chiefly if not solely a means of preventing and eradicating evil. Even mere jurists, accordingly, or men who discuss the question of civil legisla- tion on principles entirely apart from those of revelation, are somewhat unanimous in the opinion that the magistrate's office is simply to prevent crime and reclaim the criminal ; and, when any of them ascribe to him a power of inflicting capital punishment, they, for the most part, suppose it to exist or to be legitimate, only in instances in which either the criminal is so hardened as to be past reclamation, or the crime is of such a nature as to render his death a necessary or most effective means of deterring others from committing it. Some condemn capital punishment in every case whatever ; and others approve it only when, in their opinion, both ends of punishment — the pre- venting of crime and the reclaiming of the criminal — cannot be attained, and when, for the sake of securing one of them, the other must be sacrificed. But even the latter class of jurists have, in many instances, been recently brought to doubt, whether one end of punishment ought ever to give way wholly to the other, or whether, even in cases of robbery and murder, the prevention of crime and the public benefit may not be secured in perfect consistency with the preservation of the criminal's life ; and whenever they have arrived at conviction or even at hesitancy on this point, they have lifted their voices against the expediency of capital punishment. Not a few inductions, too, have been made from facts as to the absence, the infrequency, or the diminution of capital pun- ishment in Bavaria, in the United States of America, in Britain, and in other countries, on which conditions have been built, respecting influence upon the prevention of crime, the public good, and the reclaiming of offenders, altogether unfavourable to the practice of capital punishment. Now, if a movement so decided in favour of reclaiming great criminals rather than putting them to death, have been made on grounds of mere expediency or of mere calculation of beneficial results, it ought surely to be very easily completed on grounds of appeal to the sublime and benevolent principles of the gospel. To drive away a miserable wretch from that state of being in which alone he has access to the means of grace, — to put a sudden termination to all his opportunities of being made wise to salvation, of seeking the Lord while he may be found, and calling upon him while hb is near, — to stretch out, as far as a mortal can do, a vindictive hand against his soul, and smite him in his interests for eternity ; — this is truly an act of frightful responsibility for man to perform, and would seem to be warrantable by nothing short of a most obvious divine sanction. If the enactment communicated to Noah be of the nature of moral law, or possess permanent and universal authority, it is no doubt a sufficient sanction ; but if it be of the character which 1 have endeavoured to show, no sanction, so far as I am aware, can be pleaded, — no divine command, no commission from heaven, no authority whatever, except such appeals to expediency, or such conclusions from obscure and cir- cuitous reason, as will hardly hinder a man who knows any thing of the benign and beneficent spirit of the gosoel from standing aghast at the idea of touching the life even of a murderer — Ed.] 392 THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. Question CXXXVII. Which is the seventh commandment? Answer. The seventh commandment is, " Thou shalt not commit adultery." Question CXXXVIII. What are the duties required in the seventh commandment f Answer. The duties required in the seventh commandment, are chastity in body, mind, affec- tions, words, and behaviour; and the preservation of it in ourselves and others; watchfulness over the eyes, and all the senses ; temperance, keeping of chaste company, modesty in apparel, marriage by those that have not the gift of continency ; conjugal love, and cohabitation, diligent labour in our callings, shunning all occasions of uncleanness, resisting temptations thereunto. Question CXXX1X. What are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment f Answer. The sins forbidden in the seventh commandment, besides the neglect of the duties re quired, are adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts, al. unclean imagina- tions, thoughts, purposes, and affections, all corrupt or filthy communications, or listening there- unto ; \i unton looks, impudent, or light behaviour ; immodest apparel ; prohibiting of lawful, and dispensing with unlawful marriages, allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews, and resorting to them; entangling vows of single life ; undue delay of marriage, having more wives or husbands than one, at the same time; unjust divorce, or desertion; idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste com- pany, lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage-plays, and all other provocations to, or acts of uncleanness either in ourselves or others. The Duties Required in the Seventh Commandment. This commandment respects, more especially, the government of the affections, and the keeping of our minds and bodies in such an holy frame, that nothing impure, immodest, or contrary to the strictest chastity, may defile us, or be a reproach to us, or insinuate itself into our conversation with one another. In order to this, we are to set a strict watch over our thoughts and actions, and avoid every thing which may be an occasion of this sin, and use those proper methods which may prevent all temptations to it. Hence, we ought to associate ourselves with none but those whose conversation is chaste, and such as becomes Christians ; and to abhor all words and actions which are not so much as to be named among persons professing godliness. As for those who cannot, without inconveniency, govern their affections, but are sometimes tempted to any thing which is inconsistent with that purity of heart and life which all ought religiously to maintain, it is their duty to enter into a married state ; which is an ordinance that God has appointed to prevent the breach of this commandment. The Sins forbidden in the Seventh Commandment. We are thus led to consider the sins forbidden in this commandment. 1. Some of these sins are not only contrary to nature, but inconsistent with the least pretensions to religion ; and such as were abhorred by the very heathen them- selves, and, by the law of God, punished with death. When this punishment has not been inflicted, God has, by his immediate hand, testified his vengeance against those guilty of the sin, by raining down fire and brimstone from heaven, as he did upon the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.* These sins are called in this Answer, incest, sodomy, and unnatural lusts. To this we may add, offering violence to others, without their consent ; and thereby forcing them to do what they could not even think of but with abhorrence. This is called rape ; and by the law of God, the person guilty of it was punished with death.2 2. There are other sins whereby this commandment is violated, which, though more common, are, nevertheless, such as are attended with a very great degree of guilt and impurity. These are either such as are committed by those who are unmarried, namely, fornication, or by those who are married, as adultery. The latter, by the law of God, was punished witli death ;a as containing several aggra- y Levit. xviii. 22—25; Chap. xx. 13, 15, 16 ; Rom. i. 24, 26, 27, 28; Gen. xix. 24. i Deut. xxii. 25. a Levit. xx. 10. THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 393 vating circumstances. For hereby the marriage contract is violated, and the mutual affection which is the end of that relation broken ; and therefore the great- est injury is done to the innocent, as well as ruin brought on the guilty. Both these sins, however, agree in this, that they proceed from a corrupt heart, as our Saviour says,b and argue the person who is guilty of them alienated from the life of God. Another sin forbidden in this commandment, is polygamy, or having more hus- bands or wives than one, at the same time ; together with that which often accom- panies it, namely, concubinage. It is beyond dispute that many good men have been guilty of this sin, as appears by what is recorded in scripture concerning Abraham, Jacob, David, &c. Nor do we find that they are expressly reproved for it ; which has given occasion to some modern writers to think that polygamy was not unlawful in those ages, but was afterwards rendered so by being prohibited un- der the gospel dispensation.'0 This opinion, indeed, cuts the knot of a very con- siderable difficulty ; but it involves another equally great ; for, according to this opinion, polygamy does not appear to be contrary to the law of nature. I would rather choose, therefore, to take another method to solve the case, namely, that many bad actions of good men are recorded in scripture, but not approved of, nor proposed for our imitation. Of this kind I must conclude the polygamy and con- cubinage of several holy men, mentioned in scripture, to have been. That it may appear that this practice was not justifiable, let it be observed that some sin or other is often expressly mentioned as the occasion of it. Thus Abraham's taking Hagar was occasioned by Sarah's unbelief, because the promise of her having a son was not immediately fulfilled. d Jacob's taking Rachel to wife after Leah was occa- sioned by Laban's unjust dealing with him, and his own discontent arising from it; and his going in unto Bilhah was occasioned by Rachel's unreasonable desire of children ; and his taking Zilpah, by Leah's ambitious desire of having pre-eminence over Rachel, by the number of her children. e Again, the practice was generally attended with the breach of that peace which is so desirable a blessing in families ; so that many disorders followed. Thus we read of an irreconcilable quarrel be- tween Sarah and Hagar ; and of Ishmael's hatred of Isaac, which the apostle calls ' persecution. 'f We may notice, too, the contentions which there were in the family of Jacob and others ; the envy expressed by the children of one wife against those of another ; and the opposition which one wife often expressed to another, as that of Peninnah, one of the wives of Elkanah, to Hannah, the other. We must conclude, therefore, that Isaac's example is rather to be iollowed in this matter, who had but one wife ; and whom he loved better than many of the patriarchs did theirs, whose love was divided among several. It is objected that, if polygamy was a sin against the light of nature, it is strange that it should have been committed by good men, and that they should have lived and died without repenting of it, or being in the least reproved for it, as we do not find that they were in scripture. We reply, that it was, indeed, a sin which they might have known to be so, had they duly considered it in all its circumstances and consequences. But this they did not ; and therefore it was not so great a sin in them as it would be in us, who have clearer discoveries of the heinous nature of it. If we suppose that they repented of all sin agreeably to the light they had, they might be saved. This, though unrepented of, was no bar to their salvation, supposing they knew it not to be a sin ; and God's not having explicitly reproved them for it, argues only his forbearance, but not his approbation of it. It is farther objected that God says, by Nathan, to David, ' I gave thee thy mas- ter's wives into thy bosom ;'s and it is hence inferred that that which God gives, it is not unlawful for man to receive. But the meaning of that scripture in general is, that God made David king ; and that then, according to the custom of the eas- tern kings, David took possession of what belonged to his predecessor, and conse- quently of his wives. God might thus be said to give David Saul's wives providen- tially, in giving him the kingdom ; so that they were his property, that he might b Matt. xv. 19. c Vid. Grot, de jur. bell, et pad's, lib. ii. cap. v. §. 9. d Gen. xvi. 1, 2. e Chap. xxix. and xxx. f Gal. iv. 29. g 2 Sam. xii. 8. 11. 3 D 334 THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. take them for his own, according to custom, if he was inclined so to do. This the kings of Judah generally did ; though it does not follow that God approved of their doing so. So tyrants may be said to be raised up by God's providence and per- mission ; yet he does not approve of their tyranny. All that we shall add under this head, is, that polygamy is contrary to the first institution of marriage. God created but one woman as an help-meet for Adam ; though, if ever there were any pretence for the necessity of one man's having more wives, it must have been in that instance, in which it seemed necessary for the in- crease of the world. But he rather chose that mankind should be propagated by slower advances, than to give the least dispensation or indulgence to polygamy, as being contrary to the law of nature. h The prophet takes notice of God's ' making but one ;M though he had 'the residue of the spirit,' and therefore could have given Adam more wives than one. The reason assigned was that ' he might seek a godly seed,' that is, that the children who should be born of many wives, might not be the result of the ungodly practice of their father, as it would be were this contrary to the law of nature ; which we suppose it to be. This I rather understand by ' a godly seed,' and not that the character of ' godly ' refers to the children ; for these could not be said to be godly, or ungodly, as the consequence of their parents hav- ing one or more wives. — There is one scripture more which I cannot wholly pass over, which, to me, seems a plain prohibition of polygamy, ' Thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in her life.- time.' k This respects either incest or polygamy ; one of which must be meant by ' taking a wife to her sister.' Now, it cannot be a prohibition of incest, because it is said, ' Thou shalt not do it in her life-time ;' which plainly intimates, that it might be done after her death. But it is certainly contrary to the law of God and nature, for a person to take his wife's sister after her decease, as well as in her life-time. Hence, the meaning is, ■ Thou shalt not take another wife to her whom thou hast married ; by which means they will become sisters.' Moreover, there is another reason assigned, namely, the envy, jealousy, and vexation which would follow ; as the taking of another wife would be a means of vexing or -making the first wife un- easy. Hence, the sense, as is observed in the marginal reading, is, ' Thou shalt not take one wife to another,' or, 'Thou shalt not have more wives than one.' This is a plain prohibition of polygamy. But whether some holy men, in following ages, understood the meaning of this law, may be questioned ; and therefore they were not sensible of the guilt they contracted by violating it. Thus we have considered some of the sins forbidden in this commandment. To notice every particular in- stance of the breach of it, would exceed our intended brevity on the subject we are treating of. The Aggravations of the Sins against the Seventh Commandment. We shall proceed to consider the aggravations, more especially, of the sins of fornication and adultery. These may also, with just reason, be applied to all other unnatural lusts which have been before considered as a breach of this commandment. Now, these sins are opposite to sanctification, even as darkness is to light, hell to heaven. Accordingly, the apostle opposes fornication and uncleanness, to sancti- fication. i — Again, these sins are inconsistent with that relation we pretend to stand in to Christ, as members of his body ; inasmuch as we join ourselves in a confeder- acy with his profligate enemies.m We may add, that they are a dishonour to and a defilement of our own bodies, which ought to be the temples of the Holy Ghost, and therefore should be consecrated to him. — Further, they bring guilt and ruin on two persons at once, as well as a blot and stain on the families of each. They also give a wound to religion, when committed by those who make any profession of it ; as they ' give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. 'n — Further, they bring with them many other sins ; as they tend to vitiate the affections, de- prave the mind, defile the conscience, and provoke God to give persons up to spirit* h Gen. ii. 22—24. i Mai. ii. 15. k Levit. xviii. 18. 1 1 Thess. iv. 3, 7 ml Cor. vi. 15, 16. ii Piov. vi. 33; 2 Sam. xii. 14. THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 395 ual judgments, which will end in their running into all excess of riot. We may add, that many sad consequences will follow the commission of these sins ; as they tend to blast and ruin men's substance in the world,0 debase and stupify the soul, and deprive it of wisdom,p wound the conscience, and expose the person who is guilty of them, to the utmost hazard of perishing for ever.** And if God is pleased to give him repentance, it will be attended with great bitterness. r The Occasions of the Sins against the Seventh Commandment We are now to consider the occasions of these sins, to be avoided by those who would not break this commandment. One of these is intemperance, or excess in eating or drinking. The former is a making provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof ; the latter confounds and buries the little reason a person was master of, and makes him an easy prey to temptation. This was Lot's case ; he kept his integrity in Sodom ; yet being made drunk by his daughters in Zoar, he committed the abominable sin of incest with them.8 — Another occasion of these sins is idle- ness, consisting either in the neglect of business, or indulging too much sleep. Thus David first gave way to sloth, and then was tempted to uncleanness. It is observed that * at the time when kings go forth to battle,'4 and when he ought to have been with his army in the field, he tarried at Jerusalem, and slept in the middle of the day ; for ' in the evening-tide he arose from off his bed.' Now, the heinous sin he was guilty of, which was the greatest blemish in his life, followed this indulgence. — Another occasion of these sins is pride in apparel or other ornaments, beyond the bounds of modesty, or for other ends than what God, when he clothed man at first, intended ; when our attire is inconsistent with our circumstances in the world, or the character of persons professing godliness. This God reproves the Jews for, when grown very degenerate, and near to ruin.u Jezebel, when Jehu came in quest of her, ' painted her face, and tired her head ;' but her doing so did not pre- vent his executing God's righteous judgments upon her. All these things are mentioned as the sins for which Sodom was infamous ; and gave occasion to those other abominations, which provoked God to destroy them.x — We may add, as an- other occasion of these sins, the keeping of evil company. Thus it is said of the lewd woman, ' She hath cast down many wounded. '* Bad company will hasten our own ruin ; especially if we associate with lewd persons out of choice ; for our doing so is a sign that our hearts are exceedingly depraved and alienated from God. If, however, providence cast our lot amongst bad company, we may escape that guilt and defilement which would otherwise follow, provided we bear our testi- mony against their sin, and are grieved for it, as Lot was for the filthy conversa- tion of the Sodomites, among whom he dwelt.2 Moreover, those places where there are mixed dancings, masquerades, stage-plays, &c, which tend to corrupt the principles and practices, and seldom fail of defiling the consciences and man- ners of those who attend on them, are nurseries of vice, and give occasion to the sins in question, and many others." As for the remedies against unchastity, these are, exercising a constant watch- fulness against all temptations to it ; b avoiding all conversation with those men or books which tend to corrupt the mind, and fill it with levity, under a pretence of improving it; but, more especially, retaining a constant sense of God's all-seeing eye, his infinite purity and vindictive justice, which will induce us to say as Joseph did, in a similar case, ' How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?'c o Job xxxi. 9, 11, 12. p Hosea iv. 11 ; Pro v. vi. 32 ; chap. vii. 22. q Pro v. vi. 33 ; ;hap. vii. 13. 19, 26, 27. r Eccl. vii. 26. s Gen. xix. 31. t 2 Sam. xi. I, 2. u Isa. iii. 16, et seq. x Ezek. xvi. 49. y Prov. vii. 27. z 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8. ■ Prov. vi. 27. compared with 32. b Chap. viii. 9. c Gen. xxxix. 9. 396 THE DUTIES ENJOINED IN THE DUTIES ENJOINED IN THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT Question CXL. Which is the eighth commandment f Answer. The eighth commandment is, " Thou shalt not steal." QUESTION CXLI. What are the duties required in the eighth commandment f Answer. The duties required in the eighth commandment are, truth, faithfulness, and justice in contracts, and commerce between man and man; rendering to every one his due; restitution of goods unlawfully detained from the right owners thereof; giving and lending freely, according to our abilities, and the necessities of others ; moderation of our judgments, wills, and affections, con- cerning worldly goods; a provident care and study to get, keep, use, and dispose those things which are necessary and convenient for the sustentation of our nature, and suitable to our condw tion ; a lawful calling, and diligence in it; frugality, avoiding unnecessary lawsuits, and suretiship, or other like engagements ; and an endeavour, by all just and lawful means, to procure, preserve, and further the wealth and outward estate of others, as well as our own. This commandment supposes that God has given to every one a certain portion of the good things of this world ; which he may lay claim to as his own, and which no other has a right to. The general scope and design of it, is to put us upon using endea- vours to promote our own and our neighbour's wealth and outward estate. As to our- selves, it respects the government of our affections, and the setting of due bounds to our desires of worldly things, that they may not exceed what the good provi- dence of God has allotted for us, in order to our comfortable passage through the world. Thus Agar prays, ' Give me neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with food convenient for me.'d As to our endeavours to gain the world, it requires a due care and diligence to get and keep a competency, that we may not, through our own default, expose ourselves to those straits and necessities which are the conse- quence of sloth and negligence.6 God may, indeed, give estates to some without any pains, or care to get them ;f yet, even in this case, sloth is a sin which brings with it many hurtful lusts, which render riches a snare and a hinderance to their spiritual welfare. Hence, they who are in prosperous circumstances in the world, ought not to lay aside all care and industry to improve what they have, to the glory of God. But, on the other hand, they who are in a low condition ought to use a provident care and diligence, in order to their having a comfortable subsis- tence. Accordingly, this commandment obliges us to use all lawful endeavours to promote our own and our neighbour's wealth and outward estate. The Promotion of our Own Well-being. 1. In promoting our own wealth and estate, we are first to practise frugality in our expenses, and to avoid profuseness. We are neither to give away our substance to unlit objects, namely, those who are in better circumstances than ourselves, who ought to be givers rather than receivers ;S nor are we to make large contributions to support a bad cause, or to consume our substance on our lusts. Likewise, when we are unwarily profuse in those expenses which would be lawful did they not exceed our circumstances or income in the world, we disregard the future condition of our families, and take a method to reduce ourselves and them to poverty.11 Or, if our circumstances will admit of large expenses ; yet, to abound in expenses, merely out of ostentation, and, at the same time, to withhold our liberality from the poor, is inconsistent with frugality. 2. We ought also to be diligent and industrious in our calling. In order to this, we are wisely to make choice of a calling in which we may glorify God, and expect his blessing for the promoting of our wealth and temporal prosperity. Hence, that business is to be chosen which we are most capable of managing, and which has the fewest temptations attending it ; especially if it does not burden the conscience by unlawful oaths, or by prostituting solemn ordinances, not designed by Christ as dProv. xxx. 8. e Chap, xxiii. 21 ; xxiv. 30 31. f Deut. vi. 10 11. g.Prov. xxii. 16, h 1 Tim. v. 8. THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 397 a qualification for it. Moreover, we are not to choose those callings in which gain is obtained by oppression or extortion, and which cannot be managed without danger of sinning ; which will bring the blast of providence on all our undertak- ings. Hence, we are earnestly to desire God's direction in the weighty concern of choosing a profession ; as well as to depend on him for success in it.1 When we have made choice of a lawful calling, we are to manage it in a way in which we may expect the blessing of God for the promoting of our wealth and temporal pros- perity. Let us pursue and manage it with right and warrantable ends, namely, the glory of God, and, in subordination to this, our providing for ourselves and families, that we may be in a capacity to do good to others, and serve the interest of Christ in our day and generation. Let us take heed that our secular employ- ments do not rob God of that time which ought to be devoted to his worship ; and that our hearts be not so alienated from him that, while we are labouring for the world, we should live without God in it. Let us take heed that we do not launch out too far or run too great hazards in trade, resolving that we will be suddenly rich or poor ; for our acting thus may tend to the ruin of our own families, as well as others. k Let us bear disappointments in our callings, with patience and submis- sion to the will of God, without murmuring or repining at his wise and sovereign dispensations of providence. The Promotion of our Neighbour's Well-being. This commandment obliges us to promote the wealth and outward estate of our neighbour. This we are to do by exercising strict justice in our contracts and dealings with all men ; and by relieving the wants and necessities of those who stand in need of our charity. 1. We are first to exercise justice in our dealings. Here we must take heed that we do not exact upon, or take unreasonable profit of, those whom we deal with, taking advantage of the ignorance of some and the necessities of others.1 Nor must we use any methods to supplant and ruin others, against the laws of trade, by selling goods at a cheaper rate than any one can afford them, thereby doing damage to ourselves, with a design to ruin those who are less able to bear such a loss. Again, those goods which we know to be faulty, are not, by false arts, or deceitful words, to be sold, as though they were not so.m On the .other hand, the buyer is not to take advantage of the ignorance of the seller, as sometimes happens ; nor is he to pretend that an article is worth less than he really thinks it to be.n Fur- ther, nothing is to be diminished in weight or measure from what was bought; nor are worse goods to be delivered than what were purchased,0 nor ' the balances to be falsified by deceit. 'p 2. We are to promote the good of our poor distressed neighbour, in works of charity ; and we are to do this, not only by an inward sympathy, or bowels of com- passion towards him, but according to our ability, by relieving him. As an induce- ment to this duty, we ought to consider that outward good things are talents given us, with the view that we may, by means of them, be in a capacity to help others, as well as be freed from needing help ourselves. And when we thus em- ploy our substance, we may be said to improve what we have received from God, as those who are accountable to him for it, and testify our gratitude to him for out- ward blessings. Moreover, Christ takes acts of kindness, when proceeding from an unfeigned love to him, as done to himself. q We may add, that there are many special motives, taken from the objects of our charity, namely, the pressing neces- sities of some, the excelling holiness of others. In some instances, too, by an act of charity, whereby we relieve one, we do good to many ; and when we relieve those who suffer for the sake of the gospel, there may be a tendency to promote the interest of Christ in general. Let us consider here of whom works of charity are required. If this matter be i Eccles. ix. 11 ; Deut. viii. 18. k 1 Tim. vi. 9. 1 Jer. iii. 15. in Amos viii. 6. n Prov. xx. 14. o Amos viii. 3. p Deut. xxv. 13, 14, 15. q Matt. xxv. 40; Prov. xix. 17. 398 THE DUTIES ENJOINED IN THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. duly -weighed, we shall find that scarcely any are exempted from this duty, excert it1 e those of whom it may he said that there are none poorer than themselves, or thosa who have no more than what is absolutely necessary to support their families, or those who are labouring hard to spare out of their necessary expenses what will but just serve to pay their debts, or those who are reduced to such straits as to depend upon others, so that they can call nothing they have their own. This duty is in- cumbent on the rich, out of their abundance ; and on those who are in middle cir- cumstances in the world, who have a sufficiency to lay out in .superfluous expenses. Even the poor ought to give a small testimony of their gratitude to God, by spar- ing a little, if they can, out of what they get in the world, for those who are poorer than themselves. If this be but a few mites, it may be an acceptable sacrifice to God ;r and if persons have nothing beforehand in the world, they ought to work for this end, as well as to maintain themselves and families. s Let us next consider who are to be reckoned objects of our charity. These are not the rich, who stand in no need of it, and from whom we may expect a sufficient requital ;* nor those who are strong and healthy, but yet make a trade of begging, because it is an idle and sometimes a profitable way of living." But those are to be relieved who are not able to work ; especially if they were not reduced to poverty by their own sloth and negligence, but by the providence of God not succeeding their endeavours ; and if while they were able, they were ready to all works of charity themselves.* We may add, that those are to be relieved who are related to us, either in the bonds of nature, or in a spiritual sense. ? We are now to inquire what part or proportion of our substance we are to apply to charitable uses. Here, as the circumstances of persons in the world are so various, as well as their necessary occasions for extraordinary expenses, it is impossible to give a general rule, to be observed by all. It must be premised, however, that our present contributions ought not to preclude all thoughts about laying up for our- selves or families, for time to come. Moreover, whatever proportion we give of our gain in the world, some abatements may reasonably be made for losses in trade ; especially if what we give was not determined, or laid aside, for that use before the loss happened. As to the proportion of substance to be given, it ought to be left to the impartial determination of every one ; who is to act in this matter under a conviction that he is accountable to God. The apostle lays down one general rule, ' Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give ; not grudg- ingly, or of necessity ; for God loyeth a cheerful giver.'2 But though we pretend not to determine the exact proportion which ought to be given, namely, whether a tenth part of our profits, or more, or less ; yet it is highly reasonable that every one should contribute as much in works of charity as he lays'out in mere super- fluities, or, at least, spare a part out of his superfluous expenses for charitable uses. Moreover, there are some occasions which may call for large contributions. Thus the churches in Macedonia are commended, not only for their ' giving ac- cording to,' but 'beyond their power. 'a Three things may be here considered. First, the extreme necessities of those whom we are bound to take care of, and sometimes the distressed circumstances of the church of God, in general, require larger contributions than ordinary. Such circumstances were the occasion of the command mentioned by our Saviour, of selling all and giving to the poor, which was put in practice in the infancy of the church, or the first planting of the gospel at Jerusalem. — Secondly, extraordinary instances of the kindness of God, in pros- pering us either in worldly or spiritual concerns, beyond our expectation, call for extraordinary expressions of gratitude to God in laying by for the poor.b — Thirdly, when we have committed great sins, or are under very humbling providences, whether personal or national, being exposed to or fearing the judgments of God, which seem to be approaching ; we are called to deep humiliation, and, together with this, proportionable acts of charity. We are now to consider with what frame of spirit works of charity are to be per- r Luke xxi. 2, 4. s Epb. iv. 28. t Luke xiv. 12, 13, U. u 2 Thess. iii. 10—12. x 1 Tim. v. 10. y Gal. vi. 10. z 2 Cor. ix. 7. a 2 Cor. viii. 1, 2, 3. b 1 Cor. xvi. 2. THE SINS FORBIDDEN IN THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 399 formed. Now, they are to be performed prudently, as our own circumstances will permit, and the necessity of the object requires ; also seasonably, not putting this duty off till another time, when the necessities of those whom we are bound to re- lieve call for present assistance.0 We are also to perform this duty secretly, not desiring to be seen of men, or commended by them for it ;d and cheerfully ;e also with tenderness and compassion to those whose necessities call for relief, considering how soon God can reduce us to the same extremity which they are exposed to who are the objects of our charity. It ought to be done likewise with thankfulness to God, who has made us givers rather than receivers ;f and as a testimony of our love to Christ, especially when we contribute to the necessities of his members.^ THE SINS FORBIDDEN IN THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. Question CXLII. What are the sins forbidden in the eighth commandment? Answer. The sins forbidden in the eighth commandment, besides the neglect of the duties re- quired, are, theft, robbery, man-stealing, and receiving any thing that is stolen, fraudulent dealing, false weights and measures, removing land-marks, injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man, or in matters of trust ; oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust enclosures, and depopulations; engrossing commodities to enhance the price, unlawful call- ings, and all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbour what be- longs to him, or of enriching ourselves; covetousness, inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods; distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them ; envying at the prosperity of others; as likewise idleness, prodigality, wasteful gaming, and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate; and defrauding ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God hath given us. Self-robbery. This commandment forbids, in general, all kinds of theft. This may include what is very seldom called by the name, namely, the robbing of ourselves and families. We may be said to do this, by neglecting our worldly calling ; by im- prudently managing it ; and by lending larger sums of money than our circum- stances will well bear, to those who are never likely to pay it again, or, which is in effect the same, by being surety for such. Moreover, we rob ourselves and families, by being profuse and excessive in our expenses ; by consuming what we have, while pursuing our pleasures more than business ; or by gaming, whereby we run the risk of losing part of our substance, and reducing ourselves or others to poverty. On the other hand, we rob ourselves and families, when, out of a design to lay up a great deal for the time to come, we deprive ourselves and them of the common necessaries of life ; which is, in effect, to starve for the present, in order to prevent our starving for the future. But, passing this by, we shall consider this commandment more especially, as it respects our defrauding others. Theft. We break this commandment by taking away any part of our neighbour's wealth or worldly substance. This is generally known by the name of theft ; and is pun- ishable by human laws, and that, with the greatest severity, in proportion to its aggravations. Moreover, they who are guilty of it, are, without repentance, ex- cluded from the kingdom of God.h Let it be considered, however, that every kind of theft does not deserve an equal degree of punishment from men ; for sometimes the owner of what was stolen receives but little damage. Yet in this case, some punishment short of death ought to be inflicted, to reform the wicked person, and deter him from going on in the breach of this commandment, from less to greater sins. By the law of God, a simple theft was punished with restitution of twice, and in some cases four times, as much as the damage which was sustained amounted c Prov. iii. 28. d Matt. vi. 3, 4. e 2 Cor. ix. 7. f Acts x. 33. g Matt. x. 42. p 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. 400 THE SINS FORBIDDEN IN to.' In other cases, however, the theft was punished with death, when it had in it some circumstances which aggravated it in an uncommon degree. If an house, which ought to be reckoned a man's castle, be broken open, and that in the night- time, when lie is in no condition to defend himself or his worldly substance, in this case the law is not unjust which punishes the thief with death ; and this is sup- posed in that law which says that he who kills one who 'breaks up' his neighbour's house by night, shall have 'no blood shed for him.'k But, in other instances, confinement and hard labour, may be as effectual a way to put a stop to this sin ; and is rather to be chosen than punishment with death. Thus concerning this commandment, as broken by theft. Breach of Trust. This commandment is farther broken, by unfaithfulness, or breach of trust ; whether the trust be devolved on us by nature, as that of parents towards their children ; or by contract, as that of servants, who are intrusted with the goods and secrets of their masters ; or that which is founded in the desire and request of those who constitute persons executors to their wills, or guardians to orphans un- der age, provided they accept of this trust. If any of these violate their trust, by embezzling or squandering away the substance of others, or defrauding them to enrich themselves, their conduct is not only theft, but perfidiousness, and highly provoking to God, and deserves a more severe punishment from men than is usually inflicted. Non-payment of Debt. This commandment may be said to be broken, by borrowing, and not paying just debts ; as the psalmist says, 'The wicked borroweth and payeth not again.'1 Yet there are some cases in which a man is not guilty though he borrows and does not pay. If, for example, when he borrowed, there was a probability of his being able to repay ; or if he discovered his circumstances fully to him of whom he borrowed, to whom it would appear whether there was any likelihood of his pay- ing him or not ; or if he gave full conviction, when he borrowed, that he was able to pay, but the providence of God, without his own default, has rendered him un- able ; in this case mercy is to be shown him, and he is not to be reckoned a breaker of this commandment. In various other cases, however, a person is guilty of the breach of it, in borrowing, and not paying debts. If the borrower pretends that his circumstances are better than they are, and so makes the lender believe that, in a limited time, he shall be able to repay him ; when, in his own conscience, he apprehends that there is no probability that he shall be able to do so, he is guilty of breaking this commandment. Again, when a person was in such circumstances at the time of his borrowing, that, by industry in his calling, he might be able to pay the creditor, but, by neglect of business, or embezzling his substance, he ren- ders himself unable to pay, he is chargeable with the breach of this commandment. Further, if pity be shown, by compounding for a part, instead of the whole debt, in case of present insolvency ; though the debtor, in form of law, is discharged with the creditor's consent, yet the law of God and nature obliges him to pay the whole debt, if providence makes him able hereafter ; else he can hardly be excused from the breach of this commandment. This leads us to inquire what judgment we may pass on the ' Israelites borrow- ing of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold,' which we read of in Exod. xi. 35, whether in this matter they were guilty of the breach of this command- ment. Now, the word"1 which we. render 'borrowed,' might as well be rendered i Exod. xxii. 1, 4, 7« k Verse 2. 1 Psal. xxxvii. 21. m The Hebrew word blW, which is here used, signifies not only ' commodavit,' or ' usui dedit,' or 'accepit,' but ' petiit,' or ' postulavit ;' in the last of which senses it is to be understood, in Deut. x. 12, ' What doth the Lord require or demand of thee?' &c. And in Judges v. 25, where the same word is used, it is said that ' Sisera asked water of Jael ;' not as one who was borrowing it of her, but as a gratuity for former kindness which he had shown to her. THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 401 'asked,' or 'demanded.' We must hence suppose that the Egyptians were so de- sirous that the Israelites should be gone, apprehending that if they continued, they were all dead men, that they might have of them whatever they demanded as neces- sary for their expedition ; while, if they came back, as they supposed they should, they would be obliged to return them. If this be the sense of the Hebrew word, there is no difficulty in the text, nor any appearance of the breach of this command- ment. But as the sense of the word is indeterminate, signifying to 'demand,' as well as to 'borrow,' God's order imports the former ; though the Egyptians might understand it in the latter, as denoting a borrowing with a design to restore. The Israelites, then, acted in this matter by God's command, who has a right to take away the goods which one possesses, if he pleases, and give them to another ; for he takes away nothing but his own. Now, that they had his warrant for borrowing or demanding these things of the Egyptians, appears from the second verse. Moreover, the reason why God ordered them to do this, if we look beyond his absolute sovereignty, was that the Israelites deserved what they received as wages for their hard service. Besides, the contribution might be reckoned a reward of the good offices which Joseph had done to Egypt, which had been long since for- gotten. As to the Israelites, it is probable that they expected nothing else but to return again, and restore to the owners what they had borrowed of them, after they had sacrificed to God in the wilderness ; at least, they were wholly passive, and disposed to follow the divine conduct by the hand of Moses. And when they were in the wilderness, they could not restore what they had borrowed, since the owners, as is more than probable, were drowned in the Red sea ; their revenge and covet- ousness, as well as Pharaoh's orders, having prompted them to follow the Israel- ites. Or if some of the owners might have been heard of, as yet surviving, their right to what was borrowed of them was forfeited, by reason of the hostile pursuit of Pharaoh and his hosts, which put them into a state of war. This may lead us farther to inquire what judgment we may pass on the many ravages and plunders which are generally made by armies engaged in war ; whether they may be reckoned a breach of this commandment. Now, it is beyond dispute that, if the war be unjust, as all the blood which is shed is murder, or a breach of the sixth commandment ; so all the damage which is done by burning of houses, or taking away the goods of those against whom it is carried on, is a breach of this commandment. But if we suppose that the war is just, that the damage is done only to those who are immediately concerned in it, and that it is an expedient to procure peace ; it is unquestionably lawful, and no breach of this commandment. Thus when the Israelites were commanded to destroy the inhabitants of the land of Canaan as criminals, they were admitted to seize on the spoil of other nations, who were more remote from them,11 when conquered by them. As for those plun- ders and robberies which are committed on private persons, who are not concerned in the war, any otherwise than as subjects of the government against which it is undertaken, especially if the losses they sustained have no direct tendency to pro- cure peace, these can hardly be justified from being a breach of this command- ment. Oppression. This commandment is broken also by oppression ; whereby the rich may be said to rob and even swallow up the poor.0 Now there are various ways by which per- sons may be said to oppress others. They may do so by engrossing those goods which are necessary for food or clothing, in order to enhance the price of them; so that the poor are brought into great extremities. Again, persons are guilty of op- pression when they enrich themselves out of the unmerciful labour exacted of their servants, whom they will hardly suffer to live, or eat the just reward of their ser- vice. Such a master was Laban to Jacob.p Landlords also are guilty of it when they turn their tenants out of their houses or farms, when they find that they get a comfortable subsistence by their industry, taking occasion thence to raise their n Deut. xx. 14, 15. o Psal. xiv. 4; x. 9; Micah iii. 2, 3. p Gen. xxxi 41, 42. IT. 3e 402 THE SINS FORBIDDEN IN THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. rent in proportion to the success God gives them. Finally, the rich are guilty of oppression when they make the poor suffer hy long delays to pay them their debts, that they may gain advantage by the improvement of that money which they ought to have paid them. Litigiousness. A person may be said to break this commandment, by engaging in unjust and vexatious lawsuits. It is to be owned, however, that going to law is not, at all times, unjust. For it is sometimes a relief against oppression ; and it is agreeable to the law of nature for every one to defend his just rights. On this account, God appointed judges to determine causes, to whom the people were to have recourse, that they might 'show them the sentence of judgment. '<* Yet we must conclude lawsuits to be in some cases oppressive. They are so when the rich make use of the law to prevent or prolong the payment of their debts, or to take away the rights of the poor, who, as they suppose, will rather suffer injuries than attempt to de- fend themselves. Lawsuits are oppressive also when bribes are either given or taken, with a design to pervert justice.1" We may add, that the person who pleads an unrighteous cause, concealing the known truth, perverting the sense of the law, or alleging that for law or fact which he knows not to be so ; and the judge who passes sentence against his conscience, respecting the person of the rich, and brow- beating the poor ; are confederates in oppression, while their methods of proceed- ing are, beyond dispute, a breach of this commandment. It is objected that our Saviour forbids going to law even to recover our just rights, when he says, ' If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.'8 We reply, that some things may be omitted for prudential reasons, which would not otherwise be unlawful to be done. Our Saviour does not forbid using our endeavours, in a legal way, to recover our right in all cases ; but he forbids it more especially at that time, when his followers could hardly expect to meet with justice. It may be also that they were oppressed by fines or distress, laid on them for their embracing Christianity ; and in this case he advises them patiently to bear injuries, when they could hardly expect relief from their unjust judges. Usury. This commandment is broken by extortion or oppressive usury. Thus it is said of the righteous man, * He putteth not out his money to usury.'* The word sig- nifies 'biting usury ;'u which is, beyond dispute, unlawful. We have elsewhere considered in what cases the Israelites might take usury, and when not.* On the whole, it is certainly unlawful to exact more than the legal rate or worth of the loan of money ; or to exact any usury of the poor, — especially for that which was borrowed to supply them with the necessaries of life. Restitution. Having considered in what instances this commandment is broken, we proceed to show what a person ought to do who has been guilty of the breach of it, in any of the forementioned instances, in order to his making restitution for the injuries he has done to his neighbour. The making of restitution ought always to attend the exercise of sincere repentance in those who have been guilty of this sin ; oi which we have an instance in Zaccheus.y The neglect of it will be like a worm at the root of ill-gotten estates, and will be little better than a continual theft. It is objected, however, that it may be a prejudice to our reputation, by making our crime public, which before was only known to ourselves. But what we do in this matter, is not really a reproach, but an honour ; and it is hardly to be sup- q Deut. xvii. 8, 9. r 1 Sam. viii. 2. s Matt v. 40. t Psal. xv. 5. u jrj, from ijofj, * momordit.' x See Sect. ■ The Judicial Law,' under Quest, xcviii. y Luke xix. 8. THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 403 posed that he to whom we perform so just and unexpected a duty, will be so bar- barous as to divulge or improve the transaction against us to our disadvantage. Besides, there are private ways of making restitution, whereby the injured party may receive what is sent to him, and not know from whom it comes ; or, good turns may be do.ne to him in a way of compensation for the damages he has re- ceived, and he not know that they are done with this design ; and, by this means, we disburden our consciences, perform a necessary duty, and, at the same time, prevent the supposed ill consequences which might follow. It is farther objected that sometimes the making of restitution is impracticable ; as when the person injured is dead, and we know of none who has a right to receive his property. Sometimes also we may have been guilty of so many instances of fraud and oppression, and to such a great number of persons, that it is next to im- possible. But when it is impossible for us to make restitution to those whom we have injured, or when we know of none who survive them who have a right to re- ceive it, the best expedient, I apprehend, we can make use of, is to give it to the poor ; for as it is not in justice our own, we do, as it were, hereby give it to the Lord, who is the original proprietor of all things. THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. Question CXLIII. Which is the ninth commandment ? Answek. The ninth commandment is, " Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." Question CXLIV. What are the duties required in the ninth commandment? Answer. The duties required in the ninth commandment are, the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbour as well as our oun ; appearing, and standing for, and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever; a charitable esteem of our neighbours ; loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name, sorrowing hi; and cover- ing of their infirmities ; freely acknowledging their gifts and graces; defending their innocency; a ready receiving of a good report, and un willingness to admit of an evil report concerning them ; dis- couraging talebearers, flatterers, and slanderers; love and care of our own good name, and defend- ing it w hen need requireth, keeping of lawful promises, studying and practising of whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of a good report. . Question CXLV. What are the sins forbidden in the ninth commandment f Answer. The sins forbidden in the ninth commandment, are, all prejudicing the truth, and the good name of our neighbours as well as our own, especially in public judicature, giving false evi- dence, suborning false witnesses, wittingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause, outfacing and overbearing the truth, passing unjust sentence, calling evil good, and good evil, rewarding the wicked according to the work of the righteous, and the righteous according to the work of the wick- ed ; forgery, concealing the truth, undue silence in a just cause, and holding our peace when ini- quity calleth for either a reproof from ourselves, or complaint to others ; speaking the truth unsea- sonably, or maliciously to a wrong end, or perverting it to a wrong meaning, or in doubtful and equivocal expressions", to the prejudice of truth or justice; speaking untruth, lying, slandering, backbiting, detracting, talebearing, whispering, scoffing, reviling, rash, harsh, and partial censuring, misconstruing intentions, words, and actions, flattering, vain-glorious boasting, thinking or speaking too highly or too meanly of ourselves or others, denying the gifts and graces of God, aggravating smaller faults, hiding, excusing, or extenuating of sins when called to a free confession, unnecessary discovering of infirmities, raising false rumours, receiving and countenancing evil reports, and stop- ping our ears against just defence; evil suspicion, envying or grieving at the deserved credit of any, endeavouring or desiring to impair it, rejoicing in their disgrace and infamy, scornful contempt, fond admiration, breach of lawful promises, neglecting such things as are of good report, and prac- tising or not avoiding ourselves, or not hindering, what we can in others, such things as procure an ill name. The Duties Required in the Ninth Commandment. In explaining this commandment we are to consider first what the duties are which it requires. 1. We must endeavour to promote truth in all we say or do ; and that as to what concerns either ourselves or others. As to what concerns ourselves, we are to guard against every thing which savours of deceit or hypocrisy ; and, in our whole 404 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. conversation, endeavour to be what we pretend to be, or to speak nothing but what we know or believe to be true upon good evidence, — the contrary to which is lying. As to what concerns others, we must not neglect to reprove sin in them, how much soever our worldly interest may lie at stake. Thus Azariah reproved Uzziah,2 and Elijah, Ahab ; though the attempt could not but be hazardous in each of them. Moreover, we must endeavour to undeceive others who are mistaken ; especially if the error they are liable to be of such a nature that it endangers the loss of their salvation. We are also to vindicate those who are reproached by others, to the utmost of our power, according as the cause will admit. 2. This commandment obliges us to endeavour to promote our own and our neigh- bour's good name. Our own good name consists, not in our having the applause of the world, but in our deserving its just esteem, and in our being loved and valued for our usefulness to mankind in general. Now, this esteem is not to be gained by commending ourselves, or doing any thing but what we engage in with a good conscience and the fear of God. In order to this, we must take heed that we do not contract an intimacy with those whose conversation is a reproach to the gospel.a We must also render good for evil, and not give occasion to those who watch for our halting, to insult us as to any thing besides unavoidable infirmities.15 This degree of honour in the world we ought first to endeavour to gain, especially so iar as it is necessary to our honouring God, and being useful to others. Then we must be careful to maintain our good name ; forasmuch as the loss of it, espe- cially in those who have made a public profession of religion, will reflect dishonour on the ways of God, whence his enemies will take occasion to blaspheme. c But if all our endeavours to maintain our character and reputation are to no purpose, and we are followed with reproach as well as hatred and malice, from an unjust and censorious world ; let us look to it that if we ' suffer reproach,' it be 'wrong- fully, not as evil-doers, but for keeping a good conscience in the sight of God ;' which may be a means to make those who reproach us ' ashamed. 'd Moreover, let us count the reproach of Christ, that is, reproach for his sake, a glory.6 Again, let us always value their good opinion most who are Christ's best friends, and ex- pect little else but ill-treatment from his enemies ; and then we shall be less dis- appointed when we are exposed to it. And let us not, out of fear of reproach, decline any thing which is our duty, in which the honour of God and the welfare of his people is concerned; but in this case, let us leave our good name in Christ's hand, whose providence is concerned for and takes care of the honour, as well as the wealth and outward state, of his people. We are also to endeavour to maintain the good name of others. In order to this, we must render to them those marks of respect and honour which their character and advancement in gifts or grace call for ; yet Vithout being guilty of servile flattery or dissimulation. If they are in danger of doing any thing which may forfeit their good name, we are carefully to reprove them, having a due re- gard to any good thing which is in them towards the Lord their God. And in maintaining their good name, we are to conceal their faults, when we may do so without betraying the interest of Christ ; and especially when the honour of God and their good are better promoted than by divulging them. f The maintaining of the good name of others is not, however, without some ex- ceptions. We are not to conceal the crimes committed by others. If private admonition, for scandalous sins committed, prove ineffectual, and the discovering of them to others may make the offender ashamed, and promote his reformation ; we are not to conceal his crimes, though the divulging of them may lessen the esteem which others have of him ; since it is better for him to be ashamed before men, than perish in his hypocrisy .s Again, if the crime committed be such that shame, and the loss of his good name, be a just punishment due to it, we are not to conceal it, thereby to stop the course of justice. Further, when the honour and good name of an innocent person cannot be maintained, unless by divulging the crimes of the guilty, he who has forfeited his good name ought to lose it, rather than he who has not. z 2 Chron. xxvi. 18. a Prov. xxviii. 7. b 1 Pet. ii. 12; Phil. iv. 8. c 2 Sam. xii. 14. d 1 Pet. iii. 16. e Chap. iv. 14 ; Acts v. 41. f 1 Pet. iv. 8 ; Prov. xvii. 9. g Matt, xviii. 16, 17. THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 405 We shall close this head by considering what reason we have to endeavour to maintain the good name of others. To take away our neighbour's good name, is to take away one of the most valuable privileges he is possessed of. The loss of it may be inexpressibly detrimental to him ; and sometimes may affect his secular interest ; so that in taking it away, we may be said to take away his wealth and outward estate, and prevent his usefulness in that station of life in which provi- dence has fixed him. Accordingly, we are to express a due concern for the honour and reputation of others as well as for our own. Thus concerning the duties re- quired in this commandment. The Sins Forbidden in the Ninth Commandment. We proceed to consider the sins forbidden in this commandment. These are summed up in the general expression, 'bearing false witness ;' and they may re- spect either ourselves or others. A person may be said to bear false witness against himself, in thinking either too highly or too meanly of himself. In the former respect, we value ourselves, or our supposed attainments, either in gifts or graces, too much. As regards these, we are, for the most part, mistaken, and pass a wrong judgment on them, and are ready to say, with the church at Laodicea, 'I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing ; and know not ' that we are 'wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. 'h On the one hand, some mistake the common gifts of the Spirit for grace, and conclude themselves to be something when they are nothing. But on the other hand, many conclude that they have no grace, and rank themselves among hypocrites and unbelievers, when their hearts are right with God, and they have had large experience of the power- ful influences of his Spirit, but are not sensible of it. Thus Christ says to the church in Smyrna, ' I know thy poverty ; but thou art rich.'1 In these respects persons may be said to bear false witness against themselves. But that which is principally forbidden in this commandment, is a person's bearing false witness against his neighbour. He does this either when he endea- vours to deceive him, or when he endeavours to do him prejudice as to his reputa- tion in the world. The one is called lying ; the other backbiting or slandering. As to the former, our saying that which is contrary to what we know to be truth, with a design to deceive, is what we call telling a lie ; and our doing that which is contrary to truth, may be deemed a practical lie ; both of which are very great sins. 1. A person is guilty of lying, when he says that which is contrary to truth, with a design to deceive. This the old prophet at Bethel did to the prophet of the Lord ; on which occasion it is said that he ' lied unto him.'k Now, lying is something more than saying what is contrary to truth ; for a person may do this and be guiltless. He may do so, for example, when there is some circumstance which discovers him to speak ironically ; so that he does not appear to have a design to deceive those to whom he addresses his discourse. Thus when the prophet Micaiah said to Ahab, ' Go and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it,' namely, Ramoth-Gilead, 'into the hands of the king;'1 it is plain that he spake the lan- guage of the false prophets, and that Ahab understood him in this sense, or sus- pected that he spake ironically. For he says, ' How many times shall I adjure thee, that thou tell me nothing but that which is true ?'m The prophet then tells him, without irony, though in a metaphorical way which Ahab easily understood, ' I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master, let them return every man to his house in peace.'11 This was an intimation, that, if he went up to Ramoth-Gilead, he should fall in battle. Hence, Ahab says to Jehoshaphat, ' Did I not tell thee, that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?'0 It thus appears that the prophet did not deceive him ; though the mode of speaking which he at first made use of, without considering it as irony, seemed to intimate as much. — Again, a per- il Rev. iii. 17. i Chap. ii. 9. k 1 Kings xiii. 18. 1 Chap. xxii. 15. m 1 Kings xxii. 16. n Verse 17. o Veres 18. 406 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. son may say that which is contrary to truth, being imposed on himself, without any design to deceive another. This cannot, indeed, according to the description he- fore given, he properly called a lie. Yet he may sin by asserting too positively that which he thinks to he true from probable circumstances or uncertain informa- tion ; especially if what he reports carries in it matter of scandal or censure. This was the case of Job's friends. They did not tell a lie against their own consciences ; yet they were too peremptory in charging him with hypocrisy, without sufficient ground. Hence, God imputes folly to them, in that ' they had not spoken of him the thing which was right.'? Here it may be inquired whether a person who designs not to deceive, nor speaks contrary to the dictates of his own conscience, but who promises to do a thing, and does it not, is guilty of lying. Now, if a person promises to do a thing, which at the same time he really designs, and afterwards uses all the endeavours he could to fulfil his promise, but something unforeseen happens in the course of providence to prevent the execution of it, he cannot, properly speaking, be said to be guilty of a lie ; though we ought not to promise any thing but upon the supposition that God enables us to perform it. Again, if a person intends to do a thing, and, ac cordingly, promises to do it, but afterwards sees some justifiable reascn to alter his mind, he is not guilty of a lie ; since all creatures are supposed to be mutable , Thus the angels told Lot, that they would ' abide in the street all night ;' but" afterwards, upon his entreaty, they ' went into the house with him.'^ Our Saviour also, when he walked with his disciples to Emmaus, • made as though he would have gone farther ; but they constrained him, saying, Abide with us ; and he went in to tarry with them.'r But, notwithstanding this, if a person promises to do any thing which is of advantage to another, as the paying of a just debt, &c, it is not a sufficient excuse to clear him from the guilt of sin, if he pretends that he has altered his mind, supposing that it is in his power to fulfil his promise. This con- duct is, indeed, a breach of the eighth commandment ; and, in some respects, it will appear to him to whom he made the promise to be a violation of it. That we may more particularly speak concerning the sin of lying, which multi- tudes are chargeable with, let it be observed, that there are three sorts of lies. First, when we speak that which is contrary to truth, and the dictates of our own con- science, with a design to cover a fault or excuse ourselves or others. This we gen- erally call an officious lie.8 Secondly, when a person speaks that which is contrary to the known truth, in a jesting way ; and embellishes his discourse with his own fictions, designing to impose on others. This they are guilty of, who invent false news, or tell stories for truth which they know to be false. This is to lie in a jest- ing, ludicrous manner.* Thirdly, there is a pernicious lie, namely, when a person raises and spreads a false report with a design to do injury to another. This is a complicated crime, and the worst sort of lying." Here there are two or three inquiries which it may not be improper to take no- tice of. One of these is, whether the midwives were guilty of an officious lie, when they told Pharaoh that ' the Hebrew women were delivered of their children, ere they came in unto them ;'h concerning whom it is said, in the following verse, that ' God dealt well with the midwives ' for this report, which carries in it the appear- ance of a lie. Now, they seem not to have been guilty of a lie ; for it is not im- probable, that God, in mercy to the Hebrew women and their children, might give them uncommon strength ; so that they might be delivered without the midwives' assistance. Or if this was not the case with all the Hebrew women, but only with some or many of them, the midwives' report is only a concealing of part of the truth, while they related, in other respects, that which was matter of fact. Now, a per- son is not guilty of telling a lie, who does not discover all that he knows. There is a vast difference between concealing a part of the truth, and telling that which is directly false. No one is obliged to tell all he knows to one who, he is sure, will make a bad use of it. This seems to have been the case of the midwives. Hence, p Job xlii. 8. q Gen. xix. 2, 3. r Luke xxiv. 26, 29. s ■ Mendacium officiosum.' t This is called ' mendacium jocosum.' u This is called ' mendacium pernitiosum.' x Exod. L 19. THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 407 their action was justifiable, and commended by God ; they being not guilty, pro- perly speaking, of an officious lie. t Another inquiry is, what judgment we must pass concerning the actions of Ra- hab, the harlot, who invented an officious lie, to save the spies from those who pur- sued them. It is said, ' she took the two men and hid them ;'* and, at the same time, pretended to those who were sent to inquire of her concerning them, that ' she wist not whence they were,' but that they ' went out of the city about the time of the shutting of the gate, though whither they went she knew not.' The main difficulty we have to solve is what the apostle says in apparent commenda- tion of this action, ' By faith Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. 'z Now, the apostle says, indeed, that she 'received the spies with peace,' that is, she protected them, and did not betray them into the hand of their enemies. But this act of faith does not relate directly to the lie which she invented to conceal them ; for, doubtless, she would have been more clear from the guilt of sin, had she refused to give the messengers any answer relating to them, and so had given them leave to search for them, and left the event to providence. This, indeed, was a very difficult duty ; for it might have endan- gered her life ; and her choosing to secure them and herself, by inventing this lie, brought with it a degree of guilt, and was an evidence of the weakness of her faith. But, on the other hand, that faith which the apostle commends in her, respects some other circumstances attending this action. Accordingly, it is not said that by faith she made the report to the messengers concerning the spies, but, that ' by faith she received them with peace.' Now, there are several things in which her faith was very remarkable. She was confident that ' the Lord would give them the land' which they were contending for.3 She makes a just inference relating to this matter, from the wonders which God had wrought for them in the Red sea.b She makes a noble confession, that ' the Lord their God is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath.'0 She put herself under the protection of the Israelites, and desired to take her lot with them ; and she did this at the hazard of her life, though she might have saved it, and probably have received a reward, had she be- trayed them. This I conceive to be a better vindication of l'ahab's conduct than that which is alleged by some, who suppose that, by entering into confederacy with the spies, she put herself into a state of war with her own countrymen, and so was not obliged to speak truth to the men of Jericho. Such an interpretation is fol- lowed by many ill consequences, and gives too much countenance to persons deceiv- ing others, under pretence of being in a state of war with them. As to what the Papists say in her vindication, that a good design will justify a bad action ; this is not true in fact, and therefore not to be applied to her case. It might be farther inquired what judgment we ought to pass on the method which Jacob took to obtainj the blessing, when he told his father, ' I am Esau, thy first- born ; I have done according as thou badest me ;'d whether he was guilty of a lie in this conduct. Now, there is not the least doubt that he was. Some, indeed, endeav- our to excuse him, by alleging that he had, before this, bought the birth-right of Esau, and that on this account he calls himself Isaac's first-born. But this will not clear him from the guilt of a lie ; for what he said would still have been an equivocation, and spoken with a design to deceive. Others own it to have been a lie ; but extenuate it, from the consideration of God's having designed the blessing for him before he was born.e But these do not at all mend the matter. For, though God may permit or overrule the sinful actions of men, to bring about his own purpose ; yet his doing so does not, in the least, extenuate their sin. We may farther observe, in reference to this action and the consequence of it, that good men are sometimes liable to sinful infirmities, as Jacob was ; who was followed with many sore rebukes of providence, which made the remaining part of his life very uneasy. He lived in exile twenty years, with Laban, an hard master, and an unjust and unnatural father-in-law. Again, great distress befell him in his return; occasioned first by Laban's pursuit of him, and then by the tidings which he re- y Josh. ii. 4, 5. z Ileb. xi. 31. a Josh. ii. 9. b Verse 10. c Josh. ii. 11. (1 Gin. xxvii. 19. e Chap. xxv. 23. 408 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. ceived of -his brother Esau coming out to meet him, 'with four hundred men.' As Esau was prompted by revenge, which he had long harboured in his breast, Jacob expected nothing less than the destruction of himself and his whole family. Further, he did not obtain deliverance from the hand of God without 4 great wrestling ;'f and this attended with ' weeping,' as well as ' making supplica- tion, 's And, though he prevailed, and so obtained the blessing, and therewith for- giveness of his sin ; yet God so ordered it, that he should carry the mark of his success upon him as long as he lived, by touching the hollow of his thigh, which occasioned an incurable lameness. Another inquiry is, whether the prophet Elijah did not tell a lie to the Syrian host, who were before Dothan, in quest of him, when he said, ' This is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man you seek. But he led them to Samaria ?'h But if what he says to them be duly considered, it will appear not to be a lie ; for he told them nothing but what proved true, ac- cording to the import of his words. He does not say, I am not the man ye seek, which would have been a lie ; nor does he say, the man is not here ; but he tells them, ' I will lead you to the place where ye shall find him,' or have him discovered and presented before you. Again, when he says, ' This is not the way, neither is this the city ;' he does not say, this is not the way to Dothan, neither is this the city so called ; for then they would have been able to have convicted him of a lie, for they knew that they were at Dothan before they were struck with blindness. But the plain meaning of his words is, " This is not your way to find him, since the men of this city will not deliver him to you ; but I will lead you to the place where you shall see him ;" and 'so he led them to Samaria,' where their eyes were opened, and they saw him. What he said, therefore, was not a lie. And the rea- son of his management was, that the king of Israel and the Syrian host might be convinced that they were poor creatures in God's hand, and that he could easily turn their counsels into foolishness, and cause their attempts to miscarry with shame as well as disappointment. It may be farther inquired, whether the apostle Paul was guilty of a lie, when, being charged with 'reviling God's high priest,' he said, ' I wist not that he was the high priest?'1 How was it possible that he should entertain any doubt con- cerning his being the high priest ; a matter which none who were present could, in the least, question ? Now, we may suppose that the apostle, when he says, ' I wist not that he was the high priest,' intends nothing, but " I do not own him to be the high priest, as you call him ; for he is not an high priest of God's appoint- ing or approving. Had he been so, he would have acted in a manner more becom- ing that character ; and then I should have had no occasion to have told him, 4 God shall smite thee, thou whited wall.' For to have said so would have been 4 reviling him ;' since I know that scripture very well which says, ' Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.' " He thus intimates that, though he was an high priest of man's making, he was not one of God's approving; and that accord- ingly he was to be treated with contempt, instead of that regard which was former- ly paid to the high priests, when they were better men, and acted more agreeably to their character. No one who deserves to be called God's high priest, would have ordered a prisoner who came to be tried for his life, instead of making his de- fence, to be smitten on the mouth. But, suppose we render the words agreeably to our translation, 4 I did not understand that he was the high priest,' Paul may still be vindicated from the charge of telling a lie. The assembly was a confused one, and not a regular court of judicature, in which the judge or chief magistrate is known to all, by the place in which he sits, or the part he acts in trying causes. Again, the high priest, in courts of judicature, was not known by any robe or dis- tinct habit which he wore, as judges now are ; for he never wore any but his com- mon garments, which were the same that other people wore, except when he min- istered in offering gifts and sacrifices in the temple. Hence, the apostle could not know him by any distinct garment which he wore. Further, through the corrup- tion of the times, the high priest was changed almost every year, according to the f Gen. xxxii. 24 — 26. g llosea xii. 4. b 2 Kings vi. 19. i Acts xxiii. 4, 5. THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 409 will of the chief governor, who advanced his own friends to that dignity, and often- times sold it for money. It is therefore probable that Ananias had not been long high priest ; and Paul was now a stranger at Jerusalem, and so might not know that he was high pi'iest. Thus, if we take the words in the sense in which they are commonly understood, the apostle may be sufficiently vindicated from the charge of telling a lie. It may be farther inquired, what judgment we may pass concerning David's pretence, when lie came to Ahimelech, that ' the king commanded him a business, which no one was to know any thing of,' and that he had ' appointed his servants to such and such a place ;'k and also concerning his 'feigning himself mad,' before the king of Gath,1 which dissimulation can be reckoned no other than a practical lie. In both these instances he must be allowed to have sinned ; and therefore is not proposed as a pattern to us. All that can be inferred is, that there is a great deal of the corruption of nature remaining in the best of God's people. What he told Ahimelech was certainly a lie ; and all that he expected to gain by it, was only a supply of his present necessities ; the consequence of which was the poor man's losing his life, together with all the priests, except Abiathar, by Saul's in- humanity. David seems to have been truly sensible of this sin ; as appears from Psal. xxxiv., which, as is intimated in its title, was penned on this occasion. Here he warns others against the same sin, ' Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile ;'m and he seems to relate his own experience when he says, ' The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a con- trite spirit.'11 As to his behaviour before the king of Gath, which was a visible lie discovered in his actions, it can by no means be excused from being a breach of this commandment. It is, indeed, alleged by some to extenuate his fault, that he was afraid that his having killed Goliath, would induce Achish to take away his life ; as appears from what is said in verses 11, 12. Yet it may be considered as an aggravation of his sin, that his fear seems to have been altogether ground- less. For why should he suppose that the king of Gath would break through all the laws of arms and honour, since Goliath had been killed in a fair duel, the chal- lenge having first been given by himself? Why should David fear that he would kill him for that, any more than for other hostilities committed in war ? Besides, it is plain from what Achish says, ' Have I need of madmen, that ye have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence ? should this fellow come into mine house ?'° that the king of Gath was so far from designing to revenge Goliath's death on him, that he intended to employ him in his service, and take him into his house. But David's mean action made him despised by all ; for it seems probable, by Achish's saying, ' Have ye brought this fellow to play the madman?' that he per- ceived it to be a feigned and not a real distraction. And this was overruled by the providence of God, to let the Philistines know that the greatest hero is but a low-spirited man, if his God be not with him. On the other hand, if we suppose that there had been just ground for David's fear, the method taken to secure him- self involved a distrust of providence. Providence would, doubtless, have delivered him without his dissembling, or thus demeaning himself, or using such an indirect method to effect his deliverance. Thus concerning the violation of this command- ment, by speaking that which is contrary to truth. II. This commandment is farther broken, by doing that which is' contrary to truth. This is what we call hypocrisy. It may be considered, first, as a reigning sin, inconsistent with a state oi grace ; in which respect an hypocrite is opposed to a true believer. Hypocrites make a fair show of religion ; but it is with a design to be seen of men.? They are sometimes, indeed, represented as 'seeking' God, and ' inquiring early ' or with a kind of earnestness after him, when under his afflicting hand ; but their doing so is deemed no other than a ' flattering him with their mouth, and a lying unto him with their tongues ;' inasmuch as ' their heart is not right with him.'i Elsewhere, too, they are said to ' love the praise of men more than the praise of God.'r< — Again, hypocrisy may be considered as that which be- k 1 Sam. xxi. 2. 1 Verse 13. m Psal. xxxiv. 13. n Verse 18. o 1 Sam. xxi. 15. p Matt. vi. 5. q Psal. lxxviii. 34—37. r John xii. 43. II. 3p 410 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. lievcrs are sometimes chargeable with, which is an argument that they are sancti- fied but in part; but this rather respects some particular actions, and not the tenor of their conduct. Thus the apostle Paul charges Peter with dissimulation ; s though the latter was far from deserving the character of an hypocrite as to his general conduct. And our Saviour cautions his disciples against hypocrisy, as that which they were in danger of being overtaken with ; * though he does not charge them with it as a reigning sin, as he did the scribes and Pharisees, whom he compares to 'painted sepulchres ;'u nor were they such as the apostle speaks of, whom he calls ' double-minded men, who are unstable in all their ways.'1 That hypocrisy which we may call a reigning sin, may be known by a person's accommodating himself to all those whom he converses with, how much soever his doing so may tend to the dishonour of Christ and the gospel. Here we may take occasion to inquire whether the apostle Paul was, in any respects, chargeable with this sin, when he said, ' Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews ; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law ; to them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak : I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.'1 For understanding this scripture, and vindicating the apostle from the charge of hypocrisy, let it be considered that the compliance he here speaks of, was with a design, not to gain the applause of the world, but to serve the interest of Christ. Nor did he connive at, or give coun- tenance to, that false worship or those sinful practices of any, which were contrary to the faith or purity of the 'gospel. Hence, when he says, ' Unto the Jews I be- came as a Jew,' he does not mean that he gave them the least ground to conclude that it was an indifferent matter, whether they adhered to, or laid aside, the obser- vance of the ceremonial law. For he expressly tells some of the church at Galatia who were disposed to judaize, that this was contrary to ' the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, a being again entangled with the yoke of bondage ;' that 'if they were circumcised, Christ should profit them nothing;' and, that they were ' fallen from grace, ' that is, turned aside from the faith of the gospel.2 In this sense, therefore, he did not become as a Jew, to the Jews. Nor did he so far comply with the Gentiles as to give them ground to conclude, that the superstition and idolatry which they were guilty of, was an harmless thing, and might still be practised by them. Hence, the amount of his compliance with the Jews or Gen- tiles, was nothing else but this, whatever he found praiseworthy in them, he com- mended ; and if, in any instances, they were addicted to their former rites or modes of worship, he endeavoured to draw them off from them, not by a severe and rigid behaviour censuring them, refusing to converse with them, or reproaching them for their weakness, but by the use of kind and gentle methods, designing rather to inform than discourage them ; while, at the same time, he was far from approving or giving countenance to any thing which was sinful in them or unbecoming the gospel. From what has been said concerning an hypocrite's being one who performs re- ligious duties with a design to be seen of men, as our Saviour says of the Pharisees that ' they love to stand praying in the synagogues, or in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men,'1 we may inquire what may be said in vindication of the prophet Daniel from the charge of hypocrisy, concerning whom it is said that, when Darius had signed a decree prohibiting any one from asking a petition of any god or man, save of the king, he should be cast into the den of lions, ' he went into his house, and his windows being open in his chamber, towards Jerusa- lem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a-day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. 'b Now, he acted thus, not to gain the esteem or applause of men, a motive which they are charged with who- are guilty of hypo- crisy ; but he acted in contempt of the vile decree of the Persian monarch. Again, he acted as he did at the peril of his life ; and showed that he had rather be cast s Gal. ii. 11—13. t Luke xii. I. u Matt. xxii. 27, 28. x James i. 8. y 1 Cor. ii. 20—22. z Gal. v. 1_4. a Matt. vi. 6. b Dan. iv. 10. THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 411 into the den of lions, than give occasion to any to think that he complied with the king in his idolatrous decree. Further, though it is said that ' he prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime,' we are not to understand that lie set open his windows aforetime. His praying publicly at this time, was to show that he was neither ashamed nor. afraid to own his God, whatever it should cost him. Hence, he was so far from being guilty of hypocrisy, that his conduct is one of the most noble instances of zeal for the worship of the true God which we find recorded in scripture. "We proceed to observe that hypocrisy is a reigning sin when we boast of our high attainments in gifts or grace, or set too great a value on ourselves because of the performance of some religious duties, while we neglect others in which the principal part of true godliness consists. Thus the Pharisee paid ' tithe of mint, anise, and cummin,' while he 'omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. 'c — Again, hypocrisy, as a reigning sin, consists in exclaiming against and censuring others for lesser faults, while we allow greater in ourselves ; like those whom our Saviour speaks of who ' behold the mote that is in their bro- ther's eye, but consider not the beam that is in their own ;'d or, according to that proverbial way of speaking, 'strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.' These are very fond of exposing the ignorance of others ; though they have no experimental, saving knowledge of divine truth in themselves. Or they are very froward to blame the coldness and lukewarmness which they see in some ; while, at the same time, that zeal which they express in their whole conduct, is rather to advance them- selves than the glory of God. — Further, persons are guilty of hypocrisy as a reign- ing sin when they make a gain of godliness, e or of their pretensions to it. Thus Balaam prophesied for a reward ; and accordingly it is said that ' he loved the wages of unrighteousness. 'f — Finally, persons are guilty of it who make a profes- sion of religion because it is uppermost, and are as ready to despise and cast it off, when it is reproached, or when they are likely to suffer for it. Thus the Pharisees, how' much soever they seemed disposed to embrace Christ when attending on John's ministry ; yet afterwards, when they saw that their doing so was contrary to their secular interest, they were 'offended in him,' and prejudiced against him, and said, ' Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees, believed on him?'& This sin of hypocrisy, which is a practical lie, has a tendency to corrupt and vitiate all our pretensions to religion. It is like 'the dead fly,' mentioned by Solomon, ' that causeth the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour ;'h and it will, in the end, bring on those who are guilty of it many sore judgments, some of which are spiritual. Thus it is said of the heathen, that ' be- cause, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, and did not like to retain him in their knowledge ; he gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things that are not convenient,'1 &c. As for the false hope and vain confidence which the hypocrite entertains, it shall leave him in despair and confusion, k and be attended with unspeakable horror of conscience.1 On this account hypocrites are said to ' heap up wrath,' and bring on themselves a greater degree of condem- nation than others.1" We have thus considered this commandment as broken by speaking or acting that which is contrary or prejudicial to truth. III. We proceed to consider that this commandment is broken by our doing that which is injurious to our neighbour's good name, either by words or actions. This is done in two ways, either before his face, or behind his back. 1. Doing injury to another, by speaking against him before his face. It is true, we give him hereby the liberty of vindicating himself ; yet if the thing be false which is alleged against him, proceeding from malice and envy, our speaking against him is a crime of a very heinous nature. This crime is committed by those who, in courts of judicature, commence and carry on malicious prosecutions. Here the plaintiff, the witness, the advocate who manages the cause, the jury who bring in a false verdict, and the judge who passes sentence contrary to law or evi- c Matt, xxiii. 23, 24. d Chap. vii. 3, 5. el Tim. vi. 5. f 2 Pet. ii. 15. g John vii. 48. h Eccles. x. 1. i Rom. i. 21, 22, 28. k Job viii. 13—15 1 Job xx vii. 18; Isa. xxxiii. 14. m Job xxxvi. 13; Matt, xxiii. 14. 412 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. dence as well as the dictates of his own conscience, with a design to crush and ruin him who is maliciously prosecuted, are all notoriously guilty of the breach of this commandment. Again, those may be said to do that which is injurious to their neighbour's good name, who reproach them in common conversation. This is a sin too much committed in this licentious age ; as though men were not account- able to God for what they speak, as well as for other parts of the conduct of life. There are several things which persons make the subject of their reproach. Among these are the defects and blemishes of nature ; such as lameness, blindness, deafness, impediment of speech, meanness of capacity, or actions which proceed from a degree of distraction. Many suppose that the apostle Paul was reproached for some natural deformity in his body or impediment in his speech. This is in- ferred from his representing some as saying, ' His letters are weighty and powerful ; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.'11 Elsewhere, also, he commends the Galatians for not despising him on this account. * My tempta- tion,' says he, 'which was in my flesh, ye despised not, nor rejected ; but ye re- ceived me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.'0 The aggravations of this sin of reproaching persons for their natural infirmities, are very great. For, it is a finding fault with the workmanship of the God of nature, a thinking meanly of a person for that which is not chargeable on him as a crime, and which he can by no means redress. It is a censuring those who are, in some respects, objects of compassion ; especially if the reproach be levelled against the defects of the mind, or any degree of distraction. It also argues a great deal of pride and unthankful- ness to God, for those natural endowments which we have received from him, though we do not improve them to his glory. Here we may take occasion to say something respecting the children's sin who reproached Elisha for his baldness, and the punishment which followed, namely, his 'cursing them m the name of the Lord ;' and ' two and forty' of them being ' toi'n in pieces by two she-bears out of the wood.'? It may be inquired by some, whether this was not too great an instance of passion in that holy man, and too severe a punishment inflicted ; inasmuch as they who reproached him are called 'little children.' The children, however, were not so little as not to be able to know their right hand from their left, or to discern between good and evil ; for such are not usually trusted out of their parents' sight ; nor would they have gathered themselves together in a body, or gone some distance from the city, on purpose to insult the prophet, as it is plain they did, understanding that he was to come there at that time. They must, therefore, have been boys of a sufficient age to commit the most presumptuous sin ; and hence not too young to suffer such a punishment as followed. Again, their sin was great, in mocking a grave old man, who ought to have been honoured for his age, and a prophet, whom they should have esteemed for his character. In despising him, they despised God who called and sent him. Further, Bethel, where they lived, was the chief seat of idolatry, in which these children had been trained up ; and it was a prevailing inclination to it, together with an hatred of the true religion, which occasioned their reproaching and casting contempt on the prophet. Finally, the manner of expression argues a great deal of profaneness, ' Go up, thou bald head ;' that is, either go up to Bethel, speaking in an insulting way, as if they had said, ' You may go there, but you will not be regarded by the people ; for they value no such men as you are ;' or rather, it is as if they had said, ' You pretend that your predecessor Elijah is gone Up to heaven ; do you go up after him, that you may trouble us no longer with your prophecies.' These children, then, though young in years, were hardened in sin ; and their conduct was not so much an occasional mocking of the prophet for his baldness, as a public contrivance, and tumultuous opposition to his ministry ; which is a very great crime, and accordingly, was attended with a just resentment in the prophet, and followed by that punishment which was inflicted. Some reproach persons for their sinful infirmities ; and do so in such a way that they are styled 'fools' who 'make a mock of sin.'q We are guilty of this when we reflect on persons for sins committed before their conversion. These they have n 2 Cor. x. 10. o Gal. iv. 14. p 2 Kings ii. 23, 24. q Prov. xiv. 9. THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 413 repented of, and God has forgiven ; so that they should not he now charged against them, as a matter of reproach. Thus the Pharisee reproached the poor penitent woman, who stood weeping at our Saviour's feet, and said within himself, ' If this man were a prophet, he would have known what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner.'1- This reproach respected not her present hut her former condition. Again, persons are ' fools who make a mock of sin,' when they reproach others with levity of spirit for the sins they are guilty of at present ; as when the shameful actions of a drunken man are made the subject of laughter; which ought not to be thought of without regret or pity. It may be objected that sin renders a person vile, and is really a reproach to him ; so that it may be charged upon him as such ; especially as it is said concerning the righteous man, ' In his eyes a vile person is contemned.'8 Now, we are far from asserting that it is a sin to reprove sin, and show the person who commits it his vileness, and the reason he has to reproach and charge himself with it, and loathe himself for it. But the contempt which is to be cast on a vile person, does not consist in making him the subject of laughter, as though it were a light matter for him to dishonour God as he does ; for his conduct should occasion grief in all true believers, as the psalmist says, ' I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved because they kept not thy word.'4 Accordingly, when the psalmist advises to 'con- temn' such an one, the meaning is, that we should not make him our intimate or bosom friend ; or that if he be in advanced circumstances in the world, we are not to flatter him in his sin ; whereby, especially when it is public, he forfeits that re- spect which would otherwise be due to him. In this sense we are to understand Mordecai^ contempt of Haman.u Here we may take occasion to distinguish between reproving sin, and reproach- ing persons for it. The former is to be done with sorrow of heart, and compassion expressed to the sinner ; as our Saviour reproved Jerusalem, and, at the same time, ' wept over it.'x But, on the other hand, reproach is attended with hatred of him, and a secret pleasure taken in his sin and ruin. Again, reproof for sin ought to be with a design to reclaim the offender ; whereas, reproach tends only to expose, exasperate, and harden him in his sin. Moreover, reproof for sin ought to be given with the greatest seriousness and conviction of the evil and danger which will follow ; whereas they who reproach persons, charge sin on them under the in- fluence of their own passions, without any concern for the dishonour which they bring to God and religion, or desire for their repentance and reformation. Sometimes that which is the highest ornament and greatest excellency of a Christian, is turned to his reproach. In particular, some have been reproached for extraordinary gifts, which God has been pleased to confer on them. Thus the spirit of prophesy was sometimes reckoned, by profane persons, the effect of distraction.* Joseph was reproached by his brethren, in a taunting way, with the character of a dreamer ; because of the prophetic intimation which he had from God, in a dream, concerning the future state of his family.2 When the apostles were favoured with the extraordinary gift of tongues, and preached to men of different nations, in their own language, ' some were amazed, and others mocked them, and said, These men are full of new wine.'a — Again, raised affections, and extraordinary instances of zeal for the glory of God, have been derided, as though they were matter of re- proach. Thus Michal reproached David, when 'he danced before the ark;'b he being actuated by an holy zeal, and transport of joy ; and so far from reckoning it a reproach, he counted that which she called vile,glorious. — Further, spiritual ex- periences of the grace of God have sometimes been turned by those who are stran- gers to them, to their reproach, and termed no other than madness. Thus when the apostle Paul related the gracious dealings of God with him in his conversion, Festus charges him with being 'beside himself.'0 — Again, a person's being made use of by God, to overthrow the kingdom of Satan, has been charged against him, as though it were rebellion. Thus the Jews told Pilate, when he sought to release r Luke vii. 37—39. s Psal. xv, 4. t Psal. cxix. 158. u Esther iii. 2. x Luke xix 41, 42. y 2 Kings ix. 11. z Gen. xxxvii, 13 a Acts ii. 13. b 2 Sain. vi. 20. c Acts xxvi. 24. 414 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. Jesus, 'If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. 'd And that reforma- tion which the apostles were instrumental in making in the world, hj preaching the gospel, is styled 'turning the world upside down.'e — Further, humility of mind in owning our weakness, as not being able to comprehend some divine mysteries con- tained in the gospel, is reckoned matter of reproach by many ; who call it implicit faith, and admitting of the greatest absurdities in matters of religion. — Further, giving glory to the Spirit, as the Author of all grace and peace, and desiring to draw nigh to God in prayer, or engage in other holy duties, by his assistance, is reproached by some, as though it were enthusiasm, and as though they who desire or are favoured with this privilege, were pretenders to extraordinary revelation. — Again, a being conscientious in abstaining from those sins which abound in a licen- tious age, or reproving and bearing our testimony against those who are guilty of them, is reproached with the character of hypocrisy, preciseness, and being right- eous overmuch. — Finally, separating from communion with a false church, and re- nouncing those doctrines which tend to pervert the gospel of Christ, is called by some heresy. Thus the Papists brand the Protestants with the reproachful name of heretics. But we may answer, that this is rather our glory, and confess that "after the way which they call heresy, so worship we the God of our fathers.'* This sin is attended with many aggravations ; for God reckons it as a contempt cast on himself, s They who are guilty of it, also, plainly intimate that they pre- tend not to be what they reproach and deride in others ; so that if the latter be in the right way to heaven, those who reproach them discover that they desire not to go thither. In their whole conduct, indeed, they act as though they were en- deavouring to banish all religion out of the world, by methods of scorn and ridicule ; and if their design should take effect, this earth would be but a small degree better than hell. "When we are thus reproached for the sake of God and religion, let us not render railing for railing ; but look on those who revile us as objects of pity,h who do more hurt to themselves than they can do to us. Moreover, let us reflect on our own sins, which provoke God to suffer our being reproached ; and beg of him that he would turn it to his own glory and our good. Thus David did, when lie was unjustly and barbarously cursed and railed at by Shimei. ! We ought also to esteem religion the more, because of the opposition and contempt which it meets with from the enemies of God. That very contempt and opposition, indeed, afford us some evidence of the truth and excellency of religion ; as our Saviour says concerning his disciples, 1 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own ; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.'k Again, when we are reviled for the sake of Christ and religion, let us take encouragement from the consideration that we have the same treatment which he and all his saints have met with.1 Let us also consider that there are many pro- mises annexed to our being so reviled. m It is also an advantage to our character as Christians ; for hereby it appears, that we are not on their side who are Christ's avowed enemies. Hence, we should reckon their reproach our glory ;n or as the apostle says, ' take pleasure in reproaches for Christ's sake,'0 or, as it is said else- where, ' Rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.'P Thus concerning our doing injury to our neighbour, by speaking against him before his face. 2. We shall now consider the injury which is done to others by speaking against them behind their back. This ^hose are guilty of who raise or invent false reports of their neighbours, or spread those which are uncertain, or divulge those which ought to be kept secret, with a design to take away their good name. These are called talebearers, backbiters, slanderers ; who offer injuries to others who are not in a capacity to defend themselves.^ Their malicious reports are often, indeed, prefaced with a pretence of great respect to the person whom they speak against. d John xix. 12. e Acts xvii. 6. f Chap. xxiv. 14. g Luke x. 16. h 1 Cor. iv. 12, 13; 1 Pet. ii. 23. i 2 Sam. xvi. 10, 12. k John xv. 19. 1 Heb xii. 2, 3; Chap. xi. 36. m Matt. v. 11, 12; 1 Pet. iv. 14. n Hib. xi. 2C. o 2 Cor. xii. 10. p Acts v. 41. q fcVy, xi\. 1G. THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 415 They seem very much surprised at and sorry for what they are going to relate ; and sometimes signify their hope, that it may not be true ; and desire that what they report may he concealed, while they make it their business themselves to divulge it. But this method will not secure their own reputation, while they are endeavouring to ruin that of aiiother. They propagate slander in various ways. They do so by pretending that a person is guilty of a fault which he is innocent of. Thus our Saviour and John the Baptist were charged with immoral practices, which there was not the least shadow or pretence for.r Again, they do so by divulging a real fault which has been acknowledged and repented of, and therefore ought to be concealed ;s or when there is no pretence for making it public, but what arises from malice and hatred of the person. Further, they do so by aggra- vating faults or representing them worse than they are. Thus Absalom's sin in murdering Amnon was very great ; but he who brought tidings of it to David, re- presented it worse than it was, when he said that Absalom had ' slain all the king's sons.'* Again, persons propagate slander by reporting the bad actions of men, and, at the same, overlooking and extenuating their good ones ; and so not doing them the justice of setting one in the balance against the other. Further, they do so by putting the worst and most injurious construction on actions which are really excellent. Thus, because our Saviour admitted publicans and sinners into his presence, and did them good by his doctrine, the Jews reproached him as though he were ' a friend of publicans and sinners, 'u taking the word ' friend ' in the worst sense, as signifying an approver of them. Finally, persons propagate slander by reporting things to the prejudice of others, which are grounded on such slender evidence, that they themselves hardly believe them, or at least would not, had they not a design to make use of them, to defame them. Thus Sanballat, in his letter to Nehemiah, tells him that ' he and the Jews thought to rebel ; and built the wall of Jerusalem, that he might be their king ;'x which it can hardly be sup- posed the enemy himself gave any credit to. Thus concerning the instances in which persons backbite or raise false reports on others. We may add, that as they are guilty who raise slanders ; so are they who listen to and endeavour to propagate them. It is not, indeed, the mere hearing of a report which we cannot but think to be attended with malice and slander which will render us guilty, for that we may not be able to avoid ; but it is our encourag- ing him who raises or spreads it which renders us guilty. In particular, we sin when we hear malicious reports, if we conceal them from the party concerned in them, and so deny him the justice of answering what is said against him, in his own vindica- tion, or when we do not reprove those who make a practice of slandering and back- biting others, in order to our bringing them to shame and repentance ; and, most of all, when we contract an intimacy with those who are guilty of this sin, and are too easy in giving credit to what they say, though not supported by sufficient evi- dence, but on the other hand, carrying in it the appearance of envy and resentment. Thus concerning the sins forbidden in this commandment. We shall close this Head by proposing some remedies against slander. If the thing reported to another's prejudice be true, we ought to consider that we are not without many faults ourselves ; which we would be unwilling, if others knew them, that they, should divulge. If the thing reported be doubtful, we, by reporting it, may give occasion to some to believe it to be true, without sufficient evidence ; so that our neighbour will receive real prejudice from that which to us is only mat- ter of surmise and conjecture. But if, on the other hand, what is reported be apparently false, the sin is still the greater ; and, by inventing and propagating it, the highest injustice is offered to the innocent, while we, at the same time, are guilty of a known and presumptuous sin. Again, such a way of exposing men answers no good end ; nor is it a means of reclaiming them. Further, by our inventing or propagating slander, we lay ourselves open to the censure of others ; and by en- deavouring to take away our neighbour's good name, endanger the loss of our own. r Matt. xi. 18, 19. s Chap, xviii. 15. t 2 Sam. xiii. 30. u Matt. xi. 19. x Nehem. vi. 6. 416 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. Question CXLVI. Which is the tenth commandment ? Answer. The tenth commandment is, '« Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neigh hour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." Question CXLVH. What are the duties required in the tenth commandment f Answer. The duties required in the tenth commandment are, such a full contentment with our own condition, and such a charitable frame of the whole soul toward our neighbour, as that all our inward motions and affections touching him tend unto and further all that good which is his. Question CXLVIII. What are the sins forbidden in the tenth commandment ? Answer. The sins forbidden in the tenth commandment, are, discontent with our own estate* envying, and grieving at the good of our neighbour, together with all inordinate motions and affec* tions to any thing that is his. The general design of this commandment is to regulate and set bounds to our de- sires ; and it contains a prohibition of coveting those tilings which belong not to us. It is not to be split into two commandments, as the Papists pretend. They sup- pose that, ' Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house,' is the ninth, and, ' Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife,' &c. is the tenth commandment. But these are only particular instances of the breach of the same commandment. The argu- ment taken from the repetition of the words, ' Thou shalt not covet,' is so very weak and inconclusive, that it would hardly have been made use of by them, had they not thought it necessary, some way or other, to make up the number ten ; having, as was observed under a foregoing Head, determined the second commandment not to be distinct from but an appendix to the first* The Duties Required in the Tenth Commandment. We proceed to consider the duties required in the tenth commandment. These may be reduced to two Heads. 1. Contentment with our own condition. By this we are not to understand that we are to give way to indolence or stupidity, but to exercise a composure of mind, acquiescing in the divine dispensations in every condition of life. Thus the apos- tle says, ' I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.'2 This duty is applicable to all sorts of men. In particular, it is a grace which is to be exercised by those who are in prosperous circumstances in the world. Thus the apostle says, ' I know how to abound, 'a and to be ' full,' as well as ' to suffer need.' We often find that they who have the greatest share of the good things of this world, are so far from being satisfied with it, that their covetousness increases in proportion to their substance. But such ought to consider that their conduct is most unreasonable and ungrateful, and may justly provoke God to take away the blessings which he has given them, or add some circumstance to them which will tend to embitter them. Moreover, it is a giving way to such a temper of mind as renders them really miserable in the midst of their abundance. But what we shall principally consider, is how the grace of contentment is to be exercised by those who are in an afflicted state, together with the motives and in- ducements leading to it. We will suppose persons under bodily weakness or pain, which tends much to embitter the comforts of life, by which means they are made uneasy. Indeed, it is impossible, from the nature of the thing, for them not to complain or groan under the burdens which are laid on them ; as the psalmist did, who speaks of himself as 'weary of his groaning. 'b Nor is such sense of suffer- ing unlawful, provided they do not repine at, or find fault with, the methods of God's providence, in his dealing with them. There are, however, some things which may induce them to be content. If we consider that the body gave occasion y S<*« page 315. z Phil. iv. 11. a Verse 12. b Psal. vi. 6. THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. 417 to the entrance of sin into the world, and bears a part with the soul in all the sins committed and guilt contracted by it, it is no wonder that we find it to have its share in those miseries to which the soul is exposed. Again, bodily diseases are our monitors, to put us in mind of the frailty of our present state. Hence, as they are the harbingers of death, we are forewarned by them to prepare for it, as mak- ing sensible advances towards it. Further, the greatest pains to which we are lia- ble, are -far short of what Christ endured for us ; in which respect our afflictions are comparatively light, and convincingly evident not to be certain indications of our being rejected by God.c Moreover, as God will not lay more on us than he will enable us to bear ; so none of these afflictive dispensations shall have a ten- dency to separate the soul from Christ. Though we sometimes complain that afflic- tion is a great interruption to the exercise of grace ; yet this shall not be charged upon us as our fault, any otherwise than as it is the effect of that sin which is the procuring cause of all affliction. Besides, the heavier our afflictions are at present, the more sweet and comfortable the heavenly rest will be to those who have a well- grounded hope that they shall be brought to it.d If our condition be low and poor in the world, we are not without some induce- ments to be content. Poverty is not in itself a curse, or inconsistent with the love of God ; for Christ himself submitted to it ;e and his best saints have been exposed to it, and glorified God under it,f more than others. Moreover, how poor soever we are, we have more than we brought into the world with us, or than the richest person can carry out of it.s And they who have least of the world have more than they deserve, or than God was under any obligation to give them. Suppose we are afflicted in our good name, and do not meet with that love and esteem from the world which might be expected, but, on the other hand, are cen- sured, reproached, and hated by those whom we converse with ; we should not be made, beyond measure, uneasy. We have reason to conclude that the esteem of the world is precarious and uncertain ; and that they who most deserve it, have often the least of it. Thus our Saviour was one day followed with the caresses of the multitude, shouting forth their Hosannas to him ; and the next day the com- mon cry was, 'Crucify him, crucify him.' When the apostles Paul and Barnabas had healed the cripple at Lystra, they could at first hardly restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them ; but afterwards the same people joined with the malicious Jews in stoning them.h And Paul tells the Galatians, that ' if it had been possible, they would have plucked out their eyes, and have given them to him ;' but, a little after, he complains that he was ' become their enemy, because he told them the truth.'' Besides, the esteem of men is no farther to be desired than as it may render us useful to them ; and if God is pleased to deny this to us, we are not to prescribe to him what measure of respect he shall allot to us from the world, or usefulness in it. Moreover, let us consider that we know more evil abounding in our own heart than others can charge us with. Hence, how much soever they are guilty of injustice to us ; our knowledge of ourselves affords us a motive to contentment. Besides, we have not brought that honour to God which we ought ; therefore, how just is it for him to deny us that esteem from men which we desire ? Suppose we are afflicted in our relations, there are some motives to contentment. If servants have masters who make their lives uncomfortable, by their unreason- able demands or unjust severity, they ought to consider that their faithfulness and industry will be approved of by God, how much soever it may be disregarded by men ; and a conscientious discharge of the duties incumbent on them, in the rela- tion in which they stand, will give them ground to expect a blessing from God, to whom they are herein said to do service, which shall not go unrewarded.k On the other hand, if masters are afflicted, by reason of the stubborn and unfaithful be- haviour, or sloth and negligence, of their servants ; let them inquire whether this be not the consequence of their not being so much concerned for their spiritual c Eccles. ix. 1. d Job iii. 17; 2 Tbess. i. 7; 2 Cor. iv. 17- e 2 Cor. viii. 9; Matt. riii. 20. f 2 Cor. vi. 10. g Job i. 21. h Acts xiv. 18, 19. i Gal. iv. 15, 16. k Eph. vi. 7, 8. II. 3 6 418 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. welfare as they ought, or keeping up strict religion in their families, or whether they have not been more concerned that their servants should obey them, than their great Master who is in heaven. — Again, if parents have undutiful children, who are a grief of heart to them ; let them consider, as a motive to contentment, whether they have not formerly neglected their duty to their parents, slighted their counsels, or disregarded their reproofs, or whether they have not reason to charge themselves with the iniquity of their youth, and inquire whether God be not now writing bitter things against them for it, or whether they have not neglected to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. These consid- erations will fence against all repining thoughts at the providence of God, that has brought these troubles upon them. As a farther inducement to make them easy, let them consider, that if the undutiful conduct of their children does not altogether lie at their door, and that if they have been faithful to their children, in praying for and instructing them, God may hear their prayers, and send home their in- structions on their hearts, when they themselves are removed out of the world. On the other hand, if children have wicked parents, whose conversation fills them with great uneasiness ; let them consider that theirs has been the case of many of God's faithful servants, such as Hezekiah, Josiah, and others. And they may be assured that they shall have no occasion to use that proverb, * The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'1 If we are afflicted by reason of the treachery and unfaithfulness of pretended friends, which wound us in the most tender part,m we may be induced to be con- tent. For we have no ground to expect perfection in the best of men, or that their love and favour is immutable ; nor is our conduct always such that we do not often forfeit the respect which we once had from others. Besides, if our friends deal de- ceitfully with us, or are unfaithful to us, without just ground, they do not act so, without the permission of the wise and overruling providence of God, who some- times orders such affliction in order to take us off from a dependence upon men, or from expecting too much happiness from them, — which is to be sought for only in himself.11 Moreover, when we find a change in the behaviour of friends towards us, our encouragement is that our chief happiness consists in the unchangeable love of God.° When we are afflicted in the loss of friends or near relations, we have also mo- tives to contentment. There is no reversing or altering the decree of God, which fixes the bounds of men's continuance in this world.P All the comfort we have in friends and relations is a peculiar blessing from God ; and he sometimes afflicts us in the loss of them, that he may draw off our affections from the best creature-en- joyments, and induce us to take up our rest entirely in himself. Moreover, we had never any reason to look on our friends as immortal, any more than ourselves ; and therefore ought to say as David did when he lost his child, ' I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.' q So far too as self-love is concerned in our bereave- ments, we have a reason to give a check to the excess of it, by the exercise of self- denial, and say with David, ' I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it ;'r or follow the example of Aaron, concerning whom it is said, that, when he lost two of his sons at once, by a public and awful stroke of divine justice, ' he held his peace.'3 If we are afflicted by the want of success or the many disappointments which attend us, in our lawful callings in the world, we have reason, notwithstanding, to be content. It is the sovereign hand of God which orders our condition, as to the success or disappointments attending our lawful callings ; and hence we are not to strive against our Maker, or find fault with his will, who may do what he pleases with his own. Again, a man's happiness does not really consist in the abundance of what he possesses,* but rather in his having a heart to use it aright. Hence, we ought to say to ourselves, as God did to Baruch, ' Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not.'u Further, the world is a scene of vanity. We have no reason to expect too much from it, and hence ought not to be dejected at the loss J Ezek. xviii. 2. m Psal. lv. 12, 13. n Isa. ii. 22. o Mai. iii. 6. p Job xiv. 9. q 2 Sam. xii. 23. r Psal. xxxix. 8. s Lev. x. 3. t Luke xii. 15. u Jer. xlv. 5. THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. 410 of it ; especially considering that such disappointments are the coran;ou lot of all sorts of men.. Moreover, the providence of God sometimes denies us the eood things of this world1, that we may think it our duty and interest to lay up treasures in heaven. Suppose we meet with afflictions as to our spiritual concerns, being under divine desertion or decays of grace, or wanting a sense of the love of God or those spirit- ual comforts which we once enjoyed from him ; in this condition no believer can or ought to be easy*, at least stupid, and unconcerned. But, on the other hand, ha ought to be humbled for those sins which may give occasion to it, and press aftei the enjoyment of what he is, at present, deprived of. Yet contentment, as it it opposed to repining or quarrelling with God, is his present duty ; and there are some inducements tending to it. A person may have the truth of grace, when he is destitute of the comfortable sense of it. And there are some great and precious promises made to believers, in this condition.1 Moreover, God has wise ends in such a dispensation ; for hereby he brings sin to remembrance, humbles us for it, and guards us against presumption and confidence in our own strength.? He also puts us upon the exercise of suitable graces ; z and when he is pleased to comfort us after such afflictions, we are better furnished to comfort others in a similar con- dition. 2. The next thing required in this commandment, is a charitable frame of spirit towards our neighbour ; so that all our inward motions and affections should lead us to promote and rejoice in his good.a This charitable frame of spirit ought to be exercised towards those who excel us in gifts or graces. These they receive from the hand of providence, as talents to be improved. Hence, if they have a greater share of them than ourselves, more is required of them in proportion.1' If they excel us in grace, we ought rather to rejoice that, though we bring but little glory to God, others bring more ; and it will afford us an evidence of the truth of grace, if, while we are humbled under a sense of our own defects, we are thankful for the honour which is brought to God by others.0 — Again, we ought to exercise a charitable frame of spirit towards those who are in more prosperous cir- cumstances in the world ; not envying, grieving, or repining at the providence of God, because their condition is better than ours. We are, therefore, to consider that the most flourishing and prosperous condition in the world is not always the best ;d and that it is not without many temptations which often attend it.e Be- sides, if it be not improved to the glory of God, it will bring a greater weight of guilt on their consciences. If, on the other hand, we enjoy communion with God, and the blessings of the upper springs, we have what is much more desirable than the most prosperous condition in the world, without it.f The Sins Forbidden in the Tenth Commandment. "We are now led to consider the sins forbidden in this commandment. These include that corrupt fountain whence the irregularity of our desires proceeds ; or the streams which flow from it, and which discover themselves in the lusts of con- cupiscence in various instances, as well as in our being discontented with our own condition. 1. As to the former of these, namely, the corruption of nature, it must be con- sidered as contrary to the law of God, and consequently forbidden in this com- mandment. The Pelagians and Papists, indeed, pretend that the law of God re- spects only the corruption of our actions, which is to be checked and restrained by it, and not the internal habits or principle whence our actions proceed. Accord- ingly, they take an estimate of the law of God from human laws, which respect only the overt acts of sin, and not those internal inclinations and dispositions which persons have to commit it. But when we speak of the divine laws, we must not take our plan thence ; for though man can judge only of outward actions, God x Isa. liv. 7. 8; Psal. cxii. 4. y Psal. xxx. 6, 7« z Psal. xlii. 6. and lxxvii. 6. a I Cor. xiii. 4—7; Rom. xii. 15. b Luke xii. 48. c Gal. i. 23, 24; JoLn iii. 26—28, 30. d Psal. xxxvii. 16. e 1 Tim. vi. 9. f Psal. xvi. 5, 6. 420 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. judgetli the heart. Hence, tlie sin which reigns there, cannot but be, in the highest degree, offensive to him. And though the corruption of our nature cannot be altogether prevented or extirpated, by any prescription in the divine law ; yet this is the means which God takes to reprove and humhle us for it.? It is objected that the apostle James distinguishes between lust and sin: 'When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin.'h And it is hence inferred that the cor- ruption of nature is not properly sin, and, consequently, not forbidden by the law. But lust may be distinguished from sin, as the habit or corrupt principle is from the act which it produces. Hence, the apostle's meaning in this scripture, is that lust, or irregular desires, are first conceived in the heart, and then actual sins proceed from them in the life ; and both are abhorred by God, and contrary to hi* law. And they seem to be forbidden, in particular, in this tenth commandment. Here we may observe the various methods which corrupt nature takes, in order to its producing and bringing forth sinful actions. First, the temptation is offered, either by Satan, or the world, with a specious pretence of some advantage which may arise from our compliance with it ; and, at the same time, we consider not whether it be lawful or unlawful, and regard not the threatenings which should deter us from it. And we sometimes take occasion, from the pernicious example of the falls and miscarriages of others, to venture on the commission of the same sins ; pretending that they are, many of them, more acquainted with scripture than we are ; and that there seems to be no ill consequence attending their commission of those sins. Why, then, we ask ourselves, may not we give way to them ? We pre- tend also that many, who have had more fortitude and resolution than we can pre- tend to, have been overcome by the same temptations ; so that it is in- vain for us to strive against them. Again, corrupt nature sometimes fills the soul with a secret dislike of the strictness and purity of the law of God ; and, at other times, it sug- gests that there are some dispensations allowed, in compliance with the frailty of nature ; and it bonce suggests that we may venture on the commission of some sins. At length we take up a resolution that we will try the experiment, whatever be the consequence. Thus lust brings forth sin ; which, after it has been, for some time, indulged, is committed with greediness, and persisted in with resolution, and, in the end, brings forth death. 2. We are now to consider the irregularity of those actions which proceed from the corruption of our nature, which are sometimes called the lusts of concupi- tcence : whereby, without the least show of justice, we endeavour to possess our- selves of those things which belong to our neighbour. Thus Ahab was restless in his own spirit, till he had got Naboth's vineyard into his hand ; and, in order to gain his point, joined in a conspiracy to take away his life. ' David also coveted his neighbour's wife ; which was one of the greatest blemishes in his life, and brought with it a long train of miseries which attended him in the following part of his reign.k And Achan coveted those goods which belonged not to him, the wedge of gold, and the Babylonish garment ;l which sin proved his ruin. This sin of covetousness arises from a being discontented with our present con- dition ; so that whatever measure of the blessings of providence we enjoy, we are filled with disquietude of mind, because we are destitute of what we are lusting after. This must be considered as a sin attended with very great aggravations. It unfits us for the performance of holy duties ; prevents the exercise of those graces, which are necessary in order to this ; and, on the other hand, exposes us to mani- fold temptations, whereby we are rendered an easy prey to our spiritual enemies. — Again, it is altogether unlike the temper of the blessed Jesus, who expressed an entire resignation to the divine will, under the greatest sufferings.k Indeed, it is a very great reproach to religion in general, and a discouragement to those who are setting their faces towards it, who will be ready to conclude, from our example, that the consolations of God are small, or that there is not enough in the promises of the covenant of grace to quiet our spirits under their present uneasiness. — More- over, it is to act as though we expected or desired our portion in this world, or g Rom. vii. 9. h James i. 15. i 1 Rings xxi. 4. k 2 Sam. xii. 9—12. 1 Josh. vii. 21. m John xviii. 1 1 ; Luke xxii. 42. THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. 421 looked no farther than present things, which is contrary to the practice of the best of God's saints." — Further, it tends to cast the utmost contempt on the many mercies we have received or enjoy, which are, as it were, forgotten in un thankfulness ; and it is a setting aside of those blessings which the gospel gives us to expect. — Again, it argues an unwillingness to be at God's disposal, and a leaning to our own under- standings, as though we knew better than he, what was most conducive to our pre- sent and future happiness ; and hence it is a tempting of God, a grieving of his Holy Spirit, and has a tendency to provoke him to ' turn to be our enemy, and fight against us.'0 — Further, it deprives us of the present sweetness of other mer- cies ; renders every providence, in our own apprehension, afflictive ; and those bur- dens which would otherwise be light, almost insupportable. — Moreover, if God is pleased to give us what we were discontented and uneasy for the want of, he often sends some great affliction with it. Thus Rachel, in a discontented frame, says, * Give me children, or else I die.'P She had, indeed, in some respects, her desire of children ; but she died in travail with one of them.0' — Finally, the sin of which we are speaking is such that they who are guilty of it will find it very difficult to be brought to a thorough conviction of the guilt which they contract by it, or to a true repentance for it. Thus Jonah, when under a discontented and uneasy frame of spirit, justified himself, and, as it were, defied God to do his worst against him; so that when it was said to him, ' Dost thou well to be angry ?' he replied, in a very insolent manner, ' I do well to be angry, even unto death. 'r The justifying of our- selves under such a frame of spirit, cannot but be highly provoking to God ; and whatever we may be prone to allege in our own behalf, will rather aggravate than extenuate the crime. There are several things which a discontented person is apt to allege in his own vindication, which have a tendency only to enhance his guilt. He pretends, for example, that his natural temper leads him to be uneasy ; so that he cannot by any means subdue his passions, or submit to the disposing providence of God. But the corruption of our nature, and itspronenessto sin, are no just excuse for our deprav- ity, but rather an aggravation of it ; whereby it appears to be more deeply rooted in our hearts. Indeed, our natural inclinations to any sin are increased by indulg- ing it. Hence, in this case, we ought rather to be importunate with God for that grace which may have a tendency to restrain the inordinacy of our affections, and render us willing to acquiesce in the divine dispensations, than to palliate and ex- cuse our sin ; for our doing the latter only aggravates our guilt. — Again, some, in excuse for their discontented and uneasy frame of spirit, allege that the injuries which have been offered to them ought to be resented ; that they are such as they are not able to bear ; and that not to show themselves uneasy under them, would be to encourage persons to insult and trample on them. But while we complain of injuries done us by men, and are prone to meditate revenge against them, we do not consider the great dishonour which we bring to God, and how much we deserve to be made the monuments of his fury, so that we should not obtain forgiveness from him, who are so prone to resent lesser injuries done to us by our fellow-crea- tures.8— Moreover, others excuse their discontent, by alleging the greatness of their afflictions ; that their burden is almost insupportable, so that they are pressed out of measure, above strength, and are ready to say with Job, * Even to-day is my complaint bitter ; my stroke is heavier than my groaning.'* But our afflictions are not so great as our sins, which are the procuring cause of them ; nor are they greater than some which befall others who are better than ourselves. Indeed, by indulging a discontented frame of spirit, we render them heavier than they would otherwise be.— Some, again, pretend that they are discontented and uneasy be- cause the affliction they are under was altogether unexpected ; so that they were unprovided for it, and so less able to bear it. But a Christian ought daily to ex- pect afflictions in this miserable and sinful world, at least so far as not to be un- provided for them, or think it strange that he should be exercised with them.u We have received many unlooked-for mercies ; and why should we be uneasy because n 2 Cor. iv. 18. o Isa. lxiii. 10. p Gen. xxx. 1. q Chap. xxxv. 19. r Jonah iv. 9. s Matt, xviii. 23, et seq. t Job xxiii. 2. u 1 Pet. ir. 12. 422 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. we meet with unexpected afflictions, and not rather set the one against the other ? Besides, God is not obliged to forewarn us or give us notice of the trials which he designs we shall pass under ; and when he deals thus with us, it discovers to us the necessity of our being always provided for them. Some of God's best children, too, have often been surprised with afflictive providences, and yet have been en- abled to exercise contentment under them. Thus the messengers who brought Job heavy and unexpected tidings of one affliction immediately following another,1 did not overthrow his faith, or make him discontented under the hand of God ; for, notwithstanding all, 'he worshipped and blessed the name of the Lord. 'J — Again, others allege that the change which is made in their circumstances in the world, from a prosperous to an afflicted condition in life, is so great, and lies with such weight upon their spirits, that it is impossible for them to be easy under it. But, when God gave us the good things we are deprived of, he reserved to himself the liberty of taking them away when he pleased, designing thus to show his absolute sovereignty over us. Hence, it is our duty before any affliction befalls us, ac- cording to the apostle's advice, to 'rejoice as though we rejoiced not, and to use the world as not abusing it ;'z and, after it befalls us, not to think it strange that we should be deprived of the world, inasmuch as ' the fashion of it pass- eth away.' Besides, the greater variety of conditions in which we have been or are in the world, afford more abundant experience of those dealings of God with us which are designed as an ordinance for our faith. Hence, instead of being discontented under them, we ought rather to be put on the exercise of those graces which are suitable to the change of our condition ; as the apostle says, * I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound.'* — Further, some allege that they have the greatest reason to be discontented, because of the influence which their afflictions have on their spiritual concerns, as they tend to interrupt their communion with God ; and they are often ready to fear that these are indi- cations of his wrath, and, as it were, the beginning of sorrows ; which leads them to the very brink of despair. Now, it is certain that nothing more sharpens the edge of afflictions, or has a greater tendency to make us uneasy under them, than such thoughts as these ; and not to be sensible of them, would be an instance of the greatest stupidity. Yet if our. fears are ill-grounded, as they sometimes are, the uneasiness which arises from them is unwarrantable. Or if we have too much ground for these fears, we are to make use of the remedy which God has provided. Accordingly, we are to have recourse by faith to the blood of Jesus for forgive- ness ; and our doing so ought to be accompanied with the exercise of true repen- tance and godly sorrow for sin, without giving way to those despairing apprehensions which sometimes arise from a sense of the greatness of our guilt, as though it set us out of the reach of mercy ; for such apprehensions will add an insupportable weight to our burden. And if, under the afflicting hand of God, we are rendered unfit for holy duties, and have no communion with him in them, the reason may be, not the affliction, but that discontented, uneasy frame of spirit which we too much indulge under it. Hence, we are not to allege the affliction as an excuse for that murmuring, repining frame of spirit which we are too apt to discover while exer- cised with it. The last thing to be considered is, the remedies against this sin of being discon- tented with our present condition. Let us, then, have a due sense of that un- doubted right which God has to dispose of us and our condition in this world, as he pleases ; inasmuch as we are his own.b — Again, uneasiness under the hand of God, or repining at his dealings when he thinks tit to deprive us of the blessings we once enjoyed, is not the way to recover the possession of them. The best expe- dient for us to regain them, or some other blessings which are more than an equiva- lent for them, is our exercising an entire resignation to the will of God, and con- cluding that all his dispensations are holy, just, and good. — Let us consider, too, that God often designs to make us better by the sharpest trials ; which are an ordinance to bring us nearer to himself. Thus David says, ' Before I was afflicted, x Job i. 13, et seq. y Ver. 20, 21. z 1 Cor. vii. 30. a Phil. iv. 12. b Matt. xx. 15. MAN S INABILITY TO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS. 423 I went astrav ; but now have I kept thy word.'c — Moreover, we ought to consider that God's design in these dispensations is to ' try our faith,' that it ' maybe found afterwards unto praise, honour and glory,' as it will be, with respect to every true believer, ' at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 'd — We may add, that there are many promises of the presence of God, which have a tendency, not only to afford relief against uneasiness or dejection of spirit, but to give us the greatest encouragement under the sorest afflictions, particularly that comprehensive promise, ' I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.'e MAN'S INABILITY TO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS. Question CXLIX. 7s any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God f An&wer. No man is able, either of himself, or by any grace receivid in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed. Having considered man's duty and obligation to keep the commandments of God, we are now led to speak of him as unable to keep them, and, on the other hand, as chargeable with the daily breach of them, which is an evidence of the imperfection, of the present state. We endeavoured, under a foregoing Answer, f to prove that the work of sanctification is imperfect in this life ; so that all the boasts of the Pelagians and others, who defend the possibility of attaining perfection here, are vain and unwarrantable. We also considered the reasons why God orders that it should be so ; and therefore we shall, without enlarging so much on this subject as otherwise we might have done, principally take notice of what is to be observed in this Answer, under two general Heads. The Nature and Limits of Mans Inability. We shall notice first in what respects, and with what limitations, man is said to be unable to keep the commandments of God. It is said that no man is able per- fectly to keep them. By ' no man ' here we are to understand, as is observed in the Shorter Catechism, s no mere man ; so that our Saviour is excepted, who yielded perfect obedience in our nature. But there is another limitation, namely, that no man is able to keep the commandments since the fall ; denoting that man, in his state of innocency, was able perfectly to keep the commandments of God. For he was made upright, and had the image of God, which consisted in knowledge, righ- teousness, and holiness,11 stamped on his soul ; having the law of God written in his heart, and power to fulfil it. ' Indeed, to suppose the contrary, would be a re- flection upon the divine government, and would argue man to have been created under a natural necessity of sinning and perishing ; to suppose which is contrary to the goodness, holiness, and justice of God. Moreover, it is observed that no* man is able, in this life, perfectly to keep God's commandments. An intimation is thus made that the glorified saints in heaven will be enabled to yield perfect obe- dience, notwithstanding the many imperfections they are now liable to. Again, as man is not able, of himself, or without the aids of divine grace, to obey God ; so he is not to expect such assistance from him as shall enable him to obey him per- fectly. There is no doubt that the grace of God could free us from all the remains of sin in this world, as well as in our passing from it to heaven ; but we have no ground to conclude that it will. For ' the whole creation ' is liable to the curse, which was consequent upon man's first apostasy from God ; and under this it 'groaneth' till the present day.k Nor shall it be delivered from it, till the scene of time and things shall be changed, and the saints shall be fully possessed of what they are c Psal. cxix. 67. d 1 Pet. i. 7. e Heb. xiii. 5. f See Quest. Ixxviii. g See Quest, lxxxii. h Eccles. vii. 29; Gen. i. 27. i See Quest, xvii. Sect. 'Man Created after the Image of God.' k Rom. viii. 22, 23. 4'24 man's inability to keep the commandments. now waiting for, namely, the 'adoption, or the redemption of tlieir bodies.' Be- sides, God is pleased to deny his people that perfection of holiness here which they shall attain to hereafter, that he may give them daily occasion to exercise the duties of self-denial, mortification of sin, faith and repentance, which redound to his- own glory and their spiritual advantage. The Uniform and Constant Display of Mans Inability. We are now led to consider that we daily break the commandments of God, in thought, word, and deed. 1. We do so in thought ; namely, when the mind is conversant about sinful ob- jects, in such a way that it contracts defilement. It is a sign that the wickedness of man is very great, when ' every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil,' and that 'continually.'1 — Now, thoughts of men may be said to be sinful when they choose, delight in, and are daily conversant about things which are vain, empty of what is good, and have no tendency to the glory of God, or the spiritual advantage either of themselves or others. The least vain {bought which contains an excursion from our duty to God, brings some degree of guilt with it. But when the mind is wholly taken up with vanity, so that it is turned aside from or takes no delight in those things which are of the highest importance, it will become vitiated and alienated from the life of God. — Again, the thoughts of men may be said to be sinful, when they are not fixed, or intensely set, on God and divine things, when engaged in holy duties. This may happen either when worldly cares or busi- ness, how lawful soever they may be at other times, have a tendency to divert our thoughts ; or when our minds are conversant about spiritual things unseasonably, so as to be diverted from our present design. The latter case occurs, for example, when we are joining with others in prayer, and when — instead of bearing a part with them in the exercise of faith and other graces, or of our thoughts being em- ployed about the same object with theirs — we are meditating on some other divine subject foreign to the occasion. — Further, our thoughts may be said to be sinful, when they are conversant about spiritual things without suitable affections, and, consequently, meditating on them as common things, in which we are not much concerned ; as when we are destitute of those holy desires after God, or delight in him, when drawing nigh to him in holy duties, which his law requires. This will more evidently appear when, by comparing the frame of our spirit in these duties with what we observe it to be in other instances, we find that our affections are easily raised when engaged in matters of less importance, but stupid and uncon- cerned about our eternal welfare, in holy duties. Such a state of mind is accom- panied with hardness of heart and impenitence, and sometimes with uneasiness and weariness, as though they were a burden to us. On the other hand, our affections may be raised in these duties, and yet we be chargeable with a sinfulness of thought while engaging in them. This happens when the affections are raised by things of less importance, while other things which are more affecting are not regarded. A person, for example, may meditate on Christ's sufferings, and be very much affected with and enraged at the treachery of Judas who betrayed him, or the bar- barity of the Jews who crucified him ; while he is not in the least affected with the sin of the world which was the occasion of his death, or with the greatness of his love, which moved him to submit to it. — Again, our affections, when raised in holy duties, are sinful, when they are all that we depend upon for justification and acceptance in the sight of God, and when we vainly suppose that our tears will wash away our sins, while we are destitute of faith in the blood of Christ ; or when we are concerned about the misery consequent on our sins, but are not in the least inclined to hate them, nor grieved at the dishonour brought by them to the name of God. — Let us here consider the causes of this state of the affections, and the remedies against it. If we do not find that our affections are raised in religious exercises, as they have been in times past, we ought to inquire into the reason ; whether the evil be not attended with some great backslidings from God, which 1 Gen. vi. 5. man's inability to keep the commandments. 42£> might first occasion it. Sometimes it proceeds from a neglect of holy duties, either public or private ; at other times, from presumptuous sins, committed, or continued in, with impenitence. We often find, too, that our being too much embarrassed with the profits or pleasures of this world, or immoderately engaged in our pursuit of them, stupifies and damps our affections, as to religious mat- ters, so that they are seldom or never raised in holy duties. As to the reme- dies against this stupid and unaffected frame of spirit ; we must not only repent of, but abstain from, those sins which have been the occasion of it ; meditate on those subjects most suitable to our case, which have a tendency to inflame our love to Christ, and desire after him, and our zeal for his glory ; and often confess and be- wail our stupidity and unbecoming behaviour in holy duties ; earnestly imploring the powerful influence of the Spirit of God, to bring us into, and keep us in, a right frame of spirit for them. Again, we have reason to charge ourselves with sin, when guilty of blasphemous thoughts ; when we have, by degrees, brought on ourselves a disregard of God, either by living in the neglect of holy duties, or allowing ourselves in the practice of known sins, when before we were followed with blasphemous thoughts, we found that we gave way to some doubts about the divine perfections, or, through the ignorance, pride, and vanity of our minds, contracted an habitual disregard to or neglect of that holy reverence with which we ought to meditate on them ; when we can hear those execrable oaths or curses by which some profanely blaspheme the name of God, with- out expressing our resentment with the utmost abhorrence and detestation ; or when we find, that, being followed with blasphemous thoughts, our hearts are too prone to give in to them, as though they were the sentiments of our mind, whereby we do, as it were, consent to them, instead of rejecting them with the utmost aversion. But, on the other hand, blasphemous thoughts are not always to be charged on us as a sin. Sometimes they are chargeable on Satan, who, in regard to them, acts according to his character as God's open enemy, and endeavours to instil into us the same ideas which he himself has. These thoughts may be charged on him, when they are hastily injected into our minds, not being the result of choice or de- liberation, but are a kind of violence offered to our imagination ; and when we cannot but discover the greatest detestation of them, as well as of that enemy of souls from whom they take their rise ; and when, at the same time, we are enabled to exercise the contrary graces, and betake ourselves to God with faith and prayer, that he would rebuke the devil, and preserve our consciences undefiled, under this sore temptation, which we cannot but reckon one of the greatest afflictions that be- falls us in this world. Thus concerning the sinfulness of our thoughts. 2. We are farther said daily to break the commandments of God in word. The apostle James speaks of the tongue as 'an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 'm Evil- speaking, as was observed concerning the sinfulness of our thoughts, is attended with a greater or a less degree of guilt, as the vanity of the mind, and the wicked- ness of the heart, more or less discover themselves in it. Our Saviour speaks of the ac- countableness of man in the day of judgment for ' every idle word ;'n intimating that there is no sin so small but what is displeasing to an holy God, a violation of his law, and brings with it a degree of guilt, in proportion to its nature. These, indeed, are the lowest instances of the sinfulness of words. There are others of so heinous a nature that they can hardly be reckoned consistent with true godliness, such as defaming and malicious words, which are sometimes compared to 'a sword,' or 'ar- rows,'0 or 'a serpent's tongue,' that leaves a sting and poison behind it.P But the sinfulness of our words extends itself yet farther, as they are directed against the blessed God ; when persons ' set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth ;'i when they give themselves the liberty to talk profanely about sacred things, and openly blaspheme the name and perfections of God. This degree of impiety, indeed, all are not chargeable with. We may say, however, that should God mark the iniquity of our words, as well as of our thoughts, who could stand ? 3. We are said to break the commandments of God by deeds, that is, by com- m James iii. 8. n Matt. xii. 36. o Psal. lvii. 4. p Psal. cxl. 3. q Psal. lxxiii. 9. II. 3H 42G THE DEGREES Of SIN. mitting tlio c sin* which are contrived in the heart, and uttered with our tongues. These have been considered under their respective heads, as violations respectively of the ten commandments, or doing those things which are forbidden in them. We therefore pass them over in this place, and proceed to speak concerning the aggra- vations of sin. THE DEGREES OF SIN. Question CL. Are all transgressions of the law of God equally heinous in themselves and in the tight of God f Answer. All transgressions of the law of God are not equally heinous : but some sins in them- selves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others. Though all sins are objectively infinite, and equally opposite to the holiness of God ; yet there are some circumstances attending them of so pernicious a tendency that they render one sin more heinous than another ; so that it is not to be thought of, without the greatest horror and resentment, and it exposes the sinner to a sorer condemnation, if it be not forgiven. Such sins strike at the very essentials of re- ligion, and tend, as much as in us lies, to sap its foundation ; as when men deny the being and perfections of God, and practically disown their obligation to yield obedience to him. Moreover, some sins against the second table, which more immediately respect our neighbour, are more heinous than others, in proportion to the degree of injury which they do him. Thus the taking away of the life of an- other, is more injurious, and consequently more aggravated, than merely the hating of him ; which is, nevertheless, a very great crime. Again, the same sin, whether against the commandments of the first or of the second table, may be said to be more or less heinous, in proportion to the degree of obstinacy, deliberation, malice or enmity against God, with which it is committed. But these things will more evidently appear under the following Answer. THE AGGRAVATIONS OF SIN. Question CLI. What are those aggravations which make some sins more heinous than others t Aggravations from the Persons of ending. Answer. Sins receive their aggravations, I. From the persons offending, if they be of riper age, greater experience, or grace, eminent for pro- fession, gifts, place, office ; guides to others, and whose example is likely to be followed by others. Sins are greater than otherwise they would be, when committed by those whose age and experience ought to have taught them better. Thus Elihu says, ' A mul- titude of years should teach wisdom.'1" Many things would be a reproach to per- sons of age and experience, which are more agreeable to the character of children, than those who are advanced in age. Again, if persons have had large experience of the grace of God, and been eminent for their profession, or gifts conferred on them, these circumstances will render a sin committed by them more aggravated ; for where much is given, a proportionate improvement is expected, and where great pretensions are made to religion, acting disagreeably to it enhances guilt and ren- ders sin more heinous. Agam» when a person is in an eminent station or office in the world or the church, so that either he is a guide to others, or the eyes of many are upon him, who will be apt to follow and receive prejudice by his example, if he commit a public and open sin, it is more aggravated than if it had been committed r Job xxxii. 7. THE AGGRAVATIONS OF SIN. 427 by another. Thu§ God bids the prophet Ezekiel 'see what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery.'8 And the prophet Jeremiah speaks of those- who ought to have been guides to the people, namely, the priests and the prophets,* who transgressed against the Lord ; and charges their transgression on them as an extraordinary instance of wickedness ; which their character in the world and the church rendered more heinous, though it was exceedingly heinous in itself. Aggravations from the Parties offended. • II. Sins receive their aggravations, from the parties offended ; if immediately against God, his attributes, and worship; against Christ, and his grace; the Holy Spirit, his witness, and workings; against superiors, men of eminency, and such as we stand especially related and engaged unto ; against any of the saints, particularly weak brethren, the souls of them, or any other, and the com- mon good of all or many. 1. Though there is no sin but what may be said to be committed against God ; yet some sins are more immediately against him, as they carry in them a contempt of his attributes and worship ; whereby his name and ordinances are profaned, and the glory which is stamped on them little esteemed." Other sins reflect dishonour on our Lord Jesus Christ ; either on his person, when we conclude him to be, or at least to act, as if he were no other than a mere creature ; or on his offices, when we refuse to receive instruction from him as a prophet, or to depend on his righte- ousness as a priest in order to our justification and acceptance in the sight of God, or to submit to him as a king who is able to subdue us to himself, and defend us from the assaults of our spiritual enemies, or when we despise his grace and ne- glect that salvation which he has purchased, and offers in the gospel.* Again, our sins are aggravated, when they are committed against the person of the Holy Ghost ; when we deny him to be a divine person, or the author of the work of re- generation, supposing that grace takes its rise from ourselves, rather than from him ; or when we do not desire to be led by the Spirit, or seek his divine influence, in order to our guidance, but, on the other hand, resist his holy motions and im- pressions, and act contrary to those convictions which he is pleased to grant us, by which means we are said to ' grieve ' and ' quench the Spirit ;'* also when we re- ject and set ourselves against the witness of the Spirit, either by concluding that assurance of our interest in the love of God may be attained without it, and reckon all pretences to it no better than enthusiasm, or by supposing that the Spirit wit- nesses with our spirits that we are the children of God, without regard had to the work of sanctification, which always accompanies, and is an evidence of it, and so take that comfort to ourselves which does not proceed from the Spirit of holiness. 2. Sins are aggravated as committed more immediately or directly against men, and particularly those to whom we stand related in the bonds of nature, or who have laid us under the greatest obligations by acts of friendship to us. This is ap- plicable to inferiors, who ought to pay a deference to their superiors. Those sins which are committed by such, contain the highest instance of ingratitude, and are contrary to the laws or dictates of nature, and therefore proportionately aggravated. Moreover, if sins are committed against the saints, they are reckoned by God an instance of contempt cast on himself, whose image the saints are said to bear ; and much more are they reckoned so if committed against them as saints.2 But though we do not proceed to this degree of wickedness, our crime is said to be greatly aggravated, when we lay a stumbling-block before those who are weak in the faith, which may tend to discourage them in the ways of God ; for, by acting thus, we do what in us lies to 'destroy those for whom Christ died.'a This is an injury done, not so much to their bodies, as to their souls ; which are wounded, and brought into great perplexity thereby. We must distinguish, however, between an offence given, and one unjustly taken. It is one thing for persons to be offended at that which is our indispensable duty, — in which case we are not to regard the senti- s Ezi'k. viii. 12. t Jer. xxiii. 11, 14. « Mai. i. 3, 4. x Heb. ii. 3. y Ephes. iv. 7; 1 Thess. v. 19. Luke xvi. 16; Matt. xii. 6. a Horn. x;v. 15: 1 Cor. viii. 11. 428 THE AGGRAVATIONS OF SIN. ments of those who attempt to discourage us from it, or censure »s for the perform- ance of it ; and it is another thing to give offence in matters which are in them- selves indifferent, and might, without any prejudice, be avoided. In this case a compliance with the party offended seems to be our duty ; especially if the offence takes its rise from conscience, rather than humour and corruption, and if our not complying with him would tend very much to discourage and weaken his hands in the ways of God, and therefore may be reckoned an aggravation of our sin. More- over, it is a farther aggravation of sin committed, when it appears to be contrary to the common good of all men. This guilt may be said to be contracted when there is an endeavour to hinder the success or preaching of the gospel ;b or other- wise, when the sin of one man brings down the judgments of God on a whole church or body of people. Of the latter kind was Achan's sin.c Aggravations from the Nature and Quality of the Offence. III. Sins are aggravated from the nature and quality of the offence ; if it he against the ex pre*, letter of the law, break many commandments, contain in it many sins; if not only conceived in the heart, but breaks forth in words and actions, scandalize others, and admit of no reparation ; if against means, mercies, judgments, light of nature, conviction of conscience ; public or private ad- monition, censures of the church, civil punishments, and our own prayers, purposes, promises, vows, covenants, and engagements to God or men; if done deliberately, wilfully, presumptuously, impudently, boastingly, maliciously, frequently, obstinately, with delight, continuance, or relapsing after repentance. Sin is aggravated when it is committed against the express letter of the law ; so that there remains no manner of doubt whether it be a sin or a duty. To venture on the commission of what plainly appears to us to be unlawful, is to sin with great boldness and presumption, whereby the crime is very much aggravated. d — Again, sin is aggravated when it contains a breach of several of the commandments, and may be reckoned a complicated crime. Of this kind was the sin of David in the matter of Uriah, in which he was guilty of murder, adultery, dissimulation, injus- tice, (fee. ; also Ahab's sin against Naboth, which included not only covetousness, but perjury, murder, oppression, and injustice. — Sins are more aggravated when they break forth in words or outward actions, than if they were only conceived in the heart. It is true, sin in the heart has some peculiar aggravations, as it takes deeper root, becomes habitual, and is entertained with a secret delight and plea- sure, and as it is the source and fountain whence actual sins proceed. Yet when that which was before conceived in the heart is discovered by words or actions, its being so adds an aggravation to it, as it brings a more public dishonour to God, and often a greater injury to men. — Sins are farther aggravated when they are of such a nature that it is impossible for us to repair the injuries done by them, or make restitution for them. Thus nothing can compensate for our taking away the life of another ; or for our casting a reproach on the holy ways of God, and thereby ' endeavouring to bring his gospel into contempt ; or for our enticing others to sin, by which means we turn them aside from God, and endeavour to ruin their souls. Each of these is an injury which we cannot by any means repair ; so that the crime is exceedingly aggravated. — Further, sin is aggravated if it be committed contrary to the very light of nature, such as would be offensive even to the hea- then.6— Again, sins receive aggravations when committed against means, mercies, and judgments ; as when we break through all the fences which are set to prevent them ; when the grace of God, revealed in the gospel, is not only ineffectual to pre- serve from sin, though designed for that end,1 but turned into lasciviousness ;S or when mercies are misimproved, undervalued, and, as it were, trampled on,h and judgments, whether threatened or inflicted, are not regarded, or are unsuccessful in reclaiming us. — Sins are aggravated when they are committed against the checks and convictions of conscience ; which is a judge and a reprover within our own breasts. To commit such sins is to offer violence to ourselves, and to make many bold advances towards judicial blindness, hardness of heart, and a total apostasy. — b I Tbess. ii. 15. c Josh. vii. 20, 21, 25. d Rom. i. 32. el Cor. v. 1. f Tit. ii. 11, 12. g Jude, ver. 4. h Rom. ii. 4 ; Isa. i. 3; Deut. xxxii. 6. THE AGGRAVATIONS OF SIN. 429 Moreover, sins are aggravated when they are committed against public or private admonitions, censures of the church or civil punishments, which are God's ordi- nance to bring men to repentance. If these means prove ineffectual to answer tlie designed end, the offenders will be left more stupid than they were before. — Sins are farther aggravated when they are contrary to our own prayers, vows, covenants, and promises made, either to God or men ; when we confess any sins, or pretend to humble ourselves for them before God in prayer, and yet at other times indulge them, and are proud, self- conceited, and exalt ourselves against him ; when we pray for strength against corruption, or for grace to perform holy duties, while, in reality, we have no love to these duties nor desire after them ; when we praise him for mercies received, while we are habitually unthankful, and forgetful of his bene- fits ; or when we are very forward to make vows, covenants of engagements to be the Lord's, whereby we often lay a snare for ourselves, from some circumstances which attended this action, and more especially from our disregarding it afterwards. — Again, sins are aggravated from the manner of our committing them. They are so if they are done deliberately, with forethought or contrivance ; as when persons are said to devise mischief upon their beds, and then, as to their conduct, to set themselves against that which is good. A sin is aggravated if it be done wilfully, that is, with the full bent of the will, making it the matter of our choice, and resolving to commit it whatever it cost us. A sin is aggravated when we do it presumptuously, either when we take encouragement to do it from the grace of God,k or when his hand is lifted up against us, or we see his judgments falling very heavy upon others, and are not disposed to take warning, but grow more hardened and stupid than before. — Further, when sin is committed maliciously, impudently, and obstinately, it argues a rooted hatred against God ; or when it is committed with delight, arising either from the thoughts we entertain of it before we commit it, or the pleasure we after- wards take in what we have done ; or when we boast of what we have done, which is to glory in our shame,1 — when we do, as it were, value ourselves for having got rid of the prejudices of education, and all former convictions of sin, that so we may go on in it with less disturbance ; or when persons boast of their over-reaching others in their way of dealing in the world, m which they very often do in their se- cret thoughts, though they are ashamed to let the world know how remote they are from the practice of that justice which ought to be between man and man. — Again, sins are aggravated when they are frequently committed, or when we relapse into the same sin, after having pretended to repent of it.n Aggravations from the Circumstances of Time and Place. IV. Sins are aggravated from circumstances of time and place ; if on the Lord's-day, or other times of divine worship, or immediately before, or after these, or other helps, to prevent or remedy such miscarriages, if in public, or in the presence of others who are thereby likely to be provoked or defiled. When a sin is committed by us on the Lord's-day, it is a profaning of that time which God lias sanctified for his service, and so renders us guilty of a double crime. Or when sins are committed at any other time which we occasionally set apart for divine worship, or in those seasons when God calls for fasting and mourning, or at other times when we have lately received signal deliverances, either personal or national,0 they also are particularly aggravated. Or when they are committed im- mediately before or immediately after we have engaged in holy duties, they in the former case render us very unfit for them, and, in the latter, effectually take away all those impressions which have been made on our spirits while engaged in the duties. Again, sins receive aggravations from the place in which the^ are committed. If, for example, they are committed in those places in which the name of God is more immediately called on, they will, if visible, afford great matter of scandal to some, and an ill example to others, and, if secretly committed, will tend to defile i Psal. xxxvi. 4. k Rom. vi. 1. 1 Psal. x. 3; lii. 1. m Prov. xx. 14. n 2 Pet, ii. 20—22 ; Matt. xii. 43—45. o Psal. cvi. 7. 430 THE DESERT OF SIN, our souls, and argue us guilty of groat hypocrisy. Moreover, when we commit those sins which are generally abhorred in the places wheroxprovidcneo has ca.*t our lot, we render ourselves a stain and dishonour to those with whom we converse. Thus the prophet speaks of some who, ' in the land of uprightness,' will ' deal un- justly. 'p In particular, when we commit sins in the presence of persons who are likely to he provoked or defiled by them, we contract the guilt of other men's sins, as well as our own ; and are doubly guilty, in being the cause, in many respects, of their transgressing. There are several instances in which we may be said to contract the guilt of other men's sins. These I shall only mention briefly. When superiors lay their commands on inferiors, or oblige them, to do that which is in itself sinful ; or, when we advise those who stand upon a level with us, to commit sin, or give our consent to the commission of it.*3 — Again, when inferiors flatter superiors, or commend them for their sin. Thus, when Herod had courted the applause of the people, by the oration which he made to them, they, on the other hand, flattered him when they •gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.'r — Again, when we have recourse to those places where sin is usually committed, and desire to asso- ciate ourselves with those whose conversation is a reproach to religion ;s or when we are sharers or partakers with others in their unlawful gains, first encouraging, abetting, and helping them, and then dividing the spoil with them.* — Again, when we connive at sin committed, or, if it be in our power, do not restrain or hinder the commission of it ; or when we conceal it, when the farther progress of it might be prevented by our divulging it. — Again, when we provoke persons to sin, and so draw forth their corruptions ; or when we extenuate sin, whether committed by ourselves or others, and so, in a degree, vindicate it, or plead for it ; or lastly, when we do not mourn for or pray against those sins which are publicly committed in the world, and which are like to bring down national judgments" THE DESERT OF SIN, AND THE WAY OF ESCAPE FROM IT. Question CLII. What doth every sin deserve at the hands of God f Answer. Every sin, even the least, being against the sovereignty, goodness, and holiness of God, and against his righteous law, deserve th his wrath and curst-, both in this life, and that which is to come, and cannot be expiated, but by the blood of Christ. Question CLIII. What doth God require of us that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us by reason of the transgression of the law ? Answer. That we may escape the \> rath and curse of God due to us by reason of the transgres- sion of the law, be requireth of us repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and the diligent use of the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of his mediation. The Desert of Sin. In the former of these Answers, we have an account of the demerit of sin ; in the latter, we have the character and disposition of those who have ground to conclude that they shall be delivered from the wrath and curse of God due to it. We have already considered some sins as greater than others, by reason of several circum- stances which tend to enhance the guilt of those who commit them. Yet there is no sin so small but it has this aggravation, that it is a violation of the law of God, p Isa. xxvi. 10. q Acts vii. 58 ; Chap. vii. 1. r Chap. xii. 22. s Prov. xiii. 20. t Chap. i. 23—25. it These several Heads, concerning the aggravations of sin, are contained in three or four lines, which are helpful to our memories. Most of the Heads of this Answer, are contained in that verse, Quis? Quid? Ubi? Quibus auxiliis? Cur? Quomodo? Quando? And those that relate to our contracting the guilt of other men's sins, in the following lints ; Jussu, Consilio, Consensu, Palpo, Itecursu, Participans, Nutans, Non obstans, Non manifestans, lncessans, Minucns, Non maerens, Solicitansve. AND THE WAY OF ESCAPE FKOM IT. 431 and is opposite to his holiness.* Hence, it cannot but render the sinner guilty in his sight ; and guilt is that whereby a person is liable to suffer punishment in proportion to the offence committed. It follows, then, that there is no ground for the distinction which the Papists make between mortal and venial sins. The former, they sup- pose, deserve the wrath and curse of God both in this and in another world ; but as to the latter, namely, venial sins, they conclude that they may be atoned for by human satisfactions or penances, and that they are, in their own nature, so small that they do not deserve eternal punishment. This is an opinion highly deroga- tory to the glory of God, and opens a door to licentiousness, in a variety of in- stances ; and the contrary to it is contained in the Answer we are now explaining. Now, let it be considered that ic is one thing for a sin to deserve the wrath and curse of God, and another thing for the sinner to be liable and exposed to it. The former arises from the heinous nature of sin, and is inseparable from it ; the latter is inconsistent with a justified state. Nothing can take away the guilt of sin, but the atonement made by Christ, and that forgiveness or freedom from condemnation which God is pleased to bestow as the consequence of the atonement.1 It is this which discharges a believer from a liability to the wrath and curse of God. Though, as was observed under the last Answer, one sin is greater than another, by reason of various circumstances which attend it or are contained in it ; yet the least sin must be concluded to be objectively infinite, as it is committed against a God of infinite perfection, and as all offences are great in proportion to the dignity of the person against whom they are committed. Thus the sin which is committed against an inferior or an equal, and deserves a less degree of punishment, if it be committed against a king, may be so circumstanced that it will be deemed a capi* tal offence, and render the criminal guilty of high treason ; though at the same time, no real injury is done to him, but only attempted against him. In like man- ner, we must conclude that, though it is out of our power to injure or detract from the essential glory of the great God, yet every offence committed against him is great in proportion to his infinite excellency, and is therefore said to deserve his wrath and curse. Wrath or anger, when affirmed of God, is not to be considered as a passion in him, as it is in men ; but it denotes his will to punish sin committed, which takes its rise from the holiness of his nature, which is infinitely opposite to sin. Now the degree of punishment which he designs to inflict is stated in his law ; and as that law denounces threatenings against those who violate it, the sin- ner is said to be exposed to its curse or condemning sentence, agreeably to the rules of justice, and the nature of the offence. This is what we are to understand, in this Answer, by sin deserving the wrath and curse of God. The wrath and curse of God are farther considered as what extend to this life and that which is to come. Punishments inflicted in this life are but the begin- ning of miseries. Yet they are sometimes inexpressibly great ; as the psalmist says, ' Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. 'y Som '-nes there is but a very short interval between the sin and the punishment ; as , he case of Nadab and Abihu, Korah and his company, Achan, and many others. At other times, however, it is long deferred ; though it will fall with great weight, at last, on the offender. Thus God sometimes punishes the sins of youth in old age ; and when a greater degree of guilt has been con- tracted, writes bitter things against them.2 But the greatest degree of punishment is reserved for sinners in another world ; and is styled « the wrath to come.'a As these things, however, have been insisted on in some foregoing Answers,b we shall say no more respecting them in this place. The Way of Escape from the Desert of Sin. We proceed now to notice what is farther observed, that this punishment cannot be expiated any otherwise than by the blood of Christ. This remark is fitly in- serted after the account we have had of man's liability to the wrath of God by x Rom. viii. 1, 33. y Psal. xc. 11. z Job xiii. 26. a 1 These. L 10. b See Quest, xxviii, xxix, and Quest, lxxxix. 432 THE DESERT OF SIN, reason of sin ; for when we have an afflicting sense of the guilt we have exposed ourselves to, nothing else will afford us relief. What we have to consider, then, h» how our guilt may be removed, or by what means the justice of God may be satis- fied, and an atonement made for sin. This is said to be done no other way but by the blood of Christ, as was considered under a foregoing Answer ; when we endea- voured to prove the necessity of Christ's making satisfaction, and the price which he paid in order to his making it.c We also considered the fruits and effects of his satisfaction, as it has a tendency to remove the guilt of sin, and procure for us a right to eternal life.d We shall therefore pass over the consideration of the sub- ject in this place ; only we may observe, that, while our deliverance from guilt and punishment can be brought about by no other means than Christ's satisfaction, it is not inconsistent with what is contained in the following words, if rightly understood by us, to assert that God requires of us repentance, faith, and a diligent attendance on the outward means of grace ; though we must not conclude them to be the pro curing cause of our justification, or a means to expiate sin. Those are certainly very much unacquainted with the way of salvation by Christ, as well as with the great defects of their repentance and faith, who suppose that God is induced by our repenting and believing to pardon our sins, or deliver us from the wrath we have deserved. Yet we are not to think that impenitent unbelieving sinners have a right to determine that they are in a justified state, or have ground to claim an interest in the benefits of Christ's redemption. The graces of faith and repentance are necessary to evince our interest in what he has done and suffered for us, and are inseparably connected with salvation ; though they do not give us a right and title to eternal life, as Christ's righteousness does. Under two foregoing Answers, we gave a particular account of repentance and faith. Concerning repentance, we observed that it is a special saving grace, wrought in us by the Holy Spirit ; and we showed in what way he works it, and what the difference is between legal and evangelical repentance, as the former is often found in those who are destitute of the latter. We also considered the various acts of repentance unto life ;e what the objects and acts of saving faith are ; how it differs from that which is not so ; the use of it in the whole conduct of our lives ; and how it gives life and vigour to all other graces, and enables us to perform duties in a right manner/ We shall not, therefore, insist on this subject at present ; but only speak of repentance and faith as means appointed by God, in order to our attaining complete salvation. The means conducive to salvation are either internal or external. The former are inseparably connected with salvation ; so that none who repent and believe shall perish.s The graces of faith and repentance, together with all others which accompany or flow from them, are the fruits and effects of Christ's mediation ; and hence are sometimes called saving graces. As they are wrought in the hearts of believers, and have a reference to salvation, they may be truly styled internal means of salvation ; and, as such, they are distinguished from those outward and ordinary means of grace by which God is pleased to work them. The latter are the ordinances ; which we are diligently to attend on, in hopes of obtaining these graces under them, till God is pleased to give success to our endeavours, and work grace in our use of them ; and the efficacy of them is wholly owing to his power and is to be resolved into his sovereign will. This may be fitly illustrated by what is said concerning the poor impotent, blind, halt, and withered persons, waiting at the pool of Bethesda, for the angel's troubling the water ; after which, he who first stepped in, was made whole.h We do not find that every one who waited there embraced the first opportunity, and received a cure ; for some were obliged to wait many years, and if they were made whole at last, they had no rea- son to think their labour lost. This may be applied to those who have the means of grace. Many sit under them who receive no saving advantage, till God is pleased, in his accepted time, to work those graces which render the ordinances effectual to salvation. The blessed success attending them is from God. He could, indeed, save his people without them, as he converted Paul, when going to c See Quest, xliv. d See Quest, lxx, lxxi, and what was said under those Answers to explain the doctrine of justification. e See Quest, lxxvi. I See Quest, lxxii, lxxiii. g John iii. 16. h John v. 2 — 4. AND THE WAY OF ESCAPE FROM IT. 433 Damascus, with a design to persecute the church there, and when not only unac- quainted with the means of grace, but prejudiced against them. But this is not, God's ordinary method. He has put an honour on his own institutions, so as to render it necessary for us to pray, wait, and hope for saving blessings, in attending on them. Thus, when he promises to 'put his Spirit' within his people, and 'cause them to walk in his statutes,' he adds, ' Yet for this will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.'1 Accordingly, we are commanded to ' seek the Lord whilst he may be found, and to call upon him while he is near.'k By our attendance on his ordinances, we testify our approbation of that method which he has ordained for the application of redemption ; and by our perseverance in it, determining not to leave off waiting till we have obtained the blessing expected, we proclaim the valuableness of that method, and subscribe to the sovereignty of God in dispensing those blessings to his people which they stand in need of, as well as pray and hope for them in his own time and way. Thus we are to wait on the means of grace. It is farther observed, that we are to wait on the means of grace with diligence, and not in a careless and indifferent manner, as though we neither expected nor desired much advantage from them. This implies an embracing of every oppor- tunity, and an observing of those special seasons in which God is pleased, in his gospel, to hold forth the golden sceptre of grace ; as also our having earnest de- sires and raised expectations of obtaining that grace from him which he encourages us to wait and hope for. We are thus led to speak particularly concerning these outward means, as stated in the following Answer THE ORDINANCES. Question CLIV. What are the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of his mediation f Answer. The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to his church the benefits of his mediation, are all his ordinances; especially the word, sacrament?, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for their salvation. The Import of the Ordinances. In explaining this Answer, we shall first consider what we are to understand bj the ordinances ; which are here styled outward and ordinary means of grace. The first idea contained in them, is that they are religious duties, prescribed by God, as an instituted method in which he will be worshipped by his creatures. But what more especially denominates them ordinances, is the promise which he has annexed to them of his special presence, and the encouragement which he has given to his people in attending on them, to hope for those blessings which accom- pany salvation. As God works grace by and under them, they are called means of grace ; as he seldom works grace without first inclining persons to attend on him in them, and wait for his salvation, they are called the ordinary means of grace ; and as they have not in themselves a tendency to work grace, without the inward and powerful influences of the Holy Spirit accompanying them, they are distinguished from it, and accordingly styled the outward means of grace. 1. Now, the ordinances, as thus described, must be engaged in according to a divine appointment. No creature has a warrant to enjoin any modes of worship, pretending that these will be acceptable or well-pleasing to God ; since God alone, who is the object of worship, has a right to prescribe the way in which he will be worshipped. For a creature to institute modes of worship would be an instance of profaneness and bold presumption ; and the worship performed would be 'in vain;' as our Saviour says concerning that which has no higher sanction than ' the com- mandments of men.'1 Whatever pretence of religion there may be, God looks i Ezek. xxxvi. 27, 37. k Isa. Iv. 6. 1 Matt. xv. 9. n. 3 1 434 THE ORDINANCES. upon such worshippers as well as those whose prescriptions they follow, with the utmost contempt, and will punish rather than encourage them. Thus the prophet reproves Israel for being guilty of defection from God, in engaging in that woi>h p which he had not ordained, when he says, ' The statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab ; and ye walk in their counsels that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing. Therefore shall ye bear the reproach of my people. 'm And Jeroboam is often branded with having ' made Israel to sin,' for instituting ordinances of divine worship, and 'setting up calves in Dan and Bethel, making an house of high places, and priests of the lowest of the people,' and appointing sacred times in whic*h they should perform this worship ; all which were of his own devising, and became a snare to the people.11 It is certain that such appointments cannot be reckoned means of grace, or pledges of God's pre- sence ; and it would redound to his dishonour, should he be obliged to communi- cate the benefits of Christ's redemption by means of them, to any who, under a pretence of worshipping him in a way of their own devising, offer the highest affront to him. 2. If God is pleased to reveal his will concerning the way in which we are to worship him and to hope for his presence, it is our indispensable duty to comply with it, to implore his acceptance of us in it, and to be importunate with him that he would put a glory on bis own institutions, and grant us his special presence and grace, that we may be enabled to perform whatever duty he enjoins, in such a manner that the most valuable ends may be answered, and our spiritual edification and salvation promoted. 3. Though we consider the ordinances as instituted means of grace, yet a mere attendance on them will not of itself confer grace. This is very evident from the declining state of religion, in those who engage in the external part of it, and at- tend upon all the ordinances of God's appointment, and yet remain destitute of saving grace ; who are stupid under the awakening calls of the gospel, and regard not its invitations to adhere steadfastly to Jesus Christ, whom in words they profess to own, though in works they deny him. The case of these persons is a convincing evidence, that it is God alone, who, having appointed these ordinances, can make them effectual to salvation. Thus concerning the nature of an ordinance, and in what respects it may be called an outward and ordinary means of grace. Classification of the Ordinances. We are now to consider what are those ordinances by which Christ communi- cates the benefits of his mediation. 1. They are such as are engaged in by particular persons, in subserviency to their spiritual welfare, in order to the beginning or carrying on of the work of grace in their souls ; such as meditation about divine subjects, self-examination, and all other duties which are performed by them in their private retirement, in hope of having communion with God. 2. There are other ordinances which God has given to worshipping assemblies, which are founded on that general promise, ' In all places where 1 record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.'° Those mentioned in this Answer, are the word, sacraments, and prayer. Of these the sacraments are particularly given to the churches ; the word and prayer, to all who are favoured with the gospel-dispensation. To these we may add, singing the praises of God ; which, though it is not particularly mentioned in this Answer, is a duty in which we may expect to meet with his presence and blessing ; and, accordingly, is an ordinance which God makes effectual to promote our salvation. The Ordinance of Praise. Before we enter on the consideration of the following Answers, we shall s;.j m Micah vi. 16. n 1 Kings xii. 30, 31. o Exod. xx. 24. THE ORDINANCES. 4JJ5 something concerning this duty, of singing the praises of Gow«wi». k Matt. xxvi. 26, 27- 1 Verse 30. m Eph. v. 19. THE ORDINANCES. 441 speaks of his 'praying and singing with the Spirit,' as well as 'with the under- standing ;' but the meaning is, that we ought to desire the efficacious influences of the Spirit, and press after the knowledge of the meaning of the words we use, either in prayer or singing. Yet the defect of our understanding, or our having a less degree of it than others, or than we ought to have, does not exempt us from a right to engage in this ordinance. Hence, we are not to refuse to join with those in singing the praises of God, whom we would not exclude from our society, if we were reading any of the psalms of David in public. 5. We are now to consider the matter to be sung. There are very few who allow singing to be an ordinance, who will deny it to be our duty to sing the psalms of David, and other spiritual songs which we frequently meet with in scripture. Some, indeed, have contested the expediency of a Christian assembly making use of several Old Testament phrases which are contained in these. Others have al- leged that the phrases ought to be altered in many instances, especially in those which have a peculiar reference to the psalmist's personal circumstances, and others substituted for them to express matter of universal experience. But, if what has been said under the last Head be true, this argument will appear to have little weight ; inasmuch as all the arguments which are brought in defence of making these alterations in the psalms as they are to be silng by us, will hold equally good as applicable to the ordinance of reading them, and, it may be, will as much evince the necessity of altering the phrases of scripture in several other parts as well as in these. For if some psalms are not to be sung by a Christian assembly in the words in which they were at first delivered, and consequently are not to be read by them, because the phraseology is not agreeable to the state of the Christian church, and needs to be altered when applied to our present use ; the same may be said concerning other parts of scripture ; and then the word of God, as it was at first given to us, is no more to be read than to be sung by us. As to the objection that it is inexpedient for us to make use of those words, and apply them to our case in our devotions, which David used in his with a peculiar view to his own condi- tion, what was said under the fourth Head relating to the frame of spirit with which the psalms are to be sung, will very much weaken the force of it. The con- sideration stated there is what, in a great measure, determines my sentiments as to the ordinance of conjoint singing, as well as the matter of it ; for I am well per- suaded that if the words were to be considered as our own, as they ought to be when joining with another who is our mouth to God in prayer, there are very few psalms or hymns of human composition which can be sung by a mixed assembly. But as a divine veneration ought to be paid to the psalms, and they are to be read with those acts of faith which are the main ingredients in our devotions, we are to sing them with the same view, only with this difference that we are to make use of the tone of the voice as a farther help to the raising of our affections. The next thing to be considered, is what version of the psalms is to have the pre- ference in our esteem, as subservient to the design of this ordinance. It is not my business, under this Head, to criticise the various versions of the psalms. Nor can it be supposed that I have a regard to those poetical beauties in which one version excels another ; for then I should be inclined to think some of those which I do not choose to make use of in the ordinance of singing, much preferable to others, for the exactness of their style and composition. But when I am to sing the praises of God, in the words of David or any other inspired writer, or as nearly as possible in their words, what I principally regard is the agreeableness of the version to the original ; and then the psalms may be sung with the same frame of spirit with which they are to be read, and I am not obliged, in singing, to consider the words as expres- sive of my own frame of spirit, any more than I am in reading them. But if the composition cannot properly be called a version, but is an imitation of David's psalms, then I make use of it in the ordinance of singing, with the same view as I would an hymn ; but of this more shall be said hereafter. Now the versions which, I think, come nearest to the original are the New England and the Scotch.11 The ii There is a version of psalms, printed by the late Dr. Mather, in blank verse, which I once bad the sight of, but am not capable of passing a judgment on it, only, that it was very near the origi- nal ; but whether in other respects it was preferable to these two other versions, I know not. II. 3 K 442 THE ORDINANCES. latter, however, I think much preferable to the former ; inasmuch as the sentences are not so transposed as in the other, and the lines are much more smooth and pleasant to be read. I should be very glad to see a version more perfect, which comes as near the sense of the original, and excels it in the beauty or elegance of its style. And it would be a very great advantage if some marginal notes were added, as a comment upon it ; which would be an help to our right understanding of it. I shall now give my thoughts concerning the singing of hymns. These, according to the common acceptation of the word, are distinguished from psalms, — and they generally denote an human composition, fitted for singing, the matter of which contains some divine subjects in the words agreeable to or deduced from scripture. The argument which is generally brought in defence of them is this : — Though scripture is a rule of faith whence all the knowledge of divine things is primarily deduced, and therefore has the preference, as to its excellency and authority, to any other composition ; yet it is not only lawful but necessary to express our faith in the doctrines which it contains in other words than its own, as we do in prayer or preaching. Now if it be a duty to praise God with the voice, it is not unlaw- ful to praise him in words agreeable to scripture, as well as in the express words of it. Hence both may* be proved to be a duty, namely, praising God in the words of David, and by other songs contained in scripture, and prais- ing him in words agreeable to scripture, though of human composition. This is the best reasoning which I have met with in defence of the lawfulness of singing hymns, not as opposed to or excluding David's psalms, but as used occasion- ally, as providence directs us ; that so our acknowledgments of benefits received may be insisted on with greater enlargement than they are in the book of psalms. For though there may be in that book something adapted to every case, yet the particular occasion of our praise is not so largely contained in the same section or paragraph ; and therefore a hymn may be composed adapted to each occasion, in order to our praising God. But when, on the other hand, persons seem to prefer hymns to David's psalms, and substitute them for the latter, I cannot but disap- prove of their practice. A late writer0 speaks on this subject with a great deal of moderation. Though he proves that scripture psalms should be preferred before all others, and more ordinarily sung ; yet he thinks that hymns of human composi- tion ought not wholly to be excluded, provided they be exactly agreeable to, and as much as may be, the words of holy scripture. There are other writers to whom I pay equal deference, who have concisely, though with a considerable degree of judg- ment, proved singing to be a gospel ordinance,? who argue against singing of hymns. Indeed, what they say in opposition to those who defend the practice from Eph. v. 19, and Col. iii. 16, and allege that ' hymns ' are distinct from ' psalms and spiritual songs,' and that we are to understand by them human compositions agreeable to scripture, as by psalms and spiritual songs we are to understand those which are contained in the very words of scripture, seems very just. What they say corre- sponds with the opinion of several judicious and learned men, who assert that these three words signify nothing else but those psalms or songs which are contained in scripture.*1 The question in debate with me, is not whether the psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs which are contained in scripture, are designed to be a directory for gospel-worship,— for that, I think, all ought to allow ; but, whether it be lawful to sing a human composition which is agreeable to scripture, either as to its words or o See Mr. Richard Allein's Essay on singing, chap, iv. who seems, in my opinion, in the whole of his short performance, to argue with a considerable degree of candour and judgment. p See Sidenham's Gospel-ordinance concerning singing, &c. and Hitchin's Scripture proof for singing, &c. q It cannot well be denied that the psalms of David are called indifferently by these three names, ' Psalms,' ' Hy:i ns,' and ' Songs,' VW imo, nbrrn. ■J'ttXpef, ifiin, tiin; and sometimes the same psalm is called a Song or Psalm, a* in the title of Psalm Ixv. or a Song of a Psalm [as the LXX. render it. utn •4-xXfe.ov]. And in Psalm cv. 2. when it is said, ' Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him;' V? vtm ib vrtf the former word signifies to sine a spiritual song ; the latter to sign a ps;ilm ; or, at the Septuagint render the same word, in 1 Chron xvi. 9, a Hymn. [Anri xcu u/mrart.] See Sidenham's Gospel-ordinance, &c. chap. ii. and Ainsworth on the title ot Psalm iii. whom he there refers to. THE ORDINANCES. 443 its sense, — especially when the subject of our praise is not laid down so largely in one particular section of scripture, as we desire to express it. In this case, if we were to connect several parts of scripture together, so that the des'gn of enlarging on a particular subject might be answered, there would be less necessity to compose a hymn in other words. But as the occasions of praise are very large and exten- sive, and as it may be thought expedient to adore the divine perfections in our own words in singing, just as we do in prayer, considering the one to be a moral duty as well as the other ; I will not pretend to maintain the unlawfulness of singing hymns of human composition, though some of much superior learning and judg- ment have done so. I would, however, always pay the greatest deference to those divine compositions which are given as the principal rule for our procedure in praise. Yet I cannot but express my dislike of several hymns which I have often heard sung. In some of these the heads of the sermon have been com- prised ; and others are so very mean and injudicious, and, it may be, in some respects, so unaccordant with the analogy of faith, that I cannot, in the least, approve of them. But if we have ground to conclude the composition, as to the matter and the mode of expression, unexceptionable, and adapted to raise the affections, as well as excite suitable acts of faith in extolling the praise of God, it gives me no more disgust, though it be not in ■ scripture-words, than praying or preaching does when the matter is scriptural. Yet as, when we confess sin, ac- knowledge mercies received, or desire those blessings which are suited to our case, we always suppose that the words which he who is the mouth of the congregation uses, ought to be such as all can join with him in, and in this, the reading of one of David's prayers, and the putting up of a prayer in the congregation, differ as to a very considerable circumstance ; so the same ought to be observed in hymns. But, if an hymn be so composed that all who sing it are represented as signifying their having experienced those things which belong not to them, or as blessing God for what they never received ; the use of it, I conceive, would be as unwarrantable a method of singing hymns of human composition as if the expressions were used in public prayer. There are, indeed, many hymns which have a great vein of piety and devotion, but are not adapted to the experience of the whole assembly that sings them. Hence, while a congregation may join in singing some hymns, I do not think they can well join in singing all ; though the subject of them may be agreeable to the analogy of faith. The reason of this rests on the difference which we formerly stated between making use of a divine and of a human composition ; in the former of which, the words are not always to be considered as our own or as expressive of the frame of our own spirits ; while they are always to be so consid- ered with respect to the latter. Thus concerning the ordinance of singing ; which we cannot but think included among those whereby Christ communicates to his church the benefits of his media- tion. We are now led to consider the other ordinances ; which are particularly in- sisted on in the remaining part of this work. That which next comes under our consideration, is the word read and preached. THE ORDINANCE OF THE WORD. Question CLV. How is the word made effectual to salvation t Answer. The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially tbe preaching of the word, an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners, of driving them out of them- selves, and drawing them unto Christ, of conforming them to his image, and subduing them to his will, of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions, of building them up in grace, and establishing their heart in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. Having had an account, in the foregoing Answer, of the ordinances by which Christ communicates the benefits of redemption to his church, and what they are, and having also considered that singing the praises of God is one of those ordinances ; we are now to consider another ordinance which is made effectual to salvation, 444 THE ORDINANCE OF THE WORD. namely, the word read or preached. We had occasion, under some former Answers, to speak of the word of God as contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments ; and we considered it as the only rule of faith and ohedience, and as having all the properties which are necessary to its heing such, so that we may de- pend upon it as a perfect and infallible revelation of all things necessary to be be- lieved and done, in order to our enjoying God here, and attaining eternal life here- after.r We are now to consider the word as made the subject of our study and inquiry ; without which it would be of no use to us. The Word is to be Mead and Explained. We may observe in this Answer, then, something supposed ; namely, that the word of God is to be read by us, and explained by those who are qualified and called to preach it. We are not, indeed, to conclude that the explanations of falli- ble men, how much soever they are fitted to preach the gospel, are of equal au- thority with the sacred oracles, as transmitted to us by those who received them by infallible inspiration from the Spirit of God. The text is much more to be de- pended on than the comment upon it ; and the truth of the latter is to be tried by the former.8 Yet the explanation of the word by qualified persons is to be reckoned a great blessing, which God is pleased to bestow upon his church, in order to our understanding and making a right use of the written word. Accordingly, preach- ing, as well as the reading of the word, is an ordinance which the Spirit of God makes subservient to the salvation of those who believe. It is farther supposed, however, that the word is to be read by us, and that we are to attend to the preach- ing of it. To neglect either of these is to despise our own souls, and deprive our- selves of the advantage of God's instituted means of grace. Hence, we are not to content ourselves with merely the reading of the word of God in our closets or families, but we must embrace all opportunities for hearing it preached in a public manner, the one being no less an ordinance of God than the other. It is objected by some, that they know as much as ministers can teach them ; at least, that they know enough, if they could but practise it. This objection sometimes savours of pride and self-conceit, in those who suppose themselves to un- derstand more of the doctrines of the gospel than they really do. It can hardly be said concerning the greatest number of professors, that they either know as much as they ought, or that it is not possible for them to make advances in knowledge by a diligent attendance on an able and faithful ministry. However, that we may give the utmost scope to the objection, we will allow that some Christians know more than many ministers, who are less skilful than others in the word of truth. But it must be observed that there are other ends of hearing the word besides the gaining of knowledge, namely, the bringing of the doctrines of the gospel to our re- membrance,1 and their being impressed on our affections ; and for attaining these ends, the wisest and best of men have not thought it below them to attend upon the ministry of those who knew less than themselves. Our Saviour was an hearer of the word before he entered on his public ministry ;u and though it might, I think, truly be said of him, that though he was but twelve years old, he knew more than the doctors, in the midst of whom he sat in the temple, yet 'he heard and asked them questions.' And David, though he professes himself to have 'more understanding than all his teachers ;'x yet was glad to embrace all opportunities to go up into the house of the Lord ; this being God's appointed means for a be- liever's making advances in grace. The Word made Effectual to Salvation. There are several things particularly mentioned in this Answer, in which the Spirit of God makes the word, read or preached, effectual to salvation. 1. By the word the mind is enlightened and furnished with the knowledge of r See vol. i. Quest, iii. and iv. s Isa. viii. 20; 1 Thesp. v. 21 ; Acts xvii. 11. t John xi v. 26. u Luke ii. 46. x Psal. cxix. 99. THE ORDINANCE OF THE WORD. 445 divine truths, which is a very great privilege. As faith is inseparahly connected with salvation ; so the knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel is necessary to faith, and this is said to ' come by hearing. 'J We must not content ourselves, however, with a mere assent to what is revealed in the word of God ; but must duly weigh the tendency of it to our sanctification and consolation, and admire the beauty, ex- cellency, and glory that there is in the great doctrines of the gospel, as the divine perfections shine forth in them to the utmost. We must also duly consider the importance of those doctrines which are contained in the gospel, and how they are to be improved by us to our spiritual advantage. And when we find our hearts filled with love to Jesus Christ, in proportion to those greater measures of light which he is pleased to impart to us, so that we grow in grace as well as in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,2 then the word may be said to be made effectual to our salvation, as our minds are very much enlightened and improved in the knowledge of those things which lead to it. 2. The word is made effectual to bring us under conviction ; so that we see our- selves sinful and miserable creatures. In particular, we are hereby led to see those depths of wickedness which are in our hearts by nature, which otherwise could .not be sufficiently discerned by us, much less improved to our spiritual advantage.* Would we take a view of the manifold sins committed in our lives, with all their respective aggravations, so as to lay to heart the guilt that we have contracted by them ; or would we be affected with the consideration of the misery which will follow, as we not only deserve the wrath and curse of God, but, without an interest in forgiving grace, are bound to conclude ourselves liable to it ; we must be led into a knowledge of these things by the word of God. Again, if we would know whether our convictions of sin are such as have a more immediate reference to sal- vation, we must inquire whether they are attended with grief and sorrow of heart for the intrinsic evil of sin, as well as for its sad consequences ;b or whether, when we have taken this view of it, we are led to apply for the remedy, and seek for- giveness through the blood of Christ, and strength against those corruptions which we have ground to charge ourselves with, and which have so much prevailed over us.c 3. The word is made effectual to salvation, when what is contained in it tends to humble us and lay us low at the foot of God ; when we acknowledge that all his judgments are right, or whatever punishments have been inflicted in execution of the threatenings which he has denounced have been less than our iniquities de- serve ;d and when we receive reproofs for sins committed, with a particular applica- tion of them to ourselves, and are sensible of the guilt we have contracted. But that we may make a right use of the word, for bringing us to this state of mind, let us consider what humbling considerations are contained in it which have a tendency to answer this end. The word of God represents to us the infinite dis- tance which there is between him and us ; so that the best of creatures are in his sight 'as nothing,e less than nothing, and vanity.' We here behold God as in- finitely perfect, and men as very imperfect, and unlike him ; and in particular, we behold him as a God of infinite holiness, spotless purity, and ourselves as impure, polluted creatures. This is a very humbling consideration.* Again, the word of God discovers to us the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of our hearts ; whereby we are naturally inclined to rebel against him ; and whereby also we should, had it not been for his preventing and renewing grace, have run with the vilest of men in all excess of riot. It likewise leads us into the knowledge of the various kinds of sin which we have ground to charge ourselves with in the course of our lives, the frequent omission of those duties which are required of us, our great neglect of relative duties in the station in which God has fixed us, and the injury we have done to others, whom we have caused to stumble or fall by our example, or, at least, by our unconcernedness about their spiritual welfare. It also discovers to us the various aggravations of sins committed, as they are against light, love, y Rom. x. 17 ; Acts viii. 30, 31. z 2 Peter iii. 18. a Jer. xvii. 9 ; Rom. vii. 9. b Psal. xxxviii. 18. compared with verse 4. c Acts xvi. 30; Psal. xix. 13; xxv. 11 ; Jer. viii. 22. d Ezra ix. 13. e Isa. xl. 17. f Pro v. xxx. 2 ; Isa. lxiv. 6. 446 THE ORDINANCE OF THE WORD. mercies, and manifold engagements, which we arc laid under ; and the great con- tempt which we have cast on the blessed Jesus, in disregarding, or not improving, the benefits of his mediation. All these things, duly considered, have a tendency to humble us ; and wo are led into the discovery of them by the word of God. 4. The word of God is made effectual to salvation, as it has a tendency to drive sinners out of themselves, and to draw them to Jesus Christ. On the one hand, it shows them the utter impossibility of their saving themselves, by doing anv thing which may bring them into a justified state, and so render them accepted in the sight of God ; and, on the other hand, it draws or leads them to Christ, whom they are enabled to behold by faith, as discovered in the gospel, to be a merciful and all-sufficient Saviour. The former is not only also antecedent, but necessary to the latter. For so long as we fancy that we have a sufficiency in ourselves to recom- mend us to God, and procure for us a right and title to eternal life, we shall never think of committing our souls into Christ's hand, in order to our obtaining salva- tion from him in his own way. Accordingly, the prophet brings in a self-con- ceited people as saying, ' We are lords, we will come no more unto thee.'* No one will seek help or safety from Christ, who is not sensible of his own weakness, and of his being in the utmost danger without him. The first thing, then, which the Spirit of God does in the souls of men, when he makes the word effectual to salva- tion, is to lead them into an humble sense of their utter inability to do what is spiritually good or acceptable to God, or so to make atonement for the sins which they have committed against him that they may be brought into a justified state. It is, indeed, an hard matter to convince the sinner of this ; for he is very prone to be full of himself, sometimes to glory, with the Pharisee,11 in some religious duties he performs, and at other times to glory in his abstaining from those gross enormities which others are chargeable with. Or, if he will own himself to have exceeded many in sin ; yet he is ready to think that, by some expedient or other, he shall be able to make atonement for it. This sets him at a great distance from Christ. As ' they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick,'1 so persons of the character we are describing do not see their need of a Saviour, till they are convinced that they have nothing in themselves which can afford any re- lief to them, so as to deliver them from the guilt of sin and consequent misery. On this account our Saviour observes that ' publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God,'k or are made sensible of their need of Christ, being convinced of sin, before the 'chief priests and elders,' who thought they had a righteousness of their own to justify them, and therefore refused to comply with the method of the gospel, in having recourse to Christ alone for this privilege. Now, the word of God is made use of by the Spirit to drive the sinner out of these strong-holds, and to show him that he cannot, by any means, recover himself out of that state of sin and misery into which he is plunged. It is a very hard thing for a person to be convinced of the truth of what our Saviour says, ' That which is highly esteemed amongst men, is an abomination in the sight of God,'1 that is, when it is put in the room of Christ and his righteousness ; and to convince us of this is one of the great ends to which the word is made subservient, when rendered effectual to salvation. More- over, the word of God draws the soul to Christ, so that it is persuaded and induced, from gospel-motives, to come to him, and, at the same time, enabled so to do by the almighty power of God, without which he cannot come to him.1" The former draws ob- jectively, the latter subjectively and internally. As to what the gospel does in this matter, it sets before us the excellency and glory of Christ as our great Mediator; represents him as a divine person, and, consequently, the object of faith, and as such ' able to save, to the uttermost, them that come unto God by him.'n It con- siders him as having purchased salvation for his people ; so that they may obtain forgiveness through his blood. It also discovers him as not only able but willing to save all that come to him by faith ; so that he will in no wise cast them out.° It also represents him as having a right to us ; we are his by purchase, and there- fore it is our indispensable duty to give up ourselves unto him. It also makes g Jer ii. 31. h Luke xviii. 11. l Matt. ix. 12. k Chap. xxi. 31. 1 Luke xvi. 15. m John vi. 44. n Heb. vii. 25. o John vi. 37. THE ORDINANCE OF THE WORD. 447 known to us the greatness of his love, as the highest inducement to our giving our- selves up to him ; the freeness, riches, and extensiveness of his grace, as ready to embrace the chief of sinners, and pass by all the injuries which they have done against him, and as giving them the utmost assurance that, having loved them in the world, he will love them to the end. Thus Christ is set forth in the gospel ; and when the word is made effectual to salvation, the soul is induced, or, as it were, constrained to love him, and to yield the obedience of faith to him in all things. 5. The word is made of use by the Spirit, as a means to conform the soul to the image of God, and subdue it to his will. The image of God in man is defaced by sin ; so that he is not only rendered unlike him, but averse to him. stripped of all his beauty, and become abominable and filthy in his sight, and, as long as he re- mains so, is unmeet for communion with him, or for obtaining salvation from him. Now, when the Spirit of God communicates special grace to sinners, he stamps this image afresh upon the soul, which he renews in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness ; he sanctifies all its powers and faculties, and subdues the will, so that it yields a cheerful obedience to the will of God, and delights in his law after the inward man, and its language is, ' Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.' This change the Spirit of God works in the heart, by his internal efficacious influence ; as was formerly observed, when we considered the work of conversion and sancti- fication as brought about by him.P This effect is also ascribed to the word as a moral instrument ; it is not attained without the word, and is indeed the principal end of the preaching of the gospel. Accordingly, the apostle says, ' The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong- holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,'i and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 6. The word is farther said to be made effectual to salvation, as we are strength- ened by it against temptation and corruption. By temptation those objects are presented to us which have a tendency to alienate our affections from God ; and by corruption temptations are embraced and complied with, and the affections en- tangled in the snare which is laid for them. Satan or the world presents the bait, and corrupt nature is easily allured and taken by it. The tempter uses many wiles and stratagems to ensnare us, and our own hearts are deceitful above all things, and without much difficulty turned aside, and so led captive by Satan at his will. But when the Spirit of God makes the word effectual to salvation, he takes occa- sion by it to detect the fallacy, lays open the designs of our spiritual enemies, and the pernicious tendency of them, and internally fortifies the soul against them, so that it is 'kept from the paths of the destroyer ;'r and this he does by presenting • other and better objects to engage our affections, and leading us into the know- ledge of those glorious truths which may prevent a sinful compliance with the solicitations of the devil. According to the nature of the temptation which may occur, we are directed to the precepts or promises contained in the word of God ; which, being duly improved by us, have a tendency to keep the heart steady and fixed in the ways of God. 7. The word of God is made effectual by the Spirit, as he thereby builds the soul up in grace, and establishes it in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. The work of grace is not immediately brought to perfection, but is, in a progressive way, making advances towards it. We are first made holy by the renovation of our hearts and lives, and made partakers of those spiritual consolations which ac- company or flow from the work of sanctification ; and then we are built up in holi- ness and comfort, and so go from strength to strength, and are more and more established in the ways of God. Now this work is effected in us by the preaching of the word, whereby we are said to ' grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;'9 so that every step we take in our way to heaven, from the time that our faces are first turned towards it, we are enabled to go on safely and comfortably, till the work of grace is perfected in glory. p See Quest, lxvii, lxviii. q 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. r Psal. xvii. 4. s 2 Pet. iii. 18. 448 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WOKD IS TO BE READ. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. Question CLVI. Is the word of God to be read by all? Answer. Although all are not to be permitted to read the word publicly to the congregation, yet all sorts of people are bound to read it apart by themselves, and with their families, to which end the holy scriptures are to be translated out of the original, into vulgar languages. Question CLVII. How is the word of God to be read t Answer. The holy scriptures are to be read with an high and reverent esteem of them ; with a firm persuasion that they are the very word of God, and that he only can enable us to under- stand them, with desire to know, believe, and obey the will of God revealed in them, with dili- gence and attention to the matter and scope of them ; with meditation, application, self-denial, and prayer. The word being made effectual to salvation, which was the subject last insisted on, supposes not only that we read it as translated into vulgar languages, but that we understand what we read, in order to our applying it to our particular case, and improving it for our spiritual advantage. These things are next to be con- sidered, as contained in the Answers we are now to explain. The Word to be read by and to all men. We have an account in the former of these Answers, of the obligation which all persons are under to read, or at least, attend to the reading of the word of God. 1. It is to be read publicly in the congregation, by those who are appointed for that purpose. The church and all the public worship performed in it, are founded on the doctrines contained in scripture. Hence, every one who would be made wise to salvation, ought to be well acquainted with scripture. Besides, the reading of it publicly, as a part of the worship performed in the church, is not only a testi- mony of the high esteem which we have for it, but will be of great use to those who, through a sinful neglect to read it in families, or in their private retirement, or who, through the stupidity of their hearts, and the many incumbrances of worldly business, will not allow themselves time to do so, remain strangers to those great and important truths which are contained in it. Moreover, that the public read- ing of the word is a duty, appears from the charge which the apostle gives that the epistle which he wrote to the church at Thessalonica should ' be read unto all the holy brethren.'1 And he gives a similar charge to the church at Colosse.u We may add, that the scripture is not only to be read, but explained ; which is the prin- cipal design of the preaching of it. This is no new practice. For the Old Testament was not only read, but explained in the synagogues 'every sabbath day ;' and the explaining of it is called, by a metonymy, 'reading Moses, 'x that is, explaining the law which was given by him. Thus ' Ezra stood upon a pulpit of wood, opened the book in the sight of all the people,' and, with some of his brethren who assisted him, ' read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading,' that is, the meaning of it.? In like manner our Sa- viour ' went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up and read a part of the holy scriptures in the prophecy of Isaiah ; and when he had done so, he ap- plied it to himself, and showed them how ' it was fulfilled in their ears.'z It is sup- posed, therefore, that the word is to be publicly read. The only thing in this Answer which needs explanation is the clause, ' All are not to be permitted to read the word publicly to the congregation.' We are not to suppose that there is an order of men whom Christ has appointed to be readers in the church, distinct from ministers. But the meaning of the expression may be, that all are not to read the word of God together, in a public assembly, with a loud voice ; for to do so would tend rather to confusion than to edification. Nor ought any to be appointed to read, but such as are grave, pious, and able to read t 1 Thess. v. 27. u Col. iv. 16. x Acts xv. 21. y Neh. viii. 4—8. z Luke iv. 16—24. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE HEAD. 449 distinctly, for the edification of others. And who is so fit for this work, as tho minister whose office is, not only to read the scripture, but to explain it in the or- dinary course of his ministry? 2. The word of God is to be read in our families. This duty is absolutely neces- sary for the propagating of religion in them. It is indeed shamefully neglected ; and the neglect of it is one great reason of the ignorance and decay of piety in the rising generation, and is also contrary to God's command,3 as well as the examplu of those who are highly commended for this practice. Thus, ' Abraham command- ed his children, and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord.'b 3. The word of God ought to be read by every one, in private ; and that not only occasionally, but frequently, as one of the great duties of life. Thus God says to Joshua,0 ' This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth ; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night. 'd And our Saviour commands the Jews to ' search the scriptures. 'e In some of his discourses with them too, though he was sensible that "they were a degenerate people, yet he takes it for granted that they had not altogether laid aside this duty.f This practice, especially where the word of God has not only been read, but the meaning of it sought after and attended to with great diligence, is recommended as a peculiar excellency in Christians, who, as attending to it, are styled ' more noble' than others who are defective in this duty.s That it is the duty of every one to read the word of God, appears from the fact that it is given us with this design. If God is pleased, as it were, to send us an epistle from heaven, it is a very great instance of contempt cast on it, as well as on the divine condescension expressed in it, for us to neglect to read it. Does he impart his mind to us in scripture ; and is it not our indispensable duty to pav the utmost regard to it ?h Moreover, our own advantage should be a farther inducement to us to read the word of God ; since his design in giving it was that we might believe, and that believing, we may attain life through the name of Christ.' The word of God is sometimes compared to ' a sword,' for our defence against our spir- itual enemies ;k and is therefore designed for use, without which it is of no advan- tage to us. It is elsewhere compared to ' a lamp to our feet j'1 which is not de- signed for an ornament, but to guide us in the right way ; so that we must attend to its direction. It is also compared to 'food,' whereby we are said to be ' nour- hed up in the words of faith and good doctrine ;' and as ' new-born babes' we are exhorted to ' desire the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby. 'm But this end cannot be attained unless the word be read and applied by us to our own necessities. We are now led to take notice of the opposition which the Papists make to the general reading of scripture. They deny the common people the liberty of read- ing the scriptures in their own language, without leave given them from the bishop, or some other of their spiritual guides, who are authorized to allow or deny this privilege, as they think tit. As an instance of their opposition, they have some- times burnt whole impressions of the Bible, in the open market place ; as well as expressed their contempt by burning particular copies of scripture, or dragging them through the streets, throwing them in the kennels, and stamping them under feet, or tearing them in pieces, as though the Bible were the vilest book in the world. Some persons have even been burnt for reading it. That it might be brought into the utmost contempt, the Papists have cast the most injurious re- proaches upon it, calling it a bending rule, a nose of wax, a dumb judge ; and some have blasphemed it, by saying that it has no more authority than iEsop's fables, and have compared the psalms of David to profane ballads. By all this conduct, too, they pretend to consult the good of the people, that they may not be misled by scripture. They generally allege in their vindication, that they oppose, not so much the reading of the scripture, as the reading of those translations of it which have been made by Protestants ; and they say that it is our Bible, not a Deut. vi. 6, 7. b Gen. xviii. 19; Psal. lxxviii.3, 4, 5. c Josh. i. 8. d Psal. i. 2. e John v. 39. f Matt. xii. 5; Chap. xxi. 42; Luke vi. 3. g Acts xvii. 11. h Rev i. 11. compared with Chap. ii. 29. i John xv. 31 ; Rom. x. 17; Chap. xv. 4. k Eph. vi. 17. 1 Psal. cxix. 105. m 1 Pet. ii. 2. it. 3l 4i>0 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. that which they allow to be the word of God, which they treat witli such injurious contempt. The truth is, however, they do not so much bring objections against scripture, taken from some passages which they pretend to be falsely translated ; but their design is, plainly, to keep the people in ignorance, that they may not, as the consequence of their reading it, imbibe those doctrines which will, as they pretend, turn them aside from the faith of the church. Hence, they usually maintain that the common people ought to be kept in ignorance, as an expe- dient to excite devotion ; and that, by this means, they will be the more humble, and pay a greater deference to those unwritten traditions which are propagated by them, and pretended to be of equal authority with scripture, which the common people must take up with instead of it. Indeed, the consequence corresponds with their desire ; for the people appear to be grossly ignorant, and think themselves bound to believe whatever their leaders pretend to be true, without exercising a judgment of discretion, or endeavouring to know the mind of God. What the Papists generally allege in opposing the common people's reading the Bible, is that scripture contains 'some things hard to be understood,' as the apostle Peter expresses, ' which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.'11 Now, it must be allowed that some things contained in scripture are hard to be understood ; inasmuch as the gospel contains some mysteries which finite wisdom cannot comprehend ; and the great doctrines of the gospel are sometimes unintelligible by us, by reason of the ignorance and alienation of our minds from the life of God, as well as from the imperfection of the present state, in which we know but in part. Yet they who, with diligence and humility, desire and earnestly seek after the knowledge of those truths which are more immediately subservient to their salvation, shall find that their labour is not lost. But in iollowing on to know the Lord, they shall know as much of him as is necessary to their glorifying and enjoying him ; as the pro- phet says, * Then shall ye know if ye follow on to know the Lord.'0 It is to be owned that there are some depths in scripture which cannot be fathomed by a finite understanding ; and these should raise our admiration, and put us upon adoring the unsearchable wisdom of God, as well as excite us to an humble confession that 'we are but of yesterday, and know' comparatively ' nothing. 'p Yet there are many doctrines which we may attain a clear knowledge of, and improve to the glory of God in the conduct of our lives. Thus the prophet speaks of 'an highway,' called ' the way of holiness,' concerning which he says, that 'way-faring men,' who walk in it, ' though fools, ' that is, such as have the meanest capacity as to other things, ' shall not err therein ;'"* that is, they who humbly desire the teaching of the Spirit, whereby they may be made acquainted with the mind and will of God, shall not be led out of the way by any thing which he has revealed to his people in his word. It is very injurious to the sacred oracles to infer that, because some things are hard to be understood, all who read them must necessarily wrest them to their own destruction. Besides, the apostle does not say that all do so, but only those who are ' unlearned and unstable ;' — ' unlearned,' that is, altogether unac- quainted with the doctrines of the gospel, not making them the matter of their study and inquiry ; and ' unstable,' that is, such as give way to scepticism, or they whose faith is not built on the right foundation, but are inclined to turn aside from the truth with every wind of doctrine. This God's people may hope to be kept from, while they study the holy scriptures, and earnestly desire to be made wise by them unto salvation. [See Note U, page 472.] The Papists farther allege against the common people being permitted to read the scriptures, that it will make them proud, and induce them to inquire into those things which do not belong to them, so that they will soon think themselves wiser than their teachers. They allege also that the reading of the scriptures by the common people has been the occasion of all the heresies which are in the world. But whatever ill consequences attend a person's reading of scripture are to be ascribed, not to the use, but to the abuse of it. Will any one say that we ought to abstain from eating and drinking, because some are guilty of excess in them, by n 2 Pet. iii. 16. o Hosea vi. 3. p Job viii. 9. q Isa. xxxv. 8. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. 45 1 gluttony and drunkenness? No more ought we to abstain from reading the scrip- tures, because some make a wrong use of them. As to its being supposed that hv reading the scriptures some, through pride, will think themselves wiser than then- teachers, we will allow they may do so, without passing a wrong judgment on them- selves. But it is an injurious treatment of mankind, to keep the world in igno- rance that they may not detect the fallacies, or expose the errors, of those who pretend to be their guides in matters of faith. As to the allegation that the read- ing of scripture has been the occasion of many heresies in the world, I am rather inclined to think that this evil ought to be charged on men's neglect of that duty, or, at least, on their not studying the scripture with diligence and an humble de- pendence on God for his blessing. It may be observed, that whatever reasons are assigned by the Papists for their denying the people the liberty of reading the scripture, seem to carry a pretence of great kindness to them. The scriptures are pretended to be withheld from them that they may not be led out of the way, and do themselves hurt, just as it is a dangerous thing to put a knife or a sword into a child's or a madman's hand ; and thus they suppose the common people to be ignorant, and would keep them so. But, whatever reasons they assign, the true reason why they so much oppose the read- ing of scripture is, that it detects and exposes the absurdity of many doctrines which are imbibed by them, and which will not bear to be tried by it. If they can but persuade their votaries, that whatever is handed down by tradition as a rule of faith, is to be received without the least hesitation, though contrary to the mind of God in scripture, they are not likely to meet with any opposition from them, let them advance doctrines never so absurd or contrary to reason. It may be inquired whether they universally prohibit the reading of scripture ? Now, it must be allowed that the vulgar Latin version of it may be read by any one who understands it, without falling under their censure. But then they are sensible that the greater part of the common people cannot understand it. Be- sides, though they should understand it, it is so corrupt a translation, that it seems plainly calculated to give countenance to the errors they advance. r It hence appears from their whole management in this matter, that their design is to de- prive mankind of one of the greatest blessings which God has granted them, and to discourage persons from the performance of a duty which is absolutely neces- sary to promote the interest of God and religion in the world. We must conclude, then, that it is an invaluable privilege that we are not only permitted but com- manded to read the scriptures, as translated into the language which is generally understood by us. We are thus led to consider the inference deduced in the latter part of the Answer which we are explaining, namely, that the scriptures are to be translated out of the original into vulgar languages. That this ought to be done is evi- dent from the fact that reading signifies nothing where the words are not under- stood. Nor is every private Christian obliged to addict himself to the study of the languages in which the scriptures were written ; for this is a work of so much pains and difficulty, that few have opportunity or inclination to apply themselves to it to any considerable purpose. Hence, the words of scripture must be rendered intelligible to all, and, consequently, translated into a language they understand. That this ought to be done may be farther argued from the care of providence as to the languages in which scripture was originally given. The scriptures were deliv- ered to the Jews, in their own language. The greatest part of the Old Testament r Many instances of this might be produced. Thus in Gen. iii. 15, instead of ' it shall bruise thy head,' they read 'she,' by which they understand the Virgin Mary, ' shall bruise thy head,' that is, the serpent's. In Gen. xlviii. 16, instead of, 'my name shall be named on them,' which are the words of Jacob concerning Joseph's sons, they read * my name shall be invoked, or called upon by them ;' which favours the doctrine of invocation of saints. In Psal. xcix. 5, instead of, ' Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool,' they read, • worship his footstool,' which gives counte- nance to their error of paying divine adoration to places or things. In Heb. xi. 21, instead of 'Ja- cob worshipped .leaning on the top of his staff,' they read 'he worshipped the top of his staff.' And in Heb. xiii. 16, instead of, ' with such sacrifices God is well pleased,' they read, ' with such sacrifices God is merited ' which they make use of to establish the merit ot good works. 452 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. was written in Hebrew ; and those few sections or chapters in Ezra and Daniel, which were written in the Chaldee language, were not inserted till fchej understood that language. s And when the world generally understood the (J reek tongue, so that there was no necessity for the common people to learn it in schools, and the Hebrew was not understood by those nations for whom the gospel was designed ; it pleased God to deliver the New Testament in the Greek language. It is hence beyond dispute that he intended that the scripture should not only be read, but understood by the common people. Moreover, when the gospel was sent to various nations of different languages, the Spirit of God, by an extraordinary and miracu- lous dispensation in which he bestowed on them the gift of tongues, furnished the apostles to speak to every one in their own language ; a dispensation which would have been needless, if it were not necessary for persons to read or hear the holy scriptures with understanding. Directions for Beading the Word of God. We are now to consider how the word of God is to be read, that we may under- stand and improve what it contains to our spiritual advantage. On this subject there are several directions given in the latter of the Answers we are explaining. I. We must read the scriptures with a high and reverent esteem of them, arising from a firm persuasion that they are the very word of God. That they are so, has been proved by several arguments.* We will suppose that those who read them are persuaded that they are so ; and their having this persuasion will beget a high and reverent esteem of them. The perfections of God, and particularly his wisdom, sovereignty, and goodness, shine forth with as much glory in his word, as they do in any of his works. It hence has a preference to all human compositions. What- ever is revealed in it is to be admired and depended on for its unerring wisdom and infallible verity ; so that it is impossible for those who understand and improve it, to be turned aside by it from the way of truth. We are also to consider the use which God makes of it, to propagate his kingdom and interest in the world. It is by means of it that he convinces men of sin, and discovers to them the way of obtaining forgiveness of it, and victory over it ; and thoroughly furnishes them unto every good work.u For this reason the wisest and best of men have expressed the highest esteem and value for it. The psalmist mentions the love he had to it, as a person who was in a rapture : • 0 how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.'1 ' It is more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb. '? Such high veneration as this we all ought to have ; otherwise we may sometimes be tempted to read it with prejudice, and may, in con- sequence, through the corruption of our nature, be prone to cavil at it, as we some- times do at those writings which are merely human, and which savour of the weak- ness and imperfection of their authors ; and thus it will be impossible for us to re- ceive any saving advantage from reading it. II. We must, in reading the word of God, be sensible that he alone can enable us to understand it. To read the scriptures and not understand them, will be of no advantage to us. Hence, it is supposed that we are endeavouring to have our •minds rightly informed and furnished with the knowledge of divine truths. But by reason of the corruption, ignorance, and depravity of our natures, this knowledge cannot be attained without a peculiar blessing from God attending our endeavours. We ought therefore to glorify him, by dependence on him, for this privilege, — sen- sible that all spiritual wisdom is from him. For if we would see a beauty and a glory in those things which are revealed in scripture, and be thoroughly established in the doctrines of the gospel, so as not to be in danger of being turned aside from s There is, indeed, one verse in Jeremiah, chap. x. 11, written in Chaldee, which, it is probable, they did not at that time well understand. But the prophet by this intimates to them, that they should be carried into a country where that language should be used ; and therefore the Holy Ghost furnishes thern with a message that they were to deliver to the Chaldeans from |be Lord, in their own language. ' The gods, that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.' t See Quest, ir. u 2 Tim. iii. 16. x Psal. cxix. 97. y PmI. xix. 10. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. 453 them, or, especially, if we would improve them to our being made wise unto salva- tion, we must consider these objects of desire as the gift of God. It is he alone who can enable us to understand his word aright ; for it is not less necessary that there should be an internal illumination of our minds, than that there should be an external revelation as the matter of our studies and inquiries. Thus our Saviour not only repeated the words of those scriptures which concerned himself, .to the two disciples going to Emmaus ; but ' he opened their understandings, that they might, understand them.'z Without this divine illumination, a person may have the brightest parts, and most penetrating judgment in other respects, and yet be un- acquainted with the mind of God in his word, and inclined to embrace those doc- trines which are contrary to it. In particular, if God is not pleased to succeed our endeavours, we shall remain destitute of the experimental knowledge of divine truths, which is absolutely necessary to salvation. III. We must read the word of God with a desire to know, believe, and obey his will, revealed in it. If we do not desire to know or understand the meaning of scripture, it will remain no better than a sealed book to us ; and, instead of re- ceiving advantage from it, we shall be ready to entertain prejudices against it, till we lay it aside with the utmost dislike, and, in consequence, be utterly estranged from the life of God through the ignorance and vanity of our minds. We must also read the word of God with a desire to have our faith established by it, that our feet may be set upon a rock, and we may be delivered from all manner of doubts and hesitations, with respect to those important truths which are revealed in it. And we ought to desire, not only to believe, but to yield a constant and cheerful obedience to every thing which God therein requires of us. IV. Our reading the word of God ought to be accompanied with meditation, and the exercise of self-denial. Our thoughts should be wholly and intensely taken up with the subject of it as persons who are studiously, and with the greatest earnest- ness, pressing after the knowledge of those doctrines which are of the highest im- portance, that our profiting in the study of it may appear to ourselves and others.3 As to the exercise of self-denial, all those perverse reasonings which our carnal minds are prone to suggest against the matter of divine revelation, are to be laid aside. If we are resolved to believe nothing but what we can comprehend, we ought to consider that the gospel contains uns.earchable mysteries, which surpass finite wisdom ; so that we must be content to acknowledge that we know but in part. There is a deference to be paid to the wisdom of God which eminently ap- pears in every thing he has discovered to us in his word ; and hence we must adore the divine perfections which are displayed in it, whilst we retain an humble sense of the imperfection of our own knowledge. Our reason is not to be considered as useless ; but we must desire that it may be sanctified, and inclined to receive what- ever God is pleased to impart. We are to exercise the grace of self-denial also with respect to that obstinacy of our wills whereby they are naturally disinclined to acquiesce in, approve of, and yield obedience to, the will of God ; so that we may be entirely satisfied that every thing which he commands in his word, is holy, just, and good. V. The word of God is to be read with fervent prayer. ' If any man lack wis- dom,' says the apostle, ' let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.'b The advantage which we expect by reading the word, is, as was formerly observed, his gift ; and hence we are humbly to supplicate him for it. There are many things in his word which are hard to be understood ; so that we ought to say, whenever we take the scriptures into our hands, as the psalmist does, ' Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.'c We may, in this case, humbly acknowledge the weakness of our capacities, and the blindness of our minds, which render it necessary for us to desire to be instructed by him in the way of truth. We may also plead that his design in giving us his word, was that it might be a lamp to our feet, and a light to our paths ; so that we dread the thoughts of walking in darkness, when there is such a clear discovery of those things which are so glorious aud necessary z Luke xxiv. 45. a 1 Tim. iv. 15. b James i. 5. c Psal. cxix. 18. 454 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. to be known. We may also plead that our Lord Jesus is revealed to his people- as the prophet of his church ; and that whatever office he is invested with, he de- lights to execute, as his glory is concerned in his doing so; so that we trust and hope that lie will lead us, by his Spirit, into all truth. We may also plead the impossibility of our attaining the knowledge of divine things, without his assistance ; and how much it would redound to his glory, as well as our own comfort and ad- vantage, if he will be pleased to lead us into the saving knowledge of the truth as it is in him. This we cannot but importunately desire, being sensible of the sad consequences of our being destitute of it ; inasmuch as we should remain in dark- ness, though favoured with the light of the gospel. VI. The word of God is to be read with diligence, and with attention to its matter and scope. We have hitherto been directed, in this Answer, to apply ourselves to the reading of scripture, with that frame of spirit which becometh Christians, who desire to know the mind and will of God ; — that we ought to have our minds dis- engaged from those prejudices which would hinder our receiving any advantage from it, and to exercise those graces which the nature and importance of the duty require ; that we ought to depend upon God, and address ourselves to him by faith and prayer for the knowledge of those divine truths which are contained in scripture. But, in this last Head, we are led to speak of some other methods condu- cive to our understanding scripture ; which are the effects of diligence and of at- tention to the sense of the words of it, and the scope and design of them. This being an useful Head, I shall take occasion to enlarge on it more than I have done on others, and to add some things which may serve as a farther means to direct us how we may read the scriptures with understanding. I might here observe that they who are well acquainted with the languages in which they were written, and are able to make just remarks on the words, phrases, and particles used in them, some of which cannot be expressed in another language without losing much of their native beauty and significance, have certainly the advantage of all others. But as the greater part of mankind cannot enjoy this advantage, they being strangers to the Greek and Hebrew languages, they must have recourse to some other helps for the attaining of the desired end. 1. It will be of great use for them to consult those expositions which we have of the whole or some particular parts of scripture ; of which some are more large, others concise, — some critical, others practical. I shall forbear making any re- marks tending to depreciate the performance of some expositors, or extol the judg- ment of others ; only this must be observed, that many have passed over some dif- ficulties of scripture, and by their omissions have given a degree of disgust to the more inquisitive part of Christians. The course they have pursued may be attributed, in some instances, to a commendable modesty, which we find not only in those who have written in our own language, but in those who have written in others, whereby they tacitly confess, either that they could not solve the difficulties which they pass by, or that it was better to leave them undetermined, than to attempt solutions which, at best, would amount to little more than probable conjectures. It may also be observed that others who have commented on scripture, seemed to be prepossessed with a particular scheme of doctrine, which, if duly considered, is not very defensible ; and they are obliged, sometimes, to strain the sense of a text, that it may appear to speak agreeably to their own sentiments. Their expositions, however, may, in other respects, be used with great advantage. We may add, that as the word preached is designed to lead us into the knowledge of scripture doctrines, we ought to attend upon and improve it, as a means condu- cive to this end, and to bless God for the great helps and advantages we enjoy. But more shall be said on this subject under some following Answers relating to the preaching and hearing of the word.d 2. We ought to make the best use we can of those translations of scripture which we have in our own language. If we compare these together, we shall find, not only that the style in which one is written differs from that of another, agreeably to the respective times in which they were written, but that they differ very much d See Quest, clix, clx. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. 455 in the sense they give of many places of scripture. Their differences may easilv be accounted for from the various acceptations of the same Hebrew or Greek word. as may be observed in all other languages. There are also difficulties relating to the proper manner of translating some particular phrases, or to the various senses in which several particles are to be understood. Now, by comparing translations together, they who are unacquainted with the original, will be sometimes led into a sense more agreeable to the context and the analogy of faith, by one of them, than by another. But we will suppose the English reader to confine himself to the translation which is generally used by us. Though this cannot be supposed to be of equal authority with the original, or so perfect that it admits of no correction as to any word or phrase which it contains ; yet I would be far from taking occasion to de- preciate it, or to say any thing which may stagger the faith of any, as though we were in danger of being led aside by it from the way of truth. Some who plead for the necessity of a new translation of the Bible, pretend that we are in some such danger : though it is much to be feared, that if any new translation should be at- tempted, it would deviate more from the sense of the Holy Ghost, than that which we now have, and have reason to bless God for, and which, I cannot but think, comes as near the original as most that are extant. We shall therefore consider how this may be used to the best advantage, for our understanding the mind of God. Now, let it be observed, that there is another translation of words referred to in the margin of our Bibles, which will sometimes give very great light to the sense of the text, and appear more emphatic, and rather to be acquiesced in. I shall give a short specimen of some texts of scripture which may be illustrated from the mar- ginal reading. In Job iv. 18, it is said, ' He put no trust in his servants, and his angels he charged with folly.' In the margin, it is observed. that the words may be read, ' He put no trust in his servants, nor in his angels, in whom he put light.' This reading points out the excellency of the nature of angels, and the wisdom with which they are endowed ; and shows that, notwithstanding these, God put no trust in them, not having thought fit to make use of them in creating the world, nor having committed to them the government of it. Again, in Isaiah liii. 3, it is said, speaking of our Saviour, ' We hid, as it were, our faces from him ;' but in the margin it is, ' He hid, as it were, his face from us.' The latter reading implies that as he bore our grief, so he was charged with our guilt ; and accordingly is re- presented, as having his face covered, as an emblem of his bearing it. Or it denotes his concealing or veiling his glory, as he who was really in the form of God, appeared in the form of. a servant. Again, in Jer. xlii. 20, the prophet re- proving the people, says, ' Ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, pray for us ;' but in the margin it is, 'You have used deceit against your souls.' Here the marginal reading contains a farther illustra- tion of the text ; as it not only denotes their hypocrisy, but the consequence of it, namely, their destruction. This sense agrees very well with the threatening de- nounced in verse 22, that they should • die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.' The same prophet, in chap. x. 14, speaking of idolaters, says, ' Every man is brutish in his knowledge ;' but in the margin it is, ' Every man is more brutish than to know.' Here their stupidity is assigned rather to their igno- rance than to their knowledge. Again, in Zechariah xii. 5, it is said, ' The gover- nors of Judah shall say in their hearts, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God ;' but in the margin it is, ' The governors of Judah shall say, There is strength to me, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in the Lord of hosts.' This reading seems more agreeable to what follows; which contains several promises of deliverance and salvation, which God would work lor the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Hence, we are not to suppose them saying, 'Jeru- salem shall be our strength ;' but, ' The Lord of hqsts shall be our strength,' who is a safe-guard to Jerusalem, as well as to the governors of Judah. Again, in Acts xvii. 23, it is said, ' As I passed by, and beheld your devotions;' but in the mar- gin it is, 'the gods, whom ye worship.' or the things ye pay divine honour to; a reading which is very agreeable to the context, and the design of the apostle. Again, in chap. xxii. 29, it is said, ' They departed from him, which should have examined him,' meaning Paul ; but in the margin it is, 'tortured him;' and this 456 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. reading refers to the Roman custom of scourging, and thereby tormenting one who was under examination tor supposed crimes. Again, in Gal. i. 14, the apostle says, ' 1 profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals ;' but in the margin it is, 'my equals in years;' a reading which seems much more agreeable to the apostle's design. Again, in Heb. ii. 7, it is said in the text, ' Thou madest him,' that is, our Saviour, 'a little lower than the angels ;' but in the margin it is, 'a little while inferior to them.' Here there -is a reference to his state of humiliation, which continued, comparatively, but a little while. Further, in order to our making a right use of our English translation, that we may understand the mind of God contained in it, let it be observed that, by reason of the conciseness of the style of the Hebrew and Greek texts, there are several words left out, which must be supplied to complete the sense, and that these are inserted in an Italic character. Now, it will not be difficult for us to determine whether the insertion be just or not ; when we consider that the translators often take their direction in making it from some words, either expressed or understood, in the context. Thus in Heb. viii. 7, 'If the first covenant had been faultless,' &c, the word ' covenant' is inserted, as it is also in verse 13, because it is express- ly mentioned in verses 8—10. Again, in chap. x. 6, it is said, ' In sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure.' Here the word ' sacrifices' is supplied from the fore- going verse ; and, for the same reason, 'offerings' might as well have been sup- plied, as it is verse 8. And, in verse 25, we are commanded to • exhort one an- other ;' where ' one another' is supplied from the foregoing verse. Again, in 1 Pet. iv. 16, ' If any man suffer as a Chrstian, let him not be ashamed,' the words, 'any man suffer ' are inserted as agreeable to what is mentioned verse 15. Again, in Ephes. ii. 1, ' You lmth he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins,' the words ' hath he quickened ' are supplied from verse 5 ; and our translators might as well have added, ' you hath he quickened, together with him,' namely, Christ. These instances I mention only as a specimen of insertions to complete the sense in our translation ; and we shall find that the words supplied in other scriptures are, for the most part, sufficiently just. But if they be not so, they are subject to correction, without the least imputation of altering the words of scripture, while we are endeavouring to give the true sense of it ; and we may be allowed, without perverting the sacred writings, sometimes to supply other words instead of them, which may seem more agreeable to the mind of the Holy Ghost. Thus, in Eph. vi. 12, it is said, 'We wrestle against spiritual wickedness in high places.' Here the word * places ' is supplied by our translators ; and, in the margin, it is observed that it might as well be rendered 'heavenly places.' Now, because there is no spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, they choose, without regard to the proper sense of the Greek word, to render it ' high places ;' while in chap. iii. 10, where there is no appearance of such an objection, they render the same word, 'heavenly places ;' though, I think, the word in both scriptures, might better be rendered 'in what concerns heavenly things.' Again, in 2 Cor. vi. 1, it is said, 'We, as workers together with him, beseech you,' &c. Here, 'with him,' is supplied to complete the sense ; but, I think, it might better have been left out, and then the sense would have been, ministers are ' workers together with one another,' and not ' to- gether with God.' They are honoured to be employed by God, as moral instru- ments which he makes use of ; but they have no other causality in bringing about the work of grace. The principal reason why the words ' with him ' are supplied, is that the supplement seems agreeable to the apostle's mode of speaking, in 1 Cor. iii. 9, ' We are labourers together with God.' But, I think, those words might better be rendered, ' Labourers together of God ;'e meaning that we are jointly en- gaged in his work. There is, therefore, no reason from this passage to supply the words • with him,' in the text just referred to. 3. If we would understand the sense of a particular text of scripture, we must consider its connection with the context. Accordingly, we must observe the scope, design, or argument insisted on, in the paragraph in which it is contained. Thus, in Rom. viii., the apostle's design in general, is to prove that there is ' no condemna- e 0i0t« y*( iru.ii rvnpyu. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. 457 tion to them which are in Christ Jesus,' and to show who they are who may conclude themselves to be interested in this privilege, together with the many blessings which are connected with it or flow from it. In Heb. i. the apostle's principal de- sign is, as he intimates in the fourth verse, to prove the excellency and glory of Christ, as Mediator, above the angels ; and this argument is particularly insisted on, and illustrated, in the following part of the chapter. In chap. xi. his design is to give an account of the great things the Old Testament church were enabled to do and suffer by faith ; on which subject there is an induction of particulars. In Rom. v. the apostle insists on the doctrine of original sin, and shows how sin and death first entered into the world, and by what means we may expect to be delivered from them ; and so he takes occasion to compare Adam and Christ as two distinct heads or representatives of those who were included in the respective covenants which mankind were under, — by the former of whom, sin reigned unto death, and, by the latter, grace and righteousness unto eternal life. Again, in chap, vii., especially from verse 5, the general argument insisted on, is the conflict and opposition which there is between sin and grace, and the manner in which cor- rupt nature discovers itself in the souls of the regenerated, together with the dis- turbance and uneasiness which it constantly gives them. In Psal. lxxxviii. we have an account of the distress which a soul is in, when under divine desertion, and brought to the very brink of despair. In Psal. lxxii., under the type of the glory of Solomon's kingdom, and the advantages his subjects should receive, the glory and excellency of Christ's kingdom is illustrated, together with the gospel state and its blessings. In Psal. li. David represents a true penitent as addressing himself to God for forgiveness ; though making particular reference to his own case, after he had sinned in the matter of Uriah. Again, the general argument of Isa. liii. is to set forth the sufferings of Christ whereby he made satisfaction for sin, together with the glory redounding to himself, and the advantages accruing to believers. Further, we must, in examining any passage, consider the method made use of in managing the argument ; whether it is close reasoning, and the deduction of consequences from premises ; or whether it is an explanation of what was designed to inform the judgment, and was laid down before in a general proposition ; or whether the principal design of the paragraph is to regulate the conduct of our lives, awaken our consciences out of a stupid frame, or excite in us becoming affections ; and we are to observe how every part of it is adapted to answer these ends. More- over, we are to consider who is the person speaking or spoken to ; whether they are the words of God, the church, or the inspired writer ; and, whether they are directed to particular persons, or to all men in general Here we may often ob- serve that, in the same paragraph, there is an apostrophe, or turning of the dis- course from one person to another. Nothing is more common than this in the poetical writings of scripture. Thus in the Psalms of David, sometimes God is represented as speaking to man, and then man as speaking to or concerning God. We may observe this, for example, in Psal. cxxxvii. In verses 1 — 4, there is a relation of the church's troubles in Babylon ; in verses 5, 6, the psalmist addresses his discourse to the church : * If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning ;' in verse 7, he speaks to God, praying that he would 'remem- ber the children of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem ; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof;' and in verses 8, 9, he turns his discourse to Babylon, as a nation destined to destruction. Again, in Psal. ii. he speaks concerning the rage of the heathen against Christ and his church, and that disappointment and ruin which they should meet with for it. In verse 6, he represents God the Father as saying concerning Christ, 4 Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion ;' in verses 7, 8, Christ is brought in as making mention of the decree of God relat- ing to his character and office as Mediator, and the success of his kingdom as ex- tended to 'the uttermost parts of the earth,' pursuant to his intercession, which was .ounded on his satisfaction ; and, in verses 10 — 12, the psalmist turns his dis- course to those persecuting powers, or the kings of the earth, whom he had spoken of in the former part of the psalm, and instructs them what methods they should take to escape God's righteous vengeance. Such changes as these of persona 458 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. speaking, or spoken to. may be observed in many of the psalms. f Throughout the whole Book of Canticles, also, there is an interchangeable discourse between Christ and his church, which is sometimes called his spouse, at other times his sister. Sometimes he speaks to the church, and at other times of it. In other places the church is represented as speaking to him, or to the daughters of Jerusalem, name- ly, those professors of religion who had little more than a form of godliness. Again, we often find that there is a change with respect to the persons speaking, spoken to, or of, in the writings of the prophets, as well as in the poetical writings. This may be observed in Isa; lxiii., throughout the chapter. And, in Micah vii. 18 — 20, there is a change of persons in almost every sentence : 4 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, &c. He retaineth not his anger for ever ; he will subdue our iniquities ; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.' We are farther to consider the occasion of what is laid down in any chapter, paragraph, or book of scripture, which we desire to understand. Thus the parti- cular occasion of the book of Lamentations, was the approaching ruin of Judah, and the miseries which they should be exposed to when Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldeans. That this was the occasion of the book appears from the subject of it ; though, it may be, that which was the more immediate occasion of it, was that the prophet might lament the death of good Josiah.s This event the prophet probably had a peculiar eye to, when he says, ' The crown is fallen from our head ;'h as well as the destruction of the whole nation which should soon follow, in which their civil and religious liberties would be invaded by their enemies, who would oppress them and lead them captive. — Again, the principal occasion of the apostle's writing the epistle to the Galatians. was that he might establish some among them in the faith of the gospel, who were much disposed to turn aside from him who had called them, and to embrace another scheme of religion which was subversive of the gospel. Accordingly, in chap. i. 6, by this ' other gospel ' which he dissuades them from turning aside unto, we are to understand those doctrines which they had imbibed from those false teachers who endeavoured either to re-establish the observance of the ceremonial law, or to put them upon seeking righteousness and life from their observing the precepts of the moral law, — a course which tended to overthrow the doctrine of justification by Christ's righteousness, on which the apostle often insists both in this and in his other epistles. — This method of inquiring into the occasion of what is mentioned in particular paragraphs of scripture, will often give light to some things contained in them. Thus we read, in Matt. xxi. 23 — 27, that the chief priests and elders asked our Saviour the question, ! By what authority doest thou these things ?' Now, had this question proceeded from an humble mind, desirous to be convinced by his reply to it, or had he not often, in their hearing, asserted the authority by which he did those things ; he would, doubtless, have told them that he received a commission to do them from the Fa- ther, and that every miracle which he wrought was, as it were, a confirming seal annexed to it. But our Saviour, knowing the design of the question, and the character of the persons who asked it, does not think fit to make any reply to it, rather choosing to put them to silence, by proposing another question to them which he knew they would not be forward to answer, relating to the baptism of John, namely, whether it was from heaven, or of men. This was certainly the best method he could have taken ; for he dealt with them as cavillers, who were to be put to silence, and at the same time made ashamed. 4. In order to our understanding the sense of scripture, we must, so far as it is possible, compare the phrases or modes of expression as well as the subject insisted on, with what occurs in parallel places. In several of the historical parts of scrip- ture, for example, we have the same history, or, at least, many things tending to illustrate it. Thus the history of the reign of the kings of Judah and Israel, is the principal subject of the books of Kings and Chronicles, one of which often re- fers to, as well as explains, the other, and, by comparing them together, we shall find that one gives light to the other. Thus it is said, in 2 Kings xii. 2, that ' Je- f See Psal. xvi. 1, &c. and cxxxiv. g See 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. h Lam. v. 16. BY WHOM AND HOW THT WORD IS TO BE READ. 450 hoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all his days, wherein Jehoi- ada the priest instructed him.' Here it is intimated that, after the death of Jelioiada, he did evil in the sight of the Lord. That he did so, however, is not particularly mentioned in this chapter, which principally insists on that part of his reign which was commendable. But if we compare it with 2 Chron. xxiv., we there have an account of his reign after the death of Jehoiada, how he 'set up idolatry,'1 being instigated by his princes, who flattered him or 'made obeisance unto him ;' how he disregarded the prophets sent to testify against these practices ; and how he ' stoned Zechariah in the court of the house of the Lord,' for his faithful reproof and pro- phetic intimation of the consequence of his idolatry, — an act in which he showed the greatest ingratitude, and forgetfulness of the good things which had been done for him by his father, who set him on the throne. We have also an account of the time when the Syrians came up against him ; how they overcame him with a small company of men ; and how ' the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. 'k — Again, in the Book of Kings we have but a short history of the reign of Azariah, otherwise called Uzziah, and of his being ' smitten by the Lord, so that he was a leper until the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house.'1 But in 2 Chron. xxvi. there is a larger account of him, of his success in war, and of the honour and the riches which he gained by it ; and there is also a particular account of the reason of the Lord's smiting him with leprosy, — namely, his invading a branch of the priest's office. — Again, in the history of the reign of Manasseh, in 2 Kings xxi., we have an account of only the vile and abominable part of it. But in 2 Chron. xxxiii. we have an account not only of his wickedness, but of his repentance, together with the afflic- tion which occasioned it.m Moreover, when we read the prophetic writings, we must, for our better under- standing them, compare them with the particular history of the reign of those kings in whose time they were written, and with the history of the state of the Jewish church, of their alliances or wars with neighbouring princes, and of the sins which they were guilty of, which gave occasion to their being sometimes insulted and overcome by them, till their ruin was completed in being carried captive into Babylon. Thus the seventh chapter of Isaiah gives an account of the attempt of Rezin king of Sy- ria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, against Ahaz, and contains a prediction of their miscarriage in this attempt ; it also foretells that the king of Assyria should be hired to assist Ahaz, but should, instead, deal deceitfully with him, so that he should deprive Judah of their ornaments, and impoverish them instead of being helpful to them. Now, of these matters we have a farther explanation in the history of Ahaz's reign, in 2 Kings xvi. and 2 Chron. xxviii. — Again, we ought to com- pare the account, in the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh chapters of Isaiah, of Sen- nacherib's invading Judah, and the blasphemous insult of his servant Kabshakeh, together with his defeat, and the remarkable hand of God which brought it about as an encouragement of Hezekiah's piety, with the historical account of the same occurrences, in 2 Kings xviii. and xix. and 2 Chron. xxxii. — Again, we must com- pare the psalms of David with his life, or with the state of the church, which is par- ticularly referred to in some of them, and which may be very much illustrated by other scriptures which have relation to the same dispensations of providence, or con- tain an historical account of them. Those psalms, for example, which were penned on particular occasions, mentioned in the respective titles prefixed to them, will be better understood if we compare the subject of them with the history they refer to. Moreover, we shall often find that when the same thing is mentioned in different places of scripture, there is something added in one, which farther illustrates what is contained in the other. Thus, in the account we have of the life of Joseph, in Gen. xxxix. 20, it is said that he was ' put into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were bound;' and, in chap. xli. 14, it is said that he was kept in ' the dungeon,' which is the worst part of the prison. But the psalmist, speaking of the same matter, in Psal. cv. 18, adds that his ' feet were hurt with fetters,' and he was 'laid in irons ;' and thus affords a farther illustration of the history of his troubles.— i 2 Chron. xxiv. 17, 18. k Verses 23, 24. 1 2 Kings xv. 1—5. m 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12—19. 460 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. Again, we read in Numb. xi. 31, 32, of God's 'feeding Israel,' upon their murmuring in the desert for want of flesh, 'with quails in great abundance ;' and the same event is mentioned in Psal. lxxviii. 27, where we have an account that these quails were a sort of 'feathered fowl,' — a iact which could not have been so well understood by the sense of the Hebrew word which we render quails.n We have also an account, in Exod. xvii. 6, of God's supplying them with 'water out of the rock in Horeb ;' and if we compare what is there said with Psal. cv. 41, we shall find that this water issued thence in so large a stream, that it was like a river. The apostle Paul likewise gives farther light on the subject, when he says, speaking in a figurative way, that ' the rock followed them,'0 that is, the water which ran from it like a river, did not flow in a right line, but, by a continued miracle, changed its course, as they altered their stations, in their various removes from place to place in the wilderness ; • and he adds that God designed this event to be a type of Christ. I might also observe that there many things in the life of David after his expulsion from Saul's court, which would argue him an usurper. He did not merely flee to secure his life, which, as a private person, he might lawfully do; but he raised a small army. Accordingly, it is said that ' every one that was in distress, or in debt, or discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men.'P And Jonathan, who was heir-apparent to the crown, was forced to capitulate with him, and take an oath of him that he would grant him his life, concluding that he would be king after his father's death. °> Nor was Saul's jealousy, which was attended with rage amounting to a kind of distraction, altogether without ground ; and he intimates as much when he tells him, ' Behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king. '* Accordingly, in the following verses, he makes him ' swear to him, that he would not cutoff his seed after him, or destroy his name out of his father's house.' Now, this conduct of David could hardly be justified, if we did not consider what we read in another part of scripture, that, before that time, God had taken away the king- dom from Saul, and ordered David to be anointed king in his stead,8 though he had not the actual possession of the kingdom till after Saul's death. I might farther observe, that the accounts contained in the books of Moses of the ceremonial law, and the various rites and ordinances of divine service contained in it, and also many expressions in the Old Testament which refer to it, ought to be compared with several things which are recorded in the writings of the apostle Paul, particularly, in a very considerable part of his epistle to the Hebrews,1 in which we have an account of the signification of the ceremonial observances as or- dained to be types of the gospel-dispensation. Indeed, there are many scriptures of the Old Testament, which will be better understood by comparing them with others which refer to them in the New. Thus, Isa. xlv. 23, ' Unto me every knee shall bow,' appears to be very agreeable to what is said concerning our Saviour, in Phil. ii. 10. ; and it is not only spoken of the divine honour which should be paid to him, but relates, in a peculiar manner, to that glory which all shall ascribe to him, when they stand before his tribunal. This appears by comparing the passage with Rom. xiv. 10, 11. — Again, when we read, in Isa. vi. 10, of God's sending the prophet to ' make the heart of the people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed;' it is not to be supposed that God is re- presented here as the author of their sin. This will plainly appear if we compare the passage with Matt. xiii. 15, where it is cited and farther explained : ' This people's heart is waxed fat, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes,' &c. In Acts xxviii. 26, 27, also it is referred to, and explained in the same sense, as charging their sin and the consequence of it upon themselves. n The word is V?», which being neither a root to any other word, nor derived from any other root, by which the sense of Hebrew words is generally known, nor found any where in scripture, excepting in those two or three places which refer to this particular dispensation of providence, it is a bard matter to determine the sense of it, without comparing these two scriptures together. o 1 Cor. x. 4. pi Sam. xxii. 2. q Chap. xx. 14, 15. compared with ver. 42. r 1 Sam. xxiv. 20. s Chap. xvi. 13. t See the epistle to the Hebrews, chap, v — y. inclusive, and 2 Cor. x. 1 6. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. 4^1 By this method of comparing the Old and New Testament together, we shall he led to see the beautiful harmony of scripture, and how its predictions have been accom- plished ; which will tend very much to establish our faith in the truth of the Chris- tian religion founded on it. But this point having been insisted on elsewhere," we pass it over at present, and proceed to make another observation. There are several places in the New Testament which, being compared together, will give light to one another. Thus, in the four evangelists, which contain the history of the life and death of Christ, some things are left out or but briefly hinted at in one of them, which are more largely insisted on in another. Thus we read, in Matt. xii. 14, 15, that ' the Pharisees went out and held a counsel against ' our Saviour, 'how they might destroy him ;' and that on that occasion ' he withdrew himself from thence ; and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all. ' But Mark,* speaking concerning the same thing, intimates that the Herodians were joined with the Pharisees in this conspiracy ; and that he 'withdrew himself to the sea,' namely, of Tiberias, where he ordered that ' a small ship should wait on him, lest the multitude should throng him.' We have also an account of several places whence they came, namely, ' Galilee, Jerusalem, Idumea, and from beyond Jordan, and they about Tyre and Sidon, ' so that a great part of them were Gentiles. Now, these additional particulars give light to what follows in Matt. xii. 18, 21, where it is intimated that the occurrence was an accomplishment of what was ' foretold by the prophet Esaias,' that Christ should 'show judgment to the Gentiles,' and that, ' in his name the Gentiles should trust.' Hence, he wrought miracles to convince them that he was the Messias. — Again, it is said, in Matt. xiii. 12, * Who- soever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance ; but who- soever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.' Here some will be ready to inquire how that which a man hath can be said to be taken away, when he is supposed to have nothing ; or how a person can be said to lose that which he never had. But if we compare the passage in Matthew with a parallel scripture, in Luke viii. 18, we shall find it there said, ' Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have ;' or as it is in the margin, 'that which he thinketh he hath.' Now, though a man cannot lose grace, who had it not ; yet an hypocrite, who seems to have it, may lose that which he sup- poseth himself to have. — This method of comparing the four evangelists together, is attempted by several divines. Among these, a late writer, who is deservedly esteemed by all the Reformed churches/ thinks that the inscription on the cross of Christ can hardly be determined, without comparing what is said of it by all the four evangelists. Mark says the words were, ' The King of the Jews ;'z Luke says they were, ' This is the King of the Jews ;'a Matthew adds another word, ' This is Jesus, the King of the Jews ;'b and John says the inscription was, 'Jesus of Nazar- eth, the King of the Jews.'c Hence, by comparing them all together, and supplying those words from one which are left out by others, we must conclude that the in- scription was, ' This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.' Again, as the Acts of the Apostles contains a brief* history of the first planting of the gospel-church, and in particular, of the travels and ministry of the apostle Paul, it ought to be compared with some things occasionally mentioned in Paul's epistles, which will give farther light to its statements. Thus the apostle says, in 1 Cor. xv. 8, ' Last of all he was seen of me also, as of. one born out of due time ;' and speaks of himself, in ver. 9, as ' the least of the apostles, not meet to be called an apostle ; because he persecuted the church of God.' Now, this ac- count of himself ought to be compared with Acts ix. 1 — 6, which gives an account of him as a persecutor before his conversion, and shows how our Saviour was seen of him. By comparing the two passages, it appears that Christ's being seen of him is not to be understood in the same sense as that in which he was seen by the rest of the apostles before his ascension into heaven ; but of his being seen of him after u See Sect. ' Proofs that the Scriptures are inspired,' under Quest, iv. x Mark iii. 7. et seq. y See Li^ht foot's Harmony of the Four Evangelists; and his Harmony of the New Testament, vol. i. page 268. z Mark xv. 26. a Luke xxiii. 38. b Matt, xxvii. 37. c John xix. 19. 402 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. his ascension, when, on the occasion mentioned in the latter passage, lie appeared to him. If, again, we examine 1 Cor. xi. 1, we shall find that Paul considers this sight of Jesus as having heen a necessary qualification for the apostleship. Hence, when he speaks of himself as ' born out of due time,' he means that he was called to the apostleship, and qualified for it, out of due time ; that is, not at the same time in which the other apostles were, but by this extraordinary dispensation of provi dence. — Again, when the apostle, in 1 Thess. ii. 2, speaks of his having been ' shamefully entreated at Philippi,' his statement will be better understood if we com- pare it with Acts xvi. 16, 21, 22, et seq. And when he tells the Thessalonians, in the following words, 'We were bold in our God, to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention,' his words should be compared with Acts xvii. 1, et seq. Many instances of a similar nature might be given, from which the usefulness of comparing one scripture with another would farther appear. But, I design what I have stated as only a specimen, to assist us in the application of this direction ; which a diligent inquirer into the sense of scripture will be able to make farther improvements upon. 5. In order to our understanding the scriptures, we must take notice of the several figurative modes of speaking which are used in them. For example, the part is often put for the whole.d Thus the soul, which is one constituent part of man, is some- times put for the whole man ; as in Gen. xlvi. 26, where we read of ' the souls' that came with Jacob into Egypt. And, in Rom. xii. 1, the body is put for the whole man : * I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies,' that is, yourselves, ' a living sacrifice to God.' So the blood of Christ, which is often spoken of in scripture as that by which we are redeemed, justified, and saved, is to be taken for the whole of his obedience and sufferings, both in life and in death ; to which our salvation is to be ascribed, as well as to the effusion of his blood. Again, the thing containing, is put for that which is contained in it.e Thus the cup in the Lord's supper, is put for the wine.f And the thing signified is put for that which is the sign of it. Thus when it is said, ' This is my body ;'s the mean- ing is, this bread is a sign of my body, namely, of the sufferings endured in it. Again, places are, by way of anticipation, called by those names which, in reality, were not given them, or which they were not commonly known by till some time after. Thus it is said that, as soon as Israel had passed over Jordan, they ' en- camped in Gilgal,h that is, in the place which was afterwards so called ; for we read that it was called Gilgal because there they were circumcised, and so ' the reproach of Egypt,' occasioned by the neglect of that ordinance, ' was rolled away.'1 Again, it is said, ' The kings that came up against Sodom,' when Lot was taken prisoner, ' had smitten all the country of the Amalekites.'k Yet the country which was afterwards known by that name, could not be so called at that time ; since Amalek, from whom it took its name, was not born till some ages after, he being of the posterity of Esau.1 Further, the time past or present is often, especially in the prophetic writings, put for the time to come. This mode of writing denotes the certainty of the per- formance of the prediction, as much as though it were actually accomplished. Thus it is said, • He,' that is, our Saviour, 'is despised and rejected of men ; he Uath borne our griefs, he was wounded for our transgressions.'™ And elsewhere, The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. 'n And, ' Unto us a child is born,'0 &c. Further, one of the senses is sometimes put for another. Thus when it is said, ' I turned to see the voice that spake to me,'p seeing is put for hearing, or for un- derstanding the meaning of the voice which spake. Again, positive assertions are sometimes taken in a comparative sense. Thus God says to Samuel, The people in asking a king, ' have not rejected thee, but me ;'' that is, they have cast more contempt on me than they have on thee, or they have offered a greater affront to my government who condescended to be their d This is called synecdoche. e This is called a metonymy. f 1 Cor. xi. 25. g Ver. 24. h Josh. iv. 19. i Chap. v. 9. k Gen. xiv. 7. 1 Chap, xxxvi. 12. no Isa. liii. 4, 5. n Chap. ix. 2. o Ver. 6. p Rev. i. 12. q 1 Sam. viii. 7. BY WHOM AMD HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. 4(53 king, though they have been uneasy under thine administration as appointed to bo their judge. So in Psal. li. 4, David says, ' Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.' Yet he had sinned against Uriah and Bathsheba, having murdered the one, and tempted the other to commit adultery with him ; he had sinned against the army, whom he occasioned to fall in battle, in execution of the orders he gave Joab, with a design to destroy Uriah. But though he had sinned against these parties, lie says, ' Against thee, thee only, have I sinned ;' that is, the great- est aggravation of my sin is, that it contains rebellion against thee. Elsewhere also God says, 'I desired mercy, and not sacrifice ;'r that is, more than sacrifice. Again, there are several hyperbolical ways of speaking in scripture, whereby lnore is expressed than what is generally understood. Thus the vessel in the temple in which things were washed, which was ten cubits from one brim to the other, is called 'a molten sea ;'s because it contained a great quantity of water; though, indeed, it was very small, if compared with the dimensions of the sea. In 1 Kings x. 27, it is said that ' Solomon made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones ; and cedars as the sycamore-trees, which are in the vale for abundance.' Now sil- ver was not, strictly speaking, as plentiful as stones ; but the language implies that there were vast treasures of it heaped up by the king and many of his subjects, and that there was no lack of it on the part of any one. In Judges xx. 16, it is said there were ' some of the Benjamites left-handed, every one of whom could sling stones at an hair-breadth, and not miss.' But this statement means only that they had an uncommon expertness in this matter. When, again, we read of some of the cities in the land of Canaan, that were 'great, and walled up to heaven;'* the meaning only denotes that their walls were very high. In 1 Kings i. 40, it is said that, on occasion of Solomon's being anointed king, ' the people rejoiced with great joy ; so that the earth rent with the sound of them.' Here the mean- ing is only that the shouts of the people were so great, that if the concussion of the air made by such means could have rent the earth, they would have done it. Further, we sometimes find ironical expressions, and sarcasms used in scripture, with a design to expose the wickedness and folly of men. Thus, when our first parents sinned by adhering to the suggestions of Satan, who told them that they • should be as gods, knowing good and evil ;'u God says, in an ironical way, ' Be- hold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil,'* &c. So the prophet Elijah exposes Baal's worshippers, and Micaiah, Ahab's false prophets, by using a sarcastic way of speaking.? Job uses the same figurative way of speaking, when he reproves the bitter invectives and false reasonings of his friends : ' No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.'2 Solomon uses the same way of address, when he says, ' Rejoice, 0 young man, in thy youth, and let thy heai't cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes. But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.'3 The man who trusts in his own righteousness for justification, is also exposed in the same way, ' Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks ; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.'1* And when our Saviour says to his disciples, having found them asleep, ' Sleep on now, and take your rest ; behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is be- trayed into the hands of sinners,'0 it is plain, from the following words, that he uses this figurative way of speaking ; for he immediately adds, without an irony, ' Rise, let us be going.' Some think also that this is the method of speaking which our Saviour makes use of, when he reproves his disciples for the fond conceit they had that his kingdom was of this world, contending sometimes among themselves who should be greatest in it. Referring to that conceit, he bids them make provision for war, and take care to secure those two things which are necessary for it, money and arms. ' He that hath a purse, ' says he, ' let him take it ; and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.'d They did not, indeed, imme- r Hos. vi. 6. s 1 Kings vii. 23. t Deut. i. 28. u Gen. iii. 5. x Verse 22. y 1 Kings xviii. 27 ; chap. xxii. 15. z Job xii. 2. a Eccl. xi. 9. b Isa. L 11. c Ma t. xx vi. 45, 46. d Luke xxii. 36. 464 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. diatcly perceive that he spake in an ironical way ; and therefore replied, ' Lord, behold here are two swords. 'e He then said to them, still carrying on the irony, ' It is enough.' Hence, whether they understood his meaning or not, it seems to hare been this : "If you are disposed to contend who shall be greatest, as though my kingdom were of a temporal nature, and to be erected and maintained by force of arms, do you think you have a sufficient treasure to hire forces to join with you, or buy arms for that purpose ? or, do you imagine that you have courage enough to attack the Roman empire, and gain it by force? You say, you have two swords; can you suppose that these are enough ? What a ludicrous and indifferent figure would you make, if you expected to come off conquerors by this means ! No, they that take the sword shall perish with the sword ; for my kingdom is not of this world. All the advantages and honours which you are to expect in it, are of a spiritual nature." This seems to be the meaning of this scripture, rather than that which the Papists generally acquiesce in, namely, that by 'the two swords,' are meant the civil and ecclesiastical, both of which, as they pretend, are put into the Pope's hands. Again, the scripture often makes use of a figurative way of speaking, generally called an hendyadis, whereby one complex idea is expressed by two words. This figure is very common in the Hebrew language. Thus when God promises his peo- ple that he would give them 'an expected end, 'f intending hereby their deliverance from the Babylonish captivity ; the words, if literally translated, ought to be ren- dered, as is observed in the margin, 'an end and expectation.' Our translators, however, were apprized that there is such a figurative way of speaking contained in them ; and therefore they render them, 'an expected end.' This figure is some- times used in the New Testament. Thus our Saviour tells his disciples, ' I will give you a mouth and wisdom ;'* that is, I will give you ability to express your- selves with so much wisdom, ' that all your adversaries shall not be able to gain- say it.' Some think, that the same way of speaking is used in John iii. 5, ' Ex- cept a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God ;' that is, except a man be born of the Holy Spirit, or regenerated, a work which is signified by being born of water, he cannot, &c. Finally, nothing is more common than for the Holy Ghost, in scripture, to make use of metaphors. These are a very elegant way of representing things, by com- paring them with and illustrating them by others, borrowing from others such illustrations as add a very considerable beauty to the things illustrated. Thus repentance and godly sorrow, together with the blessed privileges which shall here- after follow them, are compared to sowing and reaping. ' They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.'h Thus, too, the prophet, by a metaphor taken from husbandry, sets forth the labour and pains which Israel had taken in sin, and exhorts them to be as industrious in pursuing what would turn to a better account. He says that they had ' ploughed wicked- ness, and reaped iniquity ;' and advises them to ' sow to themselves in righteous- ness, and reap in mercy.'1 This, he adds, they should do by 'seeking the Lord ;' and 'it is time,' says he, 'to seek him, till he come and rain righteousness upon you ;' which is necessary to a plenteous harvest of blessings, which you may hope for in so doing. He also reproves their adulteries by a metaphor taken from 'an oven heated by the baker ;'k and their hypocrisy by another taken from 'a cake not turned ;'1 and their being weakened and almost ruined hereby, he compares to the ' gray hairs' of those who are bowed down under the infirmities of age ;m and for their cowardice and seeking help from other nations, and not from God, he calls them 'a silly dove without an heart. 'n We may observe that there is often a chain of metaphors in the same paragraph. Of this kind is that elegant descrip- tion of old age, sickness, and death, which Solomon gives in exhorting persons to 'remember their Creator in the days of their youth, while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars be not darkened.'0 By these expressions it is probable he e Luke xxii. 38. f Jer. xxix. 11. g Luke xxi. 15. h Psal. cxxvi. 5, 6. i Hos. x. 12, 13. k Chap. vii. 4. 1 Verse 8. m Verse 9. & Ho». vii. 11. o Eccles. xii. 1 — 6. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. 405 intends the impairing of the intellect, the loss of those sprightly parts which once they had, or of the memory and judgment ; on which account men are sometimes said to outlive themselves. He speaks also of 'the keepers of the house trembling,' that is, the hands and arms, designed for the defence of the body, being seized with paralytic disorders ; ' the strong men bowing themselves,' that is, those parts which are designed to support the body being weakened, and needing a staff to bear themselves up ; ' the grinders ceasing because they are few,' that is, the loss of teeth ; ' they that look out of the windows being darkened, ' that is, a decay of sight ; 'rising up at the voice of the bird,' that is, their loss of one of the main props of nature, namely, sleep, so that they may rise early in the morning, when the birds begin to sing, because their beds will not afford them rest. And ' the daughters of music being brought low,' denotes a decay of the voice and hearing, and being not affected with those sounds which were once most delightful. ' The almond-tree flourishing,' plainly signifies the hoary head. ' The grasshopper' be- ing 'a burden,' is either a proverbial phrase importing a want of courage, strength, and resolution, to bear the smallest pressures ; or, as others understand it, their stooping, when bowed down with old age. ' The silver cord loosed,' or 'the golden bowl broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,' signifies a decay of the animal spirits, a laxation of the nerves, irregular circulation of the blood, or the universal stoppage of it; when the frame of nature is broken, and man 'returns to the dust.'P In the New Testament there are several metaphors used. Some of these are taken from the Isthmian and Olympic games, practised by the Greeks and Romans. Thus the apostle Paul compares the Christian life to ' a race,' in which 'many run,' but do not all ' receive the prize. '^ He alludes alsor to another exer- cise, namely, wrestling ; and recommends temperance as what was practised by the wrestlers as a means for their obtaining the crown. He likewise 8 uses a metaphor, taken from another of the games, namely, fighting in hope of victory ; by which he illustrates his zeal in the discharge of his ministry. In another place,1 he speaks of the Christian race, and the necessity of 'laying aside every weight,' namely, allowed sins, which would retard our course, or hinder us in the way to heaven. Again, he speaks of himself both as a minister and a Christian, as * forgetting those things- which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, and press- ing towards the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus ;'M where he plainly alludes to the posture, industry, and earnestness of those who run in a race. Elsewhere also* he speaks of the difficulties, temptations, and opposition which believers are exposed to in the Christian life, and advises them to 'put on the whole armour of God ;' and so carries on the metaphor or allegory, by alluding to the various pieces of armour which soldiers make use of when engaged in battle, to illustrate the methods we ought to take that we may come off conquerors at last. 6. It will be very useful, in order to our understanding scripture, for us to know some things relating to the different forms of civil government, and the various changes made in it, among the Jews and other nations with whom they were con- versant. At first we find that distinct families had the administration of civil affairs committed to them, and that the heads of them were, as it were, the chief magistrates, who had, in some instances, the exercise of civil power, especially if it did not interfere with that of the country in which they lived. Some think, in- deed, that it extended to the punishing of capital crimes with death ; and that Judah, who was the head of a branch of Jacob's family, when he passed.this sentence concerning Tamar, ' Bring her forth, and let her be burnt, 'J did it as a civil magis- trate. But if it be not to be deemed a rash and unjustifiable expression in him, when he says, ■ Let her be brought forth, and burnt,' we must suppose the mean- ing to be, ' Let her first be confined till she is delivered of her child, and then tried by the civil magistrate, the consequence of which will be, her being burnt, when found guilty of the adultery charged upon her.' It hence does not appear that the heads of families, when sojourning in other countries, had a power distinct p See more of this in an ingenious discourse on this subject, by Smith, in Solomon's Portraiture of Old Age. q 1 Cor. i.\. 24. r Verse 25. s Verse 26. t Heb. xii. 1. u Phil. iii. 13, 14. x Eph. vi. 11—16. y Gen. xxxviii. 24. ii. 3 » 1H6 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. from that of the government under which they lived, to punish offenders with death ; though I think, it is beyond dispute that they had a government in their own families which extended, in many respects, to civil affairs, as well as enforced an obligation to observe those religious duties which God fequired. It may be far- ther observed that this government extended so far that the patriarchs, or heads of families, had sometimes a power of making war, or of entering into confederacies with neighbouring princes for their own safety, or for recovering their rights when invaded. Thus when Lot and the Sodomites were taken prisoners by the four kings who came up against them, we read2 that Abraham called in the assistance of some of his neighbours with whom he was in confederacy, and * armed his trained servants, three hundred and eighteen, born in his house,' and rescued Lot and the men of Sodom from the hands of those who had taken them prisoners. We have little more light as to this matter, so long as the government continued domestic, and the church was in the condition of sojourners. But when they were increased to a great nation, their civil as well as religious government was settled, by divine direction, under the hand of Moses in the wilderness. The first form of it was a Theocracy. God gave them laws in an immediate way ; condescended to satisfy them, as to some things which they inquired of him about ; gave them particular intimations how they should manage their affairs of war and peace ; and appeared for them in giving them victory over their enemies, in a very extraordi- nary and sometimes miraculous way. But besides this great honour which God put on them, he established a form of government among them, under which they were divided into thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens ;a all of which divisions had their respective captains or governors, who are sometimes styled ' the nobles of the chil- dren of Israel. 'b These governors were generally heads of considerable families among them ; which were also divided in the same way, into thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, in proportion to their largeness. Thus Gideon, speaking of his family,0 calls it, as the Hebrew word signifies, ' his thousand.' In the same manner, too, their armies were divided, when engaged in war. Thus when Jesse sent David with a present into the army to his brethren, he bade him deliver it to ' the captain of their thousand; 'd who was the same description of officer whom, in our modern way of speaking, we call a commanding officer over a regiment of soldiers. Again, when David's soldiers went out to war against Absalom, it is said, ■ They came out by hundreds, and by thousands ;'e each distinct company or regiment having its commanding officer. Thus the government was settled as to civil and military affairs, in such a way that the head of the respective division had a power of judg- ing in lesser matters. But as there were some affairs of the greatest importance to be transacted in the form of their government, by divine direction, God appointed seventy men of the children of Israel, to assist Moses in those matters in which they had more immediately to do with him. Accordingly, he ' gave them the Spirit,'* that is, the extraordinary inspiration of the Spirit, whereby he communi- cated his mind and will to them. This was the origin of the Sanhedrim ; and those who composed that body had a power of judging in civil matters, throughout all the ages of the church, till the Jews were made tributary to the Romans. But after that period, they became as vile and contemptible as they had before been honourable in the eyes of just and good men. This appears from their tumultuous and unprecedented behaviour in the trial of our Saviour, and from the malicious prosecutions set on foot by them against the apostles, without any pretence or form of law. After the death of Joshua, and the elders who survived him, there was an alter- ation in the form of government, occasioned by the oppression to which the Israel- ites were liable from their enemies ; who insulted and vexed them, and sometimes plundered them of their substance. Then God raised up judges, who first procured peace for them by success in war, and afterwards governed them, though without the character or ensigns of royal dignity. This government not being successive, the z Gen. xiv. 13, 14. a Exod. xviii. 21; Deut.'i. 15. b Exod. xxiv. 11. c Judges vi. 15. d 1 Sam. xvii. 18; and chap, xviii. 13. e 2 Sam. xviii. 4. f Numb. xi. 16, 17. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. 4G7 Israelites were, on the death of these respective judges, brought into great confu- sion, every one doing that which was right in his own eyes, till another judge was raised up, as some future emergency requh'ed it. Thus the posture of their affairs continued, as the apostle observes, ' about the space of four hundred and fifty years ;** and then it was altered, when, through their unsettled temper, they de- sired a king, in conformity to the custom of the nations round about them. Though their request was displeasing to God, yet he granted it ;h and so the government became regal. Then followed a succession of kings, set over the whole nation, till the division between Judah and Israel ; when they became two distinct kingdoms, and so continued till their respective captivity. These things being duly consider- ed, will give great light to several things contained in scripture ; especially as to what relates to the civil affairs of the church of God. But it will be necessary also that we take a view of the government of other na- tions, with whom they were conversant. We read of almost as many kings in scripture as there were cities in several of those countries which lay round about the Israelites. Thus,1 we read of many dukes and kings, whose power was much the same, who descended from Esau. These had very small dominions, each of them being, as is probable, the chief governor of one city, or at most of a little tract of land round about it. Indeed, except the Assyrian and other monarchies which were of a very large extent, and had none, under that character, who stood in competition with them while they subsisted, all other kingdoms were very small. Hence, four kings were obliged to enter into a confederacy, to make war with Sodom and the four neighbouring cities, which a very inconsiderable army might, without much difficulty, have subdued.k One of these four kings, indeed, is called ' king of nations ;' but he is called so, not because he had large dominions, but because he was the chief governor of a mixed people from divers nations, who were settled together in one distinct colony. The king of Shinar there spoken of, too, is not the king of Babylon, who was too potent a prince to have stood in need of others to join with him in such an expedition ; but he was a petty king who reigned in some city near Babylon, and was tributary to the Assyrian empire. These four kings, with all their forces, were so few in number that Abraham was not afraid to attack them ; which he did with success. — Again, we read, that in Joshua's time, the kings in the land of Canaan, whom he subdued, had each of them very small dominions, consisting of but one capital city, with a few villages round about it. We read of thirty-one kings who reigned in that country, which was not so big as a fourth part of the kingdom of England.1 Afterwards most of these kingdoms were swallowed up by the Assyrian empire. Accordingly, the king of Assyria, as Rabshakeh boasts, had entirely conquered the kings of Hamath, Arphad, Gozan, and Haran, with several others. m These had very small dominions, and therefore were easily subdued by forces so much superior to any which they could raise. Egypt, indeed, was more formidable ; and therefore we often read in scripture of Israel's having recourse to them for help, and of their being blamed for trusting in them more than in God. In Arabia, also, there were some kings who had large dominions, as appears by the vast armies that they raised. Thus * Zerah the Ethiopian came forth against Asa, with a thousand thousand men.'n Yet, the church of God was able to stand its ground ; for whether the neighbouring kings were many of them confederated against them, or the armies they raised exceedingly numerous, like the sand on the sea-shore, they had safety and protection as well as success in war, from the care and blessing of providence. Of these matters we have an account in the history of scripture relating to them. 7. It will be of some advantage, in order to our understanding the sense of scrip- ture, for us to inquire into the meaning of those civil and religious offices and characters by which several persons are described, both in the Old and in the New Testament. As to the priests and Levites, we have had occasion frequently to in- sist on their call and office. Among the former, one was styled 'high priest.' He not only was the chief minister in holy things under the Jewish dispensation ; but g Acts xiii. 20. h 1 Sam. viii. 5 — 7. i Gen. xxxvi. k Cbap. xiv. 1, &c. 1 Josh. xii. m 2 Kings xix. 12, 13. n 2 Chron. xiv. 9. 468 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. presided over the other priests in all those things which respected the temple-ser- vice. There was also another priest who had pre-eminence over his brethren, and was next to the high priest in office. He seems to be referred to in 2 Kings xxv. 18. where we read of ' Seraiah, the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest.' This officer is not often mentioned in scripture ; but is frequently spoken of by Jewish writers. They call him, as the author of the Chaldee paraphrase does on the text just quoted, the Sagan. Some think that this office was first instituted in Numb. iii. 32, where we read that Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, was to be ' chief over the chief of the Levites, and to have the oversight of them that kept the charge of the sanctuary.' Elsewhere, also, we read of Zadok and Abiathar being by way of eminence, ' priests at the same time;'0 by which, it is probable, we are to understand, as many expositors do, that the one was the high priest, and the other the Sagan ; who was to perform the office which belonged to the high priest in all its branches, if the high priest should happen to be incapacitated for it. Besides these, there were others who were styled ' chief priests.' These were the heads of their respective classes, and presided over them when they came to Jer- usalem, to minister in their courses. There was also the president of the Sanhe- drim, who is generally reckoned one of the chief priests. Moreover, when any one was, by the arbitrary will of their governors, in the degenerate and declining state of the Jewish church, deposed from the high priesthood, merely to make way for another favourite to enjoy that honour, he was, though divested of his office, nevertheless called ' chief priest.' This fact will give light to several scriptures in the New Testament, in which we read of many chief priests at the same time.? As to the Levites, they were not only appointed to be the high priest's ministers in offering gifts and sacrifices in the temple ; but many of them were engaged in other offices. Some instructed the people, in the respective cities where they dwelt, who were to resort to them for that purpose ; or in synagogues, erected for this branch of public worship. Others were employed as judges in determining civil or eccle- siastical matters. Again, we often read in scripture of scribes. These were of two sorts. Some were employed only in civil matters. We sometimes read of one person, in particular, who was appointed to be the king's scribe. Thus in David's reign, we read of Shemaiah the scribe ; in Hezekiah's, of Shebna.q This seems to have been a civil officer, not much unlike a secretary of state among us ; and we seldom find men- tion made of more than one scribe at a time, except in Solomon's reign, when there were two.r But we often read, also, of scribes who were engaged in other works. It is generally supposed that many of them were employed in transcribing the whole or some parts of scripture, for the use of those who employed them in that work and compensated them for it, — a work which was necessary for the pro- pagating of religion in those ages in which printing was not known. Moreover, there were others who explained the law to the people. Thus Ezra is styled, ' a ready scribe in the law of Moses.'3 This was an honourable and useful employ- ment, faithfully managed by him and many others, in the best ages of the church. But, in our Saviour's time, there were scribes who pretended to expound the law and instruct the people, whose doctrines were very contrary to the mind of the Holy Ghost in Moses' writings, and whose way of preaching was very empty and unpro- fitable. Hence, it is said that our Lord ' taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes.'* Further, we sometimes read in the New Testament of 'lawyers,' against whom our Saviour denounces woes, for opposing him and his gospel. This is supposed by some to be only a different name given to the scribes. For they practised the law in public courts of judicature, and pleaded causes in the Sanhedrim, or taught in their schools or religious assemblies ; and both of these things were done by the scribes. The evangelist Matthew, too, speaks of ' a lawyer ' who asked our Sa- viour a question, ' Which is the great commandment?' u while Mark, mentioning the o 2 Sam. xv. 35 ; xix. 11. p See Luke iii. 2 ; Mark xiv. 53. q 1 Chron. xxiv. 6; 2 Rings xviii. 18. r 1 Kings iv. 4. s Ezra vii. 6. t Matt. vii. 29. u Chap, xxii. 35, 36. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. 4GQ same thing, calls the person ' one of the scribes.' x The same thing, in sub- stance, seems to be intended by both evangelists. Some suppose, indeed, that there was a difference between the lawyers and scribes, from its being said that when our Saviour had been reproving the scribes and Pharisees, ' one of the law- yers said unto him; Thus saying, thou reproachest us also, ** where the lawyers speak as though they were distinct from the scribes. Yet it is evident that, how- ever they might be distinguished from them in other respects, they agreed with them as engaged in expounding the law ; and are said, in the performance of this work, to have 'laden men with heavy burdens, grievous to be borne,' which they themselves ' would not touch with one of their fingers. ' As for those civil officers whom we read of in the Old Testament before the captiv- ity, especially in David and Solomon's reign, they were either such as were set over the tribute, the principal of which was at the head of the treasury,2 or such as were employed under them, to see that the taxes were duly levied and paid. The latter are called ' receivers. 'a Others were employed in keeping and adjusting the public records. Of these one was the chief ; who, by way of eminence, is called ' the recorder.' Others were appointed to manage the king's domestic affairs ; of whom the chief was ' set over the household. 'b Another is said to have been ' set over the host.'0 He either had the chief command of the army, or was appointed to muster and determine who should go to war or be excused from it. There is still another officer whom we read of once in scripture, namely, he who ' counted the towers ;'d whose business seems to have been to survey and keep the fortifications in repair. But these not being so frequently mentioned in scripture as others, we pass them over, and proceed more especially to consider some characters of persons which we meet with in the New Testament. There was one sort of officers who were concerned in exacting the public reve- nues, after the Jews were made tributary to the Roman empire. These are called publicans. The chief of them were generally persons of great honour and substance, who sometimes farmed a branch of the revenue ; and were, for the most part, Ro- mans of noble extraction. We have an account of them in Cicero, e and other heathen writers ; but there is no mention of them in scripture. This honourable post was never conferred on the Jews. Yet we read of Zaccheus, who is said to have been 'one of the chief among the publicans,' though a Jew.f The mean- ing is, that he was the chief officer in a particular port, and had other publicans un- der him ; whose business was constantly to attend at the ports, and take an account of the taxes which were to be paid there by those of whom they were exacted. Of the latter sort was Matthew, who is called ' the publican,' that is, one of the lowest officers concerned in the revenue.^ These were usually very profligate in their morals, and inclined to oppress those of whom they received taxes, probably to gain advantage to themselves, and were universally hated by the Jews. There was another sort of men, often mentioned in the New Testament, who made the greatest pretensions to religion, but were most remote from it, and are justly branded with the character of hypocrites, — namely, the Pharisees, who made themselves popular by their external show of piety. There is not, indeed, the least hint of there having been such a sect amongst the Jews before the captivity ; though, it is true, the prophet Isaiahh speaks of a sort of people who much resembled them, who said, ' Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou.' From this passage it seems that there were some of similar principles in Isaiah's day ; unless we suppose that the passage had its accomplishment when the sect of the Phari- sees appeared in the world in a following age. The time when they appeared was x Mark xii. 28. y Luke xi. 44, 45. z 1 Kings iv. 6. a Isa. xxxiii. 18. b 2 Kings xviii. 18. c 1 Kings iv. 4. d Isa. xxxiii. 18. e Vid. Cic. in Orat. pro Plane, florem Equitum Romanorum ornamentum civitatis, firmamentum reipublicae publicanorum online eontineri. And in bis oration, ad Quintum Fratrem, he has many things concerning the dignity of the publicans, and their advantage to the commonwealth. He says, ' Si Publicanis adversemur ordinem de nobis optime meritum, et per nos cum republica con- junctum, et a nobis, et a republica disjungimus.' And in his familiar Epistles, lib. xix. Epist. x. he calls them, ' Ordinem sibi semper commendatissimum ;* et ad Atticum, lib. vii. Epist. vii, he Bays, ' Caesari amicissimos fuisse Publicanos.' f Luke xix. 2. g Matt. x. 3, compared with chap. ix. 9. h Isa. lxv. 5. 470 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. not long after the reign of Alexander the Great,1 between two and three hundred years before our Saviour's time. They are generally described in scripture, as pretending to be more expert than all others in the knowledge of the law ; but, in reality, making it void, by establishing those oral traditions which were contrary to its true intent and meaning. They are described also as setting up their own righteousness, and depending on the performance of some lesser duties of the law, as that from which they expected a right to eternal life. These were the greatest enemies, in their conduct, as well as their doctrines, to Christ and his gospel. There was another sect who joined with the Pharisees in persecuting and op- posing our Saviour ; though otherwise they did not in the least accord with them. These were the Sadducees, who appeared in the world about the same time as the Pharisees. They were men generally reputed as profligate in their morals ; and, for that reason, they were as much hated by the common people, as the Pharisees were caressed by them. They adhered to the philosophy of Epicurus ; and took occasion from it, as they are said in scripture k to have done, to deny the resurrec- tion, angels, and spirits. It is true they did not desire to be thought irreligious, though they were really so ; yet our Saviour describes them, as well as the Phari- sees, as hypocrites and inveterate enemies to his gospel. There was another sort of people, sometimes mentioned in the New Testament, namely, the Samaritans. These separated from the Jews, out of a private pique, and built a distinct temple on mount Gerizim ; 1 and for doing this they were ex- communicated by the Jews, and universally hated, so that there was no intercourse between them,m especially in those things in which one might be said to be obliged to another. They did very much corrupt the worship of God ; so that Christ charges them with 'worshipping they knew not what.'n It is also observed con- cerning them, that after the ten tribes were carried captive into Assyria, they who were left in the land ' feared not the Lord, and he sent lions amongst them. ' ° On this occasion, a priest was dismissed by the king of Assyria, under pretence of ' in- structing them in the manner of the God of the land ;' and he erected a strange medley of religion, consisting partly of those corruptions which had been practised by the Israelites for some ages past, and partly of the heathen idolatry which they brought from Assyria. On this account it is said, ' They feared the Lord, and served their own gods after the manner of. the nations whom they carried away from thence. 'p There is another sort of men, mentioned in the New Testament, called Herodians. These seem to have been a political rather than a religious sect. Some of the fathers, indeed, think that they were so called because they complimented Herod with the character of the Messiah ;i who, as they supposed, would be a very flourishing prince, and would reign over them, according to the ancient prediction of the patriarch Jacob, after * the sceptre was departed from Judah.' But this seems to be a very improbable conjecture ; for Herod the Great was dead, before we read any thing of the Herodians in scripture. Besides, the Jews had an opinion, about this time, that the Messiah should never die/ The most probable opinion is, that these Herodians were, in their origin, the favourites and courtiers of Herod, and disposed to adopt any alterations which he was inclined to make in the religious or civil affair of the Jews.8 From what is said concerning them in scripture, it is supposed that they were, for the most part, Sadducees. For, if we compare Matt. xvi. 6, with Mark viii. 15, we shall find that our Saviour warns his disciples on occasion of their having ' forgot to take bread,' to 'beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees,' as the former evangelist expresses it, and ' of the leaven of i See Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiii. cap. ix. And we have an account of their pride and insolence in the same author, chap, xviii., and of the great disturbance they made in civil governments, if chief magistrates did not please them. k Acts xxiii. 8. 1 See Joseph. Antiq. lib. xi. cap. viii. m John iv. 9. n Verse 22. o 2 Kings xvii. 25. p Vt rse 33. q See Tertull. in praescrip. adv. Haer. cap. xlv. and Epiphanius, in Haer. cap. xx. r John xii. 34. s That Herod was disposed to make alterations in the Jews' religion, by adding to it a mixture of several rites and ceremonies, taken from the heathen, is affirmed by some. See Cunseus de Rep. Haebr. lib. i. cap. xvi., who quotes Josephus as saying that he altered the ancient laws of their country. BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS TO BE READ. 471 Herod,' that is, the Herodians, as it is in the latter. Now, though these Ilerodians, or court parasites, might take their rise in the reign of Herod the Great ; yet a party of men succeeded them who held the same principles, aud were disposed to compliment their governors with their civil and religious rights. These, however, more especially distinguished themselves, by their propagating principles of loyalty among the people. While the Jews, under a pretence that they were a free na- tion, were very unwilling to give tribute to Csesar, — though they would not venture their lives, as Judas of Galilee and some others had done, by refusing it ; these Herodiaus laid it down as an article of their faith, that they ought to pay tribute to Caesar. Hence, when they came with this question to our Saviour, i Is it lawful to give tribute unto Ca?sar, or not?'* he soon discovered their hypocrisy, and knew the design of their question, as he might easily do from their being Hero- diaus. Thus concerning the various characters of persons mentioned in scripture, as subservient to our right understanding of it. 8. After all these helps for understanding the sense of scripture, there is one more which is universally to be observed ; namely, that no sense is to be given of any text, but what is agreeable to the analogy of faith, and has a tendency to ad- vance the divine perfections, stain the pride of all flesh in the sight of God, and promote practical godliness in all its branches. Scripture must be explained agree- ably to the analogy of faith. It is supposed that there is something we depend on, which we can prove to be the faith of scripture, or demonstrably founded upon it. This we are bound to adhere to ; otherwise we must be charged with scepticism, and concluded not to know where to set our feet in matters of religion. Now, so far as our faith in the summary and assured view of divine truth is founded on scripture, every sense we give of a text must be agreeable to it ; otherwise we do as it were suppose that the word of God in one place destroys what in another it establishes, which would be a great reflection on that which is the standard and rule of our faith. I do not hereby mean, that our sentiments are to be a rule of faith to others ; any farther than as they are evidently contained in scripture, or deduced from it. Yet that which we believe, thinking it to be the sense of scrip- ture, is so far a rule to us that, whatever sense we give of any other scripture, must be agreeable to it ; or else we must be content to acknowledge that we were mistaken in some of those things wjiich we called articles of faith as founded on scripture. Again, no sense given of scripture must be contrary to the divine perfections. Thus, when human passions are ascribed to God, such as grief, fear, desire, wrath, fury, indignation, &c, they are not to be explained as when the same passions are ascribed to men, in which sense they argue weakness and imperfection. And when any phrase of scripture seems to represent him as defective in power, as ' Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save ?'u we are to understand it as a charge that would be unjustly brought against God, if he did not appear in behalf of his people, by those who are disposed to reproach and find fault with the dispensations of his providence. But as we have taken occasion, in explaining many scriptures and doctrines founded upon them, to apply this rule, I shall content myself at present with having merely mentioned it. Further, we are to explain scripture in such a way that it may have a tendency to promote practical godliness in all its branches : the promotion of which is the main end and design of scripture. Many instances might be given in which this rule is to be applied. When, for example, we are said ' not to be under the law, but under grace, 'x we are not to understand the language as meaning that we are discharged from an obligation to yield obedience to whatever God commands, but as denoting our having been delivered either from the condemning sentence of the law, or from the ceremonial law, to which the gospel-dispensation, which is a dis- play of the grace of God, is always opposed. Again, when it is said, ' Be not righ- teous over-much, neither make thyself over-wise ; why shouldest thou destroy thy- self ?'' we are not to understand that there is any danger of our being too holy or strict in the performance of religious duties ; but we are to view the passage as t Matt. xxii. 17 u Jtr. xiv. 9. x Rom. vii, 14. v EccL vii. 16. 472 BY WHOM AND HOW THE WORD IS BE TO READ. forbidding an hypocritical appearing to be more righteous than we are, or an en- tertaining of a proud and vain-glorious conceit of our own righteousness because we perform some duties of religion. Moreover, there are scriptures which are some- times perverted, as though they intimated that prayer or other religious duties were not incumbent on wicked men. Thus it is said, ' The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord ;'* * He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination;'* 'What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth ?'b But these scrip- tures imply, not that the wicked are not obliged to perform religious duties, but that it is contrary to the holiness of God, and a great provocation to him, when they regard not the frame of spirit with which they perform them, drawing nigh to him with their lips, when their heart is far from him, or laying claim to the blessings of the covenant of grace, while continuing in open hostility against him. To apply this rule fully, would be to go through the whole of scripture, and to show how all the great doctrines of religion which are founded upon it, have a tendency to promote practical godliness in all its branches. But this we have endeavoured to do in all those instances in which we have had occasion to give the sense of scripture ; and therefore shall content ourselves with this brief specimen, and leave it to every one to improve the rule in his daily meditations, in inquiring into the sense of scripture, in order to his being farther established in that religion which is founded on it. z Pro v. xxi. 27. a Chap, xxviii. 9. b Psal. 1. 16. [Note U. Scriptures ' hard to be understood.' — The passage, ' In Paul's epistles are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction,' is so stoutly quoted by Romanists against the Bible being read by the laity at all, and so often appealed to by careless Protestants as an excuse for its being read listlessly and infrequently, that a few remarks upon it, additional to those made by Dr. Ridge- ley, may not be improper. What the passage refers to are not words, but ' things ;' and these may be as effectually wrested when heard as when read. But must we infer that to hear the doctrine of Christianity, as well as to read the word of God, is prohibited to the laity ? — Only ' some things,' too, were ' hard to be understood ;' so that, even if a prohibition of scripture were a fair consequence, only some parts of it, and not all, should be prohibited. — Again, the persons who wrested them, were not the laity as distinguished from the clergy, but ' the unlearned and the unstable,' as distinguished from the learned and the steady. Are not many of the Romish laity learned and steady, and many of the Romish clergy ' unlearned and unstable ?' Should not,*then, the scriptures, if prohibited at all, be prohibited to a portion of the clergy, and unprohibited to a portion of the laity ? — But Peter does not speak of ' the unlearned' in the literary sense — for if he did he would include himself and the other apostolic fishermen of Galilee : he speaks of the unlearned in the moral sense, or in the sense of unacquaintance with the doctrine of Christianity, or inexperience of the teaching of the Holy Spirit. What misled and destroyed the persons to whom he refers was ignorance. Had they possessed the disposition of disciples, and 'asked wisdom of Him who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not,' they would have found the scriptures unmingled light and life to their souls ; but because they were uninformed in even the rudimental knowledge of the gospel, and were so unsteady as to be 'tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine,' and yet attempted to analyze and probably affected to understand the most profound portions of scripture, they wrested them to their destruction. — Yet difficult as the portions were which they encountered, they are said to have done them damage, not by being read, but by being wrested. Before even froward and ignorant profes- sors of religion, received injury from a text ' hard to be understood,' they distorted, racked, or dis- located it (