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HANDBOUND 
AT THE 



UNIVERSITY OF 



EXPOSITORY DISCOURSES 



ON THE 



FIRST EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLE PETER, 



BY JOHN BROWN, D. D., 

SENIOR MINISTER OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION, BROUGHTON PLACE 

EDINBURGH, AND PROFESSOR OF EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY TO THE 

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 



EIIIE AE O KYPIOS- SIMflN, 2TMHN . . . EY HOTE EIUXTPEtAS STHPIEON TOTS 
AAEA*OY2 SOY. AOYK. K.xff. 



COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME. 



NEW YOEK: 
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 

No. 285 BROADWAY. 
1855. 



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ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



IT would bo doing violence to a conviction of duty, as well as to a feeling of 
propriety, were the Author to allow the Second Edition of these " Expositorj 
Discourses" to go forth without an expression of gratitude for the kind recep 
tion they have met with, first, to his Master, the advancement of whose cause- 
was their ultimate design and then to his brethren, the promotion of whose 
spiritual improvement was their immediate purpose. He is deeply convinced 
that these two indissolubly connected objects are to be gained by the same 
means. the illustration of the Divine Word ; and the assurance that he has 
in any degree succeeded in the effectual employment of that means, is abun 
dant compensation great reward for any measure of labor. 

The work appears, in substance and form, materially unchanged. Tho 
Author has, however, availed himself of the opportunity furnished by the re 
print of giving it a thorough revision, and trusts that it will be found upon the- 
whole improved. If it be so, it is owing in no small degree to kind suggestions 
from his literary friends, which are gratefully acknowledged. Among those ben 
efactors, he must be permitted to specify his venerable kinsman, the Rev. HENRY 
THOMSON, D.D., Penrith, and his esteemed friend, the Rev. JOHN TAYLOR, 
M.D., Auchtermuchty. The minute and laborious examination to which the 
latter spontaneously submitted, is felt as the highest compliment he could have 
paid to the work, and one of the greatest favors he could have bestowed on its 
Author. Another valued friend, the Rev. WILLIAM PRINGLE, of Auchterarder, 
has materially contributed to the superior accuracy of this Edition, by affording 
it the advantage of his singularly acute eye in the revision of the sheets as they 
passed through the press, and to its superior usefulness, by the corrected and 
enlarged Indices which he has furnished. 

Though a considerable number of additional Notes has been inserted, it has 
been found practicable, by adopting a somewhat fuller page, and omitting tha 
Discourses appended to the original Edition, to present the Work to the Public, 
at once at a lower price, and in a more commodious form. 

J. B. 

10, GAYFIELD SQUARE, October, 1849. 



PREFACE. 



THE work now laid before the public is substantially a Commentary, though, 
in a form somewhat peculiar. It is not a continuous comment on words and 
clauses, nor does it consist of scholia or annotations, nor of lectures in the 
sense in which that word is ordinarily employed in this country, nor of sermons, 
either on select passages, or on the successive verses of the sacred book which is 
its subject. The Epistle is divided into paragraphs, according to the sense of 
course varying very considerably in length. Each of these paragraphs, embody 
ing one leading thought, forms the subject of a separate discourse, in which an 
attempt is made to explain whatever is difficult in the phraseology, and to illus 
trate the doctrinal or practical principles which it contains ; the object being not 
to discuss, in a general and abstract manner, the subjects which the texts may 
suggest, but to bring clearly out the Apostle s statements, and their design ; and 
toshow how the statements are fitted to gain the objects for which they are 
made. If the Author has been able, in any good measure, to realize his own 
idea, grammatical and logical interpretation have been combined, and the expo 
sition will be found at once exegetical, doctrinal, and practical. 

Whatever can be interesting and intelligible only to the scholar has been 
thrown into the notes. Had the Author yielded to his own tastes, these notes 
would probably have been more numerous and elaborate than they are. .But 
the recollection of the primary design of the work checked the inclination to 
indulge in philological remark ; though he trusts that in almost every instance, 
where the exegesis is difficult or doubtful, the foundation of the interpretation 
adopted has been indicated with sufficient clearness. 

The translation of the Epistle, though prefixed to the Expository Discourses, 
was written after them, and indeed contains a condensed statement of the result 
of the Author s investigations. This accounts for the fact that, in an instance or 
two, the sense given in the translation slightly differs from that commented on 
in the Exposition. 

To prevent disappointment it is right to state that the object of the Author 
has 4>een to produce not so much an original work, as a satisfactory exposition. 
In his estimate of the duties of an interpreter of Scripture, next to the careful 
study of the original text, ranks the attentive reading of what has been pub 
lished for the illustration of it. Under this conviction he has studied the Epis 
tle, not only without note or comment, but with all the notes and comments with 
in his reach ; and the book he now respectfully lays before the church contains 
the substance of all that in his thoughts and reading seemed best fitted to illus 
trate the meaning and promote the objects of the inspired writer. Of the helps 
of which he has availed himself, a list is furnished at the close of these prefatory 
remarks. He has distinguished by an asterisk those to which he has been 
chiefly indebted. 

There is one author to whom his obligations are peculiarly great ARCH 
BISHOP LEiGHTON. 1 The index bears witness to the number of references to 

1 " A beautiful writer, and one of the best of men." SIB JAMES MACKINTOSH. 



PREFACE. 



" The Practical Commentary upon the First Epistle General of St. Peter ;" and, 
in perusing the Discourses, the reader will find many quotations from its pages. 
That very remarkable work teaches a singularly pure and complete theology 
a theology thoroughly evangelical, in the true sense of that often abused epithet, 
being equally freelfrom Legalism on the one hand, and Antinomianism on the 
other; in the spirit of enlightened and affectionate devotion, love to the brother 
hood, and charity to all men ; and in a style which, though very unequal, indi 
cates in its general structure a familiarity with the classic models of antiquity, 
and, in occasional expressions, is in the highest degree felicitous and beautiful. 
As a biblical expositor, LEIGHTON was above his own age ; and, as at heologian 
and an experimental and practical writer, few have equalled, still fewer surpassed 
him, either before or since his time. 

For these quotations the Author expects thanks from his readers, most of 
whom are not likely to be very familiar with the Archbishop s writings ; and, 
though not unaware of the hazard to which he has exposed his own homely 
manufacture, by inserting into it it may be, often somewhat inartificially por 
tions from a web of such rich material and exquisite workmanship, he will greatly 
rejoice if these specimens induce his readers to cultivate a more extensive ac 
quaintance with those truly precious remains ; which, though laboring under 
more than the ordinary disadvantages of posthumous publications, through the 
extreme slovenliness with which they, with but few exceptions, were in the first 
instance edited, are eminently fitted to form the Student of Theology to sound 
views and a right spirit, and to minister to the instruction and delight of the 
private Christian : possessing, in large measure and rare union, those qualities 
which must endear them to every Christian mind, however uncultured ; and 
those which are fitted to afford high gratification to them in whom the knowl 
edge and love of evangelical truth are connected with literary attainment and 
polished taste. The experience of Dr. Doddridge s correspondent l is not sin 
gular : " There is a spirit in ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON I never met with in any 
human writings, nor can I read many lines in them without being moved." 
COLERIDGE borrowed his texts from him, in his " Aids to Reflection ;" and it is 
readily acknowledged, that these volumes owe to him their most attractive or 
naments. 

The Author would probably never have thought of offering these illustrations 
to the world, had not a number of much respected members of his congregation 
earnestly solicited him, before increasing age should make it difficult, or ap 
proaching death impossible, to furnish them with a permanent memorial of a 
ministry of considerable length, full of satisfaction to him, and, he trusts, not un 
productive of advantage to them. Such an application could not be treated 
lightly; and ^ on weighing the subject, he found that he durst not refuse to 
comply with it. 

^ Having arrived at this conviction, it did not appear to him that the object in 
view could be better gained, than by presenting them with the substance of those 
illustrations of a very precious portion of the inspired volume, which had already 
been delivered to them in the ordinary course of pastoral instruction. That this 
offering, intended for their _ spiritual improvement and their children s, will be 
accepted in the spirit in which it is made, he knows them too well to entertain 
a doubt ; and if to them it serve its great objects, he will have an abundant re 
ward. If beyond these limits it should find a favorable reception, and produce 
salutary effects, this will be an additional subject of agreeable reflection and 
grateful acknowledgment. 

10, GAYFIELD SQUARE, May, 1848. 

Dr. Henry Miles. 



LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORS CONSULTED 



DURING THE COMPOSITION OP 



THESE EXPOSITORY DISCOURSES. 



Besides tho General Commentaries on the whole Scriptures, by *GROTIUS, LE CLERC, 
POOLE, HENRY, GOADBY, *S. CLARK, SCOTT, A. CLARKE, MANT, and D OYLEY ; and on the 
New Testament, by BEZA, E. SCHMIDT, MARLORATUS, *WOLFIUS,BEAUSOBRE and L ENFANT, 
*BENGEL, KUTTNER, ROSENMULLER, HAMMOND, WHITBY, GUYSE, WELLS, DODDRIDGE, and 
GILPIN, the following works on the Apostolical Epistles, the Catholic Epistles, and the 
Epistles of Peter, have been consulted : 

1. * JOANNIS CALVINI Commentarii in Epistolas Canonicas Petri, Joannis, Jacobi, et 
Judae. Folio. Genevce, 1554. 

2. In priorem B. Petri Apostoli Canonicam Epistolam, eruditissimus Commentarius. 
Authore D. JOANNE HESSELIO, Regio Lovanii Professore. 8vo. Lovanii. 1568. 

3. *OIKOYMENIOY E^/jy^trtf its ras tTrrct Ka0oAi*:a? Asyo^vaj 7r(rroXdf. OECUMENH 

Expositio in septem illas, quse Catholicae dicuntur, Epistolas. Cum interpretatione 
latina Joannis Hentenii. 4to. Francofurti, 1610. 

4. *Paraphrase sur les Epistres Cathoh ques, par MOYSE AMYRAUT. 8vo. Samur, 
1646. 

5. An Exposition of all St. Paul s Epistles ; together with an explanation of those 
other Epistles of the Apostles St. James, Peter, John, and Jude, by DAVID DICK- 
SON, Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow. Folio. Lond. 1659. 

6. TJrim et Thummim, seu exegesis Epistolarum Petri et Joannis. Autore D. JOANNE 
LANGIO, SS. Prof. Theol. in Acad. Hal. ii. torn, folio. Halaa, 1134. 

7. *A Paraphrase and Notes on the Seven (commonly called) Catholic Epistles, at 
tempted in imitation of Mr. Locke s manner ; to which are annexed several Critical 
Dissertations, by GEORGE BENSON, D.D. 4to. Lond. 1756. 

8. Epistolarum Catholicarum Septenarius Greece, cum nova versione latina ao scholiis 
grammaticis et criticis. Opera Jo. B. CARPZOVIL 8vo. Haloe, 1790. 

9. D. SAM. FRED. NATII. MORI Pnelectiones in Jacobi et Petri Epistolas. Edidit Car 
Aug. Donat. 8vo. Lipsioe, 1794. 

10. A New Literal Translation from the Original Greek, of all the Apostolical Epistles ; 
with a Commentary and Notes, philological, critical, explanatory, and practical, by 
JAMES MACKNIGHT, D.D. 4 vols. 4to. Edin. 1795. 

11. Versio Latina Epistolarum Novi Testamenti, perpetua annotatione" illustrata a 
GODF. SIGISM. JASPIS. ii. torn. 8vo. Lipsiae, 1797. 

12. *Epistola3 Catholica3 Graece, perpetua annotatione illustrate a DAV. JUL. POTT. 2 
vols. 8vo. Getting. 1810. 

13. Conciones in Epistolam primam Petri habitse per D. MEINHARDUM SCHOTANUM, SS. 
T. P. in Academia FranequerensL 4to. Frauecker, 1637. 

14. Sermons on the First Epistle General of Saint Peter, by NICHOLAS BYFIELD. Folio. 
London, 1637. 

15. S. Apostoli Petri Epistola Catholica prior, perpetuo Commentario explicata, una 
cum partitione turn generali totius Epistolae ac singulorum capitum, turn special! 
eingulorum versuum ; necnon cum observatione doctrinarurfl ex singulis vocibua 
per JACOBUM LAURENTIUM, Amstelodamensem. 4to. Campus, 1640. 



viii LIST OF PRINCIPAL AUTHORS CONSULTED. 

16. Utriusque Epistolze Divi Petri Apostoli Explicatio Analytica, docucumentis suis 
ubique illustrata et usibus ad singularem pietatis profectum applicata. Authore 
GUUELMO AMESIO, SS. T.D. 24to. Amst 1650. 

17. JON.* SLICIITINGII A BUKOWIEK Commentarius in priorem Apostoli Petri Epistolam 
Catholicam. Bib. Frat. Pol. vol. vii. Fol. Irenop. 1656. 

18. JOANNIS CiiELLii Franci Commentarius in prioria Epistole Petri partem. Bib. 
Frat. Pol. vol. iv. Folio. Eleuther, 1656. 

19. *A Brief Exposition of the First and Second Epistle General of Peter, by ALEXAN 
DER NISBET, Minister at Irwin. 12mo. Lond. 1658. 

20. *Commentarius super priorem D. Petri Epistolam, in quo textus declaratur, quses- 
tiones dubke solvuntur, observationes eruuntur, et loca in speciem pugnantia concil- 
iantur. Opera et studio JOANNIS GERHARDI, SS. Th.Doc. 4to. Jeuse, 1660. 

21. *A Practical Commentary on the First Epistle General of St. Peter, by the Most 
Reverend Dr. EGBERT LEIGIITON, sometime Archbishop of Glasgow. 2 vols. 4to. 
York and London, 1693, 4to. 

22. D. Jo. SAL. SEMLERI Paraphrasis in Epistolam I. Petri cum latinae translationis va- 
rietate et multia notis. 12mo. Halse, 1783. 

23. *Exposition of the First Epistle of Peter, considered in reference to the whole Sys 
tem of Divine Truth. Translated from the German of WILHELM STEIGEB, by the 
Reverend Patrick Fairbairn. 2 vols. 16 vo. Edin. 1836. 

The ANNOTATA in the CRITICI SACRI, torn. ix. by VALLA, ERASMUS, VATABLUS, CASTALIO, 
CLARros, ZEGERUS, H. STEPHANUS, DRUSIUS, CAMERO, and CAPPELLUS, have been carefully 
looked at ; and also the Notes in CAMERARIUS, RAPHELIUS, ELSNER, KNATCHBULL, KYPKE, 
PALAIRET, LOZSNER, AL. MORUS, ALBERTI, OTTIUS, KEUCHENIUS, HOMBERGK, Bos, HEINSIUS, 
BOWYER, STMONDS, and WAKEFIELD. 

The Author also gratefully notices the advantages he has derived from FLEETWOOD, 
STENNET, and JAY, on Relative Duties ; from Bishop SANDERSON and JOSEPH FAWCETT, on 
Christian Freedom, and Honoring all Men ; from ANDREW FULLER, on the Duties of Church 
Members to their Office-bearers ; and from Notes of a Sermon by BINNEY on Christian 
Courtesy. He has little doubt that there are both thoughts and expressions for which he 
is indebted to others, that are not expressly ascribed to their authors; but his readers 
will do him but justice in believing, that such obligations are not acknowledged, merely 
because they have not been observed. 



CONTENTS, 



I PEELIMINAEY MATTER. 

ADVERTISEMENT TO SECOND EDITION, . iii 

PEEFACE, r 

LIST OF AUTHORS CONSULTED, vii 

TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER xix 



H ORDER AND OUTLINE OF DISCOURSES. 
DISCOURSE I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

CHAPTER I. 1, 2, pp. 27-42. 

Introduction, page 1. PART I. Of the writer of the Epistle ; his history, 30 ; his office, 
34. PART II. Of those to -whom the Epistle is addressed, 36. PART IIL The salutation 
of the Epistle, 39. NOTES, 41. 

DISCOURSE II. 

THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION DESCRIBED AND ACKNOWLEDGED. 

CHAPTER I. 3-5, pp. 43-60. 

PART I. Of the blessings acknowledged, page 44. 1. Divine Sonship, 44. 2. The 
inheritance provided for them, 46. 3. The living hope of the inheritance, 50. PART 
II. Of the acknowledgment of these blessings, 55. 1. God is the author of these 
blessings, 55. 2. It is as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that God 
bestows these blessings, 5Y. 3. These blessings originate in the abundant mercy of 
God, 58. 4. These blessings are of vast magnitude and incalculable value, 59. 
5. The proper method of acknowledging these benefits is to bless their munificent 
Giver, 60. 

DISCOURSE III. 

THE PRESENT AND FUTURE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CONTRASTED. 

CHAPTER I. 6-9, pp. 61-71. 

PART I. Christ absent and believed on contrasted with Christ present and seen, page 62. 
PART II. The trials of Christians in the present state contrasted with their results in 
the future state, 66. PART III. The Christian s present state, a state of expectation ; 
his future state, a state of enjoyment, 68. PART IV. The sorrows of the Christian s 
present state contrasted with the joys of his future state, 70. NOTE, 71. 



CONTENTS. 



DISCOURSE IV. 

THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS THE SUBJECT OF OLD TESTA- 
MENT PREDICTION, NEW TESTAMENT REVELATION, AND ANGELIC 
STUDY. 

CHAPTER I. 10-12, pp. 72-86. 

PART L Old Testament prophecy, page 73. PART II. Apostolical preaching, 80. PART 
III Angelic study, 84. NOTE, 86. 



DISCOURSE V. 

CHRISTIAN DUTY; MEANS OF, AND MOTIVES TO, ITS PERFORMANCE. 

CHAPTER I. 13-21, pp. 87-120. 

PART I Christian duty. 1. General view ; obedience, page 90. 2. Particular view 
93 ; Negative, 93 ; Positive, 93. PART II. Means for the performance of Christian duty, 
94. 1. Determined resolution, 95. 2. Moderation, 97. 3. Hope, 99. 4. Fear, 
102. PART III. Motives to the performance of Christian duty, 105. 1. The grandeur, 
excellence, and security of the Christian salvation, 105. 2. The holiness of God, 108. 
3. The strict equity of God, 110. 4. The provision made for sanctification in the 
sacrifice of Christ, 114. 

DISCOURSE VI. 

CHRISTIAN BROTHERLY LOVE. 

CHAPTER I. 22-25, pp. 121-133. 

PART I. Brotherly love illustrated, page 122. 1. The objects and elements of this IOYO, 
122. 8 2. The distinctive characters of this love, 123. PART II. Brotherly love recom 
mended, 127. 1. The mutual relation of Christians a motive to brotherly lore, 127. 
2. The common character of Christians a motive to brotherly love, 129. 

DISCOURSE VII. 

A FIGURATIVE VIEW OF THE STATE AND CHARACTER OF CHRIS 
TIANS, WITH APPROPRIATE EXHORTATIONS. 

CHAPTER II. 1-3, pp. 134-165. 

PART I. The persons to whom the exhortation is addressed, page 136. 1. General view 
of their state and character, 136. 2. Particular figurative view of their state and 
character, "New-born babes," 137. PART II. The exhortation, 141. 1. The dissuasive 
exhortation, " Lay aside," 142. (1.) All malice, 142. (2.) All guile," 143. (3.) "Hy 
pocrisies," 143. (4.) "Envies," 143. (5.) "All evil speakings," 143. 8 2. The per 
suasive exhortation, 146. (1.) Seek spiritual growth, 146. (2.) Desire the sincere milk 
of the word, m order to spiritual growth, 151. PART III. Motives enforcing the exhor 
tation 157. 1. Motives from the state and character of Christians, 157. 3 2. Motives 
from having tasted that the Lord is gracious, 160. 

DISCOURSE VIII. 

THE PECULIAR PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS, AND HOW THEY 

OBTAIN THEM. 
CHAPTER II. 4-10, pp. 166-229. 
and miserable condition of Christians previously to their obtaining 



we e a " 169 " 

ess 1<0. . They were not the people of God, 171. 4. They had not 



CONTENTS. 



obtained mercy, 171. PART IT. The manner in which Christians obtain their peculiar 
privileges ; by faith of the truth, and reliance on the Saviour. 172. PART III. The pecu 
liar privileges of Christians, 182. 1. General statement, 182. 2. Particular state 
ment, 183. (1.) Christians are living stones built up into a temple, 183. (2.) They are 
o \,n\* r TirioafVinnH " 1 84. (3,\ Thpv jirp "a rVin<?pn erpnpralion." 1 R7. (4.} The V are "a 




ro } 

people, 

are "called out of darkness into God s marvellous light," 213. (9.) They are "the 

people of God," 218. (10.) They have obtained mercy, 220. PART IV. The misery and 

ruin of those who, by refusing to " come to Christ," remain destitute of these privileges, 

223. NOTES, 229. 

DISCOURSE IX. 

A SECOND FIGURATIVE VIEW OF THE STATE AND CHARACTER OF 
CHRISTIANS, WITH APPROPRIATE EXHORTATIONS. 

CHAPTER II. 11, 12, pp. 230-241. 

PART I. The duties enjoined, page 230. 1. Abstinence from fleshly lusts, 230. 2. " Hav 
ing a conversation honest among the Gentiles," 234. PART II. Motives to the discharge 
of these duties, 236. 1. Motives from the condition and character of Christians as pil 
grims and strangers, 236. 2. Motives from the tendency of the course prescribed, 238. 
3. Motives from the tendency of the course recommended, 239. 



DISCOURSE X. 

THE NATURE AND DESIGN OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT, AND THE CHRIS 
TIAN S DUTY IN REFERENCE TO IT. 

CHAPTER II. 13-15, pp. 242-254. 

PART I. Introductory explicatory observations, page 244. PART II. The duty enjoined, 246 
PART III. The motive to the duty of civil obedience, " for the Lord s sake," 249. (1.) 
For the sake of his commandment, 249. (2.) For the sake of his example, 251. (3.) 
For the sake of his cause, 251. 

DISCOURSE XL 

THE CONDITION AND DUTY OF CHRISTIANS AS "FREE," YET "AS THE 
SERVANTS OF GOD." 

CHAPTER II. 16, pp. 255-293. 

PART I. The condition of Christians, page 255. 1. They are free, 255. (1.) Free in ref 
erence to God, 255. (2.) Free in reference to man, 258. (3.) Free in reference to the 
powers and principles of evil, 260. 2. Christians are "the servants of God," 262. 
PART II. The duty of Christians, 265. V To use his freedom to act as free, 265. (1.) 
To act as free in reference to God, 266. (2.) To act as free in reference to man, 269. 
(3.) To act as free in reference to the powers and principles of evil, 272. 2. The Chris 
tian s duty to guard against the abuse of hia freedom, 276. (1.) To guard against abus 
ing his freedom in reference to God, 277. (2.) To guard against abusing his freedom 
in reference to man, 281. (3.) To guard against abusing his freedom in reference to 
the powers and principles of evil, 283. 3. The Christian s duty to act out his character 
41 as the servant of God," 285. NOTES, 293. 

DISCOURSE XII. 

A. FOURFOLD VIEW OF THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS AS FREE, YET THE 
SERVANTS OF CHRIST. 

CHAPTER II. 17, pp. 296-330. 

PART I. Christians are to "honor all men," page 298. 1. Honor not to be confined to 
the brotherhood, but rendered to all to whom it is due, 298. 2. Honor not to be con 
fined to classes, but extended to all men, 3C1. PART II. Christians are to "love th 



Xll 



CONTENTS. 



brotherhood," 308. 1. Of the brotherhood, 308. 2. Of the Christian s duty to the 
brotherhood, 313. PART III. Christians are to "fear God/ 320. PABT IV. Christians 
are to "honor the king," 326. NOTES, 330. 

DISCOURSE XIII. 

THE DUTIES OF CHRISTIAN SERVANTS ENJOINED AND ENFORCED. 

CHAPTER II 18, pp. 334-862. 

1. The foundation and nature of the relation between servant and master, page 336. 
2. The duties of Christian servants in general, 336. 3. The duties of a particular 
class of Christian servants, 340, Motives to the discharge of these duties, 340. (1.) 
Patient endurance of undeserved wrong acceptable to God, 341. ^ (2.) Patient endurance 
enforced from a consideration of Christ s sufferings, 344. 1. Christians called to patient 
Buffering as a part of conformity to Christ, 345. 2. Christians called to patient suffering 
as a constituent part of that holiness to secure which was a great end of Christ s expia 
tory sufferings, 354. 

DISCOURSE XIV. 

THE CONJUGAL DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 

CHAPTER III. 1-7, pp. 363-389. 

PART I. The duties of Christian wives, page 365. CHAP. I. The duties of Christian wives 
illustrated, 366. 1. Subjection, 366. 2. Chaste conversation coupled with fear, 
367. 3. The adorning themselves with inward ornaments, 368. CHAP. II. Tho 
duties of Christian wives enforced, 373. 1. The probability of converting their hus 
bands, 373. 2. The example of holy women in former ages, 376. PART II. The 
duties of Christian husbands, 380. CHAP. I The duties of Christian husbands illustrated, 
881. 1. To dwell with the wife according to knowledge, as being the weaker vessel, 
382. 2. To honor the wife as a fellow-heir of the grace of life, 386. CHAP. II. Gen 
eral motive to the discharge of these duties that their prayers be not hindered, 388. 
NOTES, 389. 

DISCOURSE XV. 

DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS IRRESPECTIVE OF THEIR CIVIL AND DOMESTIC 

RELATIONS. 

CHAPTER III 8-17, pp. 391-464. 

PART I. Duties of Christians to each other, page 394. 1. To cultivate and manifest 
union of sentiment, 395. 2. To cultivate and manifest union of feeling, 400 8 3 
To cultivate and manifest brotherly kindness, 401. PART II Duties of Christian! to 
mankind generally 404. 1. To be pitiful, 404. 2. To be courteous, 412. PART 
II Duties of Christians under persecution, 423. 1. Abstinence from all resentful 
retaliation and meeting injury and reproach by kindness, 423. (1.) The duty explain- 
r If t : ( ?i) A f y e , nforced > 427 - 2 - Guarding against the fear of man by 
cultivating the due fear of God, 433. 3. Readiness *at all times to give an answer 
to every one who asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them, 442. 4. Maintain 
ing a good conscience and a good conversation, 452. Conclusion, 461. N!TES, 465. 

DISCOURSE XVI. 

^^^ 
CHAPTER III. 18-22, pp. 467-535. 



THE SUFFERINGS ^^^^ TO CHRISTENS 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

bring men to God, 485. 1. To bring men to the knowledge of God, 486. 2. To 
bring men into favor with God, 494. 3. To bring men to likeness to God, 501. 4. 
To bring men to fellowship with God, 504. PART V. The consequences of his suffer 
ings, 508. 1. He became dead in the flesh, quickened in the Spirit, and went and 
preached to the spirits in prison, 510. 2. He rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, 
sits at the right hand of God, angels, authorities, and powers being made subject to 
him, 523. (1.) His resurrection, 523. (2.) His ascension, 526. (3.) His being on the 
right hand of God, 528. (4.) The subjection of angels to him, 530. PART VI. The 
tendency of these truths to support and encourage Christians suffering for Christ s 
&mse, 532. 

APPENDIX TO DISCOURSE XVL PART V. 

FACTS IN ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY REFERRED TO BY THE APOSTLE, 
AND THEIR BEARING ON HIS OBJECT, pp. 536-552. 

PART I. Facts referred to, page 538. PART II. Object of the Apostle in referring to these 

facts, 542. NOTES, 550. 



DISCOURSE XVII. 

EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS BASED ON THE ATONEMENT. 

CHAPTER IV. 1-6, pp. 553-591. 

PART I. The basis of the exhortation, page 558. PART II. The exhortation, 559. 1. 
The practical object to be sought, 559. (1.) Negative, "not to live to the lusts of men," 
659. (2.) Positive, "to live to the will of God," 562. 2. The means for obtaining 
the practical object ; the arming themselves with the thought, " He that hath suffered 
in the flesh hath ceased from sin," 565. (1.) The thought explained, 566. (2.) The 
thought viewed as referring to Christ, 568. (3.) The thought viewed as referring to 
Christians, 570. (4.) The thought viewed as a piece of Christian armor, the instru 
mental means of sanctification, 572. PART III. Motives enforcing the exhortation, 579. 
1. Motive drawn from the character of the course against which the exhortation is 
directed, 579. 2. Motive drawn from the great design of the gospel revelation, 585. 
NOTES, 591. 



DISCOURSE XVIII. 

SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 

CHAPTER IV. 7, pp. 592-602. 

PART I. The duties enjoined by the apostle, page 592. 1. Sobriety, 592. 2. " Watch 
ing unto prayer," 595. PART II. Motive to sobriety and watching unto prayer: "The 
end of all things is at hand," 598. 

DISCOURSE XIX. 

ON THE MAINTENANCE AND MANIFESTATION OF BROTHERLY LOVE. 

CHAPTER IV. 8-11, pp. 603-628. 

PART I. The maintenance of brotherly love, page 604. 1. The duty explained, 604- 
2. The duty recommended, 608. PART II. The manifestation of brotherly love, 614- 
1. Christians are to manifest brotherly love by employing their property for each 
other s good as men, as in ungrudging; hospitality, 615. 2. Christians are to manifest 
brotherly love by employing their spiritual gifts for promoting one another s spiritual 
edification, 620. a Motives to these two manifestations of Christian love, 625. 
NOTES, 628. 



x v CONTENTS. 

DISCOURSE XX. 

DIRECTORY TO CHRISTIANS SUFFERING FOR THEIR RELIGION. 

CHAPTER IV. 12-19, pp. 629-653. 

PAET I. Be not astonished at your sufferings, page 629 PART IL Be not depressed by 
your sufferings, 633. PART III Be not ashamed of your sufferings, 640 PART IV. 
Persevering in well-doing, commit your souls to God, under your sufferings, 646. NOTB, 
653. 

DISCOURSE XXI. 

THE ECCLESIASTICAL DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS ENJOINED AND 
ENFORCED. 

CHAPTER V. 1-5, pp. 654-710. 

PART I Of the duties of rulers in the Christian church, page 655. CHAPTER I. The appel 
lation given to rulers in the Christian church, " elders," 655. 1. The origin and mean- 
in" of the appellation, 655. 2. Qualifications of Christian elders, 659. 3. Of the 
manner in which elders were invested with office.. 659. CHAPTER II. Of the duties of 
Christian elders, 660. 1. Of the figurative terms in which these duties are described, 
660. 2. Of the duties themselves, 661. (1.) Instruction, 661. (2.) Superintendence, 
665. CHAPTER III. Of the manner in which these duties are to be performed, 668. 1. 
Not by constraint, but willingly, 668. 2. Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, 
670. 3. Not as lords of God s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock, 673. CHAP 
TER IV. Of the motives to these duties, 675. 1. Motives suggested by the apostle s 
reference to himself, 675. (1.) He was also an elder, 676. (2.) He was a witness of 
the sufferings of Christ, 677. (3.) He was a partaker of the glory to be revealed, 679. 
2. Motives from considerations referring to the church, 680. (1.) It is the flock of God, 
680. (2.) It is God s heritage, 681. 3. Motives from considerations referring to the 
office-bearers themselves, 682. (1.) The reward of the faithful elder, 682. (2.) The 
doom of the unfaithful Christian elder, 684. PART II. Of the duties of the members of 
the Christian church to their office-bearers, 685. 1. Preliminary requisites to the dis 
charge of the duty of subjection to elders, 690. (1.) Conviction of the divine authority 
of church order, 690. (2.) Personal respect for those invested with office, 691. 2. 
Subjection to the elders as teachers, 691. 3. Submission to the elders as superintend 
ents, 693. (1.) Submission to the eldership as a body, 693. (2.) Submission to the elders 
as individual?, 695. PART HI Of the duty which all in a Christian church owe to each 
other : " mutual subjection," 698. CHAPTER I. Of the mutual subjection which all in a Chris 
tian church owe to each other, 699. 1. What this does not imply, 699. 2. What it 
does imply, 700. CHAPTER II. Of the means of performing this duty, " the being 
clothed with humility, 703. 1. Humility explained, 703. 2. The tendency of hu 
mility to secure mutual subjection, 705. CHAPTER III. Of the motive urging Christiana 
to cultivate humility, 706. NOTES, 710. 

DISCOURSE XXIL 

TWO VIEWS OF AFFLICTION AND ITS DUTIES. 

CHAPTER V. 6, 7, pp. 713-739. 

PART I. First view of affliction, page 715. 1. Affliction is subjection to the mighty 
hand of God, 715. 2. Our duty in affliction is to humble ourselves under the mighty 
hand of God, 719. (1.) As creatures under the hand of their Creator, 720. (2.) Aa 
subjects under the hand of their sovereign, rebel subjects under the hand of their 
righteously-offended Sovereign, 720. (3.) As children under the hand of their Father, 
721. 3. Motives to humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, 721. (1.) It 
is a part of the humility which God so complacently approves, 722. (2.) It is the hand 
of ^God we are called to humble ourselves under, 722. (3.) It is his mighty hand, 723. 
(4.) To humble ourselves thus is the appointed way of our being in due time exalted, 
723. PART II. Second view of affliction, 727. 1. Affliction is a state of carefulness 
and anxiety, 727. 2. The duty of the Christian under affliction is to cast all his care 
on God, 729. Including a persuasion, (1.) That God has power to control what excites 
our anxiety, 731. (2.) That he will employ this controlling power in the best possible 
way, 731. (3.) That he will employ it in the best possible way for us, 732. 3. The 
motive to casting our care on God, "He cares for us," 733. NOTES, 739. 



CONTENTS. XT 



DISCOURSE XXIII. 

THE CHRISTIAN S GREAT ENEMY; HIS DUTY IN REFERENCE TO HIM 
AND THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO DISCHARGE IT. 

CHAPTER V. 8-11, pp. 741-777. 

PART I. The Christian s great enemy, page 743, CHAPTER I. Who is he ? The Devil, 

743. CHAPTER IL What is he ? 744. 1. He is an adversary, their adversary, 

744. 2. He is a subtle adversary, 745. 3. He is an active adversary, 747 
4. He is a cruel adversary, 748. 5. He is a powerful adversary, 748. PAST 
II. The Christian s duty in reference to his great enemy, 751. CHAPTER I. What 
the Christian must do to his great enemy, 751. 1. He must resist his attacks on 
himself, 751. 2. He must resist his attacks on the Christian cause, 753. CHAPTER 
II. What the Christian is to do that he may resist his great enemy, 754. 1. 
He must be sober, 754. 2. He must be vigilant, 756. 3. He must be steadfast in 
the faith, 757. PART III. The Christian s encouragement to perform his duty in refer 
ence to his great enemy, 759. CHAPTER I. The encouraging fact; all the brotherhood 
have sustained and surmounted this struggle, 759. CHAPTER II. The faithful promise, 
761. 1. The encouragement contained in the promise itself, 762. (1.) They shall be 
made perfect, 763. (2.) They shall be established, 764. (3.) They shall be strengthened, 
764. (4.) They shall be settled, 765. (5.) He who does all this for them is God, 766. 
2. The encouragement contained in the adjuncts of the promise, 768. (1.) The God 
who lias promised this is " the God of all grace," 768. (2.) The God of all grace has 
called the Christian in Christ Jesus, 770. (3.) The God of all grace has called Christiana 
to his eternal glory, 771. (4.) The afflictions are moderate in degree, short in duration, 
and form a part of the Divine plan for their ultimate salvation, 773. PART IV. Con 
clusion, 774. 

DISCOURSE XXIV. 

POSTSCRIPT OF THE EPISTLE. 

CHAPTER V. 12-14, pp. 778-792. 

PART I. Recapitulation, page 779. CHAPTER I. The subject of the Epistle, 780. 1. The 
grace of God, 780. 2. The Christian s duty in reference to this grace ; to stand, 781. 
CHAPTER II. The form of the Epistle. It is a testimony and an exhortation respecting 
the grace of God, 782. CHAPTER III. The mode of the writing or transmission of tho 
Epistle, 784. PART II. The salutation, 786. 1. The salutation of the church at Babylon, 
786. 2. The salutation of Marcus, 788. PART III. Exhortation, 788. PART IV. Bene 
diction, 790. NOTES, 792. 



HI. TABLE FOR FINDING- OUT THE EXPOSITION OF 
ANY VERSE OR CLAUSE OF THE EPISTLE IN THIS 
VOLUME. 

CHAPTER I. 
Ver. 

1. Peter, page 31; an Apostle of Jesus Christ, 34; to the strangers scattered through- 

2. out Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 36 ; elect, 36 ; according to the 
foreknowledge of God, 37 ; through sanctification of the Spirit, 38; to obedience, 38; 
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, 39 ; Grace unto you, 39 ; and peace, 40 ; 

3. be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 55, 57 ; 
who, according to his abundant mercy, 58 ; hath begotten us again, 44 ; to a lively 

4 hope, 50 ; by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 54 ; to an inheritance, 

46 ; incorruptible, 48 ; undefined, 48 ; and that fadeth not away, 48 ; reserved in 

5. heaven for you, 49 ; who are kept by the mighty power of God through faith, 49 ; 

. unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, 47 ; wherein, 61 ; ye greatly 



XVJ CONTENTS. 

Ver 

rejoice, 70 ; though now for a season ye are in heaviness, 70 ; through manifold 

7 temptations, 66 ; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold 
which perisheth though it be tried with fire, 68 ; might be found to praise, and honor, 

8 and glory, 69 ; at the appearing of Jesus Christ, 65 ; whom having not seen, ye love, 
63 ; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, 64 ; ye rejoice with a joy 

9. that is unspeakable and full of glory, 70 ; receiving the end of your faith, the salva- 
10. tion of your souls, 69. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched 
ll! diligently, 78; who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, 74; search 
ing what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, 
78; when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should 

12. follow, 75, 86 ; note. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but 
unto us, did they minister, 78 ; the things which are now reported unto you by them 
that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, 

13. 80; which things the angels desire to look into, 84. Wherefore, 105; gird up the 
loins of your mind, 95 ; be sober, 97 ; and hope to the end, for the grace that is to 

14. be brought to you at the coming of Jesus Christ, 99 ; as obedient children, 90 ; not 

15. fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, 93 ; but as he 
which hath called you is holy, 108 ; so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, 93 ; 

16. because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy, 108. And if ye call on the Father, 

17. who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man s work, 110; pass 

18. the time of your sojourning here in fear, 102; forasmuch as ye know that ye were 
not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, 118; from your vain con- 

19. versation received by tradition from your fathers, 115 ; but with the precious blood 

20. of Christ, 115 ; as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, 118 ; who verily was 
fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, 118; but was manifest in these 

21. last times for you, 119. Who by him do believe in God, who raised him from the 

22. dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God, 119. Seeing 
ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned 
love of the brethren, 130; see that ye love one another with a pure heart, 123 ; fer- 

23. vently, 124; being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the 

24. word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, 127. For all flesh is as grass, and 
all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withereth, and the flower 

25. thereof falleth away, 128 ; but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is 
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you, 128. 



CHAPTER II. 

1. Wherefore, page 157; laying aside all malice, 142; and all guile, 143 ; and hypocrisies, 

2. 143 ; and envies, 143 ; and all evil speakings, 143 ; as new-bora babes, 137 ; desire, 152 ; 

3. the sincere milk of the word, 151, 162 ; that ye may grow thereby, 146, 152 ; if so be 

4. that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, 160 ; to whom coming, 172 ; as unto a 
living stone, 174, 181, 229 ; disallowed indeed of men, 180 ; but chosen of God, 180; 

6. and precious, 180 ; ye also, as lively stones, 183 ; are built up a spiritual house, 184 ; 
a holy priesthood, 184; to offer up spiritual sacrifices, 186; acceptable to God by 

6. Christ Jesus, 186. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, 168; Behold, X 
lay in Zion, 168, 179; a chief corner-stone, 179; elect, 180; precious, 180; and h<> 

7. that beheveth on him shall not be confounded, 168. Unto you therefore that believe 
he is precious, 183 ; but unto them that be disobedient, the stone which the builders 

8. disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 223 ; and a stone of stumbling, 
and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient; 

9. whereunto also they were appointed, 224, 229. But ye are a chosen generation, 187 ; 
a royal priesthood, 192; a holy nation, 196; a peculiar people, 201 ; that ye should 
show forth the praises of him who hath called you, 206 ; out of darkness into his 

10. marvellous light, 170, 213 ; who in time past were not a people, 171 ; but are now 
the people of God, 218 ; which had not obtained mercy, 171 ; but now have obtained 

11. mercy, 220. Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, 236 ; abstain 
12 from fleshly Iust 9 , 230 ; which war against the soul, 238 ; having your conversation 

honest among the Gentiles, 234; that whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, 

they may, by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of 

3. visitation 239. Submit yourselves, 247 ; to every ordinance of man, 247 ; for the 

14. Lord 8 sake 249 ; whether it be to the king as supreme, 249 ; or unto governors, as 
unto them that are sent by him, 249 ; for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the 

15. praise of them that do well, 245. For so is the will of God, that with well-doina 

16. ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, 252; as free, 255, 265 and not 
using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, 276 ; but as the servants of God, 262, 



CONTENTS. XVU 

Ver. 

17. 285. Honor all men, 298 ; love the brotherhood, 308 ; fear God, 320 ; honor the 

18. king, 326. Servants be subject to your own masters, 336 ; with all fear, 338 ; not 

19. only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward, 340. For this is thankworthy 
20 if a man for conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully, 341. For 

what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently, 
342 ; but if, when you do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is accept- 

21. able with God, 342. For even hereunto were ye called, 345, 350, 354 ; because 
Christ also suffered for us, 346 ; leaving us an example that ye should follow his 

22. steps, 349. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, 346. "Who, 

23. when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not, 347 ; 

24. but committed himself to him who judgeth righteously, 348. Who his own self 
bare our sins in his own body on the tree, 354 ; that we being dead to sins, 358 ; 

26. should live to righteousness, 358 ; by whose stripes ye were healed, 359. For ye 
were as sheep going astray, 360 ; but ye are now returned unto the Shepherd and 
Bishop of your souls, 361. 

CHAPTER III. 

1. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, 365 ; that, if any obey not 

the word, 375 ; they may, without the word, be won by the conversation of the 

2. wives, 376 ; when they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear, 367 , 

3. whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of 

4. wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, 369 ; but let it be the hidden man of 
the heart, in that which is not corruptible 370 ; even the ornament of a meek and 

5. quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price, 371. For, after this man 
ner, in the old time, the holy women abo who trusted in God, adorned themselves, 

6. being in subjection to their own husbands, 376; even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, 
calling him Lord ; 376 ; whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well, and are not 

7. afraid with any amazement, 378. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them accord 
ing to knowledge, 382, 384 ; giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, 
885 ; and as being heirs together of the grace of life, 386 ; that your prayers be not 

8. hindered, 388. Finally, 393 ; be ye all ot one mind, 394 ; having compassion one of 

9. another, 400 ; love as brethren, 401 ; be pitiful, 404 ; be courteous, 412. Not ren 
dering evil for evil, nor railing for railing, 423; but contrariwise blessing, 425; 
knowing that ye are thereunto called, 427 ; that ye should inherit a blessing, 429. 

10. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, 

11. and his lips that they speak no guile, 428. Let him eschew evil, and do good, 428 ; 

12. let him seek peace and ensue it, 429. For the eyes of the Lord are over the right 
eous, and his ears are open to their prayers, 429 ; but the face of the Lord is against 

13. them who do evil, 429. And who is he that will harm you, 429 ; if ye be followers 

14. of that which is good ? 430. But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy 

15. are ye, 431 ; and be not afraid of their terror, neither be ye troubled, 43:3. But 
sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, 433, 436 ; and be ready always to give an 
answer, 447 ; to every man that asketh you, 447 ; a reason of the hope, 442 ; that 

16. is in you, 445 ; with meekness, 450 ; and fear, 451. Having a good conscience, 453 ; 
that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil doers, they may be ashamed, 460 ; 

17. that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ, 458. For it is better if the 

18. will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing, than evil-doing, 461. For Christ, 
469; also hath once, 468 ; suffered, 473 ; for sins, 478, 482 ; the just, 471 ; for the un 
just, 479 ; that he might bring us to God, 485 ; being put to death in the flesh, 514 ; 

19. but quickened by the Spirit, 614. By which also he went and preached unto the 

20. spirits in prison, 515 ; which sometimes were disobedient, 517; when once the long- 
suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein 

21. a few, that is, eight souls, were saved, 538, 542. The like figure whereunto even 
baptism -soes now save us, 544 ; not the putting away of the tilth of the flesh, 545 ; 
but the answer of a good conscience toward God, 546 ; by the resurrection of Jesus 

22. Christ, 547. Who is gone into heaven, 523 ; and is on the right hand of God, 
628 ; angels, and authorities, and powers, being made subject to him, 630. 

CHAPTER IV. 

1. Forasmuch then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, 558 ; arm yourselves like 

wise with the same mind, 565 ; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased 

2. from sin, 566 ; that he no longer should live the rest of the time in the flesh to the 
8. lusts of men, 560 ; but to the will of God, 562. For the time past of our life may 

suffice us, 584 : to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, 579 ; when we walked ia 

2 



xviii CONTENTS. 

Ver. 

lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banqueting*?, and abominable idola* 
4. tries, 580 , wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same 
6. excess of riot, speaking evil of you, 581 ; who shall give account to him that is ready 

6. to judge the quick and the dead, 581. For, for this cause was the gospel also 
preached to them that are dead, 585 ; that they might be judged according to men 

7. in the flesh, 586 ; but live according to God in the spirit, 587. But the end of all 

8. things is at hand, 598 ; be ye therefore sober, 592 ; and watch unto prayer, 695 ; 
and above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, 603 ; for charity shall 

9. cover the multitude of sins, 608. Use hospitality one to another without grudg- 

10. ing, 614. As every one hath received the gift, even so minister. the same one to 

11. another, 620; as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, 625. If any man 
speak, let him speak as the oracles of God ; if any man minister, let him do it as of 
the ability that God giveth, 621 ; that God in all things may be glorified through 
Jesus Christ, 626 ; tp, whom be praise and dominion forever and ever, Amen, 626. 

12. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as if 

13. some strange thing happened unto you, 629 ; but rejoice inasmuch as ye are par 
takers of Christ s sufferings, 633 ; that when his glory is revealed, ye may be glad 

14. also with exceeding joy, 635. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, 637 ; 
happy are ye, 638 ; for the spirit of God and of glory resteth upon you, 638 ; on 

15. their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified, 638. But let none 
of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, 640 ; or as a busybody 

16. in other men s matters, 641. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, 643 ; let him not 

17. be ashamed, 644 ; but let him glorify God on this behalf, 644. For the time is come 
that judgment must begin at the house of God, 646 ; and if it first begin at us, what 

18. shall the end be of them who obey not the gospel of God? 650 ; and if the righteous 
scarcely be saved, 647 ; where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? 650 ; 

19. wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God, 648 ; commit the keep- 
of their souls to him, 648 ; in well-doing, 650 ; as unto a faithful Creator, 648. 

CHAPTER V. 

1. The elders which are among you, 655 ; I exhort, who am also an elder, 675 ; and a 

witness of the sufferings of Christ, 677 ; and also a partaker of the glory that shall 

2. be revealed, 679 ; feed the flock of God which is among you, 680 ; taking the over 
sight thereof, 665 ; not by_ constraint, but willingly, 668 ; not for filthy lucre, but 

3 of a ready mind, 671 ; neither as being lords, 673; over God s heritage, 681 ; but 

4. being ensamples to the flock, 673 ; and when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye 

6. shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away, 682. Likewise, 686 ; ye 

younger, 685 ; submit yourselves unto the elder, 692, 693 ; yea, all of you be subject 

one to another, 698 ; and be clothed with humility, 703 ; for God resisteth the 

6. proud, 706 ; and giveth grace to the humble, 708. Humble yourselves, 719 ; there- 

7. fore, under the mighty hand of God, 715 ; that he may exalt you in due time, 723 ; 

8. casting all your care upon him, 729 ; for he careth for you, 733. Be sober, 754.; 
be vigilant, 756 ; because your adversary, 744 ; the devil, 743 ; as a roaring lion, 

9. 748 ; walketh about, 747 ; seeking whom he may devour, 749 ; whom resist, 751 ; 
steadfast in the faith, 757 ; knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in 

10. your brethren that are in the world, 759. But the God of all grace, 768 ; who 
hath called us, 769 ; to his eternal glory, 771 ; by Christ Jesus, 770 ; after that ye 

11. have suffered a while, 773 ; make you perfect, 763 ; stablish, 764 ; strengthen, 764 ; 

12. settle you, 765 ; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen, 774. By 
Syivanus, 784 ; a faithful brother unto you, 785 ; as I suppose, 785-, I have writ 
ten briefly, 783.; exhorting, 783 ; and testifying, 782; that this is the true grace 

13. of God 779 ; wherein ye stand, 781. The church that is in Babylon saluteth 

14. you, and so doth Marcus, my son, 788. Greet ye one another with a kiss of 
charity, 788. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus, 790. Amen, 791. 



INDEX 

I. Principal Matters, .... 793 

II. Greek Words and Phrases remarked o n 793 

III Authors quoted or referred to 790 

IV.Texta of Scripture remarked on, ..".*." 801 



A TRANSLATION 



OP THE 



FIRST EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLE PETER. 



I. 1. PETEE, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elected sojourners 
of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and 

2. Bithynia elected according to the fore-appointment of God 
the Father, by a spiritual separation in order x to obedience," 
and being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ : 3 May 
grace and peace be multiplied to you. 

3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who, according to the abundance of his mercy, has anew 
made us his children ; * so as to give us a living hope 8 through 

4. the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead ; so as to make 
us heirs of an inheritance, incorruptible, undenled, and un- 

5. fading, secured in heaven for you, 6 who are preserved 1 by 
the power of God through faith, till 8 the salvation prepared to 

6. be revealed 9 in the last time ; in which time 10 you shall re 
joice, 11 who now for a short season (since it is needful), are 

7. sorrowful amid manifold trials, that the proof ia of your faith ia 
may be found 14 much more valuable than that of gold (which, 

1 Beza s theology seems to have mastered his scholarship, -when he rendered iv as =iis 
by ad, and lie as dca ~byper. E. a. TT. seems in a state of spiritual separation, spirit 
ually separated. 

3 Obedience of faith, of the truth, verse 22. Kom. i. 5 ; xvi. 26 ; vi. 16, 17. Acts vi. 7. 

3 Tit obediant, et Jesu Christi sanguine conspergantur. CASTALIO. 

* Ch. i. 23. James i. 18. John iii. 3, &Q. Fait renaitre, autrement, regenerez. 
BEATJSOBRE. 

s Amat Petrus Epitheton vivus. BENGEL, 

6 Some MSS. of good note read faac, us. 

7 Guarded. Gal. iii. 23. 

8 Elf, till. Acts iv. 3. Phil. i. 10. Gal. iii. 13, 24. 1 Thess. iv. 15. "We have a 
parallel phrase, 2 Peter ii. 4, rripovpivovc ri$ Kpiaiv. 

9 By being bestowed. 

10 l ili cannot grammatically refer to currjpiav. Even although it did, as that salvation 
is future, the rejoicing in it must bo future too. HARWOOD takes this view of it. 

" In quo erultabitis. VULGATE. 

13 h.oK.i[j,iov is not=6oiaftij, Kom. v. 3 ; the last is the result of the first ; both here and 
James i. 3, it seems =<5oKi{j.acria. 

13 Explorata vestra fides. CASTALIO. Your faith once tried. COVKEDALK. MATTHEWS. 

14 STEIGER, i. 136, 137. KNATCHBULL, 292. 



-i. O -* 



XX A TRANSLATION OF 



even though proved by fire, perisheth) resulting in praise, 
and honor, and glory, at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 

8. whom, though you have not seen him, you love ; in whom 
though now not looking on him but believing in him, you shall 

9. rejoice with an unspeakable and triumphant joy, 2 receiving 

10. the end of your faith, soul-salvation ; * respecting which sal 
vation, prophets who uttered predictions concerning this grace 

11. towards you, made inquiry and diligent search,, examining 
what, and what kind, of season, 4 the Spirit of Christ in them 
did signify, when testifying beforehand of the sufferings in 

12. reference to Christ, 6 and the succeeding glories ; to whom it 
was revealed that, not to themselves,, but to us they were 
ministering those things, which have now been declared to 
you by those who, inspired by the Holy Spirit sent down from 
Heaven, have proclaimed to you the good news ; into- which 
things angels earnestly inquire.* 

13. Seeing these things are so, girding up the loins of your 
mind, 7 being watchful, 8 hope 9 steadfastly 10 for this grace, which 
is to be brought to you in the revelation " of Jesus Christ. 

14. As children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves by your 

15. former propensities in your state of ignorance, but in imita 
tion of the holy one, who has called you," be you. also holy in 

16. your whole behavior: because it is written, l Be ye holy, for 

17. I am holy. And since you call Father, 13 Him who judges the 
work of every man without respect of persons, pass the time 

18. of your sojourning in reverence of him ; knowing that you 
have been ransomed from your foolish " hereditary " course 

19. of behavior, not by corruptible things silver or gold but 
by precious blood, 10 as of a lamb, perfect, and spotless, the blood 

20. of Christ ; " fore-appointed, indeed,, before the foundation of 

I ROBINSOX. Elf. 3. a. 

* Exultabitis Isetitia inenarrabili et glorificata. VULGATE. 

3 Hoc perinde valet ac si diceretur : " salus seterna." Est enim tacita comparatio vit 
mortahs et caducse quse ad corpus pertinet. 1 Cor. v. 5. Iva TO irvevpa oudy^- CALVIN. 
Ihe period and the circumstances. Quo et quali tempore. JASPIS. In relation to 
whom, and what time. PURVER. Quel terns, et quelle conjuncture. BEAUSOBRE, 

5 Or the sufferings until Christ, that is, the manifold trials, till the revelation of Jesus- 
L/hrist, v. 7. 

6 James i. 25. 

Lumbos succingimus ad iter, ad opus, ad bella, ad ministerium. C. A. LAPIDK 
I repared, ready for work or warfare, for toil or travel. 

Vigilance, not moderation, seems the idea here. Awake to all events 

h* K^-^Tl7 ll ? r S f * T * V ^r ida re ** iav ; or as the A P stle to the Hebrews 
has it, ch. 111. 6. Perfecte Sperate. VULGATE. 

10 Or perseveringly, reXewf. 

Bv t? W8 f f- nd C ?! ning when * Ie a** 11 ! unveiled, manifested to be what he is. 
L the T [r fi el f 10ri r HAMM T- B y t A edeclarin g C ^^ALE. MATTHEWS. ORAN- 
ER. The figures here seem borrowed from Luke xii. 85 <fcc 

after thTlv^^r^^A^" *** ** * K cr X /^ ^ovv, rendered in the margin 
Call on thT Father exem P lum llllus sancti ^ vocavit vos.-EaAS. SCHMII> 
14 Eph. iv. 17. 

II Handed down from father to son. 

5 Qf =ut ffitiologia rov precioso. BENQEL. 



THE FIRST EPISTLE OP PETER. XX 

the world, but manifested in these last times, on account 

21. of you, who through him believe in God who raised him from 
the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are 
in God. 8 

22. Having purified your souls by the obedience of the truth, 
through the Spirit, 3 so as sincerely from a pure heart, to love 

23. the brethren, love one another intensely, being anew made the 
children of God, not of a perishable race, 4 but of an imperish 
able, through the living word of God, which endureth forever; 

24. for " all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of it 6 as the flower 

25. of grass ; the grass withereth, and its flower falleth off, but 
the word of the Lord endureth forever." Now the gospel 
which has been proclaimed to you is this word. 

II. 1. Laying aside, then, all malice, and all deceit, and simula- 

2. tions, and envyings, and all evil-speakings, like new-born 
babes, desire the unadulterated spiritual milk, 8 that by it you 

3. may grow unto salvation ; 7 seeing 8 you have tasted the good- 

4. ness * of the Lord ; coming to whom, the living stone, by men 

5. disapproved, but by God chosen and honored, even you 10 as 
living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood 
to offer spiritual sacrifices well-pleasing to God, by Jesus 

6. Christ; according to what is contained in the Scripture, 
" Behold, I lay in Sion, a corner stone, chosen, honored ; and 

7. he that believeth on him shall not be ashamed." To you 
then who believe there is honor, 11 but to them who disbelieve, 
there is dishonor ; the stone which the builders disallowed, has 

8. become the principal corner-stone, and a stumbling stone, and 
a rock of offence, on which they who believe not the word 

9. stumble, to which also they were appointed. But you are a 
chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a 

1 On behalf of you, 

2 SYMONDS. 

3 Aid Trvevftaroc. The evidence of the genuineness of this clause is so deficient, that 
MILL, BENGEL, GRIESBACH, and LACHMANN, would omit it. If genuine, its meaning is 
doubtful. It may qualify 



* 27rop<}, genus, proles. SCAPULA refers to Sophocles and Euripides, in support of this 
sense. _ The cognate word airep/ia is often used in this way. John vii. 42 ; viii. 33, 37. 
Gal. iii. 16, 19, et al. If Aoyog Qeov be merely exegetical, would not the same preposition 
have been connected with it as with the word of which it is the interpretation ? 

5 Av7% is the preferable reading. 

6 Rationale sine dolo lac. VULGATE. That reasonable milk that is without corrup 
tion. COVERDALE. MATTHEWS. The milk not of the body, but of the soul, which is with 
out deceit. CRANMER. The reasonable milk of the word, which is without deceit 
BISHOP S BIBLE. The rational pure milk. HAMMOND. Le lait spirituel, et tout pur. MONB 
Version. Aoyt/cov, i. q. KVEv/uaTiKov. v. S.-VATER. " Illis temporibus rex Messias appare- 
bit synagogse Israeliticse ad quern Israelite sic dicent : veni, esto frater noster, et profi- 
ciscamur Hierosolyma et sugemus tecum gustum legis, quemadmodum infana ubera 
matris suaa sugit TARGUM in Cant. viii. 1. Apud WETSTEIN. 

7 E/f auTjjpidv is found in a number of the most ancient Codd., and is admitted into 
the text by the most distinguished critical editors of the New Testament. 

8 Quia> CARPZOV. EL LACHMANN. 

9 Psal. xxxiv. 8. 

10 Parietes spirituals quia homines pii eunt pracipuum templum. R. 
Hag. ii. 10. Ap. WETSTEIN. 

u V bis igitur honor credentibus. VULGATE. 



Xxil A TRANSLATION OF 

peculiar possession to God, that you may proclaim the excel 
lencies of Him who has called you out of Darkness into hi? 

10. marvellous light ; who once were not a people, but now are the 
people of God ; who once were not the objects of his mercy, 
but now are the objects of his mercy. 

11. Beloved, I exhort you, as foreigners andsojourners, to keep 

12. yourselves from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, con 
ducting yourselves honorably among the heathen, that with re 
gard to that in which they speak evil of you as evil-doers, they 
may, from your good works, 1 having observed them, glorify 

13. God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves therefore, 
from a regard to the Lord, to every institution of man, 8 for 
the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of those who do 

14. well ; whether it be king as supreme, or governors as commis- 

15. sioned by him ; for thus is it the will of God, that doing well 

16. you muzzle the ignorance of foolish men. As free men, yet 
not using your liberty as a cloak 3 of wickedness, but as the ser- 

17. vants of God, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, 
honor the King. 4 

18. Servants, submit }^ourselves, with all reverence, to your 
masters, not only to the kind and gentle, but also to the per- 

19. verse ; 6 for this is well pleasing, if any one who suffers unjust- 

20. ly, from religious principle endure his grievances patiently ; for 
what credit is it if, when you commit a fault, and are chas 
tised, you endure patiently ? but if suffering while acting prop- 

21. erly, you patiently endure, this is well pleasing to God. For 
to this were you called ; because even Christ suffered on our 
account, leaving us foot-prints 6 that we should follow in his 

22. steps, who committed no fault, and in whose mouth no deceit 

23. was found ; who, being reviled, did not revile in return, suffer 
ing did not threaten, but committed himself 7 to the righteous 

24. judge; who himself, in his own body, bore our sins to the 
cross, 8 that we dying by sins might live by righteousness : by 

25. whose weals 9 you are healed ; for you were as straying sheep, 
but you have now returned to the shepherd, and overseer 10 of 
your souls. 

ITT. 1. Likewise, you wives, submit yourselves to your own hus 
bands ; that if some of them are disbelievers in the doctrine, 

1 Ex bonis operibus vos considerantes. VULGATE. May revering you (in from) by 
your good works. HAMMOND. 

3 Humanse creatures. VULGATE. Humanso ordinationi. BEZA. Creature of man. 
WICLIF. Humane creature. RHEMISTS. HAMMOND. 

3 A covering of, a pretext for. Use it neither for concealing nor for excusing wick 
edness. 

4 The Roman emperor is termed j3aci?ievc by the Greek writers. POLYCENI Strag. p. 1. 
HEROD, i 3. The usage of the Jews appears from John xiv. 15. Acts xvii. 7. 

s Cross, ill-conditioned, morose, wayward. Tyrants. "WICLIF. 
e WAKEFIELD. 1 John ii. 6. 

7 Resigned himself. SYMONDS. 

8 Lit. Stake, Timber. E/rt. Robinson in verb. iii. 6. a and /?. 

* MwAo^ non est vulnus sed vibcx, sive vestigium verberum aut flagellorum, 
paaTiyos notei /zw^wTraj-. Ecclus. xxviii 17. RAPHEUUS. 
10 Curatorem. BEZA. CASTALIO. 



THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. XX111 

2. they may, without the doctrine, 1 be won over by contemplat- 

3. ing your pious, chase behavior. Let your adorning not be 
the outward adorning of plaited hair, or of golden ornaments, 

4. or of curious dress; but let the hidden man of the heart be 
adorned with the imperishable ornament of that meek and quiet 

5. spirit, which, in the estimation of God, is of great value. 3 For 
even thus, of old, the holy women who trusted in God adorned 

6. themselves, submitting themselves to their own husbands (as 
Sarah, whose children you are, obeyed Abraham, calling him 
Lord 3 ), doing what is good, and alarmed by no terrors. 

7. Likewise, you husbands, dwell with your wives with a wise 
consideration of the greater weakness of the female frame ; 
giving them honor as also fellow heirs of the gracious gift of 
life, that your prayers may not be hindered. 

8. Finally, be all of one mind and one heart, 4 love as brethren. 

9. Be compassionate, be courteous. Do not render injury for in 
jury, or railing for railing ; but, on the contrary, bless, know 
ing that you are called to this, that you may obtain a blessing : 

10. " For as to him who wishes to enjoy life 5 and to see good 
days, let him restrain his tongue from mischief, and his lips 

11. from speaking deceit ; let him depart from mischief, and do 

12. good, let him seek peace and pursue it ; for the eyes of the 
Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears towards their prayer ; 

13. but the face of the Lord is against 6 evil-doers." And who 

14. shall harm T you if you are imitators of Him who is good ? * But 
even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. 

15. Be not then afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanc 
tify the Lord God in your hearts. And be always ready to vin 
dicate, with meekness and reverence, your hope to every one 

16. who asks of you an account of it, maintaining a good con 
science, in order that in the thing regarding which they speak 
against you as evil-doers, those who slander your good chris- 

17. tian behavior may be put to shame. For it is better that you 
should suffer, if so be the will of God, doing good rather than 
doing evil. 9 

18. For, even Christ, once on account of sins, suffered, the right 
eous in the room of the unrighteous, that he might bring us to 
God ; having become, dead, with respect to the flesh, but, 

1 As the article is wanting, a. A. may not refer to T. X, but may mean without dis 
course or discussion. 

2 Much set by. OOVERDALE. GENEVA. MATTHEWS. 

3 CARPZOV. WAKEFIELD. Gal. iv. 31. Gen. xii. 13, 15; xx. 2; xxvi. 7. Prov. iii. 
25. A.-yadoTroiovaac non cum vocabulo TSKVO. construendum, sed ex v. 5, ai yvvalKtf 
huic referendum est. SCHOETGEN. 

4 Be united in judgment and affection. Unanimes, compatientes. VULGATE. Unaa- 
imes, codem modo atfecti. CASTALIO. Omnes eodem animo, eodem affectu. CARPZOV. 

^ 5 BENSON. The opposite of aycnrav farjv is /uaeiv &rjv. Ecc. ii, 17. Desireth to 
live. SYMONDS. 

6 Em on. WICLIF. Beholdeth. COVKRDALE. MATTHEWS. Upon. GENEVA. BHB- 
MISTS. Mali huic non latent. CAMERARIUS. 

7 Hurt. SYMONDS. 

8 WYNNE. 

9 Melius enim est ut bene agentes, si ita velit Dei voluntas, aliquid patiamini, quaa 
male agentes. BEZA. 



A TRANSLATION OP 

19. quickened, -with respect to the Spirit, whereby he went and 

20. preached even to the spirits in prison, who were in former 
times disbelieving, when the patience of God continued wait 
ing in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, iri whica 

21. a few that is, eight souls were saved by water, which also 
now the anti-type baptism saves us, not as the removal of 
the filth of the flesh, 1 but as the profession of a good conscience 

22. towards God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is 
at the right hand of God, having passed into heaven, angels, 
and authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. 

IV. 1. Christ, then, having suffered for us in the flesh, do you even 
arm yourselves with this same thought 3 that he who hath 

2. suffered in the flesh hath been made to rest from sin, in order 
to the living the remainder of the time in the flesh, not accord- 

3. ing to the lusts of men, but according to the will of God ; for 
the time that is past is enough for us to have wrought the will 
of the Gentiles, having walked in impurities, in lusts, in intox 
ication, in revels, in carousings, and lawless idolatrous rites ; 

4. wherein they think it strange that you run not with them, into 

5. the same mire of profligacy, speaking evil of you ; these 3 shall 
render an account to Him who is in readiness * to j udge 5 the 

6. living and the dead ; for, for this purpose also was the gospel 
preached to the dead, that as to man they mi^ht be judged in 
the flesh, but as to God might live in the Spirit. 

7. Now the end of all things is at hand ; 6 be, therefore, prudent 

8. and watchful with regard to prayers. But, above all things, 
have a fervent love of each other ; for this love will cover a 

9. multitude of faults. Be hospitable to each other without 

10. grudgings ; as good stewards of the manifold kindness of God, 
let every one employ the gifts he has received for mutual ser- 

11. vice (if any one speak as oracles of God, 7 if any one minister 
as of the ability God has bestowed 8 ), Jhat in all things God 
may be glorified through Jesus Christ, who is the * glory and 
the power forever and ever, Amen. 

12. Beloved, be not surprised at the scorching 10 among you 
which is coming for your trial, as at some strange thing hap- 

13. pening to you ; but rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers 
in the sufferings of Christ, that you may also rejoice with ex- 

14. ultation at the revelation of his glory. If you suffer reproach 
in Christ s name, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of 
power, 11 even the Spirit of God, resteth on you ; with regard 

Baptismus non ei rei servit, cui balnea sufficiunt. DEYLINCIUS. 

Cogitatione. VULGATE. Armez-vous de cette pensee que, <fec. Moxs VERSION. 

Robinson, of, fj, 6 2, a. /?. And thei schuleii give resoun to hym. WICLIF. 

2 Cor. x. 6. "Exiv iv <?ro///cj. 

Inflict righteous judgment on. 

James v. 8, 9. 

S2f vcritatis. What are, indeed, divine oracles speaking as the ip^vevc of GocL 

Of the ability which God has really given him. as a divinely-qualified minister. 

Cui est. VULGATE. 
10 Prov. xxvii. 21 ; Ixx. 1 Cor. iii. 13, 14. Apoc. xviii. 19. 
u Awu/<euf is introduced into the text by GIUESBACH, MATTHAEI, and LACHMANX. 



THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. XXV 

to them there is reproach, but with regard to yon there is 

15. glory. 1 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a 

16. thief, or an evil-doer, or as an intermeddler ; a but if any 
suffer as a Christion, let him not be ashamed, but let him 

17. glorify God on this account. 8 For it is the time of the 
commencement of the judgment from the house of God ; and 
if the beginning be from us, what will be the issue* with those 

18. who disbelieve the gospel of God? And if the righteous 
scarcely be delivered, where shall the ungodly and sinner ap- 

19. pear ? Wherefore let even 6 those who suffer, according to 
the will of God, in well doing commit their souls to Him, who 
is 6 a faithful Creator. 

V. 1. To the elders among you, I who am a fellow-elder and a 
witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a sharer in the glory 

2. that is about to be revealed, give this exhortation. Act as 
shepherds to the flock of God that is among you, superintend 
ing them, not reluctantly, but willingly ; not from a sordid love 

3. of gain, but from a spirit of zeal ; neither lording it over the 

4. allotted portions, 8 but being patterns for the flock ; 9 and when 
the chief shepherd 10 appears, you shall receive the unfading 

5. crown of glory. In like manner, you juniors, submit your 
selves to the elders," and all of you being subject to each other, 
be girdled with humility ; " for God opposes the haughty, but to 
the humble he shows favor. 

6. Humble yourselves, then, under the mighty hand of God, 

7. that he may exalt you in due season : 13 casting all your anxiety 
on Him, for he cares for you. 

8. ^ Be sober, be wakeful ; your adversary the devil, like a roar- 

9. ing lion, is going about seeking whom he may devour; Him 
resist, standing fast in the faith, "knowing that the same kinds 
of suffering are accomplished in your brotherhood while in 

10. the world. But the God of all grace who has called you to his 

1 They will reproach, but you will be honored. This clause is of doubtful authority. 
GBIESBACH and LACHMANN omit it. 

2 Alienorum appetitor. VULGATE. Rerum ad se non pertinentium curiosus in 
spector. ERASM. SCHMED. 

3 2 Cor. iii. 10 ; ix. 3. 

4 Finis judicii. ERAS. SCHMID. 

5 Kdi) etiam, concessive cum participio, idem quod d Kai et si cum verbo : d K.a.1 
irdaxoire ch. iii 14. Non debemus ex passione diffidentiam capere. BENGEL. 

6 S2f ahr/dtic, HESYCHIUS. Revera, vere SCHLEUSNER. Answering to the lleb. Caph 
veritatis. Neh. vii. 2. Hos. v. 10; Ixx. John i. 14. 

* As much as lieth in you. CRANMER. 

8 The clergy. WICLIF. RHEMISTS. The parishes. COVERDALE. MATTHEWS. CJJAN- 
MER. Your charges. HAMMOND. 

9 THEOPHYLACT and (ECUMENIUS consider nai as an alrioho-yiicdc avvdeafia^. 
J Prince of shepherds. WICLIF. Prince of pastors. RHEMISTS. 

^ The Syriac version has "your elders," which shows us how its author understood 

VEUTEpOl. 



12 Put on humility as your badge. HAMMOND. 
^ 13 1 Tim. vi. 15. 2 Cor. vi. 2. Whether here 01 
me. STEIGEB. 

14 Erga diffidentes robur habet, erga fideles imbellis est. BULLINGER. 



.. . or hereafter, certainly at a seasonable 
tune. STEIGEB. 



A TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 

eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you Lave suffered a little, 
shall himself 1 make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle 

11. you ; a His is 3 the glory and the power, forever and ever. Amen. 

12. By Silvanus, to you a faithful brother, as I judge, I have 
briefly written, exhorting you, and testifying to you that this is 

13. the true grace of God, with regard to which do you stand. 4 
The church 6 in Babylon, chosen as you are, saluteth you : also 

14. Marcus, my son. Salute each other with a kiss of love. Peace 
be with you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. 

Phil. i. 6. 

2 The elder English versions COVERDALE, MATTHEWS, and CRANMER render this in 
the future; and the reading on which this rendering rests, that of the Vulgate, is rec 
ognized by GRIESBACII, SCHOLZ, and LACHMANN, as genuine. Digna Petro oratio : con- 
firmat suos fratres. BENGEL. 

3 If, as is generally admitted, the verbs in the previous verse be in the future, t* 
seems a more suitable supplement than be. 

4 2r//-. LACHMANN. See the authorities in GRIESBACH and SCHOLZ. 
6 Literally she, that is, either 



EXPOSITOEY DISCOURSES. 



DISCOURSE I. 

. INTRODUCTORY. 

THE AUTHOR THE ADDRESS AND THE SALUTATION. 

1 PETEP. i. 1, 2. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered through 
out Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowl 
edge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprink 
ling of the blood of Jesus Christ : Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 

INTRODUCTION. 

THE Holy Scriptures the inspired record of the revealed will of 
God are not occupied with a systematic view of religious and moral 
truth and duty, but consist of a great variety of separate treatises, 
some of them historical, others didactic, others prophetical, most of 
them written in prose, though some of them in verse, composed at 
irregular intervals during a period of fifteen hundred years, and gen 
erally having a peculiar reference to the circumstances of those to 
whom they were originally addressed. The miscellaneous and occa 
sional character thus impressed on the sacred writings, like every 
thing else about them, bears in it indications of their divine origin. 
It prevents the appearance of human art or contrivance ; proves that 
the harmony which prevails in them could not be the result of a pre 
concerted plan on the part of the writers ; and leads us to inquire 
for a reason which can only be found in the fact that they were 
given by the inspiration of Him who is "the only wise God" why 
writings, so plainly occasional in their origin, should, notwithstand 
ing, be so well fitted to serve the purpose of a universal and perma 
nent rule of religious belief and moral conduct. 

A considerable part of the second volume of the inspired writing 
v-the CHKISTIAN Scriptures consists of letters, addressed by Apostles 
of Christ, some of them to individual Christians, most of them to 
bodies of Christians resident in particular cities or districts. These 
epistles form one of the most valuable portions of the Book of God. 
They embody in them much evidence, in a peculiarly satisfactory 
form, of the truth of the Gospel history, and of the divine origin of 



28 INTRODUCTORY. [DISC. L 

Christianity ; they contain in them the full development of the Chris 
tian doctrine, given by men on whom, according to His promise, the 
exalted Eedeemer had conferred the Holy Spirit, " to guide them into 
all the truth ;" they give us a striking exhibition of the living spirit of 
Christianity, and its influence on the formation of character, both in 
the writers of the epistles and in those to whom they are addressed ; 
they present us with authentic information in reference to the consti 
tution, government, and worship of the primitive Church ; and they 
furnish, in the most useful and impressive form, a complete code of 
Christian morals. 

Among these apostolical letters, the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter 
has always held a high place in the estimation of the Church. Their 
opinion cannot be better expressed than in the words of the heavenly 
Leighton : " This excellent epistle, full of evangelical doctrine and 
apostolical authority, is a brief and yet very clear summary, both of 
the consolations and instructions needful for the encouragement and 
direction of a Christian in his journey to heaven ; elevating his 
thoughts and desires to that happiness, and strengthening him against 
all opposition in the way, both that of corruption within, and tempta 
tion and afflictions from without. The heads of doctrine contained 
in it are many ; but the main that are most insisted on, are these three 
Faith, Obedience, and Patience to establish them in believing, to 
direct them in doing, and to comfort them in suffering." 1 

The authenticity and genuineness of the Epistle, and its apostolic 
origin and consequent divine inspiration, rest on the most satisfactory 
evidence. It is alluded to in the second epistle bearing Peter s name ; 
the great antiquity of which is undoubted, though its canonical au 
thority has been questioned. It is plainly referred to by the earliest 
Christian writers, as Clement of Eome, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Ire- 
naeus ; and Eusebius ranks it among the books universally admitted 
to belong to the sacred canon. The doubts which have been thrown 
out by certain German critics, in later times, have obviously origin 
ated in the very wantonness of scepticism, and but little deserve the 
grave discussion and elaborate refutation they have received from 
sounder scholars. 

Like the letters of Paul, this composition holds a middle place be 
tween the treatise or discourse and the familiar epistle. It is not, like 
the epistles to the Romans, G-alatians, and Hebrews, principally occu 
pied with one great doctrinal theme. It more resembles the minor 
Pauline epistles, with this difference, that the doctrinal and the prac 
tical statements are more commingled. There is comparatively little 
discussion or argument in it. It is as the author himself describes 
it (ch. v. 12) a testimony and an exhortation. 2 

The natural warmth of the author s disposition 3 gives to the style 
a character of energy approaching to vehemence ; and there is to be 
found just such a familiarity with the Old Testament Scriptures, 

1 Epistolam profecto dignam apostolorum principe, plenam auctoritatis ac majestatis 
apostohcae, verbis parcam, seutentiis differtam. ERASMUS. Habet hajc epistola rd 
a<j)o6pov conveiuens ingenio principis apostolorum. GROTIUS. Mirabilis est gra vitas et 
alacritas Petrini sermonis, suavissime retinens lectorein. BENGEL. 

2 ILapdKaXuv Kal tKtjuapTvptiv. s Chrysostom terms him O navraxov Qepp.6^. 



DISC. I.] INTRODUCTION. 29 

manifesting itself not only in direct quotations, but in numerous 
natural allusions, which have all the appearance of having been un 
conscious, as might be expected in the composition of a pious, though, 
when compared with Paul, an unlettered Jew. 1 

This epistle is distinguished for great tenderness of manner, and 
for bringing forward prominently the most consolatory parts of the 
Gospel. The apostle " wrote to those who were in affliction. He 
was himself an old man. He expected soon to be with the Saviour. 
He had nearly done with the conflicts and toils of life. It was natural 
that he should direct his eye onward and upward, and dwell on those 
things in the Gospel which were adapted to support and comfort the 
soul. There is, therefore, scarcely any part of the New Testament 
where the ripe and mellow Christian will find more that is adapted 
to this matured feelings, or to which he will more naturally turn." 

There is great compactness of thought and terseness of expression 
in this epistle. It seems to be composed of a succession of texts, each 
one fitted to constitute the subject of a discourse. There is more 
that a pastor would like to preach on in a course of expository lec 
tures, and less that he would be disposed to pass over as not so well 
adapted to the purposes of religious instruction, than in almost any 
other book of the New Testament. There is almost nothing that is 
of merely local or temporary interest. There are no discussions 
about points pertaining to Jewish customs, such as we meet in (most 
of) Paul s epistles. There is little that pertains particularly to one 
city or country. Almost all is of universal applicability to Chris 
tians, and may be read with as much interest and profit now by us, 
as by those to whom the epistle was addressed. 2 

There are plain traces in the epistle of an intimate acquaintance 
with the modes of thought and expression characteristic of the writ 
ings of Paul, which, even without the references in the second epistle 
(ch. iii. 14, 15), would have led to the conclusion that the writer had 
read that apostle s epistles. 3 Peter s mode of writing is much less 
than Paul s that of a scholar ; but he has much of the same natural 
ease of diction, tendency to digression, and use of figurative lan 
guage. 

This epistle holds an intermediate place between those of the great 
apostle of the Gentiles, and that of James the apostle of the Circum 
cision. It resembles both in a greater degree than they resemble 
each other. 4 

With respect to the time when this epistle was written, we have 
not the means of arriving at absolute certainty. The probability 
seems to be, that its true date is about A.D. 65, the eleventh year of 
Nero s reign, two or three years before the apostle s martyrdom, 
which is generally supposed to have taken place A.D. 67. 6 

It may be proper here to say a word as to the meaning of the epithet 
General or Catholic, which, since the fourth century, has been giveo. 
to this epistle, as well as to the second epistle of Peter, and the epistles 
of James, John, and Jude. This is not a question of vital importance 

1 See note A. 2 Barnes. 3 See note B. 4 See note C. 

5 Hug s Introduction, sect, clxiil ; Steiger s Exposition, i. 33 ; Kitto s Cyclopaedia 
Michaelis Introduction, iv. 325. 



30 INTRODUCTORY. [DISC. I. 

(for the appellation has no claim to divine authority), and it is well it 
is so, for there seems no means of determining it with any thing like 
certainty. The term appears originally to have meant an epistle, 
directed not to one church, but to all, or at any rate to many churches, 
_ a description which belongs to five of the seven epistles so distin 
guished ; the other two being addressed to individuals. In the time 
of Eusebius, with this sense seems to have been connected the some* 
what cognate one, of epistles publicly read in many, or all, the 
churches, on account of the excellence and usefulness of their con 
tents; and, till the writings of the New Testament were collected 
into one volume, it appears to have been the technical name by which 
this collection of epistles was distinguished from the Pauline Epistles. 1 
The object of the apostle in this epistle is plainly to confirm the 
disciples in the faith, profession, and obedience of the Gfospel; by 
deepening their conviction that the source of happiness, and the 
foundation of the everlasting kingdom of God, were contained in that 
faith of the Eedeemer which had been announced to them, and re 
ceived by them into their hearts ; that that doctrine was indeed the 
everlasting unchangeable word of God, and that, therefore, they 
ought to aim at appropriating it with childlike simplicity, that so they 
might continually advance towards " the measure of the stature of 
the fulness of Christ ;" and to exhort them to maintain their stead 
fastness in the faith under all persecutions, and a corresponding 
course of conduct, by which they would " shine as lights in the 
world," and refute the false accusations against Christianity and 
Christians. 3 

It is my intention, "if the Lord will," to lay before you, at irregu 
lar intervals, a series of expository discourses on this " weighty and 
powerful" epistle, and the passage which I have read shall form the 
subject of the first of these discourses. 

These verses contain the inscription and the salutation, according 
to the ordinary usage of the apostolical epistles ; and naturally lead 
us to speak, I. Of the writer of the epistle" Peter, an apostle of 
Jesus Christ ;" II. Of those to whom the epistle is addressed" The 
elect strangers of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 
and Bithynia elect according to the foreknowledge of God, by a 
spiritual sanctification, to obedience and to the sprinkling of the blood 
of Jesus Christ ;" and, III. Of the benevolent wish which he ex 
presses, or the solemn prayer which he presents for them " Grace 
unto you, and peace, be multiplied." 



I. OF THE WRITER OF THE EPISTLE. 

The writer of this epistle, whose original name was Simon, was & 
native of Bethsaida, at that time an inconsiderable village on the 
western shore of the sea of Galilee. He was bred to the occupation 



E " 23; Ncesselti Opuscule, fasc.ii.; Michaelia; Hug; Scliott; De 
2 tfeander. 



PART I.] THE AUTHOR. 31 

of a fisherman, which seems to Lave been the family profession ; and 
at the time of his becoming acquainted with Jesus Christ, he was 
married, and had removed with his family to Capernaum. His 
brother Andrew, who was a disciple of John the Baptist, having, 
heard his master pronounce Jesus, whom he had lately baptized, " the 
Lamb of God," soli cited an interview with him, which ended in his 
conviction that he was indeed the great deliverer, concerning whom 
the ancient prophets had uttered so many glorious predictions, and 
whose appearance, without delay, was at this period generally ex 
pected by the Jews. He communicated the joyful intelligence to his 
brother Simon, whom he introduced to Jesus. HE also appears to 
have become from that day a believer ; and, in the exercise of that 
knowledge of the secrets of the heart and of futurity by which he 
was distinguished, Jesus, in reference to the dispositions he should 
discover, and the services he should perform, surnamed him Cephas, 
or Petros the one a Chaldseo-Syriac, the other a Greek word both 
signifying a stone or rock. 

For some time after this, these two brothers continued to follow 
their profession as fishermen. But one day Jesus, after having con 
firmed their faith by a miraculous draught of fishes, which he inti 
mated was emblematical of the vast multitudes who, through their 
instrumentality, were to become his followers, required their constant 
attendance on him ; and when he soon afterwards selected twelve 
of his disciples, whom he termed apostles, and intrusted with miracu 
lous powers, we find Peter s name holding the first place in the list. 
He obviously from the beginning was " among the chief of the apos 
tles," and occupied a high place, comparatively as well as really, in 
his Master s esteem and affection. Of this we have satisfactory evi 
dence in his being, along with John and James, the sons of Zebedee, 
chosen to witness his Lord s glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, 
and his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

None of the apostles was more firmly persuaded of the divinity 
of Jesus mission, more affectionately attached to his person, or more 
zealously devoted to his cause. When many of his disciples who had 
expected from the Messiah a worldly kingdom, became offended with 
a discourse in which he had intimated that the blessings he came to 
procure and bestow were of a heavenly kind, and "went back, and 
walked no more with him," Jesus turned to his little chosen band, 
and asked them the touching question, " Will ye also go away ?" 
Peter exclaimed, " To whom can we go but to thee ? thou hast the 
words of eternal life. And we know and art sure that thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God." On another occasion, when our 
Lord, having inquired of his disciples what were the opinions gen 
erally entertained of him by his countrymen, put the question to 
them, " Who say ye that I am ?" Peter immediately replied, " Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the living God." His warm attachment to 
his Lord was as strongly, though not so wisely, manifested, in his dis 
suading him from submitting to suffering and death, in his refusing 
to allow him to wash his feet, in his declaration that, though he 
should die with him, he would never deny him, in his singly drawing 
his sword against a numerous body of armed men in his defence, and 



32 INTRODUCTORY. [DISC. L 

in his persisting to follow him when the rest of the disciples had for 
saken him and fled. 

To teach Peter his own weakness, he was permitted to fall before 
the temptations to which he had rashly exposed himself. Thrice in 
the course of a very short period he denied, with execrations, that he 
knew Him for whom he had so lately, both by words and deeds, 
shown that he was then ready to lay down his life. _ The fact is re 
corded, not for Peter s shame, but for our instruction ; and it pro 
claims "Let him who thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall;" 

" be not high-minded, but fear ;" " without Christ ye can do nothing." 

" Beware of Peter s word, 

Nor confidently say, 
I never will deny my Lord ; 

But grant I never may. " 

When our Lord, in the midst of his sufferings, cast on his recreant 
disciple a look of wounded but unchanging affection, he " came to 
himself," and, stung to the heart at the thought of his base ingrati 
tude, hastened into solitude, and " wept bitterly." 

It is a striking proof of Jesus peculiar affection to our apostle, 
that in the message he sent by the angel to his disciples by Mary 
Magdalene, to whom he first appeared after his resurrection, Peter is 
particularly mentioned. " Go tell the disciples, and Peter." This 
token of kindness was not lost on him. He ran immediately to the 
sepulchre, and went into it to ascertain that the body was indeed not 
there ; and he had the high honor of being the first among the apos 
tles who saw his risen Eedeemer, though we have no particular ac 
count of the interview. 

Some time after the resurrection, our Lord gave Peter a most 
overwhelming proof of his regard, and afforded him an honorable 
opportunity of manifesting, in the presence of his brethren, his una 
bated love for his Master, and his increased distrust of himself. It 
would be injustice to tell the story in other words than those of the 
inspired historian, John xxi. 15-19. " So, when they had dined, Jesus 
saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than 
these ? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I love 
thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again 
the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? He saith 
unto him, Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto 
him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son 
of Jonas, lovest thou me ? Peter was grieved because he said unto 
him the third time, Lovest thou me ? And he said unto him, Lord, 
thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith 
unto him, Feed my sheep. Yerily, verily, I say unto thee, When 
thou wast young, thou girdest thyself and walkedst whither thou 
wouldest : but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy 
hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou 
wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should 
glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Fol 
low me." 



PART I.J THE AUTHOR. 33 

Peter was present with his brethren on that memorable day, when 
Jesus " led them out as far as to Bethany, and lifted up his hands and 
blessed them ; and while he blessed them, he was parted from them, 
and carried up into heaven." Not one of them gazed with a moie 
eager eye upward till the form of the Saviour vanished in the cloud 
of glory, or with a heart more full of solemn gladness returned to 
Jerusalem. 

Immediately after the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, Peter was 
honored to open the gates of the kingdom of heaven to the Jews, by 
preaching the first Gospel sermon properly so called, and that sermon 
was blessed to the conversion of three thousand souls. 

After having, along with John, performed a miracle of healing, he 
delivered an eloquent and convincing discourse, by means of which 
multitudes were induced to embrace the Gospel ; and when brought 
before the council, he showed how completely our Lord s promise had 
been performed, that he would give to his apostles " a spirit and a 
wisdom which all their adversaries would be unable to resist." 

At his reproof Ananias and Sapphira, who had attempted to im 
pose on the apostles, were struck with instantaneous death. 

Many of the Samaritans having embraced Christianity in conse 
quence of the preaching of Philip, Peter visited them, and by the 
laying on of his hands they received the supernatural gifts of the 
Holy Spirit. We find him afterwards at Lydda, healing Eneas, who 
had been eight years confined to his bed by palsy ; and at Joppa 
raising Tabitha from the dead. 

He who had opened the gate of the kingdom of heaven to the 
Jews, was called on also, in the case of the centurion Cornelius and 
his family, to open the same gate to the Gentiles. In consequence 
of a divine mission he preached to them the Gospel, and while he was 
preaching it, "the Lord gave testimony to the word of his grace," 
and shed forth on them abundantly the Holy Ghost. 

On his return to Jerusalem, Herod Agrippa cast him into prison 
with the intention of putting him to death by public execution, but 
he was miraculously delivered by an angel, and restored to liberty. 

At the meeting of what is ordinarily termed the council or synod 
of Jerusalem, Peter strongly asserted the freedom of believing Gen 
tiles from all obligation to observe the law of Moses, and urged the 
circumstances of the conversion of Cornelius and his family, as an 
irrefragable proof of the doctrine which he taught on that subject. 
Some time after this, being at Antioch, he acted on this liberal prin 
ciple, by maintaining an unrestricted freedom of intercourse with the 
converted Gentiles, till a fear of offending some Jewish Christians, 
zealous for the law, induced him, from a mistaken notion of ex 
pediency, to " withdraw himself." This inconsistent, rather than un 
principled, conduct drew on him the honest reproof of the apostle 
Paul, who in a very convincing manner showed that his fellow-apos 
tle was now contradicting by action what he had asserted in words, 
and building up again what he had destroyed. 

We have no further account of the apostle Peter in the New Tes 
tament. A careful attention to the hints met with in authentic church 
history, has led the best informed writers to believe, that, having re- 

3 



34 INTRODUCTORY. [DISC. I. 

turned to Judea from Antioch, he remained at Jerusalem for some 
years, and that he then returned into Syria, and from thence visited 
hose provinces mentioned in the inscription of this epistle, and formed 
an acquaintance with those churches for whose edification his two 
epistles were intended. On leaving these parts, he probably went 
into the Parthian empire, where he appears to have been laboring 
when this epistle was written. 

The remaining history of the apostle is involved in obscurity. It is 
not impossible that he went to Rome after Paul had left it for the last 
time ; and there, now an old man, sealed his testimony with his blood, 
and obtained the crown of martyrdom, being put to death by the 
order of the inhuman Nero. It is storied that he was crucified with 
his head downward himself observing with characteristic affection 
and humility, " that he was unworthy of the honor of being crucified 
in the same way as his Master was." l This observation, savoring 
so much more of the morbid piety of what is called ancient Chris 
tianity, than of simple apostolic humility, goes far to discredit the 
whole story. It seems certain, however, that he was crucified, and 
that thus was the enigmatic prophecy of our Lord explained by its 
fulfilment, in which he signified by what death Peter should glorify 
God John xxi. 18, 19, " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou 
wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest : 
but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and 
another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. 
This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And 
when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me." 

Such is a short outline of the more important facts known in refer 
ence to the venerable writer of this epistle. 2 

Peter describes himself as an "Apostle of Jesus Christ." The 
word apostle signifies a person sent by another, a messenger. The 
term is, in the New Testament, generally employed as the descriptive 
appellation of a comparatively small class of men to whom Jesus 
Christ intrusted the organization of his Church, and the dissemination 
of his religion among mankind. At an early period of his ministry 
" he ordained twelve" of his disciples, " that they should be with him." 
These he named apostles. Some time afterwards, " he gave to them 
power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all man 
ner of disease;" and "he sent them to preach the kingdom of God." 3 
To them he gave " the keys of the kingdom of heaven," and consti 
tuted them princes over the spiritual Israel, that people whom God 
was to take " from among" the Jews and " the Gentiles for his name." * 
Previously to his death he promised them the Holy Spirit, to fit them 
to be the founders and governors of the Christian Church. 5 After 
his resurrection, he solemnly confirmed their call, saying, " As the 
Father hath sent me, so send I you;" 6 and gave them a commission 

Clem. Rom. Ep. 1 ad Corinth, c. v. Euseb. H. E. ii. 25, iii. 1. Chron. ad an. xiv 
JNeroms. Lactot. dc mort. persecut., c. ii. Inst. div. iv. 21. 
For the authorities of the above statement, see note D. 
Mnrk iii. 14. Matt. x. 1-5. Mark vi. 7. Luke vi. 13 : ix. 1. 
Matt. xvi. 19 ; xviii. 18 ; xix. 28. Luke xxii. 30. 
John xiv. 16, 17, 26; xv. 26, 27; xvi. 7-15. 
&jrrraA ju 5 IlarJJp, /caya) ir^jru fyof. 



PART I.] THE AUTHOR. 35 

to " preach the Gospel to every creature/ l After his ascension, he, 
on the Day of Pentecost, communicated to them thosesupernatural 
gifts which were necessary to the performance of the high functions 
he had commissioned them to discharge ; and in the exercise of these 
gifts, they, in the Gospel history, and in their epistles, with the apoca 
lypse, gave a complete view of the will of their Master, in reference 
to that new order of things of which he was the author. They 
"had the mind of Christ." They spoke "the wisdom of God in a 
mystery." That mystery " God revealed to them by his Spirit," and 
they spoke it " not in words which man s wisdom teacheth, but which 
the Holy Ghost teacheth." They were " ambassadors for Christ," 
and besought men " in Christ s stead to be reconciled to God." They 
authoritatively taught the doctrine and law of the Lord ; they organ 
ized Churches, and required them to " keep the traditions," that is, 
the doctrines and ordinances "delivered to them." 2 

The characteristic features of the apostles as official men were, 
that they had seen the Lord, and been eye and ear witnesses of what 
they testified to the world ; 3 that they had been called and chosen 
immediately by Christ ; * that they were infallibly inspired to declare 
his doctrine and laws; 5 that they possessed the power of working 
miracles; 6 and that their commission was, strictly speaking, catholic, 
extending to the whole Church, to the whole world. 7 

It must be obvious, from this scriptural account of the apostolical 
office, that the apostles had could have, in the strict sense of the 
term no successors. Their qualifications were supernatural, and 
their work once performed, remains in the infallible record of the 
New Testament for the advantage of the Church and the world in 
all future ages. They are the only authoritative teachers of Chris- 
tian doctrine and law. All official men in Christian churches can 
legitimately claim no higher place than that of expounders of the 
doctrines, and administrators of the laws, found in their writings. 
Few things have been more injurious to the cause of Christianity, 
than the assumption, on the part of ordinary office-bearers in the 
Church, of the peculiar prerogatives of " the holy Apostles of our 
Lord Jesus." Much that is said of the latter is not at all applicable 
to the former, and much that admits of being thus applied, can be so, 
in accordance with truth, only in a very secondary and extenuated 
sense. 8 

To this, the highest and holiest office ever held by mere man, the 
author of this epistle had been called by his Master ; and it appears 
that, in the exercise of its important functions, his labors were chiefly, 
though not exclusively, devoted to his "brethren, his kinsmen ac 
cording to the flesh." 9 Though there is no ground for the assertion, 

1 John xx. 21-23. Matt, xviii. 18-20. 

3 Acts ii. 1 Cor. ii. 16 ; ii. 7, 10, 13. 2 Cor. v. 20. 1 Cor. xi. 2. 

" John xv. 27. Acts i. 21, 22. 1 Cor. xv. 8 ; ix. 1. Acts xxii. 14, 15. 

Luke vi. 13. Gal. i. 1. 

John xvi. 13. 1 Cor. ii. 10. Gal. i. 11, 12. John xiv. 26. 

Mark xvi. 20. Acts ii. 43. 1 Cor. xii. 8-11. 2 Cor. xii. 12. 

2 Cor. xi. 28. Acts xvi. 4. 1 Cor. v. 3-6. 2 Cor. x. 8; xiii. 10. 

Vide Campbell s Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, Lect. v : Kitto s Cyclopaedia of 
Bib. Lit, vol. i. p. 179, <fec. 
9 Gal. ii. 8. 9 



3o INTRODUCTORY. [DISC. I. 

that Peter was the Prince of the Apostles, or had even a permanent 
presidency among them, yet there can be no doubt he stood very high 
in the estimation of his brethren was among those who " seemed to 
be pillars/ " the very chiefest apostles." l 



IL OF THOSE TO WHOM THE EPISTLE IS ADDRESSED. 

The persons to whom the epistle is addressed, come next to be con 
sidered. They are described first, generally, as " elect," or chosen, 
and then, particularly, both as to their external circumstances and to 
their spiritual state and character. With regard to the former, they 
are " the strangers scattered abroad, throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cap* 
padocia, Asia, and Bithynia." With regard to the latter, they are "elect, 
according to the foreknowledge of God, through sanctification of the 
Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 

It has been, and is a question among expositors, who are the per 
sons to whom this epistle is addressed. It is plainly addressed to 
Christians, and to Christians resident in the countries specified ; but, 
according to one class of interpreters, it is addressed to the Jew 
ish converts resident in these regions ; by another class, it is consid 
ered as addressed to the Gentile converts resident there ; by a third 
class, it is considered as addressed to those who are called "proselytes 
of the gate," persons by birth Gentiles, but who had embraced 
Judaism, and had afterwards been converted to Christianity. 

We apprehend that the true view of the matter is, that the Epistle 
was addressed to the Christian converts generally, whether Jews or 
Gentiles, residing in the countries mentioned. As a majority of 
these were Jews, and as Peter was not only a Jew, but the Apostle 
of the Circumcision, it is not wonderful that the circumstances and 
duties of the persons addressed are spoken of, so frequently, I had al 
most said, so uniformly, in language referring to the peculiarities of 
the Jewish economy. 2 

These persons are described, first, generally as " elect" or chosen. 
It appears to me a doctrine not only very plainly revealed in Scrip 
ture, but necessarily resulting from the principles of natural religion, 
that all who enjoy the blessings of Christianity, the saving benefits of 
pardon, sanctification, and eternal life, do so in consequence of the 
sovereign free love of God, which, like himself, is necessarily eternal ; 
or, in other words, were elected from unbeginning ages to the happi 
ness bestowed on them. This doctrine is taught with peculiar plain 
ness in the 1st chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, 3-5 : "Blessed 
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us 
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as 
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we 
should be holy and without blame before him in love : having pre 
destinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, 
according to the good pleasure of his will/ 

1 Gal. ii. 9. 2 Cor. xi. 5. 

9 Vide Michaelis Introduction, by Marsh, vol. iv. 315-325; Schott Isagoge in lib. 
N. F. Sac. p. 403. For a particular account of the countries here referred to, vid 
Steiger Exp. of the First Ep. of Peter, Introd. sec. 6, vol. i. pp. 14-19. 



PART II.] THE ADDRESS. 37 

At the same time, I apprehend, the word " elect " here, and in a 
number of other places in the New Testament, does not refer directly 
to what has been termed the electing decree, 1 but to the manifesta 
tion of it in the actually selecting certain individuals from amidst a 
world lying in wickedness, that they may be set apart to God, and 
become his peculiar people. The remark of Leighton appears to me 
very judicious : " Election here means the selecting them out of the 
world and joining them to the fellowship of the people of God." This 
is the election which our Lord speaks of when he says, " Because ye 
are not of the world, but I have chosen " 2 selected " you out of the 
world, therefore the world hateth you ;" 3 and the apostle Paul plainly 
speaks of the election and the vocation of the Corinthians, as the same 
thing. " Ye see your calling for God hath chosen the foolish things 
of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak 
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty ; and 
base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God 
chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that 
are : that no flesh should glory in his presence." 4 As Israel, as a na 
tion, was selected to be a peculiar people to Jehovah, so true Chris 
tians are, as individuals, selected to be a part of God s spiritual "pur 
chased inheritance," or peculiar people. 

These selected or chosen persons are described, first, as to their ex 
ternal condition. They are represented as "strangers 5 scattered 
abroad." The appellation is borrowed from the term generally given 
to Jews dwelling in Gentile lands. 6 The situation of Christians, 
while on earth, does not resemble that of Israel dwelling irr peace and 
security in Canaan, but that of Israelites sojourning among strangers 
and enemies. The selected people of God, while here below, are not 
gathered into one place, assembled together as citizens of the same 
city children of the same family. They will be so by-and-by, but 
now they are " strangers," " pilgrims," " sojourners," being a small 
minority among a people whose habits of thought and feeling, whose 
pursuits and whose pleasures, are altogether alien from theirs ; and 
"scattered" strangers, as being not merely far from home, but often 
far from each other, and but imperfectly enjoying the comfort and 
support arising from intimate communion with persons of kindred 
sentiments and affections. Such was the external state of the Chris 
tians to whom this epistle was addressed such is the external state 
of true Christians still. 

The particular description of the spiritual state of these selected 
and dispersed strangers now requires our attention. They are "elect 
according to the foreknowledge of God" they are " elect through 
sanctification of the spirit" they are "elect to obedience and sprink 
ling of the blood of Jesus." 

They are " elect according to the foreknowledge of God." 7 Here 
is the doctrine of election very plainly stated. They were selected 

1 H car* c*Xoy>> itp6Qsais. Rom. i*. 11. * John XV. 19. 

* See note E. 4 1 Cor. i. 20-29. 

Ilafiri%oif. The word expresses two ideas: not natives of the country in which 
they are not settled residents in that foreign country. 

8 4 H <5ia<77ropd. John vii. 35. 7 g ee note F. 



38 INTRODUCTORY. [DISC. I. 

from the rest of mankind, not because they were better than others. 
They were selected in accordance with the sovereign will of Him 
" to whom all his works are known from the beginning of the world." 
They are the " called" or chosen "according to his purpose;" and 
the purpose in reference to his choice of them stands, not of works, 
but of him that calleth." No cause can be assigned for them being 
selected rather than others, but the sovereign free love of God. " He 
hath mercy on whom he will have mercy ; he hath compassion on 
whom he will have compassion." When the Lord set his love on Is 
rael, and chose them to be his peculiar people, the cause was not in 
them, but in himself; it was just because he loved them " because 
he had a delight in them to love them ;" and it is equally true that the 
selection of certain individuals to enjoy the better blessings of the 
better economy, can be traced by us to nothing but the sovereign 
kindness of Him \vho " worketh all things according to the counsel of 
his own will." 1 

They are " elect through sanctification of the spirit." Sanctifica- 
tion means here, as usually in the New Testament, separation set 
ting apart ; and sanctification of the spirit 2 means spiritual separa 
tion, as exposed to external or bodily separation. 3 When Israel was 
chosen to be God s peculiar people, in being separated from all na 
tions, they were marked by a great variety of external distinctions. 
They lived in a country of their own, were distinguished by peculiar 
civil laws and customs, and were warned to abstain from all intimate 
intercourse of any kind with the surrounding nations. The peculiar 
people of God, under the new dispensation, are also separated from 
the rest of mankind : but their separation is of a spiritual kind. They 
are separated from them not civilly, but religiously separated from 
them in their sentiments and affections. Spiritually they " come out 
from the world, and are separate ;" but in reference to the affairs of 
this world, they are not a separate society. 4 

They are " elect, according to the divine foreknowledge, and by 
this spiritual separation to obedience." 5 The full expression is " the 
obedience of faith," or the obedience of the truth ; and to obey the 
faith or the truth, is just to believe the Gospel and live under its influ 
ence. That the New Testament writers use the word " obedience" 
simply, when they mean " the obedience of faith," is evident from the 
following passage in the epistle to the Romans, ch. vi. 16, 17 : "Know 
ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his ser 
vants ye are to whom ye obey ; whether of sin unto death, or of obe 
dience unto righteousness ? But God be thanked, that ye were the 
servants of sin; but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doc 
trine which was delivered you." When Israel became the peculiar 
people of God, by his selecting them according to his sovereign good 
pleasure, and externally separating them to himself, it was that they 
might be subject to his laws. In like manner, when individuals are 
selected by God to form a part of his peculiar people under the better 
economy, according to his foreknowledge, and are spiritually separa 
ted and set apart, it is that they may obey its law that they may be- 

* Rom. ix. 11, 15. Deut. x. 15. Eph. i. 11. 2 Ei/ Aym^ wttuaros, not rot 

See note G. See note H. 6 See note I 



PART III.] THE SALUTATION. 39 

lieve the Gospel, and give up their whole inner and outer man to be 
regulated by its influence it is that, taught by " the grace of God, 
which brings salvation," they may " deny ungodliness and worldly 
lusts, and live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world ; 
looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great 
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ : who gave himself for us, that he 
might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar 
people, zealous of good works." 1 

Still farther, they are " elect to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus 
Christ." When Israel were chosen to be God s people, and exter 
nally set apart for this purpose, it was not only that they might be 
subject to his law, but that they might share in the effects of that law s 
expiatory offerings that, being sprinkled with the blood of the sacri 
fices by which that covenant was ratified, their ceremonial guilt might 
be pardoned, their ceremonial pollution removed, and that they might 
be fitted for external fellowship with Jehovah as their God and King. 
When God, in accordance with his sovereign purpose of mercy, selects 
individuals, and sets them spiritually apart for his people, it is that, 
through the faith of the Gospel, they may be personally interested in 
the blessings procured by the death of Jesus Christ as a propitiatory 
sacrifice for the sins of men that their sins may be forgiven them, 
that the jealousies of guilt may be removed, that they may be enabled 
and disposed with a true heart to approach to God, as rich in mercy, 
ready to forgive, " God in Christ reconciling the world to himself ;" 
and in spiritual fellowship with him, with minds conformed to his 
mind, and wills conformed to his will, serve him with their souls and 
bodies, which are his, not only because they are made by him, but 
because they have been " redeemed" to him, " not by corruptible 
things as silver and gold, but by precious blood, the blood of Christ, 
as of a lamb without blemish and without pot." 2 

Such is the apostle s description of the spiritual state, character, and 
circumstances of those whom he addresses. They are selected by 
God according to his own sovereign purpose, and spiritually set apart 
for him, that believing the Gospel, they may enjoy all the blissful 
results of the death of Jesus Christ the just one, in the room of the 
unjust. 3 

Ill THE SALUTATION OF THE EPISTLE. 

The benevolent wish or solemn prayer which the apostle presents 
for those to whom he writes, now calls for our consideration : " Grace 
unto you, and peace, be multiplied." 

" Grace" is free favor sovereign kindness the principle in the 
divine mind from which all blessings to sinful men flow. The word 
is often used as a general name for those blessings which flow from 
this sovereign kindness. Grace here plainly is the grace of God. 
The prayer, " Grace be multiplied unto you," implied that they were 
already objects of the grace of God, and is equivalent to God loves 
you, and has given you proofs of his love. Had he not loved you, 
would he have selected you would he have spiritually set you apart 
l Tit. ii. 11-14. 3 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. See note K. 



40 INTRODUCTORY. [DISC. I. 

for himself would he have brought you to the obedience of the truth 
would he have sprinkled you with the blood of Jesus ? May you 
have continued, increasing, and multiplied proofs that God loves you, 
in the continuance, and increase, and multiplication of all heavenly 
and spiritual blessings ! 

" Peace" is not so much a different thing from " grace," as a differ 
ent view of the same thing. We call spiritual blessings " grace," as 
springing from God s sovereign kindness. We call them " peace," as 
calculated to tranquillize our minds and make us happy. The prayer, 
" Peace be multiplied to you," is equivalent to You already enjoy 
peace and happiness/ For " they who believe, do enter into rest." 
May your happiness be continued may it increase ! May " the 
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and 
minds in Christ Jesus !" 

Having thus, very cursorily, considered the interesting topics sug 
gested by this passage of Scripture, let us, my brethren, endeavor to 
turn them to practical account. A great majority of us are professors 
of Christianity. Does the description given in the text suit us ? 
Have we any satisfactory evidence that we have been selected by 
God called by his grace spiritually separated to his service that 
we have believed the truth, and are enjoying the happy consequence 
of the belief of the truth, in having the heart sprinkled from an evil 
conscience by the blood of Christ ? Do we feel that here we are 
"strangers of the dispersion," and are waiting for "the gathering 
together," at the period when all the citizens of heaven shall be assem 
bled in the New Jerusalem, where all the children of God shall be 
brought home to their Father s house ? If this is the case with you, 
brethren, then let your conduct correspond with your privileges ; and 
" may grace and peace be multiplied to you, and to all the Israel of 
God." 

If it be otherwise, we call on you now to obey the truth, and, 
through the obedience of the truth, to submit your hearts and con 
sciences to the pacifying and purifying influence of the atoning blood 
of Jesus. We know nothing about the purpose of God in reference 
to individuals till that purpose is manifested in its execution ; but we 
do know the purpose of God in reference to lost men generally, and 
we proclaim it as the appointed means of gathering from among men 
the elect of God. " God so loved the world, that he gave his only be 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life. God sent not his Son into the world to condemn 
the world, but that the world through him might be saved." " Be it 
known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached 
unto you the forgiveness of sins ; and by him all who believe aie 
justified from all things, from which they could not have been justified 
by the law of Moses." 1 

1 John iiL 16, 17. Acts xiii. 38, 3i. 



DISC. I.] NOTES. 41 



NOTE A. p. 29. 

The following are the principal references to the Old Testament in the epistle : Chap. 
i!6; Lev. xi. 44. Oh. i. 24, 25; Isa. xl. 6, <fcc. Ch. ii. 3; Psal. xxxiv. 9. Ch. ii. 4; 
PsaL cxviii. 16. Ch. ii. 6; Isa. xxviii. 16. Ch. ii. 7 ; Psal. cxviii. 22. Ch. ii. 9; Exod. 
xix. 5. 6 ; Isa. xliii. 20, 21. Ch. ii. 10 ; Hos. ii. 23. Ch. ii. 17 ; Prov. xxiv. 21. Ch. ii. 22 ; 
Isa. liii. 4, 6, 7, 9. Chap. iii. 6 ; Gen. xviii. 12. Ch. iii. 10-12 ; Psal. xxxiv. 13, &c. Ch 
iii. 14, 15 ; Isa. viii. 12, <fec. Ch. iii. 20; Gen. vi. 3, 12. Chap. ir. 8 ; Prov. x. 12 ; comp. 
xvii. 9. Ch. iv. 18 ; Prov. zi. 31. Chap. v. 5 ; Prov. v. 34. Ch. v. 7 ; Psal. Iv. 23. 

NOTE B. p. 29. 

Of the assertion in the text the reader will be furnished with ample evidence, in com 
paring the passages here noted : 1 Pet. i. 3. Eph. i. 3. 1 Pet. i. 20. Rom. iv. 24 ; xvi. 
25. Col. i. 26. 1 Pet. ii. 13. Rom. xiii. 1-5. 1 Pet. ii. 16, &c. Gal. v. 13. 1 Pet. ii. 
18 ; iii. 1. Eph. vi. 5. Col. iii. 18. 1 Pet. iii. 3, 4. 1 Tim. ii. 9. 1 Pet. iii. 22. Eph. i. 20, 
<fcc. 1 Pet. iv. 10. Rom. xii. 6, <fcc. 1 Pet. v. 1. Rom. viii. 18. 1 Pet. v. 8. 1 Thess. 
v. 6. 1 Pet. v. 14. 1 Cor. xvi. 20. Rom. xvi. 16. 1 Thess. v. 26. WETSTEIX notices a 
very remarkable character of style which Peter has, in common with Paul. " Ita ser- 
monem suum ordinat ut membrum sequens ex precedentis fine inchoet et cum eo connec- 

tat. I. 4. /f v ( udf. 5. Qpovpovpivovs iv xatr)~) ecr^drw. 6. ev T . *l. I.riffov XOIOTOV. 
8. S/ tl$6rts, 9. trwrripiav i//u^c5v. 10. rrspl /Jf awr/jfia? Trpo<prircvyavrcs. 11. ipsvviovrts. 

The same peculiarity strongly marks the first paragraphs of Rom. v. and Eph. i., and also 
the proem of the Gospel of John. 

NOTE C. p. 29. 

The following similarities between Peter and James are remarkable : 1 Pet. i. 6, 7 ; 
James i. 2, 3. 1 Pet. i. 24; James i. 10, 11. 1 Pet. i. 3, 23 ; James i. 18. 1 Pet. ii. 1, 2 ; 
James i, 21. 1 Pet. iv. 8; James v. 20. "Videtur omnino vel Jacobo Petri prior vel 
Petro Jacobi Epistola ob oculos versata fuisse ; maxime si utraquc Epistola ad easdem 
ecclesias pertinuerit." STORE, Opuscula, ii. 52. 

NOTE D. p. 34. 

Matt. iv. 18, 19. Luke v. 3-11. John i. 40^2. Mark v. 37. Matt. xvi. 16-23; xiv. 
28-31; xvii., 1-4, 24-27; xiii. 3, 4. Lnke xxii. 8. John xiii. 6. Matt. xxvi. 36,37. 
John xviii. 10, 11. Matt. xxvi. 31-35, 69-75. John xx. 2-7. Mark xvi. 7. John xxi. 
Acts i. ; xii. 17 ; xv. 6-11, 14. Gal. i. 18 ; ii. 7-9, 11-14. Vide NEANDER S Planting and 
Training of the Christian Church Vol. ii. p. 23-41. 

NOTE E. p. 37. 

"There is an election to sanctification, as performed by the power of the Gospel, sepa 
rating the fore-ordained from the mass of forlorn men unto holiness of life. This is noth 
ing else than effectual vocation." BYFIELD. " Hie non proprie seterna electio significatur 
sed electio in tempore e communi turba hominum ac imprimis Judaeorum, quoa electio in 
Scriptura, alio modo, etiam vocatio, Rive vocatio secundum Dei propositum appellatur." 
BELG ANNOT. " EKASKTOI; vocati secundum electionem." SCIIOTANUS. 



NOTE F. p. 37. 

I think it right to mention that CEcumenius and a number both of ancient and modern 
interpreters, have connected Kara -npoyvwaiv K. T. A. with ATroan/Xof, and not with tvAc*??. 
referring to Rom. i. 1, and especially to Acts xv. 7. This exegesis is so unnatural as not to 




a purpose. 

NOTE G. p. 38. 



Ayi(r/vo? segregatio ilia sive criBentium consecratio, separatio a reliquis hominibus 
extra Christum perituris. BEZA. " II vous a so pares effectivement d avec eux, non pas 
en vous sanctifiant comme il fit le peuple d Israel au desert, d une sanctification externe et 
corporelle settlement, lorsqu il le fit arroser du sang de la victirne, qui ratifia par sa 
mort 1 alliance de la loy ; mais en vous consacrant d une sanctification interieure et spirit- 



42 NOTES. [DISC. I. 

uclle lorsque par la vertu de sa vocation il vous a amenos a 1 obeissance de son Evangile 
et a rcccvoir 1 aspersion du sang de Jesus Christ epandu pour 1 establissement de 1 al- 
liance de grace en remission des pechcs." AMYRAUT. SEMLEE, usually no safe guide, 
seems right here ; he considers the phrase as equivalent to iv ayiacpo wci>rw. 



H. p. 38. 

In the EirittToXri TT^O? Atoyvrjrov, incorrectly attributed to Justin Martyr written proba 
bly in the earlier part of the second century the nature of the separation of Christians 
from mankind generally is thus described : " The Christians are not separated from other 
men by earthly abode, by language, or by customs. They dwell nowhere in cities by 
themselves ; they do not use a different language, nor affect a singular mode of life. 
They dwell in the cities of the Greeks and of the barbarians, each as his lot has been 
cast ; and, while they conform to the usages of the country in respect to dress, food, and 
other things pertaining to the outward life, they yet show a peculiarity of conduct won 
derful and striking to all. They dwell in their own country but as sojourncrs ; they abide 
on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. In a word, they are in the world what the 
BOU! is in the body. The soul is diffused through all the members of the body, and Chris 
tians through the cities of the world. But the soul, though dwelling in the body, is not 
of the body ; and Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world." 

NOTE L p. 88. 

It would be difficult to find an instance in which attachment to an artificial system of 
Christian doctrine has been carried farther into the interpretation of Scripture, than the 
explaining, as NISBET does, " election into obedience, aud sprinkling of the blood of Jesus 
Christ," of election to a participation in the active and passive righteousness of Christ, 
obedience standing for the first, and blood for the second. In this instance of TroLoep/irivtia, 
our worthy countryman is not original. SCHOTANUS had given the same sense before him. 
His note is " Ea est obedientia de qua Apostolus, Rom. v. 19." 

NOTE K. p. 39. 

The exposition given of this passage is that which the principles of a strict exegesis seem 
to require ; and it is free from many difficulties which attend interpreting the passage 
according to our received translation. " Elect," in the sense of eternally chosen, " accord 
ing to the foreknowledge of God," is language which seems to suit a conditional better 
than a sovereign choice. " Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God through sancti 
fication of the Spirit," presents a very strange arrangement of ideas. Is " the foreknowl 
edge of God," or " election" according to that foreknowledge, through sanctification of 
the Spirit? Surely "sanctification of the Spirit," meaning by that, sanctification by the 
Spirit, is the result of the divine decree, the object of the divine foreknowledge, the 
cause or means of neither. Then, what is to be made of " obedience," as placed before 
"sprinkling of the blood of Jesus?" Is not all obedience, which deserves the name, tho 
consequence of being justified through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and being 
sanctified by the Spirit? and does the Spirit sanctify any who are not sprinkled with the 
blood of Jesus ? All these difficulties, which I confess I cannot solve, are got rid of in 
the exegesis proposed. " Selected according to the divine foreknowledge," which is just 
equivalent to the divine purpose (Acts ii. 23 ; 1 Pet. i. 20), " by a spiritual separation unto 
obedience," that they "might obey the truth," i. e. believe the Gospel "and," through 
that " obedience" to the truth, " be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus," enjoy all the 
saving results of the death of Christ in pardon, sanctification, and eternal life. In the 
only other passage ( 2 Thees. ii. 13) where the phrase ayia^ds rrj/cv/xaro? occurs, it must be 
interpreted in the same way. The " choice" there seems plainly selection : by a. n. spirit 
ual separation and " belief of the truth." 



DISCOURSE II. 

THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION" DESCRIBED AND ACKNOWLEDGED. 

1 PET. i. 3-5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, accord 
ing to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection 
ofJesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through 
faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. 

IT has been finely remarked by a pious writer, that " it is a cold 
and lifeless thing to speak of spiritual things on mere report : but 
when men can speak of them as their own as having share and in 
terest in them, and some experience of their sweetness their dis 
course of them is enlivened with firm belief and ardent affection : 
they cannot mention them, but straight their hearts are taken with 
such gladness as they are forced to vent in praises.". 1 

Thus the apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Ephesian Church, when 
about to unfold the numerous, and varied, and invaluable benefits of 
the Christian salvation, instead of commencing with a mere formal 
statement of them, bursts forth into a hymn of thanksgiving, " Blessed 
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed 
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ ; according 
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that 
we should be holy and without blame before him in love ; having 
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to 
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the 
glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved : 
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of 
sins, according to the riches of his grace ; wherein he hath abounded 
toward us in all wisdom and prudence ; having made known unto us 
the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath 
purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, 
he might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are 
in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him ; in whom also WE 
have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the 
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own 
will ; that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted 
in Christ. In whom YE also trusted (or rather have obtained an in 
heritance), after that ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your 
salvation : in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with 
the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, 
until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise ol 
his glory." 2 

1 Leighton. a Eph. i. 3-14. 



44 THE CHRISTIAV SALVATION. [DISC. II. 

And in the epistle before us, the apostle Peter, whose object plainly 
is to confirm the converts to whom he wrote in the faith and practice 
and profession of Christianity, notwithstanding all the difficulties and 
trials to which they were exposed, in bringing forward the vast mag 
nitude and the absolute security of the happiness which the Gospel 
reveals and secures as one of the most powerful motives to perse 
verance, presents it in the impressive and animating form of devout- 
ascription of praise to a redeeming God, in the name of himself and 
his believing brethren : " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten 
us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Christ from the 
dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of 
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." 

In illustrating this very interesting passage of Scripture, our atten 
tion must be directed, I. To the blessings acknowledged ; and, II. 
To the acknowledgment of these blessings. 

The blessings acknowledged are these : (1.) the privilege of being 
the children of God " God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, hath begotten us again ;" (2.) an inheritance corresponding 
with this privilege the " salvation ready to be revealed in the last 
time." which is " an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, 
reserved in heaven," and for which Christians are " kept by the power 
of God through faith :" and (3.) a present well-grounded and joyful 
hope of this inheritance. 

The acknowledgment of these blessings naturally turns our atten 
tion (1.) to the author of these blessings God ; (2.) to the character 
in which he bestows them " the God and Father of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ ;" (3.) to the principle from which they flow 
"his abundant mercy;" (4.) to their vast magnitude and incalculable 
value ; and (5.) to the proper method of Christians expressing their 
sense of their magnitude and value, by blessing their Divine Author. 
Such is the outline which I shall endeavor to fill up in the remaining 
part of this discourse. 

I. OF THE BLESSINGS ACKNOWLEDGED. 

Let us then, according to this plan, consider, in the first place, the 
blessings which the apostle here so gratefully acknowledges. 

1. Divine Sonship. 

The first of these is the privilege of being children of God, " God, 
even the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, hath begotten us 
again." When it is said, God hath " begotten us," the meaning is, 

God hath made us his children ;" and when it is said that God hath 
" again," anew, a second time, " begotten us," the meaning is, we 
were his children in one sense before, but in another, a higher, a bet 
ter sense, a sense in which we were not his children, he has now 
made us his children. 



PART I.] ITS BLESSINGS DESCRIBED. 45 

As his rational creatures, the Objects of his kind providential care, 
all men are the children of God. "Have we not all one Father? 
Hath not one God created us ?" He is " the Father of the spirits of 
all flesh." " We are all his offspring." l But, as Christians, we have 
become the children of God in a sense in which all men are not his 
children. The appellation, children of God, as applied to true Chris 
tians in a mystical, spiritual sense, like most of their peculiar appella 
tions, is borrowed from one of the titles bestowed on the peculiai 
people of God under the former economy : " Israel, 5 said Jehovah, 
" is my son, my first-born." " Ye are the children of the Lord your 
God," says Moses. Jehovah is spoken of as " the Rock that begat 
them." 2 

When Christians are represented as the children of God, there are 
two ideas suggested by the appellation. They are brought by him 
into the relation of children and they are formed by him to the 
character of children. 

The relation in which every human being stands to God in the 
present state, previously to his being personally connected with Jesus 
Christ as the Saviour, is that in which a violator of the law, convicted 
and condemned, stands to his sovereign. He is the appropriate object 
of Divine displeasure; in the language of Scripture, "The wrath of 
God abideth on him." 3 His ultimate happiness, if he remains in 
this state, is incompatible with the honor of God, the good order of 
his moral administration, and the well-being of his rational and ac 
countable subjects. 

But in the case of genuine Christians, a change of state takes 
place. The obedience to the death of God s incarnate Son, makes 
the salvation of sinners consistent with, conducive to, the illustration 
of the perfections of the Divine character, and subservient to the in 
terests of the Divine government. Faith in Christ is that which, 
according to the Divine constitution, interests the individual sinner 
in the " obedience to death" of God s Son. On believing the truth, 
then, the individual who was condemned is no longer condemned 
he is forgiven ; he who was a sentenced criminal, is now a beloved 
child. The relation in which he now stands to God, is that of a son 
to a father. God no longer frowns on him he smiles on him. He 
no longer curses him he blesses him. He was " angry with him, 
but he now comforts him." 4 

When God makes men his children, he not only brings them into 
the relation of children, but he forms them to the character of chil 
dren. When he gives men the privilege of being his children, he 
"sends forth into their hearts the Spirit of his Son," who forms in 
them an habitual temper and disposition, which may be termed " the 
spirit of adoption." s Our sentiments in reference to God, while in 
our natural condition, are not child-like. Our state is that of con 
demned criminals, and our character corresponds with our state. 
The leading feelings of the unrenewed man towards God, are dislike, 
and jealousy, and fear " the fear that hath torment." But when 
God makes us his children, he forms us to the affectionate, confiding 

1 Mai. ii. 10. Acts xvii. 26-28. 9 Exod. iv. 22. Deut. xiv. 1 ; xxxii. 18 

John iii. 36. 4 Isa. adi 1. Gal. iv. 4-7. Rom. via. 15. 



46 THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION. [DISC. II. 

character of children. While he leads us to "sanctify him in our 
hearts," and to fear him without being afraid of him, he disposes us 
to love him as infinitely amiable and infinitely kind ; and to trust in 
him, as perfectly knowing what is good for us perfectly able to 
secure our welfare perfectly disposed to make us happy. 

To be thus brought into the state and formed to the character of 
God s children, form the two great elements of true happiness, as 
they form the two grand fundamental blessings of the Christian sal 
vation. They are most intimately connected together. The being 
brought into the state of children is absolutely necessary to the being 
formed to the character of children. It is impossible to form a slave 
to the character of a freeman, without making him free. And the 
formation of .us to the character of children, is the great design of 
God in bringing us into the state of children. He regards and 
treats us as his children, that we may regard him and treat him as 
our Father. 

We become the children of God both in reference to state and 
character, to condition and disposition through the belief of the 
truth ; and this belief of the truth is produced and maintained by 
the influence of the Holy Spirit. We are " the children of God by 
faith in Christ Jesus." We are " begotten" or " born" again, " not 
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which 
liveth and abideth forever." It is through the faith of the truth that 
the condemned sinner is forgiven and justified : " He that believeth 
is not condemned, and can never come into condemnation ;" while 
on him that believeth not, "the wrath of God abideth." And it is 
through the faith of the truth that the unholy sinner is sanctified. 
The heart is " purified by the faith." It is through the knowledge 
and belief of the truth, with regard to God s character as a Father, 
that we are formed to the disposition and feelings of children. And 
this faith of the truth is the result of the influence of the Divine 
Spirit ; so that, when born again born from above we are " born 
of the Spirit." J So much for the illustration of this first blessing, 
for which the apostle presents his acknowledgments. 

2. The inheritance provided for them. 

The second blessing is the future inheritance which God has pro 
vided for us as his children. He has " begotten us again to an in 
heritance," that is, that we may obtain an inheritance, &c. " If 
children," says the apostle, " then heirs," 2 that is, if he bring us 
into the relation and form us to the character of children, he will 
give us the treatment of children/ 

When God made ancient Israel his children brought them into a 
covenant relation with him he assigned to them an inheritance. 
That inheritance was, like the economy to which it belonged, ma 
terial and temporal. It was the large and fertile land of Canaan, 
which they were to possess in security and peace, but into whioh 
they were to enter not immediately not till after a long course of 
wandering in the wilderness. 

1 Gal. iii. 26. 1 Pet. i. 23. John Ui. 18. Acts xv. 9. Ty iriV. a Rom. TOii. 17. 



PART I.] I TS BLESSINGS DESCRIBED. 47 

When God brings men into the relation of children under the new 
and spiritual and eternal economy, he assigns to them an inheritance 
which corresponds with the character of that new dispensation an 
inheritance of which they are not to obtain the full possession, till 
" the end come the consummation of all things." The inheritance 
here is obviously the celestial blessedness, properly so called the 
final state of good men that state which, commencing with the 
general resurrection, is to be continued unchanged, except by indefi 
nite progress, forever and ever. What is figuratively termed " the 
inheritance," v. 4, is literally described, v. 5, " as the salvation ready 
or prepared to be revealed in the last time." 

Of that state we can form but very inadequate conceptions, for it 
has not yet been "revealed." It does not yet appear what we 
shall be ; l it will be fully unveiled by-and-by, but not till " the last 
time" the period of " the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." But we may form correct conceptions, so far as they go ; 
and it is of the greatest importance that we should do so. It is a 
state of complete freedom from evil, both moral and physical, in all 
its forms, and in all its degrees; and it is a L state of perfect holy 
happiness, suited to a spiritual nature, endowed with intellect and 
affection and active power, united to a material frame, every way 
suited to minister to its progressive improvement and enjoyment ; a 
state in which every capacity of blessedness shall be filled to over 
flowing, and in which the growing capacity shall never outrun the 
increasing blessedness. 

Knowledge and holiness are the two great elements of the celes 
tial happiness. The holy spirits of the just made perfect, clothed 
upon with their house from heaven the immortal, incorruptible, 
powerful, glorious resurrection body, shall be perfectly conformed to 
God, so far as their limited capacities admit, in knowledge and purity 
and happiness. God s mind shall be their mind God s will, their 
will God s happiness, their happiness. They shall " know Him as 
he is and they shall be like him." 2 This is, I am persuaded, the 
justest view we can take of the celestial happiness. This is i( the 
inheritance." 

The celestial blessedness receives here, and in many other passages 
of Scripture, the appellation of " the inheritance," for two reasons 
to mark its gratuitous nature, and to mark its secure tenure. 

An inheritance is something that is not obtained by the individual s 
own exertions, but by the free gift or bequest of another. The 
earthly inheritance of the external people of God, was not given 
them because they were greater or better than the other nations of 
the earth. It was " because the Lord had a delight in them to love 
them." "They got not the land in possession by their own sword, 
neither did their own right hand save them ; but thy right hand, and 
thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, for thou hadst a favor 
unto them." 3 And the heavenly inheritance of the spiritual people 
of God is entirely the gift of sovereign kindness. " By grace are we 
saved ;" " eternal life is the sift of God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord."* 

1 1 John iii. 3. a Ibid. iii. 2. Psd. xliv. 3. * Eph. ii. 5. Rom. vi. 23. 



48 THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION. [DISC. II. 

A second idea suggested by the figurative expression, " the inherit 
ance," when used in reference to the celestial blessedness, is the 
security of the tenure by which it is held. No right re more inde 
feasible than the right of inheritance. If the right of the giver or 
bequeather be good, all is secure. The heavenly happiness, whether 
viewed as the gift of the Divine Father, or the bequest of the Divine 
Son, is " sure to all the seed." If the title of the claimant be but as 
valid as the right of the original proprietor, their tenure must be as 
secure as the throne of God and his Son. 

The idea of the security of this happiness is brought forward, 
however, more distinctly in the description of the inheritance which 
immediately follows. It is described as " incorruptible, undefiled, and 
unfading reserved in heaven" for Christians, while they " are kept 
by the power of God through faith." 

In this description of the inheritance, there are two things which 
require consideration the excellence of the inheritance itself; and 
the security that the Christian shall in due time enjoy it. 

The excellence of the inheritance itself, consists in being " incor 
ruptible, undefiled, and unfading." l These epithets may seem in a 
great degree synonymous, and there is no doubt that permanent, 
unchanging excellence is the leading idea in them all ; yet, on look 
ing a little more closely at them, we shall find that each of them 
presents that general idea in an instructive and pleasing peculiarity 
of aspect. 

The celestial happiness viewed as an inheritance, is " incorrup 
tible." There is nothing in its own nature which can lead to its dis 
solution. It is not material, but spiritual. It is not composed of 
" such corruptible things as silver and gold," but of knowledge and 
of holiness. It is not " meat and drink," it is not costly and splen 
did apparel it is not stately buildings, no.r extensive estates. It is 
"joy and peace" and happiness arising from sources which, from 
their very nature, are inexhaustible, possession of the Divine favor 
conformity to the Divine image intercourse and fellowship with 
God. 

It is not only incorruptible, and therefore everlasting, but it is 
"undefiled." It is debased by no extrinsic, heterogeneous ingredi 
ent. In all our enjoyments on earth, however pure and exalted in 
themselves, there is a mixture. There is always something wanting 
something wrong ; and sin, that vilest of all things, taints and 
pollutes them all. But into heaven there enters " nothing that de- 
fileth." There is knowledge, without any mixture of error holi 
ness, without any mixture of sin love, without any mixture of 
malignity ; the highest dignities excite there no pride the richest 
possessions, no covetousness. The inheritance is undefiled. 

Still farther the heavenly inheritance is "unfading!" It " fadeth 
not away." 2 The garland worn by the blessed is of amaranth it 
never withers. The idea here seems to be, It not only is everlasting 

1 *A<0apro? seternum durens. A/unvro; purum cui nihil mali, nihil vitii est admixtum 
ut purum gaudium gaudium cui nihil tristitia admiscetur. Apapav ros non marcescena. 
MORUS. 



PART I.] ITS BLESSINGS DESCRIBED. 49 

in its own nature, but it will never cease to give happiness to the pos 
sessor. How often do worldly possessions wither, cease to give the 
happiness they once gave to those who continue to hold rather than 
to enjoy them ! It has been beautifully remarked, that " the sweetest 
earthly music, if heard but for one day, would weary those who are 
most delighted with it. But the song of Heaven, though forever the 
same, will be forever new." l Here we are often sated but never 
satisfied there, there is constant satisfaction, but there never will be 
satiety. Such is the excellence of the celestial inheritance. 

But, may the Christian say, the inheritance is indeed inestima 
bly precious ; but will it ever be mine ? It is as secure as it is pre 
cious, says the apostle. It is " reserved in heaven for you," and you 
are " kept for it by the power of God through faith." 

This inheritance is "reserved in heaven" for Christians that is, 
it is secured beyond the reach of violence or fraud. Many a person, 
born to a rich inheritance, has never obtained possession of it, but 
has lived and died in poverty ; but this inheritance is liable to none 
of the accidents of earth and time. It is " in heaven," under the 
immediate guardianship of DIVINE power, wisdom, and love. 

But the inheritance may itself be secure, but not secure for me. 
There may be perfect happiness in heaven, but I may never reach it 
there/ To meet this suggestion the apostle adds, " Ye are kept by 
the mighty power of God through faith." 2 The apostle s doctrine is, 
and it is quite accordant with the doctrine of his Master and the other 
apostles, that all who are begotten again by God shall be preserved 
to the enjoyment of the inheritance. None of them shall fall in the 
wilderness. " I give unto my sheep eternal life," says Jesus Christ ; 
" and they shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of 
my hand. My Father, who gave them me, is greater than all ; and 
none can pluck them out of my Father s hand." 3 " Who shall sepa 
rate us from the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or perse 
cution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? Nay, in all 
these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. 
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin 
cipalities, 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." * 

They are "kept" preserved safe amid the many dangers to 
which they are exposed, " by the power of God." The expression, 
"power of God," may here refer to the divine power both as exer 
cised in reference to the enemies of the Christian, controlling their 
malignant purposes, and as exercised in the form of spiritual influence 
on the mind of the Christian himself, keeping him in the faith of the 
truth, " in the love of God, and in the patient waiting for our Lord 
Jesus Christ." It is probably to the last that the apostle principally 
alludes, for he adds "by faith." It is through the persevering faith 
of the truth that the Christian is by divine influence preserved from 

1 Leighton. 

a Hereditas scrvata est : heredea custodiuntur. Neque ilia his, neque hi deerunt illi 

1 John x. 28. 4 Rom. viii. 35-39. 



50 THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION. [DISC. II 

falling, and kept in possession both of that state and character which 
are absolutely necessary to the enjoyment of the heavenly inheri 
tance. 1 , . 

The perseverance thus secured to the true Christian is perseve 
rance in faith and holiness, and nothing can be more grossly absurd 
than for a person living in unbelief and sin, to suppose that he can be 
in the way of obtaining celestial blessedness. 

So much for the illustration of the second blessing for which the 
apostle gives thanks the future inheritance which God has provided 
for his children. 

3. The living hope of the inheritance. 

Let us now proceed to consider the third of these blessings : The 
living or lively hope of the inheritance, through the resurrection of 
Christ Jesus from the dead. God hath " begotten us again to a 
lively hope" that is, in making us his children, he has excited in us 
an influential and enduring hope of final and complete happiness. 

Mankind in their natural state are said to " have no hope" : that 
is, they are without any well-grounded rational hope of final happi 
ness. This is true of all men without exception, of the elect of God 
as well as of others. They have broken the divine law ; they have 
incurred the divine displeasure. They are guilty, and depraved, and 
miserable. They deserve everlasting destruction ; if mercy inter 
pose not, they must meet with their desert. 

It is then an inquiry of very deep moment, how is the well-ground 
ed hope of final happiness excited and maintained in the human 
mind ? Now there are two questions which must be resolved, in or 
der to our distinctly apprehending the truth on this subject ; the first, 
what is the ground of the hope referred to in our text ? and the sec 
ond, how is an individual brought to cherish the hope of final hap 
piness on this ground ? 

With reference to the former of these questions, it is obvious that 
the ground of hope is not anything in the sinner himself. It is not 
that he is innocent ; it is not that he is less guilty than others. It is 
not that a great change has been produced, or is to be produced, on 
him. When he looks at himself in the light of the divine law, a sinner 
may well perceive abundant reason for fear, abundant reason for de 
spair; but he can never perceive any sufficient reason for hope. 

The ground of hope is not in us, but in God. The ground of the 
sinner s hope (and the ground of the saint s hope is just the ground 
of the sinner s hope; for what is a saint but a saved sinner?) is 
sometimes represented as the sovereign benignity of God ; sometimes 
as the obedience to death, the finished work, the perfect atonement, 
of Christ ; and sometimes as the free untrammelled revelation of mercy 
in the word of the truth of the gospel. These are all but different as- 

1 When lv and && are connected in one sentence, oiu refers to external mean?, whilst If 
relates ^to that which is effected in or on a person, as if adhering to him. Eph. i. 7, * 
V (xfO *Xl tev T/ > <iiro\vT{>wiv <5ii roC at /jaroj IIVTOV. Even when impersonal things are 
Bpoken of, the distinction between lv (of an internal psychological state or power), and Sia t 
of means, is apparent: as 1 Pet, i. 5. rovj i* tW. ip. tW tpwpov^vs <5<i ^Vrtwj ; and T. 

22, iv ry vrrcLKoy rfjs d\r)dita^ 6iu xvev-aroj. WlNEB, Part Hi. S6C. 52, p. 312. 

8 Eph. ii. 12. 



PART I.] ITS BLESSINGS DESCRIBED. 51 

pects of the same thing, and the truth on this subject may be thus 
stated : The ground the sole ground of a sinner s hope is the sove 
reign mercy of God, manifested in consistency with, in glorious illus 
tration of, his righteousness, in the obedience to death of his Son 
Jesus Christ, the just one in the room of the unjust, of which we have 
a plain and well-accredited account " in the word of the truth of the 
gospel." The ground of hope is exhibited in such passages of Scrip 
ture as the following : " God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, 
but have everlasting life/ " The righteousness of God without the 
law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets ; even 
the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Christ unto all and 
upon all them that believe ; for there is no difference : for all have 

1 1 (* t 1 1 f* /~^ 1 1" " A * f* 1 f* IT 




propitiation 

is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief." " God 
is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their tres 
passes to them ; for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no 
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." " The 
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. He is able 
to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him, seeing he 
ever liveth to make intercession for them." l 

The second question is, how is the sinner brought to cherish the 
hope of eternal life on this ground? Now, if the preceding remarks 
have been understood, there can be no difficulty in answering this 
question. The free sovereign mercy of God, manifested in a consis 
tency with his righteousness, is revealed in the gospel ; and it can 
only be by that gospel being understood and believed, that the indi 
vidual sinner can obtain the hope of eternal life. If I believe this rev 
elation, I hope for eternal life, and I hope for eternal life on this 
ground. . If I do not believe this revelation, I either have no hope of 
eternal life, or, if I have, it is a hope built on another and a false 
foundation. It is in the faith of the truth that the sinner finds hope. 
Not that the sinner s faith is the ground of his hope, but that it is 
through believing alone that he can discover the ground on which his 
hope must rest. When Elisha s servant was overwhelmed with fears 
lest his master should fall into the hands of the Syrians, these fears 
were turned into assured hope, when, with enlightened eyes, he be 
held the heavenly host with which they were surrounded. His hope 
rested, not on his seeing that host, but on their being there ; but still 
his seeing them there was in the nature of things necessary to his 
hope. 2 In like manner the sinner s hope rests entirely on God s free 
sovereign kindness, manifested in harmony with his righteousness ; 
but it is only in the belief of the truth that this sovereign kindness 
can be apprehended as a ground of hope. 

The ground of hope never varies. The ground of the hope of 
sternal life to an aged and accomplished saint, just about to enter 

1 John iii. 16. Rom. iii. 21-25. 1 Tim. i. 15. 2 Cor. v. 19, 21. Heb vii. 25. 
a 2 Kings vi. 15-17. 



52 THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION. [DISC. II. 

Paradise, is the very same as to the most guilty and depraved of men 
who has just been brought to the knowledge and faith of the truth. 
" The beginning of our confidence" is the end of our confidence. Our 
first hope is our last hope. 

It follows of course that the great means of maintaining and 
strengthening hope, is just the continued and the increasing faith of 
the truth. At the same time it is plain from Scripture, that as the 
faith of the truth uniformly produces holiness as well as hope, unholy 
tempers are in their own nature calculated to cloud our hope ; and 
holy tempers and conduct to strengthen it, not by adding to its foun 
dation, but by affording evidence that we have built on that foun 
dation. 

There are two other questions respecting this hope, which, though 
not of such vital importance as those which I have now endeavored 
briefly and plainly to answer, are yet of very considerable interest at 
all times, and particularly at present, when much darkening of counsel 
by words without knowledge, on this subject, seems to me to prevail. 1 
Is the hope of eternal life connected with the faith of the gospel ? And 
does every believer enjoy an unclouded hope of eternal life ? 

With regard to the first question, I unhesitatingly reply in the 
affirmative. The gospel cannot be believed without, in the degree in 
which it is believed, producing the hope of eternal life. It is not 
only not necessary that a sinner should wait till the faith of the gos 
pel has proved its efficacy in a moral transformation of his nature, 
before he begin to cherish the hope of salvation, but he cannot believe 
the gospel without cherishing that hope ; and it is through means of 
this hope that the gospel believed, in a great measure, works that 
moral change. To believe the gospel, and to despair of salvation, are 
two utterly incompatible states of mind. We hold, then, that every 
believer, according to the measure of his faith, has the hope of eternal 
life. 

And in this principle we also find the true answer to the second 
question; Does every believer enjoy the unclouded hope of eternal 
life ? He does enjoy that hope according to the measure of his faith. 
If he is strong in faith, he abounds in hope. But as every believer in 
the present state has but an imperfect apprehension both of the truth 
and of its evidence, and is still to a certain extent under the influence 
of false views, every believer, while in the present state, is imperfect 
both in holiness and in hope. At the same time, his imperfection in 
both is not more his misfortune than his fault. A perfect faith of a 
completely understood gospel would produce unshaken, unclouded 
hope, and enable the Christian at all times, in all circumstances, to 
" rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." 

This hope of eternal life, grounded on the sovereign mercy of God 
manifested, in harmony with his holiness and righteousness, through 
the mediation of Christ, revealed in the gospel ; and excited, main 
tained and strengthened by the faith of the gospel, is described here 
as " a lively," or rather " a living hope." 2 The hope of the Christian 

* The reference here is to the speculations about Universal Pardon, which, at the time 
this discourse was delivered, December 1830, were very prevalent in this country. 





PART I.] ITS BLESSINGS DESCRIBED. 53 

is a " living * hope, in opposition both to a dead and a dying hope in 
opposition to the dead hope of the hypocrite, and the dying hope of 
the self-deceiver. 

The apostle James speaks of " a dead faith," which, on examination, 
turns out to be no faith at all, but merely a man s saying he has faith. 1 
There is also a dead hope, which is in reality no hope at all, but 
merely a profession of it. A mere professed hope, founded on a mere 
professed faith, is a dead thing it can make a man neither holy nor 
happy it cannot animate to duty it cannot support under suffering. 
But the hope of the Christian is " a living hope." It fills him with 
joy and peace in the degree in which it prevails ; and it leads him to 
purify himself, even as he in whom he places his confidence is pure. 
The hope of eternal life is the well-grounded expectation of perfect 
holy happiness. Now is it not perfectly plain, so plain as to need no 
illustration, that this must be a living operative hope, and that, just in 
the degree in which it exists, it must make him in whom it dwells 
both holy and happy ? It will induce a man to submit to the great 
est evils rather than renounce the faith of Christ ; and it will keep him 
cheerful and happy amidst all the sacrifices which he may be called 
on to make in the cause of his Saviour. 

This hope is termed " a living hope," not only in opposition to a 
dead hope, but also in opposition to dying hopes. There are many 
hopes which are not merely professed, but really entertained, that will 
never be realized. This is true both as to worldly hopes and as to 
religious hopes. With regard to worldly hopes, have we not all from 
experience discovered the truth of the remark, " They are not liv 
ing, but lying, dying hopes. They often die before us, and we live to 
bury them, and see our own folly and simplicity in trusting to them, 
and at the utmost they die with us when we die, and can accompany 
us no farther." 2 With regard to religious hopes, it is a happy thing 
when all of them, not founded on the faith of the truth, die before we 
die ; for till these dying hopes expire, the living hope cannot exist. 
All hopes of eternal life, excepting that which we have been endeav 
oring to describe, will most assuredly expire when we expire, and 
make those who relied on them ashamed and confounded world with 
out end. But this hope lives in death. This hope remains un 
shaken by all the calamities which can befal the believer here ; for he 
knows nothing can separate him from the love of God. Death and 
judgment and eternity do not destroy, they fulfil this hope ; and as 
the object of the hope is ever-enduring holy happiness, it is plain that 
hope as well as enjoyment must continue forever. 

This "hope makes not ashamed," that is, it never disappoints ; and, 
if you would know the reason, you will find the apostle Paul assigning 
it, from the 5th to the 10th verse of the 5th chapter of the epistle to 
the Romans : " Hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God 
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto 
us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died 
for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet 
perad venture for a good man some would even dare to die. But God 
comrnendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, 
1 James ii. 17. 2 Leirfitou. 



54 THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION. [DISC. II. 

Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, 
we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were 
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ; much 
more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." 

This living hope is produced " by" means of " the resurrection of 
Christ Jesus" from the dead." The resurrection of our Lord Jesus 
Christ is one of the most striking and satisfactory proofs of the divin 
ity of his mission, and, of course, of the truth of all its doctrines ; and, 
among the rest, of that grand characteristic doctrine of his gospel on 
which the hope of eternal life is founded. It is, indeed, not so much 
one evidence as " a cloud of witnesses." It is the fulfilment of Old 
Testament predictions respecting the Messiah, and thus proves him 
to be the Messiah it is the fulfilment of his own predictions, and 
therefore proves him to be a true prophet. It is God determining the 
controversy between him and his unbelieving countrymen. He de 
clared himself to be the Son of God, and they put him to death be 
cause he declared himself to be the Son of God ; and God interposed, 
and by doing for him what none but God could have done, proved 
that He was right, and they were wrong. Most powerfully was Jesus 
Christ demonstrated to be the Son of God by the resurrection from 
the dead. 3 

But there is a more intimate connection than this between the res 
urrection of Christ from the dead, and the hope of eternal life. Christ s 
resurrection from the dead is a clear proof of the reality and efficacy 
of his atoning sacrifice. He " who was given for our offences, has 
been raised again for our justification." 4 When God " brought again 
from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, by 
the blood of the everlasting covenant," he manifested himself to be 
"the God of peace," the pacified Divinity. He " raised him from the 
dead, and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in him 
self." Had Jesus not risen, " our faith had been vain ; we should 
have been still in our sin," 5 and without hope. But now that he has 
risen 

" Our surety freed, declares us free, 

For whose offences He was seized ; 
In His release our own we see, 
And joy to view Jehovah pleased." 

But even this is not all. Our Lord s resurrection is to be viewed 
not only in connection with his death, but with the following glory. 
Raised from the dead, he has received "all power in heaven and on 
earth, that he may give eternal life to as many as the Father had 
given him." How this is calculated to encourage hope, may be 
readily apprehended. " Because he lives, we shall live also." 
Having the keys of death and the unseen world, he can and will 
raise us from the dead, and give us eternal life. He sits at the right 
hand of God. " Our life is hid with him in God ; and when he who is 
our life shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory." We are 

1 The above remarks, somewhat amplified, have been repeatedly published, under the 
title of " Hints on Hope." 

3 At dvas-aatwi. Hoc pendet a gu<mv. Col. v. 21. BENGEL. 3 Rom. i. 4 

Horn. iv. 25. & Heb. xiii. 20. 1 Pet. i. 21. 1 Cor. xv. 17 



PART IT.] ACKNOWLEDGMENT OP ITS BLESSINGS. 55 

not yet in possession of the inheritance ; but he, our head and repre 
sentative, is. " We see not yet all things put under us ; but we see 
Him/ 3 the Captain of our salvation, " for the suffering of death crown- 
ed with glory and honor." l The resurrection of Christ, when con 
sidered in reference to the death which preceded, and the glory 
which followed it, is the grand means of producing and strengthening 
the hope of eternal life. 

Let us all beware of false hopes. Let him who never hoped, now 
receive the truth in the love of it, and begin to hope. Let those who 
have believed abound in hope. There is, there can be, no danger of 
hoping too confidently, if the hope be but placed on the right founda 
tion; " We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence, 
to the full assurance of hope unto the end ; 2 that ye be not slothful, 
but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the 
promises." 

II. OF THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THESE BLESSINGS. 

The devout acknowledgment of these blessings comes now to be 
considered : " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and Sa 
viour Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath be 
gotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept 
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be reveal 
ed in the last time." This devout acknowledgment naturally leads 
the mind to reflect on God as the author of these blessings on the 
character in which he bestows them, " the God and Father of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ/ on the principle in which the be 
stowal of these blessings originates, "abundant mercy" on their 
vast magnitude and inestimable value and on the proper manner of 
Christians expressing their sense of this magnitude and value. 

1. God is the author of these blessings. 

The first remark suggested by this devout acknowledgment is, that 
God is the author of the blessings acknowledged. This is not only 
implied in making the acknowledgment for when we return thanks 
for a favor, to whom do we offer our acknowledgment but to him 
who has bestowed it ? but it is distinctly expressed : God has begot 
ten us again. God has provided us an inheritance. God has given 
us a living hope. 

God is the author of all good. All the holiness and all the happi 
ness in the universe come from him. " Every good gift and every 
perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of 
lights." In the new creation, " All things are of God." 3 The bless 
ings enjoyed by Christians are all the free gifts of his sovereign good 
ness. HE makes us his children. HE brings us into the relation of 
children. HE forms us to the character of children. When we are 

1 John xiv. 19. Rev. i. 18. Col. ill 3. Heb. ii. 9. a Iva. Heb. vL 11, 12. 

3 James L 17. 2 Cor. v. 18 



56 THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION. ["DISC. II. 

brought into the relation of children, our sins are forgiven, and we 
are justified freely by God s grace. But " who can forgive sins, but 
GOD only ?" " It is GOD that justifieth." The sentence of the law 
can be remitted only by the great Lawgiver. The privilege of being 
the sons of God can be conferred by none but God. As it is God 
who brings us into the relation of children, it is od who forms us to 
the character of children. " For we are His workmanship, created 
anew in Christ Jesus." It is God who, by the agency of his own 
Spirit, through the instrumentality of his own word understood and 
believed, transforms the character of a condemned felonious slave 
into that of a beloved and dutiful child. It is HE who takes " the 
hard and the stony heart out of our flesh, and gives us a heart of 
flesh." It is HE who disposes us to venerate, and esteem, and love, 
and trust him. It is HE who enables us cheerfully to obey his com 
mandments, and submit to his appointments. It is HE who sends 
forth his Spirit into our hearts, teaching us to cry, " Abba, Father." 3 

As it is God who makes us his children, bringing us into the filial 
relation, forming us to the filial character, so it is God who has pro 
vided, and who will bestow on his people, the inheritance correspond 
ing to the relation into which he has brought them, and the charac 
ter to which He has formed them. " It is the FATHER S good pleasure 
to give them the kingdom." The final happiness of the saints is en 
tirely the result of DIVINE love, and wisdom, and power. " Eternal 
life is the gift of God." 3 God himself is, indeed, if I may use the ex 
pression, the very substance of the celestial blessedness. To know 
him to see him as he is to find in him the adequate object of all 
our unbounded capacities of knowledge, and affection, and enjoyment 
to love him, and to be loved by him, and to know that we are 
loved by him to be like him, having no mind different from his, no 
will opposed to his to enter into his joy, and thus to have our joy 
made full this is the inheritance ; and who can thus give us God, 
but God himself? 

And all that was necessary, in order to make the communication 
of such a happiness to such creatures as we are guilty, righteously 
condemned consistent with the honor of the divine character ; and 
all that is necessary to make such depraved creatures as we are, 
capable of such a happiness, is the work, not of men nor of angels, 
but of God. His love originated the purpose his wisdom formed 
the plan his power will workout the accomplishment, of his people s 
salvation. 

As the inheritance is his gift, so also is the hope of the inheritance. 
It is God who gives us the living hope. The ground of that hope is 
His sovereign kindness that kindness is displayed in harmony with 
righteousness, in His giving His Son to be the propitiation for the 
sins of men. This display of his sovereign kindness is made in His 
revelation, of His will by " holy men who spoke as they were moved 
by His Spirit ;" and this revelation, in the belief of which alone the 
condemned sinner can find hope, is understood and believed by the 
individual sinner, in consequence of the effectual working of His 

1 Mark ii. 7. Rom. viii. 33. Eok ii. 10. Ezek. xi. 19. Gal. iv. 6. 

Luke xii. 32. Rom. vi. 23. 



PART II.] ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ITS BLESSINGS. 57 

Spirit. It was HE who " delivered his Son for our offences." It 
was HE who " raised him again for our justification." It is He who 
disposes us to believe this revelation of mercy. It is HE who thus 
gives us " good hope through grace." Every measure of the living 
hope, from the faint dawn which opens on the mind of the sinner 
coming to the knowledge of the truth, to the clear unclouded radi 
ance which enlightens the mind of him who has received " the full 
assurance of understanding," every measure of this living hope is the 
gift of God ; and we end as we began the illustration of this particu 
lar with the sublime declaration of the apostle respecting the new 
creation, " All things are of God." " Of HIM, and through him, and 
to him, are all things." " God is all in all." 1 

2. It is as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that God 
bestows these blessings. 

The second remark suggested by this devout acknowledgment is, 
that in bestowing the favors here acknowledged, God acts in the 
character of " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." God 
is infinitely holy, and cannot but disapprove sin cannot but loathe 
and abhor it in a degree of which we can form no adequate concep 
tion. God is inflexibly just, and can " by no means clear the guilty." 
He is " not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil 
dwell with him. The foolish shall not stand in his sight ; and he hates 
the workers of iniquity." "Snares, fire and brimstone, and a furious 
tempest will he rain on the wicked ; this pertains to them as a por 
tion of their cup." 2 How is it then, that this holy and righteous God 
blesses sinful men with all heavenly and spiritual blessings ? How 
is it that he makes them his children ; gives them a heavenly inherit 
ance, and cheers them with a living hope ? 

It is as " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," that he 
does all this. In the riches of his sovereign mercy he determined to 
save an innumerable multitude of sinful men, and in the depth of his 
wisdom he formed a plan for realizing the determination of his mer 
cy, not merely in consistency with, but in glorious illustration of, his 
holiness and justice. The leading feature in that plan is, the appoint 
ment of his only begotten Son to be the representative of those who 
were to be saved, to be dealt with as they deserved to be dealt with, 
that they might be dealt with as he deserved to be dealt with. The 
second person of the glorious Trinity is essentially his Father s equal 
possessed of the same divine essence and perfections ; but in this 
assumed character he is the Father s inferior; he acts a subordinate 
part in the economy of salvation. God, essentially considered, in the 
person of the Father, is the God of " the Mediator between God and 
man ;" and he is his Father, not merely essentially, as he is the second 
person of the Trinity, but also economically, as he is the head of the 
chosen family " the first-born among many brethren." 

The great truth intended to be taught us by God being represented 
as the author of spiritual blessings to men, in the character of the 

1 Rom. iv. 25. 2 Thess. ii. 16. 2 Cor. v. 18. Rom. xi. 36. 1 Cor. xv. 28. 
a Exod. xxxiv 7. Psal. v. 4, 5 ; xi 6. 



58 THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION. [DISC. II. 

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is this that it is only as 
viewed in connection with him ; or, as the inspired writers usually 
express it, as in him," that we sinners can obtain any saving bless- 
ino- from God. Tiie order is, " all things are ours, we are Christ s, 
Christ is God s." He is our God because he is his God, our Father 
because he is his Father. 1 Take the blessings mentioned in the text 
as an illustration. God makes us his children, that is, he pardons our 
sins, he receives us into his favor, he conforms us to his image. 
Now, how does he do this ? He gives " us redemption in Christ, 
the forgiveness of sins." He makes us " accepted in the beloved." 
" We are his workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus unto good 
works." He gives us an inheritance. How? in Christ. "In him," 
says the apostle, " we have obtained an inheritance." He makes us 
to " sit in heavenly places in him." : He gives us a living hope. 
How ? While " without Christ," -viewed as unconnected with Christ, 
there is no hope for man; all his well-grounded expectations of hap- 
piness must be founded on what Christ has done, and is doing, as the 
representative of his people. While in the new creation, all things 
are " of God," all things are " through Christ Jesus." It is as well 
pleased with Him, that God is well pleased with us ; and it is as his 
God and Father, that he blesses us " with all heavenly and spiritual 
blessings in him." 

3. These blessings originate in the " abundant mercy" of God. 

The third remark suggested by this devout acknowledgment is, 
that in the bestowing of these blessings on us by God, there is a re 
markable display of the divine benignity. It is " according to his 
abundant mercy, that he begets us again unto a lively hope, by the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incor 
ruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven 
for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salva 
tion; ready to be revealed in the last time." This remark invites us 
into a very wide field of most interesting and improving illustra 
tion ; but I must satisfy myself with merely opening to you a few 
tracks of thought, which you will do well to pursue in private medi 
tation. 

Think on the character of him who bestows these blessings, the 
absolute, independent Jehovah, perfectly, infinitely, unchangeably 
happy in himself. How could the self-incurred ruin of guilty man 
kind affect his interest ? It might illustrate his holiness, his right 
eousness, his faithfulness, but how could it disturb his peace, or lessen 
his blessedness? It is impossible to conceive the communication of 
saving blessings to man, to originate in any principle in the divine 
mind but sovereign benignity. If man is saved, it is " only because 
God had a delight in him to love him." 

Think on the nature of the blessings, the very highest which can 
be conferred on creatures, the noblest in their own nature, and in 
their measure limited by nothing but the capacity of the recipient. 

1 2 Cor. iii. 22, 23. John xx. 17. a Epli. i. 3-13. 



PART II.] ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ITS BLESSINGS. 59 

"Behold, what manner of love" is this, 1 to be God s sons, to see him 
as he is, to be like him, and all this forever and ever ! 

Think on the character of those on whom they are bestowed, 
sinners, guilty, depraved, righteously condemned ; deserving everlast 
ing destruction ; in the state in which mercy finds them, forgetters, 
haters, contemners of God. Surely the mercy which confers such 
blessings on such sinners is abundant mercy, and the apostle may well 
say," Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, 
that we should be called the sons of God." 

Think of the number of those on whom these blessings are bestow 
ed, " the nations of the saved" are a numerous host. 2 The sons 
who are to be brought to glory are " many sons." They are " a great 
multitude, an innumerable company, out of every kindred, and peo 
ple, and tongue, and nation ;" and all these are blessed up to their 
largest capacity of enjoyment, during the whole eternity of their be 
ing. Is not this abundant mercy ? 

Once more, think of the means through which the blessings are 
communicated, the incarnation, the sacrifice of God s own Son. 
He did not spare him, he delivered him up for us all, that he with 
him might freely give us all things. " Herein surely is love, not that 
we loved God but that God loved us, and sent his Son to be the pro 
pitiation for our sins." "God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, 
but have everlasting life." 3 

Surely it is in his "abundant mercy" that " God, even the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, has blessed us with all heavenly and spirit 
ual blessings." 

4. These blessings are of vast magnitude and incalculable value. 

The fourth remark suggested by this devout acknowledgment is, 
that the blessings acknowledged are of vast magnitude and of incal 
culable value. The plain meaning of the acknowledgment is this : 
"for conferring these blessings on us, God richly deserves to be 
thanked and praised uninterruptedly, everlastingly." For every 
blessing, even for a breath of air, a crust of bread, a draught of water, 
a moment of ease, we ought to give thanks ; for we are unworthy 
of any favor. Everything in the shape of blessing coming to us from 
God should excite our gratitude. But the blessings mentioned in the 
text are obviously peculiarly valuable. They are not " such corrupt 
ible things as silver and gold." They include in them deliverance 
from guilt, depravity, degradation, death, everlasting misery ; the en 
joyment of the favor of God, tranquillity of conscience, ever-growing 
conformity to the divine image in holiness and happiness, throughout 
eternity. Just look at them as here described, and say if they are not 
unspeakably great, incalculably valuable. What is said of the love 
in which they originate may be equally applied to them : They have 
" a height and a depth, a length and a breadth, which pass knowl 
edge." 4 

1 1 John iii. 1. a Rev. xxi 24 ; vii. 9. 

3 1 John iv. 10. John iii. 16. 4 Eph. iii. 18, 19. 



60 THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION. [DISC. II. 

5. The proper method of acknowledging these benefits is, to "bless" 
their munificent giver. 

The fifth and last remark suggested by this devout acknowledg 
ment is, that the appropriate manner of expressing our sense of the 
magnitude and value of these blessings is, to bless their munificent 
author. When God blesses men, he confers on them blessings, he 
makes them blessed; when men bless God, they merely declare that 
he is infinitely excellent and blessed in himself that he deserves to 
have his infinite excellencies acknowledged and celebrated that 
they recognize this obligation as lying on them and that they wish 
to express, by every proper method, their sense of the infinite praise- 
worthiness of the Divinity. 

Nothing surely can be more reasonable than that those who have 
received such blessings as are here acknowledged, should bless Him 
who has bestowed them. This is one of the purposes for which they 
are begotten again. "This people," may Jehovah say of them, I 
have formed for myself, that they may show forth my praise." " Ye 
are a chosen generation," says the apostle, " a royal priesthood, a holy 
nation, a peculiar people ; that ye should show forth the praises of 
him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." * 
Christians ought to cultivate the feelings of gratitude for the blessings 
they have received, and which they hope to receive, and often to ex 
press their feelings in thanksgiving and praise. Indeed their whole 
lives should be a hymn of praise to the God of their salvation. The 
habitual language of their heart should be, "What shall I render to 
the Lord for all his benefits !" " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and 
never be forgetful of his benefits! who forgiveth all thine iniquities; 
who healeth all thy diseases ; who redeemeth thy life from destruc 
tion ; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies." 
" I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart ; and I will 
glorify thy name for evermore. For great is thy mercy toward me ; 
and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell." 2 

If we really feel gratitude to God for his abundant goodness, we 
shall express it not merely by our lips, but by our lives. Constrained 
by " the mercy of God, we shall present our bodies, ourselves, living 
sacrifices, holy, and acceptable, which is our reasonable service." 
While we through Christ " offer to him continually the sacrifice of 
praise, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name ;" we will also, 
"do good and communicate," knowing that " with such sacrifices 
God is well pleased ;" and while we feel ashamed of the coldness of 
our feelings of gratitude, and the imperfection of our services of 
acknowledgment, we will look forward with earnest longings to that 
happy period, when, having been made partakers of the inheritance. 
we shall, under the influence of the gratitude which " the salvation 
which is in Christ, with eternal glory," fully possessed, is fitted to 
exert over a thoroughly sanctified human heart, join in the rapturous 
anthem of eternity: "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be 
to him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever." 8 

1 Isa. xliii. 21 : 1 Pet. ii. 9. 2 Psal. ciii. 1-4: Ixxxvi. 12, 13. 

8 Rom. xii. 1. Heb. xiii. 15, 16. Rev. v. 13. 



DISCOURSE III. 

THE PRESENT AND FUTURE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN 
CONTRASTED. 

1 PET. i. 6-9. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season (if need be) ye ara 

in heaviness through manifold temptations ; that the trial of your faith, being much more 
precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, 
and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; 
in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and 
full of glory : Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 

THE first step towards the satisfactory interpretation of a long, 
complicated, parenthetical sentence like that just now read, is to 
analyze it. The sentence consists of a direct assertion, with a long 
parenthesis interposed. The direct assertion is, " In that time, the 
last time, ye greatly rejoice ; ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full 
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your 
souls." The parenthetical statement is, " though now for a season, 
if need be" or, " since there is need, ye are in heaviness through 
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being more precious 
than that of gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might 
be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus 
Christ, whom though you have not seen, ye love, not seeing him, but 
believing in him." 

With respect to the direct assertion, a careful reader will easily per 
ceive, that though expressed in the present time, it refers to the future. 

The time of the Christian s joy unspeakable and full of glory, is 
the last time, contrasted with the time of his trial " now ;" l when 
he shall receive the end of his faith, even the salvation of his soul 
the same period which is described as that of " the appearing" or 
manifestation "of Jesus Christ." Instances of an assertion made 
in the present tense, when it plainly refers to the future, are not un- 
frequent. " Yet a little while I am," that is, shall be, " with you, and 
then I go," that is, shall go, " unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek 
me, and shall not find me : and where I and," that is, shall be, " thither 
ye cannot," that is, shall not be able to, " come." " How are," that 
is, shall be, " the dead raised, and with what bodies do," that is, shall, 
" they come ?" " And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth," 
that is, shall proceed, "out of their mouth, and devoureth," that is, 
shall devour, " their enemies." 2 

The phrases, " a joy unspeakable and full of glory," are too strong 



1 It is rendered by the future in the Latin Vulgat 
* John vii. 33, 34. 1 Cor. xv. 35. Rev. xi. 5. 



e, and versions made from it. 



62 CONTRAST OF THE PRESENT [DISC. III. 

to describe the Christian s habitual feelings in the present state ; and 
we find the very same words employed, in reference to the happiness 
of the final state, in an after part of the epistle. "But rejoice, inas 
much as ye are made partakers of Christ s sufferings ; that when his 
glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." l 

The meaning of the apostle would have been more evident to an 
English reader, had the assertion been rendered in the future time ; 
"in^ which time," that is, in the last time, ye shall greatly rejoice 
(though now for a season, since it is needful, ye are in heaviness 
through manifold temptations ; that the trial of your faith, which is 
more precious than that of gold which perisheth, though it be tried 
with fire, might be found to praise, and honor, and glory, at the ap 
pearing of Jesus Christ: whom, not seeing him, but believing on 
him, ye love, though ye have not seen him) "ye shall rejoice with 
joy unspeakable, and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, 
the salvation of your soul." a 

The passage, "thus interpreted, contains in it a beautiful and in 
structive comparison, or rather contrast, of the state of Christians in 
the present and in the last time, on earth and in heaven. The points 
of comparison or contrast are the following : I. Now and here, 
Christ, the great object of their affection, is not bodily present with 
them, is but imperfectly known by them, and all their knowledge of 
him, and all their intercourse with him, are by means of faith Then 
and there, he will be bodily present with them, intimately known by 
them, and their knowledge and intercourse will be direct and imme 
diate. II. Now and here, they are exposed to manifold trials Then 
and there, they will enjoy the glorious results of these trials. III. Now 
and here, complete salvation is a subject -of faith and hope Then 
and there, it shall be the subject of enjoyment. IV. Now and here, 
they are for a season in heaviness Then and there, they shall 
"greatly rejoice;" they shall "rejoice with a joy unspeakable and 
full of glory." In the remaining part of the discourse I shall en 
deavor shortly to illustrate this contrasted view of the present and 
the future state of the true Christian. 



L- CHRIST ABSENT AND BELIEVED ON, CONTRASTED WITH CHRIST 
PRESENT AND SEEN. 

The first point of contrast is, that now and here, Christ, the great 
object of their affection, is bodily absent from them is but imper 
fectly known by them and all their knowledge of him is by means 
of faith ; then and there, Christ will be revealed manifested : he 
will be bodily present with them ; he will be intimately known by 
them, and their knowledge and intercourse will be direct and imme 
diate. 

1 Ch. iv. 13. The parallelism of the two passages is striking: Ch. i. 6, 8,ii> w (i. e. 

ky&rta icatpu) dyaXXta<r0 ^apn dmAaXijrw Kal 8etot<vrpivy. Ch. iv. 13, s TTJ a7roKaXvt// rfc 
o6$t]S aiirov, xaprjTS dyaXXiw^ej/oi. 

3 The interpretation we have been led to prefer, is that supported by CEcumenius and 
Theophylact among the Greek Fathers ; by the translators of the Vulgate by Luther, Va- 
tablus, ClariuB, Benson, Pott, and others. To AyaAX.aafc tori ui\\o V ros lX*ra. CEc* 

IfWVTITQ 



1IKNIUS. 



PART I.] AND FUTURE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN. 63 

Christ is the great object of his people s affection ; he is, by way 
of eminence, HE whom they love. This is an essential element of 
the Christian character. When a person is brought under divine 
influence to understand and believe the Gospel, he perceives that in 
Christ Jesus centres every amiable excellence in absolute perfection ; 
and that the benefits which he has obtained for us, are infinite in 
number, value, and duration. He appears at once infinitely lovely 
and infinitely kind. Contemplating his glory, " the glory as of the 
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth," the believer 
says in his heart, " He is the chiefest among ten thousand, and alto 
gether lovely. " " This is my beloved, and this is my friend." 1 Re 
flecting on what he has done and what he has suffered ; what he has 
given, and what he has promised the believer says in his heart, " I 
love him, because he first loved me." I love him who " loved not 
his life to the death," for my salvation. I love him who hath " washed 
me from my sins in his own blood, and made me a king and a priest 
to God, even his Father." 2 The Christian has other objects of affec 
tion besides his Saviour ; but HE is the object of his supreme affec 
tion. In comparison of HIM, " he hates even his father and mother." 3 

It is of the essence of love to seek union with its object. We nat 
urally wish to be present with, to become intimately acquainted with, 
to have frequent intimate intercourse with, the object of our affection. 
These wishes of the Christian, in reference to the great object of his 
affection, are can be, but very imperfectly gratified in the present 
state. He whom we love was once a man among men. Yes, " the 
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among men." " Inasmuch as the 
children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also took part of the 
same." 4 There was a time when it was possible to have become, in 
the ordinary sense of the term, familiarly acquainted with Jesus 
Christ; and I believe very few Christians, not naturally deficient ki 
the imaginative and ^ affectionate parts of our nature, have ever read 
the history of his going out and in among his chosen followers, with 
out in some measure envying their enjoyments. Who has not occa 
sionally felt a wish rising in his heart that he had come into existence 
eighteen centuries sooner, and that he had had his lot cast in that 
land gladdened and dignified above all lands by the presence of the 
incarnate Divinity that so he might have contemplated the humble 
shrine of the divine glory, and seen its radiance bursting through in 
miracles of power and mercy that he might have gazed on that coun 
tenance which beamed with divine intelligence and benignity, and 
listened to that voice which poured forth a stream of divine wisdom, 
and truth, and kindness ? Who has not sometimes said in his heart, 
O happy family of Bethany, all whose members were the objects of 
Jesus peculiar love, and under whose hospitable roof he spent so 
many of his hours ! O that, like the three favored disciples, we had 
been admitted to witness the glory on " the Holy Mount," and to 
watch and weep with him amid his agony in the garden of Gethsem- 
ane ! O that we had seen him displaying at once the tokens of his 
unexampled love, and the proofs of the reality of his resurrection ! O 

1 John i. 14. Cant, v. 10, 16. 2 John iv. 19. Rev. i. 5. 

3 Luko xiv. 26. John i. 14. Heb. ii. 14. 



64 CONTRAST OF THE PRESENT [DISC. III. 

that we had been with the two disciples when he so opened the Scrip 
tures ahout himself, as to make their hearts burn within them ! O 
that we had heard the cheering salutation, " Peace be unto you," and 
felt his warm breath when he said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost !" 
Such wishes are natural, I believe, to the renewed mind ; and though 
they belong, it may be, to the weakness of regenerated humanity, I 
do not think they will be severely judged by Him "who knows our 
frame, and remembers we are dust." 

In the present state, however, these longings cannot be gratified* 
On the day on which he " led out his disciples as far as to Bethany, 
and lifted up his hands, and blessed them," " the heavens received 
him," and they must " retain him till the times of the restitution of 
all things." l And with this arrangement we have good reason to be 
satisfied, both for his sake and our own. For his sake : for what has 
earth to offer in the shape of dignity and enjoyment, in comparison 
of that " name above every name," which he bears in the heaven of 
heavens, or of those " rivers of pleasures" that are at his Father s right 
hand ? " If we loved him, we would rejoice that he has gone to the 
Father." For our own : for " it was expedient for us that he should 
go away; for if he had not gone away, the Comforter would not have 
come ; but having gone, he has sent him to us." Yet still, though we 
know and believe all this, we feel that our happiness would be in 
creased were we allowed to see his face, and to hear his voice ; for 
we are sure " his voice is sweet, and his countenance is comely." 2 

But not merely is Jesus Christ, the great object of his people s love, 
bodily absent from them in the present state ; while they are here, 
they can be but very imperfectly acquainted with him. They are ac 
quainted with him, and they would not part with their knowledge of 
him for all the stores of human science. They feel that "it is life 
eternal to know him;" and they "count all things but loss for the 
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord." 3 They know, 
and they are following on to know, him. They are studying his 
word, and they are studying his providence, which are both manifes 
tations of Him, and they are thus gradually becoming better acquainted 
with him. But there is much in his word that they but imperfectly 
comprehend. There is much in his providence which perplexes and 
confounds them. If it were not their own fault, they might know 
much more of him than they do ; for he is not backward to manifest 
himself to his people in another way than he does to the world. A 
more careful study of the Bible, and a more careful study of provi 
dential dispensations in the light of the Bible, would be found ex- 
haustless sources of satisfactory information about Him whom we 
love, affording most amazing displays of his wisdom and power, and 
faithfulness and kindness. Yet, however carefully these means might 
be improved, still would it be true that here "we see through a glass 
darkly ; we know but in part," 4 in reference to him whom we love. 

While in the present state, our knowledge of him, and our inter 
course with him, are through the medium of faith. " We do not see 
him we believe in him." His mind and his heart are made known 

1 Luke xxiv. 20, 21. Acts iii. 21. 2 Phil. ii. 9. Psal. xvi. 11. John xiv. 28 ; xvl 7. 
John xvii. 3. Phil. iii. 8. * l Cor. xiii. 12. 



PART I.] AND FUTURE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN. 65 

to us in his word. It is only so far as we understand this word that 
we know him ; and it is only so far as we believe it that we have in 
tercourse with him; his mind then becoming our mind, and his will 
our will. It is true that we have " the Spirit whom he hath given 
us ;" l but that Holy Spirit does not directly give us information 
about Christ ; he only, by his enlightening influence, enables us to un 
derstand and believe the information contained in the Scriptures ; and 
while, if we are Christians, we are "joined to the Lord," 2 and are 
" one Spirit" with him we love, the intercourse of holy desire and 
affection is carried on entirely by means of clear and impressive 
views of revealed truth. Such is the Christian s situation while here 
below, in reference to the object of his supreme love. He is not 
bodily present with us he is but imperfectly known by us : and all 
our knowledge of him, and intercourse with him, are through the me 
dium of faith. 

It will be otherwise by-and-by. In " the last time" there will be 
" a revelation of Jesus Christ." At the appointed season He will bodily 
return to earth for the entire salvation of his chosen ones. He will 
then deliver them completely from " the last enemy" by raising them 
from the dead ; and in his glorified body will forever dwell in the 
midst of his people, all of them possessed of bodies "fashioned like unto 
his glorious body." " Ye men of Galilee," said the angels to the dis 
ciples who stood gazing up to heaven, after the cloud had received 
the ascending Saviour out of their sight " Ye men of Galilee, why 
stand ye here gazing up to heaven ? this same Jesus, which is taken 
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have 
seen him go into heaven." " Behold," says John the divine, hurried 
forward by the inspiring Spirit to "the last time," even " the time of 
the revelation of Jesus Christ," " Behold, he cometh with clouds, and 
every eye shall see him." The man Christ Jesus, ordained to be the 
judge of the world, shall descend from heaven, and having raised the 
dead, and pronounced and executed righteous judgment on all the liv 
ing and the dead, shall return to heaven, and spend the endless years 
of eternity amid his reanimated and completely redeemed people, a 
glorified man amid glorified men, their Lord and yet their brother, the 
visible Head of his visible body, the Church " the fulness of him 
who filleth all in all." 3 

That the happiness of the saints will be greatly increased by the 
bodily presence of their Lord and Saviour and Brother, there can be 
no doubt. But " the Revelation of Jesus Christ" seems to me to im 
port something more than this something still more closely connected 
with the happiness of his people. He will not only be bodily present 
with them, but he will be much more extensively known by them. 
A much more complete manifestation will be made of his excellence 
and kindness, and they will be rendered much more capable of com 
prehending this manifestation. Every obscurity in his word will then 
be removed. Every dark dispensation will be explained. " In his 
light they shall see light clearly." 4 The excellencies of his personal 

1 1 John iii. 24. 2 l Cor. vi. 17. 

* Acts i. 11. Rev. i. 3. 1 Cor. xv. 26, 42-55. 1 Thess. iiL 15-17. Phil. iii. 20, 21. 
L P h - 23. * Psal xxxvi. 9. 

5 



66 CONTRAST OF THE PRESENT [DISC. III. 

character, the wisdom and benignity of his mediatorial administration, 
and the nature and transcendent dignity of his mediatorial honors, 
will all be apprehended to an extent, and with a clearness, of which at 
present we have no conception. The meaning of the scriptural de 
scriptions of his excellencies will then be distinctly understood by his 
people ; and they will find that he is excellent and amiable " above 
all that they have thought." The whole of his varied dispensations 
in the administration of universal government, shall appear a consis 
tent display of infinite wisdom, righteousness, and benignity; and the 
glories of that higher order of administration which is to characterize 
the celestial state, shall be as fully displayed to them as the limited 
faculties of their glorified nature admit. 

The only other idea which I wish to bring before your minds just 
now, in illustration of the point of contrast between the present and 
the future state of the Christian, is, that whereas now, all our knowl 
edge of, and all our intercourse with Christ, is through the medium 
of faith, then it will be direct and immediate. How knowledge is 
then to be communicated to us by him, how our intercourse with him 
is to be carried on, we cannot distinctly say, we cannot clearly con 
ceive. We know it will be as different from our present mode of 
obtaining knowledge and maintaining intercourse, as seeing a thing 
is from merely crediting a report about it. We shall live, not by 
faith, but by sight. We shall see no longer as " by means of a mir 
ror, 1 but face to face; we shall know no longer in part; we shall 
know as we are known." Our knowledge will not be infinite, but it 
will be very extensive and perfectly clear, altogether unmixed with 
error or doubt. So much for the illustration of the first point of con 
trast. 



EL THE TRIALS OF CHRISTIANS IN THE PRESENT STATE CONTRASTED 
WITH THEIR RESULTS IN THE FUTURE STATE. 

The second point of contrast between the present and future state 
of Christians is, that now and here, Christians are exposed to numer 
ous and varied trials ; then and there, they shall enjoy the glorious 
results of these trials. Christians in the present state are exposed to 
" temptations," to " manifold" that is, numerous and varied, " temp 
tations." Temptation is ordinarily used to signify enticement to sin ; 
but in the New Testament it frequently signifies afflictions generally, 
viewed as trials, and this is obviously its meaning in the passage be 
fore us. The apostolical assertion then is, Christians are exposed in 
the present state to numerous and varied afflictions, and these numer 
ous and varied afflictions are trials of the reality and strength of 
their faith, and hope, and love, and patience, and other graces. 
^ An abstract consideration of the divine character, and of the rela 
tion in which true Christians stand to God, would lead us to expect 
that they should be completely exempted from affliction. He is in 
finitely powerful, and wise, and good. They are the objects of his 
peculiar love. Is it not natural, then, to conclude, that from the mo 
ment they are brought into the relation of children to him by faith in 

At i<r6jrrpov, in amy/iarj. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 



PART II. J AND FUTURE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN. 67 

Christ Jesus, they should be freed from evil in/ all its forms and degrees, 
and made happy up to their largest capacity of happiness ? But 
" his ways are not our ways ; nor are his thoughts our thoughts. As 
the heavens are high above the earth ; so are his thoughts above our 
thoughts, and his ways above our ways." 1 

Christians are not exempted from the ordinary evils of life. It is 
true of them, as of mankind generally, that they are " born to trouble 
as the sparks fly upward." They are " of few days and full of 
trouble." Poverty, reproach, sickness, disappointment, sorrow, pain, 
and death, are the lot of the saint as well as the sinner. Many who 
are " rich in faith," are " poor in this world," strangers to the com 
forts and conveniences, and but scantily furnished with even the 
necessaries of life. They may be, they often are, the subjects of the 
most painful and loathsome diseases, and the general law of mortality 
holds in their case equally as in that of their irreligious neighbors, 
" Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Indeed, in very 
many cases a larger proportion of suffering than ordinary seems to 
fall to the lot of the children of God. " Whom the Lord loveth he 
chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." 2 

Besides the afflictions which are common to the saint as a man, 
there are others which are peculiar to him as a Christian. He" is 
exposed to suffering from the world " lying under the wicked one," 
and he is exposed to suffering from the wicked one himself. " In the 
world," said our Lord to his followers, "ye shall have tribulation;" 
and the faithful witness did not lie. All who have lived godly in this 
world have suffered, " all who will live godly must suffer, persecu 
tion." Some of them have * had trial of cruel mockings and scourg- 
ings ; yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments. They were 
stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain 
by the sword, they wandered about in sheep s skins and goat s skins 
destitute, afflicted, tormented, they wandered in deserts and in 
mountains, in dens and in caves of the earth." 8 And even where 
they are not exposed to open violence, they find that " this world is 
not their friend, nor this world s law ;" that the world which hated 
their Lord and Master does not love them ; and that a malignant 
influence in reference to their best interests is constantly proceed 
ing forth from " the present evil world." 

In addition to trials from the world, the Christian is exposed to 
affliction from the assaults of his unseen enemies. He has to strive, 
not only " with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, 
with the rulers of the darkness of this world, with spiritual wickedness 
in high places." " His enemy, the devil, goeth about like a roaring 
lion, seeking whom he may devour." * His fiery darts, when not 
warded off by the shield of faith, sink deep into the heart, and inflict, 
though not a deadly, yet a most painful wound ; and the buffetings 
of some of his messengers are all but intolerable. 

All these afflictions, from whatever quarter they come, are " trials." 
They are intended to prove and to improve the Christian, to try at 
once the reality and the vigor of his gracious principles; and not 

1 Isa. lv. 8, 9. * Job v. 7 ; xiv. 1. James ii. 5. Gen. iii. 19. Heb. xii. 6. 

8 John xvi. 33. 2 Tim. iii. 12. Heb. xi. 36-38. * Eph. vi. 12. 1 Pet. v. 8. 



08 CONTRAST OF THE PRESENT [DISC. III. 

only to try them, but to strengthen them. This, then, is the state of 
the Christian; while here, he is exposed to numerous and varied 
afflictions, by means of which he is tried and improved. 

But in the state of final happiness there will be no affliction. The 
trial, having served its purpose, shall cease, and nothing but the glo 
rious result of the trial will remain. " The trial of the Christian s 
faith" by means of these manifold afflictions, " is more precious than 
the trial of gold." The apostle does not here directly contrast faith 
and gold, but the trial of faith and the trial of gold. 1 Trial by fire 
improves gold ; it frees it from all debasing alloy, but it does not ren 
der it indestructible. Refine gold as you will, it is, after all, a perish 
ing thing. But the trial of the faith of the Christian has a nobler 
result. Purified and strengthened by the trials it is exposed to under 
the influence of the Holy Spirit, faith, with all the graces which grow 
out of it, survives the wreck of all material things, and, "at the reve 
lation of Jesus Christ, is found to praise, and honor, and glory." The 
results of all the trials to which they have been exposed in the pres 
ent state, will be found in that character of perfect conformity to 
the image of God, in which consist at once their perfect holiness and 
their perfect happiness. 

" Praise, honor, and glory," are synonymous expressions, and are 
equivalent to a very strong superlative. The praise, glory, and 
honor, may be referred either to the saints themselves or to their Lord 
and Saviour; to the saints themselves, for we know that "praise, 
and honor, and glory," shall be to every saint "in the day when 
Jesus Christ shall judge the secrets of all hearts ;" to their Lord and 
Saviour, for we know that "he shall be glorified in his saints, and 
admired in all them that believe." 2 It has been beautifully remark 
ed, " These two will well agree together ; that it be both to their 
praise and to the praise of Christ ; for certainly all their praise and 
glory will end in the praise and glory of their head, Christ who is 
God over all, blessed forever. They have each their crown, but 
their honor is to cast them all down before His throne." 



III. THE CHRISTIAN S PRESENT STATE A STATE OF EXPECTATION- 
HIS FUTURE STATE, A STATE OF ENJOYMENT. 

The third point of comparison or contrast between the present and 
future state of Christians is, that now and here complete salvation is 
the object of faith and hope ; then and there it will be the object of 
enjoyment. 

Saints in the present state are made partakers of many of the 
blessings of the Christian salvation. So far as the purchase of sal 
vation is concerned, immediately on believing the truth they are in 
terested indefeasibly in that all-perfect work of Christ which secures 
their everlasting happiness. They obtain the forgiveness of all their 
sins. " In him they have redemption through his blood the forgive 
ness of sins." They obtain deliverance from the prevailing power 






vo\v rt/Kwrepov xpvviov i. e. TOV SaKi^iuv rov vfivaiav. GROTIUS. 

9 Rom. ii. 10. 2 Thess. i. 10. Leighton. 



PART III.] AND FUTURE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN. 69 

of sin. " Sin shall not have dominion over them." l They obtain a 
joy, and peace, and satisfaction, to which, till they believed, they 
were strangers. But still they are but very imperfectly possessed of 
the Christian salvation complete deliverance from evil in all its 
forms and all its degrees. 

We have seen, that they are still exposed to the ordinary calamities 
of life, to the persecution of the world, and to the temptations of 
Satan. They are still but imperfectly delivered from their innate 
depravity. Sin, though it no longer reigns, yet dwells in them. 
There is still much darkness in the understanding, much disorder in 
the affections, much perversity in the will. They are far, very far, 
from being " holy as God is holy, perfect as he is perfect." This 
mortal has not yet put on immortality. This corruptible has not yet 
put on incorruption. In one word, perfect holy happiness complete 
salvation, is, in the present state, the object, not of enjoyment, but 
of faith and hope. " We ourselves," says the apostle, " who have the 
first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" the 
final deliverance on the day of the resurrection ; " for we are saved 
by hope" that is, our salvation at present is not in possession, but 
in expectation : we are not so much saved as we hope to be saved : 
" For hope that is seen is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth 
he yet hope for ?" * 

In the future state, however, Christians shall obtain, in all its ex 
tent and perfection, "the salvation that is in Christ with eternal 
glory." They shall receive "the end of their faith, even the salva 
tion of their soul." 

The final salvation is termed the salvation of "the soul," not to 
exclude the salvation of the body ; " for we look for the Saviour from 
heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change these vile bodies, 
and fashion them like unto his own glorious body ;" but because the 
soul in itself, immaterial and immortal, is both the nobler part of 
human nature, and the immediate seat of that holy happiness in 
which the Christian salvation essentially consists. 3 

This salvation is said to be "the end of their faith" that is, I ap 
prehend, the termination of their faith. 4 The attainment of com 
plete salvation shall no more be a matter of faith ; it shall be a matter 
of experience. They will no more believe that they shall be saved ; 
they will know that they are saved. We are persuaded that faith 
will continue forever in heaven ; but the object of faith will then be, 
not the attainment of a complete salvation, but the eternal continu 
ance of the enjoyment of a complete salvation already attained. In 
one word here Christians believe they shall be saved, here they hope 
to be saved ; there they are saved. 

1 Eph. i. 7. Rom. vi. 14. Rom. viii. 23-25. 

Phil. iii. 20, 21. See note A. 

Heb. x. 39. Y7rocrroA tends to, ends in AjrwAsia. IL ffnj tends to, ends in 
^u^j the same thing as currjpia 



70 CONTRAST OF THE PRESENT [DISC. III. 



IV. -THE SORROWS OF THE CHRISTIAN S PRESENT STA TECONTRASTED 
WITH THE JOYS OF HIS FUTURE STATE. 

The fourth point of contrast is, Now, and Here, Christians are 
"for a season in heaviness" on all these accounts ; Then, and There, 
they will " rejoice, greatly rejoice, rejoice with a joy that is unspeak 
able and full of glory." The hodily absence of Jesus Christ, their 
imperfect knowledge of him, their indirect and interrupted inter 
course with him, their manifold trials, their imperfect enjoyment of 
the blessings of the Christian salvation all these naturally produce, 
to a certain degree, a depression of spirit. The Christian is "in 
heaviness." He mourns the absence of his Lord, and says in his 
heart, "Oh! that I knew where I could find him, that I might come 
even to his seat." Under the pressure of bodily affliction or mental 
distress, he is constrained to cry out, " I am oppressed undertake 
for me." Harassed with the movements of remaining corruption, 
he groans out, " Wretched man that I am ; who will deliver me ?" 
And feeling that he is saved but in hope, he sighs out, " How long, 
O Lord, how long ?" " When shall I come and appear before God ?" * 

This heaviness of heart is but for a season it is, at least in an 
oppressive degree, not constant, but only occasional, and at any rate 
it is only for the season, the short season, of mortal life. And what 
should still further prevent Christians from murmuring, is the thought 
that, if they are in heaviness even for a season for these causes, it is 
"since there is need for it." 2 All is ordered, and all is well ordered. 
HE does not " afflict willingly, nor grieve without a cause." 3 Every 
thing in the saint s lot is arranged in the way best suited to promote 
his true, his everlasting welfare. 

But in the future state there will be no heaviness, no, not even 
"for a season." It will no more be needful. Affliction will have 
served its purpose, and will forever cease. There, then, will be 
nothing but unmingled happiness and unending rejoicing. " They 
shall rejoice; they shall rejoice with a joy which is unspeakable," 
which cannot be adequately expressed, "and full of glory" that is, 
either in the highest degree glorious and excellent, or full of gloriation 
or triumph. It is needless for us to attempt to illustrate this subject ; 
we can do nothing but quote a few passages of Scripture, which, in 
all their extent of meaning, seem applicable only to this final state of 
happiness. " The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to 
Zion, with songs, and with everlasting joy on their head ; they shall 
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." 
" Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw 
her shining ; for the Lord God shall be thy everlasting light, and the 
days of thy mourning shall be ended." " God himself shall be with 
them, and be their God ; and there shall be no more death, neither 
sorrow, nor crying ; neither shall there be any more pain, for the 
former things are passed away. The Lamb who is in the midst of 

^obxxiii. 3. Isa. xxxviii. H. Rom. vii. 24. Rev. vi. 10. Psal. xlii. 2. 
* <( iiov earl. Lara. ii. 83. 



PART IV.J AND FUTURE STATE OP THE CHRISTIAN. 71 

the throne shall feed them, and lead them to fountains of living 
waters ; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." l 

Thus have I shortly considered the beautiful and instructive con 
trast contained in the text between the saint s condition on earth 
and in heaven. And now, in conclusion, ought not all Christians, 
with the apostle, to " reckon," judge, conclude, on the most satisfac 
tory premises, " that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy 
to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in them" and 
that, however heavy and long continued, that "affliction" is but 
"light," and "for a moment," which " worketh out for them such a 
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2 

Who would not be a Christian ? For ah ! how different are the 
prospects of the unbeliever ? He, too, must see Christ Jesus, whom 
he does not love, but it will be as a righteous judge, coming " in 
flaming fire to take vengeance" on him as an adversary of God. 
His afflictions here will prove to have been but " the beginning of 
sorrows ;" what he now fears he will then feel, and feel to be far 
worse than he feared ; and, instead of joy unspeakable and full of 
glory, there will be woe, unutterable but in " weeping, and wailing, 
and gnashing of teeth." 3 

Let Christians live like those who have such prospects. Let them 
"be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
forasmuch as they know their labor is not in vain in the Lord ;" and, 
" having such promises," let " them cleanse themselves from all 
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and perfect holiness in the fear of 
God." 



NOTE A. p. 69. 



Perhaps there is in the expression o-om/piai/ ^u^, a reference to the scriptural trichot 
omy of human nature. 1 Thess. v. 23. Heb. iv. 12. Phil. i. 2Y. Luke i. 47. 1 Cor. 




all equally, according to their nature, enjoy the ffwr^ia. Rom. viii. 10, 11. Bengel con 
siders i> Y/J as used generally of the spiritual part of man. His note is, as usual, brief 
but significant. " Anima praecipue salvatur : corpus in resurrectione participat." It has 
been thought by some, that there is here a tacit reference to the Jewish hope of external 
bodily deliverance, from slavery and oppression, by the Messiah. The Christian s hop* 
is, " the salvation of the soul." 

1 Isa. xxxv. 10. Ibid. Ix. 19, 20. Rev. xxi. 3, 4. 3 Rom. viii. 18. 2 Cor. iv. 11 
2 Thess. L 8. Matt. viii. 12. 



DISCOURSE IV, 

THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS THE SUBJECT OF OLD 
TESTAMENT PREDICTION, NEW TESTAMENT REVELATION, AND 
ANGELIC STUDY. 

1 PET. i. 10-12. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched dili 
gently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you : searching what, or 
what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testi 
fied beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom 
it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things 
which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven ; which things the angels desire to 
look into. 

IF we would satisfactorily understand any book, or any passage in a 
book, there are two points which we must distinctly apprehend, and 
never lose sight of. These are, what is the subject of which the au 
thor treats, and what is the object which he has in view in treating it. 
Let us endeavor to ascertain those two points with regard to that 
paragraph which I have just read, and which I intend to make the 
subject of the following discourse. 

The subject of the apostle is, plainly, the final deliverance and 
complete happiness which Christians are to obtain at the second com 
ing of Jesus Christ. This is spoken of as " the inheritance incor 
ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven ;" 
as " the salvation prepared to be revealed in the last times ;" as " the 
grace which is to be brought to Christians at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ." This is plainly the subject of the paragraph. 

With regard to the object of the apostle in treating this subject, 
it is obviously to sustain the minds of the Christians to whom he 
wrote, amid the manifold trials to which they were exposed to ena 
ble them to remain "steadfast and immovable" in the profession of 
the faith, and in the practice of the duties of their high and holy call 
ing. He states the truth with regard to the immeasurable grandeur, 
and absolute certainty, of this final salvation, that they might be in 
duced to " gird up the loins of their mind, be sober, and hope to the 
end," that they might "fashion themselves as obedient children," and 
"be holy in all manner of conversation, as he who had called them is 
holy." 

No means could be better fitted to gain the end proposed, than 
that adopted by the apostle; for if they firmly believed that such a 
salvation certainly awaited every one who " held fast the beginning of 
his confidence steadfast to the end," l it is obvious that the smiles and 

1 Heb. iii. 14. 



PART I.] THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS, ETC. 73 

the frowns, the allurements and the terrors of the world, would be 
equally powerless to shake their attachment to that Lord who will in 
due time so munificently reward all his faithful followers. 

The manner in which the apostle brings the magnitude and cer 
tainty of this salvation before their minds, shows that he, as well as 
his ""beloved brother Paul," speaks " according to the wisdom given 
to him." 1 He first describes it generally, as "an inheritance incor 
ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven foi 
them, while they are kept to it by the power of God through faith." 
Then he brings out more prominently its characteristic excellencies, 
by describing it in contrast with the present state of the people of 
God. In opposition to a state in which Jesus Christ, the object of 
the Christian s supreme affection, is bodily absent from him, in which 
his knowledge of him is limited and obscure, and his intercourse with 
him carried on entirely through the medium of believing it is exhibit 
ed as a state in which Christ is bodily present with his people, in which 
their knowledge of him is extensive and distinct, and their commu 
nion with him direct and immediate ; in opposition to a state in which 
they are exposed to numerous and varied trials it is exhibited as a 
state in which, freed from all trials, they shall enjoy the glorious re 
sults of those trials to which in a previous state they had been sub 
jected ; in opposition to a state in which complete deliverance and 
happiness are objects merely of faith and hope it is exhibited as a 
state in which they are the objects of enjoyment ; and. in fine > in op 
position to a state in which they are " for a season, since it is needful, 
in heaviness" it is exhibited as a state in which they shall forever 
"greatly rejoice ; rejoice with a joy which is unspeakable, and full of 
glory." 

In the paragraph which forms our text, the apostle takes another 
and an equally efficient method of bringing before the minds of his 
readers, the greatness and the certainty of this final salvation, by rep 
resenting it as one great or leading subject of Old Testament prophe 
cy, apostolic preaching, and angelic study. " Of this salvation the 
prophets prophesied" of this salvation " they who preached the Gos 
pel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven made a report" 
and " into this salvation the angels desire to look." In the remaining 
part of this discourse, then, I shall turn your attention to the view 
which the apostle gives us of the final salvation of Christians, first, 
as the subject of Old Testament prophecy; secondly, as the subject 
of apostolical preaching ; and, thirdly, as the subject of angelic study. 



I.-THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS THE SUBJECT OF OLD 
TESTAMENT PROPHECY. 

Let us first, then, attend to the statement which the apostle 
makes as to this final salvation being the subject of Old Testament 
prophecy. 

"Of," or concerning, "this salvation the prophets 2 inquired and 

1 2 Pet, iii. 15. 

Articulus hie praetermissus grandem, ut ssepe etiara apud Germanos. facit orationem. 
BENGEL. 



74 THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS [DISC. IV. 

searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come 
unto you ; searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of 
Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand 
the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto 
whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to us, they did 
minister." 

The truths taught us in these words are the following : The an 
cient prophets, inspired by the Spirit of Christ, predicted that final 
salvation which remains for the people of God ; they diligently in 
quired into the meaning of their own predictions ; and they obtained 
information that these predictions referred to blessings not to be con 
ferred during the economy under which they were placed, but during 
that higher one which was to supersede it. The first of these truths 
is taught us in these words, ** The prophets prophesied of the grace 
which should come to you" " The Spirit of Christ which was in 
them did testify beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory 
that should follow." The second of these truths is taught us in these 
words " Concerning this salvation the prophets inquired and search 
ed diligently, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of 
Christ which was in them did signify." And the third truth is taught 
in these words " To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, 
but to us, they did minister." l 

The ancient prophets predicted that final salvation which will be 
bestowed on the people of God at the coming of Jesus Christ. " They 
prophesied of the grace which should come to us." " The grace 
which should come to us" has often been considered as a general ex 
pression for the blessings of -the New Testament economy, on earth 
as well as in heaven " the grace which came by Jesus Christ ;" but 
if we look closely at the passage, we shall find the sole subject to be 
the final and complete salvation awaiting Christians, or, as it is ex 
pressed more fully, "the grace that is to be brought to Christians at 
the revelation of Jesus Christ." The words, " they prophesied of the 
grace which should come to us," are then just equivalent to, they 
predicted the final salvation which awaits the people of God. 

The same sentiment is, I apprehend, repeated in another form of 
words, when it is said, "the Spirit of Christ which was in them did 
testify beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should 
follow." 

" All Scripture is given by divine inspiration." " Prophecy came 
not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 The Holy Ghost is termed " the 
Spirit of Christ," inasmuch as he is essentially related to the second 
person of the Trinity, who is Christ, as well as to the Father; and 
inasmuch as previously, no less than subsequently to his incarnation, 
all communications of the divine will were made by the Son through 
the Spirit. Never was there a time when the Father immediately 
revealed himself. " The only begotten Son, who is in his bosom, he 
declared him" declared him by the Spirit. This divine person, in- 



John i. 17. 



a 2 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Pet, i. 21. A valuable dissertation on the last of these passages 
to be found in "Kn- ,-pii Scripta Varii Argument!." 



PART 1.1 PREDICTED BY THE PROPHETS. 75 

spiring the prophets, taught them what things to reveal, and in what 
Words to reveal them. To use the language of one of themselves, 
" He spake by them, and his word was on their tongue." ] 

The Spirit of Christ, then, " testified of the sufferings of Christ, and 
the glory that should follow them." These words naturally suggest, 
and have been ordinarily understood of,, the personal sufferings and 
glories of Jesus Christ, the degradation and sorrows to which the in 
carnate Son was exposed, when, " being found in fashion as a man, he 
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross ;" and the high dignity and inconceivable happiness to which 
he was raised when " God highly exalted him, and gave him a name 
which is above every name," " angels, and authorities, and powers, 
being made subject to him." 2 I am persuaded, however, that if we 
attend to the connection of the words, and to the words themselves, 
we will find they do not refer to the personal sufferings and glories of 
Christ, but to the sufferings of his people during the present state, and 
the glories which are to follow "in the last time," " at the revelation 
of Jesus Christ." It is not the sufferings of Christ personally, and the 
subsequent glories, which are the subject of the apostle s discussion, 
but the manifold trials to which Christians are exposed for a season, 
and the glory which is to be theirs in the last time. Looking at the 
construction of the passage, we naturally conclude that the clauses, 
"the prophets prophesied of the grace which is to be brought to us," 
and, " the Spirit of Christ testified beforehand of the sufferings of 
Christ, and the glory which should follow," are parallel that the 
prophecy of the prophets, and the testimony of the Spirit of Christ, 
refer to the same thing. 

Besides, the original expression is quite peculiar, 3 and is altogether 
different from that ordinarily rendered " the sufferings of Christ." 4 It 
is literally " the sufferings in reference to Christ," that is, on Christ s 
account, in Christ s cause or the sufferings till Christ, that is, the 
sufferings to be undergone by his body the Church, and by every 
member in particular, till he come " the second time, not as a sin-of 
fering, but for their salvation." The sufferings till Christ, 5 and the 
subsequent glories, are then just "the afflictions of the present time, 
and the glory which shall be revealed in us," 6 and the apostle s state 
ment is, the prophets, under the influence of the Spirit of Christ, pre 
dicted the sufferings to which Christians are to be exposed in the pres 
ent state, and the glories which are to be bestowed on them at the 
second coming of their Lord. 

Let us then show, by the quotation of particular passages from the 
Jewish Scriptures, that the final salvation of. the people of God was 
indeed the subject of Old Testament prediction. Before commencing 
these quotations, however, let us recollect that we are not in the Old 
Testament declarations to expect what, for perspicuity and distinct 
ness, can compare with the declarations " which they who have 
preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," 
have made to us. It is enough that we meet with declarations of a 

1 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. a Phil. ii. 8, 9. 1 Pet. iii. 22. 

* Tu itaQnjiara ftj XptOTrfv. * Ta TraOiyzarri rov XOJOTOV. 

See note A. * Rom. viii. 18. 



76 THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS [DISC. IV. 

completeness of deliverance and a perfection of happiness, far sur 
passing anything ever yet enjoyed by the Church on earth far sur 
passing anything the New Testament warrants her to expect till her 
Lord return, t think it right also to add, that I am not prepared to 
assert that all the passages which I quote have a direct reference to 
the heavenly state, though it is only in that state that the blessings 
predicted will be enjoyed in that perfection which will completely ex- 
liaust the meaning of the prophetic oracles. 

The first prediction I quote, of the final and complete salvation of 
the people of God, is the prophecy of Enoch, " Behold the Lord com- 
eth with ten thousand of his saints." This may seem a prophecy 
rather of the destruction of God s enemies than of the salvation of his 
people ; but the two events are closely connected, and it seems to me 
probable that the apostle refers to this prophecy when he says, " Them 
who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him." 2 

The next prediction that I shall refer to, is that wonderful passage 
in the 19th chapter of Job, " Oh that my words were now written 
Oh that they were printed in a book that they were graven with an 
iron pen, and with lead in the rock forever : For I know that my Re 
deemer 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 with 
in me." 3 

I now turn your attention to a passage in the 8th Psalm, " What is 
man, that thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man, that thou vis- 
itest him ? for thou hast" (after he had been in a state equal to the 
angels as to immortality) "made him a little" (rather for a short sea 
son) " lower than the angels ; and" (then, afterwards) " hast crowned 
him with glory and honor; thou hast made him to have dominion 
over the works of thy hand thou hast put all things under his feet." 4 
That this refers to the final salvation of the redeemed from among 
men, is obvious from the apostle s commentary on it in the Epistle to 
the Hebrews. He plainly applies it to redeemed man, " For unto the 
angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we 
speak? But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, 
that thou art mindful of him ? or the son of man, that thou visitest 
him ? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels ; thou crown- 
edst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of 
thy hands : thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For 
in that he put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that 
is not put under him. But we see not yet all things put under him" 
(redeemed man) : " But we see Jesus" (who was a man the head of 
the ransomed race), "who was made a little" (for a season) " lower 
than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and 
honor ; that he by the grace of God might taste death for every man." 
He suffered, and then was glorified, and thus shall it be with all his 
people. 5 

There are other quotations from the Psalms that deserve notice : 

1 Jude 14. 3 l Thess. iv. 14. 3 Job xix 23-27. 

4 Psal. viii. 4-6. 6 Heb. ii. 5-9. 



PART I.] PREDICTED BY THE PROPHETS. 77 

" As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness : I shall be satis 
fied, when I awake in thy likeness." " Surely goodness and mercy 
shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dvvell in the house 
of the Lord forever." " How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O 
God ! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow 
of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fulness of 
thy house ; and thou shall make them drink of the river of thy 
pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life ; in thy light shall we 
see light." l 

The following quotations from the prophets Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, 
and Malachi, will serve as further specimens of the manner in which 
the prophets prophesied of the grace which is to be brought to us, and 
in which the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, testified beforehand 
of the glories which were to follow the sufferings till Christ : "Then 
the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed, when the Lord 
of hosts shall reign in Mount Sion, and before his ancients glorious 
ly." " He shall swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God shall 
wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall 
he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord hath spoken it." 
"Thy dead men shall live ; together with my dead body shall they 
arise : Awake and sing, ye that dvvell in dust ; for thy dew is as the 
dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." " The sun shall 
be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give 
light unto thee : but the Lord shall be thy everlasting light, and the 
days of thy mourning shall be ended." " And many of them who 
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, 
and some to shame and everlasting contempt." " I will ransom them 
from the power of the grave : I will redeem them from death : O 
death ! I will be thy plague : O grave ! I will be thy destruction ; fe- 
pentance shall be hid from mine eyes." " They shall be mine, saith 
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels ; and I 
will spare them as a man spareth his own son thatserveth him. Then 
shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, 
between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." 2 All 
these oracles speak of " suffering" as the lot of a peculiar people 
down to a particular period, and of " glory that is to follow" that 
period. 

These prophetic oracles were but imperfectly understood by those 
who uttered them. We are not to suppose, however, that in uttering 
them, their minds were entirely passive, and that the Holy Spirit em 
ployed only their organs of speech to express words to which they at 
tached no idea. They understood the meaning of the words; they 
were the expression of thoughts communicated to their minds. They 
knew that they referred to great blessings to be bestowed on the 
Church ; but as to the precise nature and extent of these blessings, 
and as to the period when, and the manner in which, they were tolje 
bestowed, they were much in the dark. " The prophecy came not 

Psal. xvii. 15 ; xxiii. 6 ; xxxvi. 7-9. 

Isa. xxiv. 23 ; xxv. 8 ; xxvi. 19 ; Ix. 19, 20. Daniel xii. 2. Hosea xiii. 14. Mai. ill 



78 THE FENAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS [DISC. IV 

by their own will." " It was not of sdf -interpretation" l Either the 
event referred to, or another explicatory revelation, was necessary to 
unfold fully its meaning. 

These holy men were desirous of knowing all that could be known 
on the subject. They "inquired and searched diligently" concerning 
the salvation the grace which was to come to us; "they searched 
what, or what manner 2 of time, the Spirit of Christ did signify, when 
he testified beforehand the glory which was to follow the sufferings 
until Christ." They wished to know when, and in what circum 
stances, these glorious predictions were to be fulfilled ; and the means 
they employed for that purpose were the study of the Scriptures 
comparing one passage with another, and fervent supplication to God. 
We have an example of this in the case of Daniel, in reference to an 
other class of prophecies : " I, Daniel, understood by books the number 
of the years ; and I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek" (further 
insight as to what and what manner of time) " by prayer and suppli 
cations, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes." 3 

The prophets did not obtain all the information they desired ; but- 
it was revealed to them, that " not to themselves, but to us, they did 
minister those things which have been reported to us by those who 
preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 
" Those things which have been reported," &c. are, I apprehend, 
the statements made by the apostles with regard to the final salvation 
of the people of God. It was revealed to the ancient prophets, that 
this glorious salvation was not to be enjoyed under the Jewish 
economy that it was to take place " in the latter days" " in the 
last times" in the days of the Messiah. They were made to per 
ceive that their predictions would be better understood, and therefore 
would be more useful to those who lived under the Messiah, than 
they were to themselves. " They ministered not to themselves, but 
to us ;" that is, these predictions, uttered by them, though not useless 
to them (for they, like Abraham, wished to see the day of Christ, and 
"saw it afar off, and were glad,") are still more useful to us who have 
had them explained by a further revelation. The apostle s idea has 
been very finely illustrated by the following beautiful figure " The 
sweet stream of their doctrine made its own banks fertile and pleasant, 
as it ran by and flowed still forwards to after ages, and, by the con 
fluence of more such prophecies, grew larger as it proceeded, till it 
fell in with the main current of the gospel revelation ; and thus united 
into one river clear as crystal, this doctrine of salvation hath still 
refreshed the city of God, and shall continue to do so till it empty 
itself into the ocean of eternity." 4 

How strikingly does the fact, that the. final salvation was the sub 
ject of prophetic testimony from the beginning, illustrate at once the 
grandeur of this salvation, and the certainty that it shall in the ap 
pointed season be conferred on the people of God ! That must be a 
glorious object to which God, by his Spirit, directed the admiring 

1 LJi aj rAO<Tcoj oi> yivtrat. 2 Pet. i. 20. 

Ei $ riva 5) -rtnov. Quod innuit tempus per se quasi dicis ceram suis numeris notatam. 
Quale dicit tempug ex eventibus variis noscendum. BENGEL. 
3 Dan. ix. 2, 3. 



PART I.] PREDICTED BY THE PROPHETS. 79 

eyes of inspired prophets, while at the distance of so many thousand 
years. The highest conceptions we can form of it must come incon 
ceivably short of the truth, when we think of it as the glorious ter 
mination of the whole wondrous systems of nature, and providence, 
and grace, which have been in operation for nearly six thousand 
years. 

And the fact that it is the subject of Old Testament prophecies, 
proves not only its grandeur, but its security. We have " the word 
of prophecy more confirmed" l than the Old Testament believers. 
They had enough to make it most reasonable in them to believe, that 
whatever was predicted in the Scriptures should be fulfilled ; but we 
have far more evidence than they had for the second coming of the 
Lord, and the complete salvation that is to accompany it. We have 
the fulfilment of the predictions as to the first coming, and many suc 
ceeding events, to confirm our faith. The final salvation of believers, 
at the second coming of the Lord, is one of those things which ought 
to be "most surety believed among us." If we do not believe it, it is 
not for want of evidence. " He will come the second time ; and to 
all who look for him, he will come unto salvation." 

If it was the duty of the ancient prophets to inquire into the mean 
ing of the oracles revealed by them, respecting the great salvation of 
the people of God at the coming of the Lord, it certainly must be our 
duty to do so. Every part of divine revelation deserves and requires 
study ; and, surely, those portions of it which have a reference to the 
coming of Christ, and the complete salvation of his people, have a 
peculiar claim on our attention. The extravagancies into which 
some students of prophecy have run, ought not to prevent us from 
imitating the ancient prophets in " inquiring and searching diligently 
concerning this salvation," knowing that a blessing is pronounced on 
him " that readeth, and on them that hear the words of that prophetic 
book which is the revelation of Jesus Christ." 2 " Were the prophets 
not exempted from the pains of search and inquiry, that had the 
Spirit of God not only in a high degree, but after a singular manner 
how unbecoming, then, is slothfulness and idleness in us ! Whether 
is it, that we judge ourselves advantaged with more of the Spirit than 
those holy men, or that we esteem the doctrines and mysteries of 
salvation, on which they bestowed so much of their labor, unworthy 
of ours ? We do ourselves much injury, if we bar ourselves from 
sharing in our measure of the search of those same things that were 
the study of the prophets, and which, by their studying and publishing 
them, are made more accessible and easy to us. These are the golden 
mines in which the abiding treasures of eternity are to be found, and 
therefore worthy of all the digging and p ains we can bestow upon 
them." 3 

1 ,Y"^i> ffeffaiortpov TOV irpo<prjTiKov \6yov. 2 Pet I 19. 8 Rev i. 3. 

8 Leigh ton. 



80 THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS [DISC. IV. 



II THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS THE SUBJECT OF 
APOSTOLICAL PREACHING. 

The final salvation of the people of God, at the second coming of 
Jesus Christ is the subject of apostolical preaching. Things in refer 
ence to that salvation, concerning which the prophets prophesied and 
made inquiry, " have been reported to us by those who preached the 
gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 

" Those who preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down 
from heaven," are, we apprehend, the apostles and other miraculously 
gifted teachers of the primitive age. They "preached the gospel ;" 
that is, they published the glad tidings of a full, free, and everlasting 
deliverance from sin and all its dreadful consequences, through the 
mediation of the incarnate Son of God, who having expiated sin 
by the shedding of his own precious blood, which cleanses from all 
sin, has been raised from the dust of death, and invested with all power 
in heaven and earth, that he may be able to save to the uttermost all 
coming to God by him. 

They preached this gospel " with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven." These words intimate, either that their preaching the 
gospel was accompanied with miraculous works, proving the truth 
and the divinity of what they taught, works which they were enabled 
to perform by the Holy Ghost, whose miraculous influence was "sent 
down from heaven," that is, communicated to them by God : or 
that their preaching was accompanied by the influence of the divine 
Spirit on the minds and hearts of those to whom it was addressed, 
leading them to attend to, to understand, and to believe it; " opening 
their understandings" to understand the truth, and " their hearts to 
receive the love of the truth, so as to be saved by it." Both these 
statements are true, and I think it not improbable that the words of 
the apostle were meant to include both. " The Lord the Spirit" 
" bore testimony to the word of grace" in both ways. " The great 
salvation was begun to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed 
unto us by them who heard him ; and God bore witness by signs and 
wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according 
to his will." 1 When Peter was preaching the gospel to Cornelius and 
his friends, " the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." 
When Paul preached to the Thessalonians, "Our gospel," says he, 
that is, the gospel as preached by us, " came not to you in word only, 
but in power, and with the Holy Ghost, and with much assurance :" * 
with abundant evidence given by him, and apprehended by them. 

These holy apostles of our Lord Jesus, who, in words taught not 
by men but by the Holy Ghost, preached the gospel with evidence 
and efficacy both derived from the divine Spirit, " made a report" 
concerning the things of which the prophets had prophesied, and into 
which they had inquired ; that is, they made a report concerning 
the final salvation which is to be bestowed on believers at the second 
coming of their Lord. Much of their preaching was occupied in 
telling us what is the nature of that salvation ; what Jesus Christ had 

Heb. ii. 3, 4. 3 Acts x. 44. 1 Thess. i. 5. 



PART II.] ANNOUNCED BY THE APOSTLES. 81 

done and suffered in order to procure that salvation ; how the indi 
vidual sinner is to become a partaker of its blessings ; and in showing 
that there is a present salvation from guilt and the dominion of sin, 
and the tormenting fear of divine displeasure and everlasting misery. 
But it also included in it a plain statement of the fact, that the full 
salvation of the Christian is not to be bestowed on him till the second 
coming of his Lord, and a description more or less particular of the 
varied and complete blessedness which was then to become his por 
tion. 

They " reported " these things. In making these declarations, 
they did not utter the dreams of their own imagination, or the de 
ductions of their own reason. They merely "spoke the things which 
they had heard. 1 They made known to others what had been made 
known to themselves. This was true of all they said ; and, in par 
ticular, in reference to things which they reported concerning the 
final salvation of the people of God. " They did not follow cun 
ningly-devised fables when they made known the power and com 
ing of our Lord Jesus." " The things which God had laid up for 
them who love him, were things which eye had not seen, which 
ear had not heard, and which it never could have entered into the 
mind of man to conceive ; but God revealed them to them by his 
Spirit;" 1 and of this revelation they made a faithful report. 

Let us attend, then, to the report which those men who preached 
the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven have made 
respecting this salvation, which is to be brought to Christians at the 
revelation of Jesus Christ. Their report refers both to what their 
Lord and Master revealed on this subject when he was on earth, and 
to what was revealed to them by that Holy Spirit whom he promised 
to send to them, to " lead them into all the truth." 

Let us attend first, then, to the report they have given us of what oui 
Lord, when on earth, revealed respecting this salvation. The fol 
lowing passages of Scripture contain that report : " Yerily I say 
unto you, that 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, j udging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every 
one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, 01 
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name s sake, shall re 
ceive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life." " When 
the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with 
him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory ; and before him 
shall be gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them one from 
another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : And he 
shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then 
shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of 
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founda 
tion of the world : For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me in : 
Naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited me : I was in 
prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, 
saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee ? 01 

1 2 Pet. i. 16. 1 Cor. ii. 7-10. 
6 



82 THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. IV. 

thirsty, and gave thee drink ? "When saw we thee a stranger, and 
took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? Or when saw thee sick, 
or in prison, and came unto thee ? And the King shall answer and 
say unto them, Yerily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these my "brethren, ye have done it unto me ; 
and the righteous shall go away into life eternal." l In the end of 
the world the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall 
gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them who do 
iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire ; there shall be weeping 
and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the 
sun in the kingdom of their Father." " God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him 
might not perish, but have everlasting life." " He that believeth my 
word, and believeth on him who sent me, hath everlasting life, and 
shall not come into condemnation ; but is passed from death to life. 
The hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear the 
voice of the Son of God, and come forth ; they who have done good 
to the. resurrection of life." " This is the will of him that sent me, 
that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have 
everlasting life ; and I will raise him up at the last day." " In my 
Father s house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have 
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and pre 
pare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto my 
self; that where! am there ye may be also. And whither I go ye 
know, and the way ye know." l 

The following passages embody revelations made directly to the 
apostles by the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven : " God will 
render to every man according to his deeds to them who, by patient 
continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, 
eternal life. Glory, honor, and peace shall be to every man that 
worketh good in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men 
by Jesus Christ." " The Bufferings of this present time are not wor 
thy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifesta 
tion of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to van 
ity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same, 
in hope that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bond 
age of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain 
together until now : And not only they, but ourselves also, which 
have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within 
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body." 
" Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them 
that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the res 
urrection of the dead ; for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all 
be made alive. The last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. It is 
sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption : it is sown in dishonor, 
it is raised in glory : it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power : it 
is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. This corrupti- 

1 Matt. xix. 27-29 ; xxv. 31-10, 46; xiii. 41, 43. John,!!!. 16 ; v. 24, 26, 29 ; vi. 38. 
40 ; xi 7. 2 1. 



PART II.] ANNOUNCED BY THE APOSTLES. 83 

ble must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 
The saying that is written shall be brought to pass, Death is swallowed 
up in victory." " We know that if our earthly house of this taber 
nacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens." " Your life is hid with Christ 
in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we also shall ap 
pear with him in glory." " The Lord shall descend with a shout, with 
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ; and the dead 
in Christ shall first arise. Then we which are alive, and remain, shall 
be caught up together with, them in the clouds to meet the Lord in 
the air, and so shall we be forever with the Lord." " It is a righteous 
thing with God to recompense to you who are troubled rest with 
us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven." " An en 
trance shall be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting 
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." " We, according to 
his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwell- 
eth righteousness." " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the 
tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God. I will give him a 
crown of life. He shall not be hurt with the second death. I will 
give him to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, 
and in the stone a new name, which no man knoweth save he who 
receiveth it ; and I will give him the morning star. He shall be 
clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot his name out of the book 
of life ; but will confess his name before my Father, and before his 
angels. I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he 
shall no more go out. I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, 
even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his 
throne." " And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; ana 
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain ; for the former things are- passed 
away." " And there shall be no more curse ; and there shall be no 
night there ; and they shall reign forever and ever." * 

These are "the things which have been reported to us by them 
who have preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven." There is a good deal in those descriptions which is dark 
through excessive brightness, imperfectly intelligible by us, because 
descriptive of a state more pure, and felicitous, and glorious, than 
our limited, obtuse, sensualized faculties can distinctly apprehend ; 
but what is clear, and what is dark, equally prove that this happi 
ness, with the love in which it originates, has a height, and a depth, 
a length and a breadth, that pass knowledge. And 0, delightful, 
solemnizing thought ! this is no airy dream. " These are the true 
and faithful sayings of God." The period referred to is hastening 
on apace ; and all this happiness must either be gained or lost by 
every one of us gained or lost forever. 

1 Rom. ii. 6, <fec. ; Rom. viii. 18-25. 1 Cor. XT. 20, &c. 2 Cor. v. 2, 3. Col. iii. 3, 4. 
1 Thess. iv. 13. 2 Thess. i. 6, &c. 2 Pet. i 11. Rev. ii. passim; Rev. iii. passim; 
xxi. 4 ; xvii. 1-5. 



84 THE FINAL HAPPINESS OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. IV. 



UL THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS THE SUBJECT OF ANGELIC 

STUDY. 

It only remains that I turn your attention to the last view which 
the apostle gives us of the final salvation of Christians, as the 
mbject of angelic study : "Into these things the angels desire to 
look." 

Into what things ? Obviously into the things " of which the 
prophets prophesied, and into which they inquired" into the things 
" repeated to us by them who preached the Gospel with the Holy 
Ghost sent down from heaven," that is, into the things respecting 
"the salvation prepared to be revealed in the last time" into the 
things respecting " the grace to be brought to Christians at the reve 
lation of Jesus Christ" into those things the angels desire to look. 
The meaning of these words is obviously, the angels have an in 
tense desire to understand the whole truth in reference to the final 
salvation of the people of God. 

The angels here spoken of are, without doubt, " the elect angels," 
those holy, happy, unembodied spirits who retain their original in 
tegrity, who, infinitely beneath God, are yet far superior to men in 
the scale of being, who excel in wisdom and strength, and who find 
their happiness in contemplating the divine excellencies, and in 
doing the divine will. 

These exalted spiritual beings are represented as " desirous to look" 
into the things which respect the final salvation of the redeemed from 
among men. The original expression is very beautiful. They are 
with earnest desire bending down, fixing their intensest gaze on these 
things. 1 The peculiar mode of expression probably alludes to the 
figures of the cherubim above the mercy-seat, who with downcast 
eyes were represented as looking on the mercy-seat, as if seeking to 
penetrate the mystery of wisdom and kindness which the fiery law, 
covered by the blood-sprinkled golden propitiatory, embodied. 

"We have no reason to think that the angels directly know anything 
more about the final salvation of the redeemed among men than we 
do. It is " by the Church," that is, by the dispensations of God to 
the Church, that " the principalities and powers in the heavenly 
places" become acquainted with that revelation of "the manifold 
wisdom of God " a contained in the plan of human redemption. We 
have no doubt that they know all that is revealed in the Bible on this 
subject ; and that, from their higher faculties, and their more diligent 
study, and their j uster and more extended views of the divine perfec 
tions, and of what constitutes the happiness of intelligent creatures, 
they understand what is revealed there much better than we do. 

But still they are not satisfied they are desirous to understand 
these wondrous divine declarations more completely, and they are 
looking forward with intense desire to the period when fulfilment 
shall develop the full extent of their meaning. Nor is it at all diffi 
cult to divine what are the principles in the minds of angels which 
make them thus desire to look into these things. Enlightened curl- 

1 <i txidvfiovalv dyycAot napaKfyai. 9 Eph. iii. 10. 



III.] STUDIED BY ANGELS. 85 

osity, piety, and benevolence, all combine in turning their attention 
with unwearied interest towards this subject. 

Enlightened curiosity, or the desire of useful knowledge, is one 
of the characteristic features, we have reason to believe, of angelic 
as well as human minds. They know far more than we do, but there 
is much they do not know ; and it is probable their thirst for knowl 
edge exceeds ours just in a similar proportion to their possession of 
knowledge. It is easy to conceive how desirous they must be of 
knowing what it is for " corruption to put on incorruption," what it 
is for " mortality to be swallowed up of life." Enlightened philoso 
phers have great pleasure in witnessing, and in expecting to witness, 
experiments tending to throw light on the processes of nature, A 
world in flames, the elements melting with fervent heat, and the 
heavens flying away like a scroll, and a new heaven and a new earth 
rising out of the fiery chaos, are spectacles which it is not wonderful 
the angels should look forward to, with eager desire and almost holy 
impatience. 

Their piety interests them still more deeply in the subject. This 
salvation is to be the full manifestation of the divine excellences, as 
displayed in the whole of that wonderful economy which shall then 
be completed. Angels will then see more of the power, and wisdom, 
and holiness, and benignity of God, than they had ever seen, than 
they had ever conjectured ; and then, in the final pulling down of 
everything which opposes his will or obscures his glory, they will 
obtain the fullest gratification of the strongest wish of a loyal crea 
ture s heart " that God may be all in all." 

Their benevolence, too, keeps their minds fixed on the subject. 
" They are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who 
shall be heirs of salvation." They "encamp round about them that 
fear God, and deliver them." * They have a kind interest in, a tender 
affection for, those committed to their care. They regard their mani 
fold trials with a benignant pity, though themselves strangers to pain ; 
and they take a generous interest in those events which are to con 
summate their blessedness. They wonder at the > height of glory re 
served for th,e redeemed among men ; and, completely free from envy, 
they desire to understand what is meant by " all things being put 
under their feet," and by men who have overcome through the blood 
of the Lamb, sitting down with him on his throne, as he, when he 
overcame, sat down on his Father s throne. 

The practical use to be made of these truths it is not difficult to 
discover. If these things have been reported to us by men who 
preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, 
surely we should believe them. And if we believed them if we 
really believed them what an influence would they have on our 
temper and conduct ! A faith of this truth would induce the man, 
who is yet uninterested in the Christian salvation, immediately to 
seek a share in its heavenly and spiritual blessings, and would make 
those who are interested in it very holy, very happy, very active, 
and Derfectlv contented amid all the calamities and trials of life. 



66 THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. IV. 

What is the subject of the constant, intense contemplation of an 
gels, surely deserves our most careful study. We are far more closely 
connected with, far more deeply interested in, the subject of study, 
than they. The salvation they desire to look into will promote, but 
it will but indirectly promote their happiness. Their happiness may 
be secure without reference to it. But as to us, this salvation must 
be ours, or we are undone forever and ever. It is now that an in 
terest is to be obtained in it, if obtained at all. It is only by know 
ing and believing the truth about this salvation, that an interest in 
it can be obtained. Oh, then, let us, with intensest ardor, seek the 
knowledge of this salvation 1 If we die unacquainted with it, we 
die uninterested in it ; and if we die uninterested in it, it never, 
never can become ours. " JSTow is the accepted time, now is the day 
of salvation." 



NOTE A, p. 75. 

Ta sir Xpicrbv KafaifUiTa the till-Christ sufferings. Gal. iii. 24. Ei> Xpiarbv=elf 
fjfj-epav Xpiarov. Phil. i. 10. The view we have taken of the expression r. e. X. TT. K. 
T. p. T. 6. is substantially that taken both by Luther and Calvin. Calvin s remark 
savors of his ordinary exegetical sagacity : " Non" tractat Petrus quid Christo sit pro- 
prium, sed de universal! ecclesise statu disserit." Le Clerc s note is good : " Ta elf 
XpiGTov Tcadrjrja-a intellexerit de piorum perpessionibus, Christi causa exantlandis: 
quas praeviderant obscurius Prophetas, et gioriara fidelium post sequuturam ; sed 
quarum nescierunt tempora nisi quod revelatura eis est, ipsorum sevo eas non event- 
uras Htec egregie consentiunt cum serie orationis Petri qui loquitur de malis qui- 
bus religionis causa afficiebantur Christian!." Winer, though he does not adopt our 
exegesis, distinctly says that the expression before us is incorrectly taken for T 
Xpiarov Trad/j/iara. Gram. Part. iii. sec. 30, p. 157. The Ta ei? Xptarov TraOtfuara 
seem to denote the same thing as ?} Ohwie LijaovXpic-ov of the Apocalypse, chap. i. 9, 
of which John represents himself and those to whom he wrote as avyicoivuvoi. 



DISCOURSE V, 

CHRISTIAN DUTY MEANS OF, AND MOTIVES TO, ITS 
PERFORMANCE. 

1 PET. i. 13-21. "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope tc 
the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ : 
as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your 
ignorance : but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of con 
versation ; because it is written, Be ye holy ; for I am holy. And if ye call on the 
Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man s work, pass 
the time of your sojourning here iiv Tear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not re 
deemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation re 
ceived by tradition from your fathers ; but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb 
without blemish and without spot : who verily was fore-ordained before the founda 
tion of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe 
in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory ; that your faith and 
hope might be in God. 

AMONG the numerous mistaken notions of Christianity which pre 
vail among its professors, few are more common, and none more fatal, 
than that in which it is viewed merely as a theory a system of ab 
stract principles, which, however true, are but remotely connected 
with human interests ; and which, therefore, can but feebly influence 
human character and conduct. It is but too evident that the grand 
characteristic doctrines of Christianity, such as the trinity, the incar 
nation, the atonement, justification by faith, sanctification by divine 
influence, are, with many who readily admit their truth, and who 
would indeed be shocked at having their orthodoxy called in ques 
tion, mere inoperative opinions, which exercise no more practical 
influence over their temper and conduct than the philosophical doc 
trines respecting the nature of space and time, or the size and dis 
tance of the celestial bodies, or the historical facts respecting the 
victories of Alexander or the discoveries of Columbus. 

It is painful to think that it is no uncommon thing for a person to 
be able to talk plausibly about these principles of Christianity, to 
reason conclusively in their support, and to be zealous even to rancor 
against those who deny, or even doubt, their truth ; while he yet con 
tinues a total stranger to their transforming efficacy, the slave of sel 
fishness, malignity and worldliness. And what is the most lamenta 
ble part of this sad history, the infatuated man seems in a great 
measure unaware of the shocking inconsistency he is exhibiting, in 
displaying the most unchristian tempers in defence of Christian truth. 
He mistakes his knowledge and zeal about certain propositions 
which, it may be, embody Christian truth for Christianity itself; and 
looking, it would seem, on orthodoxy of opinion as the sum and sub 
stance of religious duty, wraps himself up in an. overweening concep- 



88 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

tion of his own attainments, and resigns himself to the pleasing 
dreams of a fancied security, from which but too frequently he is 
first and forever awakened by hearing the awful mandate, " Depart 
from me, I never knew you; 7 and by finding his place assigned him 
with the hypocrites, in the regions of hopeless misery. 

It is an interesting inquiry, and, if properly conducted, would cer 
tainly elicit some important results How comes it that men, with 
the Bible in their hands, can practice such fatal impositions on them 
selves ? How comes it that the mere speculator should so readily 
conclude himself a sound believer ? How comes it that the truth of 
doctrines should not only be readily admitted, but zealously main 
tained, while their appropriate influence is altogether unfelt, and in 
deed, steadily resisted ? It would lead us too far out of our way just 
now to engage in such an inquiry ; but I must be permitted to ob 
serve, that whatever influence deficient human representations of 
divine truth may have had in producing so mischievous and lamenta 
ble a result (and I believe that influence has been extensive and 
powerful), the truths of the Gospel themselves, and the scriptural 
representation of them, cannot be justly charged as in any degree 
the cause of this evil. The doctrines of the Gospel are of such a 
nature, that, if apprehended in their meaning and evidence, if un 
derstood and believed, they must, from the constitution of the mind 
of man, have a commanding influence over its principles of action ; 
and these doctrines, as taught in the Bible, are not exhibited as mere 
abstract propositions, but are stated in such a manner as distinctly 
to show, how closely the belief of them is connected with every 
thing that is good in disposition, and right in conduct. The specu- 
latist in religion must not seek, for he will not find, in the Bible, an 
apology for his infatuation and inconsistency. On the contrary, he 
will meet with much to prove him altogether inexcusable. 

The principles of Christianity are never in the New Testament 
exhibited in an abstract systematic form. They are interwoven with 
the injunctions to the cultivation of right dispositions, and to the 
practice of commanded duties, to which in truth they form the most 
powerful motives. The Author of Kevelation, who is also the Au 
thor of our nature, and who is intimately acquainted with all its intel 
lectual and moral obliquities in its present fallen state, has mercifully 
and wisely led those "holy men who spoke as they were moved by 
his Spirit," to guard their readers against that tendency to consider 
the doctrines of Christianity as mere matters of speculation, to which 
we have been adverting, by almost invariably following a statement 
of doctrine, with a statement of the practical consequences which 
that doctrine, understood and believed, is at once calculated and in 
tended to produce. 

Of this we have a very striking and instructive exemplification in 
the passage which we have here chosen as the subject of this dis 
course, in the preceding paragraph we have a statement of some of 
the most ^ sublime and delightful peculiarities of Christian doctrine. 
We are instructed respecting that state of ineffable purity, dignity, 
and happiness, to which it is the purpose of God ultimately to raise 
men, through the mediation of his incarnate only begotten. This 



DISC, v.] THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. 89 

state is described as "salvation" deliverance from evil, in all its 
forms and degrees, forever a holy happiness, filling to an overflow 
all the capacities of enjoyment during the entire eternity of man s 
being as " an inheritance" intimating at once the gratuitousness of 
the nature, and the security of the tenure, of this happiness " an in 
heritance incorruptible," having nothing in its own nature which can 
lead to decay or termination " undefiled," its pure elements unmin- 
gled with any inferior or heterogeneous ingredients "unfading" 
retaining unimpaired its power to communicate happiness u laid up 
in heaven," pure and ethereal in its nature, and secured beyond the 
reach of fraud or of violence ; while those for whom it is destined, 
those who, according to the divine fore-knowledge, have been selected 
by a spiritual separation from -the world lying under the wicked one, 
that they may obey the truth, and be sprinkled by the blood of Jesus 
that is, possess the blessings secured by his atoning sacrifice are 
preserved for its enjo}~ment amid all the dangers they are exposed to, 
by the power of God and through the instrumentality of believing. 

Still further to illustrate the glories of this salvation, this final state 
of blessedness, we are told, that unlike the present state, in which 
Jesus Christ is bodily absent from his chosen ones, and in which the 
imperfect knowledge they have of him is obtained entirely through 
the medium of believing, in which they are exposed to numerous 
and severe trials, in which complete deliverance from evil is the ob 
ject of faith and hope, and in which, owing to these causes, they are 
often in heaviness the future state of Christians is a state in which 
Christ Jesus is bodily present with them, and maintains intimate 
and uninterrupted intercourse with them a state in which nothing 
of their trials but their blissful and glorious, results remain a state 
in which complete deliverance is the object of enjoyment a state 
in which, in consequence of all these things, they " rejoice with a 
joy which is unspeakable and full of glory ;" and, as if even all 
this were not enough to give us just ideas of the glories and felicities 
" which God has laid up for those who love him," we are told that 
this state of final happiness is a leading subject of Old Testament 
prophecy, apostolical preaching, and angelical study. 

These delightful^ and wonderful announcements are* not brought 
forward as abstract principles, things- to speculate and to talk about. 
They are no sooner stated than, the apostle proceeds,to urge them On 
Christians as most powerful motives to the. duties of their high and 
holy calling, and equally powerful supports and consolations under 
the afflictions to which the discharge of those duties might expose 
them. "Wherefore," for those reasons, since these things are so 
" Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to 
the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation 
of Jesus Christ: As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves 
according to the former lusts in your ignorance : But as he which 
hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation ; 
because it is written, Be ye holy ; for I am holy. And if ye call on 
the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to 
every man s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. 
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeeemed with corruptible 



90 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by 
tradition from your fathers ; but with the precious blood of Christ, 
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot : Who verily was 
fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest 
in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that 
raised him from the dead, and gave him glory ; that your faith and 
hope might be in God." 

In this admirable paragraph we have a most instructive view I. 
Of Christian duty ; II. Of the means of performing it ; and III. Of the 
motives to its performance. Of CHRISTIAN DUTY described, first, 
generally, as obedience, Christians being exhorted to act " as obedient 
children, "rather children of obedience ; and then described more par 
ticularly first negatively, " Not fashioning yourselves according to 
your former lusts in your ignorance ;" and then positively " Be holy 
in all manner of conversation." Of the MEANS OF PERFORMING CHRIS 
TIAN DUTY ; first, determined resolution " Gird up the loins of your 
mind ;" secondly, moderation in all our estimates, and desires, and 
pursuit of worldly objects " Be sober ;" thirdly, hope " Hope to the 
end," hope perfectly ; fourthly, fear " Pass the time of your sojourn 
ing here in fear." Of THE MOTIVES TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CHRISTIAN 
DUTY ; first, the grandeur and excellence and security of the Chris 
tian inheritance, the full possession of which we can attain only by 
Christian obedience " Wherefore," referring to the whole of the 
preceding description of the final state of happiness which awaits the 
saints ; secondly, the holiness of God " Be ye holy, for I am holy ;" 
thirdly, the equity of God " The Father on whom we call, without 
respect of persons, judgeth every man according to his works;" and 
fourthly, the wonderful provision which had been made for securing 
this holiness, in their having been redeemed, or brought back to God, 
by the blood of his own Son " Forasmuch as ye know that ye were 
not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your 
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers ; but with 
the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and with 
out spot : Who verily was fore ordained before the foundation of the 
world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do 
believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him 
glory ; that your faith and hope might be in God." 

Such is the outline which I shall attempt to fill up in the subse 
quent illustrations. 

I. CHRISTIAN DUTY. 
1. General view obedience. 

According to the plan which has just been sketched, our attention 
must be first directed to the view of Christian duty with which W6 
are presented in the passage before us. 

Christian duty is in this paragraph represented generally as obedi 
ence. The apostle calls on Christians to conduct themselves " as obe 
dient children," or rather children of obedience, which is the literal 



PA11T I.] GENERAL VIEW. 91 

rendering of the original terms. The apostle s meaning does not 
seem to be "Behave yourselves towards God as obedient children do 
towards their father," but act the part not of children of disobedience 
a strong idiomatic phrase for disobedient persons ; but of children 
of obedience a strong idiomatic phrase for obedient persons. 1 Obe 
dience, then, is the great duty of the Christian. 

Obedience has always a reference to a law to be obeyed. Chris 
tians are often, in the epistolary part of the New Testament, repre 
sented as not only completely delivered from subjection to the law of 
Moses ; but the state into which they are brought by the faith of the 
gospel is described as a being "not under law, but under grace." 3 
Their pardon and salvation are not to be procured by their own obe 
dience to any law, but to be received as the "gift of God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord." But though delivered from the Mosaic law, 
and though " not under law," in the sense of their final salvation 
being the stipulated reward of stipulated labor, they are "not with 
out law to God ; they are under the law to Christ." 8 

The law to which the Christian owes obedience is the revelation 
of the divine will contained in the Holy Scriptures. This law is, like 
its Author, "spiritual" and "holy," both "just and good." 4 It 
reaches not merely to action, but to the principles of action, and re 
quires obedience of mind, obedience of heart, and obedience of life. 

Obedience of mind consists in the implicit belief of whatever is 
revealed in the Holy Scriptures. It is counting true whatever God 
has said, just because God has said it. A Christian is not left to 
think as he pleases. The command of God is, "Let the mind be in 
you which was also in Christ Jesus." B We must think in conform 
ity to the mind of God, as made known in his word. We must re 
ceive what is written there, " not as the word of man, but as it is in 
truth the word of the living God." 8 

This submission of mind to the authority of God is the fundamental 
part of Christian obedience, and naturally leads to that obedience of 
heart which is equally required by that law, which is exceeding broad. 
By obedience of heart, I understand a state of the affections corre 
sponding to the character of God as revealed in the manifestation he 
has made of his will. He appears in that manifestation infinitely 
venerable and estimable, and amiable and trustworthy ; and reverence 
and esteem, and love and confidence, are the dispositions which these 
excellencies ought to excite in our minds. To " sanctify the Lord 
God in our hearts," to " make him our fear and dread," to " love him 
with our heart, and our soul, and our strength, and our mind," and 
"to trust in him at all times," 7 this is the obedience of the heart. 

As the obedience of the mind naturally leads to the obedience of 
the heart, as it is impossible to venerate and esteem, and love and 
trust God, without knowing and believing that he is venerable and 
excellent, and amiable and trustworthy, and impossible to believe him 



ra/coT/f is a Hebraism of the same kind as TKVO. QUTOC, viol fj/uEpac;, vibg diru- 
rnf , viol aTTEtdeiar, rinva bpyrft, TKKVO, /carapaf. 

2 Rom. vi. 14. si Cor. ix. 21. * Rom. vii. 12, 14. 

5 Philii. 5, 6 iThess. ii. 13. 

* 1 Pet. iii. 15. Isa. viii. 13. Matt. xxii. 37. Psal. Ixii. 8. 



92 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC, v 

possessed of those excellencies without exercising those dispositions, 
so the obedience of the mind and of the heart naturally express 
themselves in the obedience of the life. 

The obedience of the life is twofold active and passive : the one 
consisting in conscientiously doing whatever God commands ; and 
the other consisting in cheerfully submitting to whatever God ap 
points. It is the duty of the Christian to " walk in all God s com 
mandments and ordinances blameless," to be patient in tribulation," 
and even to " count it all joy when brought into manifold trials." 
Such is the general idea of obedience as the duty of the Christian : a 
conformity of mind and heart and conduct to the revealed will of God. 

There are certain general characters which belong to this obedience 
when it is genuine, and which distinguish it from all counterfeits. It 
is implicit obedience. The Christian not only believes what God re 
veals, but he believes it because God has revealed it; he not only 
does what God commands, but he does it because God has command 
ed it : he not only submits to what God appoints, but he submits to it 
because God has appointed it. It is obviously just so far as the faith 
and conduct of a Christian have this character, that they deserve the 
name of obedience at all. 

The obedience which forms the sum and substance of Christian 
duty, is impartial and universal obedience. If it be implicit, it will 
be impartial and universal. If I really regard the will of God at all, 
I will regard it whenever I see it clearly manifested. I will not, 
among duties commanded with equal clearness, choose which I will 
perform, and which I will neglect. I will u esteem all hjs precepts 
concerning all things to be right, and I will hate every false way." a 

Cheerfidness is another essential character of Christian obedience. 
External obedience may often be constrained and mercenary ; but 
the obedience of the life, which proceeds from, and is the expression 
of, the obedience of the mind and heart, cannot be either. In obey 
ing, the Christian is doing what he knows to be right; and what he 
feels ^ to be good. He "consents to the law that it is. good." He 
" delights in, the law after the inward man." "When his heart is en 
larged by just and impressive views of the reasonableness and excel 
lence of the divine law, he runs in -the ways of God s command 
ments, and finds that "in keeping them there is great reward." 8 

The obedience which is the sum of the Christian s duty, in fine, is 
not an occasional and temporary, but a habitual and a persevering 
obedience. It is the business of his life : " Whatsoever he does, 
whether in word or in deed," ought to be done a in the name of the 
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by him." " Whether 
he eats or drinks, or whatsoever he does," he ought to do " all to the 
glory of God." His obedience ought to be " a patient continuance 
in well-doing," " a steadfast, immovable, constant abounding in the 
work of the Lord," " a forgetting the things which are behind, a 
reaching forth to those which are before, a pressing to the mark foi 
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 4 

1 Luke i. 6. Rom. xii. 12. James i. 2. 2 Psal. exix. 128. 

3 Rom. vii. 16, 22. Psal. cxix. 32 ; xix. 11. 

4 Col. iii. 17 1 Cor. x. 31, Rom. ii. 7. 1- Cor. xv. 58. Phil. iii. 13, 14. 



PART I.J PARTICULAR VIEW. 



2. Particular view of Christian Duty. (1.) Negative. 
(2.) Positive. 

The duty of Christians is not only described generally as obedi 
ence, but more particularly, first, negatively, as a " not fashioning 
themselves according to the former lusts in their ignorance," and 
then, positively, as a "being holy in all manner of conversation." 
Let us shortly attend to these very instructive descriptions of .Chris 
tian duty. 

(1.) The apostle s negative statement is, that Christians ought not 
to fashion themselves " according to the former lusts in their igno 
rance." While a man continues unacquainted with the meaning and 
evidence of the revelation which God has made of himself in his word 
and this is the case with every unbeliever, he is in a state of igno 
rance respecting the most important of all subjects, the character 
and will of God the duty and happiness of man. While in that state, 
he does not "fashion himself," that is, regulate his conduct form his 
character, " according to the will of God," but according to his 
"lusts," -his desires. The desires which are natural to men while 
they are unrenewed, are the principles which regulate their conduct 
and form their character. One man loves pleasure, another loves 
money, another loves power, another loves fame. The ruling desire, 
or lust, is the principle which forms the character and guides the 
conduct. 

Now the Christian, being no longer in ignorance, but knowing and 
believing the revelation God has made of his will, must no longer 
permit his character to be fashioned by those desires, to the guidance 
of which, when in a state of ignorance, he delivered himself up. All 
these desires, so far as they are sinful, must be mortified, and, even 
so far as they are innocent, they must cease to be governing princi 
ples, and must be subordinated to a higher principle the principle 
of submission of mind and heart to the will of God. 

The objects of these desires are sensible and present things things 
which are "in the world;" so that the not fashioning ourselves ac 
cording to our former lusts in our ignorance, and our not being " con 
formed to this world," are but two different modes of expressing the 
same thing. An un regenerated man s character is entirely formed 
by the desires of his fallen nature, excited by their appropriate objects 
in the present world. It was once so with the Christian, but it must 
be so with him no longer. On the contrary, "as he who has called 
him is holy, so must he be holy in all manner of conversation." 

(2.) This is the apostle s positive statement with respect to Chris 
tian duty. There is no word, I apprehend, to which more indistinct 
ideas are generally attached, than holiness ; yet, surely, there is no 
word of the meaning of which it is of more importance we should 
have a clear and accurate conception ; for " without holiness no man 
shall see the Lord." 1 The clearest and the justest idea we can form 
of holiness, as a quality of an intelligent creature, is conformity of 
mind and will with the Supreme Being, who alone is, in all the extent 

1 Heb. xii. 14. 



94 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

of meaning belonging to the word, holy. Holiness does not consist in 
mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervors, or uncommanded austerities; 
it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills. God s 
mind and will are to be known from his word ; and, so far as I really 
understand and believe God s word, God s mind becomes my mind, 
God s will becomes my will, and, according to the measure of my 
faith, I become holy. 

And this conformity of mind and will to God this holiness is to 
be manifested "in all manner of conversation." "Conversation," 
here, as usually in the New Testament, signifies not colloquial inter 
course, but general conduct. 1 In every part of your character and 
conduct, let it appear that the ruling principles of your conduct, the 
forming principles of your character, are no longer what they once 
were your lusts, your natural desires, but the mind and the will of him 
who has called you, even God, who is holy ; his mind and will having 
become your mind and will, through the knowledge and belief of the 
truth, make it evident, that these are now the principles by which 
your character is formed and your life governed. In everything 
show that you think as God thinks, that you will as God wills, that 
you love what God loves, that you hate what he hates, that you choose 
what he chooses, that wherein he finds enjoyment, you seek enjoy 
ment. Such is a short account of the Christian s duty. 

There are two conclusions to which these observations necessa 
rily conduct us, highly worthy of considerate reflection. First, that 
there are many who call themselves Christians, who have no title 
to that name, habitual violators of God s law, strangers to the very 
principle of obedience, still "walking according to the course of 
this world, serving divers lusts and pleasures." 3 How vain how 
much worse than vain, in their profession how dangerous their cir 
cumstances how awful, if they continue in their present state, their 
final doom ! The second conclusion is, that those who are really 
Christians are still very far, indeed, from being what they ought to 
be from being what they might be. The best Christians, then, need 
to have such exhortations addressed to them as these : " Follow ho 
liness," seek growing conformity of mind and heart to God, and 
recollect this can be obtained only by growing knowledge and faith 
of the truth. Though already not of the world, even as their Lord is 
not of the world, they need the great intercessor continually to pray 
for them. " Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth." 8 



1L MEANS FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. 

"We now proceed to direct your minds to the view here given us 
of the means of performing this duty. If we would be " children of 




necessary that we should " gird up 

1 The only exception is Phil. iii. 20, where the word in the original i 
but TTO/U reiyza citizenship. 

2 Eph. ii. 2, 3. Tit. iii. 3. 3 John xvii. 7. 



PART II.] MEANS FOR PERFORMING IT. 95 

we should be "sober" that we should "hope to the end" and that 
we should "pass the time of our sojourning here in fear." Deter 
mined resolution, moderation, hope, and fear, are the means here pre 
scribed for our realizing, in our own character and conduct, those 
views of Christian duty presented to us by the apostle. Let us shortly 
attend to them in their order. 

1. Determined Resolution a means of Christian Obedience. 

Determined resolution is one of the instrumental means which we 
ought to employ, in order to our complying with the apostle s ex 
hortation. " Gird up," says he, "the loins of your mind." 1 The an 
cients were accustomed to wear loose, flowing garments, which, 
though graceful and agreeable on ordinary occasions, were found 
inconvenient when strenuous and long-continued exertion became 
necessary. In such cases it was usual to gather together the folds 
of the flowing drapery, and, having wrapped them round the waist, 
to confine them by a belt or girdle. This was termed girding up the 
loins. 

The phrase is here used figuratively. To inquire, as some have 
done, what are meant by the loins of the mind, and to reply the sen 
sual affections and appetites, the lower propensities of human nature ; 
and to inquire what is meant by girding up the loins of the mind, 
and to reply the restraint and mortification of these debasing pro 
pensities, is rather ingeniously to play with, than satisfactorily to ex 
plain, the phraseology of the sacred writer. " To gird up the loins of 
the mind," is to gird up the loins mentally ; that is, to cultivate that 
state of mind of which the girding up of the loins is the natural em 
blem. "When a man has nothing to do, or nothing which requires any 
thing like exertion, he permits his robes to flow in graceful negligence 
around him ; or, even if called on to a sudden, transient, though vigo 
rous effort, he may not think it worth his while to make any change 
in his dress ; but if he has a work to perform, which requires at once 
strenuous and continued exertion, if he is about, not to take a walk 
for pleasure, but to undertake a journey on business, then he girds up 
his loins. The action is naturally emblematical of that state of mind 
in which a person contemplates a course of conduct, which, while he 
considers it as highly eligible and indispensably obligatory, he plain 
ly perceives to involve in it serious difficulty, and to demand the per 
severing putting forth of all his active energies. 

The apostolical command, " Gird up the loins of your mind," is 
equivalent to Set yourself with resolute determination to the per 
formance of these duties. Impress on your minds a sense of their 
importance, obligation, advantages, and necessity. Let there be no 
" halting between two opinions." Considering Christian obedience 
as the business of life ; a business, the right discharge of which will 
require all the care you can devote to it ; a business, in the prosecu 
tion of which no exertion must be spared, no sacrifice grudged ; enter 
on it with a determination, that whatever may be neglected this 
shall be attended to ; and with a distinct understanding, that this is 

1 Exod xii. 11. 1 Kings xviii. 46. Job xxxviii. 3 ; xL 7. Luke xii. 35. 



96 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

not to be an occasional employment for your by -hours, but the ha 
bitual occupation to which all your time and all your faculties are 
to be devoted. 

Such a spirit of determined resolution is absolutely necessary to 
the proper performance of the duties involved in a life of Christian 
obedience. These duties are numerous, varied, and laborious. They 
are all in the highest degree reasonable, and to a being whose moral 
constitution is in a completely sound state, none of them would be in 
the slightest degree grievous. The yoke of Christian duty should be 
very easy the burden of Christian duty should be very light. But 
who that believes the declarations of Scripture who that is in any 
degree conversant with the realities of Christian experience, needs to 
be told that the remains of native depravity, acted on by the tempta 
tions of Satan, and by the influence of a world lying under his power, 
often make irksome what ought to be delightful, difficult what should 
be easy, laborious what should be spontaneous ? How endless, varied, 
and diversified are the circumstances which have a tendency to in 
duce spiritual sloth, and make us become " weary in well-doing !" 
How apt are we to turn out of the way, instead of proceeding right 
onwards ; to loiter, when we should quicken our pace ; to think we 
have "attained, and are already perfect," when we have little more 
than entered on our Christian course ! How often, when the spirit is 
willing, is the flesh weak ! Oh, how does " the flesh war against the 
spirit, so that we cannot do the things that we would!" 1 

To meet this state of things, nothing is more necessary than that 
resolute determination here recommended by the apostle. Without 
it we shall make but little progress in our Christian course, and the 
little progress we make, will be productive of but little comfort to 
ourselves little glory to our Lord ; everything will be a difficulty ; 
we shall be constantly stumbling, and but too often falling. But with 
it, our progress will be steady and rapid, delightful to ourselves, com 
fortable to our brethren, honorable to our Lord ; we shall " forget the 
things which are behind, reach forward to those which are before, and 
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus." a 

This resolute determination must not rest on the mistaken opinion 
of our possessing in ourselves all the energies which are necessary 
for the successful performance of all the duties implied in Christian 
obedience, but on an humble yet confident reliance on the promises 
of God, securing for us all those supplies of divine influence which 
are requisite for this purpose. It is the faith of the- truth, and that 
alone, that can brace the mind for spiritual work and warfare. It is 
this which makes us " strong in the Lord, and in the power of his 
might." 3 

Let us, then, like the Israelites when leaving Egypt, u gird up our 
loins," resolved to prosecute our journey, undeterred by the fury of 
our spiritual enemies endeavoring to bring us again into bondage, by 
the billows of the Red Sea of persecution, or by the endless toils and 
troubles of the wilderness of this world, till, having passed the Jordan 
of death, we shall lay by the staff and the sword for the palm and the 

1 Gal. v. 17. Phil. iii. 13. 3 Eph. vi. 10. 



PART II.] MEANS FOR PERFORMING IT. 97 

harp, and exchange the humble garb of the pilgrim for the flowing 
robes of the victor. Meanwhile, to use the language of the heavenly 
Leighton, " Let us remember our way, and where we are, and keep 
our robes girt up, for we walk among briers and thorns, which, if we 
let them down, will entangle and stop us, and possibly tear our gar 
ments ; we walk through a world where there is a great mire of sin 
ful pollutions, and which therefore cannot but defile them : and the 
crowd we are among will be ready to tread on them ; yea, our own 
feet may be entangled in them, and so make us stumble and possibly 
fall." Our only safety is in girding up the loins of our mind. 

2. Moderation a means of Christian Obedience. 

Moderation is another of the instrumental means which the apostle 
recommends for the performance of the duty of Christian obedience. 
" Be sober." * To be sober, in ordinary language, is descriptive of 
that particular variety of the duty of temperance which is opposed to 
the undue use of intoxicating liquors. But the word used by the 
apostle has a much more extensive meaning. The sobriety or tem 
perance of the apostle is another word for moderation, and is descrip 
tive of that state of the mind, and affections, and behavior, in refer 
ence to " things seen and temporal," " the present world," by which 
a Christian should be distinguished. 

The foundation of true Christian sobriety or moderation lies in a 
just estimate of the intrinsic and comparative value of " all that is in 
the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of 
life," 2 all that the eye or the flesh desires all of which living men 
are apt to be proud. The Christian does not consider the wealth, and 
the honor, and the pleasures of this world, as destitute of value ; but 
he sees that that value is by no means what the deluded worshippers 
of Mammon suppose it to be. He sees that the possession of them 
cannot make him happy, nor the want of them make him miserable. 
They cannot obtain for him the pardon of his sin, they cannot pacify 
his conscience, they cannot transform his character, they cannot give 
him life in death, they cannot secure him of happiness forever. They 
appear to him polluted with sin, replete with temptation, pregnant of 
danger. 

With these views, he is moderate in his desires for them, moderate 
in his pursuit of them, moderate in his attachment to them while he 
enjoys them ; moderate in his regrets for them ; when he is deprived 
of them. This is Christian sobriety. It is for those who have earthly 
relatives to be as if they had them not ; for " those who weep to be as 
though they wept not ; for those who rejoice to be as though they re 
joiced not ; for those who use this world to use it as not abusing it, 
knowing that the fashion of this world passeth away ." 3 

The cultivation of this sobriety is of the utmost importance to the 

1 Subsequent reflection has made me doubt, whether " watchfulness," or freedom from 
mental intoxication, be not the apostle s idea here rather than moderation. The original 
word favors this view. These mental habits are described, Discourses xviii. xxiii. ; and 
the usefulness, and, indeed, necessity, of them as instrumental means for the performance 
of Christian duty are self-evident. 

a 1 John ii. 6. s Cor. vii. 29-31 

7 



98 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. V, 

proper performance of the duties of Christian obedience. The su 
preme love of the world is inconsistent with Christian obedience alto- 
gether. " No man can serve two masters : for either he will hate the 
one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the 
other ; ye cannot serve God and Mammon." l And, as the supreme 
love of the world necessarily makes and keeps men " children of dis 
obedience/ so the undue love of the world prevents even those who 
are " the children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus," from being, 
in so high a degree as they ought to be, " the children of obedience." 
What is it that makes obedience so often to be felt a tiresome task, 
but the undue love of the world : and how do the commandments of 
our Lord become to us not grievous, but by our victorious faith over 
coming the world ? 2 It has been finely said, that " the same eye can 
not both look up to heaven and down to earth at the same time." 
And the heart must be emptied of the love of the world, that it may 
be filled w r ith that love of God, which is at once the seminal principle 
and the concentrated essence of all Christian obedience. Those who 
are quite engrossed with earth s business and pleasures cannot be 
" seeking a country a better country, that is, an heavenly." They 
who, by their immoderate attachment to earth, show they are at 
home, cannot be " strangers and sojourners." The Captain of the 
Lord s host, our New Testament Gideon, will not own as his soldiers 
those who lie down to drink of the streams of earth s delight, but only 
those who, in passing, drink of them with their hand, as of the brook 
in the way. 3 

It is much to be desired that professors of Christianity were more 
deeply impressed with this truth, that the supreme love of the world 
is utterly inconsistent with the very existence of Christianity ; and 
that real Christians were more deeply impressed with the kindred 
truth, of the utter inconsistency of an undue love of the world with a 
healthy, thriving Christianity, a Christianity bringing forth the fruits 
of true holiness and true peace, fruits which are to the glory of God, 
and to the happiness of the believer. It is, my brethren, this worldli- 
ness, this want of Christian sobriety, which spreads such a withering 
blight over the blossoms of fair profession, and prevents their ever 
ripening into fruit. To quote again the spiritual commentator already 
referred to : " All immoderate use of the world and its delights injures 
the soul in its spiritual condition, makes it sickly and feeble, full of 
spiritual distempers and inactivity, benumbs the graces of the Spirit, 
and fills the soul with sleepy vapors, makes it grow secure and heavy 
in spiritual exercises, and obstructs the way and motion of the Spirit 
of God in the soul." 4 If we would, then, be children of obedience, if 
we would not fashion ourselves according to the former lusts, if we 
would be holy in all manner of conversation, let us " be sober." 

^ Let each of us, ere we proceed further, examine himself. Am I 
girding up the loins of my mind ? Am I, in a dependence on the 
promised aids of divine influence, honestly, heartily, determined to 
make the service of God, through Christ Jesus, my great business, 
and to make the life I live in the flesh a life of subjection to his 

1 Matt, vi. 24. 2 l Jo]m y 4> 

"Xeighton. Heb. xi. 13, 14. Judges vii. 4-7. * Leightoa 



PART-II.J MEANS FOR PERFORMING IT. 99 

will, and obedience to his law, by making it a life of faith in his 
Son? Am I sober, temperate, moderate, in all things,, in my esti 
mates, my desires, my pursuits, my enjoyments, my sorrows ? If we 
are not girding up the loins of our minds, if we are not sober, we 
are not Christians. We may be calling Christ Lord, Lord ; but we 
are not doing the things which he says to us ; and unless a thorough 
change take place, to us, at last, must be addressed these heart- wither 
ing words " Depart from me, I never knew you, ye workers of 
iniquity." 

3. Hope a means of Christian Obedien ce. 

< "*. * 

We proceed now to observe, that Hope is the third means recom 
mended by the apostle for securing the proper performance of the 
duty of Christian obedience. If you would be " children of obe 
dience," if you would "not fashion yourselves according to your 
former lusts in your ignorance," if you would " be holy in all manner 
of conversation," you must "hope to the end ; for the grace which 
is to be brought to you at the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

" The grace," or favor, " which is to be brought to Christians at 
the revelation of Christ Jesus," that is, when Christ Jesus is re 
vealed, is that perfection of holy happiness to which they are to be 
raised at the close of the present state of things " the salvation that 
is ready," prepared, "to-be revealed in the last time" "the inherit 
ance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in 
heaven for them" " the glory that is to follow" the second coming 
of the Lord. 

For this " grace," this manifestation of his sovereign favor, for 
the salvation of Christ from the beginning to the end is of grace 
the apostle exhorts Christians to " hope," and to " hope to the end." 

He exhorts them to hope for it, to expect it, to consider it as some 
thing that is absolutely secure, something that in due season they 
shall certainly enjoy; and he exhorts them to "hope to the end," 1 
that is, either to hope perfectly, to cherish an undoubting confidence, 
or to persevere in hoping to the very close of life, " not casting away 
their confidence," but " holding it fast to the end," knowing that 
" they have need of patience," that is, " the patience of hope ;" in 
other words, knowing that they must persevere in hoping, in order 
that they may do the will of God, and that " they may obtain the 
promise," that is, the promised blessing. 2 

The practical truths here taught by the apostle are these that it 
is the duty of Christians to cultivate a persevering, confident hope of 
final salvation ; and that the cultivation of this persevering, confident 
hope of final salvation, is a necessary and important means of 
enabling them to perform the duties of Christian obedience. 

(1.) That it is the duty of Christians, believers of the truth as it 
is in Jesus, to cherish the hope of eternal happiness, is exceedingly 
plain. God has distinctly stated, that "whosoever believeth on 
Christ Jesus shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life ;" and 
surely it must be the duty of the Christian to believe what God says, 

9 Heb. x 35, 36. 



100 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

and to expect what God has promised. 1 For an unbelieving and im 
penitent person, continuing in unbelief and impenitence, to hope for 
eternal life is the extreme of presumption. That were to believe 
something which God has never said that were to expect something 
which God has never promised. Nay, that were to believe the re 
verse of what God says to expect the reverse of what God has de 
clared. His declarations are, " Except ye repent, ye shall perish." 
" He that believeth not, shall be damned/ 2 The unbeliever who is 
cherishing the hope of " grace to be brought" to him, continuing an 
unbeliever " at the revelation of Jesus Christ," is trusting to a hope 
which will make him " ashamed and confounded world without end." 
For He will be " revealed then in flaming fire, to take vengeance on 
such as know not God, and obey not the gospel of his Son." 3 

But let this impenitent man change his mind ; let this unbeliever 
but credit the testimony of God, counting it a faithful saying, that 
"God is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing to 
men their trespasses ; seeing he hath made him who knew no sin to 
be sin in our room, that we may be made the righteousness of God 
in him," and immediately that hope which, in his previous state, it 
would have been absurdity and error, folly and presumption, in him 
to cherish, naturally grows up in his mind ; its enjoyment is one of 
his highest privileges, and its cultivation one of his most important 
duties. 

When we call on Christians to cultivate hope, we would press upon 
their attention the importance of three things. First, let them en 
deavor to obtain clear and ever-extending views of that holy happi 
ness which is the object of their hope, of that "grace which is to be 
brought to them at the coming of our Lord Jesus." Let them not 
rest satisfied with some indistinct general notion of it as a state of 
deliverance from all suffering, and of the enjoyment of every species 
of blessedness ; but let its character as a state of holy happiness be 
familiar to their minds ; a state of endearing and transforming com 
munion with the Holy, Holy, Holy One, a seeing Him as he is, a 
being like him, a beholding his face in righteousness, a being satisfied 
with his likeness, a being holy as he is holy, perfect as he is perfect. 

Secondly, let them never forget that the holy ground on which 
their hope of obtaining this blessedness rests, is the sovereign mercy 
of Him whose nature as well as name is love, exercised in perfect 
consistency with, in glorious illustration of, his righteousness, through 
the obedience to death of his only begotten Son, made known to them 
in the word of the truth of the gospel. That appeared to them the 
only ground of hope, when, in the hour of conviction, every refuge 
of lies was swept away, and they were made to see that, so far as 
depended on themselves, so far as depended on the universe of 
creatures, there was no hope for them. They were then absolutely 
" without hope" till- " the hope set before them in the gospel" was dis 
closed to their mind. There is no other ground of hope. Never, 
Christians, shift from this foundation never attempt to add to this 
foundation. " Hold fast the beginning of your confidence, steadfast 

1 John iii. 16. 9 Luke xiii. 3, 5. Mark xvi. 16. 

1 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. * 2 Cor. v. 19-21. 



PART II. J MEANS FOR PERFORMING IT. 101 

to the end." Let your hope of eternal life be that of a sinner who 
knows that eternal death is his merited portion, but who, believing, 
because God has said it, that " eternal life is the gift of God through 
Jesus Christ our Lord," gladly and gratefully receives what is freely 
given him of God, and setting to his seal that God is true, confidently 
trusts, humbly expects, that God will do as he has said. 

Thirdly, in hoping for this holy happiness entirely on the ground 
of sovereign mercy, let Christians expect to obtain it only in the 
way in which God has promised to bestow it on them. To expect 
eternal life in a course of thoughtlessness and sin, is to expect what 
God has never promised. It is "through faith and patience" that 
the promised blessing is to be inherited. It is " in a patient continu 
ance in well-doing," that "glory, honor, and immortality" are to be 
expected. It is " after doing the will of God that we are to receive 
the promise." l Let Christians, keeping these three things in view, 
expect only what God has promised expect this only on the ground 
that He who is infinite in kindness, and wisdom, and power, and 
faithfulness, has promised it and expect it only in the way and by 
the means which he has appointed for obtaining it ; and it is impossi 
ble for them to be too confident in that " hope for the grace which is 
to be brought to them at the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

(2.) This confident, persevering hope of final salvation, is one of 
the most necessary and important means for enabling a Christian to 
perform the duties of Christian obedience. There are some theolo 
gians who would represent the performance of the duties of Christian 
obedience as the ground of the hope of eternal life. These are not 
wise builders. They turn things upside down, and place the super 
structure in the room of the foundation. Till a man has, through 
the faith of the gospel, obtained the hope of eternal life, he will never 
take a step in that path of filial obedience which is the only road to 
heaven, and the more he has of a well-grounded hope of eternal life, 
the more rapidly will he run along that road, the more easily will he 
master the difficulties, and surmount the obstacles which threaten to 
prevent his progress. When by a lively hope the Christian is enabled 
to feast on the clusters of the grapes of the promised land, which 
faith has furnished him with in the wilderness, he is disposed to say 
with Caleb, It must be a good land ; and, seeing it is a good land, 
let us go up and possess it. What though hosts of spiritual enemies 
oppose our progress ; what though the Jordan of death, that river 
over which there is no bridge, roll his waters deep and dark between 
us and the Canaan above, He who is infinite in power and in faith 
fulness, hath promised to make us " more than conquerors," and to 
bring us to, and make us reside forever in, that good land. 

" It is," to borrow the well-considered language of Leighton, " a 
foolish misgrounded fear, and such as argues inexperience of the na 
ture and workings of divine grace, to imagine that the assured hope 
of salvation will beget unholiness and presumptuous boldness in sin. 
Our apostle is not so sharp-sighted as these men think themselves : 
he apprehends no such matter : he, indeed, supposes the contrary as 
unquestionable : he takes not assured hope and holiness as enemies, 

1 Rom. ii. 7. Heb. vi. 12 ; x. 36. 



102 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

but joins them as near friends. Hope perfectly, in order to your be 
ing holy in all manner of conversation. The more assurance of sal 
vation, the more holiness the more delight in it, the more study of 
it, as the only way to that end ; and as labor is then most pleasant 
when we are made surest that it shall not be lost, nothing doth make 
the soul so nimble and active in obedience as this oil of gladness, this 
assured hope of glory." Accordingly, the apostle John says, " It doth 
not yet appear what we shall be ; but when he shall appear we shall 
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Every man that hath this 
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." In perfect accord 
ance with these two apostles, their beloved brother Paul, in his Epis 
tle to the Hebrews, declares his desire " that every one of them would 
give all diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end ;" would 
sedulously cultivate an unshaken, confident, persevering hope of eter 
nal life, in order that they might not be " slothful, but followers of 
them who, through faith, and patience, are now inheriting the pro 
mises." l 

This is, I am persuaded, the only way of securing habitual Chris 
tian obedience. Let Christians, then, learn to say with the Psalm 
ist, " But I will hope continually ; and I will go in the strength of the 
Lord, making mention of his righteousness, even of his only." 2 

It may be proper, before leaving this part of the subject, to remark, 
that as the hope of eternal life has a powerful influence on Christian 
obedience, so Christian obedience has a powerful influence on the 
hope of eternal life. We have seen that Christian obedience is not 
the ground of the hope of eternal life, but it is its evidence. It is in 
the nature of things impossible that a Christian, while negligent about 
the duty of obedience, should enjoy in any high degree the privilege 
of hope. It is the same truth which inspires hope and stimulates to 
obedience ; and if it is not present to the mind doing the latter, it 
cannot be present doing the former. It .has been finely said, " The 
greatest affliction does not damp the hope of eternal life, so much as 
the smallest sin ; affliction often renders hope more vigorous, sin uni 
formly weakens it." 3 If Christians would be " obedient children," 
they must " hope to the end ;" and if they would " hope to the end," 
they must be " obedient children." These two things are linked to 
gether by divine appointment ; and " what God has thus joined, let no 
man attempt to put asunder." 

4. Fear a means of Christian Obedience. 

Fear is the fourth and last instrumental means which the apostle 
prescribes for securing the performance of the duties of Christian obe 
dience. If we would be " children of obedience," if we would not 
" fashion ourselves according to the former lusts in our ignorance, 
if we would " be holy in all manner of conversation," then must we 
" pass the time of our sojourning here in fear." 

This injunction may not at first view appear to harmonize well 
with that which we have just been illustrating. It may be said, 

i 1 John iii. 2, 3. Heb. vi. 11, 12. a Psal. Ixxi. 14-16. 

* Leighton. 



PART II.] MEANS FOR PERFORMING IT. 103 

"does not perfect love cast out fear?" l and must not "the full assur 
ance of hope," which the apostle has been recommending, cast it out 
also ? The discrepancy is apparent only, not real. The fear which 
the apostle recommends, so far from being inconsistent with love and 
hope, and destructive of that comfort and happiness to which they 
give origin, naturally grows out of those views of the divine charac 
ter which excite love and hope, and acts the part of guardian to the 
comfort and happiness which they produce in the mind. 

The fear recommended by the apostle is beyond doubt the fear of 
offending God, and of the consequences of offending God. Such a 
fear is not only consistent with love and hope, but is their insepara 
ble companion. The more highly I value the favor of God, the more 
must I fear that which, in the degree in which it prevails, deprives 
me of the sense of this favor. The more I delight in the anticipation 
of the holy happiness of heaven, the more must I be afraid of that, the 
direct and certain effect of which is to deprive me of this delight. 
The happiness of Christians is in the love of God, and the light of his 
countenance is the life of their life. It matters little to them that the 
world frowns on them, if he smiles ; and it matters little to them that 
the world smiles, if he frowns. Nothing in the world can deprive 
them of the tokens of their Father s love but sin ; and, therefore, they 
consider it as of all things the most terrible. " By this fear of the 
Lord they are made to depart from evil." It is implanted in their 
hearts by God for this express purpose, " I will put my fear in theii 
hearts, and they shall not depart from me." 2 It naturally leads them 
to keep at a distance from sin ; to guard against temptation, to be 
ware of what may lead to the interruption of their delightful commu 
nion with their reconciled Father; and involve in clouds of perplexity 
and doubt the prospect of future blessedness. " Happy is the man who 
thus feareth always." 3 When a Christian believer thinks of the remains 
of corrupt principle within, and the number and force of temptations 
without ; when he sees how many fall before these temptations, and 
make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, surely it must be good 
for him to "be not high-minded, but fear." 4 

There is a system which passes with many for a peculiarly pure 
Christianity, the object of which seems to be to set believers free from 
every species of fear as inconsistent with faith, which, according to 
them, consists in believing that, at all events, the individual shall be 
saved. Every species of fear is run down under the name of unbe 
lief. Now, it is quite plain the apostles had a very different view of 
the subject, since Paul exhorts the Hebrew Christians to " fear, lest, 
a promise of entering into God s rest being left to them, any of them 
should seem to come short of it," 5 and since Peter, in the words of 
our text, exhorts Christians to " pass the time of their sojourning here 
in fear." They inculcate fear as a means of preventing unbelief and 
its consequences. 

It is justly remarked by a judicious divine, that both "believers 

1 John iv. 18. 2 Prov. xvi. 6. Jer. xxxii. 40. 3 Pror. xxviii. 14. 

4 Rom. xi. 20. 5 Heb. iv. 1. 

8 The late Archibald M Lean, from whose writings I have derived much advantage. It 
may be worth stating, that when introduced to the late Robert Hall, one of the first 



104 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC, v 

and unbelievers have their fears, but they arise from very different 
sources, and have quite opposite effects. The fears of unbelievers 
arise from unworthy thoughts of God ; a distrust of his power, faith 
fulness, and goodness ; and, also, from a prevailing love of the present 
world and its enjoyments, which makes them more afraid of worldly 
losses and sufferings for righteousness sake, than of forfeiting the di 
vine favor/ 5 or incurring the divine displeasure. " Such fears not only 
indispose the mind to obedience, but lead directly to sin. But that 
godly fear which is proper to believers, arises from a just view, reve 
rence, and esteem of the character of God, and a supreme desire of 
his favor, as their chief happiness ; and is a fear lest they offend him 
and incur his just displeasure. Such a fear outweighs all the allure 
ments of sin on the one hand, and all the terrors of the present suffer 
ings on the other." 

Such is the fear inculcated by the prophet when he says, " Sanc 
tify the Lord God in your heart, and let him be your fear and your 
dread, and he shall be for a sanctuary." Such is the fear enjoined 
by our Lord on his disciples : " Fear not him who, after he has killed 
the body, hath no more that he can do ; but fear him who, after he 
hath killed the body, can cast both soul and body into hell fire ; yea, 
I say unto you, fear him." Such is the fear prescribed by the apostle 
in the passage before us, as an instrumental means for securing 
Christian obedience : " Pass the time of your sojourning here in 
fear." l 

This fear must be habitually exercised during the whole continu 
ance of our mortal life. None are so highly advanced in grace here 
below, as to be out of the need of this principle ; but when their pil 
grimage is finished, and they are come home to their Father s house 
above, there shall be no more fearing. There are no dangers there, 
and therefore no fear. They shall indeed have, in a higher degree 
than ever, a holy reverence of the Divine Majesty, but the fear of 
offending God will pass away w r ith the possibility of offending him. 
In that blessed world there is neither sin, nor temptation to sin ; no 
more conflict, no more danger ; the victory is complete, the peace 
secure, the triumph eternal. 2 

These observations have been addressed exclusively to Christians. 
But I am afraid there are persons now hearing me who are not Chris 
tians. I call on them to fear : they have good reason ; I dare not call 
on them to hope, while they continue in unbelief and impenitence. 
" There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God," 3 no hope for the 
unbelieving. But I present to them " the hope set before us" in the 
gospel. I tell them, Christ Jesus died for sinners ; for the chief of 
sinners. I assure them that " eternal life is the gift of God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord." I put them in mind of the solemn oath of 
God, that he has no pleasure in their death ; I put them in mind of 
the most condescending expostulation, " Why, why, will ye die ?" I 
beseech them to despair of salvation in themselves ; I assure them that 

things lie said to mo was, " Sir, you have found me reading your countryman, Archibald 
M Lean. He was a man mighty in the Scriptures, sir : mighty in the Scriptures." 

ilsaviii. 18. Matt. x. 28. a Leighton. 

* Isa. lvii.21. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO ITS PERFORMANCE. 105 

Jesus is "able to save them to the uttermost/ and as willing as able. 1 
Oh, if they would but believe " these true and faithful sayings of God," 
a hope that will never make them ashamed would spring up in their 
hearts ; and, along with that fear of the Lord by which men depart 
from evil, a fear in which there is sweet awful pleasure, not torment, 
in delightful harmonious operation, would induce them, from " chil 
dren of disobedience/ to become children of obedience ; and, instead 
of continuing to " fashion themselves according to their lusts in 
their ignorance/ would lead them to " be holy in all manner of con 
versation." 



III. MOTIVES TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. 

Let us now illustrate the motives to Christian duty, which are un 
folded in the paragraph under consideration. These are four in num 
ber. (1.) The grandeur, excellence, and security of that inheritance, 
the full possession of which can be attained only in a course of Chris 
tian duty : " Wherefore/ says the apostle, referring to the whole of 
the preceding description of the final happiness which awaits Chris 
tians at the second coming of their Lord. (2.) The holiness of God : 
" Be ye holy, for I am holy." (3.) The equity of God : " The Father 
on whom ye call, or he whom ye call Father, judgelh every man 
according to his works." And, (4.) The provision made for sanctifi- 
cation, by the sacrifice of the Son of God : " Ye are redeemed, not 
with such corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain con 
versation received by tradition from your fathers ; but with the pre 
cious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot ; 
who verily, was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but 
was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in 
God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory ; that your 
faith and hope might be in God." Let me turn your attention to 
these powerful motives in their order. 

1. The grandeur, excellence, and security of the Christian salva 
tion, a motive to Christian duty. 

The grandeur, excellence, and security of the inheritance, the full 
possession of which can be attained only in a course of Christian duty, 
is a most powerful motive to obedience, and to the employment of all 
the means which are fitted to secure it. When the apostle says, 
" Wherefore," for these reasons, we naturally ask, for what reasons ? 
and we readily find an answer. The preceding context is principally 
occupied with a description of the final happiness, the eternity of holy 
blessedness, which awaits the genuine followers of Jesus Christ in the 
last time, at the revelation of the Saviour. 

Now, is not the attainment of this eternity of holy happiness well 
worthy of every exertion that man is capable of? will it not infi 
nitely more than compensate for privations however great, sacrifices 
however costly, sufferings however severe, that may be required in 

a Rom. vi. 23. Ezck. xxxiii. 11. 



106 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

Eursuing it ? When we look around us, and see " all things so full of 
ibor, that man cannot utter it ;" when we see men, in order to obtain 
some worldly advantage, the value of which is in a great measure im 
aginary, and the possession of which must be insecure and short 
lived, rising early, sitting late, eating the bread of carefulness, com- 
passing sea and land, straining to the utmost every faculty of exertion, 
and tasking to the utmost every power of endurance, we cannot help 
being painfully struck at the disproportion between the worthlessness 
of the object, and the multitude and mightiness of the means. It "re 
sembles ocean into tempest tost, to watt a feather or to drown a fly." 
We feel disposed to ask the infatuated laborer, " Wilt thou set thine 
heart on things which are not ?" " Why do you spend your money 
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth 
not?" 1 

But there is no such disproportion here. " The crown of righteous 
ness," " the crown of life," is an adequate reward for all the toils, and 
privations, and fatigues, and agonies, of the Christian race and war 
fare ; and all the sufferings of the present state, to which a Christian 
may be exposed in the cause of his religion, are not " worthy to be 
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us;" the afflic 
tions of the present state, however numerous and severe, are lighter 
than dust in the balance, when weighed against that " far more ex- 
qpeding and eternal weight of glory." 2 

Is not this calculated to arouse to active exertion, to prepare for 
patient suffering ? Is it not most reasonable, that, in prosecuting 
such a pursuit, our determination to do nothing that can hazard fail 
ure, and everything that can promote success, should be most reso 
lute, and that we should look away from everything, however other 
wise attractive, which is calculated to divert our attention or divide 
our affections? Is not the attainment of such a blessing a fit object 
of hope ? Is not the loss of such a blessing a fit object of fear ? 

But it may be said, Is not the " salvation which is in Christ, with 
eternal glory," " the gift of God," and is it not " sure to all the seed ?" 
Is it not "laid up for them in heaven ?" and are they not kept for it by 
the mighty power of God ? 3 What need, then, of all this obedience 
and submission ? What need of all this determined resolution, and 
self-denied moderation, and animating hope, and cautious fear? The 
answer to those questions is at hand, and it is brief and satisfactory. 
The final salvation is the gift of God, and the objects of his love shall, 
assuredly, not come short of it. But there is a divinely appointed 
method for obtaining that eternal life which is the gift of God ; and 
none can enjoy the well-grounded hope of possessing it, who do not 
seek it in this divinely appointed method. Nothing is more distinctly 
slated in Scripture, than that it is only in the way of persevering faith 
and holiness that heaven is to be expected ; and that, in the way of 
persevering faith and holiness, heaven cannot be too confidently ex 
pected. It is in the way of persevering faith and holiness alone that 
we can reach heaven. " We have need of patience," that is, we must 
persevere, " that, by the will of God, we may obtain the promised 

1 Prov. xxiii. 5. Isa. Iv. 2. 2 Rom. viii. 18. 2 Cor. iv. 17. 

2 Rom. vi. 23 ; iv. 16. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO ITS PERFORMANCE. 107 

blessing." " Without holiness no man can see the Lord." l Unbelief 
and disobedience are the road to hell ; and even a true Christian, 
whe-n, under the influence of the evil heart of unbelief, he falls into 
backsliding, may be justly said to be on the road to hell, though blessed 
be God, it is certain he will never reach the termination of that road ; 
for the prayer of his Redeemer, who is mighty, will prevent his faith 
from utterly failing, and his backslidings will be healed, and he will be 
made to retrace his steps, and walk onward in faith and holiness to 
wards heaven. 

Still it is a general truth which all should attend to, " He that lives 
after the flesh shall die." "He that sows to the flesh, shall of the 
flesh reap corruption." He that turns back, " turns back towards 
perdition." 2 On the other hand, nothing is more certain than that, in 
a persevering course of Christian faith and obedience, the celestial bles 
sedness in all its grandeur and excellence shall be realized. "He 
who, through the Spirit, mortifies the deeds of the body, shall live." 
He who, through a constant continuance in well-doing, seeks for 
glory, honor, and immortality, shall obtain eternal life. " He who 
I endureth to the end, shall be saved." He who perseveres in believ 
ing, shall obtain "the salvation of the soul." He who "adds to his 
faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and 
to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness 
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity;" he who doeth 
these things, " shall never fall, but thus an entrance shall be ministered 
to him abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Sa 
viour Jesus Christ." ; The attainment of the celestial blessedness in this 
way, is not merely a high probability even in this case the motive 
would be a powerful one it is an absolute certainty. It is as secure 
as the word and oath, the perfections and being of God, can make it. 

How well fitted are such considerations to repress weariness, to re 
kindle ardor in the Christian race! "I run not as uncertainly," I 
keep along the marked race-course, and I am sure of " the prize of 
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." How admirably calculated 
to revive fainting courage in the Christian conflict ! "I fight not as 
one that beateth the air." I know that, "waxing valiant In fight, I 
shall put to flight all the armies of the aliens." " I know in whom I 
have believed." 4 Continuing to "fight the good fight of faith," I 
shall be "more than conqueror through him that loved me." The 
men of the world, in prosecution of their fancied good, spare no 
pains, shrink from no difficulty, decline no hazard, though they have 
nothing but probability, often* a very weak probability, to excite and 
encourage them. How unnatural, how inexcusable, "on the part of 
those professing to believe the gospel revelation, to be careless and 
inactive in the pursuit of a happiness which " eye hath not seen, ear 
hath not heard, and which it hath never entered into the heart of man 
to conceive ;" and of the attainment of which, in the appointed man 
ner, we may be, we ought to be, as certain as we are of our own ex 
istence ! Well might the apostle, when his mind was warmed and 

* Heb. x. 36 ; xii. 14. - Rom. viii. 13. Gal. VL 8. Heb. x. 30. E-,- d\sia* 

* Rom. viii. 13 ; ii. 7. Matt x. 22. Heb. x. 39. 2 Pet. L 5-11. 

* 1 Cor. ix. 36. Phil. ill. 14. 2 Tim. L 12. 



108 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

elevated by the contemplation of the glories of the final deliverance, 
say, " Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope 
to*the end; and be obedient children, not fashioning yourselves ac 
cording to your former lusts in your ignorance ; but be ye holy in 
all manner of conversation." 

This is the effect which the believing contemplation of the heaven 
ly blessedness is calculated and intended to have on the mind. It is 
not intended to afford an indolent delight, but a powerful excitement, 
and to induce Christians to be "steadfast and unmoveable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord ; forasmuch as they know their 
labor shall not be in vain in the Lord." 

2. The holiness of God a motive to Christian duty. 

The second motive which the apostle presents to the mind as urg 
ing to Christian obedience, is the holiness of the Divine Being " Be 



holy in all manner of conversation, as he who has called you is holy ; 
as it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy." 

There is none holy as Jehovah. He is " glorious in holiness." 
" He" only " is holy" " holy and reverend" is His name. 1 And those 
intelligent beings, who are capable of apprehending most of the perfec 
tions and beauties of his uncreated nature, have their attention chiefly 
fixed by this lovely attribute, and " day without night" hymn his praises 
as the " holy, holy, holy" One. 2 The holiness of God is just another 
word for the moral perfection of his nature. It is not something dif 
ferent from justice and benignity. It is the absolute perfection and 
the harmonious union of justice and benignity. 

The sum of the Christian s duty is to be holy ; that is, to be con 
formed to God ; to have the same views, and judgments, and senti 
ments with him ; to approve what he approves ; to disapprove what 
he disapproves ; and the strongest and best reason why the Christian 
should have these views, and judgments, and sentiments, and likings 
and dislikings, is just because God has them. The strongest and 
best reason why he should thus think and thus will, is just that God 
thus thinks and thus wills. To be holy, is to be conformed to God ; 
and to be conformed to God, is at once man s highest honor, duty, 
and happiness ; and what more cogent reason can be given for follow 
ing any tenor of disposition and conduct than that it is " the whole of 
man," 3 the whole of his honor, his duty, and his happiness ? 

The divine being is the most glorious and venerable being in the 
universe ; and it is his holiness far more than his power or his wisdom, 
far more than his eternity or his immensity, or his immutability, that 
makes him so. His other perfections, separate from this, would 
make him an object of terror rather than of veneration. He is em 
phatically "glorious in holiness;" and it is this perfection which 
clothes all the others with moral attractive influence, and makes their 
possessor at once infinitely estimable and infinitely lovely. When 
an intelligent being bears no resemblance to God in moral excellence, 
there is in that being nothing really dignified and honorable ; no 

1 1 Sam. ii. 2. Exod. xv. 21. PsaL xcix. 5 ; cxi. 9. 2 Isa. vi 3. 

8 Eccles. xii. 13. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO ITS PERFORMANCE. 109 

proper cause of moral respect or approbation ; and just in the degree 
in which there is a resemblance, is that intelligent being a fit object 
of moral esteem ; honorable and honored by God and all right-think 
ing angels and men. This, then, is one portion of the force of the 
motive, " Be holy, for I am holy/ Be holy, for to be holy is to be 
conformed to God, and to be conformed to God is true honor. 

But there is more in it than this. To be conformed to God is man s 
highest duty. To think in opposition to God, to will in opposition to 
God, must surely be the most unnatural and wicked of all things in 
beings capable of thinking and willing ; and to think along with him, 
to will along with him, must, from the very nature of things, be their 
first and highest duty. To have the mind and will and active facul 
ties in perfect accordance with the mind and will and command of 
God, is the clearest conception we can form of the moral perfection 
of an intelligent creature. 

But even this is not all. To be conformed to God is man s truest, 
highest happiness. God is the happiest being in the universe, and the 
reason is, he is the holiest being in the universe. He is perfectly 
happy, for he is perfectly holy. Men cannot participate in the hap 
piness of God, but by becoming "partakers of his holiness." God 
himself cannot make a being like man really, permanently happy, in 
any other way than by making him holy. " They who are far from 
him must perish ;" and there is nothing so good for man in all the 
extent and emphasis of meaning, which belongs to the word " good," 
as the being " near to God." l The force of this motive, then, briefly 
expressed, is this : to perform Christian duty, to be obedient children, 
is to be holy ; and to be holy, is to be like God ; and to be like God, 
is man s highest honor, duty, and happiness. Surely he must be 
an obtuse-minded, he must be an obdurate-hearted man, who does 
not perceive, who does not feel, the overwhelming force of such a 
motive. 

There is a superadded force in the motive, as urged in the passage 
before us. There is an additional power of persuasion in the descrip 
tive appellation, by which, instead of one of his proper names, the 
Divine Being is in this passage spoken of: As "He that has called 
you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." When 
they were running the mad career of error and folly and sin, God s 
powerful voice reached their hearts, and " called them out of darkness 
into his marvellous light." When that Holy One called you, it was 
for a purpose consonant with his character. That calling was " a 
holy calling;" he called you, "not to uncleanness, but to holiness." 
He has chosen you, " that you might be holy, and without blame be 
fore him in love." 2 To use the words of holy Leighton, "He hath 
severed you from the mass of the profane world, and picked you out 
to be jewels for himself; he hath set you apart for the end that you 
may be holy to him. It is sacrilege for you to dispose of yourselves 
after the impure manner of the world, and to apply to any profane 
use those whom God has consecrated to himself. He who hath called 
you is holy ; and therefore, when he called you, it must have been that 
ye should be holy. Therefore Be ye holy/ 

1 Psal. kxiii. 27, 28. a 1 Pet. ii. 9. 2 Tim. i. 9. 1 Thess. iv. 7. Eph. i. 4. 



110 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

3. The strict equity of God a motive to Christian duty. 

The strict equity of God is the third motive brought forward by 
the apostle for urging Christians to obedience, and to the use of the 
means calculated to facilitate and secure obedience. " Be obedient 
children ; fashion not yourselves according to the former lusts in your 
ignorance ; be holy in all manner of conversation ; gird up the loins 
of your mind ; be sober ; hope to the end ; pass the time of your so 
journing here in fear ;" " since the Father on whom ye call/ or rather, 
"since He whom ye call Father, without respect of persons, judgeth 
according to every man s work." l 

The primary idea here plainly is, that the strict impartiality of God, 
as the moral governor of the world, should be felt as a powerful mo 
tive to Christian duty. This consideration is urged as a motive to 
that holy fear, which we have seen to be one of the great means of 
Christian obedience ; but it is also a powerful, direct motive to Chris 
tian duty in general. 

God is the moral governor of the world. " The Lord hath pre 
pared his throne for judgment, and he shall judge the world in right 
eousness." " The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, 
and his kingdom ruleth over all." Every human being is the subject 
of this government. All must stand before his tribunal. He judgeth 
every man, and every work of every man; "for God will bring 
every work into judgment, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." 3 

In the administration of this moral government, God is regulated 
by the principles of the strictest impartiality and righteousness. " He 
judgeth every man s work without respect of persons." " To have 
respect of persons" is a Hebrew mode of expression, descriptive of 
that most iniquitous and mischievous abuse of the judicial function, 
when accidental circumstances, not fixed principles, guide the deci 
sion ; when men are rewarded or punished, not according to the 
desert of their conduct ; when they gain or lose their cause, not ac 
cording to its merits or demerits, but according to the personal par 
tialities of the judge, from arbitrary caprice, or from his regard to the 
wealth, or rank, or power, or influence of the parties. The divine 
administration, from the absolute independence and moral perfection 
of the judge, is completely free from this fault. " The Lord your 
God," says Moses, " is a God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, 
a mighty and a terrible one, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh 
reward." " Let the fear of the Lord be upon you," says Jehoshaphat 
to the judges whom he had appointed ; "for there is no iniquity with 
the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts." " Far 
be it from God," says Elihu r " that he should do wickedly ; from the 
Almighty, that he should commit iniquity. For the work of a man 
will he render unto him, and cause him to receive according to his 
ways. Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Al 
mighty pervert judgment. He accepteth not the persons of princes, 

" Particula a non est conditionalis seel assertiva, non dubitantis, sed rem notam pre- 
supponentis quia patrem invocatis." CALVIN. Others render it " quandoquidem," or 
" quoniam." HOTTINGER. ROSENMULLEE, 
* Psal. ix. 7 ; ciii. 19. Eccles. xi. 9. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO ITS PERFORMANCE. Ill 

nor regardeth the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work 
of his hands." " Of a truth/ says Peter, " I perceive that God is no 
respecter of persons : but in every nation he that feareth God, and 
worketh righteousness, is accepted of him/ "In the day of the 
revelation of his righteous judgment," says Paul, " God will render to 
every man according to his deeds : to them who, by patient continu 
ance in well-doing, seek for glory, honor, and immortality, eternal 
life ; but unto them who are contentious, and do not obey the truth, 
but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and an 
guish to every soul of man that doeth evil; to the Jew first, and also 
to the Greek : for there is no respect of persons with God. For as 
many as have sinned without law, shall perish without law; and as 
many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged^by the law." " God," 
says he in another passage, " accepteth no man s person." " There is 
no respect of persons with him." 

This strict impartiality of the Divine Being, as the righteous judge, 
is a very powerful motive to the duties enjoined, whether the injunc 
tion be considered as addressed to professed Christians or to real 
Christians. Let us endeavor to unfold its force, as bearing respect 
ively on these two classes. 

Viewed as addressed to professors of Christianity, it is as if the 
apostle had said, A mere profession of Christianity will avail you 
nothing. It is to no purpose that you have been baptized in the name 
of Christ, that you have a place in his church, that you sit down at 
his table, that you perform the external acts of worship which he re 
quires, if you are not "obedient children." If you are not "renewed 
in the spirit of your mind," if you are " not transformed by the re 
newing of your mind," so as not " to be conformed to the world," 
if you are not " holy in all manner of conversation," if you are not 
perseveringly active in the performance of Christian duty, if you are 
not moderate in all things, if you have not the hope of eternal life, 
and are not in the fear of the Lord all the day long, it is madness in 
you to think that you are in the way of obtaining "the inheritance 
incorruptible and undefiled." Remember with whom you have to do. 
He is not capable of being imposed upon by external appearances. 
He is not capable of being biased by weak partialities. He will 
judge you, and judge you according to your works. You will find 
that the principle on which his decisions go is the plain one : " He 
that doeth righteousness is righteous. He that doeth not righteous 
ness is not righteous." You will find that within the gates of the 
heavenly Jerusalem there is room only for those who do his com 
mandments ; and that " without, in outer darkness," is the allotted 
everlasting habitation of " the hypocrite," as well as " the unbeliever," 
of the unprofitable and unfaithful servant. "Not every one that 
calleth Jesus Christ, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
heaven ; but he that doeth the will of his Father who is in heaven." 3 
The ultimate destiny of the worldly immoral professor of Chris 
tianity will be more dreadful than that of the heathen or the open 

1 Dent. x. 17. 2 Chron. xix. 7. Job xxxiv. 10-12, 19. Acts x. 34, 35. Rom. ii. 6-12. 
Gal. ii. (>. Eph. vi. 9. Col. iii. 25. 

3 1 John iii. 7, 10. Matt. xxiv. 51 ; vii. 21. 



112 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

infidel. Oh ! that sinners in Zion were afraid. Oh ! that fearful ness 
might surprise the hypocrites. The God, of whom you say that he is 
your God, is no respecter of persons ; he will judge you according to 
your works. " Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit 
the kingdom of God ? Be not deceived ; neither fornicators nor 
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor thieves, nor covetous, 
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the king 
dom of God." " Be not deceived ; God is not mocked. Whatso 
ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap ; for if ye sow to the flesh, 
of the flesh ye shall reap corruption ; but if ye sow to the Spirit, ye 
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." " If ye live after the flesh, 
ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the 
body, ye shall live." l " You profess the true religion, and call him 
Father ; but if you live devoid of his fear, and be disobedient children, 
he will not spare you on account of that relation, but rather punish 
you more severely, because you pretend to be his children, and yet 
were not." 2 Beware of supposing that a life of irreligion and im 
morality, or even a life of indolence, or of worldliness, under a Chris 
tian profession, can have any end but one redoubled damnation. 
How can it be otherwise, if he with whom you have to do, without 
respect of persons, judgeth according to every man s work ? How 
fearful is the situation of that man who can hope for impunity and 
salvation, only if the righteous Lord shall cease to judge righteously! 
Such is the force of the motive viewed as addressed to professors of 
Christianity who may be, many of whom are, false professors. 

Let us now look at the motive as it bears on those who are really 
Christians. While " eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus 
Christ our Lord," while " the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with 
eternal glory," is freely bestowed on, not purchased by, those who 
obtain it ; yet it is plainly the doctrine of Scripture, as it appears to 
me, that the degrees of happiness in a future world will be propor 
tioned to the degrees of holiness in the present world. In judging of 
the works of the redeemed, strict impartiality will be maintained. 
To use the figurative language of our Lord, one shall have authority 
over ten cities, and another shall have authority over five ; or, to 
adopt the plainer terms of his apostle, " Let every man prove his own 
work, for every man must bear his own burden." The apostle, as a 
motive to Christian duty, assures the Hebrews that " God is not un 
righteous to forget the works of faith and labor of love of Christians;" 
and the righteous Judge, who will give the crown of righteousness to 
all who love his appearing, proclaims : " Behold ! I come quickly, 
and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work 
shall be." When Christians stand before the judgment seat of Christ, 
they will "receive the things done in the body, according to what 
they have done." If any man s work, any Christian man s, abides 
after the great trial which it must then undergo, he shall obtain a 
reward. If any man s work do not abide when tried, he shall suffer 
comparative loss, though he himself "be saved." There will be a 
difference, ay, and an important one, between those Christians who 
have added to their " faith, virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to 

1 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Giil. vi. 7. 8. Rom. via. 13. 9 Leighton. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO ITS PERFORMANCE. 113 

knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to patience, 
godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly 
kindness, charity ; who have had these things in them, and so abounded 
in them, that they were neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowl 
edge of our Lord Jesus Christ ;" and those who, though true Chris 
tians, have in consequence of indulged indolence and worldliness, 
lone but little to honor their Lord and advance his cause. To the 
brmer, " an abundant entrance shall be ministered into the everlast- 
,ng kingdom ;" l they shall enter with full spread sail and with a 
favorable wind the harbor of eternal rest ; while of the latter it may 
be said, that " some of them on boards, and some on broken pieces of 
the ship, escape safe to land." It is a general principle of the divine 
government, extending to other cases than that of ministers receiving 
a recompense according to their respective services to the church of 
God : " Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his 
own labor." 2 

In this point of light the force of the motive may be thus expressed : 
" Be holy, for in proportion to your attainments in holiness here, 
will be your measure of enjoyment hereafter." Such seems to me 
the force of this motive, viewed as addressed respectively to pro 
fessed Christians and to real Christians. 

Like the preceding motive, this receives additional farce from the 
peculiarity of the phraseology in which it is clothed. It is not, since 
God, or the righteous Judge ; but it is, since " the Father on whom 
ye call" or " He whom ye call Father judgeth every man accord 
ing to his work." If we consider the rendering given by our transla 
tors as the just one, then the force of the descriptive appellation in 
increasing the power of the motive, may be thus expressed : It is 
not wonderful that your heathen neighbors should be characterized 
by injustice and inhumanity ; it is not wonderful that they should 
" fashion themselves according to their lusts in their ignorance." He 
whom they call on as father, Jupiter, their father of gods and men, 
is a being actuated by human passions, liable to human vices, arbi 
trary in his dealings, and capricious in his acquittals and condemna 
tions, in his rewards and punishments. An unholy life is just what 
you might expect in them from the character of the object of their 
worship. But it should be otherwise with you. He on whom you 
call, whom you worship, is the Father the Creator, Preserver, Bene 
factor, Saviour of men. He is " holy in all his ways, and just in all 
his doings." How incongruous, then, were you not obedient and 
holy, would the character of the worshipper be with the character of 
the Deity! 

If we prefer the rendering, " since He whom ye call Father, judgeth 
every man according to his work," which we are rather disposed to 
do, then the manner in which the peculiar phraseology modifies the 
motive, may be thus unfolded : You stand in the relation of children 
to a father, to the great object of religious and moral duty. He has 
acknowledged you as his " children through faith in Christ Jesus," 

2 Pet. 1.11. Ourw irXovacwj c~i%(>T]yT)Ofiatrat vp iv 17 eftroJof EIS TTJV aiuviov 0atJt\ciav. I. X. 

8 Luke xix. 13. Gal. vi. 4, 5. Heb. vi. 10. Rev. xxii. 12. 2 Cor. v. 10. 1 Cor. ill 
13-15. Acts xxvii. 44. 1 Cor. iii. 8. 



114 THE CHRISTIAN S DUT?. [DISC. V. 

and you, by his Spirit sent forth into your hearts, have called him 
Father. May he not then say to you, " a son honoreth his father ; 
if I be a Father, where is my honor" if ye are not children of obedi 
ence ? Surely, if you have cried to him " my Father," you should 
permit him to be your guide. Surely, when you have called him 
Father, you should not turn away from him. 1 

And beware of presuming on this endearing relation, as if it would 
secure his winking at your negligence and disobedience. His very 
love as a father would prevent this ; but this is not all. The kind 
Father is the righteous and impartial Judge. " He whom you call 
Father, without respect of persons judgeth every man s works." 
Again to quote Leighton : " The true Christian reasons thus, I will 
not sin, for my Father is the just Judge ; but for my frailties I will 
hope for mercy, for the Judge is my Father/ ): 

4. The provision made for sanctification in the sacrifice of 
Christ, a motive to Christian duty. 

The fourth motive urged by the apostle for the discharge of Chris 
tian duty, and the employment of the means calculated and intended 
to secure and facilitate its performance, is drawn from the wonderful 
plan which God has formed and executed for making men holy, even 
the death of his own Son as a sacrifice for sin. Be obedient children ; 
fashion not yourselves according to your lusts in your ignorance ; be 
holy in all manner of conversation ; and in order to this, be resolutely 
determined, be moderate, hope to the end, and pass the time of your 
sojourning here in fear : "forasmuch as ye know that ye were not 
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain 
conversation received by tradition from your fathers ; but with the 
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without 
spot : who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, 
but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe 
in God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory ; that 
your faith and hope might be in God." 

In pressing home a motive adduced by an inspired writer, the 
Christian expositor has two things to do: first, to exhibit distinctly the 
meaning of the statement made, and then to show how that statement 
is fitted to serve the purpose for which it is made. In a complicated 
sentence, like that which is now the subject of consideration, it is of 
importance clearly to apprehend what is the primary sentiment, and 
what are the secondary and subsidiary ideas which are introduced for 
the purpose of its more impressive exhibition. Happily in the case 
before us, the leading idea is so prominent as to be easily recognized. 
It is obviously this : * Jesus Christ died as a sacrificial victim, in order 
that men might be made holy ; and the secondary and subservient 
ideas, all calculated to give additional force to this wonderful state 
ment as a motive to Christian duty, are the following : the intrinsic 
value of the sacrifice ; its divine appointment ; its having been actually 
offered ; and the abundant evidence that it has not been offered in 
vain. 

1 Gal. Hi. 26. MaL i. 6. Jer. iii. 4, 19. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO ITS PERFORMANCE. 115 

The primary idea is, Jesus Christ died as a sacrifice for sin, in order 
to make men holy ; the most animating of all encouragements, the 
most powerful of all motives to Christian duty. Christ Jesus shed his 
blood as a sacrificial victim, to redeem or deliver men from "the vain 
conversation received by tradition from their fathers." 

"Conversation" here, as in a previous part of the paragraph, and 
as indeed in almost every place in the New Testament, signifies. 
character and conduct, habitual temper and behavior. The expres 
sion, " conversation received by tradition from your fathers," l has 
by many, by most, interpreters, been considered as referring princi 
pally, if not solely, to what may be called the hereditary Jewish re 
ligious and moral character and habits, the mode of thinking and feel 
ing and acting formed in the natural mind under the influence of the 
peculiarities of the Jewish dispensation, and handed down from 
generation to generation. This appears to me to limit unduly the 
meaning of the very expressive phrase now before us. The "con 
versation" here mentioned is not anything peculiar to Jews, it is 
something common to man ; it is the character and conduct formed 
by men " fashioning themselves according to their lusts in their igno 
rance ;" the character and conduct which result from the influence 
of present things on the depraved principles of our fallen nature ; 
what the apostle Paul calls "the flesh" and "the old man," in its 
members and operations, in his desires and deeds ; the hereditary 
character of fallen man, received by tradition, handed down from 
father to son, from generation to generation. This conversation is 
termed "vain," foolish, 2 useless conversation. This conduct in 
some of its varieties, " has a show of wisdom," but in every case it is 
really foolish. They who are distinguished by it, even when they pro 
fess to be wise boast of their wisdom, show themselves to be fools. 3 
It serves no good purpose. It does not, it cannot, lead to solid satis 
faction, to permanent happiness. It may well be asked, " what fruit 
had ye," what fruit can ye have, "in these things?" 4 

To be "redeemed" is to be delivered, and the word "redeem" 6 is 
employed rather than another, because the deliverance referred to is 
deliverance through the payment of a ransom. To be delivered from 
this character and conduct, this mode of thinking, feeling, and acting, 
which is natural, hereditary to fallen man, and which is foolish, be 
cause vain, is just to be delivered from depravity, to be made holy, to 
be " delivered from this present evil world," to be " redeemed from 
all iniquity," to be rescued from the slavery of sin. 6 

Having thus shortly illustrated what is peculiar or difficult in the 
phraseology, let us proceed with equal briefness to elucidate the state 
ment, which plainly consists of two parts Jesus Christ died as a 
sacrifice for sin, and Jesus Christ died as a sacrifice for sin to deliver 
men from depravity, to make them holy. 

Jesus Christ died as a sacrifice for sin. This is the only satisfactory 
account which can be given of that most wonderful of all events 
the death, the violent death, the shameful, painful, accursed death of 



/larafaj, vana vivendi ratio, quae, ubi tempus prseteriit, nil reliqui fructua habet. 
BKNGKL. 

8 Rom. i. 21. 4 Ibid. vi. 21. 6 KvrpuBnTt. Gal. i. 4. Tit.ii. W. 



116 THE CHRISTIANS DUTY. L DISC. V. 

the innocent, the perfect, incarnate, only-begotten of God. This 
event would have been utterly inexplicable, had we not been informed 
in a plain, well-accredited divine revelation, that this immaculately 
holy, this absolutely perfect, this infinitely dignified person occupied, 
by divine appointment, and to gain the most important and otherwise 
unattainable objects in the moral government of the universe, the 
place of guilty men ; and, occupying their place, met with their desert, 
did what they were bound to do, suffered what they deserved to suffer, 
did and suffered all that was necessary, in the estimation of infinite 
wisdom and righteousness, to lay a foundation for their pardon and 
salvation. "We all, like sheep, had gone astray; we had turned 
every one to his own way ; and the Lord made to meet on him,"as the 
destined victim, " the iniquities of us all." The consequence was, " ex 
action was made, and he became answerable." " It pleased the Lord 
to bruise him," instead of destroying us ; and " he was wounded for 
our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, and the chastise 
ment of our peace was on him, and by his stripes we are healed." 
" He bare our sins in his own body on the tree," was " made sin in 
our room," died as " the just one, in the stead of the unjust," " re 
deemed us from the curse by becoming a curse in our room." l The 
direct and primary end of this sacrifice, so far as man is concerned, 
was to effect a change in his relation to God to lay a foundation for 
an alteration in our state to secure pardon, and restoration to the 
enjoyment of the divine favor ; but the ultimate and most important 
end of this sacrifice in reference to man was, through this change of 
relation to effect a change of disposition ; through this alteration of 
state to secure a transformation of character. 

This is the second part of the apostle s statement. When the blood 
of Ch: : st was shed as a victim for sin, it was to deliver men from 
"the vain conversation received by tradition from their fathers." 
Deliverance from depravity is an essential part, in some points of 
view the most important part, of the Christian salvation ; and deliver 
ance from guilt, and that sacrifice which was necessary, and is suffi 
cient, to secure deliverance from guilt, are the grand means of securing 
this deliverance from depravity. The connection of the atonement 
with sanctification is frequently stated in Scripture, and is one of the 
most peculiar and important principles of the Christian faith. " Christ 
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. " Christ 
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from this present evil 
world." Christ "sanctified himself, devoted himself to suffer as a 
sacrificial victim, that his people might be sanctified through the 
truth." " When he died for all, all died in him ; and he died for them, 
that they might not live to themselves, but to him who died and rose 
again." " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having 
become a curse in our room, not only that the blessing of Abraham," 
a full and free justification, " should come upon us Gentiles, but 
that we also might obtain the promised Spirit," the source of all true 
holiness, "by believing." 3 

1 Isa. I m. 5, 6, 10. 1 Pet. ii. 24. 2 Cor. Y. 21. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Gal. iii. 13. 
9 Tit. ii. 13, 14. Gal. i. 4. John xviL 19. Gal. iii. 13, 14. 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 



FART III.] MOTIVES TO ITS PERFORMANCE. 117 

The manner in which the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, as 
the great sacrificial victim, secures the holiness of all who believe in 
him, may be stated in a few words, though fully and satisfactorily to 
illustrate it, would require more space than we can here devote to it. 

The atonement, by making it consistent with the divine justice to 
confer spiritual blessings on sinners, removes out of the way of their 
sanctification obstacles otherwise unsurmountable ; by procuring for 
the Saviour, as one part of the reward of his generous labors in the 
cause of God s glory, the power of dispensing divine influence, it 
secures what is at once absolutely necessary and completely sufficient 
for making men holy ; and, finally, the statement of the truth about 
Christ, the Son of God, suffering and dying in the room of sinners, 
contained in the Scriptures, when understood and believed, is, under 
divine influence, the grand means of destroying in the sinner s mind 
that enmity against God which is the elementary principle .of all de 
pravity, and of kindling up in his heart the love of God, which is the 
elementary principle of all holiness ; of delivering the man from the 
demoralizing influence of " the present evil world," " things seen and 
temporal/ and bringing him under the sanctifying influence of 
" things unseen and eternal." This, then, is the apostle s statement, 
The blood of Christ has been shed to redeem you from your vain 
conversation, received by tradition from your fathers. The Son of 
God has died as a sacrifice for sin, in order to secure your holiness. 

Surely it does not require many words to show that this is a motive, 
an all-powerful motive, to the Christian to avoid sin, and practise 
duty. Has deliverance from depravity been secured at such a cost, 
and shall I pour contempt on the divine generosity ? Shall I counter 
act the great design of the death of Christ ? Though he shed his 
blood that I might be redeemed from my vain conversation, shall I 
still fashion myself according to my former lusts in my ignorance ? 
Shall I still hug the chains, to break asunder which the Lord of glory 
toiled, and bled, and died ? How can I, in whose room Christ died 
for sin how can I any longer live in sin ? Reckoning myself as, if 
I believe the truth I well may, to have died by sin in Christ Jesus, 
and to be alive in Christ Jesus by God, surely it is the most unnatural 
and incongruous of all things in me to allow sin to "reign in my mor 
tal body, so that I should obey it by its desires." l Surely I should not 
"yield my members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness ; but I 
should yield myself to God, as one alive from the dead, and my mem 
bers to Him as instruments of righteousness ; surely I should be a 
child of obedience, surely I should " be holy in all manner of conver 
sation." 2 To use the words of Archbishop Leighton : " This is an 
answer for all the enticements of sin and of the world, Except you 
can offer my soul something beyond the price that was given for it on 
the cross, I cannot hearken to you. Far be it from me that I should 
prefer a base lust, or anything in this woVld, or it all, to him who 
gave himself to death for me, and paid my ransom with his blood. 
His matchless love has freed me from the miserable captivity of sin, 
and hath forever fastened me to the sweet yoke of obedience. Let 

1 Rom. vi. 8-13. 1 Pet iv. 1-6. a Rom. vi. 8-13. 1 Peter iv. 1-6. 



118 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

him alone to dwell and rule in me, and let him never go forth from 
my heart, who, for my sake, refused to come down from the cross. " 

*The motive, even when presented in this simple, unadorned form, is 
surely one of transcendant power; but it derives additional force 
from* the circumstances with which the inspired writer, with obvious 
intention, surrounds it in the passage before us. He fixes our mind 
on a variety of circumstances respecting that sacrifice for sin, by 
means of which we are emancipated from depravity, all of which 
are plainly calculated to make the consideration that such a sacrifice 
had been offered for such a purpose, tell more powerfully on the un 
derstanding, on the conscience, and on the heart. 

And, first, there is the intrinsic worth of the sacrifice. This is 
brought before the mind in two ways. It was "not silver and gold, 
those corruptible things;" it was "the blood of Christ, as of a lamb 
without blemish and without spot." The value of what was given to 
secure our emancipation from depravity, cannot be estimated by any 
created mind. All the gold and silver in the world, the universe of 
created things, are as nothing and vanity, when compared to the life- 
blood of the only begotten of God. The blessing to be obtained was 
too valuable to be procured by such means. " It could not be gotten 
for gold, neither could silver be weighed for the price thereof. It 
could not be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, 
or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal could no-t equal it ; and 
the exchange of it could not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention 
need be made of coral, or of pearls ; for the price of it was above 
rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia could not equal it, neither could it be 
valued with pure gold." 1 What must be the value of holiness, when, 
to secure it, such a price was paid ; and what must be the folly of him 
who contemns so valuable a possession, secured to him at so inesti 
mable a cost ! 

A second way in which the value of the sacrifice is brought before 
the mind, is by describing it " as the sacrifice of a lamb without 
blemish and without spot." 2 In plain language, it was an all-perfect 
sacrifice. The death of Jesus Christ, viewed as the crowning act of 
a course of perfect obedience to the precept, and of perfect submis 
sion to the sanction, of the divine law, on the part of the most ex 
alted being, both as to essential dignity and moral worth, " magnifies 
the law and makes it honorable," in a degree which the perfect obedi 
ence of a universe of unerring creatures, or the everlasting torments 
of a universe of sinning creatures, could not have done ; and sweeps 
away, as with the force of ocean bursting from her bed, all the ob 
structions which human guilt had placed in the way of human holi 
ness. And shall I, in opposing the ultimate design of this all-perfect 
sacrifice in reference to myself, show my contempt of it? 

The second circumstance respecting this sacrifice, the grand means 
of holiness, which the apbstle notices, is, that it was the subject of 
divine appointment ; Jesus, as the victim for the sins of men, and 
thus the author of holiness to men, was " fore-ordained before the 

1 Job xxviii. 15, <fec. 

* Apupov. Jesus Christua in se non habuit labem. Atr?rtXov, neque extrinsecus macu- 
lam coritraxit. BENGEL. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO ITS PERFORMANCE. 119 

foundation of the world." He was a voluntary, but not self-appointed 
victim. He was " set forth/ l fore-appointed " a propitiation in his 
blood. 3 When " Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and 
the people of Israel, were gathered together against God s holy child 
Jesus, they but did what his hand and counsel had before determined 
to be done." He was "set up from everlasting." 2 And shall we, by 
disregarding or counteracting the design of Christ s death as a sacri 
fice for sin, to secure holiness, show that we lightly esteem what has 
employed the thoughts of the uncreated mind from all eternity? 

The third circumstance noticed by the apostle is, that this sacrifice 
has been actually offered. This wondrous scheme is not now mere 
plan. The spotless, inestimable price has been paid ; the amazing 
expiation has been made ; the Lamb of God has been manifested in 
these last times, bearing, and bearing away, the sins of the world. 
And shall all this have been done in vain, so far as we are concerned ? 
for it is done in vain if we continue still in our sins. 

The fourth and last circumstance noticed by the apostle, respecting 
the death of Christ as a sacrifice for sin, designed for securing holi 
ness to man, calculated to increase its efficacy as a motive to avoid 
sin and perform duty, is the abundant evidence that it has answered 
the purpose for which it was intended. The sacrifice has been offered, 
and it has not been offered in vain. Had not the death of Christ 
served its purpose, it could not have been followed by his resurrec 
tion. If he had not risen again, then would we have had reason to 
conclude, " we are yet in our sins," guilt is unexpiated, and the fetters 
of depravity are unbroken. But we have abundant ground for con 
cluding that "Messiah cut oft , but not for himself," has "finished 
transgression, made an end of sin." If he died " for our offences," he 
has been "raised again for our justification." 3 "God has raised him 
from the dead, and given him glory." " It is finished," said the dying 
Saviour on the cross ; and from the throne of his glory, when he broke 
the bands of death, the Father responded, It is finished. In the res 
urrection and exaltation of Jesus, we have a sure foundation laid for 
our " faith and hope in God," as " the God of peace," the pacified 
divinity, " who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that 
great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting 
covenant." 4 In this we have a proof that he is well pleased with 
Christ, well pleased with sinners in Christ, and disposed, as " the God 
of peace, to sanctify them wholly, and preserve their whole spirit, 
soul and body, blameless, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 5 
And shall we, notwithstanding these proofs of God s approbation of 
the sacrifice of his Son shall we, by not improving it for the purpose 
of our own sanctification, treat this " blood of the covenant, by which 
alone men can be sanctified, as if it were a common thing," destitute 
of all power to " purge the conscience from dead works, to serve the 
living God?" 6 

Rom. iii. 25. HlpoiOero. There is no doubt of the fact ; but it may be doubted 
whether wpoeflero refers to appointment or to exhibition. 

3 Acts iv. 27, 28. Prov. viii. 23. 3 Dan. ix. Rom. iy. 25. 

* Heb. xiii. 20. * 1 Thess. v. 23. 

Heb. x. 29. Ev <5 hyi&*0i. Heb. ix 14. 



120 THE CHRISTIAN S DUTY. [DISC. v. 

Such, then, is the Christian s duty, such are the means of perform 
ing it, and such are the motives to its performance. 

The whole of this discourse has been practical, and stands little in 
need of what is ordinarily termed application or improvement. May 
the Holy Spirit give efficacy to the word of his grace, and may we 
all learn habitually, through the truth by the Spirit, to " cleanse our- 
selves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit, and perfect holi 
ness in the fear of God;" "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, 
living soberly, righteously, and godly, in this world ; and looking for 
that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem 
us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zeal 
ous of good works !" l 

1 2 Cor. vii. 1. Titus ii. 12-14. 



DISCOURSE VL 

CHRISTIAN BROTHERLY LOVE, ILLUSTRATED AND 
RECOMMENDED. 

1 PET. i. 22-25. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the 
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart 
fervently : being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of 
God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of 
man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 
but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is 
preached unto you. 

THE sentence now read as the theme of discourse, though long and 
somewhat complicated, will be found, when carefully examined, to be 
entirely occupied with one subject, the great Christian duty of bro 
therly love. That duty is at once explicitly enjoined, and powerfully 
recommended. The injunction is contained in these words, " See 
that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." The motives 
by which compliance with this injunction is enforced, are brought 
forward in the clauses which precede and follow this injunction : 
"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the 
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren/ and "being born again, 
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, 
which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all 
the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and 
the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth 
forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto 
you." 

The duty enjoined, then, and the motives which urge to its per 
formance, are the two great topics to which our attention must be 
successively directed in the illustration of this passage. The duty is 
brought before our minds in its nature, mutual love, " love one ano 
ther," " the love of the brethren ;" and in two of its distinctive char 
acters, love " with a pure heart," " fervent love." The motives to 
the cultivation and expression of this Christian affection are two, 
which we shall find it convenient to consider in an order the reverse 
of that in which they are stated in the text. First, Christians are 
distinguished by a mutual relation extremely intimate and altogether 
indissoluble. By their " being born again," they are all of them " the 
children of God through faith in Christ Jesus," and therefore bre 
thren ; and the tie of that brotherhood is not, like that of all natural 
relations, liable to dissolution, its bond being the infallibly true "word 
of the ever-living, immutable God, lodged, by being understood and 
believed, in the mind of immortal man, v. 23. And, secondly, Chris- 



122 CHRISTIAN BROTHERLY LOVE [DISC. VI. 

tians are possessed of a common character corresponding to this rela 
tion, to which they have been formed by the Holy Spirit, through the 
operation of truth believed under his influence, v. 22. This mutual 
relation, and this common character, equally call on Christians to 
cultivate and exercise brotherly love. Such, then, is the outline of 
thought which I shall endeavor to fill up in the remaining part of the 
discourse. 



L BROTHERLY LOVE ILLUSTRATED. 

1. The objects and elements of this love. 

The duty enjoined is LOVE. There is a love which every man 
owes to every other man, without reference to his spiritual state or 
character, merely because he is a man, a sincere desire to promote 
his true welfare. This is the love which the apostle, with obvious 
propriety, represents as "the fulfilling of the law," * so far as it refers 
to our duties to our fellow-men ; for he who is under its influence can 
"do no ill" to any man; he cannot intentionally injure his person, 
property, or reputation ; but, on the contrary, must, " as he has op- 
portunity, do good to all men." Good will is the essence, the sole 
component element, of this love. The love enjoined in our text is 
obviously much more limited in its range, and much more compre 
hensive in its elementary principles. 

(1.) It is called "the love of the brethren," "brotherly kindness," 
as contradistinguished from that "charity" which has for its object 
the whole race of man ; who, though all brethren, inasmuch as " they 
have one Father, one God has created them," are not all brethren in 
the sense in which this appellation is here used. This appellation is 
limited to what was then, to what is still, a comparatively small class 
of mankind, genuine Christians. It can be exercised only by them; 
it can be exercised only to them. A man who is w/ichristian, who is 
a?zta christian in his opinions and temper and conduct, may highly es 
teem, may tenderly love, a true Christian, but he cannot cherish to 
wards him " brotherly kindness ;" he loves him not because, but not 
withstanding, he is a Christian. A Christian man may, he does, cor 
dially love all mankind ; he desires the happiness of every being ca 
pable of happiness ; he esteems what is estimable ; he loves what is 
amiable ; he admires what is admirable ; he pities what is suffering, 
wherever he meets with it ; but he cannot regard with " brotherly 
kindness" any one but a Christian brother. None but a Christian can 
either be the object or the subject of this benevolent affection. 
None but a Christian can either be the agent or the recipient of the 
kind offices in which it finds expression. 

This limitation is a matter, not of choice, but of necessity. Most 
gladly would the Christian regard all his fellow-men as fellow-Chris 
tians, if they would put it in his power, by becoming Christians ; but 
till they do so, it is, in the nature of things, impossible that he should 
feel towards them as if they were what they are not. This affection 
originates in the possession of a peculiar mode of thinking and feel- 

1 Roin. xiil 8-10. 



PART I.] ILLUSTRATED. 123 

ing produced in the mind by the Holy Spirit, through the knowledge 
and belief of Christian truth, which naturally leads those who are thus 
distinguished to a sympathy of mind and feeling, of thought and af 
fection, with all who, under the same influence, have been led to en 
tertain the same views, and to cherish the same dispositions. They 
love one another " in the truth ; for the truth s sake, that dwelleth in 
them, and shall be with them forever." l 

(2.) This circumstance, which necessarily limits this principle as 
to its range, gives it greater comprehension of elementary principles, 
and greater intensity of influence and activity of operation. It in- 
eludes good will in its highest degree ; but to this it adds moral es 
teem, complacential delight, tender sympathy. This it does in every 
instance ; but the degree, in which these elementary principles are to 
be found in individual cases of Christian brotherly kindness, depends 
on a variety of circumstances, and chiefly on the approach that is 
made to completeness and perfection in the Christian character, on the 
part of him who exercises it, and of him towards whom it is exercised. 
Every Christian loves every other Christian when he knows him ; 
but the more accomplished the Christian is, whether the subject or 
object of Christian love, the more does he put forth, or draw forth, its 
holy, benignant influence. 

The end of all love is the good or the happiness of its object, as that 
happiness is conceived of by its subject. The great end which Chris 
tian brotherly love contemplates, is the happiness of its object, viewed 
as a Christian man ; his deliverance from ignorance and error and 
sin, in all their forms and in all their degrees ; his progressive, and 
ultimately his complete happiness, in entire conformity to the mind 
and will of God ; the unclouded sense of the divine favor, the unin 
terrupted enjoyment of the divine fellowship, the being like the ever- 
blessed " holy, holy, holy One." It does not overlook any of the in 
terests of its object, but it views them all in reference, in subordina 
tion, to the enjoyment of "the salvation that is in Christ, with eter 
nal glory." Such is the general nature of the brotherly love here 
enjoined. 

2. The distinctive characters of Christian love. 

Let us now look a little at the characters by which it is required 
to be distinguished. (1.) Christians are required to love one another 
"with a pure heart." The leading idea here has generally been sup 
posed to be genuineness sincerity. It must be real love, not affect 
ed or put on. It must be what the apostle Paul calls, " love without 
dissimulation;" 2 what the apostle John calls, "loving not in word, 
neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth." 3 It is an aflection, of 
which the internal feeling and practical effects fully correspond to, rath 
er outrun than fall short of, the verbal expression. While the " law 
of kindness is on the lips/ kindness itself is in the heart, and the fruits 
of kindness, substantial benefits, make their appearance in the conduct. 

But while there can be no doubt that hypocrisy is one species of 
"filthiness of the spirit," of the impurity of the heart, it is not the 

1 2 John 2. 9 Rom. xii. 9. 3 t John iii. 18. 



124 CHRISTIAN BROTHERLY LOVE [DISC. VI. 

only species which opposes the exercise of Christian love. The 
"pure heart" includes more than sincerity ; it includes freedom from 
all low, selfish motive s and ends. " Love with a pure heart" sig 
nifies the benevolent affection that naturally flows from a sanctified 
heart, and which can issue from no other fountain ; which loves 
chiefly for such causes as can excite affection only in a sanctified 
heart ; and which seeks for its objects such happiness as only a sanc 
tified heart can desire ; and which seeks it by means which only a 
sanctified heart can dispose, or enable, a man to employ. 

(2.) But Christians are required to "love one another," not only 
" with a pure heart," but " fervently." The term rendered " fer 
vently" is a very expressive one, and I do not know any one English 
word which fully brings out its meaning. 1 It conveys the idea of 
constancy. It is the word used in the Acts of the Apostles, where it 
is said Prayer was made by the church for Peter when in prison, 
" without ceasing." 2 Brotherly kindness must be constant, not fitful. 
Its causes are permanent and constant in their operation, and so 
should it be. It should be such love as will prevent " weariness in 
well-doing." A Christian brother, when he acts like himself, " loves 
at all times." No change of circumstances, especially to the worse, 
on the part of its object, should affect it except in the way of increas 
ing it. 

But besides the idea of constancy, the word conveys the idea of 
intensity and power. It is the term employed where it is said that 
our Lord, " being in an agony, prayed more EARNESTLY." 3 Our 
Christian love should be strong as well as genuine, such as slight 
causes shall not be able to destroy, or even materially to affect, and 
such as shall be capable of producing great effects, making us willing 
to make strenuous exertions and costly sacrifices for its objects, when 
these are necessary to gain its ends. It should be so fervent as that 
"many waters" of neglect, infirmities, offences, petty injuries, shall 
not quench it," or even damp its ardor. It has been happily, though 
in homely phrase, said, "It should be like the sacred fire which de 
scended on Elijah s sacrifice, which licked up the water and mud in 
the surrounding ditch ; it should absorb a whole trenchful of such 
stuff, and still retain strength enough to send up to heaven the grate 
ful fumes of the sacrifices with which God is well pleased." And it 
should manifest its strength, not merely by overcoming opposing 
obstacles, but by making exertions and sacrifices. It should be such 
as would lead us even " to lay down our lives for the brethren," 4 if 
so costly a sacrifice were required of us. 

This love is to be manifested in choosing for our friends and asso 
ciates our -Christian brethren, joining ourselves to the brotherhood, 
casting in our lot with them, " walking with them in all the ordi 
nances and commandments of the Lord blameless," sympathizing 
with them in their griefs, rejoicing with them in their joys, communi 
cating to them in their necessities, assisting them in their labors, 
bearing with their infirmities, ay, bearing their infirmities ; admonish 
ing them, and reproving them, it may be sharply, when they are to 
be blamed, yet all in kindness, loving them too well to suffer sin upon 

a Acts xii. 5. 8 Luke xxii. 44. 4 1 John iii. 16. 



PART I.] ILLUSTRATED. 125 

them ; delighting in their Christian attainments and triumphs as if 
they were our own ; never being ashamed of them, however low 
their place in society, and however frowned on and persecuted by 
the world never " ashamed to call them brethren." 

And it must manifest itself not only in what we do, but in the 
manner in which we do it. To relieving a poor brother, it should not 
be necessary that he implore our help. If " we see him have need," 
that should be enough to secure our assistance. We should be 
"GIVEN/ disposed, "to hospitality;" "READY to distribute ;"" WILL 
ING," inclined, " to communicate." Instead of waiting for the call 
of a distressed brother, we should run to his help. We should feel 
one another s crosses, bear one another s burdens, allay the sorrows, 
supply the wants, sympathize with the wrongs, espouse the cause, 
protect the persons, and relieve the necessities, of our brethren in 
Christ. 

(3.) There is one character which it is of peculiar importance 
that our mutual affection as Christians should be distinguished by. It 
should be love like Christ s. "Little children," said he who "is not 
ashamed to call us brethren," " Little children, a new command 
ment I give unto you, That ye love one another ; as I have loved 
you, that ye likewise should love one another." 1 And how did he 
love his people ? His love was free and ready, considerate and wise, 
laborious and expensive, generous and self-sacrificing; looking to all 
their interests, but chiefly to their highest interests ; not forgetting 
that they had bodies, but chiefly concerned about their souls : and 
such should be our brotherly love. He took an interest in everything 
that concerned them ; he instructed, and counselled, and comforted 
them ; he prayed with them, and for them ; he vindicated them when 
they were accused ; apologized for them when their conduct admitted 
of apology ; reproved them, but in love, when they deserved it; bore 
with their infirmities ; made much of what was good in them, and 
publicly owned them to be dearer to him than brother, sister, or 
mother : and thus should we manifest our love to the brethren. 2 

Like all the commands of our divine Lord, this injunction is char 
acterized by benignant wisdom. It is by loving one another that the 
highest interest of the whole Christian family is promoted. Every 
thing thus becomes common property. I have the advantage of all 
that any "of my Christian brethren possesses. Under the influence 
of this principle, the wise direct the strong, and the strong protect the 
wise ; the zealous stimulate the considerate, and the considerate re 
strain the zealous. The means of promoting holy happiness are thus 
prodigiously enlarged, every one employing his peculiar gift and op- 
3ortunities for the good of every other, and thus advancing the com- 
non benefit of all. Thus it is that Christians (MijdBtonse), "sincere, 
ruthful in love, grow up into all things to him who is the head, even 
Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and com 
peted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual 
vorking in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, 
into the edifying of itself in love." 3 

(4.) This love is obviously not to be confined when it is en- 

1 John xiii. 34. a Henry in loc. * Eph. iv. 15, 16. 



126 CHRISTIAN BROTHERLY LOVE [DISC. VI. 

lightened and genuine it cannot be confined within the pale of any 
particular sect or denomination of Christians. The members of in 
dividual churches, and of bodies of associated churches, have, no 
doubt, opportunities of cultivating this affection towards each other 
which they do not enjoy in an equal degree in reference to Christians 
of equal, it may be of higher, spiritual excellence, with whom they 
have not the same means of becoming acquainted. But wherever I 
recognize the character, I should cherish and manifest the love, of a 
brother. These are well-considered words of the compilers of the 
Westminster Confession : " All saints that are united to Jesus Christ 
their head, being united to one another in love, have communion in 
each other s gifts and graces, and are obliged to the performance of 
such duties, public and private, as conduce to their mutual good, both 
in the inward and outward man. Saints by profession are bound to 
entertain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, 
and in performing such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual 
edification, as also in relieving each other in outward things accord 
ing to their several abilities and necessities, which communion, as 
God offereth opportunity, should be extended to all those who in 
every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus. " l 

" There is something inexpressibly awful" I use the words of " a 
brother beloved" " to a believer s mind, in the idea that his Christian 
affection should be confined within narrower limits than the love of 
Jesus ; that he should harbor in his heart any feeling inconsistent 
with love towards one whom Christ died to redeem; that any should 
be excluded from his prayer for the household of faith that have a 
part in the Saviour s intercession. Pitiably dreary must be the mind 
of that man who can look around on the wide world, and count his 
dozen or his score whom alone he can salute as brethren, or expect 
to accompany to heaven. Far from me, and from you, my Christian 
friends, be such self-sufficient bigotry, which freezes the fountain of 
love, and keeps the heart cold under the melting beams of the Sun 
of righteousness. " 2 

To the cultivation and exercise of this love, the fundamental re 
quisite is, the being a genuine Christian. The love of God is the 
elementary principle of the believer s character: as no man loves 
him who begat, who does not love them who are begotten of him ; 
so no man can love those who are begotten, who does not love him 
who begat them. We must love God, in order to our loving, his 
children. We must be in the family, in order to our having the 
family spirit. No man who has not been born of God can love those 
who are born of him, as His children ; and all who are " born of 
God" are " taught of God to love one another." 3 It is a divinely 
implanted instinct, as well as a divinely commanded duty. 

But this gift needs to be stirred up ; and the two grand means of 
stimulating it are, under divine influence, first, the cultivation of an 
intimate acquaintance, the maintenance of a holy fellowship, with our 
Christian brethren, we cannot love those whom we do not know, for 
it is the manifestations of the character of our common Lord, which 

1 Westminster Conf. xxvi. 1, 2. a Wardlaw, 

8 1 Thess. iv. 9. 



PART II.] RECOMMENDED. 127 

our brethren, who have contemplated him " with open face," like so 
many mirrors, make, that endear them to us, and draw out our affec 
tion to them; and second, the keeping habitually before the mind the 
truths stated in the divine word respecting the spiritual relation and 
character of the objects of our Christian affection, which are calcu 
lated to excite and strengthen it. 

In the passage before us, the apostle employs the latter of these 
means for urging on those to whom he was writing, the duty of Chris 
tian love. He brings before their minds the intimate mutual relation, 
and the common spiritual character, of true Christians. The consid 
eration of these, as motives to Christian brotherly love, shall form the 
second part of the discourse. 



II BROTHERLY LOVE RECOMMENDED. 

In the words of the first part of the twenty-second verse, and in the 
twenty-third, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth verses, the motives to 
Christian brotherly love are urged. Though the motive from com 
mon character, in this passage, precedes that drawn from mutual re 
lation, yet, as relation is the basis of character, we apprehend some 
advantages may be derived from reversing the order. In the sequel, 
then, I shall shortly illustrate these two remarks : The intimate and 
indissoluble mutual relation among Christians, as brethren, arisincr 
out of their common, spiritual, and indissoluble relation to God as 
their Father, is a strong motive to the cultivation and display of 
brotherly kindness ; and the common character to which they have 
been all formed by the agency of the same Spirit, and the instru 
mentality of the same truth, is another powerful motive to cherish 
and exercise this Christian grace. Let us illustrate these two princi 
ples, or rather let us attend to the apostle s illustration of them. 

1. The mutual relation of Christians a motive to brotherly love. 

The intimate and indissoluble mutual relation between Christians 
as brethren, arising out of their intimate and indissoluble common re 
lation to God as their Father, is a strong motive to the cultivation 
and exercise of Christian brotherly kindness. " See that ye love one 
another with a pure heart fervently : being" since ye are all of you 
" born again," become the children of God by a new, a spiritual, a 
heavenly birth, 1 "not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the 
word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as 
grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass 
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away : but the word of the 
Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is 
preached unto you." 

These words were originally addressed to churches, most of the 
members of which were converted Jews. These had, by their first 
and natural birth, been related mutually as members of the external 
holy family, by their common relation to Jehovah, the God of Israel, 

1 " Nova cognatio novum desiderat affectum." ERASMUS. 



128 CHRISTIAN BROTHERLY LOVE [DISC. VI. 

through the link of their natural descent from Abraham. That rela 
tion, however, as belonging to the " flesh," to things seen and tem 
poral, was liable to dissolution ; in the case of the individual at 
death ; in the case of the nation when the new and better economy 
was introduced, when the substance took the place of the shadow, and 
the spirit of the letter. They had now, by a spiritual change termed 
the new or second birth, become mutually related as brethren, by be 
coming in common related to God as their spiritual Father. This re 
lation was far superior to the former. It bound them together as 
spiritual beings to God, as " the Father of their spirits ;" and it was 
effected in a manner corresponding to its nature. -It was formed by 
truth being introduced into their minds " by the word of God," " the 
word preached in the Gospel," being understood and believed by 
them. 1 They were all ONE, inasmuch as they were "all the children 
of God, through faith in Christ Jesus." * That faith bound them to 
God, and to one another, and formed a bond suited to their natures 
as rational beings. 

The intimate relation thus formed was a permanent one. The 
seed was " incorruptible." The phrase, the " word of God," is ex 
planatory of the figurative expression " the seed not corruptible, but 
incorruptible." The words, "which liveth and abideth forever," 
viewed by themselves, might refer to God, who alone hath immortal 
ity, who is the living One, inhabiting eternity ; but when, in the pas 
sage quoted from the prophet Isaiah, 3 apparently for the purpose of 
illustrating this phrase, we find the terms, " the word of the Lord en- 
dureth forever," we cannot doubt that the epithets, " living and abid 
ing forever," are intended to be descriptive of "the word of the 
Lord," the grand link of the common connection of Christians with 
their heavenly Father, and of their mutual relation to each other. 

That word is eternal truth. That truth introduced into the heart 
through divine influence, by being understood and believed, becomes 
a "living," active, operative principle there, producing holiness and 
joy. And it " abideth forever :" it dwells an ever-living principle in 
an indestructible shrine the never-dying human spirit ; and dwelling 
forever there, in the case of all the holy family it forms an everlast 
ing link of connection with their common Father, and with each other. 

This relation far surpasses all other relations. There is no brother 
hood like this, none so intimate, none so lasting. The relation of a 
Jew to a fellow Jew was very intimate. It was the relation of man 
to man, of kinsman to kinsman, of common heirs of the privileges of 
the first covenant to one another; but that relation, fruitful as it was 
of advantages (for the Jew, during the preparatory economy, had 
much and manifold advantage), 4 had the taint of mortality. It be 
longed to the " flesh," to what was carnal and outward, not to what 
was spiritual and inward. It was perishable. But this relation, as it 
is spiritual in its nature, is unending in its duration. Till mind ceases 
to be mind, truth to be truth, God to be God, it must continue, bind- 

1 Few things could more strikingly show the. power of preconceived opinion to produce 
misinterpretation than the fact, that " the Word" has been here explained of the personal 
word, to support a particular metaphysical theory respecting the nature of regeneration. 

51 Gal. iii. 26. 3 Isaiah xl. 6, 7. * Rom. iii. 1, 2 ; ix. 4, 5. 



PART II.] RECOMMENDED. 129 

ing believers in a holy, happy relation to God as their Father, and to 
one another as brethren, to all eternity. Was it not reasonable and 
right, then, that they should " love one another with a pure heart fer 
vently ?" If he is rightly considered as a monster who refuses to 
cherish and manifest peculiar regard to those who are connected 
with him by the ties of a natural relationship, which may in a moment, 
vhich must in a few years, be dissolved forever, what name is to be 
^iven to a man calling himself a Christian, who does not regard and 
treat as brethren those who, if his profession be a sincere one, stand 
10 him in a relation, of the intimacy of which the nearest earthly re 
lation is but a feeble figure, and the duration of which can be meas 
ured only by the years of the Eternal ? 

2. The common character of Chistians a motive to brotherly love. 

The common character to which all Christians have been formed 
by the agency of the same Spirit, and the instrumentality of the same 
word, is a strong motive to the cultivation and exercise of Christian 
brotherly kindness : "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying 
the truth through the Spirit to the unfeigned love of the brethren, 
see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." The force 
of this motive is, Ye are now in a moral capacity for loving the 
brethren constantly and fervently; exert and manifest your moral 
power. 

It was once otherwise. The unpurified soul, overrun with the 
loathsome leprosy of ungodliness, worldliness, selfishness, and malig 
nity, was morally incapable of the healthy functions of its affectionate 
nature. It could not love Christ, Christianity, or Christians. But 
" old things are passed away ;" there has been a radical cure effected : 
divine truth, under divine influence, has put forth its healing power 
over the diseased mind ; the moral capacity of loving what is really 
lovely, has been called into being ; and now what remains but that 
it should be improved by being exercised ? 

The human heart is naturally a very impure place. It is " a hab 
itation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, the cage of every un 
clean and hateful bird." " He who searcheth the heart," and is " the 
true and faithful witness," declares, that "out of it proceed evil 
thoughts, murders, adulteries, and false witness." l Everything that 
defiles the man originates there. 

While the heart remains unpurified, the love of Christians, as 
Christians, cannot dwell there, There is no harmony, there is direct 
powerful antagonism, between the modes of thinking and feeling 
which characterize the natural, the unrenewed, and the spiritual, the 
renewed, the Christian mind. But in the case of those whom the 
apostle was addressing, this impurity of soul was cleansed. " They 
had purified their souls in obeying the truth/ 

" The truth" is the revelation of the character of God, the great 
reality, in the person and work of his Son, contained in the gospel ; 
"the word of the truth of the gospel," a well-accredited declaration 
of the mind and will of Him who cannot be deceived, and who can- 

1 Matt. xv. 19. 
9 



130 CHRISTIAN BROTHERLY LOVE [DISC. VI. 

not deceive ; the very truth most sure. To obey that truth is to 
yield to its influence, and that, from the constitution of man, can be 
done only by understanding and believing it. He who refuses to at 
tend to, to consider, to believe, the truth, rebels against it cannot 
submit to its influence. He, on the other hand, who attends to, con 
siders, and believes it, cannot but yield to its influence. 

The persons referred to had believed the gospel. They had re 
ceived the grace of God not in vain, and they had done this " by the 
Spirit;" that is, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. It is the 
Spirit who fixes the mind on the truth and its evidence, so as to lead 
to the belief of the truth. It is the man in the exercise of his rational 
faculties who believes; but he exercises these faculties under a 
divine influence. It is the man, not the Holy Spirit, who believes ; 
but the man who believes, acts as he is influenced by the Holy Ghost. 

The consequence of this faith, produced by divine influence, is such 
a purification of the soul as leads to the " unfeigned love of the breth 
ren." " Ye have purified your souls to the unfeigned love of the 
brethren ;" that is, Ye have so purified your souls, as that ye have 
now an unfeigned love of the brethren. While the soul remains un- 
purified, if love to the brethren be expressed, it must be feigned, 
hypocritical ; but when the soul is purified, the love of the brethren 
is a natural, spontaneous feeling. In the degree in which the truth is 
obeyed, the soul is purified ; and in the degree in which the soul is 
purified, the brethren are loved. 

Now, says the apostle, the Holy Spirit, through the faith of the 
truth, has bestowed on you the good gift of the love of the brethren. 
"Neglect not the gift that is in you." Cultivate the lovely plant. 
"Quench not the Spirit." 1 "Grieve not the Spirit." 2 Allow the 
truth, under his influence, "to dwell in you richly," "to reign in 
your minds and hearts," and fill them to an overflow with the love 
of the brethren. 

A question naturally rises out of these discussions, which well de 
serves the serious consideration of each of us. Do we love the brethren 
with a pure heart fervently? Do we love the brethren as brethren ? 
Do we love Christians as Christians ? Do we love them on account 
of their relation to God and Christ, on account of their attachment 
to both, and on account of their resemblance to both ? Do we cor 
dially esteem them ? Do we affectionately love them ? Is our " de 
light" in them, as " the excellent ones of the earth ?" 3 as the Psalm 
ist phrases it. Have we complacency in them ? Do we make them 
" the men of our counsel ?" Have we pleasure in their society, 
and are we endeavoring, by every means in our power, to promote 
their welfare ? If we can answer these questions in the affirmative, 
the apostle John authorizes us to consider this as evidence of our 
having undergone a saving change of character. Hereby do " we 
know that we are passed from death to life, because we love the 
brethren." 4 Happy are we, if we indeed habitually cherish this 
holy affection ; but let us remember, that it is at once our duty and 

1 1 Thess. v. 19. 2 Eph. iv. 30. 

Psal. xvi. 3. 4 i J hn iii. 14. 



PART II. J RECOMMENDED. 131 

our interest to abound in this affection and its fruits more and more. 
Let us remember, that the love of the brethren is the evidence that 
" we are in the light/ and the continuance of it is the evidence that 
we are "abiding in the light" that we are continuing to believe the 
truth, and are "rooted, grounded, and built up" in it. 

Let us manifest our love in deeds of Christian kindness, and re 
member that that only is the love of the brethren, which is " not in 
word and tongue only, but in deed and in truth." Let us show our 
love by " walking in all lowliness, esteeming each other better than 
ourselves ; forbearing one another in love ; endeavoring to keep the 
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; putting away all bitterness, 
and anger, and wrath, and clamor, and evil speaking ; being kind to 
one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for 
Christ s sake hath forgiven us. Let us put on, as the elect of God, 
holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, 
meekness, and long-suffering ; and, above all, let us put on charity, 
which is the bond of perfectness." 

Let us "do good, and communicate/ especially to the household of 
faith. If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, let 
us not be content with saying, Depart in peace, be ye fed, be ye 
clothed ; but let us give them the things which are needful for the 
body : for whoso hath this world s goods, and seeth his brother have 
need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwell- 
eth either the love of God, or of the brethren, in him P" 1 

If we would have this affection, so closely connecting us with God, 
for " he who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him," and 
never are we surer of having "our fellowship truly with the Father 
and his Son Jesus Christ," than when we love the brethren if we 
would have this godlike affection strong within us, constantly, power 
fully operative, we must continue " purifying our souls by obeying the 
truth by the Spirit/ " Whence come wars and fightings among 
Christians ? Come they not from hence, even of our lusts which war 
in our members ?" 2 And how are these selfish desires to be mortified, 
weakened, destroyed, but by the growing faith and influence of the truth 
as it is in Jesus ? If we would have our hearts warm with the love of 
the saints, we must seek to have them warm with the love of the Sa 
viour ; and if we would have our hearts warmed with his love, we 
must keep near him, in the believing study of his word, and in affec 
tionate intercourse with him, in all the offices of Christian devotion. 
" Let us then abide in Him," and he will abide in us ; and thus shall 
we "bring forth much fruit" 3 in works and labors of love. The 
mind that was in him will thus be in us ; we shall be " in the world as 
HE was in the world," and " walk as he also walked." May He whose 
name and nature is love, bind us as a Christian church more and more 
in the bonds of a sincere, enlightened, holy love ; and, as " the God of 
patience and consolation, grant us to be like-minded one towards an 
other, according to Christ Jesus ; that we may walk together in love, 
even as Christ has loved us ; that we with one mind and one mouth 
may glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!" 4 

1 Eph. iv. 2, 3, 31. CoL iii. 14. Heb. xiii. 16. James ii. 15, 16. 1 John iii. 17. 
a James iv. 1. 3 John xv. 4. 4 Rom. xv. 5, 6. 



132 CHRISTIAN BROTHERLY LOVE [DISC. VI. 

If there be in this audience as I know there may be as I fear 
there are some, whether with or without a profession of religion, 
whose hearts tell them that they do not love the brethren, that they 
have no complacency in Christian excellence, no relish for Christian 
society, I affectionately beseech them to consider what awfully impor 
tant facts are necessarily connected with that fact, to which their 
consciences now give testimony that they do not love the brethren. 
It is a proof, my friends, that you have "not passed from death to life;" 
that you have no part nor lot as yet in the Christian salvation ; that 
you do not love God, that you do not love Christ ; that you are not 
God s children, not Christ s brethren ; that you are utterly unfit for 
heaven, where none of the human race but the brethren dwell. You 
have no relish for their society here, you would have still less there ; 
for the peculiarities of character which make them disagreeable to you 
on earth, will be greatly heightened in heaven. What a deplorable 
state is that man in, who, even if he could get into heaven, the abode 
of perfect happiness, the only place where happiness is to be found at 
all, could not be happy ! 

But into heaven, continuing unprepared, you cannot be admitted. 
If you do not love Christians, you do not love Christ ; and " if any 
man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, he will be anathema maranatha," * 
accursed at his coming. Oh, my friends, " you must be born again, 
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, even the word of God, 
which liveth and endureth forever/ else " you cannot enter into the 
kingdom of God." You must <e purify your souls in obeying the truth 
by the Spirit to the unfeigned love of the brethren," else you can 
never " sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of 
our Father." No, you must be " shut out into utter darkness, where 
there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth." 2 What a dread 
ful prospect to every one who loves not the brethren, especially who, 
calling himself a brother, loves not the brethren ! He that loves not 
his brother, hates him ; and " he that hateth his brother is in darkness, 
walketh in darkness ;" 3 and, though he may not know whither he is 
going, " for darkness hath blinded his eyes," " his feet go down to 
death, his steps take hold of hell," and he is moving onward to the 
blackness of darkness forever. 

Oh that he would but open his eyes to " the light of life !" Oh that 
he would but look at the glory of God, as it irradiates the countenance 
of his incarnate Son ! Then would he learn to love God ; " the love 
of God would be shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given to 
him ;" and, learning to love God, he would learn to love all his chil 
dren, all his children of mankind, especially all his children by "faith 
in Christ Jesus." In the mutual kind offices of Christian friendship, 
he would enjoy a satisfaction which worldly fellowship never can be 
stow ; and in due time join the general assembly on high, where love 
has its triumphs ; where "all the wise, the holy, and the just, whoever 
existed in the universe of God, shall be associated without any distress 
to trouble their mutual bliss, or any source of disagreement, either 
from within or without, to interrupt their harmony ; where the voice 
of discord never rises, the whisper of suspicion never circulates; 

1 1 Cor. xvi. 22. Matt, yiil 11, 12. * 1 John ii. 11. 



PART II.] RECOMMENDED. 133 

where each, happy in himself, participates in the happiness of all the rest, 
and by reciprocal communications of love and friendship, at once re 
ceives from, and adds to, the sum of general felicity." l Who would 
not wish to belong to this happy society, this goodly fellowship, this 
glorious company ! The door stands open: " Obey the truth by the 
Spirit." The road lies plainly before you : " Purify yourselves by 
this obedience." Thus shall you come immediately into the enjoy 
ment of the fellowship of the saints on earth, and " being made meet 
for," shall ere long be made partakers of, the " inheritance of the 
saints" in heaven. 

1 Hair. 



DISCOURSE VII 

A FIGURATIVE VIEW OF THE STATE AND CHARACTER OF 
CHRISTIANS, WITH APPROPRIATE EXHORTATIONS. 

1 PET. ii. 1-3. Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and 
envies, and all evil-speakings, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that 
ye may grow thereby ; If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 

ON no subject is it of more importance that mankind should enter 
tain correct views, than on the nature and extent of that inward 
change, that moral revolution, in which genuine personal Christianity 
originates, and which, according to the different aspects in which it 
is viewed, is termed effectual calling, conversion, repentance, or a 
change of mind, regeneration or the new birth. This, if anything, 
is a matter of fundamental, vital, practical importance. Error here 
cannot be innocent in either sense of the word. It can neither exist 
without fault, nor be held without danger. Mistakes on such a sub 
ject cannot be blameless, must be hazardous, may be fatal. 

Yet on few points do even that part, that small part of mankind, 
who have made it in some small degree a subject of thought, err more 
seriously, and in opposite directions, than on this. By a large portion 
of men, very low, narrow views are entertained respecting the extent 
of the change, and the agency necessary in order to effect it. In their 
estimation, there is nothing radically wrong with human nature. Man 
has no doubt fallen into errors which need to be corrected ; he has 
formed bad habits which require to be changed ; but in order to effect 
such an alteration in human character and conduct, nothing more is 
necessary than to awaken into action the sleeping energies of his in 
tellectual and moral nature, and direct them steadily towards the de 
sired object ; and education and self-discipline are held quite sufficient 
to answer this purpose. 

On the other hand, not a few seem to think that the change is so 
entirely supernatural as to preclude the necessity and propriety of 
the employment of human agency as the means either of originating 
or advancing it. They seem to think, that it is so God s work, as 
that in no way is it, or can it be, man s work ; that men have nothing 
to do in the matter, but to wait till God has made them new creatures, 
and that, after God has made them new creatures, they need give 
themselves no concern God will look after his own work ; and they, 
being quite sure of final salvation, have only to guard against unbelief, 
which, in their way of viewing it, means entertaining doubts with re 
gard to the safety of their spiritual state, and the certainty of their 
ultimate happiness. 



DISC. VII.] EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. 135 

The passage of Scripture which I have just read, especially in con 
nection with that which precedes it, cuts both these soul-ruining errors 
by the root. On the one hand, it teaches us plainly that the change 
is no superficial one. It is a new birth; there is a new moral nature 
produced, of which the ever-enduring, ever-living word of God is the 
seminal principle. It is a change produced by the Spirit ; and the 
soul, the heart, the inner man, is the subject of this change. It is no 
such surface change as the progress of civilization, the authority of 
law, the influence of education, the force of self-discipline, can effect. 
It is a permanent, divinely effected change in the deepest springs 
of human action the understanding, the conscience, and the affec 
tions. 

But, on the other hand, it teaches us as plainly, that this change is 
effected through the knowledge and belief of the truth, in a manner 
quite consistent with man s rational, moral nature ; with that freedom 
of choice which is essential to his being a responsible agent ; that the 
change, though reaching every part of man s nature, is in no part of 
that nature complete or perfect ; that though a new creature, he is 
but as a new-born babe, and needs to grow, and must use the appoint 
ed means of growth ; that though he has " put on the new man," he 
needs more and more to "put off the old man, who is corrupt," and 
more and more to "put on the new man, who, after God, is created 
in righteousness and true holiness ;" that though he is made a " par 
taker of the divine nature, and has escaped the corruption that is in 
the world through lust," he must " give all diligence to add to his 
faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, 
and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godli 
ness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity," knowing 
that, "if these things be in him and abound, he is not barren or un 
fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ;" and that " in 
doing these things," for doing which "the divine power has given to 
him all things that pertain to life and godliness," " he shall never fall, 
but so an entrance shall at last be ministered to him into the everlast 
ing kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." l 

These are the views given us in the context, and confirmed by 
many other passages of Scripture, in reference to that great change 
by which a natural man becomes a spiritual man ; and in perfect ac 
cordance with them we find the apostle exhorting those who had by 
the Spirit been born again, to get rid, with all possible speed, of all 
the characteristics of their unregenerate state, and to seek, with un 
tiring eagerness, progress and perfection in all the characteristics of 
their new state ; and, for this purpose, constantly to employ the means 
in their own nature calculated, and by divine statute appointed, to 
gain these ends ; accompanying his exhortation with powerful motives, 
suited to the nature of the duties enjoined, and the character and cir 
cumstances of those to whom the exhortation is addressed. 

To this exhortation it is rny purpose at present to turn your minds ; 

and that it may have an appropriate effect on our understandings, 

consciences, and hearts, let us briefly consider, I. Who the persons 

are to whom the exhortation is addressed ; II. What are the duties 

1 Eph. iy. 24. Col. iii. 10. 2 Pet. i. 3-11. 



136 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

to which the exhortation urges ; and, III. What are the motives by 
which the exhortation is enforced. 



I THE PERSONS TO WHOM THE EXHORTATION IS ADDRESSED. 
1. General view of their state and character. 

The persons to whom the exhortation was primarily addressed were 
the Christians, chiefly recently converted Jews, scattered abroad 
through the regions of Asia Minor. They were a part of the mysti 
cal Israel, the spiritual people of God. They are described in the 
preceding chapter as " elected," chosen, selected from the rest of 
their brethren and from the world lying under the wicked one, like 
ancient Israel, not on the ground of their being better than others, 
hut on the ground of the divine fore-knowledge or appointment, the 
gracious sovereign decree of God ; and, unlike their forefathers, they 
were by their selection separated or sanctified, not by an external, but 
by a spiritual separation, from the unbelieving part of mankind ; and 
the object of this spiritual separation, originating entirely in sovereign 
mercy, was not that, like their forefathers, they might obey the law of 
Moses, and, being sprinkled with the blood of the victims by which 
the first covenant was ratified, might enjoy the external privileges of 
that covenant, but that they might obey the truth, believe the gospel, 
and, being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ that is, being 
personally interested in the saving results of his atoning sacrifice 
they might enjoy the heavenly and spiritual blessings of the second 
covenant, of which the shedding of the blood of Christ, as an expia 
tory victim, was the effectual ratification. They were persons who 
through the resurrection of Christ as the seal of the divine accept 
ance of his atoning sacrifice, and as one grand source of that evidence 
on which rests the faith which interests men personally in Christ and 
in his salvation had been brought into the state, and formed to the 
character, of the children of God, secured of ultimate complete sal 
vation as their inheritance, and blessed with a present living hope of 
that complete salvation. They were the sincere lovers of an unseen 
Saviour; they were devout worshippers of the Father. Their faith 
and their hope were in God, who had raised Christ Jesus from the 
dead, and given him glory. They had purified their souls in obeying 
the truth, so as to love the brethren unfeignedly ; and the new relation 
into which they had been brought, both to God and to one another, 
by their regeneration, through the eternal Spirit and the ever-living 
word, was a permanent and indissoluble one. 

Such are the statements respecting them in the former chapter ; 
and in the passage before us, they are brought before our minds as, 
though regenerate, by no means perfect ; really, but far from being 
completely, holy ; having much to part with, and much to attain to, 
before reaching "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 
They have need to " lay aside malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and 
envies, and evil-speakings." These words plainly imply, that the old 
man, though mortified, is not dead ; that, though crucified, he has no! 



PART I.] THE PERSONS ADDRESSED. 137 

yet expired ; that there still clings to them, as the fatal robe to the 
fabled hero, a corrupted nature. The putrifying dead body is still 
attached to the living man, which draws out the deep groan, " Who 
will deliver me from the body of this death?" There is still flesh as 
well as spirit, though in them the Spirit not only struggles, but pre 
vails ; but in their flesh dwells nothing that is good ; dwells all that is 
evil. Of course, they need constant vigilance and energetic effort to 
prevent the encroachments, and to effect the eradication, of this evil 
principle. 

2. Particular, figurative view of their state and character as 
" new-born babes." 

But it is chiefly on the figurative representation in the passage, 
" new-born babes," that I wish to fix your attention. The ideas sug 
gested by these words, respecting those whom they describe, are, I 
apprehend, principally these three: They have undergone, lately 
undergone, an important and very beneficial change; they are pos 
sessed of characters, of \vhich some of the distinctive properties of in 
fants are suitable emblems ; and Avhile they are not what they once 
were, they also are not what they shall be, they are but " new-born 
babes ;" they are far from being men in stature, and vigor, and un 
derstanding, and acquirement, and enjoyment. 

(1.) They have undergone a great and salutary change of state. 
They have been brought out of a state of darkness, and pollution, and 
confinement, into a state of light, and purity, and glorious liberty. 
They are in a new, a better, a higher state of spiritual and moral 
being. New spiritual faculties have been developed. They are in a 
new world. The Jewish doctors were accustomed to call their pros 
elytes little children. The change from Paganism to Judaism was 
great, and beneficial ; but it was but an imperfect figure of the mag 
nitude and blessedness of the change from nature to grace. 

(2.) The term "new-born babes" seems intended to indicate 
character and disposition, as well as state and condition. To mark 
the distinctive character of his genuine disciples, our great Master 
states that they must become as " little children." When his disci 
ples came to him, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven? He "called a little child to him, and set him in the midst 
of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, 
and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same 
is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." And on another occasion, 
when " they brought young children to him that he should touch them, 
and his disciples rebuked those that brought them, Jesus, on seeing 
this, was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little chil 
dren to come to me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom 
of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the king 
dom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." l It has been 
common to find the points of analogy between Christians, especially 
young Christians new converts, and little children, in comparative 

1 Matt, xviii. 3; xix. 13, 14. 



138 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

innocence and gentleness. But this I apprehend is to mistake our 
Lord s meaning. It is their conscious helplessness, their entire con 
fiding dependence on others, their ready belief, as their faculties ex 
pand, of everything told them, till the falsehood of men teaches them 
distrust, that make infants fit emblems of the disciples of Christ. 
They " renounce themselves." They believe what he says to them, 
because he says it. They do what he bids them, because he bids 
them. They feel that they are entirely dependent on Him ; and they 
are well pleased that it should be so. They confide in him, in his 
wisdom, in his power, in his grace, just as an affectionate child feels 
safe and happy in his father s house, or in his mother s arms, and takes 
no thought for himself, because he knows his father and mother will 
take thought for him ; and never doubts either their affection for him, 
or their following out the dictates of that affection in protecting him 
from evil, and obtaining for him everything he needs. 

As the reference here is to "new-born" infants, a leading idea 
intended to be conveyed to the mind seems to be, that, like new-born 
infants, the Christian has a kind of instinctive, unquenchable desire, 
after the suitable, spiritual aliment of his new nature. He loves the 
truth as it is in Jesus ; he is restless when it is out of the view of the 
mind. The whole world without this cannot make him happy ; and 
he never enjoys himself more, than when clearly apprehending the 
meaning and evidence of those " exceeding great and precious prom 
ises" by which his new nature is sustained; like the healthy infant 
on its mother s bosom, " he sucks, and is satisfied with these breasts 
of consolation : he milks out, and is delighted with the abundance of 
their glory." 1 

(3.) There is yet another idea which we conceive the figurative 
appellation is calculated and intended to bring before our minds. 
Young Christians are very far from being what they are yet to be 
even on earth ; and all Christians are very far from being what they 
will be in heaven. 

The young convert is to grow in all Christian excellence to 
"grow up in all things to him who is the head." 2 Paul was a very 
different person when it was at first said of him, "Behold, he pray- 
eth" a poor helpless sinner falling into the arms of the Saviour, 
and when he said, " I can do all things through Christ who strength 
ens me." "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my de 
parture is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith : Henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will 
give to me ; and not to me only, but to all that love his appearing." 3 
And Paul even then was but a child in comparison of what Paul is 
now; the "spirit of a just man made perfect" "with the Lord," and 
fully, so far as his capacities admit, conformed to his mind and will, 
Mike him, seeing him as he is." 

This view of the subject is so beautifully illustrated by that heav 
enly man Leightpn, that I can make no apology for the length of the 
following quotation : " The whole estate and course of the Chris- 

1 Isaiah Ixvi. 11. a Eph iv 15 

3 Acts ix. 11. Phil. iv. 13. 2 Tim. iv. 6-8. 



PART I.] THE PERSONS ADDRESSED. 139 

tian s spiritual life here is called their infancy, not only as opposed to 
the corruption and wickedness of their previous state, but likewise 
as signifying the weakness and imperfection of it at the best in this 
life, compared withjthe perfection of the life to come; for the weak 
est beginnings of grace are by no means so far below the highest de 
gree of it possible in this life, as the highest degree falls short of the 
state of glory: so that, if one measure of grace is called infancy in 
respect of another, much more is all grace infancy in respect of 
glory. And sure as for duration, the time of our present life is far 
less to eternity than the time of our natural infancy is to the rest of 
our life ; so that we may still be called but new or lately born. Our 
best pace and strongest walking in obedience here, is but the stepping 
of children when they begin to go by hold, in comparison of the per 
fect obedience in glory, the stately, graceful steps with which, on the 
heights of Zion, we shall walk in the light of the Lord ; when we 
shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. All our knowledge 
here is but the ignorance of infants, and all our expressions of God 
and of his praises, are but as the first stammerings of children 
(which are, however, very pleasant both to child and parent), in com 
parison of the knowledge we shall have of him hereafter, when we 
shall know as we are known ; and of those praises we shall offer 
him, when that new song shall be taught us," which is sung before 
the throne, and before the four living creatures, and which none can 
learn but those who are redeemed from the earth. 1 "A child hath in 
it a reasonable soul ; and yet, by the indisposedness of the body, and 
abundance of moisture, it is so bound up, that its difference from the 
beasts, and its partaking of a rational nature, is not so apparent as 
afterwards ; and thus the spiritual life that is from above infused 
into a Christian, though it doth act and work in some degree, yet it is 
so clogged with natural corruption still remaining in him, that the ex 
cellency of it is much clouded and obscured : but in the life to come 
it shall have nothing at all encumbering and indisposing it. And this 
is the Apostle Paul s doctrine: For we know in part, and we proph 
esy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which 
is in part shall be done away. When I was a child I spoke as a 
child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child ; but when I became 
a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, 
darkly ; but then face to face ; now I know in part ; but then shall I 
know even as I am known. 2 

" And this is the wonder of divine grace, that brings so small be 
ginnings to that height of perfection that we are not able to conceive 
of; that a little spark of true grace, that is not only indiscernible to 
others, but often to the Christian himself, should yet be the beginning 
of that condition wherein they shall shine brighter than the sun in 
the firmament. The difference is great in our natural life, in some 
persons especially, that they who in infancy were so feeble and wrap 
ped up like others in swaddling-clothes, yet afterwards corne to excel 
in wisdom and in the knowledge of the sciences, to be commanders 
of great armies, or to be kings : but the distance is far greater and 
more admirable, between the weakness of these new-born babes, the 

1 Rev. xiv. 3. 9 1 Cor. xiil 9-12, 



140 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

small beginnings of grace, and their after perfection, that fulness of 
knowledge that we look for, and that crown of immortality that all 
are born to who are born of God. But as in the faces and actions of 
some children, characters and presages of their after greatness have 
appeared, as a singular beauty in Moses s countenance, as they write 
of him, and as Cyrus was made king among the shepherd s children, 
with whom he was brought up, so also certainly in these children of 
God there be some characters and evidences that they are born for 
heaven by their new birth. That holiness and meekness, that pa 
tience and faith, that shine in the actions and sufferings of the saints, 
are characters of their Father s image, and show their high original, 
and foretell their glory to come ; such a glory as doth not only surpass 
the world s thoughts, but the thoughts of the children of God them 
selves. 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. " l 

Before proceeding further in the exposition, let me urge the im 
portance of putting this question seriously to ourselves, What part or 
lot have I in this matter ? What is my state before God ? What is 
my spiritual character? Have I been born again ? Do I possess the 
instincts and dispositions of the new creature ? The question is a 
serious one ; for if I have not been born again, I am a stranger to 
true wisdom, worth, and happiness ; and should I die, not having been 
born again, it had been better for me never to have been born. For, 
"except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." 2 He can neither enjoy the peculiar blessings of Chris 
tianity here nor hereafter. The question is one which should not be 
difficult to answer ; for the characteristic qualities of the new crea 
ture are sufficiently palpable. There is one in particular, with regard 
to which no one can mistake without absolute wilfulness : " What 
soever is born of God, overcometh the world." 3 He lives above the 
world, through the power of faith. The terrors of the world cannot 
drive him, the blandishments of the world cannot allure him, from 
the course on which he has entered. When he became a new crea 
ture, he came into a new creation ; and " the world to come," in its 
power, opening on his mind, delivered him from the dominant influ 
ence of " the present evil world." Are you looking at things seen 
and temporal ? Are present and sensible things the chief subjects of 
your thoughts, the chief objects of your affections ? Then you have 
been born only of the flesh. " You must be born again." You must 
be thoroughly changed, for if you are not so, you are quite unfit for 
heaven; and heaven would be no heaven to you even were you 
placed in it. You must repent, that is, change your mind, for " ex 
cept ye repent, ye must perish." There is no preventing it. The 
nature of things, the nature of God, require that it be so. But what 
hinders you from changing your mind? You are most assuredly 
wrong. Why should you not believe the truth clearly stated, abund 
antly accredited ? " Repent, and believe the gospel." And in re 
penting, and believing the gospel, ye will be " born again," " trans 
formed by the renewing of your minds ;" and " being born again not 

1 John iii. 2. 2 John iii 3. 8 1 John, v. 4. 



PART II.] THE EXHORTATION. 141 

of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of the Lord, 
which liveth and endureth forever/ you will become as " new-born 
babes," and will feel, what you cannot now do, how reasonable and 
right it is that ye " should desire the sincere milk of the word, that 
ye may grow thereby;" and "growing up into him in all things who 
is the Head," shall become every day while in the world more like 
him while he was in the world in it not of it; and at the ap 
pointed season, along with all the brethren, when he appears, shall be 
made, so far as the difference of your nature admits, like him, " seeing 
him as he is." 

And you who through the agency of the Spirit, and the instrumen 
tality of the word, have been born again, and become as little children, 
cultivate the childlike character. Confide in your heavenly Father s 
wisdom, power, grace, and faithfulness ; trust not to your own under 
standing; implicitly believe his declarations, unhesitatingly comply 
with his injunctions. " Be anxious about nothing ;" your heavenly 
Father knows what you need, and can deliver you out of every trial. 
But while you cultivate the childlike character, seek in connection 
with it the vigor and activity of mature manhood. " In malice" be 
always "children, but in understanding be men." Seek to have 
your spiritual " senses exercised, to discern truth and falsehood, good 
and evil." With the simplicity of childhood join the sagacity of 
age ; and while in one sense ye always are children, become more 
and more children ; in another, " be no more children, tossed to and 
fro, and carried about with every word of doctrine, by the sleight of 
men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive ;" 
but seek to arrive at " the unity of the faith and knowledge of the 
Son of God, at perfect manhood, at the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ." l Brethren, we are glad when ye are "strong, 
through the word of God abiding in you," and enabling you to over 
come the wicked one : and " this also we wish, even your perfection ;" 
and this we pray, that " your love may abound yet more and more in 
knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve the things 
which are excellent ; that ye may be sincere and without offence till 
the day of Christ : being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which 
are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God." 2 

So much for answer to the first question proposed, Who are the 
persons to whom the exhortation in the text is addressed ? 



II. THE EXHORTATION". 

Let us now attend to the exhortation itself; " Laying aside all 
malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil-speakings, 
as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may 
grow thereby." The exhortation is two-fold; first dissuasive, and 
then persuasive. The dissuasive exhortation is in these words : " Lay 
aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envy, and evil- 
speaking," an exhortation to seek complete freedom from sin in all 
its forms and in all its degrees, and particularly in those forms which 

1 Heb. v. 14. Eph. iv. 14, 15. "1 John ii. 14. 2 Cor. xiii. 9. Phil. i. 9-11. 



142 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VH. 

interfere with the great Christian duty of brotherly love, which the 
apostle had just been enjoining and recommending. The persuasive 
part of the exhortation is in these words : " Desire the sincere milk 
of the word, that ye may grow thereby." This exhortation resolves 
itself into two parts : (1.) Seek spiritual growth ; seek to grow wiser, 
better, happier; seek wider, more accurate, more influential views 
of divine truth; a firmer faith; deeper humility; a more assured 
hope ; a warmer zeal ; a more expanded operative benevolence ; in 
one word, "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ ;" and 
(2.) Seek spiritual growth by appropriate means ; desire " the sin 
cere," the uncorrupted, and undeceiving appropriate nutriment of the 
new man, the " milk of the word," or the rational milk ; the nutriment 
suited to a rational immortal being in the season of the development 
of its faculties. There is a connection, too, between the dissuasive 
and persuasive parts of the exhortation, which will require to be no 
ticed, to prevent mistakes, and to secure all the advantages which 
the inspired counsel is calculated to communicate. Such is the out 
line I mean to fill up in the succeeding illustrations. 

1. The Dissuasive Exhortation. 

Let us attend then, in the first place, to the dissuasive part of the 
exhortation. " Lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, 
and envies, and all evil-speakings." 

(1.) The first evil habit against which the apostle warns is, 
"malice." 1 It is the same word which is frequently in the New 
Testament rendered " wickedness," and sometimes stands for moral 
evil in all its forms and degrees, as in Acts viii. 22, " Repent of thy 
wickedness," and at verse 16 of this chapter, where Balaam is said 
to have been reproved for his "iniquity;" and some interpreters 
have understood it so here, as if the apostle had said, lay aside every 
form of evil, all error, all impiety, all malignity, every form of impro 
per desire or pursuit ; and, as if the other terms mentioned were 
merely explanatory of this general one, different forms of wickedness. 
At the same time the word is often in the New Testament used to 
describe a particular form of moral evil, and is not unfrequently em 
ployed as one of a number of words all expressive of different modi 
fications of sinful principle and conduct. 2 I have no doubt that here 
it is equivalent to malignity, or ill-will, or malevolent disposition. 

Self-love is a leading principle in human nature. In depraved 
human nature this useful, necessary principle is in excess, supreme 
instead of subordinate. Self-love thus becomes selfishness, and being 
connected with false views of our own interest, which we are led to 
think inconsistent with that of others, takes the form of malignity, 
ill-will towards others whose interests seem to stand in the way of 
our own. This disposition is the very reverse of the love which 
leads to the fulfilling of the law in reference to our fellow-men. If 
that is " the fulfilling," this is " the violation" of the law ; for if love 
doeth, can do, no injury to a brother, malice, ill-will, can do him no 

* Rom. i. 29. Eph. iv. 31. Col. iii. 8. Tit. iii. 3. James i. 2L 



PART II.] DISSUASIVE EXHORTATION. 143 

good, and will do him all the harm which it finds necessary to gain 
its mere selfish objects. 

(2.) The objects malice seeks are not such as can creditably be 
avowed and prosecuted. Malice, therefore, naturally leads to " guile" 
or deceit, the second of the evil habits denounced by the apostle. 
The word is descriptive of all fraudulent, deceitful means for gaining 
an end ; it is a general name for all untruthfulness and dishonesty, 
from their most refined to their grossest forms. To manage these 
deceits with any probability of success, a man must not appear to be 
what he is : he must act a part, he must be a hypocrite, a stage-play 
er. The known open liar, the notoriously dishonest person, has little 
power to deceive. When Satan would deceive, he assumes the ap 
pearance of an angel of light. When our Lord s enemies sought to 
entrap him, they " sent forth spies, which should feign themselves 
just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might 
deliver him to the power and authority of the governor." : Here 
you see malice leading to deceit, and deceit to "hypocrisy." 

(3.) The "hypocrisy" here forbidden is the pretending to be what 
we are not ; to have excellences, or degrees of excellence, of which 
we are destitute ; to have respect or affection, when we have it not, 
or to have it in a degree far beyond what we really feel. As the 
opposite of malice is love, and of deceit uprightness ; so the opposite 
of hypocrisy is sincerity, the speaking the truth as it is in the heart, 
the expressing in language and conduct our real sentiments and feel 
ings, the being in appearance what we are in reality. 

(4.) " Envy" is the fourth evil disposition which the apostle re 
quires to be laid beside. It is the natural effect of malice, or ill-will. 
The word properly signifies the uneasiness which a malignant man 
feels in the happiness of the object of his ill-will, and the restless, pain 
ful desire he has to deprive him of his advantages, especially of those 
which he possesses in larger measure than the malevolent person him 
self. It is the corruption of the natural principle of emulation, or the 
desire to excel, which seeks its gratification fully as much in bringing 
its object below our level, as in raising ourselves honorably to his 
level, or above it; and* one of the most ordinary methods which it 
employs, in order to gain this unworthy end, is the fifth and last bad 
habit from which the apostle here dissuades. 

(5.) " Evil-speakings." Calumnious slander is the worst form of 
this evil; but all whisperings and backbitings, all sly insinuations, 
hinting at faults and hesitating dislike, every species of statement hav 
ing for its object the lowering the reputation of another, which justice 
does not require, as well as truth warrant, are included. 2 The mouth 
is as it were the vent through which the smoke and flames of the 
infernal fire of malice and envy, which rages as in a furnace within, 
escape, polluting and withering all around. 

Such are the evil tempers and habits which the apostle dissuades 
from. You see how closely they are connected, how naturally the 

1 Luke xx. 20. 

2 Ildjay KaraXaXiaf. Multis modis committitur detractio, aut bonum negarul/^ a ut ob- 
fuscando, aut diminuendo, aut malum ascribendo, aut intentionem in bono opojv pei rer- 
tendo. Jo. Hus. 



144 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII 

one produces the other ; and you must observe how all of them are 
directly opposed to that "sincere fervent love" which he had been, 
and still is, inculcating, as oije of the Christian s first duties. 

The exhortation of the apostle is, " lay aside these evil tempers and 
habits." This exhortation strongly implies that those addressed had 
been originally depraved, wholly depraved beings, and that they were 
still partially "under the influence of depravity. The exhortation is 
not, beware of putting these on, but put them off. Every renewed 
man has in his flesh his unrenewed nature, the evil heart, the 
seminal principle of every species of moral evil ; and I do not know 
what is the sin which, if he is unwatchful, unprayerful, exposed to 
temptation, and unrestrained by divine influence, he may not com 
mit. Such exhortations to regenerate persons loudly proclaim, " Be 
vigilant ;" repress the first movements of evil ; shun even its appear 
ance : " Let him who thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he 
fall." l 

The exhortation of the apostle is, not to cover these unsightly de 
formities of the old man with the veil of an assumed courteousness 
and politeness, or sanctimony. In his estimation, and in that of his 
Master, these were, however admired by men, abominable in God s 
sight, being but forms of that hypocrisy which he so pointedly con 
demns. To do this were to add iniquity to iniquity. The exhorta 
tion is to "lay them aside." The object of Christianity is not to 
conceal the evil which still exists, and exists it may be but in the great 
er force, acts but with the greater virulence, because it is concealed; 
but it is to destroy it, so that there may be no need of concealment, 
because there is nothing to conceal. 

The apostle does not require the modification, but the extinction, of 
those evil principles. The filthy rags must not be mended, and in some 
measure purified ; they are to be put off, and cast away. Christian 
morality is very uncompromising. Those polluted vestments, fast as 
they may cling to the diseased mind, must be torn off. Every one 
of them ; all malice, all guile, hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil- 
speakings, must be put off. There is no exception ; all sin. in all its 
forms and in all its degrees, must be abandoned, abandoned forever. 
It is impossible to read this passage without being impressed with 
the inward, thorough character of the Christian morality, the spir 
ituality of "the royal law," "the law of Christ." "Malice and 
envy" are forbidden, as well as "deceit, and hypocrisies, and evil- 
speakings." 

And you will observe, too, the order in which the prohibition 
stands. In the world s morality, they set about pruning the branches 
while the root is undisturbed; and the evil tree is often rather 
strengthened than weakened by the process ; but here " the axe is laid 
to the root of the tree." Lay aside malice. If that is laid aside, de 
ceit and hypocrisy will soon disappear, and never re-appear. De 
stroy the root ; the leaves, and even the stem, will soon wither and 
die. Lay aside envies, and there will be no evil-speakings. Such is 
the import of the dissuasive part of the exhortation. 

And now, my brethren, let us open our hearts to the word of ex- 

1 Peter i. 8. I Cor. x. 12. 



PART II.] DISSUASIVE EXHORTATION. 145 

hortation here addressed to us. Let us not turn aside from these 
statements, as too plain and common-place to deserve much consider 
ation. Do some say, we know all this already? I answer with my 
Master, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them ;" but 
if ye do them not, it had been better for you that you had not known 
them. The preaching of Christian doctrine and law is intended for 
some other, some nobler purpose, than to add to the stock of what has 
been termed "men s speculative discoursing knowledge." There is 
something wrong, either with the minister or the people, it may be 
with both, when plain christianly moral discourses are not delivered, 
or not relished. It was a proof of anything but growth in spiritual 
strength, when the Israelites loathed the daily manna, called it dry 
food, and required flesh to satisfy their lust. It is a very bad sign of 
a man if he does not like a plain practical sermon. " There is," as 
one well remarks, " an intemperance of the mind as well as the 
mouth. You would think, and may be not spare to call it a poor, 
cold sermon, that was made up of such plain precepts as those which 
have been the subject of discourse. And yet this is the language of 
God ; it is his way, this foolish despicable way, by which he guides 
and brings to heaven them that believe." l 

Let us never forget that Christianity is the religion of love and the 
religion of truth. The spirit which the Father hath given us is the 
spirit of meekness and charity. That dovelike spirit dwelt without 
measure in our Head, and by him is communicated in various degrees 
to all his members. " If we have not the spirit of Christ, we are 
none of his." 2 Let us remember that the true way to put off malice 
is to put on charity ; and the true way to put on charity is to put on 
Christ ; so as that the mind which was in him may be in us. 

Let us then " walk in love," and in truth as well as in love. Let 
us put off all deceits and hypocrisies. There is a meanness in hypoc 
risy which should make us despise it, a folly in it which should make 
us ashamed of it, as well as an impiety in it which should make us 
abhor it. Oh, " what is the hope of the hypocrite, when he has gained 
the whole world, when God taketh away his soul ?" 3 " What avails 
it to wear this mask? A man may indeed, in the sight of men, act 
his part handsomely under it ; but know we not, that there is an eye 
that sees through it, and a hand which, if we will not put off this 
mask, will put it off to our shame, either here in the sight of men, or 
if we should escape all our life, and go fair off the stage under it, yet 
there is a day appointed when all hypocrites will be unveiled, and ap 
pear what they are indeed, before men and angels ? It is a poor 
thing to be approved or even applauded by men, while God condemns, 
by whose sentence ail must stand or fall. Let us seek to be approved 
and justified by him, and then who shall condemn ? It does not 
matter who do. Oh, how lightly may the contempt and reproaches 
of men lie on us, if we are but secure of his approbation ! It is a 
small thing to be judged of man s judgment ; there is one that judgeth 
rne, that is the Lord." 4 

There is a common, and I am afraid by no means unfounded, com- 

1 Leighton. 8 Rom. viii. 9. 

Job xxvii. 8. * Leighton. 

10 



146 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

plaint, that maty hearers of the word are wholly unfruitful, and that 
others are little edified. Our text furnishes us with the true account 
of this melancholy fact. They do not " lay aside malice, and guile, 
and hypocrisies, and envyings, and evil-speakings." Till they do so, 
though they were under the ministry of an angel, they would never 
receive the sincere milk of the word, that they might grow thereby. 
Those who wish to get good from the word of God, must guard against 
all those tempers which war with truth and love. 

There is no keeping out of controversy at all times in our world, 
without sacrificing truth; but controversy is full of hazards. Alas! 
how seldom is it conducted, even on substantially the right side, 
without "malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envyings, and evil- 
speakings !" And so strangely deluded are men, that they often seem 
to think that the more they are under the influence of those unchris 
tian principles, while professedly, and it may be really, contending for 
Christian truth, so much the better Christians are they. They seem 
to measure their love for the truth, by their hatred of those who they 
suppose are opposing it. I trust we, my brethren, have not so learn 
ed Christ; but that "having heard him, and been taught of him the 
truth as it is in Jesus, we are putting off, concerning the former con 
versation, the old man, who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts ; 
and are renewed in the spirit of our minds ; putting on the new man, 
who after God is created in righteousness and true holiness ; and 
putting away all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and 
evil-speaking, with all malice." Then will " the word of Christ dwell 
in us richly," and then will the light of God shine in our minds, and 
"the peace of God rule in our hearts." l 

2. The Persuasive Exhortation. 

The persuasive part of the exhortation comes now before us for 
consideration: "Desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may 
grow thereby." 2 This exhortation refers both to an end, and to the 
means by which this end is to be accomplished. The end is the at 
tainment of spiritual growth, and the means, the taking spiritual 
nourishment. Thus the exhortation naturally divides itself into two 
parts. (1.) Seek spiritual growth, that is the end; and (2.) "Desire 
the sincere rnilk of the word," that is the means ; for it is by the 
right use of this appropriate nourishment that spiritual growth is to be 
attained. Let us look at these two exhortations, first separately, and 
then in their relation to each other. 

(1.) The first exhortation is, seek spiritual growth. The figurative 
view of the state and character of the persons addressed, " new-born 
babes," and the corresponding view of their daily " growth/ suggest 

1 Eph. iv. 20-24, 31. Col. iii. 15, 16. 

2 It is right to notice that the words sis cw-npinv "unto salvation" follow "va iv ai 
ai>fr9r,T "that ye may grow thereby," in most of the Codd. and old translations, and that 
all the great critical editors of the New Testament, with the exception of Mill, consider 
them as entitled to a place in the text. They do not materially change the sense. They 
mark salvation complete deliverance from evil in every form and degree as the end 
of spiritual growth, and spiritual growth through the use of the ydXa \oyixdi as the ap 
pointed means of salvation. The phrase i ? vwrripiav may be thus resolved us TO rvy^u- 
veiv fyaj rfc ffurripici;, "that you may thus obtain salvatioa" Eph. iv. 13. 



PART II.] PERSUASIVE EXHORTATION. 147 

the ideas ol life, of faculty, and of imperfection. What is dead can 
not grow, what is perfect does not need to grow. Life is necessary 
to growth, vegetable life to vegetable growth, animal life to animal 
growth, rational life to rational growth, spiritual life to spiritual 
growth. The still-born babe never grows. It is the living new-born 
babe that grows. Till a man is " born again, not of corruptible seed, 
but of incorruptible/ even of that word which in the gospel is 
preached to us, he is destitute of spiritual life, and therefore he is in 
capable of spiritual growth. On all such men the declaration of our 
Lord must be urged : " Ye must be born again, ye must repent and 
be converted." The persons addressed here are plainly persons who, 
under the influence of the Holy Spirit, having been brought to be 
lieve the saving truth, have undergone a radical change of mind and 
heart, of sentiment and disposition. They are spiritually alive, they 
can perform the functions of spiritual living beings, they are capable 
of spiritual growth. 

But the idea of imperfection is just as plainly suggested by the 
figurative language of the text as that of capacity. They are living 
beings ; but the principle of life, though unextinguishable, is as yet 
feeble. They need to grow. They have not been all at once 
brought into a state of spiritual perfection. Their emblem is not 
Adam, proceeding from the hand of God in all the completeness of 
manhood; it is the new-born babe. And they need not only to 
grow, but to grow a great deal. They are not represented as youths 
just approaching manhood, they are "new-born babes." They have 
entered on their course, but only entered. Even in the case of those 
who have proceeded farthest, what is behind is as nothing in compar 
ison of what is before them. They have "not attained." This is 
the testimony respecting himself of one who had made more progress 
perhaps than any other. " Not as though I had already attained, 
either were already perfect." l 

But we have said enough of what is presupposed in the injunction, 
to " grow as new-born babes." Let us now inquire into its meaning. 
What is it, then, to grow ? For the natural new-born babe to grow, 
is to increase in size, and strength, and beauty, and intelligence, and 
in the active, graceful use of all its various faculties. For the spir 
itual new-born babe to grow, is to increase in the knowledge of the 
only true God and his Son Jesus, which is eternal life, obtaining more 
extensive, more accurate, more influential views, on this boundlessly 
extensive and infinitely important subject ; in the faith of the truth 
as it is in Jesus ; in the love of God, of Christ, of the brethren, of 
all mankind ; in reliance on the free grace of the Father, the finished 
work of the Son, the promised aids of the Spirit ; in knowledge and 
heartfelt conviction of his own worthlessness and helplessness, weak 
ness and folly ; in deep humility ; in hatred of sin ; in vigilance 
against temptation ; in love of holiness ; in zeal for the divine honor ; 
in growing delight in God as the portion of the soul ; in weanedness 
from the world ; in a spirit of self-sacrifice for God s glory and man s 
salvation ; in desire for the pure peace, the holy happiness of heaven ; 
and by the growth of these principles, " being strengthened with all 

1 Phil. iii. 12. 



148 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

might in the inner man," to become more alert, and constant, and 
persevering in performing all the functions of the new life, both in 
ward and outward ; doing and suffering the will of God ; " walking 
in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless ;" 
"denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, right 
eously, and godly in this present world ;" walking at liberty ; keeping 
God s commandments, "fighting the good fight of faith," running 
" the race that is set before him." 

Growth in the knowledge of Christian truth, is that on which 
spiritual growth generally depends. The great influential principles 
of saving truth are few and simple, and some are apt to think that 
they are easily, and soon, fully learned. But this is a dangerous mis 
take. The oldest and most intelligent Christian may grow in the 
knowledge of these truths. It is a very important remark, that after 
a man is really converted, growth in knowledge consists chiefly in 
knowing better the very truths by which conversion has been pro 
duced. He may see more deeply into. the meaning of those truths 
which he had only a general notion of; he may see additional evi 
dence of their truth ; he may see more of their mutual connection 
and dependence ; he may see more of the uses they are intended to 
serve ; he may obtain more skill in turning them to their proper use, 
both to himself and others ; he may obtain a more deep and exten 
sive experimental acquaintance with them, and he may rise to a 
much higher esteem for, and love of them. The most important kind 
of growth in knowledge to a true Christian, is to grow in the knowl 
edge of what he does know, rather than to grow in knowledge by 
acquiring an acquaintance with something that he does not know. 
The addition of some degrees to the more needful parts of knowl 
edge which we already possess, will go further to promote spiritual 
growth, than the acquisition of knowledge respecting less necessary 
things, of which we are ignorant. Every Christian knows the doc 
trine of Christ crucified ; but many a Christian knows little about 
scholastic questions respecting the decrees of God, and the subjects 
of baptism, and the government of the Church. His spiritual growth 
will be more impeded by imperfection in the knowledge of the for 
mer, than by absolute ignorance of the latter; and his spiritual growth 
will be more advanced by knowing a little more of that which he al 
ready knows, than by obtaining even the most accurate information 
on the points of which he is ignorant. It is an admirable observa 
tion of an old divine, " There is enough in one of the articles of our 
faith, in one of God s attributes, in one of Christ s benefits, in one of 
the Spirit s graces, to hold you in study all your lives, and afford you 
still an increase of knowledge. To know God, the Father, Son, and 
Spirit, and their relations to you, and operations for you, and your 
duties to them, and the way of communion with them, is a knowledge 
in which we may, we must be, still growing, till it be perfected by 
the celestial beatifical vision." 

It is difficult to conceive a finer or more complete description of 
what spiritual growth is, than that embodied in a prayer by the Apos 
tle Paul for the Philippian Christians : " And this I pray, that your 

1 Baxter. 



PART II.] PERSUASIVE EXHORTATION. 149 

love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgment ; 
that ye may approve the things that are excellent; that ye may be 
sincere, and without offence, till the day of Christ ; being filled with 
the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory 
and praise of God." l To use the words of one far advanced towards ^ 
" the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," " That Chris 
tian is a growing Christian who abounds more and more in the varied 
exercises of that holy love which is the fulfilment of this royal law ; 
whose love is directed and regulated by increasing knowledge, wis 
dom, and judgment ; who acquires by exercise, under the teaching of 
the Holy Spirit, the habit of prudently examining, and accurately 
distinguishing, between the things that differ, abhorring the evil, and 
cleaving to the good more entirely and heartily from day to day ; who 
becomes more known and approved for sincerity and integrity in all 
his professions and engagements, and more singly devoted to God as 
he advances in years; who becomes more and more circumspect in 
his words and works, that he may neither inadvertently fall himself, 
nor cause others to stumble ; who becomes more fervent in prayer, 
to be preserved from bringing any reproach on the gospel to the end 
of his course ; who becomes more abundantly fruitful in the works 
of righteousness, while at the same time he lies lower before God in 
deep humility, and is more willing than ever to be abased among 
men ; who acts more and more habitually with the invisible God and 
the eternal world before his mind, and relies more entirely on the 
mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus, who thus becomes more precious 
to his soul ; whose dependence on the providence of God becomes 
more uniform, and accompanied with greater composure, submission, 
and constancy in the path of duty. This is the growing Christian. 
Nothing material to the Christian character seems wanting. The 
various holy dispositions and affections, resulting from regeneration, 
are advancing to maturity in just proportion and coincidence, and he 
is evidently ripening for the work, worship, and joy of heaven." 2 <^ 
Take another representation of spiritual growth by our apostle him 
self. He grows spiritually, who having been called to glory and vir 
tue, and made a partaker of a divine nature, through the exceeding 
great and precious promises of the gospel understood and believed by 
him, "adds to his faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to 
knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to pa 
tience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to bro 
therly kindness, charity ; who has these things in him, and abounding 
in him, and is not idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 3 

We have now got the general idea of spiritual growth ; it is just 
progressive sanctification. Grow spiritually, is in plain terms, be 
come more and more holy. But we shall fail of getting all the in 
struction which the inspired writer s words are intended and fitted to 
convey, if we do not inquire whether there are not some important 
truths, in reference to progressive holiness, suggested by the figurative 
view here given of it. Are there not certain points of resemblance 
between natural growth and progressive holiness, which deserve 
1 Phil. i. 9-1 L 2 Scott. 3 2 Pet. i. 5-7. 



150 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

notice? We apprehend there are, and, principally, the following. 
Both are, in the sense proper to them, natural; both are gradual, and 
upon the whole constant ; both are universal and generally simul 
taneous ; and both of them are perceptible, and sometimes more per 
ceptible to others than to their subject. A word or two of illustration 
on these instructive points of resemblance, is all that is necessary. 

1. It is the order of the natural world for the child to grow. It is 
the order of the spiritual world for the saint to improve. An infant 
not growing, but wasting away, is an unnatural and melancholy 
object ; and still more unnatural, still more melancholy, is it for one 
who seems to be a saint to be seen becoming no wiser, no better, or, 
more deplorable still, becoming worse. There is want of nourish 
ment, or disease, in both cases, where there is not growth. Truth, 
it has been said, does not lie in the heart as a stone on the earth, but 
as seed in the earth, which naturally germinates. 

2. Growth is gradual very gradual, and so is Christian improve 
ment. No infant becomes a man at once, but every day sees him 
nearer manhood ; and so is it in the spiritual world. The saint be 
comes gradually wiser and better. Like the child, he makes more 
progress at some times than others ; yet in all cases the progress is 
gentle, not sudden. And as, when in health, the child is always 
growing, so when the Christian is not laboring under spiritual disease, 
he is always making progress. 

3. When the child grows, the whole of its body and mind grows. 
Swelling, which is a diseased unnatural affection, may be confined to 
a part of the body, but natural growth extends to the whole of it. 
And so it is with the spiritual new-born babe. He grows in knowl 
edge, and faith, and holiness, and comfort, at the same time. And 
the growth in both cases, where things are as they ought to be, is 
proportional. It also deserves notice, that though there be general 
growth, if any part of the system be preternaturally active, if any 
member of the body is preternaturally enlarged, any faculty of the 
mind preternaturally developed, there is disease and disorder. And 
so it is in the spiritual world. If the understanding be enlightened 
while the affections are not proportionally affected, or if the affections 
are strongly excited while the understanding is not proportionally 
enlightened, there is no healthy growth, no satisfactory progress. 
Healthy nourishment in a healthy constitution, whether bodily or 
mental, natural or spiritual, produces both universal and simultaneous 
growth. 

4. Where there is real growth, it will be perceptible ; not pecepti- 
ble in its progress, but perceptible in its effects. In the case of a 
healthy child, he who sees it when new-born, and when it is a twelve 
month old, distinctly perceives that there has been growth. In the 
same way, a person who sees a young convert, if he meets with him 
months or years after, will perceive progress both in knowledge and 
in holiness. The child is seldom sensible of growth. It requires to 
look back, and compare what it is now with what it recollects itself 
to have been, to convince it of its having grown. And so it is with 
the spiritual babe. It is only by comparing what he now is with 
what he was at some previous period, that he can be convinced that 



PART II.] PERSUASIVE EXHORTATION. 151 

he is making progress. Indeed, not unfrequently, from the increase 
both of spiritual sensibility and spiritual perspicacity, he feels as if, 
instead of becoming better, he was becoming worse. He is, in his 
own feelings, less conformed to the divine law as he now sees it, than 
he was, it may be years ago, as he then saw it. And yet this may be, 
indeed is, one of the best proofs that there is progress in knowledge, 
both of God s law and of himself; and in a corresponding humility 
and growing dependence on the atonement as the ground of accept 
ance, and on the Spirit as the fountain of holiness. The sight Chris 
tians have of their defects in grace, and their thirst after greater 
measures of grace, make them think they do not grow when indeed 
they do. 1 

A healthy child grows without thinking much about its growth. 
It takes its food and its exercise, and finds that it is growing in the 
increase of its strength and its capacity for exertion. And an anal 
ogous state is, I believe, the healthiest state of the spiritual new-born 
babe. While self-examination, rightly managed, is very useful, a 
morbid desire of the satisfaction of knowing that we are improving, 
is in danger of drawing the mind away from the constant employ 
ment of the means of spiritual nourishment and health. The best 
state of things is, when, in the healthy, vigorous condition of the 
spiritual constitution, ready for every good work, we have the evi 
dence in ourselves that we are growing ; and when that is wanting, 
application to the sincere milk of the word will do a great deal more 
good than poring into ourselves, to find proof either that we are 
growing or not growing. So much for the first part of the persuasive 
exhortation, Seek spiritual growth. 5 

(2.) The second part of the exhortation refers to the means for 
gaining this end spiritual growth. "Desire the sincere milk of the 
word, that ye may grow thereby." There are here three things 
which we must attend to 1. What is this sincere milk of the word? 
2. How is it that we grow by it ? 3. And what is it to desire this 
sincere milk of the word ? 

1. The phrase "milk of the word * is singular, and a variety of 
opinions have been entertained both as to its reference and meaning. 
If we can certainly fix the first, there will be comparatively little 
difficulty in apprehending the second. Some, among whom we are 
surprised to find the judicious Calvin, have supposed that the refer 
ence is to those Christian virtues which stand in direct opposition to 
the vices which are condemned in the previous verse ; but these can 
not well be represented as the spiritual food of the spiritual new-born 
babe. They are rather the symptoms that the food has produced its 
proper effect in the bloom and vigor of a healthful frame. The in 
spired writer furnishes us with the means of determining the refer 
ence. Whatever the milk of the word be, it is that by which spir 
itual new-born babes are nourished ; in plainer words, it is that by 
which the sanctification and holy happiness of the regenerate soul 
are promoted. Now there can be no doubt, that that is divine truth 
understood and believed. It is " by this that men live ; in this is the 

1 Watson. 



152 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

life of our souls." " Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is 
truth," says our Lord. " Purifying their hearts by faith," says the 
Apostle Peter. " Grace, mercy, and peace are multiplied through the 
knowledge of this truth." "It is by unity of the faith, and knowl 
edge of the Son of God, that we come to the measure of the stature 
of the fulness of Christ," says the Apostle Paul. 1 

The reference then, without doubt, is to the truth respecting the 
divine character revealed in the Holy Scriptures ; but what is the 
precise meaning of the phrase, " the milk of the word ?" The milk 
is plainly equivalent to the appropriate nourishment ; what serves 
the same purpose to Christians, especially new converts, that the 
mother s milk does to the new-born babe. The " milk of the word" 
may either mean the spiritual nourishment which is contained in that 
word spoken of in the previous context, " the word of the Lord which 
liveth and abideth forever, the word of the gospel preached to us ;" 
or it may mean rational nourishment, nourishment suited to the 
rational spiritual nature of man, as milk is to his physical or animal 
nature; 2 just as the same word is employed in Rom. xii. 1, "reason 
able service," 3 rather national worship; the presenting our bodies 
living sacrifices being contrasted with the animal sacrifices under the 
Old Testament dispensation. It does not matter which interpretation 
we prefer, both bringing out a truth, and an important and appro 
priate one. 

Spiritual truth is compared to milk ; to intimate its simplicity, its 
pleasantness to the unsophisticated spiritual palate, and its tendency 
to produce spiritual growth. 

This milk of the word is described by the apostle as " sincere." 
The application of the term seems strange, sincerity being with us 
always considered as a moral, not a physical attribute, a quality not 
of things, but of persons. It is one of the comparatively rare in 
stances of the use of a word in an obsolete sense in our translation. 
The original word, when applied to persons, or figuratively to things, 
means undeceiving; when applied to things in a proper sense, it 
means pure, unmixed, unadulterated. In either sense it is very ap 
plicable. The word of God is pure truth, without the slightest ad 
mixture of error; it is only in the degree in which this pure truth is 
contained in any statement, that that statement is spiritually nourish 
ing ; and this pure word is undeceiving ; it does what it professes to 
do, it really nourishes. " It converts the soul, it makes wise the sim 
ple, it rejoices the heart, it enlightens the eyes." It " is able to build 
us up ; to save the soul." 4 

2. These remarks may suffice to give us a distinct apprehension of 
the meaning of the terms ; but it is required that we look a little 
deeper into the subject, and inquire how it is that the spiritual new 
born babe grows by this pure, undeceiving milk of the word ; how di 
vine truth produces spiritual growth. It does not operate as a charm. 
The power of truth to sanctify the believer is just as much a part of 

1 John xvii. 17. Acts xv. 9. 2 Pet. i. 2. Eph. iv. 13. 

* Aoytxdv in contrast with </>truo>. "To \oyucdv id est [ivariKdv, TO vorjrdv." Rom. xii. 1 
Spirituale bene vertit Syrus. GEOTIUS. Geistlich. LUTHEU. 
8 Aoyj)> AarpEiuj/. * Psal. xix. 7. James i. 21. 



PART II.] PERSUASIVE EXHORTATION. 153 

the order of the spiritual world, as the power of milk to nourish the 
new-born babe is of the order of the natural world. It is easy to see 
that spiritual knowledge can be increased just as it was originally ob 
tained, only by means of the only revelation of spiritual truth being 
apprehended by the mind ; how faith can grow only by a growing 
apprehension of the truth which is the object of faith, and of the evi 
dence which is the ground of faith. It is the representation of the 
loveliness and amiableness of God contained in the word, understood 
and believed, that produces love and confidence in him. It is the rep 
resentation of his awful majesty and infinite holiness which produces 
reverence. It is the view it gives us of sin and of ourselves that pro 
duces humility and watchfulness. The precepts show us what to be 
and to do ; and the promises and warnings furnish us with powerful 
motives to comply with the precepts, and thus make us, both in char 
acter and conduct, what God would have us to be. Every portion 
of divine truth is intended and calculated to tell on the growth of some 
portion of the new man ; on the development of some of his faculties ; 
the strengthening of some of his energies ; the beautifying of some of 
his features. To borrow a figure from the Apostle Paul, Divine 
truth or doctrine is the mould in which the new creature is cast, 1 
and every portion of it leaves a corresponding impression. " Truths 
are the seal, the soul is the wax, and holiness is the impression made 
by the seal on the wax." 2 

3. Now, the exhortation of the apostle to those whom he addresses 
is, that they should " desire" this unadulterated, undeceiving nourish 
ment. in order to their growth. The force of the exhortation, 
" desire" the sincere milk of the word, is, see that ye feel and act in 
reference to that truth which is the nourishment of your souls, as 
new-born infants do in reference to that which is the appropriate 
nutriment of their bodies. Desire it as new-born babes ; show that 
you cannot do without it ; that you must have it ; that nothing will 
do as a substitute ; that you relish it; that you are satisfied with it ; 
that you never weary of it ; that you return to it again and again, 
with unabated, with ever-increasing delight. 3 The temper enjoined 
is that which is so beautifully embodied in the " burning words" of 
David, " O how love I thy law ! it is my meditation all the day. I will 
meditate in thy precepts. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will 
never forget thy word. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath at 
all times unto thy judgments. Grant me thy law graciously. I have 
stuck to thy testimonies. I have longed after thy precepts. I will 
delight myself in thy commandments, which I love. Thy statutes 
have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. The law of thy 
mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver. I will never 
forget thy precepts ; for by them hast thou quickened me. How 
sweet are thy words to my taste ; yea, sweeter than honey to my 
mouth ! Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. 
Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage forever ; for they are the 



i-. Rom. vi. 17. a Baxter. 

ftj dpnyn.j/jjru. Ut modogeniti qui nihil aliud agunt; tantum appetunt. BENGEL. 

p yap ra doTiroKd TUV 0pt<fiuv 6v6nf didiaxsi ri]v Tpr)(p>)v, aiiroaara Si iKu.avVa.vEi Kai oi6-u sv roll 

owav airotj r/ji> rpar.cgav Achilles Tatius, 1. i. cit. ab. Elsnero. 



154 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

rejoicing of my heart. I love thy commandments above gold, yea, 
above fine gold. Thy word is very pure ; therefore thy servant lov- 
eth it. The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting. Give me 
understanding, and I shall live. Consider how I love thy precepts : 
quicken me, O Lord ! according to thy loving-kindness. Give me 
understanding according to thy word. My lips shall utter praise 
when thou hast taught me thy statutes. My tongue shall speak of 
thv word ; for all thy commandments are righteousness. I have 
longed for thy salvation, O Lord ! and thy law is my delight. More 
to be desired are the judgments of God than gold, yea, than much 
fine gold ; sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb. Moreover, 
by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great 
reward." I think no one now can have any difficulty in understand 
ing what it is to " desire the sincere milk of the word as new-born 
babes/ O that we all knew more of it by our own personal expe 
rience ! In this case we should be both better and happier men. 

Fully to apprehend the force of the apostle s exhortation, we must 
connect the exercise enjoined with the end for which it is enjoined. 
Desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. 
"Desire the word," says the pious Leighton, "not that ye may only 
hear it ; that is, to fall very short of its true end. Yea, it is to take 
the beginning of the work for the end of it. The ear is indeed the 
mouth of the mind, by which it receives the word, as Elihti compares 
it. The ear heareth words as the mouth tasteth meat : but meat 
that goes no farther than the mouth cannot nourish. Neither ought 
this desire of the word to be only to satisfy a custom ; it were an ex 
ceeding folly to make so superficial a thing the end of so serious a 
work. Again, to hear it only to stop the mouth of conscience, that it 
may not clamor more for the gross impiety of contemning it this is 
not to hear it out of desire, but out of fear. To desire it only for 
some present pleasure and delight that a man may find in it, is not 
the due use and end of it : that there is delight in it, may commend 
it to those who find it so, and so be a means to advance the end ; but 
the end it is not. To seek no more but a present delight, that vanish- 
eth with the sound by the words that die in the air, is not. to desire 
the word as meat, but as music. To desire the word for the mere 
increase of spiritual knowledge, or for the venting of that knowledge 
in speech, and frequent discourses, is still to miss the true end. If 
anyone s head or tongue should grow apace, while all the rest of the 
body stand at a stay, it would certainly make^ him a monster : and 
they are no other, that are knowing and discoursing Christians, and 
grow daily in that, but not at all in holiness of heart and life, which 
is the proper growth of the children of God." Our object in desiring 
the sincere milk of the word, in studying with intense interest the 
truth as revealed in the word of God, is, that we may, as men of God, 
be " thoroughly furnished for every good work." l 

The dissuasive and the persuasive parts of the exhortation, are closely 
connected. " Laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, 
and envies, and all evil-speakings, as new-born babes, desire the sin 
cere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." The idea in- 

1 2 Tim. iii. 17. 



PART II.J PERSUASIVE EXHORTATION; 155 

tended to be conveyed by thus connecting the two exhortations, is 
not, that the one must be fully complied with before we can obey the 
other, that we must get rid of all malice, and all guile, and hypoc 
risies, and envies, and all evil-speakings, before we at all "desire the 
sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby." The true view 
of the matter is, that the two parts of the exhortation must be obeyed 
at the same time. A man full of " malice, and all guile, and hypoc 
risies, and envies, and all evi!-speakings,"cannot " desire the sincere 
milk of the word, that he may grow thereby." A man who " desires 
the sincere milk of the word, that he may grow thereby," cannot be 
clothed in malice, and other evil habits. The two exercises mutually 
influence each other. Nothing can displace " malice, and guile, and 
hypocrisies, and evil-speakings," but truth believed. But the putting 
oifof malice, and the other evil habits, greatly promotes desire of the 
sincere milk of the word ; while, just as we yield to this desire, " mal 
ice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil-speakings," and 
all other evil habits, are put off! The body cannot grow in a fever, 
the soul cannot thrive where sinful dispositions are cherished : yet it 
is returning health which expels disease. It is just like some other 
scriptural injunctions, " Cease to do evil, learn to do well ;" we can 
not cease to do evil but in the degree in which we learn to do well ; 
and in the degree in which we cease to do evil, do we learn to do 
well. " Repent, and believe the gospel." It is the gospel, coming 
into the mind in its meaning and evidence, that changes the mind ; 
and it is in that change of mind that we believe the gospel. 

If you have listened attentively, I think you can scarcely have 
failed to gain a distinct apprehension of the meaning of the exhorta 
tion which has been the subject of discourse. The important ques 
tion is, Have you complied, are you complying, with the exhorta 
tion? 

I turn, first, to those who have been "born again, not of corrup 
tible seed, but of incorruptible," and I ask them, Have you not much 
need to grow ? Are you not yet very infantine, babes when you 
ought to have been young men, if not fathers ? Have you not much 
need to grow in knowledge ? Are you able ".to give an answer to 
every one that asketh you a reason of the faith and hope that is in 
you?" Does "the word of Christ dwell in you in all wisdom ?" 
Have you clear, satisfactory views of the economy of mercy, of the 
system of divine truth? Can you "discern the things that differ so 
as to approve the things which are excellent ?" Have not too many 
of us reason to say, when " for the time we ought to have been 
teachers, we have neepl that some one teach us again what be the 
first principles of the oracles of God ; and are become such as have 
need of milk, and not of strong meat ?" l 

Have you not need to grow in holiness ? Is there not much want 
ing, much wrong ? Have you no corrupt propensities to resist and 
subdue ? Are you " strong in faith ?" Do you " abound in hope ?" 
Does " the love of God reign in your hearts ?" Ha T e you - overcome 
the world ?" Are you " clothed with humility ?" Is your worship 
always spiritual, and your obedience impartial, habitual, universal, 

1 1 Pet. iii. 15. CoL iii. 16. Phil. i. 10. Heb. v. 12-14. 



156 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

cheerful ? Have you not cause to say, " my leanness, my leanness ; 
my soul cleaveth to the dust." l 

Have you not need to grow in holy happiness? Have you, "believing, 
entered into rest ?" Are you " anxious for nothing ?" Do you habit 
ually "joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have 
received the atonement ?" Are you able to "glory in tribulation?" 
to " rejoice in hope of the glory of God ?" Do you " walk in the light 
of God s countenance, rejoice in his name all the day, and are you 
exalted in his righteousness?" or are you not beset with doubts and 
perplexities, walking in darkness, and having but little light. It is 
intended that you should grow. An infant is not born to continue 
an infant, for that were to be a monster, but to grow up to manhood. 
If you do not grow, it is not because growth is unnecessary. There 
are labors and trials before you, which require the vigor and intelli 
gence of manhood. To perform these labors aright, to endure these 
trials aright, you must " quit yourselves like men, and be strong." 2 

Now on all who feel that they need to grow, and are sensible of 
the importance of growth, I would press the exhortation of the apostle, 
"Desire the sincere milk of the word." Alas, what a multitude of 
dwarfs, as Richard Baxter says, has Christ, that are but like infants, 
though they have numbered ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or even 
sixty years of spiritual life. Go not to yourselves, go not to your 
fellows ; go to God in his word for his Spirit, and seek growth there. 
That is the only way to grow. True holiness, true happiness, can be 
obtained in no other way. Various methods may be employed, vari 
ous methods have been employed, to produce the feeling and the ap 
pearance of spiritual health and growth. But in vain. Men may by 
other methods be bolstered up in vain confidence, amused with delu 
sive joys ; but they cannot be made really happy. They may be 
brought to make a fair show in the flesh ; but they cannot be made 
really holy. The milk of the word, the unadulterated milk of the 
word, is the only wholesome nourishment of the new-born soul. 
Divine truth lodged in the mind and heart, by the influence of the 
good Spirit, is the only well of living water which will spring up unto 
eternal life. Seek, then, to "grow in the knowledge of our Lord and 
Saviour." " Let his word dwell in you richly, in all wisdom ;" and 
under its influence, " walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, be 
ing fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of 
God." 3 

We your ministers have a subordinate, yet still an important part 
to perform, in promoting your growth in grace. It consists chiefly 
in "holding forth to you the word of life," in .bringing before your 
mind, and "keeping before your mind, " the truth as it is in Jesus ;" 
and it is our earnest desire not to handle this word of the Lord de 
ceitfully, but, " in the manifestation of the truth, to commend our 
selves to every man s conscience in the sight of God ;" for we trust 
" we are not as many which corrupt the word of God," adulterate the 
sincere milk of the word, " but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the 

1 Rom. iv. 19 ; xv. 13. 1 John v. 4. 1 Pet. v. 5. Isa. xxiv. 16. Psal. cxix. 25. 
3 Heb. iv. 3. Phil. iv. 6. Rom. v. 3, 11. Isa. 1. 10. 1 Cor. xvi. 13. 
8 2 Pet. iii. 18. Col. ill 16 ; L 10. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO COMPLIANCE. 157 

sight of God, speak we in Christ." " Teaching every man in all wis 
dom, we would fain present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. ; 
May our wishes be realized ; may our labors not be in vain ! " May 
the "God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, 
that great Shepherd of the sheep, make you perfect in every good 
work, .working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through 
Jesus Christ ; to whom be glory forever and ever." l 

But there are those here, I am afraid, whom I cannot call on tc 
grow, for they are dead ; nay, I am afraid, there may be some here 
who are " twice dead, plucked up by the roots." I cannot call on you 
to come to the word that you may grow, but I do call on you to come 
to the word that you may live ; for that word of Christ is " spirit and 
life," living and life-giving. " He that believes" it, " though he were 
dead, yet shall he live." "Awake, then, ye that sleep, and arise from 
the dead, and Christ shall give you light." " Repent, and believe the 
gospel." " Be transformed by the renewing of your minds." " Re 
pent an<J be converted, every one of you," and you shall receive the 
two inestimable gifts, both the immediate and irrevocable remission 
of sins, and the habitual purifying and sanctifying influence of the 
Holy Ghost. Receive the truth in the love of it, and you shall, be 
saved. Born of the word and of the Spirit, you will learn from ex 
perience what it is to purify your hearts, through the truth, by the 
Spirit. " Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible," 
the exhortation will be addressed to you, and, by the grace of God, 
not in vain, " to lay aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and 
envies, and evil-speakings, and, as new-born babes, to desire the sin 
cere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby ;" for then ye shall 
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Oh, that even now the Lord 
may give testimony to the word of his grace, and that in the annals 
of heaven it may be recorded, that this man and that man were born, 
now and here, and that many who entered within these walls " dead 
in trespasses and sins," may depart " written among the living in 
Jerusalem." 2 

III. MOTIVES ENFORCING THE EXHORTATION. 
1. Motives from the State and Character of Christians. 

I come now to the third question, What are the motives by which 
this exhortation is enforced ? These are presented in two different 
forms ? They are either folded up in the connective particle " Where 
fore," or lie unfolded in the statement, " Ye have tasted that the Lord 
is gracious." Let us look at them in their order, and open not merely 
our minds to apprehend their meaning, but our hearts to feel their 
force. 

Let us then inquire, What are the motives to "lay aside all malice, 
and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-speakings," and to 
" desire the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby," 

1 Phil. ii. 16. 2 Cor. iv. 2 ; ii. 17. Col. i. 28. Heb. xiii. 20, 21. 
1 John vi. 63 ; xi. 25. Eph. v. 14. Mark i. 15. Acts iii. 19. 2 Thess. ii. 10. Rom 
xii. 2. Isa. iv. 3. 



158 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTJANS. [DISC. VII. 

that are folded up in the connective particle "Wherefore?" This 
word looks backward to the statements in the 22d and 23d verses of 
the last chapter: " You have purified your souls in obeying the truth 
through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren," and " You 
have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
the word of the Lord, which liveth and abideth forever;" and for 
ward to the clause, " As new-born babes," which is equivalent to 
being new-born babes. The meaning of these statements has 
alreadv been explained. It is their force as motives to the duties here 
enjoined that we are now to illustrate. The general statement is, 
"You have lately become the children of God both as to slate and 
character, by the belief of the truth, under the influence of the Holy 
Spirit." The force of this, statement as a source of motives will be 
made plainer by resolving it into its elements : You are as new-born 
babes ; you are the children of God ; you are brethren as being the 
children of God, members of the same family ; you became so by 
obedience to the truth ; you became so under the influence of the 
Spirit/ Every one of these propositions, all of them, evidently in 
cluded in the statements referred to in the connective term " Where- 
fore," is instinct with impulsive energy, replete with powerful motives. 

(1.) You are little children, lay then aside malignity and craft. 
These, hateful wherever they appear, are monstrous in an infant. 
They are quite incongruous with the childlike character that belongs 
to genuine Christians. Like little children, too, desire growth, and 
for this purpose desire your appropriate nourishment. It is natural 
for a child to grow, and to wish to grow. It is unnatural for a child 
to be stationary, and to have no desire for growth ; and so it is with 
the spiritual babe. The child is born to grow, and has an Jnstinctive 
desire to grow. A Christian not making progress, not desiring to 
make progress, is something quite out of the natural course of the 
spiritual world. And as the mother s milk is the natural, the needful 
means of nutriment to the infant, so is the pure truth the natural and 
needful means of progressive holiness to the regenerate soul. 

(2.) You are the children of God ; you should then be like your 
Father in heaven, who is infinitely benignant and truthful. If you 
were malicious, guileful, and envious, would you not falsify your pro 
fession of divine sonship? Would you not prove yourself the chil 
dren of a very different father, even of him who was a murderer and 
a liar from the beginning? It is the same argument which the Apos 
tle Paul puts so strongly in his Epistle to the Philippians : " Do all 
things without murmurings and disputings ; that ye may be blameless 
and harmless as the sons of God, without rebuke," l and which our 
Lord urges in a still more forcible form in the Sermon on the Mount : 
" Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that 
hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute 
you ; that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven : 
for he inaketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth 
rain on the just and the unjust. Be ye therefore perfect, as your 
Father in heaven is perfect." 2 It is the same principle of motive as 
in these words : " Be ye holy, for I am holy ;" " Be followers of God 

1 Phil. ii. 15. a Mutt. v. 44-48. 



PART III.J MOTIVES TO COMPLIANCE. 159 

as dear children." * And if you are the children of God, you should 
desire to grow, for it is thus, thus only, you can honor your Father : 
" Herein is my Father glorified, in that ye bring forth much fruit" 2 
that is, grow, make rapid progress in holy attainment. And you 
should desire the sincere milk of the word, you should seek to under 
stand and practically to improve divine truth, for it is the revelation 
of the mind of your Father. "As obedient children," you should 
seek to know the will of your Father, that ye may do the will of your 
Father. He is an unnatural, undutiful child who acts otherwise. 

(3.) Then you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, 
and of course form one spiritual brotherhood. This is a new aspect 
of the statement, full of additional motive to the duties enjoined. 
There can be no doubt that Christians are not permitted to indulge in 
" malice, guile, envying, or evil-speaking," in reference to any class 
of men ; but there can be as little, that in the passage before us, there 
is a direct reference to the conduct of Christians to each other, and 
that those evil tempers and habits are condemned as opposed to that 
pure fervent love of the brethren, which had been enjoined in the 
close of the preceding chapter. The bearing of this consideration, 
that they are all brethren, on the dissuasive exhortation, is direct and 
powerful. Brothers should treat one another with an ingenuous open 
ness. If there is to be malice or deceit in the family circle, where is 
true sincerity to dwell ? Love one another. Surely malice, deceit, 
hypocrisies, envyings, and evil-speakings, are peculiarly out of place 
among those who have all been " born again, not of corruptible seed, 
but of incorruptible :" who have been bound by ties of a brotherhood 
that neither time nor eternity can dissolve, and who have " purified 
their souls, through the truth by the Spirit, to the unfeigned love of 
the brethren." It is substantially the same motive that is brought for 
ward in these exhortations : " Love as brethren. Put off anger, 
wrath, malice, blasphemy, which is the same thing as evil-speaking ; 
lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man, who 
is corrupt in his deeds ; and put on the new man, which is renewed 
in knowledge after the image of him who created him." " Putting 
away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor : for ye are 
members one of another." - Confraternity, in its very nature, and 
especially such a confraternity, implies an obligation to kindness and 
sincerity on the part of the members. This motive also strongly 
urges to compliance with the persuasive exhortation ; for spiritual 
growth is not only necessary to individual happiness, but to the pros 
perity of the body. The same idea that is expressed by Christians 
being represented as brethren, is still more strikingly expressed by 
their being represented as mutually connected as members of one 
body. The growth of every member is necessary to the welfare 
of the whole body. The more individual growth, the more general 
prosperity. It is by every member growing up to him that is the 
Head, that "the whole body fitly joined maketh increase." 4 It is by 
becoming wiser, better, and happier myself, that I increase the wisdom, 
and holiness, and peace, of the body to which I belong. 

1 Eph. v. 1. 2 John xv. 8. 

" 1 Pet. iii. 8. Col. iii. 9. Eph. iv. 25. 4 Eph. iv. 16. 



100 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

(4.) Then still farther, you became the children of God, and we-re 
formed into a spiritual brotherhood, "by obeying the truth." Where 
fore, put away all those evil habits, which can be retained only by 
disobeying, resisting, the influence of the truth. Every evil temper 
or action is a practical lie ; an implied denial of, and opposition to, 
the truth ; and thus is very inconsistent in those who profess to have 
submitted to " the truth/ to have received it into their hearts as the 
animating, regulating principle of their souls. And as it was by the 
influence of the truth you were made holy, so it is by the continued, 
increased influence of the truth, that you are to continue holy, to be 
come more and more holy. Therefore, "desire the sincere milk of 
the word, that ye may grow thereby." 

(5.) Finally here, you became the children of God under the influ 
ence of the Spirit ; therefore, you should put off" " malice, and guile, 
and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil-speakings," and all those other 
evil tempers and habits ; for these are the fruits, not of the Spirit, but 
of the flesh. The fruit of the Spirit is in all "goodness" benignity, 
"righteousness, and truth ." You would "grieve the holy Spirit of 
God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption," if you " put 
not away from you all bitterness, and wrath, and clamor, and evil- 
speaking, with all malice." " If ye live in the Spirit, see that ye walk 
in the Spirit." And therefore, too, should you desire the sincere milk 
of the word ; for it is by the word, understood and believed, that the 
Spirit carries on his sanctifying work. It is presumptuous folly to 
expect to be sanctified or guided by the Spirit, without the word. 
The Spirit leads to the word; and it is through the word that he en 
ables us to " put off the old man who is corrupt in his deeds, and put 
on the new man, who, after God, is created in righteousness and true 
holiness." l Such are the variety and force of appropriate motive 
which is folded up in the connective particle " wherefore," with which 
our text commences. 

2. Motives from having tasted that the Lord is gracious. 

Let us now r examine the motive which is unfolded in the statement 
with which our text closes. " If so be," or rather, seeing " ye have 
tasted that the Lord is gracious." There can be no doubt that the 
ordinary usage of the language favors the rendering of our version, 
" If so be." If it be admitted, the meaning is, If you have indeed 
tasted that the Lord is gracious, you are peculiarly bound to " lay aside 
those evil habits," and to " desire the sincere milk of the world ;" and 
if you do not lay them aside, and desire the sincere milk, then it is a 
plain proof that, whatever profession you make, you have not " tasted 
that the Lord is gracious." The particle, however, admits of being 
rendered "since," taking for granted, not throwing into doubt, their 
having " tasted that the Lord is gracious." It is the same word that 
in 2 Thess. i. 6, is rendered, and with obvious propriety, " seeing." 
"\Ve glory in you, for your patience and faith in all your persecu 
tions and tribulations which you endure; a manifest token of the 
righteous judgment of God, that ye may be accounted worthy of the 

1 Eph. v. 9 ; iv. 30, 31. Gal. v. 25. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO COMPLIANCE. 101 

kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer : seeing it is a righteous 
thing with God to recompense tribulation to them who trouble you ; 
and to you who are troubled rest with us." l This mode of rendering 
the particle here, better accords with the whole strain of the epistle, 
in which the persons addressed are always spoken of as Christians, 
and gives greater point and directness to the motives, " Lay aside all 
malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil-speakings," 
and " desire the sincere milk of the word, since ye have tasted that 
the Lord is gracious." 

To bring out the force of the motive, it is necessary to inquire, 
Who is meant by " the Lord ?" What is meant by his being gra 
cious ? What is meant by tasting that he is gracious ? And then, 
How the having tasted that the Lord is gracious, affords grounds for 
the exhortations, " Lay aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, 
and envies, and evil-speakings," and " desire the sincere milk of the 
word ?" 

(1.) "The Lord" here is plainly the Lord Jesus. This is evident 
from what follows : for without doubt he is " the living stone" on 
whom, as a foundation, Christians, " as living stones, are builded into 
a holy temple." It is to him that the passage cited from the prophet 
Isaiah certainly refers. 

(2.) Our Lord Jesus is "gracious," is kind. Benignity, holy love, 
is his leading moral attribute. His kindness is manifested in what he 
does, and in what he gives. " The grace" or kindness " of our Lord 
Jesus" is shown in that, " though he was rich, yet for our sakes he 
became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich." 2 He 
bestows on man, utterly undeserving of anything but punishment, 
true knowledge, pardon, restoration to the divine favor, peace, holi 
ness., abundant consolation, good hope, eternal life ; in one word, hap 
piness, perfection, suited to all the capacities of his nature, during the 
eternity of his being. And that he might do this, He who w r as in the 
form of God assumed the nature of man, the form of a servant, the 
likeness of a sinner ; bore our sins, carried our sorrows ; became 
obedient to death, even the death of the cross. " Herein is love." 
This is kindness. Verily, the Lord is gracious. 3 

(3.) To " taste" that the Lord is gracious, is a figurative expression. 
It seems borrowed from the words of the Psalmist, " O taste and see 
that God is good," 4 where two of the bodily senses are employed to 
denote clear mental apprehension, along with appropriate mental 
affection. To taste that the Lord is gracious, is to know that the 
Lord is gracious ; and to know this, not from the report of others, but 
from your own experience. This knowledge is derived primarily 
from the faith of the truth as to what the Lord is, and has proved 
himself to be, by his gifts ; and secondarily, from the enjoyment of 
these gifts of his, on the possession of which we enter by the belief 
of this truth ; and the measure of which enjoyment corresponds to 
the measure of our faith. He tastes that the Lord is gracious, who 

in Rom. viii. 9. Such a use of slirep can be sup 
d\ysivd, cinzp aapKivoi. " To be struck is painful" 



1C2 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

believes the love which the Lord has to sinful men ; who counts it a 
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that he came not to be 
ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many; 
to save sinners, even the chief; and he tastes the graciousness, the 
kindness of our Lord, who, in the faith of this truth, has peace with 
God ; has access to him ; holy love ; fervent gratitude ; good hope ; 
joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom he has received 
the reconciliation. 1 Every believer of the truth thus tastes that the 
Lord is gracious ; and he does so just in the measure of his faith. The 
man who does not know Christ to be kind, and his benefits to be 
precious, is not a believer; and he who does so, cannot, but in the 
degree in which he is a believer, trust in Christ as his Saviour, and 
rejoice in the benefits of his salvation. " That is to taste," says Lu 
ther, when I \vith the heart believe that Christ has been sent for me, 
and is become mine own ; that my miseries are his and his life mine ; 
when this truth enters into the heart, then it is tasted/ 2 

It has been supposed by some, that the term is intended to intimate, 
not only that they have a true personal knowledge of Christ s kind 
ness, but that that knowledge was as yet but very imperfect. They 
had tasted, but only tasted. They know, but they know but little, 
of that love that passeth knowledge. No doubt this is a truth ; but 
we should hesitate to say it was in the apostle s mind when he used 
the words now before us. 

(4.) It only remains that I endeavor to bring out the force of the 
motive to "lay aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and en 
vies, and evil-speakings," and to " desire the sincere milk of the 
word ;" which is afforded by the fact, that Christians have " tasted 
that the Lord is gracious." The love of* God in Christ Jesus, recon 
ciling the world to himself, known and believed, is the grand source 
of motive to holy obedience in all its forms. " The grace of God/* 
of which the kindness of the Lord is an expression, "which brings 
salvation to all," when the divine testimony regarding it is under 
stood and believed, "teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, 
and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world ; look 
ing for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus 
Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works." " When the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards 
man (his philanthropy) appeared, not by works of righteousness which 
we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the wash 
ing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost ; which he shed 
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour ; that, being justi 
fied by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of 
eternal life." It is this faithful saying respecting the kindness of the 
Lord, firmly believed, that makes men "careful to maintain good 
works." It is " the mercies of God" through Christ, known and be 
lieved, that induce men to "present their bodies living sacrifices, holy 

1 1 John iv. 16. John i. 16. 1 Tim. i. 15. Rom. v. 1-11. 

XO/JOTOJ 6 KrV>tof. Dulcis est Dominus in contemplatione, ad meditandum, Cant. U 5 
in aure spiritual! ad aidienduty., Cant. v. 13; in ore ad loquendum, Psal. cxix. 39 . ii . 
prospectu ad videndum, Sir. xxm. 27. Jo. Hus. 



PART III.J MOTIVES TO COMPLIANCE. 163 

and acceptable unto God : rational worship ;" and to be " not con 
formed to this present world ; but to be transformed by the renewing 
of their minds, so as to prove what is that good, and acceptable, and 
perfect will of God." 1 

1. If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, " Lay aside all 
malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-spemk- 
ings." " Sure if you have tasted of that kindness and sweetness of 
God in Christ, it will compose your spirits and conform you to him ; 
it will diffuse such a sweetness through your soul, that there will be 
no place for malice and guile. There will be nothing but love, and 
meekness, and singleness of heart. They that have bitter malicious 
spirits, evidence that they have not tasted that the Lord is gracious; 
for they who have done so, cannot but, in the degree in which they 
have done so, be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one 
another, even as God, for Christ s sake, has forgiven them/ " 2 

2. If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, "desire the sincere 
milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby/ It was in the word 
that you tasted the Lord was gracious. And is not this a powerful 
motive to go back to the word, that again, and again, and again, you 
may " taste and see that God is good ;" and thus grow holier and 
happier, " keeping yourselves in the love of God, building yourselves 
up in your most holy faith, and looking for the mercy of the Lord 
Jesus, unto eternal life." 3 

I cannot conclude the illustration of this point in more appropriate 
w r ords than in those of the pious Archbishop, a man who always 
makes it evident that " he spoke what he knew, and testified what he 
had seen and tasted," when he spoke on such themes as these : " This 
is the sweetness of the word, that it has the Lord s graciousness in 
it ; it gives us the knowledge of his love. This they find who have 
spiritual life and senses exercised to discern good and evil ; and this 
engages a Christian to a further desire of the word. They are fan 
tastical, delusive tastes, that draw men from the written word, and 
make them expect other revelations. This graciousness is first con 
veyed to us by the word when we taste it, and, therefore, there still 
we are to seek it ; to hang upon those breasts which cannot be drawn 
dry. There, the love of God in Christ springs forth in the several 
promises. The heart that cleaves to the word of God, and delights 
in it, cannot but find in it daily new tastes of his goodness. There it 
reads true love, and by that stirs up its own to him, and so grows and 
loves every day more than the former, and thus is tending from tastes 
to fulness. It is but little we can receive here some drops of joy 
that enter into us ; but there we shall enter into joy as vessels put 
into a sea of happiness." 

There is a question which here presses for an answer from the con 
science of every individual who now hears me. Have I tasted that 
the Lord is gracious ? Do I know, experimentally " know, the grace 
of our Lord Jesus ?" You have all often heard of his grace ; but 
have you tasted it ? Have you believed his kindness ? Have you 
enjoyed his benefits ? The most satisfying evidence of this is, the lay- 

1 Tit ii. 12-14 ; iii. 4-8. Rom. xii. 1-3. 

8 Eph. iv. 32. Leighton. Jude 20, 21. 



164 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VII. 

ing aside all malice and similar tempers, and the desiring the sincere 
milk of the word. This indeed is the only permanently satisfactory 
evidence ; for there is a dead faith, a presumptuous hope, a false 
peace. If you really have believed the love of Christ to you, that faith 
will " work by love" to God, to Christ, to the brethren, to all mankind 
and it will " overcome the world." If the hope you cherish is found 
ed on that faith, it will lead you to "purify yourselves as he is pure. 
If your peace rests on his finished work, it will keep your mind, and 
fortify it against the assaults of your spiritual enemies. 

I trust not a few of this audience have tasted, are tasting, that the 
Lord is gracious. Let them bless the sovereign grace that made them 
partakers of this distinguishing blessing, opening their blinded eyes, and 
restoring soundness to their diseased taste. Let them seek new and 
more abundant discoveries of the graciousness of the Lord, and let 
them seek these in his word, and by his word. In his word let them 
seek discoveries of his kindness ; by his word let them seek the en 
joyment of his benefits. Let them open their mouths wide, and he 
will fill them " with the finest of the wheat," " angel s food," " meat 
which the world knoweth not of;" " the flesh and blood of the Son of 
Man, who came down from heaven that he might give life to the 
world, meat indeed, drink indeed." And let them look forward with 
earnest expectation and humble hope to the manifestation of his grace, 
to the communication of his benefits, which is to be made " at his 
appearing and glory," when they shall be abundantly satisfied with 
the fatness of His house, and shall be made to drink of the river of his 
pleasures, " with whom is the fountain of life," and " in whose light 
they shall see light clearly." l Thus shall " they know," and ever 
" follow on to know, the loving-kindness of the Lord." 

But what shall I say to those who, I am afraid, form not a small 
class in the audience, to those who have never tasted that the Lord 
is gracious ? I might express wonder at their infatuation, blame their 
pertinacity, pity their folly, and bewail their misery. I might ask, 
how is it, when the Lord is gracious, so gracious, when the revelation 
made of his grace is so plain and so well accredited, and when the 
blessings of his salvation are so suited to your circumstances, and so 
kindly urged on your acceptance, that you remain experimentally as 
much strangers to a sense of his kindness, and to the value of his sal 
vation, as if he were not gracious, or as if you did not need, or were 
excluded from tasting, his grace ? But I choose rather to content 
myself with proclaiming with the Psalmist, " O taste and see that the 
Lord is good." The Lord is good and gracious, long-suffering, and 
abundant in mercy, rich in grace, ready to pardon, mighty to save. 
" Behold HIM, behold HIM." Look, look to Jesus, obeying, suffering, 
dying, the just in the room of the unjust, rising, ascending, sitting down 
on the right hand of the Majesty on high, giving gifts, the gifts of par 
don and peace, and holiness and salvation to men, even to the rebel 
lious, to you, and then say if the Lord is not gracious. " Herein is 
LOVE, not that you loved him, but that he loved you ;" loved you, so 
as to " give himself" for you on the cross ; loved you, so as to give 
himself to you in the gospel. And is all this love to be slighted 

1 PsaL xxxvi. 8, 9. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO COMPLIANCE. 165 

and despised ? .Ah ! if you will not taste his grace, you must feel 
his wrath. " Be wise, be instructed ; kiss the Son, lest he be angry, 
and you perish from the way, if his wrath be kindled but a little. 
Blessed," only blessed, truly blessed, eternally blessed, " are they who 
trust in him." 1 

Thus have we filled up the outline sketched on our entering on the 
consideration of the subject. Our labor and your time have been 
lost, worse than lost, if they do not lead to practical results. It is to 
worse than no purpose that we better understand the meaning, that 
we more clearly perceive the obligation, of the divine exhortation, if 
we do not set about complying with it. It increases responsibility 
and deepens guilt. If henceforth we cherish malignant feeling, and 
neglect the study of divine truth as the great means of spiritual im 
provement, we do so at an increased peril. Oh that the divine ener 
gy may accompany these statements; so that, laying aside all malice, 
and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-speakings, all 
of us may desire the sincere milk of the word, and thus give satisfac 
tory evidence that we have indeed tasted that "the Lord is gra 
cious !" Amen and Amen. 

1 1 John iv. 10. PsaL ii. 10-12. 



DISCOURSE VIIL 

THE PECULIAR PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS, -AND HOW THEY 
OBTAIN THEM. 

1 PET. ii.4-10. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, bat 
chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, -an 
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, 
elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore 
which believe, he is precious : but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the 
builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, 
and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient ; where- 
unto also they were appointed. Bat ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an 
holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath 
called you out of darkness into his marvellous light : which in time past were not 
a people, but are now the people of God : which had not obtained mercy, but now have 
obtained mercy. 

To unfold the nature and illustrate the value of the numerous - ex 
ceeding great and precious" privileges, which the peculiar people of 
God have in present possession, and in certain expectation, is one of 
the most important, as it is one of the most delightful, duties of the 
public Christian instructor. Such illustrations are calculated to serve 
many valuable purposes. They honor the Saviour, from whom all 
these privileges are derived, by displaying the ardor and tenderness 
of his love, the efficacy and value of his sacrifice, the prevalence of 
his intercession, and the munificence of his liberality. They tend to 
the conversion of sinners, by showing them that it is their obvious 
interest, as well as their undoubted duty, to yield to the claims of the 
Saviour s authority and love ; and they greatly conduce to the con 
solation and joy of the saints, by fixing their attention on the number, 
and variety, and value, and security, of their distinguishing blessings ; 
and to their holiness, by calling forth into vigorous, sustained exercise, 
that gratitude for these unspeakable gifts, which is the most powerful 
stimulant to Christian obedience. The more accurately the Christian 
apprehends the intrinsic excellence, the more fully he appreciates the 
inestimable worth, of his privileges, the more deeply must he feel his 
obligations to him, to whose sovereign love he is indebted for them 
all ; and the more readily will he embrace every opportunity of man 
ifesting his sense of this kindness, by actively doing, and patiently 
suffering, his will. 

From these remarks it is obvious, on the one hand, that an enlight 
ened preacher of Christian privilege is one of the best friends of prac 
tical religion; and on the other, that the public Christian instructor 
who confines himself exclusively to what may be termed the moral 



DISC. VIII.] THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. 167 

part of Christianity, neglects the principal means with which that di 
vine system furnishes us, for reclaiming the vicious and improving 
the pious, for converting the sinner and edifying the saint, for making 
the bad good, and the good better. 

Such plainly were the views of the Apostle Peter, who in that epis 
tle, of which our text forms a part, insists largely on the peculiar priv 
ileges of Christians, representing them as at once a perennial, exu 
berant source of abundant consolation and good hope, amid all the 
trials and afflictions of the present state, and an inexhaustible store 
of, to a Christian mind, irresistible motive to perseverance and activ 
ity in the discharge of all the varied obligations of religious and moral 
duty. One of those exhibitions of Christian privilege, obviously 
brought forward as* intended and calculated to serve these practical 
purposes, lies before us in the interesting and beautiful, though highly 
figurative and somewhat complicated, paragraph which we have cho 
sen as the subject of this discourse. 

At first view, the paragraph may appear, to a considerable degree, 
disjointed, and on that account obscure; but on a closer inspection 
we shall find it to be just a beautiful expansion and illustration of the 
sentiment stated in the words which immediately precede it, and 
which constitutes one of the apostle s powerful enforcements of the 
duties, with the affectionate injunction of which this chapter of the 
epistle commences: "Ye," Christians, "have tasted that the Lord," 
that is, your Lord Jesus Christ, " is gracious," kind. You have obtain 
ed, you enjoy, important, invaluable, blessings in consequence of youi 
connection with him. What these are the apostle states in our text. 

In consequence of coming to him, they had been brought by him 
to God, his Father and their Father. From a state of alienation 
from God, a state necessarily of deep degradation and misery, they 
had been brought into a state of most intimate relation to God, a 
state necessarily of the highest honor and the richest felicity. This 
is the leading idea : but it is brought out by a variety of figures bor 
rowed from the facts of the Jewish economy, peculiarly calculated to 
be interesting and instructive to those to whom the epistle was ori 
ginally addressed. 

By becoming connected with him, they had become, in one point 
of view, constituent parts of a great spiritual temple, infinitely more 
glorious than the temple at Jerusalem ; and in another point of view, 
ministering priests in that temple, possessed of a more dignified of 
fice, and engaged in holier services, than Aaron or any of his sons. 
They had become the true circumcision, the spiritual Israel, the 
possessors of those spiritual privileges of which the external advan 
tages of Israel, according to the flesh, were but the imperfect figures ; 
they had become in a sense far superior to that in which their fathers 
had ever been, "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy 
nation, a peculiar people, the people of God," the objects of his dis 
tinguishing love, his sovereign choice, his most complacential delight. 
Having come to Christ, the living stone, the divinely appointed and 
the divinely qualified foundation of the great spiritual temple, they 
had, from union to him, become living stones, fit materials for the 
sacred spiritual edifice ; and on him they had been built up, made a 



168 THE PRIVILEGES OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIIL 

part of his mystical building, become devoted to the rational service 
of the great Father of Spirits ; a sentiment repeated under the plainer 
figure of their having been constituted " a holy priesthood, to offer up 
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Christ Jesus." 

The apostle, according to his manner, seeks in the writings of the 
Old Testament, illustration both of the privileges, in the enjoyment 
of which those to whom he wrote had the evidence in themselves 
that the Lord is gracious, and of the manner in which they had ob 
tained these privileges by that spiritual connection with Him, which 
rises out of the faith of the truth. The prophet Isaiah, in the 28th 
chapter of his prophecies, in an oracle plainly belonging to the time 
of the Messiah, uses these words : "Therefore thus saith the Lord 
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a st6*ne, a tried stone, a 
precious corner-stone, a sure foundation ; he that believeth shall not 
make haste." The apostle quotes this passage apparently from 
memory, as his citation does not verbally correspond either with the 
Hebrew text or the Greek translation, though it accurately enough 
expresses the common meaning of both. In your experience/ as if 
the apostle had said, this glorious prediction has been fulfilled, " He 
that believeth shall not be ashamed," that is, he shall have no reason 
to be ashamed. Not shame, but honor shall be his portion. He 
who, by believing in the sure foundation, is built up on him, shall not 
be ashamed, he shall be honored. " To you, then, who believe, there 
is," according to this ancient oracle, " honor" (for this is the literal 
meaning of the words rendered, not very happily, " To you who be 
lieve he is precious ;" a very delightful truth, no doubt, but a truth 
which the words do not naturally signify, and which has no direct 
bearing on the obvious object of the whole paragraph). "To you, 
then, who believe, there is honor, but to them who believe not, or 
are disobedient," there is shame and ruin ; for " the stone which they 
as builders reject, is," notwithstanding their rejection, " made the 
head of the corner." l And more than this, " this stone," which to 
them who build on it is honor and security, to them rejecting it " is a 
stone of stumbling, a rock of offence," an occasion of their stumbling 
and falling, and being broken to pieces ; a doom long ago denounced 
against them, appointed for them, as disobedient as appears from the 
ancient oracle referred to in the 8th chapter of the prophecy of 
Isaiah, verses 14, 15. But while thus, to these unbelieving disobe 
dient ones, not building on, but stumbling at, this foundation, there is 
shame and ruin, to you who by believing build on it, there is honor; 
for, in consequence of your connection with this living stone, ye are 
" a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar 
people ; that ye may show forth the praises of him who hath called 
you out of darkness into his marvellous light : who in time past were 
not a people, but are now the people of God ; who had not obtained 
rnercy, but now have obtained mercy." 

The coherence of the passage is now, I trust, quite evident, as 
well as the bearing of every part of it, on the illustration of the gen 

1 The construction is dvaK6\ovQov. It is equivalent to Xifloj <Wo? 3v dm^oKi^airav ol OIKO- 

our.-jy iycvi iQr} tig 0aX;> yomas just ES 1 Cor. X. 16. Tdi> aprov Sv KXeD/u* ov^l 
I aorof Sv <rXc2>i fr. *. -. X. 



PART 



I.] THEIR ORIGINAL CONDITION. 169 



eral thesis, " Ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." In the priv 
ileges which you possess, so inestimably valuable and dignifying, you 
have abundant experimental proof that the Lord is kind. 

We are prepared now for entering on a somewhat more particular 
consideration of this view of the peculiar privileges of Christians, as 
a manifestation of the Lord s kindness to them ; and I do not know 
that the whole truth can be brought before our minds more fully and 
impressively, than by attending in succession I. To the view which 
the text gives us of their degraded and unhappy state previously to 
their obtaining these privileges. II. To the manner in which they 
obtained them ; by coming to Christ as the divinely laid foundation.- 
III. To the dignified and happy state in which, as Christians, they 
are placed. And, IV. To the disgrace and ruin of those who refuse 
these privileges, by neglecting the only way in which they can be 
obtained. This will bring before our minds all the truth contained 
in the passage, and will bring it before our minds as all intended to 
bear on this one point, the manifestation of the Saviour s kindness, 
which his people possess in the distinguishing privileges which he 
bestows on them. 



I. THE DEGRADED AND MISERABLE CONDITION OF CHRISTIANS PRE 
VIOUSLY TO THEIR OBTAINING THEIR PECULIAR PRIVILEGES. 

Let us first, then, attend to the view which the text gives us of 
the state of Christians previously to their connection with Christ, as 
a means of throwing light on the statement, " Ye have tasted that 
the Lord is gracious." The degree of kindness manifested in con 
ferring certain privileges, is materially affected by the state in which 
the object of kindness and the subject of privilege was, previously 
to these privileges being bestowed. The giving of a higher degree 
of nobility to one already noble, is a very different favor, a very dif 
ferent manifestation of kindness, on the part of a prince, from the 
giving of the same, or even an inferior degree of honor, to a peasant 
or a slave. To form a just idea of the graciousness of the Lord 
towards his peculiar people, we must keep steadily in view the state 
in which his grace finds them. That state is here presented to our 
minds, in contrast with the state into which that grace has brought 
them. It has made them "living stones" who were "dead stones." 
It has brought them into marvellous light who were in darkness. It 
has made those the people of God who were not a people, not the 
people of God. It has bestowed mercy on those who had not ob 
tained mercy. Dead stones ; in darkness ; not a people ; not the 
people of God; not having obtained mercy; these are the images 
under which the inspired writer describes the original state of those 
who now have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Let us inquire into 
their meaning. 

1. They were "dead stones." 

They were not lively or rather living stones; they were "dead 
stones." The language here is so boldly metaphorical that, to our 



170 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

cold occidental imaginations, it is apt to appear harsh and unnatural. 
Yet it is not obscure, and is a very striking expression of a very im 
portant truth. The Christian church is represented under the figure 
of a temple, an edifice intended to indicate the presence and promote 
the glory of the divinity. This is a spiritual, living temple, far more 
worthy of the spiritual living God than any material building. Of 
this living temple, Jesus Christ is the living foundation. That a body 
of men are fitted for indicating the presence, and promoting the 
honor, of the only living and true God, is entirely owing to their re 
lation to Jesus Christ, to their personal interest in the saving efficacy 
of his mediation ; and all who, through this personal interest in these 
saving effects, are transformed by the renewing of their minds, are 
living stones, fit materials for forming part of such a spiritual edifice. 

But this is not a natural, it is a supernatural state. The living 
stones were once " dead stones." That is, they were utterly unfit 
for forming a part of the living temple ; of the true Church of God. 
They were " without God" in the world, " alienated from the life of 
God." " They did not like to retain him in their knowledge." " He 
was not in all their thoughts." God was not in them by his sanctify 
ing Spirit. The language of their hearts was, " Depart from us, we 
desire not the knowledge of thy ways." 

Looking at such a man, or at a collection of such men, surveying 
their habitual character and conduct, the heaven-enlightened observer 
says, No, this is not the living temple of the living God. This is not 
" the house of God," this is not " the gate of heaven." This is " the 
habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit." And as they give 
no indication of God s presence in them, they are quite unfit for pro 
moting his honor. Such men, such bodies of men, while they con 
tinue unchanged, cannot worship or glorify God. They are little 
disposed usually to engage in acts of worship ; and when they do en 
gage in them, to employ the prophet s phraseology, it is rather " howl 
ing" than "praying," a dead oblation, not a living sacrifice." l 

Such were some, such were all, who have tasted that the Lord is 
gracious. To them all it may be said, though in a different sense 
from that in which the prophet uses the words, " Look unto the rock 
whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were 
digged," or, in the words of the apostle, " Remember, that ye were 
in times past in the flesh ; without Christ, aliens from the common 
wealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no 
hope, and without God in the world :" utterly unqualified, utterly in 
disposed, for intercourse and fellowship with God ; not knowing God, 
not wishing to know him ; altogether unfit for making him known. * 

2. They were, in " darkness." 

A second view of the original state of those who have tasted that 
the Lord is gracious is, that they " were in darkness." Darkness is 
an emblem of ignorance, error, depravity, and misery ; and in all the 
extent of significance which belongs to the emblem, the persons here 
referred to were in darkness. All men by nature are under the in- 

1 Hos. vii. 17. * Isa. li. I. Eph. ii. 11. 12. 



PART I.] THEIR ORIGINAL CONDITION. 171 

fluence of ignorance and misapprehension of the true character of 
God, and this necessarily involves ignorance and misapprehension of 
every subject which it is of most importance for man to be rightly 
and thoroughly informed on. " They know not, neither do they un 
derstand ; they go on in darkness." 1 

This ignorance and error are naturally connected with moral de 
pravity. As truth and holiness, so ignorance, error, and depravity go 
together. Men are " alienated from the life of God, by the ignorance 
that is in them." Instead of serving the God who is light, they serve 
the prince of darkness. Their works are " the unfruitful works of 
darkness." 2 

And as their state was one of ignorance, error, and sin, it was also 
one of misery. They were strangers to " the light of life." The 
light of God s countenance did not shine on them. They were des 
titute of " his favor, which is life ; of his loving-kindness, which is 
better than life." 3 

3. They were "not the people of God" 

A third view given of the previous state of those who had tasted 
that the Lord was gracious is, that " they were not a people," " not 
the people of God." The former views respect Christians in their 
previous state individually, this seems rather to refer to them as a 
body. 

They were not " the people of God." They did not belong to the 
holy society. They were " aliens from the commonwealth of" the 
spiritual "Israel." They were equally destitute of the character and 
the privileges of God s peculiar people. Instead of sitting with Abra 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God, they were " without, 
in outer darkness," lying under the power of the wicked one, the 
prince of darkness. 

They were not, properly speaking, at all " a people ;" they were so 
base and miserable as not to deserve the name of " a people." Men 
in their natural state are incapable of the highest form of social rela 
tion, that of being members of the holy commonwealth, subjects of 
the heavenly kingdom. They are rather a herd of outlaws, a band 
of rebels, than a properly organized " people." 

4. They had "not obtained mercy." 

The last view given us of the previous state of Christians is, that 
they " had not obtained mercy." The meaning of that is not, that 
they were not the objects of the benevolence or of the saving pur 
pose of God. " The tender mercy of God is over all his works." * 
God has a love to man* guilty, depraved, righteously-condemned, self- 
ruined man ; and this love to man appears, not, first, when man, by 
believing the truth, and being transformed in the renewing of his 
mind, becomes, in the degree in which he is so, the proper object of 
the divine moral approbation and complacential delight ; but " herein 
God manifested and commended his love to us, in that, while we were 

1 Psal. Ixxxii. 5. a Eph. iv. 18 ; v. 11. ^ 3 John viii. 12. Psal. xxx. 5 ; Ixiii. 3. 
* Psal. cxlv. 9. 5 H (>i\avO(jTTia. T?t. iii. 4. 



172 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

yet sinners, enemies, Christ died for us ;" and as to all who ever taste 
that the Lord is gracious, there can be no doubt that he " lovad them 
with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness does he draw 
them" to himself. Yes, when God " blesses them with heavenly and 
spiritual blessings in Christ," it is in accordance with, and in conse 
quence of, his having "chosen them in him before the foundation of 
the world, having in love predestinated them unto the adoption of 
children by Jesus Christ, to himself, according to the good pleasure 
of his will, and to the praise of the glory of his grace." 1 

The meaning is not, that they were not the objects of divine love, 
but that they were not the subjects of divine saving benefits. They 
were the objects equally of his judicial displeasure, and of his moral 
disapprobation. They were not blessed by him with any heavenly 
blessing. They were unpardoned, unjustified, unsanctified. They 
were " poor and miserable, blind and naked." They were in a state, 
in which, if they had continued, they must have been miserable for 
ever. For such persons to be made to taste that the Lord was gra 
cious, was mercy indeed, mercy which should have a constraining 
power to make them most dutiful subjects of their gracious Lord. 



IL THE MANNER IN WHICH CHRISTIANS OBTAIN THEIR PECULIAR 
PRIVILEGES ; BY FAITH OF THE TRUTH, AND RELIANCE ON THE 
SAVIOUR. 

Let us now turn our attention, for a little, to the view the text gives 
us of the manner in which those miserable beings became possessed 
of their peculiar privileges ; to the immediate cause of so favorable a 
change in their state and circumstances. It was by " coming to 
Christ as a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, 
and precious;" it was by "believing on Him," as "the chief corner 
stone, elect, which God had laid in Sion." 

To believe on Christ as the chief corner-stone, and to come to him 
as the living stone, have generally been understood as synonymous 
expressions, and both have been viewed as significant of that faith 
which, by the constitution of the new covenant, is necessarily con 
nected with the enjoyment of the blessings of the Christian salvation; 
and the passage, " He that cometh to me shall never hunger, he that 
believeth on me shall never thirst," 2 has often been quoted as clearly 
proving this. I apprehend that that passage merely proves, that " he 
that cometh to Christ," and " he that believeth on him," are two de 
scriptions of the same person, not that they are expressions entirely 
synonymous in meaning. The following passage seems, indeed, 
clearly to distinguish between believing on, and coming to, and to rep 
resent the latter as the consequence of the former, the former as the 
means of the latter, " He that cometh to God, must believe that he is, 
and that he is the rewarder of all who diligently seek him." 3 To 
believe, is to count a proposition true on the ground of what appears 
satisfactory testimony ; to believe on, or in a person, is a Hebraistic 
mode of expression, and signifies to count a testimony, given either 
by or respecting that person, to be true ; to believe in Christ, is to 

1 Rom. v. 8. Eph. i. 3-6. * John vi. 35. Heb. xl 6. 



PART II. J HOW THEY OBTAIN THEM. 173 

count true what Christ says, or what is said about Christ ; to know 
and be sure of it, to reckon it a faithful saying and worthy of all ac 
ceptation. 1 To come to Christ is a figurative expression, denoting 
those mental exercises which may be termed the movement of the 
mind and heart towards Christ, in the various characters in which 
the divine testimony represents him, and which equally, by the con 
stitution of human nature and of the new covenant, grow out of the 
faith of the truth respecting him, of which the bodily movement of 
coming is a natural figurative representation. The peculiar charac- ^ 
ter of the mental movement, depends on the view at the time before 
the mind respecting Christ. Believing the truth respecting him as 
the great Prophet, I come to him seeking the knowledge of his will, 
with a determination to receive any doctrine, every doctrine, which 
he delivers, just because he delivers it. Believing the truth with re 
spect to him as a Priest, I come to him relying with undivided, un 
shaken confidence on his atonement and intercession. Believing the 
truth with respect to him as a King, I come to him in a cheerful un 
questioning obedience to his commands and appointments, just because 
they are his. This exactly accords with the view given in our excel 
lent Shorter Catechism, which teaches us, not that faith is receiving 
and resting on Jesus Christ for salvation, but " that faith is that by 
which we receive and rest on Christ ;" and in the Confession of 
Faith, which teaches us, " that it is by faith that we accept and rest 
on Christ, yield obedience to the commands, tremble at the threaten- , 
ings, and embrace the promises, of God." 2 

It was, then, by believing the truth about Christ, and by those out 
goings of the mind and heart to him that necessarily grow out of this 
faith, that the Christians to whom Peter wrote obtained, and retained, 
possession of the high honors and privileges which are here enumer 
ated. It was thus that not shame but honor was their portion, that 
they became living stones, that they were built up, on him the living 
foundation, a spiritual house, that they became a royal priesthood, a 
chosen generation, a holy nation, partakers of the inheritance of the 
saints in light, a people, the people of God, partakers of distinguishing 
saving blessings. This is just the fundamental doctrine of the gos 
pel, which meets us everywhere in the Bible ; that it is by the faith "" 
of the truth as it is in Jesus, that individuals obtain personal posses 
sion of the blessings of the Christian salvation. 

Let us look a little more closely at this interesting view of the faith 
of the gospel, and its immediate and necessary effects. Those to 
whom Peter wrote, had believed on, and come to, the Lord. What 
they believed, and how they came to him, will appear very plain on 
examining the passage before us. What they believed was, that 
Jesus Christ was indeed "a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, 
but chosen of God, and precious ; the chief corner-stone laid by God 
in Sion, elect, precious ;" and that every man thus believing may 
rest satisfied that he shall not be ashamed by the disappointment of 
his hopes. And, believing this, they had come to him as the divinely 
appointed and divinely qualified foundation ; they had exercised 1 ope 

1 Vide " Hints on Faith and Hope." 

3 Westminster Short. Cat. Q. 86. Confession of Faith, Ch. xiv. sect. 2. 



174 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

and confidence in him; they had built their creed on him ; they had 
rested their expectations of eternal life on him; they had submitted 
to him as their only Lord and King. 

There is some difficulty in forming a clear, distinct idea of the 
principal figurative representation here used, in which Christ is com 
pared to a stone, 1 a living stone, a chief corner-stone, elect, precious. 
There can be no doubt that the apostle had before his mind the fol 
lowing passages of Scripture : " The stone which the builders re 
jected is become the head of the corner; this is the doing of the 
Lord, and it is marvellous in our eyes ;" "He shall be for a sanctu 
ary ; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both 
the houses of Israel : for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jeru 
salem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, 
and be snared, and taken ;" and, " Therefore thus saith the Lord 
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a 
precious corner-stone, a sure foundation ; he that belie veth shall not 
make haste." 2 

It is sufficiently obvJous that the general representation is, Jesus 
Christ is the foundation of a spiritual temple, of which believers in 
him form the superstructure. He is the foundation, they are stones 
built on the foundation/ Whatever the meaning of this may be, so 
far the figurative expression is distinct enongh ; but what are we to 
make of the ephitet "living," applied both to the foundation and to 
the superstructure ? He is the " living stone," they are " living 
stones./ It seems impossible satisfactorily to account for our trans 
lators having rendered the same word living in the first instance, and 
lively in the second. Some have supposed that, in these expressions, 
there is an allusion to the undoubted fact, that the ancients were in 
the habit of speaking of stone in its native state, lying compact, un 
broken in its original place in the earth, as the living rock. 3 Jesus 
Christ, according to this view of the matter, is compared to a mighty 
rock, resting in the place where the omnipotent hand of God placed 
it, when " by his power he set fast the mountains, being girded with 
power," affording an immovable .foundation, very different from 
any stone, however large, which the hand of man could lay ; and 
when it is said that believers are built upon him as living stones, the 
idea intended to be conveyed is the closeness and indissolubleness 
of their connection with him; they form, as it were, a part of the 
living rock ; so intimately connected are they, that they cannot be 
disjoined either from the foundation, or from one another. 

This is certainly ingenious, but we doubt if it be the apostle s refer 
ence. The epithet "living," in reference to the foundation, and the 
stones built on it, like the epithet " spiritual," in reference to the 
house or temple, seems to belong not to the figurative representation, 
but to the exposition of it, just as in the twelfth chapter of the Epistle 
to the Romans, the epithet "living" is connected with sacrifice; and 
" reasonable" or rational with " worship," religious service. The 
epithets are intended to indicate that the temple spoken of, is a temple 

" Haerebat animo Petri cognomen ipsi a Domino datum : hinc varie ad id alludit non 
modo Lapidis vocabulo, Acts iv. 11, sed etiam frequent! firmitudinis mentione." BLKOEI. 
a Psal. cxviii. 22. Isa. viii. 14; xxviiil 16. * See note A. 



PART II.] HOW THEY OBTAIN THEM. 175 

worthy of him who cannot " dwell in temples made with hands ;" a 
living temple for the living God : a spiritual temple for God who is a 
spirit. Its foundation is a living foundation; the stones of which it 
is composed are living stones. Considering this as the true interpre 
tation of the phraseology, let us now inquire what are the great truths 
respecting Christ contained in this figurative phraseology, the belief of 
which is represented as that by which the Christians, whom Peter 
was addressing, had obtained possession of their high and distinguish 
ing privileges. 

The great principle is, Jesus Christ is the foundation of the spir 
itual temple of God ; this is the central statement : Then, this founda 
tion has been laid by God ; it is a chief corner-stone ; it is elect or 
chosen ; it is precious ; it was disallowed of men, but by God it is 
made to serve the purpose for which it was intended ; and this founda 
tion is a living stone ; these are the subsidiary statements which 
cluster round that central one. Let us endeavor to ascertain their 
meaning, and, if I mistake not, we shall find that they contain a very 
full and striking statement of the gospel of our salvation. 

Jesus Christ is the foundation, the sole foundation, of the spiritual 
temple of God. 1 What that temple is, there is no room to doubt. It 
is true Christians, viewed as connected with Christ, and with each 
other, through their common connection with him. It is this holy 
society, viewed as the residence of God, and as the grand means of 
promoting his glory in the world. These are the purposes of a temple. 
It is the Deity s house ; and it is the medium by which he is known 
and honored among men. Now, keeping this in view, it will not be 
difficult to see what is meant by Christ s being the foundation of this 
spiritual temple. It is just this, that it is by connection with him that 
Christians, either individually or collectively, are fitted to serve the 
purposes of a temple ; to be a residence for God, and the means of 
showing forth his glory among mankind. In his original state, man 
was fitted and designed to be a temple of God ; and the race, had man 
retained his primeval innocence, would have been, as it were, one 
magnificent temple, "formed for himself to show forth his praise." 
This was the pre-eminent glory of man among all terrestrial creatures, 
that he was "formed for God s self;" " capable of and full of God ;" 
sacred in a peculiar way to the Divinity ; his chosen habitation, the 
mansion and residence of his indwelling glory. But by sin man 
individually and collectively has become unfit for the purpose of a 
temple. He has brought on himself the divine curse ; the necessary 
effect of which is the withdrawing of the divine gracious presence. 
He has become unworthy of, in a moral sense unfit for, being the 
dwelling-place of God. 

The consequences of sin in unfitting human nature to be a temple 
for God, have been so strikingly described by one of the greatest of 
our divines, that I gladly borrow his language : " What could be ex- 
pected on all this, but that man should be forsaken of God; that the 
blessed presence that had been so spitefully slighted, should be with 
drawn, to return no more ? No more until, at least, a recompense 

1 " Christus est vera et pvima Ecclesiae pctrn ; a quo Petrus, et ceteri fidelea fiunt 
petrao. CORNELIUS A LAPIDK. 



176 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

should be made for the wrong done, and a capacity be recovered for 
his future converse : namely, till both his honor should be repaired 
and his temple ; until he might again honorably return, and be fitly 
received. But who could have thought in what way these things 
should ever be brought to pass ? that is, neither could his departure 
be but expected, nor his return but be above all expectation. To depart 
was what became him ; a thing, as the case was, most godlike or 
worthy of God, and what he owed to himself. It was meet, so great 
a Majesty having been so condescendingly gracious, should not be 
also cheap, or appear inapprehensive of being neglected and set at 
naught. It became him, as the self-sufficient Being, to let it be seen 
that he designed not man his temple for want of a house ; that having 
of old inhabited his own eternity, and having now the heavens for 
his throne, the earth his footstool/ he could dwell alone, or where he 
pleased else, in all his great creation, and did not need, where he was 
not desired. It was becoming of his pure and glorious holiness not to 
dwell amidst impurities, or let it be thought that he was a God who 
took pleasure in wickedness : and most suitable to his equal justice to 
let them who said to him Depart from us/ feel they spake that word 
against their own life and soul ; and that what was their rash and 
wilful choice, is their heaviest doom and punishment. It was only 
strange that when he left his temple he did not consume it ; and that, 
not leaving it without being basely expelled, he had thought of return 
ing without being invited back again." 1 

Of this new and more glorious restored temple, formed of human 
beings, in which Jehovah is to dwell forever, Jesus Christ, the only 
begotten of God, is the foundation and chief corner-stone. It required 
such a foundation. " The indignity offered to the majesty of the Most 
High God, in his most ignominious expulsion from his own temple, 
was to be recompensed ; and the ruin must be repaired which had 
befallen the temple itself. In reference to both these performances, 
it was determined that Immanuel, that is, his own Son, his substantial , 
image, the brightness of his glory, the eternal Word, should become 
incarnate ; and being so, should undertake several parts, and in dis 
tinct capacities, and be at once a single temple himself; and that this 
temple should also be a sacrifice, and thereby give rise to a manifold 
temple, conformed to that original one, of each whereof, in the virtue 
of his sacrifice, he was himself to be the glorious pattern, the firm 
foundation, the magnificent founder, and the most curious architect 
and framer, by his own various and most peculiar influence." 2 

It is Jesus Christ who, by his sacrifice, and intercession, and Spirit, 
and word, and providence, makes individual men fit residences for 
the Holy Divinity : and it is Jesus Christ also who renders these men 
united into a holy society, the effectual means of promoting his glory. 
It is IN HIM, that is, united to him, as the great corner-stone of the 
foundation, that "all the building fitly framed together, groweth into 
a holy temple in the Lord." It is as united to him, that the individual 
members of the Church " are builded together for a habitation of God 

1 HOWE. The best thoughts in these paragraphs are borrowed from that wonderful 
book, " The Living Temple." 
8 Howe. 



PART H.j HOW THEY OBTAIN THEM. 177 

in the Spirit." Or, to vary the figure, " HE is the head, from whom 
the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which 
every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in every 
part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love." * 

This, then, is the great central truth. Jesus Christ is the founda 
tion of the spiritual temple. Through him, we are reconciled to God ; 
through him, we are conformed to God. It becomes, through his 
atonement, congruous, that God should dwell in us, as his temple ; 
and, by his Spirit, we are fitted to be the means of proclaiming his 
name, and manifesting his glory, to men and to angels ; for " by the 
Church is made known, to principalities and powers, the manifold 
wisdom of God." 2 He is "the author of salvation," THE SAVIOUR. 

How different is the religion of the New Testament from the 
religion of many who profess to believe it ! In the religion of many 
self-called Christians, there is but a very unfrequent and indirect refer 
ence to Christ. While they profess to believe all the doctrines of the 
New Testament relative to his person and mission, and would be 
shocked to be considered as enemies to his divinity or atonement, they 
have no deep abiding views of the importance of these truths to their 
own hope, holiness, comfort, and salvation. They have no habitual 
sense of the absolute necesssity of his mediation, no habitual trust in 
his sacrifice, no habitual dependence on his Spirit. Their professed 
belief of the peculiar principles of the gospel seems to exert no influ 
ence over their religious and moral dispositions, and conduct. They 
think and feel much as if there never had been such a person as Jesus 
Christ ; their life is anything but a life by the faith of the Son of God." 

The religion taught in the New Testament, of which our text is a 
fair specimen, is Christianity in the most emphatic and peculiar sense 
of the term: " Christ is all in all." It is His religion. It is all by him, 
it is all about him ; he is its author, he is its substance ; he is the sun 
of this system, the soul of this body. Everything is viewed in its 
connection with him, every doctrine and every precept, every 
privilege and every duty, every promise and every threatening. The 
ground of acceptance is his sacrifice ; the source of light and life, 
holiness and peace, his Spirit ; the rule of duty, his law ; the pattern 
for imitation, his example ; the motives to duty, his authority and 
grace ; the great end of all, his glory, God s glory in him. He is con 
sidered as the great reservoir of spiritual blessing, filled by the grace 
of God, ever full, ever flowing to our needy race. " Of God, Christ is 
made to men, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." 
Every devout feeling, every religious duty, takes a peculiar flavor 
and color from its reference to his mediation. He, he alone, is the 
foundation : " other foundation can no man lay." 3 Let us seek that 
Christ may be in us what he is in our Bibles ! Let us see to it that 
he be not only admitted by us to be the foundation, but that he be our 
foundation ; and let us every day, every hour be coming, in the faith 
of the truth, to him as the divinely-appointed foundation. Let us 
seek to be more and more "grounded on him in love," and let the 
language of our hearts be that of the dying martyr: "None but 
Christ, none but Christ." 

* Eph.i. 20-22; iv. 15, 16. 9 Eph. iii. 10. 3 1 Cor. i. 30; iii. 11. 

12 



178 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

The truths now stated cast also a steady and pleasing light on a 
subject of deep interest at all times, of peculiarly deep interest in the 
times that are passing over us : the true nature of the union of the 
Church, and the true means of promoting it. It is the union of 
"living stones," and that is to be promoted by "coming to the living 
stone." No union of dead stones can ever form a " spiritual house." 
There is no becoming living stones, but by coming to the living stone ; 
no coming closely together among the living stones, but by coming 
individually closer to the living stone ; no coming closer to the living 
stone, without coming closer to one another. No combination of 
worldly men can form or promote the union of the Church. That 
union is union in truth and love ; and this can have place only among 
those who "have received out of his fulness," who, according to the 
benignant good pleasure of the Father, is "full of truth and grace." 
And it will take place just in proportion to the degree in which these 
communications are received. Oh, when the Church, the visible as 
sembly of the professed people of God, becomes, as we trust it one 
day shall, obviously a well- compacted building of living stones, 
closely cemented to one another, by all being firmly attached to the 
great living foundation, what a spectacle will the Zion of the Lord, 
all radiant with divine light, then exhibit ? Then will be accom 
plished the promise which has cheered the heart of her genuine chil 
dren in the seasons of her desolation ; " thou afflicted, tossed with 
tempest, and not comforted ! behold, I will lay thy stones with fair 
colors, and thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy 
windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders 
of pleasant stones. In righteousness shall thou be established ; thou 
shalt be far from oppression ; for thou shalt not fear : and from ter 
ror ; for it shall not come near thee. The glory of Lebanon shall 
come to thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beau 
tify the place of my sanctuary ; and I will make the place of my feet 
glorious." Then shall the palace of the great King, the Lord of 
Hosts, the temple of the God of heaven and earth, be "established 
on the top of the mountains, and be exalted above the hills ; and all 
nations shall flow into it." And should the kings of the earth, as they 
have often done, assemble against it, " they shall pass by together ; 
they shall see it, and marvel ; they shall be troubled, and pass away." 
And a great voice shall be heard in heaven : " Behold, the tabernacle 
of God ;" the spiritual house, formed of the living stones on the living 
foundation ; all shining with living light and holy beauty : "Behold 
the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and 
they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be 
their God." Who, that has any part in the faith and feeling of a 
Christian, can help saying in his heart, "Hasten it, Lord, in its 
time. How long, Lord, how long?" "He that testifieth these 
things saith, and he is faithful who hath promised, Behold, I come 
quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus." * 

I proceed now to call your attention shortly to the subsidiary 
statements, which, all, as it were, cluster around this great central 

1 Isa. liv. 11-14 ; Ix. 13. Micah iv. 1. Rev. xxi. 3 ; xxii. 20. 



PART II,] HOTV THEY OBTAIN THEM, 179 

one, which is, indeed, the sum and substance of " the gospel of 
our salvation." 

The first of these is, Jesus Christ, as the foundation of the spir 
itual temple, is "laid by God: " "Behold," saith Jehovah by the 
prophet, " I lay in Sion a sure foundation." The phrase, " in Sion," 
seems intended to mark that the foundation was the foundation of a 
temple, a palace for himself. "Mount Sion, beautiful for situation, 
the joy of the whole land," was "the mountain of God s holiness," 
the mountain set apart for himself. " He chose the Mount Zion, 
which he loved." While " he was known in Judah, and his name 
was great in Israel, in Salem was his tabernacle, and his dwelling- 
place in Zion." l To lay a foundation, then, " in Zion," is to lay the 
foundation of a temple, and of a temple to Jehovah. 

We have already seen what is signified by Jesus Christ being this 
foundation. Our inquiry now is, what is meant by this foundation 
being laid by Jehovah? It indicates that the whole arrangement is 
not the result of human, of created, wisdom or power, but of divine. 
No man, no angel laid this foundation. " I lay it," says Jehovah. It 
is equivalent to, I appoint him to the character emblematized by 
the foundation of the spiritual temple. I invest him with it. I qual 
ify him for it. I accredit him in it. Jesus Christ is the divinely- 
appointed, the divinely -qualified, the divinely -raised up, the divinely- 
accredited Saviour of men ; " fore-ordained before the foundation of 
the world;" at the appointed period "sent forth;" possessed of every 
necessary qualification, and bringing along with him every necessary 
credential; and "all" these "things are of God." His destination, 
his constitution, his qualifications, his attestation, are all divine. 
There seems to be a peculiar reference to the manifestation of this 
glorious truth, when " God raised Jesus from the dead, and set him 
at his own right hand." Then was "the stone set at naught of the 
builders" made to appear to be indeed "the head stone," the princi 
pal stone " of the corner." Then was it proclaimed as from heaven, 
4 Let all the house of Israel," let all the family of man, "know 
assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom men crucified, 
both Lord and Christ" 2 

The second subsidiary statement is, this foundation is a " chief," 
or the chief "corner-stone." The stone on which the angle of a 
building rests, gives not only support, but connection, to the different 
parts of the building. It joins the different walls and stones into one 
building. The idea intended to be conveyed seems to be this, that 
the union of Christians as a body fitted for enjoying the divine pres 
ence and promoting the divine honor, depends on their individually 
being connected with Jesus Christ, as the divinely-appointed, quali 
fied, constituted, accredited Saviour. It is this common connection 
with him which is the basis of their connection with each other. 
" In him," united to him, "they are builded together, a habitation of 
God through the Spiril^ " a spiritual habitation of God. It is thus 
that they are "knit together," thus that they are "fitly joined and 
compacted." 

1 Psal. xlviii. 1, 2 ; Ixxviii. 68 ; Ixxvi. 1, 2. 

9 1 Pet. i. 20 V Gal. iv. 4. Psal. cxviii. 22. Acts, iv. 10-12 ; ii. 36. 



180 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC VTII. 

The third subsidiary statement is, that this foundation is "chosen 
or elect." These words seem intended as a translation of the He 
brew phrase rendered in our version of the Old Testament, a " tried 
stone, proved and approved, and therefore chosen, selected, ap 
pointed, and employed to serve an important purpose. When God 
from eternity appointed his Son to be the Saviour of men, the founda 
tion of the spiritual temple, the Father knew the Son ; he knew 
his capacities, he knew he could bear all that was to be laid on him, 
both the weight of suffering, and "the exceeding great and eternal 
weight of glory;" and previously to his actually constituting him 
" Lord and Christ," and holding him forth to men in these charac 
ters, he had been exposed to every species of trial competent to him, 
and had stood the trial. Every test applied, but brought out more 
fully his complete fitness for the mighty work to which he was ap 
pointed. 

The fourth subsidiary statement is, that this foundation is " pre 
cious," that is, highly valuable, as possessed of every quality neces 
sary in a foundation, and as alone being possessed of the qualities 
necessary in the foundation of such a building ; for " other founda 
tion can no man lay save that which is laid, Christ Jesus." The 
idea is, Jesus Christ is a "precious," an all-accomplished Saviour, a 
perfect Eedeemer, having all the knowledge, all the wisdom, all the 
power, all the merit, all the compassion arising from himself having 
" suffered, being tried," which are necessary to fit him for accomplish 
ing the work of salvation in the best possible way. And he is " pre 
cious," too, as the only Saviour. He is not one among many sav 
iours ; not the best among them ; he is the only Saviour. He can, 
and he only can, save from evils ; he can, and he only can, raise to 
blessings ; deliverance from the first, and possession of the second of 
which, are absolutely necessary and completely sufficient to secure us 
from being miserable, and for making us happy, without measure and 
without end, up to the largest capacity of our nature for suffering or 
enjoyment, and during the whole eternity of our being. " The Deity, 
filling his human nature with all manner of grace in its highest per 
fection, made him infinitely precious and excellent ; and not only 
was he thus excellent in himself, but he is of precious virtue, which 
he lets forth and imparts to others, of such a virtue that a touch of 
him is the only cure of spiritual diseases. Men tell of strange virtues 
of some stones ; but it is certain that this precious stone hath not 
only virtue to heal the sick, but even to raise the dead. Dead bodies 
he raised in the days of his abode on earth, and dead souls he doth 
still raise by the power of his word." * 

The fifth subsidiary statement is, this foundation-stone was "dis 
allowed and rejected of men :" but, notwithstanding, made by God 
to answer all the purposes for which it was intended. The direct 
reference is to the rejection, by the Jewish nation, of Jesus Christ 
as the Saviour promised to the Fathers. When the word, made flesh 
of the seed of David according to the promise, " came to his own, 
his own received him not." a Instead of honoring him as the sent of 
God, the divinely. destined, qualified, accredited Saviour, they regarded 

1 Leigbton. 2 John, i. 11. 



PART II.] HOW THEY OBTAIN THEM. 181 

him with contempt and abhorrence as a low-born impostor, and put 
him to the death of a blasphemer and a traitor. But while this is the 
direct reference, the statement is meant to embrace a wider range of 
facts. The Jews were just a specimen of our race, and acted as the 
race would have done in similar circumstances ; and men generally, 
universally till they are taught of God, disallow and reject Jesus 
Christ as the foundation ; and though they do not do this exactly in 
the same way as the Jews did, for this is impossible, they manifest the 
same spirit, they do substantially the same thing. Jesus Christ, made 
known in the word of the truth of the gospel as the only and all- 
sufficient Saviour, is by the great body of mankind not acknowledged. 
They do not own his authority, trust in his atonement, imbibe his 
Spirit, obey his laws. But though men reject him, God owns him : 
he shows that in his estimation he is proved, approved, excellent, in 
valuable. The stone which the "Jewish builders rejected," he made 
" the chief stone of the corner." He raised him to his own right 
hand, and gave him all the authority and power, as Mediator, which 
were necessary to carry forward to accomplishment the benignant 
purposes of those severe trials by which his excellence had been so 
fully proved. And still, though mankind very generally reject the 
Saviour, and so, refusing to build on him the only foundation, perish, 
yet this foundation of God standeth sure. "Jesus Christ" remains 
"the same yesterday, to-day, and forever;" and while he is to multi 
tudes, to all who reject him, " a stumbling-block and foolishness," by 
divine power and grace he is " the wisdom of God, and the power of 
God to salvation, to all who believe;" " made of God to them wisdom, 
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." l Men may 
stumble at the foundation so as to fall, but they cannot move it, or 
render it, in any degree, unfit for the great purpose for which it is 
laid, to be the sure support of that edifice of mercy and holiness, of 
which Jehovah has said, " It shall be built forever." 

The last subsidiary statement is, that this foundation is a "living 
stone." The general meaning of this, at first sight paradoxical, dec 
laration, is abundantly obvious. He is a suitable foundation for a 
spiritual temple, formed not of dead matter, but of intelligent beings. 
But while this is its meaning, this does notexhaust its meaning. The 
epithet " living" is, I apprehend, intended to express those qualities 
in Christ Jesus which make him a fit foundation for a spiritual temple. 
He is so a "living stone," as that dead stones, when laid on him, be 
come living stones. He has in himself, and has the capacity of com 
municating to others, all that is necessary to make them fit recipients 
of the divine presence, fit instruments for promoting the divine glory. 
He is the living and life-giving foundation. He is full of spiritual 
life, grace, and truth ; and so full, that no man can be brought near 
him, but straightway he fills him with grace and truth too. It is well 
said by an old interpreter, " He is called the living stone, as he is 
called the living bread and the living water, not only because he has 
life in himself, but also because he gives life to the dead. He lives, 
and because he lives, they who eat him as the li ving bread, they who 
drink him as the living water, they who come to him and build on him 

i Heb. xiii. 1 Cor. i. 23, 24, 30. 



182 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

as the living stone, live also." In the words of the good archbishop, 
" He is here called a living stone, not only because of his immortality 
and glorious resurrection, being a lamb that was slain, and is alive 
forever and ever, but because he is the principle of spiritual and eter 
nal life to us," a living foundation that transfuses its life into the 
whole building, and every stone of it, "in whom," united to whom, 
" all the building is fitly framed." It is the spirit that flows from him 
which enlivens it, and knits it together, not as a dead mass, but as a 
" living body." This foundation, from the peculiarity of the case, 
does for its living superstructure what the root does in the vegetable 
world to the trunk, the branches, and the leaves, and what the head 
or the heart in the animal body does to all the members. 

Such, then, is the truth about Christ, which the converted strangers 
scattered abroad believed, that Jesus Christ, though rejected by the 
great body of mankind, is the divinely-chosen, the divinely-qualified, 
the divinely -proved, the divinely-approved, the divinely-constituted, 
the divinely accredited, Saviour of man, possessed of every neces 
sary excellence for making man truly and eternally happy, by mak 
ing him the fit recipient of the divine presence and benefits, and the 
fit instrument for declaring the divine excellence, showing forth 
the divine praise. This they believed for they had heard it "in the 
word of the truth of the gospel" a word to which " God bore witness 
by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy 
Ghost," and which was confirmed by the testimony of the law and 
the prophets. And believing this, they had come to him as the sure 
foundation laid by God, and had built themselves on him. Believing 
the truth about him, they had acted towards him according to their 
faith, implicitly submitting to his teaching as their great prophet, 
relying on his atonement as their only priest, obeying his command 
ments as their Sovereign Lord and King. This is the way in which 
they ceased to be dead stones and became living stones ; came out 
of darkness into light ; and from not being a people became God s 
people ; and from not having found mercy became the happy pos 
sessors of the peculiar favor of Jehovah, and of all its glorious results. 

There is a peculiarity in the phraseology which deserves attention 
before we close our remarks on this part of the subject. The word 
is in the present, not in the past tense. It is not " having come, 1 
but "coming;" not "he who has believed," but " he that believeth. 
This intimates, that to the continued enjoyment of the peculiar privi 
leges of Christians, there must be continued faith in him, continued 
coming to him. In order to a life of Christian enjoyment, there must 
be " a life of faith on the Son of God, who loved us, and gave him 
self for us." 1 

III.- THE PECULIAR PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. 
1. General Statement. 

^ It is now time that we proceed to consider the view which the text 
gives us of the dignified and happy state into which Christians are 

1 Gal. ii. 20. 



PART III.] PARTICULAR STATEMENT. 183 

brought by their believing on, and coming to, Christ. That state is a 
state of nearness to God, of reconciliation to him, of resemblance* to 
him, of fellowship with him, a state of dignity and happiness, just 
because it is a state of nearness to the infinitely great and ^ glorious 
and ever-blessed God, a state which strongly contrasts with then 
previous condition, which was one of distance from God, a state of 
enmity and alienation; and which, just because it*^as a state of dis 
tance from the source and sum of true glory and happiness, was a 
state of degradation and misery. 

Their happy state, as well as the means by which they reach it, is 
stated generally in the words, " To you then who believe there is 
honor ;" l for this is the literal and natural rendering of the words in 
the beginning of the seventh verse, which in our version runs thus : 
" Unto you who believe he is precious." He that believeth on the 
foundation laid in Zion by Jehovah, that is, as we have shown, he 
who believes the truth respecting Jesus Christ as the divinely -laid 
foundation, shall not be ashamed or confounded. The faith of the 
truth naturally, necessarily, gives origin to hope or expectation of 
certain blessings ; and this hope, founded on this faith, " maketh not 
ashamed," does not disappoint. He who cherishes it shall certainly 
obtain the blessings he expects ; and he shall as certainly find in these 
blessings that satisfying portion of the heart which he had anticipated. 
Not shame, but honor, shall be to him. The privileges which, as a 
believer in Christ, a comer to Christ, a builder on Christ, he enjoys, 
are of the most dignifying nature. He is brought into a near and 
most honorable relation to the greatest and best being in the universe. 
Coming to Christ, he comes to God through him. He becomes " an 
heir of God," by becoming a "joint heir with Christ Jesus." The 
general statement is expanded in a great variety of expressions, some 
of them highly figurative, but all of them full of meaning, rich in in 
struction and consolation. Christians become living stones ; they are 
built up a spiritual house ; they are a holy priesthood, to offer up 
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ ; they are a 
chosen generation ; a royal priesthood ; a holy nation ; a peculiar 
people, that they might show forth the praises of him who called them 
from darkness to light ; the people of God, objects of his peculiar 
complacency, the subjects of his saving blessings. Let us very 
shortly inquire into the import of these descriptions of the Christians 
peculiar privileges. 

2. Particular Statement. 
(1.) Christians are " living stones" built up into a temple. 

First of all, they are described as becoming " living stones," by 
coming to Christ as the living stone. We have already seen they 
were "dead stones," entirely unfit for forming a part of a spiritual 
temple. But having believed in, and come to "the living stone," 

1 "Y/ilv ovv ii npi TGI? KLGTCVOVGIV, " Cedit honori et commodo vestro, quod in Christo 
creditis." GERHARD. " Vobis, igitur honos, credentibus, ille nimirum honos ut non 
confundamini ab eo in adventu ejus, sed sicut ipsc ait, siquis mibi ministraverit, hon 
orificabit cum pater meus." John xii. 26. BEDA. 



184 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIIT. 

they become " living stones." * From that connection with. Christ, 
which is necessarily implied in believing the truth respecting him, a 
change, both of state and character, takes place, which makes it be 
coming in Jehovah to employ them as materials in the erection of 
his spiritual temple, and which fits them for answering the great end 
of a temple, in doing honor to the Divinity who dwells in it. Natu 
rally " far of," the^i are " brought nigh by the blood of Christ," which 
is sprinkled on them in the faith of the truth. Alienated from God, 
they are "reconciled in Christ." Clothed with his righteousness, 
they are objects of complacent regard to the Holy and Just One ; and 
animated by his Spirit, they are "to the praise of the glory of His 
grace, by which he has made them accepted in the beloved." Quick 
ened by their connection with him who, "the second Adam, the Lord 
from heaven, is a quickening Spirit," they are made fit for serving 
the living God ; fit for yielding spiritual, true worship to him who is 
a Spirit, and who must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. 

But they not only become living stones, but as living stones they 
are "built up a spiritual house." 2 They are not only honored and 
happy as individuals, but they are formed into a holy, honorable, bless 
ed fellowship. In consequence of their common connection with 
Christ, they have a mutual connection with each other, and form a liv 
ing spiritual temple, blessed with the presence, devoted to the worship 
and honor of Jehovah, the fountain of life, the Father of spirits. 
They become members of the most honorable of all societies; the 
"family in heaven, and on earth called by the one name;" "the 
name above every name." They are enrolled among the brethren, 
u to whom the perfected Eedeemer declares his Father s name." 
They are members of the Church, "in the midst of which he cele 
brates his praise." It is the same idea, though under a different 
image, which the apostle so beautifully expresses in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews: "Ye are come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the 
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company 
of angels, the general assembly and the church of the first-born, 
which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the 
spirits of the just made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new 
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better 
things than that of Abel." s 

2. Christians are "a holy priesthood" 

In the next branch of the inspired account of the Christians privi 
leges, the figure varies ; and they who were represented under the 
figure of a spiritual temple, are represented under the figure of " a 

1 Multa nomina, quae Christo competunt in singular!, christianis tribuuntur in plu- 
rali. Christus lapis, christiani lapides ; lapis vivus, lapides vivi. Ex illo, hi quoque 
sunt filii, sacerdotes, rcges, agni. BENGEL. 

2 Secundum sapientiores Judseos Messias non dcbet templum tertium materiale 
sedificare sed tvorm rvi domum spiritualem, cum secundum illos sub Messia omuia de- 
beant esse spirituolia. Ad istam sententiam videtur alludere Petrus Apostolus, qui 
epistola sua, Cap. ii. 5, dicit nos esse lapides e/^o^ovf et wvraf et nvev^artKov OIKOV. 
LE MOYNE, Not. et Obs. ad Barnab. Epist Varia Sacra, vol. ii. p. 914. 

3 Heb. xii. 22-24. 



PART III.] A HOLY PRIESTHOOD. 185 

holy priesthood," set apart " to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God, 
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Under the New Testament 
economy, there is but one priest, in the strict meaning of that word 
as defined by the Apostle Paul : " One taken from among men, or 
dained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both 
gifts and sacrifices for sins." * Our great High Priest, of whom all 
the priests under the Mosaic dispensation were but figures, is " the 
one Mediator between God and man." 2 He presents the only effect 
ual atoning sacrifice. He, on the ground of that sacrifice, makes 
intercession for those who come to God through him, and olftains 
acceptance both for them and their services, and authoritatively 
blesses his people. Whoever professes to be a priest under the new 
economy, invades the prerogative of Him who is " a Priest forever, 
after the order of Melchized.ee," and is guilty of presumption, as far 
exceeding that of Korah and his company, as the ministry which 
Jesus hath received is " a more excellent ministry" than that of 
Aaron or any of his sons. 3 

It is common, however, in the New Testament, to represent all 
Christians as figurative priests, in the sense of persons solemnly con 
secrated to, and habitually engaged in, the divine service. 4 These 
two views are given us in the passage before us. You are " a holy 
priesthood," and you are a priesthood engaged in presenting to God 
" spiritual sacrifices, which are acceptable to God by Christ Jesus." 
You belong to a higher and holier fellowship than that of the Aaron- 
ical priesthood. 5 

Christians are a " holy," a consecrated priesthood. You are aware 
that the priests, under the Old Testament, were separated from among 
their brethren. They were so by their birth, and by their consecra 
tion. As sons of Aaron, they belonged to the priestly order. In like 
manner, all Christians, by their being born again, are set apart to 
the service of God. And as Aaron s sons were consecrated by the 
sprinkling of blood and the washing of water, so Christians have their 
conscience sprinkled by the blood of Him "who, by the eternal Spirit, 
offered himself a sacrifice to God without spot," and are purified " by 
the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." 6 

i Heb. v. 1. 2 1 Tim. ii. 5. 

3 " The name Priest is nowhere in Scripture attributed peculiarly and distinctly to 
the ministers of the Gospel, as such : that which puts a difference between them and 
the rest of the people of God s holiness seems to be a more direct participation of 
Christ s prophetical, not sacerdotal, office. When Christ ascended up on high, he 
gave some to be prophets, Eph. iv. 11 ; none as we find to be priests. Priests are a sort 
of church officers whom Christ never appointed." OWEN. 

4 Est autem illud non temere factum, ut Spiritus Sanctus nunquam in N". Testa- 
mento sacerdotis vel sacerdotii nomen ad evangelii ministros accommodarit. BEZA. 

s " When the apostles applied the Old Testament idea of priesthood to Christianity, 
this was done invariably for the simple purpose of showing that no such visible par 
ticular priesthood could find place in the new community ; that, since free access to God 
and to heaven had been once for all opened to believers by one High Priest, even 
Christ, they had, by virtue of their union to him, become themselves a spiritual priest 
hood consecrated to God ; their calling being none other than to dedicate their entire 
life to God as a thank-offering for the grace of redemption, to publish abroad the power 
and grace of him who had called them out of the kingdom of darkness into his marvel 
lous light, to make their life one continual priesthood, one spiritual worship, springing 
from faith, working by love, one continuous testimony for their Saviour." NEANDJSE. 

* fleb. ix. 14. Tit. iii. 5. 



186 THE PRIVILEGES OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. Vlfl. 

As they resemble tlie priests in their consecration, so they resem 
ble them also in their work. They " offer up spiritual sacrifices." 
The sacrifices they present are not expiatory, but eucharistic sacri 
fices. 1 The only effectual expiatory sacrifice ever offered was that 
offered on Calvary, and that so completely answered its purpose, that 
it put an end to all such oblations. It " perfected forever all those 
who were sanctified ;" secured complete reconciliation ; full, free, 
everlasting pardon ; eternal redemption ; salvation with eternal glory ; 
so that there was no more room for sacrifices for sin. No ; it is an 
undoubted truth, one equally delightful to those who trust in, and 
dreadful to those who reject, this atoning oblation: " There remain- 
eth no more sacrifice for sin." 2 The eucharistic sacrifices presented 
by "the spiritual priesthood" are not material, but spiritual; not 
literal, but figurative sacrifices. The leading idea is, that Christians 
are brought into a very near relation to God ; and that the whole of 
their lives should be devoted to his spiritual service. 3 They are to 
" offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of 
the lips," " the calves of the lips," as Hosea has it not literal calves 
" giving thanks to his name." " To do good and communicate 
they are not to forget, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." 
They are to " present their bodies" themselves, embodied living 
beings, not the dead bodies of slain beasts " a living sacrifice." 
" Whether they eat, or drink, or whatsoever they do, they are to do 
all to the glory of God ;" and " whatsoever they do in word or in 
deed, they are to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks 
to God the Father by him." 4 

External services are spiritual sacrifices only when they embody 
a right state of mind and heart, an enlightened mind, a pure de 
vout heart. It is the gift of the heart which makes all other gifts 
easy to ourselves, acceptable to our God. "My son," says God, 
"give me thine heart;" and what follows ? " let thine eyes observe 
my ways." e This makes the eyes and ears, and tongue and hands, 
to be holy as God s peculiar property ; and being once given and con 
secrated to Him, it is sacrilege to turn them to any unholy use." fl 

Such services of the spiritual priesthood, so reasonable, so dignify 
ing, are said to be " acceptable to God by Christ Jesus." 7 These 
services are in themselves very undeserving of acceptance ; for in 
the best of them, while we are here below, there is much wanting, 
and something wrong. But if they are the sincere expression of 
trust in God s mercy, love to his law, zeal for his glory, with all their 

^ l " The sacrifices we are enjoined to offer give ground to the appellation Priests. 




ourselves, souls and bodies, an acceptable sacrifice to God, Eom. xii. 1 : Fourthly, the 
sweet incense of martyrdom, Phil. ii. 17 " OWEN. 
Heb. x. 26. 

3 Inter hostias spirituals primum locum obtinet generalis NOSTRI oblatio de qua 
raulus. Horn. xii. 1. Neque enim offerre quicquam possumus Deo, donee illi noa 
ipsos m sacrificium. obtulerimus: quod fit nostri abnegatione. Sequuntur postea 
preces et gratiarum actiones, eleemosynae et omnia pietatis exercitia. CALVIN. 

Heb. xm. 15, 16. Hos. xiv. 2. Horn. xii. 1. 1 Cor. x. 31. OoL iii. 17. 
s Prov. xxm. 26. h:nn rendered by Symmachus 6etyffdTuaav. 
^eighton. 7 Isa. Ivi. 7. Ai Ovaiai avruv tcovrai de/irai exi TO OvnaoTvptov pov, Ixx. 



PART in.] A CHOSEN GENERATION. 187 

imperfections, they are acceptable. Like a kind father, lie loves to 
hear even the lisping accents of affectionate confidence from his 
child ; and a very trifle, presented as a token of loyal submission, is 
in his eyes of great value. Even under the law, he who had not a 
lamb was welcome with his pigeon ; and under the better economy, 
none need forbear sacrifices for poverty. What God desires is the 
heart, and there is none so poor but he has a heart to give him. 
Alas ! that so many should want the heart to give the heart they 
have to give. It is not, however, so much the meanness of the gift 
offered, as the guiltiness of the offerer, that fills us with anxiety as 
to the acceptance of our services. Our foul hands pollute the best 
sacrifices ; but where the sacrifice has not the character of insincer 
ity a character which will certainly secure rejection, for " if we re 
gard iniquity in our hearts, God will not hear us" notwithstanding 
all their faults, the services of the Christian are acceptable, u accept 
able by or through Jesus Christ." The spiritual priest is clothed 
with the robe of the Redeemer s righteousness, and in his clothing 
we are like Jacob in his brother s garments. There is " the smell 
of a field which the Lord hath blessed." If we offer our sacrifices 
by him, if we put them into his hands to offer to the Father, we 
need not doubt that they will be accepted for his sake. 

The phrase " by Christ Jesus" may be considered as qualifying 
both the phrase " to offer" and the expression " acceptable." We 
ought not to offer anything but by him, trusting in his mediation, 
depending on his Spirit ; and in doing so we are sure to be accepted, 
for he is God s beloved Son, in whom his soul is delighted ; not only 
delighted and pleased with himself, but in him, with all things and 
persons that appear in him, and are presented by him. " This alone 
answers all our doubts ; for we ourselves, for as little as we see in 
that way, may yet see so much in our best services, so many wan 
derings, so much deadness to prayer, as would make us still doubtful 
of acceptance, and might say with Job, Although he had answered 
me, yet would I not believe that he had hearkened to me, were it 
not this, that our prayers and our sacrifices pass through Christ s 
hands. He is that angel that hath much sweet odor to mingle with 
the prayers of the saints. He purifies them with his own merits and 
intercessions, and so makes them pleasing unto the Father. Oh, 
how ought our hearts to be knit to him, by whom we are brought 
into favor with God, and kept in favor with him, in whom we ob 
tain all the good we receive, and in whom all we offer is accepted ! 
In him are all our supplies of grace, and our hopes of glory." * t 

(3.) Christians are a "chosen generation" 

Let us now look at the next representation of the Christian s 
privileges. They are " a chosen generation." This, like the other 
appellations here given to Christians, is borrowed from the descrip 
tive names given to the Israelitish people under a former dispensation 
They are spoken of as "a generation," a race or family, the descend 
ants of one father, standing to each other in the relation of brethren. 

1 Leighton. 



188 THE PRIVILEGES OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

Sometimes they are represented as the race or family of Abraham 
and of Israel. "Seek the Lord, and his strength," says the Psalmist ; 
"seek him forever more. Eemember his marvellous works which 
he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; ye, 
the seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Israel his chosen." 
And they are very frequently termed the house or family of Israel. 

At other times they are represented as the family or children of 
God. " Ye are the children of the Lord your God," says Moses ; 
"Israel, "says Jehovah, by Moses, to Pharaoh, "is my son, my first 
born ; let my son go, that he may serve me ;" " Out of EgyptJ" says 
he by the prophet Hosea, " out of Egypt have I called my son." l 

And as the Israelites are often spoken of as a race or generation, 
the family of Abraham, the family of God, so are they spoken of as 
" a chosen generation," a selected family. " The Lord," says Moses, 
" loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them. The 
heaven, and the heaven of heavens, is the Lord thy God s, the earth 
also, and all that is therein ; only the Lord had a delight in thy 
fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you 
above all people, as it is at this day." a "I give water in the wilder 
ness," says Jehovah, " and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my 
people, my chosen." 

Now this descriptive appellation, a chosen generation, originally 
given to the people of Israel, belongs to the people of God, under the 
new economy, in a far higher sense, with a much greater depth of 
meaning : " They that are Christ s are Abraham s seed, and heirs ac 
cording to the promise." Though originally aliens from the com 
monwealth of Israel, they have been brought near, and, having be 
lieved, " they are blessed with believing Abraham." They all are, 
like him, justified freely by God s grace. They all, like him, have 
Jehovah for their God, according to the promise, " I will be a God 
to thee, and to thy seed after thee." They all, like him, have " the 
inheritance of the world" secured to them ; a holier, happier, securer 
possession than Canaan, is their common property ; " the inheritance 
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, laid up in heaven 
for them, and to which they are kept by the power of God, through 
faith, unto the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 3 

But the appellation "generation," or race, leads us to think of them, 
not only as the spiritual family of Abraham, but as the spiritual 
family of God. They are " all the children of God through faith in 
Christ Jesus." They are the family of God in a far higher sense 
than ancient Israel ; " For to as many as receive Christ, to them 
gives he the privilege 4 of being the sons of God ; and they are born, 
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
of God." " They are born, not of corruptible seed, but of incorrupt 
ible, even of the word of the Lord, which liveth and abideth for 
ever." " Of his own will begat he them by the word of truth, that 
they might be a kind of first-fruits among his creatures." They are 

1 Psal. cv. 4, 5, 6. Dent. xiv. 1. Exod. iv. 22. Hos. xi. 1. 

2 Deut, iv. 37 ; vii. 6 ; x. 15. Isa. xliii. 20. 

3 Gal. iii. 29, 9. Eph. ii. 12, 13. 1 Cor. ill 23. Rom. iv. 13. 1 Pet. i. 4, 5. 

4 



PART III.] A CHOSEN GENERATION. 189 

brought into the relation, formed to the character, of " sons and 
daughters of the Lord God Almighty." "To them pertains the 
adoption," in a far more exalted sense than it ever belonged to Israel 
after the flesh : " God hath sent forth his Son, made of a woman, 
made under the law, to redeem them who were under the law, that 
we," all believers, " might receive the adoption of sons;" and, be 
cause they are sons, he sends the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, 
the spirit, not of bondage, but of adoption, teaching them to cry 
Abba, Father. And " since they are now sons, they are heirs ; heirs 
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus." "What the crowning dig 
nity and happiness included in this sonship is, we cannot tell, we can 
not adequately conceive. Well might the apostle say of this race, 
this generation, " Behold what manner of love the Father hath be 
stowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God ! Beloved, 
now 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." 3 

This view of the state of Christians as a race, brings before our 
minds two ideas, disconnection from the rest of mankind, and inti 
mate union among themselves. " Israel, as a people, dwelt alone, and 
was not numbered with the nations." a Christians u come out from 
the world, and are separate." They are in the world, not of it. 
They have "saved themselves from the untoward generation," who 
are of their father, the devil, and do his works. 

Israel was not only a separate body from the rest of mankind, but 
a brotherhood. " Moses, when he would have set at one two Israel 
ites who strove, said, Sirs, ye are brethren ; why do ye wrong one to 
another ?" Christians have one Father, one Elder Brother ; they 
have a common faith and hope, common interests and enemies, com 
mon duties and dangers, common joys and sorrows, one mind, one 
heart, one inheritance. These *are the leading ideas suggested by 
Christians being called a race, a generation, or family. 8 

But they are not only addressed as a generation, but as " a chosen 
generation." The choice here referred to may either be their eter 
nal sovereign election of God, to the enjoyment of eternal life through 
the mediation of Jesus Christ, or, what is the result and manifesta- 
, tion of this, their actual selection from the body of mankind, in what 
we are accustomed to denominate effectual calling. In both respects 
they are a chosen generation. There is an important difference be 
tween the sense in which Israel after the flesh, and the spiritual Israel, 
have the appellation " chosen generation" given to them, which de 
serves to be noticed. Israel, as a race or family, was selected from 
other races and families. It was the race, not the individuals, that 
was the direct object of choice. In the case of the spiritual Israel, 
the individuals are elected ; and it is the aggregate of the elected in 
dividuals that forms " the chosen generation." 

With regard to the former kind of election, the Apostle Paul tells 

1 Gal. iii. 26. John i. 12, 13. 1 Pet. i. 23. James i. 18. 2 Cor. vi. 18. GaL iv.4-7 
Rom. viii. 17. 1 John iii. 1, 2. 
Numb, xxiii. 9. 1 Cor. vi. 16. Acts ii. 40. 
3 Acts vii. 26. John xx. 17. Heb. ii. 11. 



i90 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIH. 

us that " God hath chosen them in Christ before the foundation of 
the world," that he " predestinated them unto the adoption of chil 
dren by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his 
will." * With regard to the latter kind of election, David speaks of 
them as "set apart by God for himself;" our Saviour says, "I have 
chosen you out of the worW. ;" James represents Christians as " a 
people for his name taken out by God from among the Gentiles ;" and 
our apostle describes them as " elected, or rather selected, according 
to the fore-knowledge, the pre-ordination of God, by a spiritual conse 
cration, to obedience, the obedience of the truth, the faith of the gos 
pel, and to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus," the enjoyment of the 
saving effects of the shedding of his blood in expiating sin, opening 
up a channel for the Spirit, and securing all the blessings of eternal 
life, " the salvation that is in Christ, with eternal glory." 2 

It seems to be the latter of these elections which is the fruit of the 
former, to which, here, as well as in the passage just quoted, the 
apostle refers ; for as Leighton justly remarks, " this descriptive ap 
pellation, like the others along with which it stands, is plainly desigu- 
ed to describe their present state as different from what it had been," 
whereas their personal election was, like him who made it, strictly 
eternal and unchangeable. No change had taken place, could take 
place, with regard to it. 

The privilege involved in being thus a chosen generation is one 
of inestimable value ; and being enjoyed by Christians entirely in 
consequence of their connection with Christ Jesus, the possession of 
it is a striking personal demonstration to every one of them of the 
grace of the Lord. In the enjoyment of this privilege they " have 
tasted that the Lord is gracious." This will appear, if we attend for 
a moment to the state of those from among whom they were selected, 
to the purposes for which they were selected, to him who has selected 
them, and to the cause in which the selection of them originated. 

The original state of this chosen generation was not better than 
that of other men. It was a state of ignorance and error, and guilt 
and depravity, of degradation and wretchedness, of condemnation and 
death. To use the expressive language of the apostle : They were 
" dead in trespasses and in sins ; wherein in time past they walked 
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the 
power of the air, the spirit that now wwketh in the children of dis 
obedience : among whom they had their conversation in the lusts of 
the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind ; and were 
by nature the children of wrath, even as others : without Christ, 
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant 
of promise, without God and without hope in the world." 3 What a 
blessing to be selected from among these victims of error, these 
slaves of corruption, these heirs of destruction ! 

And then how does our sense of the value of the blessing rise, 
when we think of the purpose for which they have been selected, se 
lected to be "heirs of God, and joint-heirs" with his only -begotten 
Son ; to be justified, sanctified, glorified, conformed both in holiness 

1 Eph. i. 4-6. * Psal. iv. 3. John xv. 19. Acts xv. U 1 Pet. i. 2. 

3 Eph. ii. 1-3, 11, 12. 



PART III.] A CHOSEN GENERATION. 1J)1 

and happiness to the image of God s own Son : to be blessed with all 
heavenly and spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus; to possess an inheri 
tance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved for 
them in heaven, while they are kept for it by the _ power of God, 
through faith unto the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time ; 
to be the means of manifesting to the whole intelligent universe of 
God, how holy, how happy the omnipotent, all-wise, infinitely holy, 
infinitely benignant Jehovah can make those who are the objects of 
his peculiar love ! 

For, to judge aright of the value of this privilege, we must never 
forget that it is God who makes both the election and the selection. 
The value of choice depends on the qualities of the chooser. It is a 
disgrace not an honor, an evil not a benefit, to be the object of the 
choice of the unprincipled and foolish. The value of being the ob 
ject of the choice of an individual is in proportion to his intellect and 
moral worth, his wise benignity, and his power to gratify it. What 
is the value, then, of election by the all-perfect One ? There is pro 
digious emphasis on the word God, in these two sayings of the Apos 
tle: "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God;" "Who 
shall lay anything to the charge of God s elect?" Whom he chooses 
he chooses forever. " He rests in his love." His " purpose, accord 
ing to election, must stand ; and the gifts and the callings which ori 
ginate in it, are without repentance." a 

But to raise still higher, if possible, our ideas of the value of this 
choice or selection, as a proof of the grace of the Lord, let us think 
once more on the cause in which it originates. It has no cause in 
the selected ones ; the cause is in the selector himself, and that cause 
is, can be, nothing but grace, sovereign kindness. 

The cause of God s selection of ancient Israel was not in them but 
in him : " The Lord did not set his love on you," says Moses, " nor 
choose you, because ye were more in number than any people (for ye 
were the fewest of all people) ; but because the Lord loved you, and 
because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, 
hath the Lord brought you with a mighty hand ? and redeemed you 
out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of 
Egypt." What is said of their entrance into Canaan, is equally true 
of their election : " Speak not in thy heart, For my righteousness the 
Lord hath chosen me ; for the wickedness of these nations the Lord 
hath rejected them, and driven them out. But not for thy righteous 
ness, or the uprightness of thy heart, art thou chosen, and brought in, 
but that the Lord may perform the word which he spake unto thy 
fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, therefore, that the 
Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy 
righteousness ; for thou art a stiff-necked people." a 

In like manner, the election of those who form the chosen genera 
tion under the new economy, is not owing to any previous good qual 
ity in them. They are not selected for their worldly wisdom, power, 
or dignity ; " Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise 
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called : but 

i Rom. viii. 17, 29, 30. 1 Thess. i. 4. Rom. viii. 33. 

3 Zeph. iii. 17. Rom. ix. 11 xi. 29. 3 Deut. vii. 7 ; ix. 4-6. 



192 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIIL 

God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the 
wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound 
the mighty ; and base things of the world, and things which are de 
spised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to 
naught things that are ! that no flesh should glory in his presence. 
But that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in 
the Lord. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, 
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. "Where 
is the wise, where is the scribe, where is the disputer of this world ? 
hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world ?" 1 

They. are not selected for their previous moral worth: " Know ye 
not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Be 
not deceived ; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor 
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, 
shall inherit the kingdom of God; yet such were some of you," 
now the " sanctified of Christ Jesus, called to be saints." And even 
in the case of those who were not remarkable for depravity and guilt, 
the cause of their being selected cannot be found in their moral 
worth. In man, in every man born merely of the flesh, " dwelleth no 
good thing." The only account that can be given, why any of the 
human family are selected, and why one rather than another is se 
lected, is, " Even so, Father ; for so it seemed good in thy sight." 
" He has mercy, because he wills to have mercy ; he has compassion, 
because he wills to have compassion. 3 a The cause of his own selec 
tion appears to every one of the chosen generation " a mystery hid 
in God ;" and, when he thinks of it, his heart overflows equally with 
gratitude and amazement, " What am I, and what is the house of my 
father, that I should be brought hitherto ? Is this the manner of 
man, Lord God?" 

" "Why was I made to hear thy voice, 

And enter while there s room ; 
"While thousands make a wretched choice, 

And rather starve than come ? 
The sovereign grace that spread the feast, 

Compelled me to come in ; 
Else I had still refused to taste, 

And perish d in my sin." 3 

So rich is the display of the grace of the Lord to those who, out of 
many a kindred, and people, and tongue, and nation, have been se 
lected to form the chosen generation, of which Israel s race was the 
type and emblem. 

(4.) Christians are a " royal priesthood " 

Let us now turn our attention to the next descriptive appellation 
given to Christians : " Ye are a royal priesthood." In the preceding 
part of this paragraph, Christians are represented as " a holy priest 
hood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus 
Christ ;" that is, in other words, consecrated to, qualified for, engaged 
in, the spiritual and acceptable services of God, as God in Christ recon- 

1 1 Cor. i. 26-31, 19. 2 i Co r. vi. 9-11. Matt. xi. 26. Rom. ix. 15. 3 Watts. 



PART III.] A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. 193 

ciling the world to himself, in the discharge of all religious ana moral 
duties. Here they are represented as " a royal priesthood." 

These words admit of, and have received, various interpretations. 
By many they have been considered as equivalent to the declarations 
in the Apocalypse, that Jesus Christ makes his people " kings and 




prayer recorded m the seventeenth chapter 
of the Gospel by John. The glory the Father gave him was, that he 
should be the great Priest and King of his ransomed people ; " a 
priest upon his throne," according to the ancient oracles : " I have 
set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." " The Lord hath sworn, and 
will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchize- 
dec." l Of these glories, strictly speaking, no created being can 
share. But so far as the thing is possible, he makes his people pos 
sessors of priestly and regal honors. We have already seen how he 
makes them Priests ; and he makes them kings in giving them even 
now a noble superiority to things seen and temporal, in enabling 
them to trample under foot those spiritual enemies, the powers of 
darkness, and the lusts of their own hearts, which once reigned over 
them. He will at a future period, in a manner of which we can form 
only an indistinct conception, the obscurity of unfulfilled prediction 
resting on it, enable his saints to " take the kingdom," and " reign on 
the earth." 2 In the great day of final retribution, they, along with 
him, shall "judge angels ;" and to them all, as overcomers, made more 
than conquerors through him that loved them, will it be given in that 
day to " sit with him on his throne, even as he also having overcome, 
sat down with his Father on his throne." 3 

By others the expression has been considered as indicating the ex 
alted nature of the priesthood to which they are raised, or the noble 
and dignified temper in which they discharge its functions. Their 
priesthood is not a plebeian, but a royal priesthood, as far exalted in 
dignity above the Levitical priesthood, as royalty is above the level 
of ordinary life ; and they perform their priestly functions not in the 
servile spirit of bondage, but in the noble kingly spirit of the adopted 
sons of the great King, to whom they minister, " the spirit of glory," 
as the apostle calls it. Their mien and deportment are " like the 
children of a king," doing the will of their royal father. Freed from 
all degrading submission to human authority, they are sovereigns in 
spiritual things ; because, as kings, they own in them no authority but 
that to which kings are subject, the authority of " the King of kings, 
and Lord of lords." Viewed in these lights, the expression suggests 
true and important thoughts, thoughts well fitted to elevate and stimu 
late the Christian mind. 

But I cannot help thinking, that as the phrase is certainly borrowed 
from a passage in the Old Testament Scripture, the first thing to be 
done to ascertain its meaning, is to refer to that passage. It is to be 
found in the book of Exodus, " And ye shall be to me a kingdom 

1 Rev. i. 6 ; v. 10. John xvii. 22. Zech. vi. 13. Psal. ii. 6 ; ex. 4. 
9 Dan. vii. 18. Rev. v. 10. 3 1 Cor. vi. 3. Rom. viii. 37. Rev. iii. 21. 

13 



194 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. Till. 

of priests, and a holy nation." l The words are quoted from the 
translation in common use when the apostle wrote, of which our ver 
sion is a literal rendering, but we cannot doubt he means to express 
the meaning of the inspired text. 

The meaning of the words, " ye are a kingdom/ as addressed to 
the Israelites, is by no means obscure. The word " kingdom" plain- 
ly signifies, not the territory, but the subjects, You are not a con 
fused mass, a fortuitous assemblage you are an organized political 
body ; and you are not a republic, a self-governing body you are 
a kingdom, the subjects of a sovereign ; and you are a kingdom 
of priests you have no human supreme magistrate ; Jehovah, the 
object of your worship, is your King, so that the discharge of 
all your civil duties has a religious character, all being done to 
God. 

Such is plainly the meaning of the language in its original applica 
tion. Now what is its meaning, as applied by the apostle to Chris 
tians as a body ? "To you who believe there is honor." All the 
honors of the ancient people of God are yours, and yours in a far 
higher sense than ever they were theirs. They were a chosen gener 
ation, so are you. They were a kingdom of priests, and so are you. 
You are " a kingdom ;" you form a regular social body. Christians 
are not a collection of isolated individuals ; they are the " body of 
Christ, and members in particular." They are " one body in Christ, 
and every one members one of another." 3 And they are not a re 
public, they are not a self-governing body ; they are " a kingdom," 
they are the subjects of a sovereign. They have one King, Jesus. 
They should " call no man master on earth," for they have no master 
on earth ; "their Master is in heaven." 3 In everything connected 
with religion, they must be regulated by his will ; they must believe 
no doctrine but what he has revealed ; observe no ordinances but 
what he has appointed ; and they must believe every doctrine he has 
revealed, and observe every ordinance he has appointed, and believe 
the doctrine because he has revealed it, and observe the ordinance 
because he has appointed it. For them to follow on these points the 
guidance of their own reason or caprice, is to usurp their Sovereign s 
place. For them to follow on these points the guidance of other 
men, is to exalt them into his throne. So far as men are concerned, 
they have a right to think and act for themselves in religion, but, so 
far as their rightful Sovereign is concerned, they have no such right. 
They are to think as he directs them, they are to do as he bids them. 
This would be a hard arrangement if their King were a fallible crea 
ture, though the best of men, the wisest of angels ; but instead of there 
being hardship or degradation in the case, this arrangement is full of 
honor and blessedness. Their Sovereign is the infinitely wise, right 
eous, holy Jehovah. 

They are a kingdom, but they are " a kingdom of priests." They 
belong to, complexly taken they form, the kingdom that is not of this 
world. They belong to a spiritual monarchy, at the head of which 
is Jehovah, in the person of the only-begotten Son. They are his 
subjects; and, being his subjects, all their duties are religious duties, 

1 Exod. xix. 6. a i Cor. xii. 27. Eph. iv. 12. * Matt, xxiii. 8. 



PART III.J ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. 195 

all exercises of the priestly function. "Whatsoever they do," in the 
way of duty, they are required to "doit as to the Lord." "They 
serve the Lord Christ." " Whatsoever they do, whether in word or 
deed, they do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God 
the Father by him." And " whether they eat, or drink, or whatso 
ever they do, they do all to his glory." 1 

Who can contemplate such holy dignities without a disposition to 
felicitate their possessors ? " Holy brethren, partakers of the heaven 
ly calling," allow me to congratulate you on the dignity and blessed 
ness of belonging to a society so illustrious as this chosen family, this 
priestly kingdom ; for if you really are what your profession declares 
you to be, you do belong to it. " Happy are ye, O people saved by 
the Lord ! who is like unto you ?" " The lines have fallen to you in 
pleasant places, and ye have a goodly heritage," "Children of 
Abraham." "Children of God." Brethren of him who is " the first 
born among many brethren." " Sons and daughters of the Lord God 
Almighty." " Heirs of God." " Joint-heirs with Christ." " Priests 
of the Lord." " Ministers of your God." Ever dwelling in his sanc 
tuary, ever engaged in his service, gratefully acknowledge that grace 
of the Lord to which you are indebted for all this honor, security, and 
happiness. It is all the gift of rich sovereign mercy. Not to you, not 
to you, but to him is due all the glory. 

I trust you are saying in your hearts, " who is a God like unto our 
God," " rich in mercy," " mighty to save ?" " There is none like the 
God of Jeshurun." " What shall we render to the Lord for all his ben 
efits ?" 2 The best way of showing your gratitude is, by acting in a 
manner corresponding to the high and holy dignity to which you are 
raised. Conduct yourselves like members of the chosen family, deni 
zens of the priestly kingdom. Be affectionate children ; give your 
Father the veneration, the esteem, the love, the confidence, he so well 
deserves. Be obedient children. "Submit to the Father of spirits." 
Give due honor to Him, your elder brother, who has been appointed 
" as a son over the whole family ;" and remember, that it is the Fa 
ther s will, "that all should honor the Son as they honor himself." 
Seek to know and do all his will. " Observe all things whatsoever 
he has commanded you," and " walk in all his ordinances and com 
mandments blameless." Cherish an enlightened, warm, influential 
affection for all the members of the chosen generation. " Love as 
brethren," and " walk in love," even as our Father and elder Brother 
have loved us. Be jealous of the honor of the family, be active in 
promoting the interests of the family, seek to be instrumental in in 
creasing the number of the family. Are you a chosen generation, a 
select race ? See that you " make your calling and election sure, by 
adding to your faith virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowl 
edge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to patience, 
fodliness ; and to godliness, brotherly-kindness ; and to brotherly- 
indness, charity." 3 Remember the great object for which you were 
chosen : both elected and selected, that ye might be conformed to the 

1 Col. iii. 23, 24. 1 Cor. x. 31. Col. iii. 17. 

8 Micah vii. 18. Eph. ii. 4. Isa. Ixiii. 1. Deut. xxxiii. 26. Psal. cxvi. 12. 

3 John Y. 23. Matt, xxviii. 20. Eph. v. 2. 2 Pet. i. 5-7. 



196 THE PRIVILEGES OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

image of God s Son; that ye should be holy, and without blame be 
fore God in love ; that ye should be zealous of good works ; and, in 
one word, " as he whom we call Father is holy, so be ye holy in all 
manner of conversation ; for it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy." 
And remember, that ye are not only children of your Father in heav 
en, but that ye are subjects of your Sovereign in heaven ; and as 
Israel, "rejoice in him who made you" a kingdom of priests; as "chil 
dren of Zion, be joyful in your king." " Remember that he is your 
Lord and worship him." You are not to be regulated, either as to 
faith or practice, by your own will, or by the reason or will of other 
men, but by his mind as made known in his word. Seek entire sub 
jugation of mind and will to him. Have no mind but his mind, no 
will but his will. 1 

And beware of invading his prerogative, in trampling on one an 
other s rights. It is God alone who has a right to dictate to his own 
subjects. Let us remember, that " for this cause Christ both died, 
and rose, and revived, that he should be the Lord of the dead and 
of the living," of his own people, in life and in death. Beware of at 
tempting to lord it over one another s conscienes. " Why, then, dost 
thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set at naught thy brother ; 
for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God," " the great 
God our Saviour, Jesus Christ ?" " For it is written, As I live, saith 
the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess 
to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself," not 
of his brother, " to God." 

Finally, never forget the sacred character of your relation as sub 
jects, that ye are sacerdotal subjects, ministering to a Divine Sove 
reign. Always think, and feel, and act, as in the holy place, in the 
immediate presence of " the Holy, Holy, Holy One ;" let your whole 
lives be an act of worship, as well as an act of allegiance : " offer the 
sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of your lips, 
giving thanks to his name ; and to do good, and to communicate, for 
get not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." 3 

(5.) Christians are a " holy nation." 

The next descriptive appellation of Christians, which our text 
brings before us for consideration is, " A holy nation." This, like 
those which precede it, is borrowed from the language of the Old Tes 
tament in reference to the ancient people of God : " Ye shall be to me 
a holy nation," said Jehovah to Israel, by Moses, at Sinai, imme 
diately before giving the law. " Thou art a holy people unto the 
Lord thy God," said Moses to his countrymen, when just about to 
cross the Jordan. And in the promulgation of the various laws given 
to them, we often meet with these words : " Ye shall be holy, or be 
ye holy, for I am holy." 3 

Israel was a " nation," a large body of men, residing in the same 
neighborhood, subject to the same government, regulated by the same 
laws; distinguished by the same customs, having common rights, 

1 Psal. cxlix. 2; xlv. 11. 2 Heb. xiii. 15, 16. 

1 Exod. xix. 6. Deut. vii. 6. Lev. xix. 2 ; xx. 7, <fcc. <fcc. 



PART III.] A HOLY NATION. 197 

interests, and enemies. Previously to the giving of the law, Israel 
was " a generation," a race, a family, a chosen generation ; but it was 
at Sinai that they became a "kingdom, a nation; a kingdom of 
priests, a holy nation." Then began to be fulfilled the promises made 
to Abraham: " I am God Almighty : be fruitful and multiply: ana- 
tion, and a company of nations, shall be of thee." l 

Israel was " a holy nation." There can be no reasonable doubt, 
that by far the greater part of those individuals who were really 
morally holy in the world at that time, belonged to this nation ; but 
when, as a nation, they are called " holy," the meaning obviously is, 
separated from the nations who were devoted to idolatry, and con 
secrated to the service of Jehovah, the only living and true God. 
Such is the import of the expression, " a holy nation," as applied to 
ancient Israel. 

We are now prepared to answer the more important and interest 
ing question, What are the truths respecting the situation and char 
acter of Christians, which the appellation, as addressed to them, is 
intended to suggest ? Like the denomination, generation or race, 
kingdom and people, it indicates that they are, properly speaking, not 
a number of unconnected individuals, but a society ; not disjointed 
members, but a "body fitly joined and compacted by that which 
every joint supplieth." They do not indeed reside all in the same 
geographical district. Even those of them who are more immedi 
ately addressed in the text, were "strangers," scattered over a wide 
region, residing in the midst of various nations. At that time, mem 
bers of the society, the spiritual nation, were to be found throughout 
every part of the Roman empire, and even beyond its bounds, " in 
every nation under heaven ;" and since that time, " the holy nation" 
has still more fully realized the description given of it, as " a people 
redeemed from among men, out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
people, and nation." 2 

Yet in a sense suitable to the spiritual nature of the society, they 
all dwell together : they are all " a people near to Jehovah," and 
therefore near to one another. They all dwell in the spiritual 
Canaan ; in the " Jerusalem, which is the mother of them all." 
They all " dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and abide 
under the shadow of the Almighty." The whole of the tribes of the 
spiritual Israel encamp around " the ark of testimony," " the true 
tabernacle, which God pitched, and not man." 3 The ordinary lim 
itations of time and place do not indeed affect this society. This 
nation is identical with the chosen generation ; the family in heaven, 
and on earth, called by one name. This accounts for their being 
called a nation, which always suggests the idea of great numbers. 

1 Gen. xii. 2. a Rev. v. 9. 

3 " There is now no more any place on earth where the whole church assembles for 
worship; but they all assemble in the heavenly Jerusalem, where Jesus is, the antitype 
of that on earth to which the church of Israel assembled, and towards which they wor 
shipped from all corners of the land. Here they on earth have their conversation, Phil, 
iii. 20 ; and unto that place the tribes of God go up now worshipping God, all serving in 
the newness of the spirit; and there are no worshippers now but spiritual worshippers. 
Thus there is an end put to all controversies about earthly holy places, and temples of God 
mad 3 with hands." John iv. 20, 21. JOHN GLAS. 



198 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

A family may be few, but a nation must be numerous. He who joins 
the society here referred to, obtains a citizenship more honorable, and 
connecting him with a wider field of association, than the citizenship 
of ancient Rome in all its glory : he joins a commonwealth, of which 
the commonwealth of Israel, even in its most flourishing state, was 
but an imperfect figure. He "sits down with Abraham, and Isaac, 
and Jacob, in the kingdom of their Father/ He joins " the church 
of the living God ;" a society which, even as now existing on earth, 
is " a multitude," which could not easily be numbered ; and he "comes 
also to the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose 
names are written in heaven ; an innumerable company of angels, 
and of the spirits of just men made perfect/ l 

But " a nation" is not merely a numerous body of men. It is a 
numerous body of men, subject to the same government, regulated 
by the same laws ; a government and laws which distinguish it from 
other nations. In this sense, the appellation is strikingly descriptive 
of true Christians. The whole race of men, with the exception of 
true Christians, are the subjects of " the god of this world," the Prince 
of darkness. They "lie under the" dominion of that "wicked one;" 
they "serve divers lusts and pleasures;" they "yield themselves the 
servants of sin ; and they yield their members ," the various facul 
ties and capacities of their nature, " to sin, as the instruments of un 
righteousness." 2 Christians have been " turned" from the service of 
the god of this world, " to the service of the living and true God," 
" the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." To his sovereignty, 
as administered by his Son, to whom he has given all power in heaven 
and earth, they have submitted their minds, their hearts, their con 
sciences, their conduct. "Jehovah is their Judge; Jehovah is their 
Lawgiver; Jehovah is their King." " They serve the Lord Christ;" 
subject to his authority, they are regulated by his law. Other men 
regulate themselves by various principles, to which they give the 
authority of law ; the law of interest ; the law of custom ; the law 
of honor; the law of public opinion; the law of caprice. Christians 
regulate themselves by the law of God. The Bible is their statute 
book. They are cheerfully subject to all lawful ordinances of man ; 
but it is " for the Lord s sake ;" because the Lord commands them to 
be so. But when the law of man is opposed to the law of God, the 
principle upon which they act is, " We must obey God rather than 
man." They are persuaded of the principle, and act on it, " No man 
can serve two masters; we cannot serve God and mammon." The 
description which Haman gave of the Jews, slightly altered, is very 
applicable to "the true circumcision :" They are "a people scattered 
abroad, and dispersed among the nations, and their laws are diverse 
from all people ; neither keep they the laws" of man, when these are 
opposed to the law of their Sovereign in heaven. 3 

Christians, also, are with propriety termed " a nation ;" for they are 
iistinguished by the same customs; and their customs are different 
from, and opposed to, the customs which generally prevail among 

1 Psal. cxlviii. 14. Gal. iv. 26. Psal. xci. 1. Eph. iii. 15. Matt. viii. 11. Heb. xii 
22, 23. 
1 John v. 19. Rom. vi. 13. 3 Matt, vi. 24. Esther ill 8. 



PART III.] A HOLY NATION. 199 

men. They all seek often to be alone ; they all are given to prayer ; 
they all " lay up treasures in heaven ;" they all " deny themselves ;" 
they all look not only, not chiefly, at their own things, but at the 
things of Christ, and of others. They all forgive, instead of aveng 
ing injuries. 1 These are but a specimen of their peculiar customs. 
Their whole mode of thinking, feeling, speaking, and acting, is de 
cidedly different from that of other men. They are in the world, but 
not of it. 

Further, Christians, like a nation, have common and peculiar im 
munities and privileges. They are all made free by the Son ; made 
" free indeed ;" " free with the liberty of the children of God ;" they 
are all " blessed with heavenly and spiritual blessings ;" all " rich in 
faith, and heirs of the kingdom ;" all secured of the guidance of the 
good Spirit, and the guardianship of angels. 2 By these, and a variety 
of other privileges, which belong to none but themselves, they are 
distinguished from all other bodies of men. 

Like a nation, Christians have a common cause, the cause of their 
common Lord ; common interests, the interests of truth, and holiness, 
and peace, of God s glory, and man s salvation. They are engaged 
in a war with common enemies, ignorance, error, superstition, sin in 
all its forms, and the powerful being of whom all these are the works. 
They " wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and 
powers ; with the rulers of the darkness of this world ; with spiritual 
wickedness in high places." And they carry on their war in the 
same way. " The weapons of their warfare are not carnal, but 
mighty, through God," for the accomplishment of their purpose. 3 

But Christians are not only a nation they are " a holy nation." 
The term holy, or sacred, properly signifies separated from other per 
sons or things, and dedicated to a sacred purpose. The Babylonian 
armies are termed by Isaiah God s "sanctified or holy ones," 4 be 
cause selected by God as the instruments of his righteous judgment 
against Israel. The Sabbath is called holy, because set apart from 
secular to religious purposes ; the vessels of the Tabernacle and 
Temple are called holy for a similar reason; and the Israelites are 
very often represented as holy, because separated from the rest of 
mankind to be the depositaries of religious truth and worship, " till 
the seed should come, in reference to whom the promises were 
made." 5 

When the word is applied to Christians either as individuals or as 
a body, it is employed in the same general sense, but with a higher 
reference. The Christian church, though figuratively a nation, has 
nothing secular in its constitution or object. It is completely separ 
ated, completely distinct, from all worldly societies. It is not politi 
cal, it is not commercial, it is not philosophical ; it is religious. If it 
; s a kingdom, it is " a kingdom not of this world ;" 6 if it is a nation, it 
is " a holy," sacred " nation." And its genuine members are all holy, 
taken out from among the world lying under the wicked one ; dedi- 

1 Matt. v. 20. Phil. ii. 4. 2 John viii. 36. Eph. i. 3. James ii. 5. 

3 Eph. vi. 12, 2 Cor. x. 4. * Isa. xiii. 3. 

5 Exod. xvi. 23 ; xxv. 2. Deut. vii. 6. Dan. viii. 24. Lev. viii. 9 ; xvi. 4, 33. 

8 John xviii. 3f5 



200 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VI1. 

cated to the service of God and his Son, by the sprinkling of the 
blood of atonement, by the washing of the water of regeneration, and 
by their own inward consent and outward profession. They are all 
sanctified ones ; " chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, 
that they might be holy, and without blame before God in love." In 
consequence of the Saviour sanctifying himself, setting apart himself 
to save them, they are set apart, sanctified by the truth to serve him : 
for " Christ loved the church and gave himself for it ; that he might 
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word ; that 
he might present it to God a glorious church, not having spot, or 
wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy, and without 
blemish." " That he might sanctify the people ;" that he might con 
stitute the chosen ones a holy nation " by his own blood, he suffered 
without the gate." He went out of " the Jerusalem" that then was 
the type of all that is corrupt both in secular and ecclesiastical associ 
ation, and his saved people are to " go forth to him without the camp, 
bearing his reproach," devoted to God, as he was devoted to God ; 
determined to do and suffer the will of God as he did, apart from the 
world lying in wickedness. 1 

They are a people entirely devoted or sacred ; their faculties, their 
property, their time, their opportunities, their bodies, their spirits, are 
all His, and they cannot devote them to purposes different from his, 
without being guilty of desecration and sacrilege. It is to this state 
of things that the prophet Isaiah looks forward when he says, " Go 
through, go through the gates ; prepare ye the way of the people ; 
cast up, cast up the highway ; gather out the stones ; lift up a stand 
ard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of 
the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation 
corneth ; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. 
And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord : 
and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken ;" and 
Zechariah, when he says, " In that day shall there be on the bells of 
the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD ; and the pots in the Lord s 
house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in 
Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts ; and 
all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein : 
and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of 
the Lord of hosts." Every day is, or ought to be, a Sabbath-day ; 
every meal a sacrament ; for whether they eat or drink, or whatso 
ever they do, they should do all to the glory of God ; " and whatsoever 
the^ do in word or in deed, they should do it in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, giving thanks to God, even the Father, by him." Among them 
" no man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; but whether 
he lives, he lives to the Lord ; whether he dies, he dies to the Lord. 
In life and in death he is the Lord s." 2 

^ I think it not improbable that the apostle had a particular object in 
giving Christians, as a body, the designation, " a holy nation," rathel 
than the more ordinary phrase in the Old Testament, " a holy people." 

1 Eph. v. 25-27. Heb. xiii. 12. 13. 

3 Isu. Ixii. 10-12. Zech. xiy. 20, 21. Col. iii 17. Rom. xiv. 7, 8. 

8 ZOvos rather than Xao j. 



PART III.] A PECULIAR PEOPLE. 201 

It is not without a purpose that he quotes Exodus xix. 6, rather than 
Isaiah Ixii. 11. The very name nations, 1 or Gentiles, was hateful to 
the Jews. They were " the people ;" 2 all the rest of the world were 
the nations : the people were holy and beloved ; the nations profane 
and abominable in the sight of God. But under the new economy, 
the chosen name of the people of God is " nation," there being now no 
distinction between Jew and Gentile, but all are one in Christ. As the 
Apostle Paul says, " There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither 
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female ;" but all "believers 
are one" nation "in Christ Jesus." And "if ye be Christ s, then are 
ye Abraham s seed, and heirs according to the promises." The holy 
nation is God s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good 
works, which God had before ordained that we should walk in them." 
" Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the 
flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Cir 
cumcision in the flesh made by hands ; that at that time ye were with 
out Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers 
from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in 
the world : but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off 
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath 
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition be 
tween us ; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of 
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of 
twain one new man, so making peace ; and that he might reconcile 
both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity 
thereby ; and came and preached peace to you which were afar off) 
and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access 
by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more 
strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of 
the household of God ;" " a holy nation." 3 

(6.) Christians are " a peculiar people" 

The next appellation that calls for our consideration is, " a peculiar 
people." To a mere English reader, these words convey the idea, 
a perfectly just one, that they are a people, a collection of men, who 
have many peculiarities about them, many things which distinguish 
them from other men, and other bodies of men ; they are peculiar in 
their origin, their principles, their dispositions, their habits and customs ; 
their hopes, their fears, their pursuits, their privileges. In this case 
the designation would include all that is expressed in all the other 
designations, and perhaps something more. 

But the truth is, the English expression conveys very imperfectly 
the meaning of the original term. It is literally " a people for a pur 
chased possession," or for a treasure ; 4 for the word employed is used 
in both senses ; in the first, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, " Until 
the redemption of the purchased possession;" 5 in the second, in the 
passage of the book of Exodus, from which this is quoted, " Ye shall 
be a peculiar treasure to me." 6 In Malachi it is rendered "jewels/ 

1 la. 2 D3>M. 3 Gal. iii. 28, 29. Eph. ii. 10-19. 

4 Aaoj tis TTspnroiriaiv. G Eph. i. 14. Exod. xix. 5. 



202 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

and on the margin, "special treasure." l The significancy here does 
not lie chiefly, if at all, in the word " people," which does not, like 
generation or race, kingdom and nation, suggest any important idea ; 
though people does seem to be used as distinctive of a respectable 
assemblv, in opposition to an illiterate and vulgar rabble. " No doubt 
ye are the people." 2 It lies in what is said about his people. They 
are a people "for a purchased possession," for a special treasure. 
The sentiments which the appellation seems intended to convey are 
these two : That they are the subjects of the divine peculiar property, 
and the objects of the divine peculiar regard. 

They are God s "purchased possession," his "special treasure." 
Like the preceding appellation, this was originally employed as de 
scriptive of the Israelitish people. " Ye shall be a peculiar treasure to 
me above all people ; for all the earth is mine." " The Lord thy God 
hath chosen thee to be a special people to himself, above all people 
that are on the face of the earth." " The Lord hath avouched thee 
to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised to thee." 8 The whole 
universe is God s inalienable property. " The earth is the Lord s and 
the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell in it." 4 All the 
nations were God s property ; but, so far as the thing was possible, 
they had alienated themselves as divine property. They had given 
themselves up into the hands of God s enemy, to be used by him as his 
property. But Jehovah, while allowing the other nations to remain 
in the hands of him to whom they had sold themselves, rescued Israel 
out of the hands of Pharaoh, and out of the hand of him of whom 
Pharaoh was but a type and instrument, and they became, as it were, 
doubly his property, and he treated them as an object of "peculiar 
favor." " When the Most High divided to the nations their inherit 
ance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the 
people according to the number of the children of Israel ! for the 
Lord s portion was his people ; Israel was the lot of his inheritance. 
He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness ; 
he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his 
eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young 
spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings : 
so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with 
him. He made him to ride on the high places of the earth, that he 
might eat the increase of the fields ; and he made him to suck honey 
out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock ; butter of kine, and 
milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, 
and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat : and thou didst drink the 
pure blood of the grape." " He showed his w r ord to Jacob, his stat 
utes and his judgments to Israel." " In Judah was he known ; his 
name was great in Israel. In Salem also was his tabernacle, and his 
dwelling-place in Zion. And " many times did he deliver them." 
" He gave Egypt for their ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for them." 
"He suffered no man to do them wrong" with impunity; "he re 
proved kings for their sake." " What nation was there so great, who 
had Jehovah so nigh to them, as the Lord their God was in all things 

1 Hal. iii. 16. a Job xii. 2. 

8 Exod. xix. 5. Deut. vii. 6 ; xiv. 2 ; xxvi 18. * Psal. xxiv. 1. 



PART III.] A PECULIAR PEOPLE. 203 

that they called on him for ?" " What nation was there so great, that 
had statutes and judgments so righteous as all the law, which he set 
before them?" l Thus was ancient Israel, a people for a purchased 
possession, for a special treasure to Jehovah, the subjects of his 
peculiar property, the objects of his peculiar regard. 

But these glorious appellations are applicable in a far higher sense 
to the spiritual Israel. They are God s peculiar property. They are 
his in a sense different from, higher than, that in which they originally 
and all other human beings were his. It is difficult to find in human 
affairs anything that so corresponds to the important facts referred to, 
as to illustrate them ; but we shall attempt it. Let us conceive what 
we know is not possible, that a wealthy man should have righteous 
property in a great multitude of his fellow-men, and let us conceive 
of him as just and kind in his dealings with them ; but they commit 
crimes which expose them to the vengeance of the law, and they at 
the same time renounce subjection to him, and become the willing 
slaves of his worst enemy. Having a great regard for them, he buys 
them off from the law s vengeance ; and he at the same time prevails 
on them to wish to return to his service ; and by superior force obli 
ges his powerful enemy, however reluctantly, to quit his hold of them ; 
and, having got them again back to his own estate, he bestows on 
them peculiar marks of his kindness. Would not such redeemed 
criminals, such ransomed slaves, though his property originally, be 
now doubly his his purchased possession ; and might they not well 
be called his special treasure ? The figure is imperfect, but it may 
assist your minds in forming distinct and accurate conceptions of the 
case before us. Christians have been "redeemed by the blood of 
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and spot," from guilt, the judicial 
displeasure of God, and everlasting destruction. They have been 
" bought with a price." " Redeemed to God by the blood of his Son; 
delivered from the wrath to come." And they have also been, 
" through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," delivered from sin 
and Satan, and the present evil world; redeemed from all iniquity, 
that they may be a peculiar people, zealous of good works." By the 
effectual working of the good Spirit through the instrumentality of the 
word, they are freed from the degrading bondage of sin, and made to 
"walk at liberty, keeping God s commandments;" feeling, and de 
lighting to feel, that they are " not their own," but wholly and for 
ever his, who has bought them by " a price all price beyond :" re 
deemed them by an arm so "full of power" and of mercy. 2 

And as they are the subjects of his peculiar property, so are they 
the objects of his peculiar regard. They are his special treasure, his 
jewels ; he heaps on them tokens of his regard. They are his vine 
yard ; of which he says, " I the Lord do keep it. I will water it 
every moment. I will keep it night and day." He " blesses them 
with all heavenly and spiritual blessings ;" so that they may well say, 
" Who is a God like unto our God, who pardoneth iniquity, and pass- 
eth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage ? he retain- 

1 Deut. xxxii. 8-14. Psal. cxlvii. 19 ; Ixxvi. 1, 2 ; cvi. 43. Isa. xliii. 3. Psal. cv. 14, 
15. Deut. iv. 7, 8. 

2 1 Cor. vi. 20. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. Rev. v. 9. 1 Thess. L 10. Tit. ii. 14. 



204 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS, [DISC. VIII. 

eth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will 
turn again, he will have compassion on us; he will subdue our iniqui 
ties ; and he will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea/ 5 " The 
Lord their God, in the midst of them, is mighty ; he will save, he will 
rejoice over them with joy ; he will rest in his love ; he will joy over 
them with singing." " He giveth unto them eternal life : and they 
shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hand." He 
gives many distinct proofs, both to others and to themselves, that they 
are the objects of his peculiar regard. " All things are theirs, whether 
Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, whether in life, or death ; all 
is theirs ; for they are Christ s ; and Christ is God s." Even in the 
present state, he makes it evident that the Lord hath set apart the 
godly man for himself, and " in the day that he shall make up his jew 
els," collect his treasure, he will bestow on them such " an exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory," as shall make all the intelligent universe 
see and acknowledge that they are His : in a peculiar sense his prop 
erty, his portion ; those whom he is determined to honor and bless, to 
the greatest degree in which created beings can be made possessors 
of dignity and blessedness. 1 

And all the glory, all the felicity, included in God treating them as 
a people for a purchased possession, a peculiar treasure, is obtained by 
connection with Christ, and is a farther demonstration of his grace to 
those on whom it is bestowed. In coming to Christ ye were made 
such a people, and in this surely " ye have tasted that the Lord was 
gracious." 

Is it possible to estimate too highly those honors, and advantages, 
and delights, to which Christians are, by the grace of their Lord, 
raised ? Is it not obviously and undeniably true, that " the things 
which God laid up for those who love him," under the new economy, 
and which he has made known to us by his Holy Spirit, are what 
"eye had not seen, what ear had not heard, and what it had never 
entered," it could never have entered, " into the heart of man to con 
ceive ?" 2 How glorious is the society they are connected with, em 
bracing in it all the true excellence in the universe ! They are, in 
deed, associates of no^gnoble confraternity, citizens of no mean city ; 
and how rich, how varied, how invaluable, are the privileges which, 
as members of the holy nation, of the peculiar people, they enjoy ! 

How strong a motive to gratitude, and obedience, and submission ! 
Well does it become every Christian, "gathered from among the 
heathen," and " made to inherit the throne of glory," to say with 
David, " Who am I, and what is my Father s house, that thou hast 
brought me hitherto ?" " What shall I render to the Lord for all his 
benefits ? Truly, O Lord, I am thy servant, the son of thine hand 
maid : thou hast loosed my bonds. I will take the cup of salvation. 
I will call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord 
in the presence of all his people." Redeemed by the precious blood 
of Christ from my vain conversation, I will no longer fashion myself 
according to my former lusts in my ignorance ; but as he who has 

1 Isa. xxvii. 2, 3. Eph. i. 3. Micah vii. 18, 19. Zeph. iii. 17. John x. 28. 1 Cor. iii 
21-23. Mai. iii. 17 18. 
a 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. 



PART III.J A PECULIAR PEOPLE. 205 

called me is holy, I will be holy in all manner of conversation. 
Bought with a price, I am not my own, and will glorify him who re 
deemed me, in my body, and in my spirit, which are His. 1 

What an abundant source of consolation and support under evil, 
of every kind, does this view of the Christian s situation afford to 
him ! Jehovah will take care of his own, of what is committed to 
him, of what has been redeemed by the blood of his Son, rescued by 
the power of his Spirit, blessed with the tokens of his peculiar regard. 
Fear not, Christian, whatever may be the number and amount of thy 
experienced or anticipated perplexities and trials, and bereavements 
and sorrows. Listen to the voice of Him, whose thou art, and whom 
thou servest : " Fear thou not ; for I am with thee : be not dismayed ; 
for I am thy God : I will strengthen thee ; yea, I will help thee ; yea, 
I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Fear not, 
for I have redeemed thee ; I have called thee by thy name, thou art 
mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; 
and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee : when thou 
walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned ; neither shall the 
flame kindle on thee. For I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of 
Israel, thy Saviour." And when HE thus says, " I will never leave 
thee, I will never forsake thee ; surely thou mayest boldly say, The 
Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what either man or devil ean 
do to me." 2 

What a powerful incentive is here offered to seek "part and lot" 
in this holy nation, among this peculiar people ! All who belong to it 
were once " aliens from the commonwealth of the spiritual Israel, 
strangers to the covenant of promise." They w r ere as " sheep going 
astray ; but they have returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of souls." 
And how were they brought near ? By the blood of the cross, by 
the power of the Spirit, by the faith of the truth. They believed on 
Christ, they came to him, and thus "they tasted that the Lord is gra 
cious." Does not their happiness proclaim, louder than any language, 
" O, taste and see that the Lord is good ?" The way, though, alas ! 
unfrequented, is an open one. The grace of the Lord is not " a well 
shut up, a fountain sealed." " Return, ye backsliding children ; I have 
redeemed you." " I, even I, am he who blotted out transgressions, 
for my own sake." " I will heal your backsliding, I will love you 
freely." Believe the truth as it is in Jesus, come to HIM, and all the 
blessings of salvation are yours. "He that hath the Son hath life, he 
that hath not the Son hath not life." " Eternal life is the gift of God, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord." It may, it must be yours, if you do 
not obstinately refuse to receive what is freely given us of God; 3 
refuse, neglect, to receive it, and you are undone forever, and must 
receive what you have earned : " the wages of sin death ;" 

" Future death, 

And death still future. Not a hasty stroke, 
Like that which sends us to the dusty grave : 
But unrepealable, enduring death 
Ages of future misery." 4 

1 2 Sam. vii. 18. Psal. cxvi. 12-14. 1 Cor. vi. 20. 

8 Isa. xli. 10 ; xliii. 2. Heb. xtii. 5, 6. 

* 1 Pet. ii. 25. Jer. iii. 14, 22. Isa. xliil 25. Hos. xiv. 4. 1 John v. 12. Rom. vi. 23 

Cowper. 



206 THE PRIVILEGES OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

Escape then, from the city of destruction ; break off all connection 
with " the sinful nation," " the people of God s curse." " Escape for 
thy life ; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain : es 
cape to the mountain," to the city of refuge, the mystical Jerusalem, 
whose name is Jehovah- Tzidkenu, "the Lord our righteousness. " 
Escape lest thou be consumed ; delay is madness, may be ruin : 
" Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." 1 

The statements now made have not produced their proper effect 
if they have not excited in our bosoms an earnest desire, which finds 
its appropriate utterance in these beautiful words of the psalmist, 
" Remember me, O Lord, with the favor which thou bearest unto 
thy people : O visit me with thy salvation ; that I may see the good 
of thy chosen, the chosen generation ; that I may rejoice in the glad 
ness of thy nation, the holy nation ; that I may glory with thine in 
heritance," " the peculiar people, the purchased possession, the spe 
cial treasure " 2 That prayer, offered in faith, is sure to be answered ; 
and that prayer offered and answered, we are made up for eternity. 
" We have all and abound." Our need is supplied according to God s 
glorious riches. We have " exceedingly abundantly above all that 
we can ask or think." Our joy is full, full forever. 

(7.) Christians are " called to show forth the praises of God." 

The next appellation applied to Christians is, " Called to show 
forth the praises of him who has called them out of darkness into his 
marvellous light." To the consideration of this let us now proceed. 

The allusion to ancient Israel, which pervades the previous part 
of the verse, and attention to which we have found of so much use 
to bring out its meaning, is to be recognized here also. Jehovah 
called Israel out of Egypt, a state of slavery and degradation, figura 
tively termed by the psalmist "a state of darkness and the shadow of 
death," into a state of liberty and dignity, figuratively described as 
" the light of the countenance of Jehovah," probably with a reference 
to the supernatural bright cloud, the emblem of the divine presence, 
to be to himself " a chosen generation, a kingdom of priests, a holy 
nation, a peculiar people," in order to manifest by them his own in 
finite excellencies, his power, his wisdom, his righteousness, his benig 
nity, his faithfulness. When God " went to redeem Israel for a peo 
ple to himself, it was to make to himself a name." 9 When " he 
brought them up out of the sea," to use the sublime language of 
Isaiah, " with Moses, the shepherd of his flock, when he put his Holy 
Spirit within him, and led them by his right hand, dividing the 
waters before him, it was to make to himself an everlasting, a glorious 
name." * And of Israel, thus called and redeemed by him, he says, 
" I have created him for my glory, I have formed him ; yea, I have 
made him." I have caused to cleave to me, says Jehovah by the 
prophet Jeremiah, " I have caused to cleave to me the whole house of 

1 Gen. xix. 17. Jer. xxxiii. 16. Isa. xlix. 8. 2 Cor. vi 2. 

2 Psal. cvi. 4, 5. s 2 Sam. vii. 23. 

4 Isa. Ixiii. 11, 12. " Respectus habetur ad caput xv, Exodi, in quo describitur 
canticum laudis quod Israelite post eductionem ex Egypto per mare rubrum, iu gloriam 
DEI liberatoris composuerunt." BEDA. 



PART III.] CALLED TO SHOW FORTH GOD S PRAISE. 207 

Israel and the whole house of Judah ; that they may be to me for a 
people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory/ l 

The great economies of Providence and Redemption form but one 
system of divine manifestation ; a connected series of revelations of 
" eternal power and godhead ;" the infinite wisdom, righteousness, and 
benignity of Him, " of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are 
all things." The Mosaic economy, the history of the Israelitish peo 
ple, is a very interesting chapter in this book, in which God has man 
ifested his character. All that God did for Israel in making them a 
nation ; all the privileges he bestowed on them as a nation ; all the de 
liverances he vouchsafed them, and all the judgments he inflicted on 
them : all that he did to them, and all that he did by them, was in 
tended for the revelation of his character, for the manifestation of 
his glory. Israel became to him a chosen generation ; a kingdom of 
priests ; a holy nation ; a peculiar people ; to show forth his praise. 
His dispensations to Israel manifested his character, not only to 
them, but to surrounding nations. He made " his wrath and his 
power/ his wisdom and his mercy, known in the redemption of Israel, 
and in the destruction of their proud oppressors. " He saved them 
for his name s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be 
known, and that men might know that he was Jehovah." And this 
was not only their design and tendency, it was to some extent their 
effect. Jethro was not at all singular in the sentiments he avowed 
in his address to his son-in-law : "Now know I that Jehovah is greater 
than all gods ; for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was 
above them." 2 

Israel was intended, not merely passively, but also actively, to de 
clare the character, to show forth the praises, of Jehovah. While 
the nations around them were " worshipping and serving the creature 
more than the Creator ; having changed the truth of God into a lie, 
and his glory into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to 
birds, and to four-footed beasts, and to creeping things," 3 throughout 
the land of Israel was proclaimed the sublime truth, " Jehovah is our 
God, Jehovah is one." They were his " witnesses ;" and in the holy 
oracles, which they preserved most faithfully ; in the ordinances of 
worship which they maintained ; and in the degree in which their 
characters were moulded by that revelation, and those ordinances, 
did they shine as the lights of a darkened world, and hold forth to their 
benighted fellow-men the truth respecting the Supreme Being. 

These observations respecting the-manner in which ancient Israel, 
after the flesh, was called by Jehovah out of darkness into light, to 
be a chosen generation, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a pecu 
liar people, in order to show forth his praise, will be found of mate 
rial use to us in our inquiry into the higher sense, the deeper meaning, 
in which these statements are applicable to the spiritual Israel. 

Taking them as our key, let us now proceed to ask, What is this 
calling here spoken of ? Who is its author? What is its object? 
And how does such a call from such a being, for such an object, 
afford illustration of the graciousness of the Lord to those who re 
ceive it ? 

1 Isa. xliii. 7. Jer. xiii. 11. a Exod. xviii. 11. * Rom. i. 21-25. 



208 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

To the first of these questions the answer is short and easy. As 
the calling of ancient Israel was the divine command and invita 
tion, by Moses, to leave Egypt, and enter on the privileges and 
duties of God s peculiar people, first in the wilderness, and "then in 
Canaan, a calling made effectual by a series of divine interpositions ; 
so the calling of the spiritual Israel, is the divine call and invitation 
to enter, through the belief of the truth, on the privileges and duties 
of his spiritual, peculiar people, first on earth, then in heaven. It is 
this invitation, rendered effectual by the operation of the good Spirit 
leading them to comply with it, which the apostle calls the Christian s 
"high" and "heavenly," "holy" and "hopeful" "calling not accord 
ing to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, given 
us in Christ Jesus before the world began ;" " a calling into the fel 
lowship of God s Son," whereby we, who were the children of the 
devil, become, like Him, the children of God ; we, who were vile and 
debased, " without God," " far from God," become, like Him, " kings 
and priests to God ;" we, who were profane and of the world, become 
in our measure, like Him, the Holy One of God ; we, who had de 
nied God s property in us, and who were the fit objects of his judi 
cial displeasure, and moral disapprobation, become, like Him, the sub 
jects of his peculiar property, the objects of his special love. This is 
the effectual calling, so well described in our Shorter Catechism, as 
" the work of God s Holy Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin 
and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and 
renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus 
Christ, as he is offered to us in the gospel," and thus enter on the 
enjoyment of all the blessings of the " redemption that is in him." l 

It is equally easy to answer the question, Who is the author of this 
calling ? There is no mistaking who He is, who is described as " He 
who called Christians out of darkness into his marvellous light." At 
first sight we might perhaps suppose, that this is a descriptive appel 
lation of our Lord Jesus Christ. But when we look at the passages 
of Scripture where this calling is mentioned, and they are numerous, 
we shall come to the conclusion that it is God the Father, who, in the 
whole restorative economy, sustains the majesty of the Divinity. In 
the new creation, " all things are of God, through Christ Jesus," 2 by 
the Spirit. The call to ancient Israel, was the call of Jehovah by 
Moses. The call to the spiritual Israel, is the call of Jehovah by Jesus, 
speaking in his word, working by his Spirit. His call alone is effect 
ual. His word is the word that "leaps forth at once into effect ; that 
calls for things that be not, and they are ;" the word, that makes men 
what it calls them to be. 

The third question, What is the design of this calling ? will require 
a somewhat more detailed reply. They are called to " show forth the 
praises of him, who hath called them out of darkness into his marvel 
lous light." The word " praises" is more literally rendered in the 
margin, as you may observe, " virtues." 3 It is a general name for the 
excellencies of the Divine Being, His power and wisdom, and holi 
ness, and benignity, especially as displayed in calling them, and in the 

1 Phil. iii. 14. Heb. iii. 1. 2 Tim. i. 9. Eph. i. 18 ; iv. 4. Short. Cat. Q. 31. 

* 2 Cor. V. IS. 3 dpsras. 



PART III.] CALLED TO SHOW FORTH GOD S PRAISE. 209 

privileges, honors, and blessings, to which they are called. The design, 
then, of calling Christians to the enjoyment of their peculiar privileges, 
was, that the excellencies of the Divine Author of their calling might 
be displayed. This is the great ultimate end of God in everything: 
the manifestation of his own excellence. " The Lord hath made all 
things for himself." l " To him," as well as " of him, and through him, 
are all things." " For him," as well as "by him, are all things." 2 

There is no end so grand, so comprehensive of all other desirable 
ends, so worthy of the all-perfect Being, as this. " The highest agent 
cannot work but for the highest end ; so that, as the apostle speaks, 
when God would confirm his covenant by an oath, he swears by him 
self, because he could swear by no greater ; so in all, he must be the 
end of his own actions, because there is no greater nor better end ; 
yea, none by infinite odds, so great or good." 3 It is plain, that just 
in the degree that God manifests his power, and wisdom, and good 
ness, must the order and happiness of the inanimate and sensitive cre 
ation be promoted ; and just in the degree in which his moral excel 
lencies are displayed to rightly constituted, intelligent beings, must 
their happiness be increased. The more they know of God, the more 
they love God, as known ; the more they are conformed to God, the 
holier and the happier are they. 

Christians, as the called of God, are intended to show forth the ex 
cellencies of God, both passively and actively. Those wonderful dis 
pensations of power, and righteousness, and benignity, the incarnation 
and sacrifice of the divine Son, and the regenerating and sanctifying 
influences of the divine Spirit, are the most remarkable displays 
which probably ever have been, or ever will be, made to the intelli 
gent universe of "the virtues," the powers, the excellencies, of the 
divine character. Everything else, when compared with these, may 
be termed, to use the prophet Habakkuk s expression, " the hiding" 
rather than the manifestation of his excellencies. If a man wishes to 
know the true character of God, let him study it as embodied in these 
dispensations ; let him look at God in Christ ; " the glory of God in 
the face of Christ Jesus." 4 We know that they were intended to 
serve this purpose, not only to men, but to higher orders of intelli 
gent beings. We know that such things took place, " to the intent, 
that unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, might 
be made known by," through means of, " the church," the called ones, 
the chosen generation, the kingdom of priests, the holy nation, the pe 
culiar people, not only " the manifold wisdom of God," 5 but the riches 
of his grace, the exceeding greatness of his power, the unfathomable 
depth of his knowledge, the immutability of his purpose, the energy of 
his wrath, the omnipotence of his love. 

And we know, too, they answer this purpose. They awaken the 
holy curiosity of those exalted holy spirits ; and though they feel their 
highest powers overtasked in the study, "into these things they desire 
to look." 6 They discover in Jehovah a depth of excellence, which, 
though they believed it to exist, they had never seen before exhibited, 
and they had never distinctly before conceived of. Forms of moral 

1 Prov. xvi. 4. 2 Rom. xi. 36. Heb. ii. 10. * Leighton. 

* Hab. iii. iv. 2 Cor. v. 19 ; iv. 6. & Eph. iii. 10. 1 Pet. i. 12. 

14 



210 THE PRIVILEGES OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

loveliness present themselves to their minds, more beautiful than any 
they had ever imagined ; they burn with a more intense devotion ; 
they are penetrated with a higher sense of entire confidence in the 
All-excellent One; the salvation of man thus adding to the happiness 
of angels. So glorious is the illustration that is given of the Divine 
character in these dispensations, that the inspired prophet, when con 
templating it, breaks out into those rapturous strains, " I have blot 
ted out/ says Jehovah to the spiritual Israel, " I have blotted out, as 
a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins ; return to 
me ; for I have redeemed thee. Sing, M exclaims the prophet, " O ye 
heavens ; for the Lord hath done it ; shout, ye lower parts of the 
earth ; break forth into singing, ye mountains ; O forest, and every 
tree therein : for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself 
in Israel." l And this is true, not only with regard to the grand dis 
pensations in which all the called ones are equally interested ; but the 
individual history of each of them is a mirror, in which " the minis 
tering spirits who minister to them, as heirs of salvation," see re 
flected the excellencies of Him who works all for them, in them, and 
by them. 

But the called ones are not merely passive instruments ; they are 
agents in showing forth Jehovah s praise. The manifestation of God 
made to them in their calling, and the privileges into which it con 
ducts them, produce in their minds just views of the Divine character, 
and a corresponding mode of thinking and feeling, and speaking, and 
acting, so that they cannot but show forth the praises of Him who 
has called them. This is the great design of God in giving them the 
privilege. If they are "predestinated to the adoption of children by 
Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will," it 
is " that they might be to the praise of the glory of his grace/ 2 If 
they are planted by him as " trees of righteousness," it is " that he 
might be glorified." 3 If they are "bought with a price," it is that 
they may " glorify Him with their souls, and with their bodies, which 
are his." 4 If they are "filled with the fruits of righteousness," it is 
"to the praise and glory of God." 5 If they "obtain the inheritance," 
it is " to the praise of his glory." If " the purchased possession" at 
last is redeemed completely and forever from all evil, still it is " to the 
praise of His glory." 6 

How the holy, heavenly temper and conduct of the called ones 
answer the great purpose of their calling, is very beautifully described 
by Archbishop Leighton : "The virtues that are in them tell us of 
His virtues, as brooks lead us to their springs. When a Christian can 
quietly repose and trust on God in a matter of very great difficulty, 
wherein there is no other thing to stay him but God alone : this de 
clares plainer than words that there is strength enough in God that 
bears him up ; that there must be in him that real abundance of good 
ness and truth that the word speaks of him. Abraham believed and 
gave glory to God : this is what every believer can do to declare the 
truth of God. He can rely, and show that he relies, on it, and thus 
set to his seal that God is true. Men hear that there is a God who 

1 Isa. xliv. 22, 23. a Eph. i. 5. 3 Isa. Ixi. 3. 

4 1 Cor. vi. 20. B Phil. i. 11. Eph. i. 11-14. 



PART III.] CALLED TO SHOW FORTH GOD*S PRAISE. 211 

is infinitely holy, but they can neither see him nor his holiness ; but 
when they perceive some lineaments of it in the faces of his children 
which are in none others, this may convince them that it is perfec 
tion, which must be somewhere, can be nowhere else but in their 
heavenly Father. When those that are his peculiar plants bring forth 
the fruits of holiness, which naturally they yielded not, it testifies a 
supernatural work of his hand that planted them, and the more fruitful 
they are, the greater his praise : Herein is my Father glorified/ says 
our Saviour, that ye bring forth much fruit. " l Their lives on 
earth should be a hymn of praise to him who called them ; and we 
know that in heaven, throughout eternity, they rest not day nor night ; 
but in a manner suited to their enlarged capacities and exalted sta 
tion, without interruption "show forth the praises of Him who has 
called them out of darkness into marvellous light :" " Holy, holy, holy, 
Lord God Almighty, who wast, and art, and art to come. Thou art 
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power ; for thou 
riast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were cre 
ated." 2 

It only remains that we say a word or two on the manifestation of 
the graciousness of the Lord to Christians, afforded by their being 
called to show forth the praises of him who called them. To be made 
capable of, disposed to, and actually to be employed in, showing forth 
the praises of Jehovah, is the highest dignity and happiness which 
can be conferred on created intelligent beings. This was the happi 
ness of man in Paradise ; this is the essence of the happiness of the 
blessed in heaven. " It is," indeed, to refer to the description of 
man s original state by a master mind, 3 equally applicable to man s 
restored state, " It is a most delectable and pleasant state to be 
separated to the entertainment of the divine presence, and the mani 
festation of the divine glory : Thou art mine, and for me thou livest. 
Thee, above all my works, I choose out for myself. Thine employ 
ment shall be no laborious, painful drudgery, unless it can be painful 
to receive the large communications of immense goodness, light, life, 
and love, that shall of their own accord be perpetually flowing in upon 
thee, and to express in thy whole character and conduct thy sense of 
my infinite greatness and goodness ! " Surely this is a high privi 
lege ; and as, like all the privileges of Christians, it is enjoyed only in 
Christ Jesus in consequence of believing on him, coming to him, 
building on him; as it not more certainly comes from God than it 
comes by Christ ; as, but for his mediation, this honor, this blessed 
ness, could never have found its way to one of our fallen race ; we 
may well say, that in enjoying it, Christians "taste that the Lord is 
gracious." 

It becomes the called of the Lord to avail themselves of the priv 
ileges, and to perform the duties, of their high, and holy, and heavenly 
calling. By your lips, by your lives, " holy brethren, partakers of the 
heavenly calling," honor Him who has called you, Him into whose 
fellowship you have been called. "God s dear Son" did so. Yes, 
" he glorified his Father on the earth ; he finished the w r ork he gave 
him to do." His most ardent prayer was, " Father, glorify thy Son, 

1 John. xv. 8. 2 Rev. iv. 8, 11. 3 Howe. 



212 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

that thy Son also may glorify thee." Nothing could shake his deter 
mination as to this : " Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I 
say ?" Shall I say, " Father, save rne from this hour ?" No ; " for 
this cause I came" to this hour." I will say, " Father, glorify thy 
name." 1 And now in heaven he declares his Father s name to his 
brethren, and in the great congregation he shows forth his praise. 2 

" Let this mind be in you that was in him." " Praise the name of 
the Lord, for his name alone is excellent : his glory is above the earth 
and heaven. He exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his 
saints ; even of the children of Israel, a people near to him. " Praise 
ye the Lord, for he is good ; sing praises to his name, for it is pleas 
ant. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for 
his peculiar treasure." " Bless the Lord, O house of Israel : bless the 
Lord, O house of Aaron : bless the Lord, O house of Levi : ye that 
fear the Lord, bless the Lord." " Praise the Lord, call on his name, 
declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is 
exalted. Sing unto the Lord ; for he hath done excellent things : 
this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of 
Zion : for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." 
"Publish with the voice of thanksgiving, tell of all his wondrous 
w r orks." Let every called, redeemed one, adopt the psalmist s reso 
lution : " I will praise thee, even thy truth, O my God : unto thee will 
I sing, O thou Holy One of Israel. My lips shall greatly rejoice when 
I sing unto thee ; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed." " I will 
praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart ; and I will glorify thy 
name for evermore. For great is thy mercy towards me ; and thou 
hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell." " I will sing unto the 
Lord as long as I live ; I will sing praise to my God while I have any 
being. My meditation of him shall be sweet ; I will be glad in the 
Lord." 3 O what a heaven on earth might, would Christians have, 
were they acting worthy of their high and holy calling, as a holy 
priesthood, " offering the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is 
the fruit of their lips, giving thanks to his name." 

But are all here among " the called, and chosen, and faithful ?" 4 
Would God it were so. But I more than fear that there are persons 
here, who, though called, often called, affectionately, earnestly called, 
have never been effectually called ; who are yet without the pale of 
the chosen race, the kingdom of priests, the holy nation, the peculiar 
people, having no part nor lot in their peculiar privileges. For this 
class we ought to feel the deepest commiseration, the tenderest pity ; 
and the best way of showing this Is to endeavor to make them under 
stand their real position. My dear fellow immortals, there can be 
no doubt your duty is to show forth the praises of God. That is the 
first duty of every intelligent creature, and nothing can release you 
from its obligation. God will be glorified in you whether you will 
or not. If you will not give him glory, he will make your rebellion 
and its fearful consequences praise him. How loud is the acclaim 

1 John xvii. 1, 4 ; xii. 2t, 28. a Psal. xxii. 22. Heb. ii. 12. 

8 Psal. cxlviii. 13, 14 ; cxxxv. 3, 4, 19, 20. Isa. xii. 4-6. Psal. xxvi. 7 ; Ixxi. 22, 23 ; 
hcxxvi. 12, 13; civ. 33, 34. 
* Heb. xiii. 15. Rev. xvii. 14. 



PART III.] CALLED OUT OP DARKNESS INTO LIGHT. 213 

which rises among the holy part of God s intelligent creation, " when 
the smoke of the torment," of the irreclaimably wicked, " ascendeth 
up forever and ever !" " Alleluia ; and again they cry, Alleluia." 
" Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty ; just and 
true are all thy ways, O King of Saints !" " Righteous is Jehovah, 
and righteous are his judgments." l In your present state you are 
morally incapable of praising God or glorifying his name. You never 
will do anything really glorifying to God, till, casting down the weap 
ons of rebellion against him, you, in the faith of the truth, " kiss the 
Son," whom he has "set as his King on his holy hill of Zion." 8 
Listen to the call, come to Jesus, glorify God by crediting the testi 
mony he has given of a free and full salvation in his Son for the chief 
of sinners ; and then, not till then, " tasting that the Lord is gracious," 
will you find yourselves sweetly constrained to devote yourselves en 
tirely to the honor of Him, whom you will then see and feel to be in 
finitely excellent, amiable, and kind, the Saviour, your Saviour. You 
will no longer be able to " live to yourselves," to make self your great 
object. GOD will appear to be what he is " all in all ;" and this will 
be your resolution, and your rejoicing, "Whether I live, I live to the 
Lord ; whether I die, I die to the Lord : living and dying I am the 
Lord s. Whether I eat, or drink, or whatsoever I do, I will do all to 
the glory of God. Whatever I do, whether in word or deed, I will 
do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father." 
" MY mouth shall speak the praises of the Lord : and let all flesh 
bless his holy name forever and ever." " Oh that there were in you 
such a heart to honor God, that it might be well with you forever." 3 
It cannot be well with you otherwise, either in time or eternity. 

(8.) Christians are " called out of darkness into God s marvellous 

Kght." 

The next descriptive designation of true Christians which presents 
itself to our consideration is, "Called out of darkness into God s mar 
vellous light." The language is obviously figurative ; and here, as 
in every similar case, the first thing to be done is to endeavor to ob 
tain a distinct idea of the figure .employed. This is obviously neces 
sary in order to our satisfactorily arriving at the thought it is intended 
to convey. The general meaning of the expression is plain. The 
appellation describes Christians as brought by divine agency from a 
very miserable into a very desirable state. But to ascertain the na 
ture of the wretchedness of the one state, and the happiness of the 
other, it is requisite that we know something as to the darkness to 
which the one, and the light to which the other, is compared. 

It has been supposed by some that the figure here is that which is 
employed by the psalmist to describe one class of the deliverances 
which the redeemed of the Lord are called on to acknowledge as a 
proof that he is good, that his mercy endureth forever ; deliverance 
from the darkness of a dungeon, and restoration to the healthful air 
and the blessed light of heaven. 4 And thus considered it would afford 

1 Rev. xix. 3 ; xv. 3 ; xix. 2. 3 Psal. ii. 6, 12. 

3 Rom. xiv. 8. 1 Cor. x. 31. Col. iii. 17. Psal. cxlv. 22. Deut. v. 29. 

4 Psal. cvii. 10-14. 



214 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

a very instructive view of the state of Christians, both before and 
after their believing on, coming to, building on Christ. 

I cannot help thinking, however, that, as in all the other descriptive 
designations of Christians in this beautiful passage, there is a refer 
ence to something in the history or situation of the ancient people of 
God ; the figure here, too, is drawn from the same prolific source of 
illustrations of Christian truth. I apprehend it refers to the remarka 
ble event, their deliverance from Egypt, which led to their becoming 
the select race, the kingdom of priests, the holy nation, the peculiar 
people. God " called Israel out of Egypt," l and called them out of 
Egypt to make them a peculiar people to himself. But how should 
the call out of Egypt be represented as a call " out of darkness into 
light," " God s light," " God s marvellous light ?" A slight attention 
to the circumstances of the deliverance from Egypt, will enable us to 
answer this question. 

Egypt was enveloped in midnight darkness, made tenfold more ter 
rible by the last and severest of all its plagues, the death of the first 
born of man and beast, when Israel was called by God to leave that 
scene of his degradation and suffering. On the evening of the tenth 
day of the month Abib, the Israelites having by divine command 
made preparations for departure, in each of their families slew a lamb 
and sprinkled its blood on the posts and lintels of the doors of their 
dwellings. They hastily ate the roasted lamb, with their loins girt, 
their shoes on their feet, and their staves in their hands. At the dark 
hour of midnight the destroying angel accomplished at one stroke 
his awful work. " From the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on the 
throne, unto the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon," 
all all became his victims. Nor was even the brute creation ex 
empted from the general plague. " There was a great cry in Egypt ;" 
for there was not a house, except the blood-sprinkled habitations of 
Israel, where there was not one dead. It was the voice of Jehovah, 
though uttered by the mouth of Pharaoh, that proclaimed, amid the 
darkness and death of that night, " Rise up, and get you forth !" 
From amidst this fearful darkness, meet emblem of the miseries they 
had endured, "Jehovah calleth his people." 2 

And as he "called them out of darkness," so he "called them into 
his marvellous light." That was a night much to be remembered ; 
for when God called his people from Egypt, "he went before them 
by night as a pillar of fire, to give them light, to lead them in the 
way." Thus " he sent darkness, and made it dark. He smote also 
all the first-born in their land, the chief of their strength. He 
brought forth his people with silver and gold. Egypt was glad when 
they departed. He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give 
light in the night." 3 Thus did God call his ancient people "out of 
darkness into his marvellous light." 

Such, we apprehend, is the figure : now for its interpretation. 
What is the darkness out of which the spiritual Israel is delivered ? 
What the marvellous light into the midst of which they are brought 
to dwell? It has often been said that the one is the emblem of the 
absolute darkness of Heathenism, or the comparative darkness of 
1 Hos. xi. 11. a Exod. xii. passim. 8 Psai cv. 28, 36-39. 



PART in.] CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS INTO LIGHT. 215 

Judaism, and the other of the pure light of the gospel dispensation. 
There can be no doubt that the persons directly addressed were 
delivered out of the former, and were introduced into the latter ; but 
we mistake much, if both the darkness and the light here be not 
rather subjective than objective, rather that which reigns within than 
that which prevails without. Like the parallel expression, "Once 
were ye darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord," the expression 
in the text refers to the darkness of the unregenerate state, and the 
light of the renewed mind. It describes what the New Testament 
represents as so important, " repentance towards God," a change of 
mind. 1 

The darkness oufof which Christians are brought at their conver 
sion, is a state in which the sun of the intelligent world, GOD, who is 
Might, and in whom there is no darkness at all," "the Father of 
lights," the Author of true knowledge, holiness, and happiness, does 
not shine ; in other words, where ignorance and error with regard to 
God, and therefore with regard to everything of importance in a 
religious and moral point of view, prevail ; and in which, of conse 
quence, there is, there can be, no true holiness ; in which there is, 
and must be, depravity ; and in which, in consequence of this error, 
and ignorance, and depravity, there is, there can be, no true solid 
happiness ; where there is, and must be misery, in the highest sense 
in which that word can be applied to a being like man. This is the 
darkness in which Christians, in common with the rest of the race, 
are naturally involved ; and this is the darkness out of which they 
are called by God. There is the less necessity for our dwelling on 
this part of the subject, as I have already had occasion, when de 
scribing the various aspects of the state of Christians, previously to 
their connection with Christ, exhibited in the text, to illustrate their 
state of moral darkness, in its threefold phases of ignorance, deprav 
ity, and misery. 2 

Let us rather turn our attention to the more grateful object of con 
templation, that state of light, divine light, marvellous divine light, 
into which Christians are called by God : " The light of the knowl 
edge of the glory of God, hi the face of Christ Jesus," is made to 
" shine in the mind ;" 3 that is, in plain words, the individual, by being 
brought, under divine influence, to understand and believe the revela 
tion of the holy and benignant character of God, made in that gospel 
which contains an account of the person and work of him, the only 
begotten of God, who is the revealer of the Father, attains just views 
of God, which necessarily lead to just views on all other subjects, 
specially interesting to man as a religious and moral being. He no 
longer " walks in darkness, but has the light of life." He knows and 
is sure "that God is, and that he is the rewarder of them who dili 
gently seek him." He knows, and is sure, that he is " glorious in 
holiness, and rich in mercy;" that he is "the just God and the Sav 
iour;" "just and the justifier of the ungodly believing in Jesus;" 
"God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself; not imputing to 
men their trespasses, seeing he has made him who knew no sin, to be 
sin for us ; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 

1 Eph. v. 8. Acts xx. 21. a Vide Part L 2. s 2 Cor. iv. 6. 



216 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

He " knows the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent." l 
And this glorious light dispels the surrounding darkness, it corrects a 
thousand mistakes, clears up a thousand difficulties ; as the sun not 
only enables us to see itself, but everything else. 

This light of knowledge is also the light of purity. It is a light 
which has heat with it, producing the blossoms of holy affection, the 
fruits of holy conduct. When God is truly known, sanctifying virtue 
comes forth from him. The love of God, the seminal principle, the 
concentrated essence of holiness in intelligent creatures, is the natural 
result of this knowledge of God. What is the knowledge we have 
been describing, but such an apprehension of the Divine mind and 
will as makes it our mind and will ; and what is this but holiness, for 
what is holiness in an intelligent creature, but conformity of mind 
and will to the Holy, Holy, Holy One ? This is very beautifully 
illustrated by the apostle : " Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are 
ye light in the Lord : walk as the children of light ; for the fruit of 
the light (for such is the true reading), the fruit of the light is in all 
goodness and righteousness, and truth." 2 In another passage, he 
employs another and still more striking image : We all, with unveiled 
faces, like mirrors, exposed to the glory of the Lord, are made glori 
ous by that which is glorious, the glory of God in the face of his 
Son ; we reflect his light, and thus ourselves become luminous 
Through his shining on us, we ourselves shine. 3 

This light is productive of rational joy, permanent happiness, as 
well as of knowledge and of holiness. The truth respecting the 
Divine character cannot be known by man without producing hap 
piness : " It is life eternal to know the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom he has sent :" " Blessed are the people who know that 
joyful sound, Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne : 
mercy and truth go before thy face. Blessed are the people who 
know this joyful sound : they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy 
countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day ; and in thy 
righteousness shall they be exalted." All the holy affections which 
naturally grow out of the knowledge and faith of the truth, are so 
many wells of living water, springing up to eternal life. " Light is 
sown," shed forth, its rays scattered, like the seed from the hand of 
the sower, " on the righteous, and gladness on the upright in heart." 
To love God, to fear God, to trust in God, are most delightful exer 
cises. 4 

Such is, I apprehend, in its great leading lineaments, that state of 
light into which Christians are called by God, a state of knowledge, 
holiness, and happiness. This light is not perfect in this present 
world, but it is real, and it is progressive and inextinguishable. It is 
not like " the light of the wicked," the blaze of thorns, or the deceitful 
wild-fire, which "shall be darkened;" it is like "the shining light," 
the sun in the heavens, " which shines more and more unto the per- 

1 John viii. 12. Heb. xi. 6. Exod. xv. 11. Eph. ii. 4. Isa. xlv. 21. Rom. iii. 26. 
2 Cor. v. 19-21. John xvii. 3. 

a Eph. V. 8. fij Ttxva 0cordf TTepnrareTTS b yap Kapnos TOV ^wroj (not TrvevpaTOf as in thl 
textus receptus) i navy dyadwavvr, K. r. \. 

8 2 Cor. iii. 18. * John xvii 3. Psal. Ixxxix. 14-16. Psal. xcvii. 7. 



PART III.] CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS INTO LIGHT. 217 

feet day." 1 As the pious Archbishop says, There is a bright morn 
ing, without cloud, which will arise. The saints have not only light 
to lead them in their journey, but much purer light at home, an 
inheritance in light. The land where their inheritance lieth is full of 
light, and their inheritance itself is light. The vision of God, the 
seeing him as he is, and the being like him, in consequence of seeing 
him as he is ; that inheritance, the celestial city, has no need of the 
sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of the Lord doth lighten it, 
and the Lamb is the light of it. That uncreated light is the happi 
ness of our soul ; the beginnings of it are our begun happiness. 
They are beams of it sent from above to lead us to the fountain and 
fulness of it. With thee, says David, is the fountain of life ; and 
in thy light shall we see light. " 2 

This u light," this state of knowledge, holiness, and happiness, into 
which Christians are called, is termed "God s light." " Called out of 
darkness into his light." It is his ; for he is its Author. He is " the 
Father of lights ; from whom cometh down every good and every 
perfect gift." 3 This is not a light produced by a fire of man s own 
kindling. It is not knowledge, moral improvement, and happiness, 
obtained by the exercise of his natural faculties of intelligence and 
action. It is the work, it is the gift- of God. " It is God the Lord 
who hath showed us light," and who, too, hath opened our blind eyes, 
to " give us the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of his 
Son." 4 HE did the great works in which his holiness and grace were 
made known ; HE made the revelation in which these glorious deeds 
are recorded ; HE opens the understanding to understand this reve 
lation ; and HE opens the heart to love it, so that we are enlightened, 
and purified, and blessed by it. It is thus His, as he is the author of 
it ; and it is His, too, as he is the subject of it. Yes, God is " all in 
all" of this light. It is God known that makes us wise; God con 
formed to that makes us holy ; God enjoyed that makes us happy. 
Jehovah is the light of his people, not only the Author, but the essence 
of their happiness. 

This light, this state of knowledge, purity, and happiness, is also 
termed marvellous, " God s marvellous," strange, wonderful " light." 
The light which emblematized it, the pillar of fire, was a marvellous 
light. It was supernatural, and so is this light. " It is the doing of 
the Lord, and it is marvellous" in the eyes of all who behold it. It 
produces marvellous effects, enabling us to see things invisible and 
eternal ; and by its brightness, casting into the shade things seen and 
temporal, it enables us to " see the King in his beauty, and to behold 
the land which is afar off." 5 It enables us to penetrate into the true 
characters of objects, and to distinguish shadows from realities, and 
realities from shadows. It converts a spiritual waste into the garden 
of the Lord, blooming with beauty, rich in the fruits of righteous 
ness : 

" Struck by that light, the human heart 
A barren soil no more, 



1 Job xviii. 5. Prov. iv. 18. 2 Psal. xxxvi. 9. 3 James i. 17. 

4 Psal. cxviii. 27. 2 Cor. iv. 6. 6 Psal. cxviii. 23. Isa. xxxiii. 17. 



218 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

Sends the sweet smell of grace abroad, 

Where serpents lurk d before. 
The soul a dreary province once 

Of Satan s dark domain 
Feels a new empire form d within, 

And owns a heavenly reign." 

(9.) Christians are "the people of God." 

The next appellation to which our attention must be turned is " the 
people of God." " Who were not a people," but now are " the peo 
ple of God." In these words there is an obvious reference to the 
following remarkable passages in the book of the prophet Hosea : 
" In the place where it was said to them, Ye are not my people, there 
it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God." "I 
will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy ; and I will say 
to them which were not my people, Thou art my people ; and they 
shall say, Thou art my God." * These words, as they occur in the 
Old Testament Scriptures, plainly refer to the ten tribes, who, in con 
sequence of their idolatries, were to be delivered up to a long cap 
tivity ; and not only deprived of all external marks of the Divine pe 
culiar favor, but visited with very distinct evidences of the divine 
judicial displeasure; driven from their own land; abiding for many 
days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, 
and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim." 
At a period, which we believe still to be future, these outcasts are to 
" return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king ; and 
shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." s Then they 
who have long not been a people, but a collection of wanderers among 
the nations, shall become, and be made to appear to be, as a nation, 
the peculiar objects of the Divine favor, the people of the Lord. 

The general meaning of the statement in the text is, that the pre 
vious state of Christians resembled that of the outcast remnant of 
Israel ; that they were not a people, and that their present state em 
braces in it all the dignities and advantages of which the dignities 
and advantages of Israel, the ancient people of God, were a type and 
emblem. Previously to their coming to Christ, they were "not a 
people." It is not as bodies of men, still less as political bodies of 
men, but as individuals, that men are made Christians. There is no 
such thing as wholesale conversions. It is seldom that a whole family 
is converted at once ; and even when this takes place as in the case, 
of the family of the jailer of Philippi, they are converted as individ 
uals ; and when " a nation shall be born at once," 3 as we hope and 
believe shall one day happen, even then the change will be a personal 
change in every individual. They who form the true Church of God 
were previously " not a people ;" they were unconverted individuals ; 
" one of a city, two of a family." 4 God does not take the inhabi 
tants of the Roman empire and constitute them his church. He 
" takes out of the Gentiles a people for his name." His church is a 
body formed of individuals " redeemed from among men, out of every 
kindred, and people, and nation." 5 



1 Hos. i. 10; ii. 23. 
4 Jer. iii. 14. 



2 Hos. iii. 4, 5. 3 Acts xvi. 34. Isa. Ixvi. 8. 

5 Acts xv. 14. Rev. xiv. 4 ; vii. 9. 



PART III.] THEY ARE THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 219 

But though they were previously not a people, but a set of uncon 
nected individuals, generally no way distinguished for their worldly 
respectability, for the most part belonging to the lower classes, " the 
foolish, the despised, the weak, the base things of this world ;" l yet 
now they are not only a people, a regularly organized body, but the 
"people of God." The "people of God" is here, I apprehend, just 
another term for " the spiritual Israel," " the true circumcision." You 
are the people of God, is equivalent to, You are not only a society, 
but the most illustrious of all societies ; having Jehovah for your 
king ; standing to him in a peculiar relation, suited to the genius of 
the new, and spiritual, and heavenly economy, analogous to that in 
which Israel stood to him under the former external and temporary 
dispensation. You have the substance of all the typical and emble 
matical privileges which Israel, the people of God under that order 
of things, enjoyed. Of these the apostle gives a comprehensive cata 
logue : " To them pertaineth the adoption," or the sonship, " and the 
glory and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service 
of God, and the promises ; theirs were the fathers, and of them, as 
concerning the flesh, Christ came." 2 

Now, to Christians pertain a higher species of Divine Sonship than 
ever did, than ever could, belong to Israel according to the flesh a 
nearer relation, a spiritual conformity ; higher honors ; a more valua 
ble and enduring inheritance. Instead of the Shekinah, or visible 
glory, they have the manifestation of God in the person and work of 
his Son, contained in his word, and rendered influential by his Spirit, 
to guard them from danger, and- guide them through the perplexities 
of the wilderness to the heavenly Canaan. Instead of the external 
covenants, they have that covenant which refers to " the sure mercies 
of" the mystical " David ;" " the covenant well ordered and sure," 3 
which secures not the possession of Canaan for many ages, but the 
enjoyment of heaven forever. Instead of " the law which was given 
by Moses," and which, in the existing state of the world, was a 
" grace," a privilege, the value of which could not easily be estimated, 
they have what is a far more precious favor, " the grace and the truth 
which came by Jesus Christ. 4 

Instead of the imposing solemnities of legal worship, they have the 
simple and spiritual institutions of the gospel of Christ. Instead of 
the promises of the earthly Canaan and temporal prosperity, they 
have " the exceeding great and precious promises" of " spiritual and 
heavenly blessings," and which "are all yea and Amen, in Christ 
Jesus, to the glory of God by them," 8 and shall all be completely ful 
filled in the Canaan above. They are " Abraham s seed, -according 
to the promise ;" " walking in the steps of his faith," and blessed with 
the highest blessing he enjoyed, justification by believing. And they 
are connected with the Messiah by a relation far more intimate in its 
nature, far more important in its results, than that which distinguished 
the Israelites as his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh. 
" Who is my mother ? and who are my brethren ?" said the Messiah, 
" Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the 

1 1 Cor. i. 26-29. a Rom. ix. 4. 3 Isa. lv. 3. 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. 4 John i. IT. 
2 Pet. i. 4. Eph. i. 3. 2 Cor. i. 20. 6 Gal. ill 29. Bom. iv. 12. Gal. iii. 14. 



220 THE THIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

same is my brother, and sister, and mother." 1 They are connected 
with him by a relation more intimate in its nature, and more blissful 
in its effects, than that which bound to him, as mother, the most 
blessed and honored of women. " Blessed/ said a woman from the 
midst of a crowd, with which, on one occasion, he was surrounded, 
" Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the breasts which thou hast 
sucked." " Yea, rather," said He in reply, "Yea, rather, blessed 
are those who hear the word of God, and do it." 2 Thus have true 
Christians, " who were not a people," become " the people of God," 
the spiritual Israel, the true circumcision. 

(10.) Christians " have obtained mercy." 

The only remaining designation of Christians, indicative of their 
having tasted that the Lord is gracious, that still requires illustration, 
is, that once they " had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained 
mercy." The language here, as in the case of the former designa 
tion, " who were not a people, but are now the people of God," is 
borrowed from a statement originally made with reference to the ten 
tribes, a promise of their restoration from their long captivity. "I 
will have mercy upon her who had not obtained mercy." 3 The ten 
tribes, even in the period of their abandonment by God, are the ob 
jects of his peculiar care. They are "beloved for the fathers 
sake." 4 Yet still there is a sense, and an important one, in which, 
while in this state, they do " not obtain mercy." They are destitute 
of all clear manifestations of Divine peculiar regard towards them, 
and are, indeed, plainly marked as objects of the Divine judicial dis 
pleasure. But at the time of their restoration they shall find mercy. 
They shall obtain very palpable manifestations of the Divine peculiar 
favor. " I will make a covenant for them," says Jehovah, " with the 
beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping 
things of the ground : and I will break the bow, and the sword, and 
the battle out of the earth," or the land, " and will make them to lie 
down safely. And I will betroth them to me forever ; yea, I will be 
troth them to me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving- 
kindness, and in mercies : I will even betroth them to me in faithful 
ness ; and they shall know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in 
that day, saith the Lord : I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear 
the earth ; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the 
oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her to me in the 
earth ; and I will have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy." 5 

The general truth, with respect to Christians, indicated by the 
language borrowed from the Divine dispensations to the ten tribes, is 
this : That from a state in which they were the objects of the Divine 
judicial displeasure and moral disapprobation, they are brought into 
a state in which they enjoy the most abundant evidence of his pecu 
liar favor and complacential delight. In their original state, as fallen 
creatures, ignorant, in error, guilty, depraved, they " had not obtained 
mercy." God pitied them, and gave them many proofs of his for- 

1 Matt. xii. 48, 50. 2 Luke xi. 27. 28. 3 Hos. ii. 23. 

4 Bom. xi. 28. * Hos. ii. 18-23. 



PART III.] THEY HAVE OBTAINED MERCY. 221 

bearance, and patience, and providential munificence. Nay, more 
than this, God was determined to save them : they were the objects 
of his eternal, electing, sovereign love. But they were not, they 
could not be, the objects either of his judicial approbation or of his 
complacential delight. Oh, no ! they were " condemned already ;" 
they were " children of wrath, even as others." They were " wicked," 
and as wicked "God was angry with them every day;" "enemies 
of God" by ignorance of mind, alienation of heart, and wicked 
works ; objects of his holy displeasure and righteous condemnatory 
sentence ; hopelessly, because wilfully, enslaved to Satan and to sin ; 
mortal, with nothing to sweeten the bitterness of death, or lighten the 
darkness of the grave ; immortal, yet destitute of all prospect of an 
eternity of blessedness. Such was their situation, in common with 
every individual of the fallen race to which they belong. Above 
them was an angry Divinity ; around them were the instruments of 
his vengeance ; and beneath them was the pit of perdition yawning 
wide to receive them. They " had not obtained mercy." 

Such were they once; but what are they now? They "have 
obtained mercy." In consequence of believing in Christ, coming to 
him, they have received in rich abundance manifestations of the 
Divine saving grace, of God s distinguishing mercy. " In Christ they 
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according 
to the riches of divine grace." God is " merciful to their unright 
eousness ; their sins and their iniquities he remembers no more." 
They are " made accepted in the Beloved ;" and " in him they obtain 
an everlasting inheritance." " Justified by faith, they have peace 
with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ : by whom also they have 
access by faith into this grace wherein they stand, and rejoice in 
hope of the glory of God," a hope that shall never make them ashamed. 
And " not only so, but they joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
by whom they have received the reconciliation." " Created anew 
in Christ Jesus unto good works," "God, even the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, loves them, and blesses them with all heavenly 
and spiritual blessings." They are "made partakers of a divine 
nature," and " the Spirit of God and of glory rests on them, and 
dwells in them." " They are heirs of God, joint-heirs w r ith Christ 
Jesus." God " makes all things to work together for their good." 
" None can separate them from the love of God." " None can pluck 
them out of his hand." "Now are they the sons of God; and it 
doth not yet appear what they shall be : but when he who is their 
life shall appear, they shall appear with him in glory ; and they shall 
be like him, seeing him as he is." "Goodness and mercy follow 
them all their days." " All the ways of the Lord to them," even the 
most perplexing and mysterious, " are mercy and truth to them ;" 
" they shall find mercy of him on that day ;" and throughout eternity 
shall find how true is that declaration so often repeated in Scripture, 
" The mercy of the Lord endureth forever." 2 Thus have we com- 

1 John iii. 18. Eph. ii. 3. Psal. vii. 11. Col. i. 21. Eph. iv. 18. 

3 Eph. i. 3, 7, 8, 11. Heb. viii. 12. Rom. v. 1-11. Eph. ii. 10. 2 Pet. i. 4. 1 Pot. 
iv. 14. Rom. viii. 17, 28, 35-39. John x. 28, 29. 1 John iii. 1-3. Psal. xxiii. 6 xxv. 10. 
2 Tim. i. 18. Psal. cxxxvl passim. 



222 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

pleted our illustration of the third great branch of our subject ; the 
numerous and varied dignities and blessings enjoyed by Christians, 
in consequence of their connection with Christ, viewed as manifesta 
tions of the Lord s graciousness to them. 

And here let us pause and inquire, whether we have satisfactory 
evidence that we are personally interested in these exceeding great 
and precious privileges ; that we, as the elect race, the holy nation, 
the peculiar people, have been effectually called out of darkness into 
God s marvellous light; that we, from being aliens and outcasts, have 
really been admitted among the people of God ; that we, who were 
once objects of the Divine judicial displeasure and moral disapproba 
tion, have now obtained mercy ? The characteristic marks of a state 
of unregeneracy and of a state of regeneracy, are so palpable, that 
no man needs, no man can without the grossest inattention, remain 
ignorant of which of these is his own state. 

Let those who have good ground to conclude that the great change 
has taken place in their case, that they have been turned from dark 
ness to light, that they are a portion of that people which God has 
taken from among the Gentiles to himself, that they are the recipients 
of those saving blessings which are the manifestation of the love 
which God has to his own, cherish a grateful sense of the Divine, 
sovereign kindness. Let them never forget, that it is all grace and 
mercy, sovereign grace, unmerited mercy. Not to them, not to them, 
but to Him who loved them because he wills to love them, be all the 
glory. Let them walk like the children of the light and of the day. 
Let them make their light shine before men. Let them prove that 
they are the people of God, by being zealous of good works, by 
coming out from among the wicked world, and being separate, not 
touching the unclean thing. Let them show that they are indeed the 
recipients of divine mercy, by manifesting the effects which the re 
ception of saving benefits uniformly- has on the temper and conduct. 
Let the grace of God, enjoyed by them, teach them to deny ungodli 
ness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in 
this world ; while they look for, haste to, the blessed hope, the glorious 
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for them, that 
he might redeem them from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a 
peculiar people, zealous of good works. 

And O ! let those who, if they think at all, must know that they 
are in the darkness of ignorance and sin, that they are not among the 
peculiar people, that they have not obtained mercy, consider what the 
end must be if they continue in their present condition. Pass that 
boundary which separates time from eternity, and you know that 
boundary must be passed soon by all of you, how soon, how suddenly, 
you do not, you cannot know ; pass that boundary, and the darkness 
of a natural state will settle down into the blackness of darkness for 
ever ; they who are not God s people, never can become God s peo 
ple ; those who have not obtained mercy, never can obtain mercy. 
The change so absolutely necessary to your happiness, must take 
place in time, it cannot take place in eternity ; it must take place on 
earth, it cannot take place in hell. Have you made up your mind 



PART IV.] ILLUSTRATED BY CONTRAST. 223 

that it is never to take place ? If you have not, why should it not 
take place now ? Till this change take place, you cannot be secure or 
happy. Can you be safe or happy too soon ? All who are dwelling 
amid the glorious light of God, were once, like you, in darkness. 
Those who are God s people were once not his people. Those who 
have obtained mercy, had not obtained mercy. The grace which 
saved them is able to save you ; is willing, is ready, to save you. 
" Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?" The light shines around you. 
Why shut your eyes to it ? The door of admission to the fellowship 
of God s people stands open. Why will ye not enter in ? The bless- 
ings of Divine mercy are held out to you. Why turn away from the 
proffered treasure, which gladly, gratefully received, would make you 
rich toward God, rich forever ? Why madly strike back the hand 
which is stretched out to rescue you from destruction ? Now, now, is 
the accepted time. Yet a little while, and the voice of invitation and 
warning will sink into silence ; and instead of it be heard, the voice 
of generous regret, " Oh ! that they had known !" They might, they 
would not, they shall not. No. No more forever ! 

IV. THE MISERY AND RUIN OF THOSE WHO, BY REFUSING TO "COME 
TO CHRIST," REMAIN DESTITUTE OF THESE PRIVILEGES. 

The only other branch of the subject which remains to be considered 
is, the misery and ruin of those who persist in unbelief and disobedience, 
rejecting Christ as the divinely laid foundation, viewed as an illustra 
tion by contrast of the graciousness of the Lord to those who believe 
in, come to, and build on Jesus Christ, as the foundation. This is sta 
ted in the following words, in the 7th and 8th verses : " To them who 
are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is 
made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of 
offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient ; 
whereunto also they were appointed." 

The language is elliptical, and the manner in which the ellipsis is to 
be supplied, depends on the manner in which you translate and explain 
the clause which immediately precedes, rendered in our version, " he is 
precious." " To you who believe, he," that is, Jesus Christ, " is 
precious ;" He is highly valued by you. Supposing this to be the 
true rendering, the ellipsis must be thus supplied, To them who are 
disobedient, he is contemptible ; by them he is undervalued and de 
spised ; and what follows should be the illustration of this. I have 
already stated to you the reason why I cannot consider these words, 
" To you who believe, he is precious," though embodying in them a 
truth very dear to the heart of every Christian, expressed in words 
very delightful to the ears of every Christian as giving the meaning 
of the inspired writer. They are not the natural meaning of the origi 
nal words. The statement they contain does not well Accord either 
with what goes before, or with what follows them. It is plainly a 
conclusion or inference, from the prophet s declaration, " He who 
believeth" on Christ, as the foundation, "shall not be ashamed/ 
Now, that Christ is precious to believers, is no inference from this 
declaration; and the words that follow are plainly meant to be a con- 



224 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

trast ; but what contrast is therebetween these statements ? Christ, as 
the foundation, is precious to believers; but unbelievers stumble over 
him so as to fall, and to be broken, and perish. The natural contrast 
is, Christ is precious to believers ; he is little prized by unbelievers. 

On the supposition, that the true rendering of the words is, " to you 
who believe there is honor," a rendering warranted, if not absolutely 
required, by the original terms, and giving exactly the inference war 
ranted by the prophet s declaration, " he that believeth on him shall 
not be confounded ;" " to you, then, that believe, there is, according to 
the prophet s declaration, not shame, but honor ;" on the supposition 
that this is the true rendering, the ellipsis must be thus supplied, To 
you, then, who believe there is honor, but to those who are disobedient, 
there is shame/ What follows is the illustration of this. The stone 
which they, like the builders, disallowed, is, in spite of their disallow 
ance, made the head stone of the corner. This must cover them with 
shame and confusion. Nor is this all ; they stumble over the stone 
which they refuse to build on, and are, in consequence, broken in pieces. 
There is a reference here to two passages of Old Testament predic 
tion : " The stone which the builders rejected is become the head 
stone of the corner ;" " and he shall be for a sanctuary ; but for a 
stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of 
Israel ; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And 
many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and snared, 
and taken." 1 The figure seems to be this: You, the unbelieving 
and disobedient, rejected the stone laid by God in Zion, and would 
not build on it ; yet, in spite of your rejection, this stone is made the 
head stone, that is, the chief stone of the corner ; and multitudes build 
on it, and grow up into a holy temple in the Lord. The word "head 
stone," does not refer to its being the topmost, but the principal stone 
of the corner. Indeed, it seems plain, the stone referred to is a foun 
dation stone, not a cope stone, and this explains what follows. Not 
only shall the stone you reject be made the chief stone of the corner ; 
but as foundation corner-stones often projected from the building, it 
shall become to you " a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence," two 
expressions of exactly parallel meaning ; a stone, a rock, over which 
ou shall stumble so as to be greatly injured, indeed destroyed ; stum- 
le so, to use the prophet s words, as to " fall, and be broken." 

The words, " whereunto also they were appointed," which have 
occasioned much controversy among critics and commentators, refer 
to the word " stumble," not to the word " disobedient." 2 The refer 
ence would have been more obvious had it been rendered, " who, being 
disobedient, stumble at the word," or rather, "who, being disobe 
dient to the word, stumble." Stumbling is at once the conse 
quence and the punishment of unbelief and disobedience. Sin is 
never represented as appointed by God ; punishment is. God permits 
men to be sinners that is, he does not hinder them from sinning ; he 
appoints them, if they sin, to be punished. The reference here, how- 
ever, does not seem to be to the Divine decree, so much as to the reve 
lation of the Divine decree in the Divine prediction. The apostle re 
fers to the passage quoted, and his words are equivalent to, to 

1 Psal. cxviii. 22. Tsa. viii. 14. ic. 8 See note B. 



I 



PART IV.] ILLUSTRATED BY CONTRAST. 225 

which stumbling, it appears, from the saying of the prophet, those who 
are disobedient are appointed/ God has connected this stumbling 
with unbelief as its natural effect, and in his word has said so. 

The word rendered "disobedient," l signifies unbelieving as well as 
disobedient, intimating to us the important truth, that faith and obedi 
ence, and unbelief and disobedience, are indissolubly connected ; 
unbelief being disobedience to the great commandment, and the 
root of disobedience to all the commandments. The unbelieving and 
disobedient are represented as discrediting and disobeying the gospel 
revelation ; but there seems to be a peculiar reference to " the word" 3 
or discourse, the propnetic declaration which the inspired writer is 
immediately referring to. 3 The direct reference in the term disobedi 
ent is, no doubt, to the unbelieving Jews. When God proclaimed to 
them, " Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, 
a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation ; he that believeth shall not 
make haste," they disbelieved the declaration. They disobeyed the 
command. They rejected the stone. They would not build on it. 
They would not receive Jesus as the Messiah ; on the contrary, they 
" took him, and with wicked hands they crucified and slew him." 

But what was the consequence ? Was the stone laid by Jehovah 
in Zion prevented from becoming the great foundation it was intended 
for, "the chief stone of the corner?" Oh, no; hear what Peter said 
on a memorable occasion, and what I have little doubt was in his 
mind when he wrote the passage now before us " Jesus Christ of 
Nazareth, whom ye crucified, God raised from the dead. This is the 
stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the 
head of the corner." 4 Disappointment and shame were their portion. 
In all their attempts to prevent the foundation being securely laid in 
its place, they had been furthering it; and when "they gathered to 
gether against the Lord and his Christ," they had done but "what his 
hand and counsel aforetime determined to be done." 5 

But this disappointment was not their only punishment. "The 
stone laid in Zion," which they rejected, on which they would not 
build, " was to them a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence." 
Their opposition to the declared purpose of God brought on them se 
vere inflictions of the Divine wrath. " Wrath to the uttermost," 
as the apostle speaks, "came on them." They "fell, and were bro 
ken." The awful prediction in the book of the prophet Isaiah, con 
nected with the passage quoted, was fulfilled : " Judgment also will I 
lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet ; and the hail shall 
sweep away tha refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the 
hiding-place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, 
and your agreement with hell shall not stand ; when the overflowing 
scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. For 
the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in 
the Valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work ; 
and bring to pass his act, his strange act." 

These awful predictions found their accomplishment in the siege 
and sack of Jerusalem, in the destruction of the temple, the dissolu- 

1 dirEiOovfft. 2 TW Xoyw dnziGovvTfs. 3 Isa. xxviii. 16. 

4 Acts iv. 10, 11. B Acts iv. 27, 28. 6 Isa. xxviii. 17-21. 

15 



226 THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

tion of the polity, the dispersion of the nation of the Jews. To these 
unbelieving, the se disobedient ones, in consequence of their unbelief, 
their not coming to Christ, their not believing in him, there was not 
honor, but shame ; they were confounded. Their emblem is not the 
temple, to whose stately buildings our Lord directed the attention of 
his disciples, but its scattered ruins, when one stone was not to be 
found upon another. Instead of " the chosen generation," they be 
came "a rejected race." Instead of being "a royal priesthood," Je 
hovah proclaimed to them "He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew 
a man ; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog s neck. 
Bring no more vain oblations." Instead of being a holy nation, they 
left " their name as a curse to God s chosen ; for the Lord God slew 
them, and called his people by another name." l Instead of being 
called out of darkness into God s glorious light, their light was turned 
into darkness ; they were " cast into outer darkness." 2 They who 
were the people of God were no more the people of God, not even a 
people ; they who had found mercy, no longer obtained mercy ; " they 
were a people of no understanding! therefore he that made them 
would not have mercy on them, and lie that formed them would show 
them no favor." 3 Their privileges were taken from them, and heavy 
judgments inflicted on them. 

While I cannot doubt that the primary reference of these words is 
to the unbelieving Jews, both as individuals and as a nation in the 
primitive ages, it is plain that the statement here is substantially true 
of all who are unbelieving and disobedient, of every country and in 
every age. All who, being "disobedient to the word," "disallow the 
stone laid in Zion," must be disappointed. " He must reign." 4 It is 
easier to pull the sun from the firmament than to remove the Saviour 
from his throne ; easier to arrest the course of that sun than to stop 
the progress of his gospel. Those who reject him show their wish 
that all should reject him, and that his religion should be extinguish 
ed ; and sometimes they are mad enough to think, as the Jews no 
doubt did, when they had brought him to the cross and laid him in 
the grave, that they shall be successful. Voltaire proudly boasted, 
that one wise man would undo what twelve fools had done. Hume 
said, that Christianity could not survive the nineteenth century ; and 
in the insane impieties of revolutionized France, many of their disci 
ples fancied they saw the token of the accomplishment of these anti 
cipations 

" Fond impious man ! think st thou yon sanguine cloud 
Rais d by thy breath has quench d the orb of day ? 
To-morrow He repairs the golden flood, 

And warms the nations with redoubled ray." 6 

Oh, how will confusion of face cover all unbelievers, when, on the 
great day, they find him whom they rejected, on the throne of univer 
sal judgment, and themselves trembling before his tribunal. Their 
miscalculations will make them the objects of " shame and contempt" 
to the whole intelligent creation of God to all eternity. 

But this is not all. They shall stumble so as to fall fall into hell. 

1 Isa. Ixvi. 3 ; Ixv. 15. 2 Matt. viii. 12. 8 Isa. xxvii. 11. 

4 1 Cor. xv. 25. Gray. 



PART IV.~] ILLUSTRATED BY CONTRAST. 227 

It is a serious matter to reject the Saviour. He is the only Saviour 
" There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby 
we must be saved." " There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." 
He who will not be saved by him cannot be saved at all. He who 
rejects his sacrifice must bear the weight of unexpiated sin forever. 
" There remaineth for such, nothing but a certain fearful looking for 
of judgment and fiery indignation, to destroy them as the adversaries 
of God." 1 

To many " this is a hard saying," and they refuse to hear it. They 
cannot think that there is such a difference, in a moral point of view, 
between faith and unbelief, that their consequences should be more 
distant from each other than the poles of the earth, as distant as the 
heights of heaven are from the depths of hell. But steadily look at 
this unbelief, and you will cease to wonder. What is it, but to tram 
ple at once on all that is great, and all that is gracious, in the Divine 
character ; to call the God of truth a liar, and the God of wisdom a 
fool ; to despise his proffered gifts, and defy his threatened vengeance? 
If there be power in the arm of omnipotent justice, against whom 
can it be more worthily put forth than against the impenitent unbe 
liever ? And, let it never be forgotten, the unbeliever is the destroyer 
of his own soul. He refuses to build on the foundation Jehovah has 
laid. This is folly and sin enough. But this is not all : he madly 
dashes himself against the chief foundation corner-stone, and breaks 
himself in pieces. 

Oh, how different the state of the believer and the unbeliever; how 
happy the one, how miserable the other ! Look at the two, and say 
if he who has secured the former has not reason to say, that the Lord 
has been gracious to him, for there was no alternative. If he had 
not obtained the honor and happiness of the believer, the shame and 
ruin of the unbeliever must have been his. And then let him fur 
ther think, Who made him to differ ? I was an unbeliever and a 
disobedient one, and left to myself, I should have been an unbeliever 
and disobedient one still. In that state I should have lived and died, 
and entered into eternity. What has made me to differ ? Sovereign 
kindness. Whence came my faith, and all its blessed consequences, 
in time and in eternity? It is not of myself, "it is the gift of God." 
It was given me " on behalf of Christ to believe on his name." 
Surely, surely the Lord has been gracious to me. 

I have thus brought before your minds the four great sources of 
illustrative proof, that the Lord is gracious to Christians. Their nat 
ural condition, the manner in which that condition was changed, 
the blessings of their new condition, and the final state of those who 
obstinately continue in their natural condition ; all these, rightly 
considered, are fitted to deepen this conviction on a Christian s 
mind, Verily the Lord is gracious, and I have tasted of his grace. 

It is of importance to inquire, What is the practical end which the 
apostle seeks to gain by pressing on the attention of Christians these 
proofs that the Lord is gracious? That end is easily discovered. 
This w r as his wish, as it was his Master s will, even their sanctifica- 

1 Acts iv. 12. Heb. x. 26, 27. 



228 THE PRIVILEGES OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIII. 

tion ; and he was fully persuaded that men will never be holy, but in 
the degree in which they believe that God is good, good to them. 
" When the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by 
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his 
mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing 
of the Holy Ghost ; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus 
Christ our Saviour; that we, being justified by his grace, might be 
made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faith 
ful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that 
they who believe in God may be careful to maintain good works." l 

The apostle Peter does not leave us to find out his object by such 
a reference as we have now made to general principles. He distinct 
ly shows us why he appeals to the graciousness of the Lord : " Love 
one another with a pure heart fervently. Lay aside all malice, and 
guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-speakings," " As new 
born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow 
thereby," " Seeing ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." He 
plainly acts on the same principle as his beloved brother Paul, when 
he says, " I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God," manifested 
in the divine method of justification, " I beseech you, by the mercies 
of God, that ye present yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and ac 
ceptable to God, by Christ Jesus, which is your rational ministry as 
spiritual priests ; and be not conformed to this world, but be trans 
formed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is the 
good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God." 2 

I cannot conclude these illustrations without dropping a word of 
warning to those to whom this word of salvation has come, but as yei 
come in vain ; to whom God has long been proclaiming, " Behold, I 
have laid in Zion as a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious 
corner-stone, a sure foundation," but who, instead of believing on it, 
coming to it, building on it, have been, like the Jewish builders, re 
jecting it, disallowing it. Your situation, " men and brethren," is 
awfully perilous. If you will not build on that stone, you must stum 
ble over it, and fall, and be broken. As to present privileges, you are 
in far better circumstances than the heathen, who never heard of the 
way of salvation ; but as to future destiny, if you do not enter on the 
way of salvation opened before you, you shall be in far worse circum 
stances than they. Yes, in the day of judgment, "it shall be more 
tolerable for the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, of Sodom and Go 
morrah, than for you." All the happiness of the highest heavens is 
freely offered you, if you will accept of it in the only way God can 
give it, or you receive it; but if you contemptuously put it away from 
you, you not only must lose it, but you must sink yourselves into the 
very lowest depths of hopeless misery. 

If you perish and you cannot perish but by your own obstinate 
refusal of a salvation, ready to be bestowed on you if you will but 
accept of it your perdition will be no ordinary perdition. The aw 
ful declarations of the Apocalypse will be realized in your experience : 
" The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is 
poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation ; and he 

1 Tit. iii. 4-8. " Rom. xii, 1, 3. 



PART IV.] NOTES. 229 

shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy 
angels, and in the presence of the Lamb ; and the smoke of their tor 
ment ascended up forever and ever : and they have no rest day nor 
night." 1 

But, oh, why should it be so ? God has no " pleasure in your death ;" 
he swears by his life that he has not. He wills you to turn from your 
evil ways, and live. If you perish, you must be self-destroyers. 
" Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?" Be no longer disobedient to 
the word of mercy. Receive it gladly, gratefully ; and in receiving it 
you will receive the Saviour and his salvation. The feast of gospel 
grace is set before you, and urged on your acceptance : " O taste and 
see that the Lord is good." May the good Spirit render effectual the 
invitation of the word, and induce you all to take of the bread and 
the water of life freely, that, eating and drinking, you may live for 
ever. 



NOTE A. p. 174. 

"Saxo quod adhuc vivum radice tenetur." OVID. Met. xiv. 714. - " vivoque sedilia 
saxo." VIRG. J.n. i. 171. ALEX. MORUS note is curious : " Apud Ethnicos quoque lapidum 



vivorum rcperies mentionem, >i0oi)j ty^yovf. Plutarchus de fluvninibus non semel vocat 
lapides vivos, inter quos Qpaa\>fci\ov Eurotae proprium lapidem nominat, qui, tuba sonante, 
prosiliebat, ad ripam scilicet ; Atheniensium autem audito nomine, mergebatur in profun- 
dum. Nee minus fabulosa quse Suidas habet de Heraisco ^Egyptio Philosopho qui rite 
dignoscere calleret dyiiX/^ara ra ^wvra, fc-ai pi] $MVTU vel atpv^a Kal apaipa 6iia$ innrtruias. Con 

tra Petrus fideles vere lapides yivos vere spilantes ac loquentes, Dei statuas spirituals et 
participes Qeias inwoias hie dixit." Notce ad qucedam loca N. F. p. 210. 



NOTE B. p. 224. 

vtn. AirciQovvrcs. Horum autem verborum prius designat proprie patnam, 
posterius culpam ; pronomen autem ad quod refertur ad prius, non ad posterius. Inipro- 
bos destinavit Deus ad prenam, non ad culpam." CAPPELLUS. " TitnaKoirrnwi A7Tt0o5i/rf :" 
the former of these words designates punishment; the latter, sin. The pronoun S K{ $ 
refers to the former, not to the "latter. God appoints the wicked to punishment, not to 
sin. Some anti-Calvinists have found in these words a proof, that even they who perish 
through unbelief were appointed to salvation. They refer S, in the teeth of grammar, to 
Xo Xos ; and try to bring out, or rather put in, the sense, to use the words of one of them, a 
very worthy Lutheran, HEMMINGIUS : " Etsi illis destinata erat salutis promissio, tamen 
non crediderunt." It is sad when the love of system leads good men thus to " pervert" 
the word of God. "Mens Petri est : Hoc infidelium pra?sertim Judseomm scancialum et 
xp6aKonna, ad Christum lapidem angularem dudurn a prophetis, Christo, aliisque assertutn 
et praedictum esse." Jer. viii. 14, 15. Matt. xxi. 42, 44. Luke ii. 34. Rom. ix. 32, 33. 
KYPKE, ii. 430. 

1 Rev. xiv. 10, 11. 






DISCOURSE II 

A SECOND FIGURATIVE VIEW OF THE STATE AND CHARACTER 
OF CHRISTIANS, WITH APPROPRIATE EXHORTATIONS. 

1 PET. ii. 11, 12. Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain 
from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul ; having your conversation honest among the 
Gentiles ; that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may, by your good 
works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. 

THESE two verses, which form one sentence, bring before our minds 
a very important department of Christian duty ; to the illustration and 
enforcement of which it is our intention to devote this discourse. 
The subject naturally divides itself into two parts ; an injunction of 
duty, and a statement of the motives which urge compliance with that 
injunction. The duty enjoined is twofold : abstinence from fleshly 
lusts, and having the conversation honest among the Gentiles. The 
motives are these : " Ye are strangers and pilgrims/ " These lusts 
war against the soul ;" and abstinence from them, and the mainte 
nance of an "honest conversation among the Gentiles," have a ten 
dency to overcome their prejudices against both you and your religion, 
and to lead them to "glorify God in the day of visitation." To un 
fold, then, the meaning of these injunctions, and to point out the force 
of these motives, are the two objects which I have in view in the fol 
lowing remarks. 

I.-THE DUTIES ENJOINED. 
/ 

1. Abstinence from "fleshly lusts." 

The first duty enjoined in the text is, " Abstinence from fleshly 
lusts." " Lusts," in the New Testament use of that word, signifies 
desires ; strong desires ; usually inordinate, unduly strong desires. 
The phrase " fleshly lusts" is often considered as meaning, desires for 
sensual enjoyment ; desires which obtain their gratification by means 
of bodily organs. This is, however, very unduly to limit the signifi 
cation of the term. Among the " works of the flesh," which are just 
the lusts of the flesh embodied, we find enumerated, " hatred, vari 
ance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies," as well as " adultery, 
fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness." * 

Flesh is the principal constituent of the human body, and the body 
is the visible part of the compound being, man. Hence flesh comes 
to be used for human nature, or mankind. 2 All mankind, since the 

1 Gal. v. 19-21. 3 Gen. vi. 13. Psal.lvi.4. Matt. xxiv. 22. Rom.iii.20. John i. 14. 



PART I.] DUTIES ENJOINED. 231 

fall, are depraved beings ; and hence flesh is often, especially in the 
epistolary part of the New Testament, used to signify fallen human 
nature, or mankind as depraved. 1 Agreeably to this use of the term 
flesh, fleshly desires are those desires which characterize mankind as 
depraved, which belong to, and are distinctive of, fallen human nature, 
what are elsewhere termed " worldly lusts." 2 

The desires, including under that name the appetites and the pas 
sions, as well as those principles of which the word desires is the 
appropriate technical name, form a very important part of our active 
nature, and are fitted to serve numerous useful and benevolent pur 
poses. The desire of meat and of drink ; the desire of knowledge ; the 
desire of esteem ; the desire of power ; the desire of property, and 
other desires of a similar kind, belong essentially to human nature ; 
and are as much the gifts* of God as reason or conscience ; and, 
like these higher faculties, are plainly intended and calculated to 
minister to man s improvement and happiness. 

Some of these desires, as belonging to man as an embodied being, 
may be termed fleshly, as they cannot exist in purely spiritual beings ; 
but these are not the desires here referred to. God never requires 
impossibilities ; and to abstain from the desires we have mentioned 
is an impossibility. Those desires are neither virtuous nor vicious. 
They are parts of our constitution, which ought to be regulated and re 
strained when they come in competition with more important princi 
ples, which, in a perfect state of human nature, they never would. 
To eradicate them, if the thing were possible, which I believe it is not, 
would not be to improve, but to mutilate human nature. The ampu 
tation of arms and legs would not at all add to the beauty and useful 
ness of the human body ; and just such an improvement on the mind, 
would be the depriving it of any of those active powers with which 
its infinitely wise and benignant Author has endowed it. That were 
to make us " new creatures," in a sense very different indeed from 
that in which the apostle uses the term. 

In no part of our natue has the malignant influence of the fall been 
more apparent, than in our moral or active faculties ; and in none 
of these active powers do we discern clearer marks of degeneration 
than in our desires. Our desires, in very many instances, seek their 
gratification in objects, the pursuit of which is proscribed by God, as 
his will is indicated by reason, by conscience, or by an express reve 
lation ; and where the object of desire is not in itself improper, the 
desire itself is often foolish, in consequence of its being disproportion- 
ed to the real or comparative value of the object : and criminal, be 
cause unsubordinated to the will of God. 

These are the desires which are here termed " fleshly lusts ;" such 
desires as Adam was a stranger to while he continued innocent ; such 
desires as are now characteristic of the whole of his degenerate off 
spring. These desires, unlike the original principles referred to above, 
are not to be regulated, but destroyed. They are right hands that 
are to be cut oft ; right eyes that are to be plucked out. As mem- 
bers of the old man. they are to be mortified ; as affections and 
lusts of the flesh, they are to be crucified. 

1 Rom. vii. 18 ; viii. 5. Gal. v. 13. 3 Tit. ii. 12. 



232 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. IX. 

To " abstain from fleshly lusts," then, is to refrain fiom desiring 
that which is forbidden. It is, in other words, to yield obedience to 
the tenth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet;" thou shalt not 
desire that which God says thou shouldst not seek to obtain. Every 
desire of what is forbidden, what is criminal in itself, or criminal to us 
in our circumstances, is a " fleshly desire," a desire which marks the 
being who indulges it as morally depraved, and is not to be indulged, 
even in the slightest degree, is not to be tampered with, but destroy 
ed, strangled in its birth, repressed on its first rising. 

But this is not all : To " abstain from fleshly lusts," is to refrain 
from all inordinate or excessive desire, even of what is in itself law 
ful. It is in this form of the evil that Christians chiefly need to be 
warned against fleshly or worldly lusts. It is a sad mistake to sup 
pose that our desires are lawful, because the objects of our desire are 
not forbidden. It may be that they are so far from being forbidden, 
that we would sin if we did not desire them, and yet in desiring them 
inordinately we may sin. Our desires may be "fleshly desires," that 
is, desires rising out of the depravity of our nature, and at once exer 
cising and increasing that depravity. 

To desire anything seen and temporal, be it pleasure, knowledge, 
power, fame, money, or anything else, as absolutely necessary to, and 
sufficient for, our happiness, is a fleshly desire. That is, in other 
words, to make that thing our God, and is in direct opposition to the 
commandment, "Thou shalt have no other God before me:" to the 
breathing of the Spirit, " Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there 
is none on all the earth whom I desire besides thee." * He who 
cherishes any desire unsubordinated to the will of God, cherishes a 
fleshly desire ; and from this species of- fleshly desire, as well as the 
former, Christians are commanded to " abstain." They are to " flee 
from idolatry ;" to " keep themselves from idols ;" and " covetous- 
ness," that is, the inordinate desire of any created good, " is idolatry." 2 

These, then, are the two branches of the great law, "Abstain from 
fleshly lusts." Refrain from desiring whatever is forbidden. Refrain 
from inordinately desiring anything seen and temporal, however inno 
cent in itself. 

This, like every one of God s laws, is " holy, just, and good." It 
leaves abundant room for the healthy operation of natural desires. 
It allows us to desire everything that is really desirable, in the degree 
in which it is desirable. It only forbids us to indulge a desire which, 
whether gratified or not, must end in disappointment and ruin. The 
language of this law is, " Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is 
not ?" 3 Surely it is impossible not to recognize the Divine wisdom 
and kindness in this spiritual commandment. It puts the check in 
the right place. It seeks to prevent the works of the flesh, by pro 
hibiting the lusts of the flesh. Human laws seek to dam up or divert 
the stream ; the Divine law seeks to dry up the fountain. 

From these few plain remarks, every person who wishes to under 
stand the subject, may easily perceive what it is to abstain from 
fleshly lusts a much more extensive and difficult duty than many are 

1 Psal. Ixxiii. 25, 26. a 1 Cor. x. 14. 1 John v. 21. Col. iii. 5. 

Prov. xxiii. 5. 



PART I.] DUTIES ENJOINED. 

aware of : but it may serve a good purpose, before closing this part 
of the discussion, to say a word or two on the way in which we are 
to yield obedience to this most reasonable command, " Abstain from 
fleshly lusts." 

The first remark to be made here is, that, in order to abstain from 
fleshly lusts, we must carefully guard against temptation. We are in 
continual danger; there are always objects at hand fitted to provoke 
sinful desire in some of its forms ; and a busy, crafty adversary, is 
ever ready to take advantage of any opportunity that offers against 
us. We must therefore avoid placing ourselves in circumstances in 
which such desires are likely to be excited ; and when, by the provi 
dence of God. we are placed in such circumstances, we are to "keep 
our hearts with all diligence ;" and, sensible that all our keeping will 
not serve the purpose, we must give our hearts to God to keep them. 
We must " watch and be sober ;" " be sober and watch ;" " watch and 
pray ;" and this should be our prayer : " Incline my heart to thy testi 
monies, and not to covetousness," the general name of fleshly, worldly 
desires. " Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity." l 

We must recollect that nothing can overcome the world, and the 
things that are in the world " the lust of the flesh, and the lust of 
the eye, and the pride of life," and " the god of this world," who by 
these subjugates us, and makes us his slaves but the word of God 
dwelling in us. It is "our faith" of that word; or, to employ an 
equivalent expression, that word believed, that "overcometh the 
world." It brings us under " the powers of the world to come," and 
thus "delivers us from this present evil world." Were the realities 
of eternity habitually before the mind, fleshly lusts could no more 
take root and flourish there, than " perishable materials be reared into 
structures amid the fires of the last day." 2 

The grand preservation against "fleshly lusts" is to have the mind 
p re-occupied with spiritual and heavenly affections ; and to have the 
heart so full of holy happiness in the enjoyment of God, as that there 
is neither room nor relish in it for low-born, earthly, sensual, sinful 
enjoyments. The strong man can be put out of the house, and kept 
out of it, only by the stronger than he getting possession, and keep 
ing possession of it. The true way of emptying a vessel of atmos 
pheric air, and keeping that from re-occupying its place, is to fill it 
with some heavier fluid. 

It is finely said by the good Archbishop I have so often quoted to 
you : " The happiness and pleasantness of the Christian s estate sets 
him above the need of the pleasures of sin. The apostle has said 
before : Since ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, desire the 
sincere milk of the word ; desire that word, wherein ye may taste 
more of his graciousness ; and as that fitly urgeth the appetites desire 
of the word, so it is strong to persuade this abstinence from fleshly 
lusts ; yea, the disdain and loathing of them. If you have the least 
experience of the sweetness of his love, if you have but tasted of the 
crystal river of his pleasures, the muddy polluted pleasures of sin will 
be hateful and loathsome to you ; yea, the best earthly delights that 

1 Prov. iv. 23. 1 Tim. v. 0. 1 Pet iv. V ; v. 8. Psal. cxix. 36. 37. 

2 Robert Hall. 



234 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. IX, 

are, will be disrelished and unsavory to your tastes. The embittering 
of the breasts of the world to the ungodly, by afflictions, doth some 
thing, indeed, to their weaning from them ; but the breasts of conso 
lation that are given them in their stead, wean them much more 
effectually. 

" The true reason why we remain servants to these lusts, some to 
one, some to another, is because we are still strangers to the love of 
God, and those pure pleasures which are in him. Though the pleas 
ures of this world be poor and low, and most unworthy of our pursuit, 
yet so long as men know no better, they will stick by those they have, 
such as they are. It is too often in vain to speak to men on this, to 
follow them with the apostle s entreaty, I beseech you, abstain from 
fleshly lusts/ unless they that are spoken to, be such as he speaks of 
in the former words, such as have obtained mercy, and have tasted 
of the graciousness and love of him whose loves are better than wine. 
O that we would but seek the knowledge of this love ; for, seeking it, 
we would find it ; and, finding it, no force would be needful to pull 
the delights of sin out of our hands; we would throw them away of 
our own accord." This is the true secret of yielding obedience to 
the commandment in the text, abstain from fleshly lusts. O that we 
all were experimentally acquainted with it ! How happy, how holy, 
should we be ! 

2. " Having a conversation honest among the Gentiles." 

The second duty enjoined in the text is : " Have your conversa 
tion honest among the Gentiles." " Conversation" here, and in many 
other places in the New Testament, does not mean colloquial inter 
course, but conduct, general behavior ; as, " Only let your conversa 
tion be such as becomes the gospel of Christ ;" " Be holy in all man 
ner of conversation." l 

The term " honest" 2 here, as in some other parts of the New Tes 
tament, is used in a somewhat obsolete sense ; as equivalent to honor 
able, respectable, morally beautiful and lovely ; what commands 
esteem and reverence. " Have your conversation honest among the 
Gentiles." means, Let your conduct be such as will meet the approba 
tion of God and good men, and such as even the heathen shall be 
obliged to venerate. It is materially the same exhortation as that 
given by the Apostle Paul to the Philippians : " Whatsoever things 
are true, whatsoever things are honest," venerable, "whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, 
if there be any praise, think on these things," 3 do these things. 

The heathens were poor judges of Christian doctrine ; there was 
much, too, in the Christian character, the excellence of which they 
could not at all appreciate. But when they saw Christians making it 
plain that no temptation could induce them to deviate from the 
straight path prescribed by the laws of temperance, and chastity, and 
justice, and love ; rendering to no man evil for evil ; meekly suffering 
many injuries, but inflicting none ; denying themselves the comforts 

1 Phil. i. 27. 1 Pet. i. 15. 8 KaAfo. 3 Phil. iv. 8. 



PART I.] DUTIES ENjqiNED. 235 

of life, to supply those who were destitute of its necessaries; sacri 
ficing and suffering everything, rather than violate conscience : they 
could not help feeling how beautiful and how awful goodness is ; and 
a testimony was silently lodged in their hearts, in behalf of the religion 
of Christ, which no reasoning could have placed there. "There is a 
majesty in strict, serious, consistent goodness, that commands esteem 
and reverence from the worst of men." 

The positive command includes the negative : Beware of every 
thing in your conduct which might shock the moral feelings of a 
heathen ; beware of anything which might lead him in any way to 
form an opinion dishonorable to " the worthy name by which ye are 
called," or open his mouth in blasphemy against Him to whom it be 
longs. It is a most important duty incumbent on Christians, in all 
countries and ages, living among the men of the world, remembering 
that, among other proofs of their Lord s graciousness to them, he has 
made them the guardians of his honor among men, to act a part 
which shall command the respect and esteem of those around them, 
and to be careful that they let not "their good be evil spoken 
of." 

It deserves notice, that the two duties enjoined are represented as 
very closely connected. It is by abstaining from fleshly lusts that 
their conversation was to be honest among the Gentiles. If they did 
not abstain from fleshly lusts, their conversation would be dishonora 
ble, both to themselves and to their religion. If they did abstain from 
fleshly lusts, an honest, honorable behavior would be a matter of 
course. The heart must be kept with all diligence, if we would wish 
the issues of life which flow from it to be satisfactory. Let the heart 
be regulated ; the tongue, the eyes, the hands, the feet, will all be prop 
erly employed. Let the thoughts and the desires be as they ought to 
be, and the actions will be unblameable. If the corrupt spring is not 
cleansed, the stream cannot be pure : if it is, the stream cannot but 
be pure. 

It is a sad mistake to think, that the conduct will ever be what God 
would have it to be, till the heart is changed ; that the conversation 
will ever be really comely, while men do not abstain from fleshly 
lusts. The heart must be " purified by the Spirit through the word/ 
in order to man s being " holy in all manner of life and conversation." 
And it is not less true, and not less important, that the want of a 
comely conversation, of a holy behavior, is a proof, whatever profes 
sion men make, that fleshly lusts still hold dominion within. As the 
fruit cannot be good if the tree is not good, so neither can the tree 
be good if the fruit is not good. The goodness of the tree is the 
necessary cause of the goodness of the fruit, and the goodness of 
the fruit is the only satisfactory evidence of the goodness of the 
tree. 

So much for the illustration of this branch of our subject : The 
injunction of duty, " Abstain from fleshly lusts, having your conver 
sation honest among the Gentiles." Refrain from desiring what is 
forbidden ; refrain from inordinately desiring anything that is seen 
and temporal ; and thus maintain a habitual behavior so morally 

1 1 Rom. xiv. 16. 



236 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. IX. 

lovely and venerable, that even your heathen neighbors shall be con 
strained to take notice of you, and trace the obvious effect to the 
hidden cause, the goodness of your conduct to the goodness of your 
principles. 



H MOTIVES TO THE DISCHARGE OF THESE DUTIES. 

Let us now turn our attention to the second branch of the subject : 
A statement of the motives which urge to compliance with this 
injunction of duty. The motives are drawn from the character and 
circumstances of Christians, and from the tendency and consequences, 
both of the course from which they are dissuaded, and of that to 
which they are urged. The motive deduced from the character and 
conduct of Christians, is contained in these words : You are " pil 
grims and strangers." The motive drawn from the tendency and 
consequences of the course dissuaded from is : These fleshly lusts 
" war against the soul ;" and that drawn from the tendency and con 
sequences of the course recommended is : That the Gentiles, who 
spoke against them as evil-doers, might, by their good works which 
they beheld, glorify God in the day of visitation." Let us attend to 
these motives in their order, and endeavor to show their appropriate 
ness and their power. 

$ 1. Motive, drawn from the condition and character of Christians 
as "pilgrims and strangers." 

The first motive is drawn from the condition and character of 
Christians as " pilgrims and strangers." In the literal meaning, of 
the words, those to whom they were originally addressed were pil 
grims and strangers. They were chiefly Jews and proselytes, liv 
ing among the heathen inhabitants of the regions of Asia Minor. 
Viewed even in this way, there is force in the statement, consid 
ered as a motive to the duty enjoined. The great body of those 
among whom you live are serving fleshly lusts ; you are constantly 
exposed to the powerful influence of all but universally prevalent 
custom. Beware lest "evil communications corrupt good man 
ners." 

There can, however, be no reasonable doubt, that the words 
pilgrim and stranger are here used figuratively, and in a sense equally 
applicable to all Christians, in all countries and ages, as to those to 
whom they were originally addressed. 1 In a figurative sense, all men 
may be said to be pilgrims and sojourners on earth. They are to 
continue here but for a short season ; they are, as it were, on a 
journey to their long home ; and a consideration of this, places in a 
strong point of view the folly of men, in allowing their minds to be 
chiefly occupied with objects and pursuits belonging exclusively to 

The respective force of the two words irapoiicovs and napsTri&fipovs is well given by Ben- 
gel : " Gradatio, non tantum ut in aliena domo sed etiam ut in aliena civitate." Not 
only away from their own house, but from their own country, in the fullest sense from 
home. Neither of the words expresses what is peculiar in the signification of the English 
word "pilgrim." 



PART II.] MOTIVES. 237 

a scene from which they must soon, and may suddenly, depart forever ; 
and which are in no degree fitted to prepare them for that permanent 
state into which, on leaving the present, they are to enter. 

But the Christian is, in a sense peculiar to himself, a pilgrim and 
stranger. He is a child of God, living among the children of the 
wicked one. He is a citizen of heaven, sojourning for a season on 
the earth. Heaven is his home. There is his treasure, and there is 
his heart also. His great object here is to promote the interests 
of the kingdom that is not of this world; to pass through this 
land of strangers and enemies with as little injury as possible ; to 
get safe to the better land, and take as many as he can along with 
him. 

For such a person to indulge in fleshly lusts is in the highest degree 
incongruous. " There is," as Leighton remarks, " a diligence in his 
calling, and prudent regard of his affairs, not only permitted to a 
Christian, but required of him ; but yet in comparison of his great 
and high calling/ as the apostle terms it, he follows all his other busi 
nesses with a kind of coldness and indifFerency, as not accounting 
very much how they go : his heart is elsewhere. The traveller pro 
vides himself as he can of entertainment and lodging, where he 
comes. If it be commodious, it is well ; but if not, it is no great 
matter. If he can find but necessaries, he can abate delicacies very 
well ; for where he finds them in his way he neither can, nor, if he 
could, would he choose to stay there. Though his inn were dressed 
with the richest hangings and furniture, yet it is not his home ; he 
must, and he would, leave it. It is not for those born from above to 
mind earthly things. If Christians would but consider how little, and 
for how little a time, they are concerned in anything here, they would 
go through any estate, and any changes of estate, either to the better 
or the worse, with very composed, equal minds, always moderate in 
their necessary cares, and never taking any care at all for the flesh, 
to fulfil the lusts of it. Let them that have no better home than this 
world to lay claim to, live here as at home, and serve their lusts. 
Let them who have all their portion in this life, who have no more 
good to look for than what they can catch here, let them take their 
time of the poor profits and pleasures that are here. But you that 
have your whole estate, all your riches and pleasures, laid up in 
heaven, and reserved there for you, let your lusts, your intense de 
sires, not be fleshly, but spiritual ; not earthly, but heavenly ; let the 
spirit out-lust the flesh ; let your hearts be there, and your conversa 
tion there. This is not the place of your rest, nor of your delights : 
unless you be willing to change, and to have your good things here, 
as some foolish travellers, that spend the estate they should live on at 
home in a little while, leaving.it abroad among strangers. Will you, 
with profane Esau, sell your birthright for a mess of pottage ; sell 
eternity, for a moment ; and such pleasures, as a moment of them is 
more worth than an eternity of the other ?" 



238 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIANS. [DISC. IX. 



2. Motive drawn from the tendency of the course proscribed 
"It wars against the soul" 

The second motive is drawn from the tendency and consequences 
of the course dissuaded from. Those fleshly lusts, from which Chris 
tians are required to abstain, are said " to war against the soul." ! They 
are injurious to our highest interests, the interests of the soul ; they 
are inconsistent with the peace of the soul ; they are hostile to the im 
provement of the soul ; they are, if indulged in, fatal to the final happi 
ness of the soul. 

They are inconsistent with the peace of the soul. The Christian 
poet speaks the words of truth and soberness, when he says, 

" God is the source and centre of all minds 

Their only point of rest 

From Him departing they are lost, and rove 
At random, without honor, hope, or peace." a 

God is a suitable and a sufficient portion for man ; and he, and he 
only, who takes up with Him as a portion, has, or can have, solid rest. 
He is kept in perfect peace while he trusts in God. Even a single 
fleshly lust destroys rest ; for it takes the soul away from God, the 
only true rest. But this is not all ; "fleshly lusts," though all opposed 
to that desire after happiness in God which should be the master ac 
tive principle in our minds, are by no means harmonious among them 
selves. They " war" with each other " in our members," 3 and tear 
their unhappy victim in pieces. The lover of sinful pleasure, of 
power, of fame and gain, knows well that the way in which those 
lusts drag or drive him along, is anything but the way of peace. 

They are hostile to the improvement of the soul. The improve 
ment of the soul consists in growth in the knowledge of God, and in 
true holiness; in increasing conformity to His image. Fleshly lusts 
are plainly inconsistent with this. They destroy that calm, collected 
state of mind, which is necessary to progress in knowledge and holi 
ness ; they occupy the time which ought to be devoted to the pursuits 
which conduce to spiritual improvement; and they utterly indispose 
to, they morally incapacitate the mind for, such pursuits. "The car 
nal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of 
God, neither indeed can be." 4 " They do not," as has been justly 
said, " only divert from spiritual things for the time, but they habitu 
ally indispose it to every spiritual work, and make it earthly and sen 
sual, and so unfit for heavenly things. Where these lusts, or any one 
of them, have dominion, the soul cannot at all perform any spiritual 
duty ; can neither pray, nor hear, nor read the word aright ; and, in 
as far as any of them prevail upon the soul of a child of God, they do 
disjoint and disable it from holy things." 5 

Finally, if indulged, those fleshly lusts will be fatal to the ultimate 
happiness of the soul. This is equally plain from the nature of things, 
and the express declarations of the word of God. A man under the 

ErparotCvrai. Non modo impediunt sed oppugnant. BENGEL. They not only hinder, 
they oppose. 

a Cowper. James iv. 1. 4 Rom. viiL 7. 6 Leighton, 



PART II.] MOTIVES. 339 

influence of fleshly lusts, even if taken to heaven, could not be happy, 
must be miserable. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared peo 
ple. The declarations of the word of God on the subject are most 
explicit : The end of a life in the flesh is death, eternal death. " We 
are not debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live 
after the flesh, ye shall die : but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the 
deeds of the body, ye shall live." " Be not deceived ; God is not 
mocked : whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he 
that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that 
soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." l 

3. Motive drawn from the tendency of the course recommended. 

The third motive is drawn from the tendency and probable conse 
quences of the course recommended. The tendency and probable 
result of their " having their conversation honest among the Gentiles," 
in consequence of their abstaining from fleshly lusts, is stated to be 
this : " The Gentiles, who spoke against them as evil-doers, by their 
good works which they beheld, would be led to glorify God in the 
day of visitation." The Gentiles, amidst whom the Christians ad 
dressed by Peter lived, spoke against them as evil-doers. The primi 
tive Christians were very generally represented as monsters of wick 
edness, as guilty of the most unnatural and atrocious crimes, as 
atheists and haters of mankind. 2 Even in that circumstance a reason 
might be found for Christians being peculiarly careful to indulge no 
disposition and to follow no course of conduct, which could give even 
the slightest probability to these calumnious misrepresentations. It 
was of great importance that, when spoken evil of, it should be falsely, 
obviously, demonstratively, falsely. 

But this is not the motive here employed by the apostle. He 
counts on the natural effect of uniform good behavior on the minds 
of the observers ; and looking forward to a period, which he calls 
" the day of visitation," he encourages Christians by the hope that 
their " honest conversation" might be the means of bringing their 
heathen neighbors to a better mind, " to repentance, to the acknowl 
edging of the truth ;" and of leading them, instead of calumniating 
and cursing them, to glorify God. 

" The day of visitation" is plainly the day of God s visitation. God 
is said to visit men when he gives very decided proofs of his presence 
and power, either in works of judgment or of mercy. The phrase is 
used in the first sense in the following passage in the prophecy of 
Isaiah : " What will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desola 
tion that shall come from far ? to whom will ye flee for help ? and 
where will ye leave your glory ?" 3 It is used in the second sense, 
when God is said to have "visited Israel" in Egypt, and to have 
" visited and redeemed his people," when he " raised up for them a 
horn of salvation in the house of his servant David ;" and when God 

1 Rom. vi. 21 ; viii. 12, 13. Gal. vi. 7, 8. 

3 They were represented as cannibals, magicians, infanticides; and as indulging in the 
most shocking impurities at their nocturnal assemblies. Just. Apolog. i. (Ecumen. in loc. 
Euseb. iv. 7 ; v. 1. August, de Civ. Dei, xviii. 53. 

8 lea. x. 3. 



240 EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTfANS. [DISC. IX. 

is said to have " visited the Gentiles to take from among them a peo 
ple to his name ;" and probably when Jerusalem is said not to have 
known " the time of her visitation," the day in which she might have 
known " the things which belonged to her peace." 1 

If the phrase be understood in the first sense, the meaning is, that 
the good behavior of the Christians would, when Divine judgments 
came either on the Jewish or the Pagan opposers of Christianity, in 
duce even those who had formerly spoken evil of them, to admit the 
righteousness of the Divine judgments, and glorify God by acknowl 
edging how unfounded had been the reproaches they had cast on his 
people. 

If the phrase be understood in the second sense, then the meaning 
is, in the day when God visits these poor benighted Gentiles with his 
grace, your consistent, holy conduct, witnessed by them, will be one 
of the means employed by him in leading them to glorify him in em 
bracing the gospel and devoting themselves to his service. 

This latter view of the words seems, on the whole, best to harmo 
nize with the scope and design of the whole passage. The consistent, 
holy conduct of Christians, has often been the means of promoting 
the conversion of unbelievers; and few considerations are more 
likely to weigh with a true Christian, as to the adoption or rejection of 
a particular course of conduct, than this. By such a course I may 
harden men in unbelief, embolden them in sin, smooth their path to 
perdition, and obstruct their way to the Saviour ; by such another 
course I may rouse them to consideration, I may lead them to inquiry, 
I may soften prejudice, I may " convert the sinner from the error of 
his ways, save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins." 2 

The great ultimate object which every Christian should, which 
every genuine Christian does, contemplate, is the promotion of the 
glory of God. In his estimation, every desirable end is included in 
God s being glorified. This should be, this is, when he acts in char 
acter, his predominant design and thought, " that in all things God 
may be glorified." " In what way shall I most advance the glory of 
my God ? How shall I, who am engaged more than them all, set in 
with the heavens and the earth, and the other creatures, to declare 
his excellence, his greatness, and his goodness ?" 3 

What formidable obstacles have the earthly-mindedness, and the 
unlovely temper and behavior of professed Christians, thrown in the 
way of the glory of God being displayed in the progress and triumph 
of the religion of Christ among mankind ! How have their " envy- 
ings, and strifes, and divisions" all, as Paul says, the manifestation 
of carnality or fleshliness how have these impeded, and all but " de 
stroyed, the work of God !" Never can we reasonably hope for a 
better state of things till those who bear the name of Christ, abstaining 
from fleshly lusts, have their conversation more honest, more lovely, 
more venerable, among the Gentiles. When Zion, enlightened by 
the heavenly beams of sanctifying truth, arises and shines, then, not 
till then, shall "the Gentiles come to her light, and kings to the bright 
ness of her rising." 4 

1 Exod. xiii. 19. Acts xv. 14. Luke i. 68; xix. 44. a James v. 20. 

Leighton. * Isa. be. 1, 2. 



DISC. IX.] CONCLUSION. 241 

Such, then, are the motives by which the apostle enforces his in 
junction on Christians to abstain from fleshly lusts, and to have their 
conversation honest among the Gentiles. 

Brethren, this is our duty, as well as that of those to whom these 
words were originally addressed ; and the motives presented are such 
as should influence us as well as them. Abstinence from all that is 
forbidden or even doubtful, and the having a consistent, uniform, or 
namental Christian behavior, are duties incumbent on Christians in all 
countries, and in all ages duties so important and essential, that, if 
they be neglected, we can have no just claim to " the worthy name" 
which we bear. And are not we "pilgrims and sojourners before 
God, as were are all our fathers?" Are we not by our profession 
" plainly declaring, that we are seeking a country, a better country, 
that is an heavenly?" Do we not feel that the indulgence of inordi 
nate desire for any earthly good disturbs our peace, and impedes our 
progress, and endangers our salvation ? Ought we not to be desirous 
to be instrumental in advancing the glory of God by promoting the 
conversion of men ? Then let us, as pilgrims on earth, and citizens 
of heaven, " set our affections on things above, and not on the things 
which are on the earth ; let us seek the things that are above at the 
right hand of God ; let us mortify our members that are on the earth ;" 
let us "crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts;" let us re 
press all the desires " which war against the soul ;" let us not degrade 
the souls which God breathed into us, which Christ died to save, 
which the Holy Spirit is willing to make his dwelling-place, into slaves 
to those vile subordinate agents of the prince of darkness, which seek 
their destruction. Let us cherish all those desires and affections 
which give peace, and health, and vigor, and activity, to the hidden 
man of the heart ; let us war against those fleshly lusts which war 
against our souls ; let us " not be conformed to this world," so full 
of, so domineered over by, " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, 
and the pride of life ;" but let us be " transformed by the renewing of 
our minds," and " prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable 
will of God." 

In fine, pitying a world lying in wickedness and hurrying to hell, 
let us do all we can to save them. If we can do little in any other 
way, let us at least, by a holy, consistent conduct, by exemplifying the 
purity and the peace of the religion of Christ, proclaim to all around 
us, " We are journeying towards the land of which the Lord hath 
said, I will give it you : come with us, and we will do you good ; for 
the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." " Let your light, then, 
so shine before men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify 
your father who is in heaven." l 

1 CoL iii. 1-5. Num. x. 29. Matt v. 16. 
16 



DISCOURSE X, 

THE NATURE AND DESIGN OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND TIIE 
CHRISTIAN S DUTY IN REFERENCE TO IT. 

1 PET. ii. 13-15. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for tlte Lord s sake: 
whether it be to the king, as supreme ; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent 
by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do dwell. For 
BO is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish 



IT has been remarked, that the moral precepts of Christianity are 
highly valuable, not only when viewed in reference to their primary 
and direct object, the direction and guidance of the movements of the 
inner and outer man, the regulation of the temper and conduct, the 
dispositions and actions, but also when considered in their subsidiary 
and indirect references, particularly in their bearing on the evidence 
of the Divine origin of that system of revelation of which they form 
so important a part. That bearing is manifold. Let us look at it in 
its various phases. Were a book, consisting partly of doctrinal state 
ments and partly of moral precepts, claiming a Divine origin, put into 
our hands ; and were we to find on perusal the moral part of it fan 
tastic and trifling, inconsistent with the principles of man s constitu 
tion, unsuitable to the circumstances in which he is placed, and in 
compatible with the great laws of justice and benevolence, we should 
enter on the examination of the evidence appealed to, in support of 
its high pretensions, under the influence of a strong and justifiable 
suspicion. The study, for example, of the morality of the Talmud, 
or of the Koran, would go far, before commencing an investigation 
of evidence, to satisfy an enlightened inquirer that its claims to a 
Divine authority could not be satisfactorily supported. 

On the other hand, when, in the New Testament, we find a moral 
code requiring all that is, and nothing that is not, " true, and honest, 
and just, and pure, and lovely," we cannot but be impressed with the 
conviction, that the system of which this forms a constituent part is 
worthy of being carefully inquired into ; and we enter on the inquiry 
not merely with excited attention, but with a disposition to weigh 
candidly the evidence that can be brought forward of a supernatural 
origin. A man well acquainted with the preceptive parts of the New 
Testament, cannot help, unless he is completely devoid of candor, re 
garding the question of its origin as a grave and interesting one. He 
must feel in reference to its claims, not as he would in reference to 
the claims of a mere stranger, far less of one whom he knows to be 
a fool, and suspects to be a knave, but as he would in reference to the 



DISC. X.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 243 

claims of a person of whose wisdom and worth he had reason to think 
highly. The claims are of such a kind, and the consequences of ad 
mitting them are so momentous, that even, with all these favorable 
presumptions, they are not to be admitted without satisfactory evi 
dence ; but they obviously deserve to be examined, and respectfully 
and diligently examined. 

But this is not all. A person in a great measure ignorant of what 
true Christianity is, as a moral as well as a doctrinal system, may, 
without much difficulty, be persuaded by an ingenious sceptic, or un 
believer, that that religion, like so many others, has originated in im 
posture or delusion, or in a mixture of both. It is to ignorance of 
Christianity, as its principal intellectual cause, that we are disposed to 
trace the fearfully extensive success of infidel philosophy among the 
nominal Christians of the continent of Europe in the period immedi 
ately preceding the French Revolution. But on a person well in 
formed as to the moral part of Christianity, all such ingenious sophistry 
will be thrown away. He is in possession of information which satis 
fies him that all those hypotheses, on one or other of which the denial 
of the truth and divinity of Christianity must proceed, are altogether 
untenable. There is a character of uniform, sober, practical, good 
sense, belonging to the morality of the New Testament, which makes 
it one of the most improbable of all things, that its writers should 
have been the dupes either of their own imagination or of a design 
ing impostor : and there is a sustained and apparently altogether un- 
assumed and natural air of "simplicity and godly sincerity," which 
forbids us, except on the most satisfactory evidence, to admit that 
they who wore it were other than what they seem to be, honest men. 
To the question, Were the men who delivered these moral maxims, 
fools or knaves, or a mixture of both ? Were they stupid dupes or 
wicked impostors ? the only reasonable answer is, the thins; is barely 
possible, it is in the very highest degree improbable. Evidence ten 
fold more strong than infidel philosophy has ever dreamed of, would 
be necessary to give anything like verisimilitude to any of these hypoth 
eses, on one or other of which must be built the disproof of the claims 
of Christianity on the attention, and faith, and obedience of mankind. 

There is still another aspect in which the morality of Christianity 
may be considered, in reference to the evidence of the Divine origin 
of that religion. Viewed in all its bearings, it seems to be of the 
nature of a moral miracle. Compare the morality of the New Tes 
tament with the morality of ancient philosophy ; compare Jesus with 
Socrates ; and Paul, and Peter, and James, and John, with Epictetus, 
or Plato, or Seneca, or Marcus Antoninus. The difference is pro 
digious ; the superiority is immeasurable. Now, how are we to ac 
count for this difference, this superiority ? On the supposition that 
the writers of the New Testament were uninspired men, we appre 
hend it is utterly unaccountable. Nothing but the admission, that 
they were men who spoke and wrote as they were moved by the 
Spirit of God, can enable us satisfactorily to explain the undoubted 
fact, that the purest and most perfect system of morality which the 
world has ever seen ; the system that discovers the justest and widest 
views of the Divine character and government, and the deepest in- 



244 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. [DISC. X. 

sight into the recesses of human nature, proceeded not from the 
philosophers of Egypt or of India, of Greece or of Rome, but from 
the carpenter of Nazareth and his uneducated disciples. 1 

Such thoughts naturally rise in the mind of every reflecting man, 
on reading such a passage as that of which our text forms a part, 
and are well fitted to strengthen our conviction, that we have not fol 
lowed " cunningly devised fables," when we have yielded credence to 
the claims and doctrines of Jesus Christ and his apostles. It is, how 
ever, full time that we set ourselves to the consideration of the words 
which are to form the subject of our present discourse : " Submit 
yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord s sake ; whether 
it be to the king, as supreme ; or unto governors, as unto them that 
are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise 
of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing 
ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." 

The duty here enjoined, and the motive by which it is enforced, 
are obviously the two topics to which our attention must be succes 
sively directed in the sequel ; but to illustrate either with advantage, 
it will be necessary to make a few remarks, having for their object to 
explain something that is obscure in the phraseology, and to disen 
tangle something that is involved in the construction of the sentence 
which lies before us. 



I INTRODUCTORY EXPLICATORY OBSERVATIONS. 

The word rendered " ordinance," 2 is the term which is usually and 
properly rendered "creature." It is the word that occurs when the 
gospel is commanded to be " preached to every creature," and is said 
to have been " preached to every creature under heaven :" when the 
" whole creation," or " every creature," is said to " groan and travail 
in pain ;" and when every one who is in Christ is said to be " a new 
creature." 3 The literal rendering is, " Submit yourselves to every 
human creature." Some interpreters, most unsuccessfully, have at 
tempted to explain the passage on the principle that this is its mean 
ing here. 4 Our translators, perceiving that the nature of things, 
equally with the scope of the passage, made such a version inadmis 
sible, have given to the word a figurative signification. They con 
sider it as equivalent to ordinance, or institution, or appointment, all 
of which are, as it were, the creatures of those who ordain, institute, 
or appoint them. 6 

Still, however, it seems a strange injunction, " Submit yourselves 

1 A fuller illustration of these remarks on the bearing of Christian morality on Christian 
evidence, will be found in the author s Introductory Essay to Collins edition of Venn s 
" Complete Duty of Man." - 

2 Kriffij. 3 Mark xvi. 14. Col. i. 23. Rom. viii. 19-22. 2 Cor. v. 17. 

4 Sherlock. Grotius conjectures that the original reading may have been Kfiaet. The 
conjecture is ingenious, but entirely unsupported. It is a most instructive fact, that, so far 
as I know, no mere conjecture as to the original text of the New Testament has ever been 
confirmed by subsequent examination of Codices. 

j\.Tiaiv dvOpuniirnv rtlj dpyiij ^c yti ra? yetpoTovrjTas viro T&V {3acri\c(tW i 5) /cai atfrovf T0t)f /?ar- 
Xe?5 KaSore <cal aurol inrd dvdpuiruv ird^Q^aav }roi rf?/?<raj f oi&: yap >/ -a<rj /ecu rr]v Qiaiv /cnVtt 
Ka\clv. ( 



PART I.J EXPLICATORY OBSERVATIONS. 245 

to every human institution." Surely there are many human institu 
tions or ordinances to which a Christian is not bound to submit ; surely 
there are not a few human institutions or ordinances to which a 
Christian is bound not to submit. The injunction plainly requires 
limitation : and we apprehend it receives it. 

The concluding phrase of the 13th verse, "for the punishment of 
evil-doers, and for the praise of them who do well," is commonly 
connected with the words which immediately precede it, as if it 
were intended to express the object which the king, or supreme ma 
gistrate, has in view in appointing deputies. It appears to us far 
more natural to connect it with the word " ordinance ;" and to view 
it as intended to define the particular class of human ordinances 
which the apostle refers to, when he commands Christians to be sub 
ject to every one of them. It is more than doubtful whether kings 
have always, or usually, had this as their object in appointing gover 
nors ; but there can be no doubt this is the end of civil government, 
and is the reason why men are bound to submit to it. " Submit your 
selves to every human ordinance, for the punishment of evil-doers, 
and for the praise of them who do well." This does not require any 
change in the translation, it only requires you to place a comma after 
the words, " sent by him." 

This command, " Submit yourselves to every human ordinance, for 
the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well," 
is, as it were, the trunk of the injunction ; the phrases, " for the Lord s 
sake," and " whether to the king, as supreme, and to governors, as 
those sent by him," are, as it were, branches that spring out of it. 
According to the genius of the English language, the precept would 
run thus : Submit yourselves, for the Lord s sake, to every ordinance 
of man, for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them who 
do well, whether to the king, as supreme, or to governors, as to them 
who are sent by him. 

This mode of construing the passage, not only gives a definite 
reference to the very general term " ordinance," or institution ; it 
also enables us to account for the apostle using the somewhat strange 
expression in reference to civil government, "ordinance of man, or 
human institution for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of 
them who do well." The persons immediately addressed by the 
apostles were Jews, or proselytes who had imbibed Jewish modes of 
thought. Jews held themselves bound to be subject to the Divine 
ordinance of civil magistracy, as laid down in their Scriptures. That 
ordinance, whether embodied .in Moses or in the Judges, or in the 
Davidical Kings, they regarded as entitled to obedience ; but as to 
human institutions for this purpose, they seem very generally to have 
doubted, and many of them to have explicitly denied, that they were 
obligatory on the chosen people of God. If they yielded obedience, 
it was rather as a matter of expediency than of obligation ; they sub 
mitted " for wrath s sake," that is, to avoid punishment, rather than 
"for conscience sake," that is, because God had so willed it. These 
views were very probably carried by many of the Jewish converts 
into their new profession ; and there seems to be a peculiar propriety 
in the apostle, after having described their privileges and immunities 



246 CIVIL GOVERNMENT, [DISC. X 

as Christians in such lofty language, borrowed from the peculiarities 
of the Jewish people under the former economy ; after having repre 
sented them as " the chosen race, the kingdom of priests, the holy 
nation, the peculiar people, the people of God ;" putting them in rnind 
that those privileges were all of a spiritual nature, and that with regard 
to human institutions, and especially with regard to human institu 
tions for the purposes of civil government, they were just on a level 
with the rest of mankind, with the rest of their fellow-citizens ; pos 
sessed of the same rights, liable to the same obligations. 



II THE DUTY ENJOINED; SUBJECTION TO THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT, 
IN THE PERSONS OF ALL ITS LEGAL ADMINISTRATORS. 

We are now prepared to proceed to consider the duty here en- 
joined on Christians : Subjection to the civil government of the 
country where they reside, in the persons of all its legal adminis 
trators. " Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the pun 
ishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them who do well : whether 
to the king, as supreme ; or to governors, as those sent by him." 

The description of civil government here given, first calls for con 
sideration. It is described as " an ordinance or institution for the 
punishment of all evil-doers, and the praise .of them who do well." 
The great design of civil government is, to protect the liberties, prop 
erties, and lives of mankind, living together in society. For this 
purpose, laws with suitable sanctions are enacted and executed, and 
officers are created for the enactment, promulgation, and execution 
of these laws. With reference to civil government, he and he 
only is an evil-doer who violates the law ; and it is enough to entitle 
a man, in the estimation of the magistrate, to the appellation of one who 
does well, if he but obey the law. With sin, as sin, the magistrate 
has nothing to do. It is only when sin becomes crime, a violation of 
law, and infringement of civil order, that it comes under his cogni 
zance. The design, then, of magistracy is "for the punishment .of 
evil-doers," who break the laws enacted for the protection of liberty, 
property, reputation, and life ; and " for the praise," that is, for the 
reward of those "who do w r ell" by keeping these laws ; giving them 
that protection and encouragement which, as has been very justly re 
marked, are the only rewards which good subjects can reasonably ex 
pect from their civil governors. 1 

Civil government is farther described as " an ordinance of man," or 
" a human institution," for this purpose: It is, indeed, the doctrine 
of the New Testament, that civil government, in one sense, and that 
an important one, is a Divine institution, an ordinance of God ; but 
that doctrine, rightly understood, is in no way inconsistent with the 
doctrine that, in another sense, it is a human institution, the ordi 
nance of man. Civil government is of God, so as to lay a founda 
tion for a Divine moral obligation on those subject to it to yield obe 
dience. Some have held that magistracy is of God merely as all 
things are of God, as the famine and the pestilence, as slavery and 

1 " Reward cannot, properly, be the sanction of human laws." WARBUBTON. 



PART II.] I DUTY OF CHRISTIANS IN REFERENCE TO IT. 



247 



war, are of him. Those who take this view err by defect; for this 
could lay no foundation for a claim on obedience. Others err by 
excess, who hold that magistracy is a direct, express Divine institu 
tion. It does not stand on the same foundation as the priesthood 
under the law, or the Christian ministry under the gospel. The 
magistracy of the Jews under the law was the result of a direct Di 
vine appointment ; but not the magistracy of any other people. It 
does not stand even on the same ground as marriage, which was for 
mally instituted. It occupies similar ground with the social state, 
agriculture, or commerce. It naturally rises out of the constitution 
of men s minds, which is God s work, and the circumstances of their 
situation, which are the result of his providence ; and it is highly 
conducive to the security and well-being of mankind, which we 
know must be agreeable to the will of Him whose nature, as well as 
name, is love, and whose tender mercies are over all his works. 

All this is perfectly consistent with civil government being a 
human ordinance or institution. It is the work of man s faculties, 
called forth by the circumstances in which he is placed, out of which 
arises the variety of form which the general institution bears in dif 
ferent countries and in different ages : thus far it is the work of man ; 
and it is the work of God, just inasmuch as he endows man with 
these faculties, and places him in the circumstances which call them 
forth to exertion. To borrow the illustration of one of the greatest 
of our writers on the subject of government : " To say, because civil 
magistracy is ordained of God, therefore it cannot be the ordinance 
of man, is as if you said, God ordained the temple, therefore it was 
not built by masons ; he ordained the snuffers, therefore they were 
not made by a smith. 1 

Now, the duty of Christians to this " human ordinance" of civil 
magistracy, is to " submit themselves" to it, practically to acknowl* 
edge its authority. It is the duty of a Christian to yield obedience to 
all laws of the government under which he lives, that are not in 
consistent with the law of God. When the human ordinance con 
tradicts the Divine ordinance, requiring us to do what God forbids, 
or forbidding us to do what God requires, the rule is plain : " We 
ought to obey God rather than man. " 2 

Nothing short of this, however, can warrant a Christian to with 
hold obedience from a law of the government under which, in the 
providence of God, he is placed ; and even when conscience may 
compel him to non-obedience, he is quietly and patiently to suffer the 
penalty which the law imposes on his non-obedience. While obliged 
by the law of God in such a case not to obey the law of man, he is 
equally obliged, while the government continues to be acknowledged 
by the community of which he forms a part, not to resist it. He 
may, he ought to, use every means which the constitution of his 
country puts in his power to have the law improved; 3 but while it 
continues in force, however unwise and iniquitous, if it does not re- 

1 Harrington. 2 Acts v. 29. 

* "A timely, steady, and mild resistance, on legal grounds, to every unlawful stretch of 
power (as in the well-known case of the ship-money), will prove the most effectual means, 
if uniformly resorted to, for preventing the occurrence of those desperate and extreme 
eases, which call for violent and dangerous remedies." ARCHBISHOP WHATELY. 



248 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. [DISC. X. 

quire him to sin, he must obey it ; and even when it does require him 
to sin, while he must by no means obey it, he must submit to the 
punishment, however unjust, which the law denounces against him. 

One of the most important modes of submission to civil government 
is the payment of tribute ; and this, like all the other duties we owe to 
our rulers, is to be regulated by the principle already laid down. We 
must not refuse, we must not seek to evade, the payment of a tax, 
merely because we think it unwise or unequal. It is only in the case 
of government requiring us to pay a tax for what we consider as a 
sinful object, that we are entitled to refuse compliance, and even in 
that case we are bound to submit to the penalty whicli the law ap 
points for our non-compliance. 

Under the general name of submission are included also that re 
spect and reverence with which the institution of civil government 
should be regarded by all subjects. " To despise government, and 
speak evil of dignities/ are sins most decidedly condemned in the 
law of Christ ; and the Christian apostle has given his sanction to the 
command of the Jewish lawgiver : " Thou shalt not speak evil of the 
rulers of thy people." Words are the signs of thought : the expres 
sions of sentiment and feeling. They are therefore far from being 
harmless in themselves, and they are very far from being harmless in 
their consequences. The man who indulges his tongue in contume 
lious revilings against the authorities of the land, using language fitted 
to bring government itself into contempt, is a dangerous enemy of 
his country s weal, as well as a direct and open violator of the express 
command of God. 1 

It is highly desirable that the personal character of the magistrate 
should give additional lustre to his official dignity ; while it is deeply 
to be regretted that the follies and faults of those who fill public sta 
tions have so often excited a most pernicious influence, in diminish 
ing the authority of the laws, by making it impossible personally to 
respect their administrators. It is well remarked by Hooker, that 
"great caution must be used, that we neither be emboldened to fol 
low them in evil, whom, for authority s sake, we must honor, nor in 
duced in authority to dishonor them whom, as examples, we must not 
follow." 

To prevent misapprehensions, it is needful to remark here, that 
particular civil governments may be so faulty in their constitution, or 
so corrupt in their administration, that it may not only be lawful, but 
obligatory, on the subjects, to seek improvement by thorough change, 
depriving of power those who have abused it, and organizing a new 
form of civil rule which will answer its objects ; and that there is 
certainly nothing in the law of Christ which exempts his followers 
from an obligation to act the part of good citizens in such circum 
stances ; but it is also of importance to add, that nothing short of the 
demonstrated impracticability of the improvement of a government 
by constitutional measures, and of the moral certainty of the great 
body of the citizens being really desirous of a change, can warrant 
individuals to refuse submission to the form of civil rule under which 

2 Pet. ii. 10. Exod. xxii. 28. Acts xxiii. 5. James iii. 1-G. 



PART III.] MOTIVES TO SUBMISSION. 249 

they live, whatever may be the imperfections and faults by which it 
is characterized. 

It deserves notice, also, before we close our observations on this 
head, that the apostle s command is, " Submit yourselves to every 
ordinance of man for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of 
them who do well." These words, taken by themselves, might 
mean, Submit yourselves to civil government, whatever form it 
may wear ; monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, or any conceivable 
combination of these elements ; and there can be no question that in 
this sense the words would express the Christian s duty. It is equal 
ly the duty of the Christian, if he live in Austria, to submit to mon 
archy ; if he live in America, to submit to democracy ; if he live in 
Great Britain, to submit to our mixed government of king, lords, and 
commons ; but from the context it is plain that the reference is not to 
different forms of civil rule in different countries, but to the different 
organs of civil rule in the same country. " Whether to the king/ 1 
that is, to the Roman emperor, within the limits of whose wide do 
minions those addressed by the apostle lived, " or to governors sent 
by him," that is, to the proconsuls, or procurators, deputed by the 
emperor to perform the offices of government in the distant parts of 
the empire. To all the officers by whom the law is administered, Chris 
tians are to render obedience. Whether they be persons in a higher 
station or in a lower ; whatever be the nature or the denomination of 
their office ; whether the jurisdiction extend over the whole land, or 
be limited to a county or to a parish ; to every one of the persons 
appointed to execute the laws, we are bound to render obedience in 
all those particulars in which he is authorized to demand it. So 
much for the illustration of the duty enjoined by the apostle. 



Ill THE MOTIVE OF THE DUTY OF CIVIL OBEDIENCE : FOR THE 

LORD S SAKE." 

Let us now turn our attention to the motives by which the apostle 
enforces this duty. These are unfolded in the words, "For the 
Lord s sake ; for so is the will of God, that with well-doing you may 
put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." " The Lord" is here 
as generally in the New Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ. Chris 
tians are to yield obedience to the civil government under which they 
live, " for his sake ;" for the sake of his commandment ; for the sake 
of his example ; for the sake of his cause. 

First, Christians are to obey the civil government under which they 
live, for the sake of Christ s commandment. Now, what is his com 
mandment ? This was his commandment when he was on earth, 
" Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar s," that is, give to the 
civil government its due ; and, if you look into the writings of the 
apostles, you will find that the due of civil government is obedience, 
tribute, and honor. These apostles had the mind of Christ, and they 
thus express it : " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. 
For there is no power but of God : the powers that be are ordained 
of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the or- 



250 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. [DISC. X 

dinance of God ; and they that resist shall receive to themselves dam 
nation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. 
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, 
and thou shalt have praise of the same : for he is the minister 6t God 
to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he 
beareth not the sword in vain : for he is the minister of God, a reven 
ger to execute wrath on him that doth evil. Wherefore ye must 
needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 
For, for this cause pay you tribute also : for they are God s ministers, 
attending continually on this very thing. Render therefore to them 
all their dues : tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to whom cus 
tom ; fear to whom fear ; honor to whom honor." " Put them in 
mind," says Paul to Titus, " to be subject to principalities and powers ; 
to obey magistrates." They who "despise government," who are 
"presumptuous, self-willed," and "not afraid to speak evil of digni 
ties," are, according to Peter, among " the unjust whom the Lord 
knows how to reserve unto the day of judgment to be punished." 1 

It may be said " the commandment of the Lord," in these words, 
" is pure," 2 clear as crystal ; but how are we to know what is that 
civil government to which they refer? We know that the civil gov 
ernment established among the Jews was God s ordinance to them. 
We know that the Roman government was God s ordinance to the 
primitive Christians ; but how are we to know what civil government 
is God s ordinance to us ? The true answer to that is given by Dr. 
Paley : " It is the will of God that the happiness of human life be pro 
moted. Civil society conduces to that end. Civil societies cannot 
be upholden, unless in each the interest of the whole society be bind 
ing on every part and member of it. So long as the established gov 
ernment cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniency, 
it is the will of God that the established government be obeyed." We 
have not the same means of judging of any particular government 
that it is God s ordinance to us, as those had whom the apostles Paul 
and Peter plainly told, that the Roman government was the ordi 
nance of God to them ; but we have sufficient means of ascertaining 
that point ; and when, by their use, we have come to the conclusion, 
that the government under which we live is so, then the obligation to 
obedience, arising out of the commandment of our Lord, binds us as 
strongly as it bound them. 

Happily for us, my brethren, there is no difficulty in coining to a 
determination. On the one hand, our civil constitution is based on so 
many just principles is upon the whole, compared to most other gov 
ernments, so well administered, and contains within itself such a 
deep-seated and powerful spring of improvement, that we can have 
no reasonable doubt that, though an ordinance of man, it is also the 
ordinance of God to us ; while, on the other hand, the ruling power 
in this country, supported, as it is, by the great body of the subjects 
giving their approbation to the principles on which it is founded, is 
so powerful, that to think of resisting it would not only be highly 
criminal, but folly almost amounting to madness. "For the Lord s 
sake," then, let us submit ourselves to this ordinance of man, whether 

1 Matt. xxii. 21. Rom. xiii. 1-7. Tit iii. ] 2 Pet. ii. 9, 10. 2 Psal. xix. 8. 



PART IIT.] MOTIVES TO SUBMISSION. 251 

to the queen, as supreme, or to inferior magistrates, as commissioned 
by her. 

Secondly, Christians are to obey the civil government under which 
they live, for the sake of the example of the Lord. We are distinctly 
informed by our apostle in the context, that " Christ has left us an ex 
ample, that we should walk in his steps." l It is the duty of his fol 
lowers " to be in the world as he was in the world," and to " walk 
even as he also walked." "The life of our Lord Jesus should be 
manifested in our mortal bodies ;" our lives should be the counterpart 
of his. There is caution, however, no doubt necessary, in applying 
the example of Christ as a rule of conduct. We ought always to act 
on the principles on which he acted ; and when our circumstances 
coincide with his, we cannot too exactly copy his conduct. But his 
circumstances and ours are often very different ; so that an action 
which was right in him, might be wrong in us. Knowing the hearts 
of men, for example, he spoke to hypocrites in a way that it would 
be presumptuous in us to speak to any man. His situation, in refer 
ence to the civil government under which he was placed, was so dif 
ferent from that in which we stand to the civil government under 
which we are placed, that w r e need caution in reasoning from the 
manner in which he acted to the manner in which we ought to act; 
yet still his example here, and in every other instance, is replete with 
instruction. He made it plain that he would not permit political con 
siderations to turn him aside from his great work. The political 
state of the world very much needed improvement; but his directly 
interfering in it would have thrown obstacles in the way of gaining 
his great object an object which, when gained, will ultimately put 
everything right. He did not " cry nor strive." He took no part 
in the political controversies of his times. " He did no violence ;" 
he stirred up no seditions. 2 He rendered to Ca3sar the things that 
were Caesar s. We should err if we were to draw the conclusion, 
that we ought to have as little to do with politics as Jesus Christ had ; 
for our place, as citizens of a free commonwealth, is very different from 
his, who had no political standing at all in the existing forms of rule, 
whether Jewish or Roman ; but we are taught, that as Christians we 
are to place the religious above the political ; the kingdom not of this 
world, above every worldly kingdom ; that the citizen of heaven must 
not be sunk either in the citizen of Britain or the citizen of the 
world ; that where there is no prospect of our improving political in 
stitutions, it is wisest to let them alone ; and that if he was uniformly 
obedient and submissive to one of the worst of human governments, it 
ill becomes us to be factious, and seditious, and disobedient, under a 
system of civil rule, which, though far, very far indeed, from being 
perfect, is yet among the best which the world has yet seen. 

It is, however, chiefly, we apprehend, to the bearing which their 
submission to the civil government is likely to have on the cause of 
Christ, that the apostle refers in the words before us. I therefore go 
on to remark, in the third place, that Christians are bound to obey 
the civil government under which they are placed, for the sake of 
the cause of the Lord. Among the false charges brought against the 

1 1 Pet. ii. 21. 7 Isa.xlii. 2; liii. 9. 



252 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. [DISC. X 

primitive Christians, this was one, they were bad subjects ; and 
their refusal to join in the rites of the idolatrous religion, sanctioned 
by public authority, seemed to give plausibility to the charge. It de 
serves notice, that this is a charge which, in all ages, has been brought 
against the people of God by their enemies. The adversaries of Ju- 
dah and Benjamin, when God turned again the captivity of his people, 
branded Jerusalem as " the rebellious and the bad city a city hurt 
ful unto kings and provinces, whose inhabitants had moved sedition 
of old time;" and Haman, "that wicked adversary and enemy," de 
scribed the Jews as " a certain people scattered abroad, and dispersed 
among the people in all the provinces of the kingdom; whose laws 
were diverse from all people, and who keep not the king s laws : 
whom it was therefore not for the king s profit to suffer." 1 " There 
was a strong report," says one of the fathers of the church, 2 comment 
ing on the parallel passage in the Epistle to the Romans, " that the 
apostles were seditious and innovators, and that their principles and 
practices tended to the subversion of the common laws." So far as 
this report was credited, it was plainly calculated, in a variety of 
ways, to impede the progress of Christianity ; and nothing was so 
much fitted to give currency and credit to the calumny, as a neglect 
or violation on the part of Christians of the injunction contained in 
the text. This was sure to expose them to the vengeance of the 
laws, and so to deprive them of the power of extending Christianity ; 
while discredit was cast on the Christian cause as hostile to the order 
of civil society. On the contrary, nothing was better fitted to live 
down the calumny, than a scrupulous and conscientious compliance 
with the injunction. When it was found that no class of subjects so 
readily obeyed all the laws of the empire, except those which required 
what was inconsistent with the laws of Christ, while even in this case 
they meekly submitted to the consequences of their non-compliance, 
though these often were torture and death ; that while they refused 
to give their property for the support of idolatry, they patiently took 
the spoiling of their goods, and readily rendered " tribute to whom 
tribute was due, custom to whom custom was due," the conclusion 
must have forced itself on every reflecting mind : These are peace 
able, orderly men, and there is nothing in their religion inconsistent 
with the welfare of the state. In this way their well-doing was fitted 
to "put to silence" 3 the ignorant and malignant calumnies of their 
foolish and unprincipled accusers. Such an even tenor of good con 
duct, such an onward course of well-doing, was better fitted to silence 
adversaries than the most elaborate apologies and defences. 

The principle on which the apostolic injunction proceeds, is one 
applicable to all countries and ages. If Christians wish to recommend 
the religion they profess, they must be exemplary in the discharge of 
all the duties of domestic and social relative life ; and few things are 
more fitted to prejudice worldly men against religion generally, or 
against particular forms of religion, than the manifestation on the part 

i Ezra iv. 12. Esth. iii. 8. 2 Chrysostom. 

* The word <f>ipovv t rendered put to silence, properly signifies to muzzle ; -which, in one 
expressive word, shows the apostle s opinion of these adversaries of Christianity. They 
belonged to the rives, of which Paul warns the Philippians. Ch. iii. 2. 



DISC. X.J CONCLUSION. 253 

of their professors of a disposition to evade the laws, or violate the 
order, or disorganize the constitution of civil society. 

At the same time it must not be forgotten, that the interests of gen 
uine Christianity may be as really injured by the maintenance and 
exemplification of slavish principles as by the maintenance and ex 
emplification of revolutionary principles ; and that the true medium is 
not so happily described in the verse which follows our text, the 
thinking, and feeling, and acting as free men, guarding against ma 
king our liberty a cloak of wickedness, conducting ourselves always 
as the servants of God, honoring all men, loving the brotherhood, 
fearing God, honoring the king. Thus have I briefly illustrated the 
apostolic injunction, "Submit yourselves to every human ordinance, 
for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well ;" 
and the powerful motive by which it is enforced, " for the Lord s 
sake," from a regard to the law, the example, and the cause of him 
who is Lord of all ; and, with a peculiar emphasis, " OUR Lord 
Jesus." 

The discourse has been throughout practical, so that it stands in 
little need of what is ordinarily called improvement. Almost all that 
requires to be said in this way is, " If ye know these things, happy are 
ye if ye do them." l It is an easy matter for us to do them, when 
compared with those to whom they were originally addressed ; and, 
of course, if we fail, our conduct is doubly criminal. 

I conclude with a reflection which, I am sure, must have already 
suggested itself to your minds. If we should submit ourselves to 
"every ordinance of man, for the punishment of evil-doers, and the 
praise of them that do well," should we not much more submit our 
selves to every ordinance, every institution, every appointment of 
God, all of which have for their object the glory of his great name and 
the happiness of his intelligent creatures ? If we ought to be obedient 
to human governments, though necessarily imperfect, faulty both in 
their constitution and administration, how readily should we yield 
obedience to the Divine government, which both in principle and ad 
ministration is absolutely perfect, being formed and conducted by 
him who is infinite in knowledge and wisdom, and power, and right 
eousness, and benignity. If we have human governors to whom our 
bodies are subject, should we not, much rather in our spirits, be sub 
ject to the King of souls? "He is a Rock, his work is perfect; all 
his ways are judgment : a God of truth, and without iniquity ; just 
and right is he." " His work" as a legislator, governor, or judge, " is 
most honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endureth forever."* 
How high a privilege should we account it to be the subjects of such 
a government ! What folly and wickedness must it be to neglect or 
violate any of its laws ! What madness to expose ourselves to the 
consequences of such violation ! If, then, every soul should be sub 
ject to the powers that be, though they once were not, and may very 
likely, ere long, cease to be : should not every soul be subject to that 
power which was, and is, and ever shall be ? Is it not of supreme 
importance that we should be loyal subjects of the King of the uni 
verse, the immortal, invisible, only wise God ? 

1 John xiiL 17. 3 Deut. xxxii. 4. PsaL cxL 3. 



254 CIVJL GOVERNMENT. [DISC. X. 

Oh, let all of us see that our relations to Him be in a safe and satis 
factory state ! Have we acquainted ourselves with Him as he has 
manifested himself " in the face" of his only begotten, his visible 
image, the great revealer of the unseen, the invisible One, and are we 
at peace with him? It once was otherwise; we were at war with 
him. Mad, impious rebellion ! Has the manifestation of his authority 
and grace quelled the rebel principles within, brought every high 
thing down into subjection to him, and sweetly constrained us to cast 
from us the weapons we had so foolishly, so wickedly, wielded against 
him? If not, the sooner such a change take place, the better; for 
" HE beareth not the sword in vain." 

If this all-important change has taken place, let us prove that it has 
taken place by submitting cordially to his authority, as administered 
by HIM whom he has " set on his holy hill of Zion." Let us " serve 
him without fear in holiness, and righteouness, all the days of our 
lives." Let us " walk in all his ordinances and commandments blame 
less ; let us "count his precepts concerning all things to be right; 
let us hate every false way ;" l and let us show our supreme regard to 
his authority, equally, by cheerfully doing everything which our civil 
rulers require of us, however disagreeable to us, if only not inconsis 
tent with his law, because he has commanded it ; and by obstinately 
refusing to do anything which they command us, however deeply it 
may involve our worldly interests, which is inconsistent with his law, 
because he has forbidden it. 

It is, indeed, inward subjection to His authority, that alone can 
secure high-principled and duly-regulated subjection to every lawful 
inferior authority. It has been justly remarked, that when the spirit 
of the high-minded sinner has been brought down by the gospel, and 
he has bowed with a broken and contrite heart to the sceptre of the 
Saviour s grace, the humble subjection of his conscience to God, 
which then takes place, involves in it a meek and humble spirit of 
submission to all the authority which that God has vested in any of 
his creatures. The obedience which he yields as a child, as a servant, 
as a subject, being yielded from religious principles, becomes obedi 
ence to God ; and " whatsoever he does henceforward, " he does it 
heartily to the Lord and not to man." 2 And hence it is that the 
Christian minister feels that he never acts more the part of a good 
citizen, never employs means more fitted for improving the whole 
scene of domestic and social and political life, than when he urges on 
men, "repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus 
Christ ;" and beseeches them, on the ground of the great atonement, 
to be "reconciled to God." 3 

1 Luke i. 6, 74, 75. Psal. cxix. 128. 2 Col. iii. 23. 

* The whole subject of this discourse is more fully discussed by the author, in his trea 
tise entitled " The Law of Christ respecting Civil Obedience, especially in the Payment 
of Tribute." 



DISCOURSE XL 

THE CONDITION AND DUTY OF CHRISTIANS AS FREE," YET 
AS THE SERVANTS OF GOD." 

1 PET. ii. 16. As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but a* 
the servants of God. 1 

THESE words contain in them a very instructive view of the con 
dition and duty of Christians, to the illustration and improvement of 
which I design to devote the following discourse. The CONDITION of 
Christians is described as at once a condition of liberty and subjec 
tion. They are "free," and yet servants, "the servants of God." 
The DUTY of Christians is stated with a reference to their condition : 
they are to conduct themselves agreeably to their condition, as free, 
and as the servants of God ; they are to assert and use their liberty ; 
they are not to abuse their liberty ; they are to exemplify or act out 
their subjection. Such is the outline which I will attempt to fill up 
in the sequel. 

I THE CONDITION OF CHRISTIANS. 

1. They are free. 

Let us then, in the first place, attend to the account contained in 
the text of the condition of Christians. They are "free," yet "the 
servants of God." Christians are a peculiar people. They are free 
men among slaves, the servants of God among the servants of the 
wicked one. This was not always the case. The common condi 
tion of the race was originally theirs. They were slaves both in con 
dition and in character, and they were rebels. But " the Son has 
made them free, and they are free indeed ;" and the determined rebel 
has become a loyal subject. " If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a 
new creature," and to him there is a new creation. " Old things 
have passed away, and all things have become new." Christians are 
free : free in reference to God ; free in reference to man ; free in ref 
erence to the powers and principles of evil. 

Let us shortly attend to these various aspects of the Christian s 
freedom. 

(1.) Free in reference to God. 

First, Christians are free in reference to God. They are " the Lord s 
freemen." 2 By this we do not mean that they are not under the 

1 See note A. a 1 Cor. vii 22. 



256 THE CONDITION OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. SI. 

strongest obligations to conform their minds and wills to the mind and 
will of God, and to regulate the whole of their temper and conduct 
according to the revelation of that mind and will contained in his 
word. They are not free in the sense of being " without law to God ;" 
to be so would be the reverse of a privilege ; they " are under the law 
to Christ." l Yet still in a very important sense they are free, both 
as to condition and character, in reference to God ; and these two 
forms or species of freedom are closely connected, the latter being 
the result and manifestation of the former. 

The relation in which the Christian, before conversion, stood to 
God in consequence of sin, was that of a condemned criminal ; and 
the character by which he was distinguished was that of a sullen 
slave, conscious of having exposed himself to punishment for his in 
dolence and unfaithfulness, and equally hating his Master and his work. 
" All have sinned, all have lost the approbation of God," 3 all have 
incurred the condemning sentence of the divine law ; and 

" Chains are the portion of revolted man 
Stripes and a dungeon." * 

They are, as it were, shut up in prison, reserved for punishment, 
and bound by the fetters of guilt, which no created power can break, 
no created ingenuity unlock. 

In this state, of which no sinner is entirely unconscious, the dispo 
sition cherished by him towards God is, must be, not that of an affec 
tionate child or a loyal subject, but that of a slave punished for diso 
bedience, bearing a grudge towards his master, as if the unreasonable 
ness of the task assigned him, rather than his own wilful neglect and 
disobedience, were the true cause of the evils he feels or fears. He 
is an entire stranger to the love of God, so that free voluntary obedi 
ence is a moral impossibility ; and if at any time he assume the ap 
pearance of submission, and do those actions which the law requires, 
such conduct springs entirely from the principles of servile fear or 
mercenary expectation. This is the natural condition and character 
of all men in reference to God. This was once the condition and 
character of every Christian. 

But the condemned criminal has become a pardoned, accepted 
child; the slave has obtained both the state and the disposition of a 
freeman. The prison doors have been thrown open, the fetters of 
guilt have been unloosed, the prisoner has gone forth. Love has 
taken the place of dislike, confidence of jealousy, joyful hope of " tho 
fear that had torment;" and while the pardoned, renewed sinner, 
" keeps God s precepts," " he walks at liberty." 

The manner in which this change is produced, must be familiar to 
the mind of every one who properly understands even the " princi 
ples of the doctrines of Christ," "the first principles of the oracles of 
God." 4 It is by the faith of the truth as it is in Jesus, that man, the 
criminal and slave, is introduced into the state, and formed to the 
character, of a spiritual freeman. Christ Jesus, the only begotten of 
God, moved by sovereign love, has by the appointment of his Father, 

1 1 Cor. ix. 21. a Rom. iii. 23. Adfr. John v. 41-44. 

Cowper. 4 Heb. vl 1 v. 12. 



PART I.] FREE. 257 

done and suffered, as the substitute of man, all that was necessary to 
make the salvation of sinners perfectly consistent with, gloriously 
illustrative of, the holiness and justice, as well as the pity and benig 
nity of the Divine character. That wondrous work of " God mani 
fest in the flesh," is made the subject of a plain, well-accredited rev 
elation. In the case of all the saved, by a sovereign Divine influ 
ence, the mind is so fixed on this revelation, in its meaning and 
evidence, as to understand and believe it. This is the faith of the 
gospel. 

This faith, by Divine appointment, brings the sinner within the 
saving power of the atonement. He is redeemed from the curse of 
the law through him who became a curse in his stead ; the bless 
ing of Abraham, even a free and full justification, by believing, comes 
on him ; and he obtains larger and larger measures of the promised 
Spirit, by believing. "Being justified by faith, he has peace with 
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and has access to God," as his 
father and friend, " by this faith, in reference to the grace of God ;" 
and he " stands" in this state of reconciliation and favorable fellow 
ship, "rejoicing in hope of the glory of God." " There is no more 
condemnation to him, being in Christ Jesus ; and he walks no more 
after the flesh, but after the Spirit." The Spirit of Christ the Lord 
dwells in him, and " where the Spirit of the Lord," which is a free 
spirit, is, " there is liberty." The love of God is shed abroad in his 
heart by the Holy Ghost, given to him, and he loves him who has 
first, and so, loved him. And his love finds its natural expression in 
conformity to God s mind and will, and in obedience to his command 
ments. It is no longer the slave, toiling at intervals at a task which 
he abhors, to secure the morsel or to escape the lash ; it is an enlight 
ened, renewed creature, embracing what he sees to be true, and doing 
what he knows to be right, following out the impulses of his new na 
ture ; and doing all this the more readily, because he knows that, in 
doing so, he walks in the light of his heavenly Father s countenance, 
enjoying an elevating consciousness of fellowship of mind and heart 
with the only wise, the immaculately holy, the infinitely benignant, 
the ever-blessed God ; and because he has learned, by painful experi 
ence, " that the way of the transgressor," even of " the backslider in 
heart," " is hard," and that holiness and happiness are, in the nature 
of things, as well as by the express Divine appointment, so closely 
conjoined, as to be all but identified with each other. He " knows the 
truth, and the truth makes him free." 1 

The whole of the Christian s obedience, when he acts like himself, 
has this character of true-hearted freedom. With regard to a very 
large portion of his duties, he so distinctly sees their reasonableness 
r and excellence, and the important and blissful purposes which obedi 
ence is fitted to secure, that he considers the having this peaceful, 
joyful path, through a world full of sin and misery, so clearly pointed 
out in the law of the Lord, as one of the greatest proofs of the 
kindness of his God and his Father. He sees and feels that God has 
" granted him his law graciously." The language of his heart is, " O ! 
how love I thy law, it is my meditation all the day :" " Great peace 

t * Rom. v. 1, 2 ; viii 1 2 Cor. iii. 17. 



258 THE CONDITION OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XL 

have they who love thy law, nothing can offend them :" " I will run 
in the way of thy commandments, when thou hast enlarged my heart ;" 
"I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I love;" "I will 
keep thy laws continually forever and ever, and I will walk at lib 
erty ; for I seek thy precepts." 1 And if in some cases he may feel 
a difficulty in perceiving the reason of a particular piece of dutiful 
exertion, or suffering, or sacrifice, required of him, the deep-seated 
conviction of the infinite wisdom and power of Jehovah, constantly 
influenced by holy love, which the manifestation of God in the person 
and work of his Son, has lodged in his mind, makes him cheerfully 
comply with the requisition, just because it is His. 

The measure of this spiritual liberty obviously depends on the 
measure of faith. In proportion to the clearness of our apprehen 
sions, and the firmness of our persuasion of "the truth as it is in 
Jesus," will be the alacrity and delight with which, " delivered out of 
the hands of our" spiritual " enemies, we serve him without fear, in 
holiness and righteousness." 2 The spirit of bondage, which leads 
Christians again to fear, with the fear which hath torment, which fet 
ters their minds and hearts, grows powerful just as saving truth is 
overlooked or misapprehended ; and can be cast out of the heart only 
by that " perfect love," which grows out of our knowing and believ 
ing the love which God has for us, and which he has manifested in 
giving his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

The character of manly, Christian, affectionate freedom, which the 
knowledge and faith of the truth as it is in Jesus, under Divine influ 
ence, produces, renders unnecessary and unsuitable such an institu 
tion as the Mosaic law, an institution adapted to the Church in its 
infant state. That institution, having served its purpose, has been 
abrogated ; and all attempts, and they have been numerous, to intro 
duce into the Christian Church any system of a similar character, 
are foolish and criminal ; an invasion equally of the prerogative of 
Christ, and of the privileges of his people. So much for the Chris 
tian s freedom in reference to God. 

2.) Free in reference to Man. 

Let us now look at the second aspect of the Christian s freedom : 
He is free in reference to man. 

When we say that the Christian is free in reference to man, we do 
not mean to say that he is not under obligation to seek the happiness 
of his fellow-men, and especially of his fellow-Christians; or to deny 
that, in prosecuting this end, he is to imitate the conduct of his Lord, 
who " came not to be ministered to, but to minister." Christians are 
" to submit themselves one to another, in the fear of God ;" they are 
all of them to be " subject one to another," and "by love to serve one 
another." The apostle s being " free from all men," was not at all 
inconsistent with his being " the servant of all." " He who would be 
chief among his brethren, must be the servant of all." "He that is 
greatest among you," says our Lord, "shall be your servant." 3 

1 Psal. cxix. 29, 163, 32, 16, 44, 45. 2 Luke i. 74. 

Eph. v. .21. 1 Pet. v. 5. Gal. v. 13. Matt. xx. 28. 1 Cor. ix. 19. Luke xxii. 26. 



PART I.] FREE. 259 

Nor do we mean to say that the Christian is emancipated from civil 
authority, and is not bound to " be subject to the powers that be," or 
that he cannot fill the place of a domestic servant, and discharge its 
duties. His relations and duties, as a member of civil or domestic 
society, are in no degree changed by his becoming a Christian. 

Nor do we mean to say that the Christian may not be subjected to 
the most degrading servitude, being treated by a fellow-man as if he 
were as completely his property as his estate or his cattle. This has 
actually been the situation of a multitude of Christians. It is the 
situation of not a few at this moment ; and oh, shame ! the slaveholder, 
as well as the slave, bears the worthy name, Christian. 

But we do mean to say, that the mind and conscience of the Chris 
tian are emancipated from human authority : that no human power 
has any right to dictate to him what he is to believe, and what he is 
to do in matters of religious and moral duty : and that, in the degree 
in which he is an enlightened Christian, he acts on the principle, that 
he ought to " call no man on earth master," but in the exercise of his 
own faculties, aided by the promised Spirit, to endeavor to ascertain 
what is the mind and will of the " One Master, who is in heaven," and 
having ascertained it, to " walk at liberty keeping his commandments/ 

There is a natural tendency in man to usurp spiritual authority over 
man ; and what seems strange, there is a natural tendency, too, to 
submit to this usurpation. By far the greater part of mankind have 
no better reason for their religious opinions, ordinances, and usages, 
than that they have " received them by tradition from their fathers." l 
What is taught and received, as religious truth and duty, is to them 
nothing more than " the commandments of men." The great body 
even of those who assume to themselves the honorable appellation, 
free-thinkers, are nothing less than what that appellation expresses. 
They are, almost universally, the blind followers of their blind, self- 
chosen guides ; the veriest slaves of human authority, in one of its 
least creditable forms. 

When a man becomes a Christian, in the recognition of the supreme 
and sole authority, in all matters of religious truth and duty, of God, 
and of Jesus Christ whom he has sent, there is necessarily implied the 
renunciation of all human authority. If the one Master be in heaven, 
there can be no master on earth. A Christian, acting worthy of the 
liberty wherewith Christ has made him free, believes no doctrine but 
what he is persuaded Christ has taught ; observes no ordinance but 
what he believes Christ has appointed ; performs nothing as a duty 
but what he is convinced Christ has enjoined. Helpers of his faith, 
he gratefully acknowledges in all who will assist him in obtaining 
wider, clearer, more impressive views of the mind and will of the su 
preme Teacher and Sovereign ; such he counts his greatest benefac 
tors : but lords of his faith he will not recognize, even in the wisest 
and best of men. He feels that there is but one with whom he has 
to do, as authority, in religion ; " one lawgiver, who can save and who 
can destroy ;" 2 and that he must stand before His judgment-seat, and 
give an account of himself to HIM. The answer to the questions, 
What say the fathers ? what say the reformers ? what say the sym- 

1 1 Pet. i. 18. Matt. xv. 9 2 James iv. 12. 



260 THE CONDITION OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 

bolical books ? the answer to any or all of these questions, does not 
determine his faith: it is the answer to the question, What saith the 
Lord ? " What is written in the law ? how readest thou ?" : which 
fixes his decision. This is the touchstone by which he examines all 
religious doctrines and institutions. " To the law, and to the testi 
mony : if men speak not according to this word, it is because there is 
no light in them." 2 To be the servants of men is unworthy of the 
condition and character of spiritual freemen, to which Christ by his 
Spirit, through the faith of the truth, hath raised all his people. Their 
judgments must not be guided, when they act like themselves they 
will not be guided, by the writings of Luther or Calvin, nor based on 
the decisions of councils, however venerable. They will honor their 
fellow-disciples, especially such of them as have obviously profited by 
the teaching of their common Master; but they will sit only at his 
feet, and take the law only from his mouth. 

There is another aspect of the Christian s freedom, in reference to 
his fellow-men, that deserves to be cursorily noticed before leaving 
this part of our subject. Human approbation, in some form or other, 
is a leading object with the great body of mankind, and exercises a 
powerful influence over their conduct. They seek the praise, they 
fear the censure, and reproach, and revilings of men ; and they fashion 
their conduct so as to secure the one and avoid the other. With the 
Christian, Divine approbation is the great object. He seeks " the 
honor which comes down from above;" and, in doing this, he is set 
free from the enslaving influence of the hopes and fears which spring 
out of an exaggerated estimate of the value of the good opinion of 
men. With him, "it is a very small thing to be judged of man s 
judgment ;" for he believes that " there is one that judgeth him, that 
is the Lord." 3 

(3.) Free in reference to the Power and Principles of Evil. 

Let us now look at the third aspect of the Christian s condition as 
free. He is free in reference to the powers and principles of evil. 
By the powers of evil, I understand the devil, that crafty, and power 
ful, and active spiritual being, of whom we read so often in Scripture, 
and of whose personal existence I think no unprejudiced reader of 
the Sacred Volume can entertain a doubt ; who introduced moral 
evil into our world in the beginning of the history of our race, and 
has been ceaselessly endeavoring, with but too much success, to up 
hold and extend its influence; and his subordinate agents, "the evil 
angels." By the principles of evil, I understand the various depraved 
propensities of our fallen nature, acted on by the present world, 
" things seen and temporal" 

By these powers and principles all men are naturally enslaved. 
The evil spirit is "the god of this world;" he " worketh in the hearts 
of the children of disobedience;" he "leads them captive at his will." 
They "are of their father the devil, and the lusts of their father ;" the 
things which he desires and delights in, " they will do," they choose 

1 Luke x. 26. Isa. viii. 20. * 1 Cor. iv. 3. 



PART I.] FREE. 261 

to "do/ l Though to a great degree the unconscious, they are not 
the less the devoted, servants of the wicked one. 

When a man becomes a Christian, he is delivered from the power 
of Satan. " The prey is taken from the mighty, and the captive of 
the terrible one is delivered." The Christian by no means ceases on 
his conversion to be the object of the malignant attempts of his great 
enemy, who, "like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may 
devour" 2 like a cunning serpent, lies in wait to dart into the soul the 
poison and pollution of sin. But he ceases to be his slave : his new 
state of favor with God, secures for him the protection of a power, 
compared with which diabolical power is weakness ; and the guidance 
of a wisdom, compared with which diabolical craft is folly : so that 
he can " tread upon the lion and the adder ; the young lion and the 
dragon he can trample under foot :" and the good Spirit, by the in 
strumentality of his word, furnishes him with principles which enable 
him to baffle all Satan s devices, and frustrate all his attempts to re 
gain his lost dominion. 

Men are by nature not only the slaves of Satan, but they are repre 
sented as " serving divers lusts and pleasures," as the " servants of 
sin:" "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant," the slave, "of 
sin." The apostle represents them as so " the servants, the slaves of 
sin," as to be " freemen 3 so far as righteousness is concerned," that 
is, to be entirely uninfluenced by holy principle; to be wholly under 
the power of evil ; " sin reigning over their mortal body," while they 
"obey it by means of the desires of the body," and "yield their 
members to it as the instruments of unrighteousness." Such were 
some, such were all, true Christians, previously to their conversion ; 
but God be thanked, that they who were the servants of sin, have, by 
obeying from the heart the form of doctrine which has been delivered 
to them, been "made free from sin," freemen in reference to sin, and 
have become "the servants of righteousness;" no longer "yielding 
their members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity, 
but yielding their members servants to righteousness unto holiness." 

By the faith of the truth they are so identified with Christ, as that 
his death, resurrection, and new life are theirs. They are brought 
under their influence, both justifying and sanctifying; "so that as he 
died unto sin once, and being raised from the dead dieth no more, 
death having no more dominion over him, but liveth to God, they also 
reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God through 
Jesus Christ our Lord :" and the consequence is, they no longer " let 
sin reign in their mortal body, that they should obey it in the lusts 
thereof;" neither do they " yield their members to it as instruments of 
unrighteousness, but they yield themselves unto God, as those that are 
alive from the dead, and their members as instruments of righteous 
ness unto God. For sin no longer has dominion over them : for they 
are not under the law, but under grace." " Whoso is born of God 
doth not commit sin : for his seed rernaineth in him : and he cannot 
sin, because he is born of God." * The new nature is a holy nature, 
and, so far as a man possesses this nature, he does not, he cannot, sin. 

1 2 Cor. iv. 4. 2 Tim. ii. 26. John viii. 44. 2 Isa. xlix. 24. 1 Pet. v. 8. 

See note B. * 1 John viii. 34. Rom. vi. 16-20. 5 Rom. vi. 9-14. 1 John iii. 9 



262 THE CONDITION OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 

And every man who possesses it at all, possesses it in such a degree 
as that he habitually hates and avoids sin. Not that any Christian in 
the present state is completely freed from the influence of depraved 
principle : " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and 
the truth is not in us." While we are in the present state, " there is 
a law in our members which wars against the law of the mind ;" but 
the Christian "consents to the law that it is good," "delights in the 
law of God after the inner man ;" and though, " with the flesh," that 
is, so far as he is unrenewed, "he serves the law of sin," yet with the 
Spirit, that is, so far as he is renewed (and this constitutes his pre 
vailing, abiding character), "he serves the law of God;" and though 
often, when he loses sight of the truth, which sanctifies as well as 
comforts, he is constrained to sigh out, " wretched man, who shall de 
liver me ?" yet, habitually, he rejoices in the begun and advancing 
emancipation from the principles of evil, "thanking God through 
Jesus Christ," who hath delivered, who is delivering, and who will 
deliver : rejoicing that not only is " there no condemnation to him, 
being in Christ Jesus," but that the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus, has made him free from the law of sin and death." l 

2. Christians are the servants of God. 

Having made these cursory remarks on the condition of Christians 
as free, free in reference to God, free in reference to man, free in 
reference to the powers and principles of evil; let us now for a little, 
attend to the second view of their condition. While in one point of 
the view they are free, in another, they are "servants, servants of 
God." These are by no means inconsistent representations. So far 
from this, it is only by becoming the servants of God that men can 
cease to be the slaves of Satan and sin. The only true liberty of 
which a dependent being like man is capable, is the free use of his 
faculties in the service of God. Independence, strictly speaking, be 
longs only to God. Man in seeking it, instead of obtaining, lost 
liberty. Seeking to be supreme lord of himself, refusing to be the 
servant of the best of beings, he necessarily became a slave of the 
worst. It is the very condition of our being, as creatures, that we 
serve ; " we have not the liberty to choose whether we shall serve or 
not, all the liberty we have is to choose our master." 2 

Men in their apostate state are not God s servants. They are " the 
children not of obedience," as Christians are ; they are " the children 
of disobedience." In one sense, indeed, all men are God s servants. 
They are all bound to submit to his authority ; they are all employed 
by him in the execution of his purposes. But Christians are God s 
servants in a sense peculiar to themselves. They are his peculiar 
property ; they have been formed by him to the character of his ser 
vants : they have voluntarily devoted themselves to his service ; they 
habitually employ themselves in his service. 

They are his servants, for they are his peculiar property. " All 
that is in heaven and in the earth is his." Men may renounce God s 
authority, but they cannot despoil him of any part of what belongs 
1 1 John i. 8. Rom. vii. 14 j viii. 2. a Sanderson. 



PART I.] THE SERVANTS OP GOD. 263 

to him. But Christians are God s property in a peculiar sense. 
They are his "purchased possession." Justice had doomed them to 
death, and they were bought off, " not by corruptible things as silver 
and gold, but by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and 
without spot, the blood of Christ." "Jesus gave himself for them, 
that he might redeem them from all iniquity, and purify them as a 
peculiar people." 

As God purchased them to be his servants, so by the influence of 
his good Spirit he has qualified them for his service. Well may he 
say to each of them, " Remember, thou art my servant : I have form 
ed thee ; thou art my servant ;" and of them all as a body, " This 
people have I formed for myself; that they may show forth my 
praise." He has "shed his love abroad in their hearts ;" he has "put 
his fear in their hearts." He has " put his law in their inward parts, 
and written it in their hearts." He has " created them anew in 
Christ Jesus unto good works," and "transformed them, by the 
renewing of their minds :" and, under the influence of his good Spir 
it, he has induced them gladly and gratefully to enter into his service, 
to assume his easy yoke, to take up his light burden. He has made 
them see and feel the irresistible force of his infinite excellence and 
kindness, as a motive to obedience. He has manifested to them 
" the great love wherewith he has loved them," and " blessed them 
with all heavenly and spiritual blessings ;" so that they have been 
constrained to say, " What shall we render to the Lord for all his 
benefits ? Truly, O Lord, we are thy servants ; we are thy ser 
vants ; thou hast loosed our bonds." " Other lords have had do 
minion over us ; henceforth we will make mention only of thy 
name." l v 

Finally, they are his servants, for they habitually employ them 
selves in his service. Christians knowing that " they are not their 
own, but bought with a price," glorify " with their souls, and with 
their bodies, which are God s," Him who has bought them. Influ 
enced by his mercies, they present themselves to him as " living 
sacrifices, holy and acceptable, which is their rational worship." De 
livered by him from their former tyrants, " they serve him without 
fear, in righteousness and holiness, all the days of their life." They 
acknowledge that it is their duty, they know that it is their prevail 
ing desire, to be entirely conformed to the will of their Lord: 
" Whether they eat, or drink, or whatsoever they do, they" would 
" do all to his glory." " Whatsoever they do in word or in deed, they 
would do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the 
Father through him." Their desire is, " to be in the world as Jeho 
vah s elect servant was in the world, always about their Master s, 
their Father s, business ; finding it their meat to do his will, and finish 
his work." * 

It concerns us all seriously to inquire, if the condition which has 
been described be ours. Are we experimentally acquainted with 

1 Tsa. xliv. 21; xliii. 21. Horn. v. 5. Jer. xxxii. 40; xxxi. 33. Eph. ii. 10. Rom. 
xii. 2. Eph. i. 2, 11, 4. Psal. cxvi. 12, 16. Isa. xxvi. 13. 

2 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. Horn. xii. 1. Luke L 74, 75. 1 Cor. x. 31. Col. iii. 17. 1 John 
iv. 17. John iv. 34. 



264 THE CONDITION OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 

this liberty of the children of God ; are we the servants of God ? 
The question should not be a difficult one to answer. On this sub 
ject, I believe, there may be a presumptuous confidence. Where 
there is not only no evidence for, but very much evidence against, 
a favorable answer, there are men " who speak great swelling words 
of vanity" about their Christian liberty, while ther whole character 
and conduct proclaim them " servants of corruption/ The only 
permanent satisfactory evidence that we are God s freemen is, 
habitual gratitude for our emancipation, showing itself in our " serving 
him without fear, in righteousness and holiness," "walking before 
him in love." The only permanent satisfactory evidence that we are 
God s servants is, our doing his work. 

Owing to a variety of causes, there may be hesitation and doubt, 
where there is such evidence as ought to lay the foundation of hum 
ble confidence. But there is something wrong here also. Doubt 
on such a subject is, in no case, a good symptom, and it is obviously 
a matter of duty, no less than of prudence, to seek certainty on a 
point so vitally connected with our highest interests. If we are in 
deed "free," and "the servants of God," why, by remaining in doubt 
about it, deprive ourselves of the abundant consolation, the good 
hope, the varied and powerful motives to holiness, which a clear sat 
isfactory persuasion of this truth would naturally produce ? * And if 
we are not " free," if we are not the servants of God, and if, contin 
uing in this condition, our final perdition is absolutely certain, is it 
not at least equally important that we should be distinctly aware of 
it ? We may, though now slaves, yet be emancipated ; we may, 
though now the servants of sin, yet become the servants of God. 

One cause why many men remain at ease in a state of unconver- 
sion is, the ill-founded hope that they have been converted, or, at 
any rate, the absence of a thorough conviction that they are yet 
unconverted. Let us honestly turn to account, for the purposes of 
self-inquiry, the plain truths brought forward in this discourse, and we 
must arrive at a conclusion respecting our true spiritual condition. 

And should that conclusion prove an unfavorable one, as I am afraid 
might be the case with some now present, O, let them continue no 
longer in a state so degrading and dangerous ! Brethren, you need 
not remain slaves. The ransom has been paid ; the Deliverer stands 
ready to unloose your fetters ; and if you continue unemancipated, 
it is because you will not avail yourselves of the atoning sacrifice, 
and the quickening Spirit of the Saviour. Think what the wages of 
your degrading servitude will be : " Death, the second death, ever 
lasting destruction." " If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die;" "If 
ye sow to the flesh, ye shall of the flesh reap corruption." Consider, 
too, if you perish, you perish not unwarned ; you have been told, 
most distinctly told, what must be the end of these things : " Thus 
saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be 
hungry ; fcehold, my servants shall drink, by ye shall be thirsty : be 
hold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed : behold, my 
servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of 
heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit." l " Choose now whom 

1 Isa. Ixv. 13-15. 



TO ACT AS FREE. 



2G5 



PART II.] 

ye will serve." There is surely no room for hesitation here : slavery 
and freedom ; the slavery of Satan, the liberty of the children of 
God ; the burning lake and the bottomless pit, and fulness of joy, 
rivers of pleasure, for evermore : these are the alternatives. There 
is no time for delay. " To-day if ye will hearken to his voice ;" to 
morrow you may be beyond its reach. 

Should the conclusion prove a favorable one, as I trust it will in 
some, in many instances, O, how strong the obligation to distinguish 
ing grace ; how loud the calls to grateful acknowledgment ; how pow 
erful the motives to progressive holiness! " The more we attain unto 
the faculty of serving him cheerfully and diligently, the more still 
shall we find of this spiritual liberty, and have the more joy in it. Oh ! 
that we could live as his servants, employing all our industry to do 
him service in the condition and place wherein he hath set us, what 
soever that is ; and as faithful servants, more careful of his affairs than 
of our own, accounting it our main business to seek the advancement 
of his glory : Happy Is the servant whom the Master, when he com- 
eth, shall find so doing. " l 

II. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. 

I proceed now to the consideration of the view that is given us of 
the Christian s duty. His duty is generally to act conformably with 
his condition ; to behave himself at once like a freeman and a ser 
vant, 2 while he guards against the abuse of the liberty wherewith he has 
been made free. He is to act " as free," yet taking care not to make 
his "liberty a cloak of maliciousness ;" and he is to act as the "ser 
vant of God ;" he is to use his freedom ; he is not to abuse it ; and he 
is to exemplify his condition as the servant of God. Let us attend to 
these three general views of the Christian s duty in succession. 

1. The Christian s duty to use his freedom ; to act " as free." 

First, then, Christians are to act as free. Their conduct is to cor 
respond with their condition as freemen, not slaves. The whole 
frame of their temper and behavior is to correspond to that liberty 
which is well called Christian liberty, being purchased by the blood 
of Christ, that " blood of the covenant" by which " the prisoners of 
hope" are " sent forth out of the pit wherein is no water," revealed to 
us in the gospel of Christ, that "royal law," that "law of liberty," and 
conveyed to us, bestowed on us, by that "free Spirit" of Christ, who, 
wherever he comes, brings liberty along with him. 3 The best way 
of bringing out the truth on this subject, in a way in which it can be 
turned to practical purposes, will, I believe, be shortly to attend to the 
Christian s duty as to the maintenance and use of his freedom in the 
three aspects in which we have already contemplated it : freedom in 
reference to God ; freedom in reference to man ; freedom in reference 
to the powers and principles of evil. 

1 Leighton. 

8 Cliristianorum libertas est serva libertas, quia liberati sunt, ut Deo serviant; et 
libera servitus, quia non coacte sed sponte Deo et Magistratui obediunt. GERHARD. 
8 Zech. ix. 11. James i. 25, 11, 8. Psal. li. 12. 



266 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 

(1.) " As free" in reference to God. 

The Christian is to act " as free" in reference to God. When I say 
the Christian is to act as free, I refer to the actings, not only, nor 
principally, of the outer man, but of " the inner man" of the min d and 
heart. What is fundamental here is the maintenance of a firm faith 
of that Christian truth, that truth as it is in Jesus, by which the Chris 
tian was freed both from the condition and dispositions of a slave, 
brought into the state and formed to the character of a freeman ; and 
the cherishing of that humble, yet confident assurance, that he is in 
a state of favor with God, which naturally grows out of this faith, and 
its necessary effects on the character and conduct. 

Many professors of Christianity seem to labor under a serious mis 
take on this subject. Uncertainty, doubt, perplexity, fear, seem to be 
the elementary principles of their religion ; they seem to think the 
better of themselves that they have no " confidence towards God," no 
settled satisfaction respecting their highest interest ; they appear to 
consider anxiety and alarm as the best proofs of spiritual life, the best 
motives to spiritual activity ; and that the securest way of getting to 
heaven, is by no means to anticipate as certain, or even as very prob 
able, the getting there at last, but to be " all their lifetime subject to 
bondage through fear of death," and what is to follow it. They seem 
to think that it would be presumption in any man to entertain that 
"good hope through grace" which the apostles cherished, and which 
they call on all Christians to cherish. This may have, as the apostle 
expresses it, " a show of humility ;" but it exhibits a deplorable igno 
rance of the first principles of Christian truth, an entire unacquaint- 
ance with the genius of the gospel economy. 

There are, as we have already hinted, two things which a Chris 
tian should earnestly seek to hold steadfastly when he has obtained 
them, in order to his acting as a freeman towards God " the assur 
ance of faith," and "the assurance of hope." The first refers to the 
testimony of God respecting the Saviour and his salvation. No man 
is a Christian at all who has not both the faith and the hope of the 
gospel : and the measure of the holiness and the happiness of any in 
dividual Christian, is just the degree of this faith and hope, which are 
always proportioned to each other. 

Surely there can be nothing good, there must be all that is evil, in 
doubting the testimony of God, that is, in treating the God of truth 
as if he were a liar. This is, properly speaking, unbelief: that which 
makes men slaves, and keeps them so ; that which prevents men from 
coming to God, and leads them to depart from him. It is the truth 
which makes us free. It is only as believed that it can do so ; it is 
only in the degree that it is believed that it can do so. Doubt with 
regard to the saving truth can never be right in any man ; in a 
Christian it is doubly folly and sin, and is, indeed, as it were, spiritual 
suicide. 

Doubt with respect to the safety of our own state, which is a very 
different matter from doubt of the saying truth, though the two 
things have intimate and interesting relations to each other, is in no 
case a desirable or even a proper state of mind. There may be but 



PART II. J TO ACT AS FREE. 267 

too much ground for it, both on the part of the unconverted and of 
the converted man ; but still it is a state which ought not to exist. 
As to the unconverted man, he ought not to be in doubt about his 
.spiritual state ; he ought to know his state to be one of deep guilt 
and imminent danger. While he only doubts that all is not right, he 
is not in the way of being saved. He must know that all is wrong. 
He must be brought to see himself lost, else he never will come to 
the Saviour ; and if he were not wilfully blind, he could not help 
seeing that there is no room for doubt in his case. He is " con 
demned already, and the wrath of God is abiding on him." And 
there needs be no doubt about the matter; it is just as certain as the 
plain declaration of the God of truth can make it. 

There may be ground for doubt as to the safety of his state in the 
case even of a converted man. Not that we believe that any really 
converted man shall not be saved. We are fully persuaded of the 
truth of that declaration of the faithful and true witness : " I give unto 
my sheep eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither shall any 
pluck them out of my hands. My Father, who gave them me, is 
greater than all, and none can pluck them out of my Father s hand." 1 
But if a converted man lose sight of the truth, which, in one view, 
is the great source, in another the only channel, of true holiness and 
comfort in the human heart, and losing sight of that truth, fall under 
the power of worldly lusts, and "lust having conceived, bringeth 
forth sin," 2 then doubts about the safety of his spiritual state, if he is 
not sunk into utter stupidity or -strong delusion, must prevail. But 
this is plainly a state into which the Christian ought not to have 
brought himself; and it is as plainly a state out of which th& sooner 
he gets so much the better. Till he does, he can neither enjoy com 
fort nor make progress in holiness ; and he can be brought out of it 
in no other way than by the truth which first made him free, again, 
through being anew apprehended in its meaning and evidence, exert 
ing its natural influence, and thus, both directly and indirectly, fur 
nishing his mind with satisfactory evidence that he is in a state of 
spiritual freedom. 

This, then, is the first way, Christian brethren, in which you are to 
act as free towards God. Hold fast the faith of "the truth as it is 
in Jesus." Continue to count it "a faithful saying, and worthy of 
all acceptation, that Christ came to save sinners, even the chief/ 
Reckon the Divine testimony, that " God is in Christ, reconciling the 
world to himself, not imputing to men their trespasses ; seeing he 
hath made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be 
made the righteousness of God in him," 3 the very truth most sure. 
Seek the full assurance of faith respecting the Saviour s person and 
work, the fulness and freeness of his salvation. Keep always before 
your mind, as the great reality, God as holy love. 

And then, in the second place, hold fast the hope of the gospel : 
cherish an undoubting expectation of " the salvation that is in Christ, 
with eternal glory." Never doubt but that God will do to you all 
that he has said. "Hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the 
hope," founded on the faith of the gospel, " steadfast to the end." 

1 John x. 28, 29. 2 James i. 15. 8 1 Tim. i. 15. 2 Cor. v. 19, 21. 



268 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 

" Hold fast the beginning of your confidence," your first confidence, 
as sinners deserving hell, and never capable of deserving anything 
else, yet hoping for eternal life, as the gift of God through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. "Give all diligence to the full assurance of this, 
hope to the end." 1 

Then, under the influence of this faith and hope, engage with hum 
ble, joyful confidence in all the duties, both of interior and exterior 
religion. " In the full assurance of faith" that " we have a great 
High Priest, who for us hath entered into the heavens, Jesus the Son 
of God," go " boldly to the throne of grace." " Trust in the Lord ; 
pour out your heart before hirn." Make him your refuge ; knowing 
his name, put your confidence in him, and say, " My expectation is 
from him. He is my rock and rny salvation ; he is my defence ; I 
shall not be moved. For God is my salvation and my glory ; the 
rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God." "Be careful," 
anxious " for nothing ; but in everything by prayer and supplication, 
with thanksgiving, make your request known to God," in the assured 
expectation, that he will " supply your need according to his glorious 
riches," and make his " peace keep your heart and mind through 
Christ Jesus." And " having confidence, full persuasion, respecting 
the entrance of Jesus, even the entrance of his flesh into the holiest, 
by blood, by which he has consecrated for us a new and living way 
into the holiest, draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, 
having your hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience ; and having 
your bodies washed with pure water, hold fast your profession." 
Pray to him, and " ask in faith, nothing wavering ;" believing that, 
" if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, much 
more shall he give good things to them who ask him." Come before 
his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise to him with 
psalms. Serve him with gladness ; come before his presence with 
singing. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with 
praise ; be thankful to him, and bless his name." In the same spirit 
perform all the duties enjoined on you. Walk at liberty, keeping his 
commandments. Make it evident that you account his yoke an easy 
yoke, his burden a light burden. " Run in the way of his command 
ments," thus making it evident that he has " enlarged your hearts." 
And "count it all joy when you are brought into manifold trials." 
Do not suffer as one who must suffer, but as one who would suffer, 
since such is the will of God. "Be patient," " be joyful in tribula 
tions," knowing they are not the punishment of the slave, but the 
chastisement of the child. 

In fine, act as free in reference to God, by manifesting habitually a 
self-possessed, happy, contented mind. Let your whole demeanor 
speak the satisfaction you have in your privileges and hopes as free 
men, the denizens of the New Jerusalem, " Jerusalem from above, 
which is free." Let your mien and gait be those of the children of 
a king. " Rejoice in the Lord always ; and again I say, Rejoice." 

Oh ! how holy, how happy would Christians be, were they thus to 
rise above the influence of the spirit of bondage, the spirit of fear, 
and to yield themselves to the full influence of the spirit of adoption, 
1 Heb. ii. 6, 14 ; vl 11. Psal bdi. 1, 2, 7, 8. PhiL iv. G, 7, 19. Heb. x. 14-23. 



PART II.] TO ACT A3 FREE. 209 

teaching them habitually to cry, " Abba, Father !" How easy would 
be the most laborious duties, how light the heaviest afflictions, if, in 
obedience to the merciful injunction in the text, we would but think, 
and feel, and act, as freemen in reference to God! 1 



(2.) "As free" in reference to man. 

I proceed to remark, that the Christian should act " as free" in 
reference to man. He should allow the truth, respecting his freedom 
from human dominion in reference to faith and duty, to produce its 
proper effect, both in preventing him from subjecting his own mind 
and conscience to human authority, and from attempting to subject 
the mind and conscience of others to his authority, or to the authority 
of others to whom he may have incautiously yielded an undue defe 
rence. 

The command of our Lord, in reference to the former of these 
manifestations of freedom is very explicit. " Be not ye the servants 
of men/ " Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made 
you free, and be not entangled in any yoke of bondage." " Let no 
man spoil you." 2 The Christian does not act in character if he re 
ceive any doctrine, observe any ordinance, perform any duty, on any 
ground, except that he has seen with his own eyes, in what he knows 
to be a Divine revelation, that Christ has revealed the doctrine, ap 
pointed the institution, enjoined the duty. Christians obviously act 
at variance with their high calling, which is to liberty, when in defe 
rence to human authority, they receive doctrines which Christ has 
not revealed, observe ordinances which he has not instituted, and 
perform as a duty what he never made one, or what, it may be, he 
has forbidden as a sin. When a Christian is tempted to do any of 
these things, he is distinctly to say to those who would bring him into 
bondage, Who gave you authority over my conscience ? Who au 
thorized you to add to, to alter, or to repeal, any of Christ s ordi 
nances ? I have a Lord of the conscience, but it is not you ; if I 
were your servant, I could not be His. " Whether it be right in the 
sight of God to obey men rather than God, judge ye." 3 

But Christians must not only refuse to submit to receive from men 
institutions, doctrines, and precepts, different from those authorized 
by Christ ; but they must take care to receive Christ s institutions, 
doctrines, and laws on his own authority, and not on that of men. A 
man s creed may be in accordance with Christian truth, and he may 
observe no ordinance but what Christ has appointed, and yet he may 
be a slave to human authority ; for he receives the one and observes 
the other, not because he has, in the free exercise of his own mind, 
seen that they bear the stamp of Christ s authority, but because he has 
been taught them by his parents, or has found them in the writings 
of authors to whom he has been accustomed to yield great deference. 
Such a man, instead of being free from man, not only serves man, but 

1 Heb. iv. 14, 16; x. 22. Psal. Ixii. 1, 2, 7, 8. Phil. iv. 6, 7. 19. Heb. x. 19-23. 

James i. 6. Matt. vii. 7. Psal. c. James i. 3. Rom. xii. 12. 2 Cor. vii. 4. Phil. iii. 1 ; 
ir.4. 

8 1 Cor. vii. 23. Gal. v. 1. CoL il 8. Acts iv. 19. 



279 THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. Al. 

worships him. He puts him in the place of God or his Son, of the 
one Father or the one Master. It has been admirably said by one of 
the greatest ornaments of our denomination, " To yield up our judg 
ment in religious matters to any individual, or to any church, is to 
invest that individual or that church with the attribute of infallibility ; 
and consequently, while we retain the character of protestants, practi 
cally to adopt one of the worst errors of popery. You can have no 
certainty that any doctrine which you hold* is true, unless you have 
seen it with your own eyes in the Scriptures. The faith, therefore, 
of those who submit to be guided by the sentiments of others, how 
ever learned, and wise, and holy, is downright presumption ; a venture 
in the most important of all concerns upon the diligence, the imparti 
ality, and the capacity of others, of which they can never be fully 
assured. Let them seriously consider, that although their creed may 
happen to be right, its orthodoxy will not recommend them to God ; 
who perceives, in their undue respect for human authority, a criminal 
indifference to truth, and a virtual rejection of his authority, as the 
only foundation of faith." l 

Or, to use the words of Bishop Sanderson, 2 one of the ablest divines 
of the English church of a former age : " Is it not blameworthy in us, 
and a proof of our carnality, to give up our judgments to be guided 
by the writings of Luther, or Calvin, or any other mortal man what 
soever ? Worthy instruments they were, both of them, of God s 
glory, and such as did excellent service to the church in these times, 
whereof we yet find the benefit ; and we are unthankful if we do not 
bless God for it : and, therefore, it is an unsavory thing for any man 
to gird at their names, whose memories should be precious. But yet, 
were they not men ? Had they received the Spirit in the fulness of 
it, and not by measure ? Knew they otherwise than in part, or pro 
phesied otherwise than in part ? Might they not in many things, and 
did they not in some things, mistake and err ? Howsoever, the 
apostle s interrogatories are unanswerable. What saith he ? Was 
Paul crucified for you ; or were ye baptized in the name of Paul ? 
Even so, was either Luther, or Calvin crucified for you ? Or were 
ye baptized into the name of Luther or Calvin, or any other man, that 
any one of you should say, I am of Luther ; or any other, I am of 
Calvin ; and I of him, and l of him ? What is Calvin or Luther, but 
ministers by whom ye believed ; that is to say, instruments, but not 
lords, of your belief?" 

It is an important part, both of Christian prudence and Christian 
duty, to avoid all unnecessary dependence on, or obligation to, our 
fellow-men, as calculated to endanger our Christian independence of 
mind and spirit. There may be entire inward freedom from man, 
amidst deep external dependence. But dependence is not of itself 
desirable, in reference to the higher objects of the Christian life. 
Even to Christian slaves the apostle says : " If thou mayest be free, 
use it rather." Christians should act on the ennobling principles and 

1 Dr. Dick. 

* I gratefully confess myself indebted to the elaborate discourse from -which this quo 
tation is made for many good thoughts and pithy expressions ; which are, however, so 
mixed up with my own thoughts and composition, as not to admit of particular acknowl 
edgment. 



PART II."] TO ACT AS FREE. 271 

precepts of their Lord : " It is more blessed to give than to receive : * 
" Owe no man anything, but to love one another ;" " Be not the 
servants of men." 

But Christians should act as free, not only in refusing to submit to 
human authority in religion themselves, but also in carefully abstain 
ing from imposing the yoke of human authority on others. Their 
freedom should be manifested, not only in maintaining their own 
privileges as free, but in respecting the privileges of others. It is a 
curious inconsistency that not unfrequently occurs in human charac 
ter, that men clamorous for, or jealous of, their own liberties, as they 
understand them, should yet be constantly invading the liberties of 
others. Unfond of being ruled, they are very fond of ruling. Wher* 
ever this is the case, the genuine spirit of liberty is wanting. No 
where does this incongruity appear more monstrous than among pro 
fessing Christians. An enlightened Christian distinctly perceives that 
his freedom from human authority is no peculiar privilege ; he sees 
that it belongs equally to all Christians : nay, that it belongs equally 
to all men ; and that, for religious opinions and usages, man is an 
swerable to God only. He sees, that on this subject the privileges, 
the duty, and the responsibility of all men are substantially the same ; 
and he acts on the principle, ^Whatsoever ye \vould that men should 
do to you, do you even so to them." l Holding, as he does, that man 
can confer no favor on man higher than the communication of just 
views of religious truth and duty, he is ready, by statement and argu 
ment, to endeavor to bring men to believe what he believes, because 
he accounts it truth ; and to do what he does, because he accounts it 
duty ; but he does not use any other means. He dares not use force ; 
he dares not use bribes ; he dares not use any influence but the influ 
ence of truth. 

Where the difference of opinion involves, in his estimation, the 
essence of Christian truth and duty, he of course must decline acknowl 
edging as a Christian the individual who thus differs from him : but 
even here, though he may, though he must, think that that individual 
has not wisely, not rightly, exercised his undoubted right of judging 
for himself, he never thinks of denying that he has that right. He 
endeavors to think as favorably of him as circumstances will admit ; 
recollects that he is not his judge ; and rests satisfied, that He who is 
the final Judge, will, in this case, as in all others, do what is right. 

Where the difference of opinion does not affect the essence of 
Christianity, he not only does not attempt to impose his opinion on his 
brother, but he d3es not allow the difference of opinion at all to influ 
ence his conduct to him as a Christian brother. If he has evidence 
that Christ has received him, he receives him, and gives him all the 
liberty he himself claims ; and does this, not as if he were granting 
him a boon, but merely as respecting that common Christian liberty 
which Christ has given to all his disciples. 

We have a beautiful instance of this mode of acting "as free" in 
the case of the apostle and the weak brethren, who made a distinction 
of meats and days. He would not allow them to impose their views 
on him. To any such attempt he gave the most strenuous opposition. 

J Matt. vii. 12. 



272 THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 

He would not submit to it; :"no, not for an hour." But, though he 
knew they were in a mistake, he does not seek to impose his views 
on them. He was persuaded that they, as well as he, reverenced the 
authority of their common Lord ; that they, who observed the day, 
observed it to the Lord, just as he to the Lord did not observe it. 
He recollected, that in every such case " every man should be fully per 
suaded in his own mind/ that" whatsoever is not of faith is sin," and 
that " every one must give an account of HIMSELF to God ;" and rec 
ognizing, in the common subjection of mind to the seen authority of 
Christ, a bond of union stronger than any cause of alienation or separ 
ation, in honest differences, as to what is the mind of the Lord on cer 
tain minor points, he received these weak brethren as Christ had re 
ceived them ; and while desirous to enlighten them, he w r as better 
pleased, till they were enlightened, that they should act according to 
their own conscientious views, though limited and incorrect, than ac 
cording to his conscientious views, though wide and accurate. And 
he exhorted the two parties, which were then, as still, to be found in 
every Christian society, the strong as well as the weak, to allow one 
another to walk at liberty; forbidding the weak to condemn the 
strong, which they were apt to do, and the strong to despise the weak, 
which they were just as apt to do ; cautioning them both against 
hindering or "destroying the work of God" by their mutual conten 
tions ; forbidding them " to judge one another" in such cases, but 
calling on them "to judge this rather, that no one put a stumbling- 
block in his brother s way ;" putting them in mind of the impropriety 
of "judging another man s servant;" suggesting the solemn thought, 
" every man must give an account of HIMSELF," not of his brother, 
" to God ;" forbidding them to separate on such grounds, to dissolve 
the bonds either of Christian love or church fellowship ; and com 
manding them, "so far as they have already attained, to walk by the 
same rule, and to mind the same thing ;" assured, that this is the way 
to come to a closer agreement on subjects on which they conscien 
tiously differed. 1 How happy would it have been for the church had 
Christians always acted thus, " as free ;" treating each other as the 
Lord s freemen : not attempting to lord it over one another s con 
sciences! And how often would the reader of ecclesiastical history 
have been spared the painful necessity of observing, in how many 
instances our Lord s saying has been verified, " Woe to the world be 
cause of offences ! " 

(3.) " As free in reference to the powers and principles of evil. 

It is now time that I remark, in the third place, that Christians 
should act " as free" in reference to the powers and principles of evil. 
In their contests with their spiritual enemies, whether these are the 
spirits of darkness, the influences of the present evil world, or the re 
maining sinful propensities of their fallen and but imperfectly renew 
ed nature, they should think, and feel, and act, as freemen, and not as 
slaves. When an unconverted man, aroused by whatever means to 
a sense of his danger from these quarters, attempts something like op- 

1 Rom. xiv. passim. 



PART II.] TO ACT AS FREE. 273 

position, lie is as a man fighting in chains ; nis resistance is short, 
fitful, and feeble ; the victory of his enemies certain, speedy, and 
complete. The issue of all such conflicts is confirmed slavery. And 
even the Christian, if he enter on the combat with these enemies under 
the influence of "the spirit of bondage," makes little head against 
them. But if, when assailed by the great enemy, he know and believe 
that the Captain of Salvation has vanquished him and his legions, 
and have entire confidence in the promise, that " Satan shall be 
bruised under his feet shortly." * if, like a freeman, who, though 
once the prey of the mighty, has been rescued out of his grasp, who, 
though once his captive, now walks at liberty, he take to him the 
" shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of sal 
vation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God," he is sure 
of victory. This is " the whole armor of God," and clothed in this 
panoply, and wielding these weapons, he resists the devil, so that 
lie flees from him. It is thus that he is able to " quench all his fiery 
darts," and to " turn to flight the armies of the aliens/ Conscious 
of the value of freedom, carefully guarding himself from being en 
tangled in Satan s snares, or led captive of him at his will, and ac 
quitting himself like a good soldier of Christ Jesus, 



There s not a chain, 



That hellish foes confed rate for his harm, 
Can wind around him, but he casts it off 
With as much ease as Samson his green wyths." a 

In reference to the evil influences of. the present world, things seen 
and temporal, let the Christian act as free, and show that he has 
been " delivered from the present evil world" by Christ giving him 
self for him ; that by the cross of Christ, the world, which once, as 
a mighty monarch, swayed resistless power over him, is now cruci 
fied to him, a powerless, contemptible, accursed thing. Let him 
show that he feels that he is become free of the universe, and for 
eternity, by becoming the child of the Lord of the universe, who 
liveth forever and ever ; and that the vain, unreal, shadowy hopes 
and fears of this narrow, short-lived scene, are no longer to be the 
great moving principles of his conduct. Let him act as if the world, 
so far as it is fitted to promote his welfare, instead of being his mas 
ter, were a part of his property. He is not the world s, the world is 
his ; he is an inheritor of the world ; and considered as it often is in 
Scripture, as an enemy, let him show that " this is the victory that 
overcometh the world, even our faith." 3 

As to the propensities of his fallen and imperfectly-renewed na 
ture, so far as they are depraved, let them treat them as vanquished 
enemies, despoiled of their dominion, concerning whom the sentence 
has gone forth, " Sin shall not have dominion over you." Let him 
consider them as, like the Canaanites of old, doomed to utter destruc 
tion : "let not his eye pity, nor his hand spare." Let him " mortify 
his members that are on the earth/ " crucify the flesh with the affec 
tions and lusts," "resolutely cut off the offending right hand, pluck 
out the offending right eye," and cast them from him as an abomina- 

1 Rom. xvi. 20. Cowper. 3 i j onn Y/ 4. 

18 



274 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 

ble thing. And so far as they are an original part of his nature, not 
to be extirpated but improved, let him remember that now he is not 
their servant ; they are his ; and let him use them as the efficient in 
struments of promoting the glory of his great deliverer. The best 
illustration of this part of the subject that is anywhere to be met 
with, is to be found in the 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Eomans : 
" Beckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto 
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in 
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof : neither 
yield ye your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness ; 
but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, 
and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin 
shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under the law, but 
under grace. "What then ? shall we sin because we are not under 
the law, but under grace ? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom 
ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye 
obey ; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness ? 
But God be thanked, ye were the servants of sin ; but ye have obey 
ed from the heart the form of doctrine which has been delivered to 
you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of 
righteousness. As then ye have yielded your members servants to 
uncleanness, and to iniquity ; even so now yield your members ser 
vants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the ser 
vants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye 
then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? for the end of 
those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and be 
come servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end 
everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God 
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 

So much for the illustration of the first part of the general view of 
the Christian s duty. He ought to act in a correspondence to his 
state of liberty, " as free" in reference to God, in reference to men, 
in reference to the powers and principled of evil. 

Many of the inducements which should influence the Christian to 
act " as free," to maintain and assert his Christian liberty, have come 
before our minds in the course of our illustration of this duty. It 
may serve a good purpose, however, to glance at a few more before 
concluding this part of the discussion. 

You cannot, my Christian brethren, neglect compliance with this 
injunction, Be "as free ;" act in accordance with your condition as 
a condition of liberty, without obvious injustice to Him whom you 
acknowledge as your only Lord. You are His. He has bought you 
from slavery to liberty. When you act as free, you use his property 
in the way he wishes it to be used. But when you act otherwise, 
when you serve men, or the devil, or the world, or the flesh, you 
abuse his property ; you dishonestly employ it for a purpose different 
from, opposite to, that for which he intended, to which he had des 
tined it. "Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price." 
u Be not then the servants of men :" be not the servants of Satan : 
be not the servants of divers lusts and pleasures. 

1 Rom. vl 11-23. 



PART II.] TO ACT AS FREE. 275 

But not only will you do injustice to Christ, you will do foul dis 
honor to God, if you do not act "as free." You will allow some 
thing else to occupy his place. He must be dishonored, whoever or 
whatever is put in his room. But when you serve Mammon, serve 
your own belly, serve Satan, the worst of all beings, while you 
ought to " worship the Lord your God, and serve only HIM," how 
deeply do you dishonor him ! 

Nor do you dishonor God only, you dishonor yourselves. You 
do not " walk worthy" of the privileges which have been conferred 
on you. " Ye know," or at least ye ought to know, " your calling, 
brethren." It is "a high and holy one." " You have been called 
into liberty." If you are servants, you are servants only of Him, 
whom to serve is the greatest honor which the most exalted creature 
can enjoy. It is immeasurable degradation for you to become the 
servants of men or devils, or worldly lusts and sinful passions. 

Nor is three only degradation in it ; there is fatiguing, profitless 
labor. Christ s yoke is an easy yoke ; Christ s burden is a light bur 
den. " His commandments are not grievous." l O how much is it 
otherwise with the yoke, and burdens, and commandments of his 
rivals ! " They who follow lying vanities, forsake their own mer 
cies." Every Christian who has made the experiment (and, alas ! 
every Christian has made the experiment but too often), knows, like 
the Israelites of old, " the difference between Jehovah s service and 
the service of the kingdoms of the countries." 3 As you would not, 
then, rob the Lord who bought you, as you would not dishonor 
God and disgrace yourselves, and wear yourselves out with fruitless 
fatigues and thankless labor, " walk at liberty, keeping his pre 
cepts ;" " stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you 
free, and be not entangled with any yoke of bondage." 

Well may Christians triumph in, and be jealous of, this glorious 
liberty ; for, as Luther, with his usual power, says- " Christ s truth 
maketh us free, not civilly, nor carnally, but divinely. "We are made 
free in such sort, that our conscience is free and quiet, not fearing 
the wrath of God to come. This is the true and inestimable liberty, 
to the excellency and majesty of which, if we compare the other, 
they are but as one drop of water in respect of the oeean. For who 
is able to express what a thing it is, when a man is assured in his 
heart that God neither is, nor ever will be, angry with him, but will 
be forever a merciful and loving Father to him for Christ s sake I 
This is, indeed, a marvellous and incomprehensible liberty, to have 
the Most High Sovereign Majesty so favorable to us, that he doth 
not only defend, maintain, and succor us, in this life ; but also, as 
touching our bodies, will so deliver us, as that, though sown in cor 
ruption, dishonor, and infirmity, they shall rise again in incorruption, 
and glory, and power. This is an inestimable liberty, that we are 
made free from the wrath of God forever ; and is greater, more valu 
able, than heaven and earth, and the created universe. Blessed is 
the man who is in such a case ; yea, blessed is the man whose God 
is the Lord. " 

1 1 John v. 3. " 2 2 Chron. adi. 8. 



276 THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 



2. The Christian s duty to guard against the abuse of his freedom 

I proceed now to the consideration of the second department of 
the Christian s duty, as here delineated. He is to guard against 
misapprehending and misimproving his condition as free. He is to 
be careful, while using, not to abuse his liberty. He is not to use 
his liberty "as a cloak of maliciousness ;" or, as the Apostle Paul 
has it in his Epistle to the Galatians, "he is not to use his liberty 
for an occasion to the flesh." l The first thing to be done here, is 
distinctly to apprehend the meaning of the terms in which this de 
partment of Christian duty is described. What are we to under 
stand by " maliciousness" ? what by " a cloak of maliciousness" ? and 
what by " using our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness" ? 

The Greek word translated "maliciousness" 2 here, and "malice" 
in the first verse of this chapter, like the English words by which it 
is rendered, is often, when used along with other words descriptive 
of particular vices, such as anger, envy, covetousness, employed to 
describe that special vicious temper, and its manifestations, which is 
directly opposed to brotherly love and charity, so as to be equiva 
lent to ill-will, malignity ; but when standing by itself, as in the case 
before us, it seems ordinarily employed as a general name for sinful 
dispositions and actions, as equivalent to sin or wickedness. Thus, 
when Simon Magus is called on to repent of his profane and wicked 
proposal, to purchase miraculous power by money, he is called on to 
"repent of his wickedness," 3 that is, his sin; and Christians are called 
on to be " in malice," rather " in wickedness/ in sinful disposition 
and habit in all their forms, children ; while thev are " in under 
standing, men." 4 " Maliciousness" is here just equivalent to sin, of 
whatever kind ; and the injunction seems quite parallel with that 
from the Epistle to the Galatians, just quoted, " Use not liberty as 
an occasion to the flesh ;" a general name for the depraved princi 
ples of fallen humanity, or for human nature as depraved. 

But what are we to understand by " a cloak of wickedness" ? 
The word rendered cloak, 6 which occurs nowhere else in the New 
Testament, signifies a covering of any kind. It is the word employed 
in the Greek version of the Old Testament to denote the covering of 
badgers skins which was spread over the tabernacle. 6 It is here ob 
viously used figuratively. A cloak of wickedness is something by 
which we attempt to conceal, from ourselves or others, the true char 
acter of some vicious disposition or action ; an excuse, a pretext, an 
apology for wickedness. To cloak sin is to disguise wickedness. 
Our Lord says, that the Jews, who had heard his discourses and seen 
his miracles, had " no cloak" (not the same word as here, but a word 
of similar import) ; that is, were deprived of every pretext, excuse, 
or apology "for their sin," in rejecting him. 7 Josephus says, Joab had 
a plausible pretext for killing Abner, but he had no such cloak for the 
murder of Amasa. Men often attempt to conceal from others, and 
even from themselves, the true character of favorite vicious propen- 

1 Gal. r. 13. a Ka/cm. 3 Acts Viii. 22. < 1 Cor. xiy. 20. 

* ETUK iAiy^a. Exod. xxvi. 14. * IIp6<j>a<jiv. John xv. 22. 



PART H.] TO GUARD AGAINST ABUSE OP FREEDOM. 277 

sities and profitable sinful practices. Saul disobeyed God in not 
entirely destroying the property of the Amalekites ; and he attempted 
to cloak his disobedience under the pretext of his being desirous of 
presenting a fit sacrifice to Jehovah. 1 Jezebel cloaked her murderous 
revenge against Naboth, under the pretext of zeal against blasphemy.* 
Economy is made the cloak of avarice ; generosity, of extravagance ; 
caution, of indolence ; religious zeal, of personal resentment. And 
here the apostle cautions Christians against cloaking wickedness under 
the pretext of liberty, against indulging any sinful temper, engaging 
in any sinful pursuit, under the mistaken impression, or the hypocrit 
ical pretence, that these were but the exercise of that liberty where 
with Christ had made them free. The general meaning, then, of the 
injunction, "use not your liberty as a cloak of wickedness," is thus 
sufficiently apparent. It may serve, however, a good purpose, to 
show how we ought to guard against such, an abuse of our Chris 
tian liberty, in the three different aspects in which we have been 
led to contemplate it : our liberty in reference to God ; our liberty 
in reference to men ; our liberty in reference to the powers and prin 
ciples of evil. 

(1.) Cautions respecting abuses of liberty in reference to God. 

First, Christians must not use their liberty with respect to God as 
a cloak of wickedness. Those men do so, who, under the pretext 
that they are free in reference to God, consider themselves as re 
leased from obligation to make his law the rule of their conduct. 
The doctrine of the gospel undoubtedly is, that Christians are not 
subject to the Mosaic law ; that nothing is obligatory on a Christian s 
conscience, merely because it is contained in the law of Moses ; and 
that the system of Divine administration, under which they are 
placed in consequence of their connection with Christ, is not a sys 
tem of mere law under which the rule is, "Do and live" " He that 
doeth them, shall live in them," and no provision is made for the par 
don of any offence; but a system of grace, under which, not only is 
a full and free pardon bestowed on every believer, and eternal life 
promised as a free gift through Jesus Christ our Lord ; but "if any 
man," after believing, "sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous, whose blood cleanseth from all sin ;" and 
if any man who has sinned, availing himself of this Divine arrange 
ment, " confess his sins, God is faithful and just to forgive him his 
sins, and to cleanse him from all unrighteousness." 3 The apostolic 
statements embodying these principles, such as, that Christians are 
" dead to the law by the body of Christ ;" that they are " delivered 
from the law, that being dead wherein they were held;" that "there 
is no condemnation to them ;" that " Christ is the end of the law tc 
every one that believeth ;" that they are " not under the law, but 
grace ;" that " Christ has redeemed them from the curse of the law, 
having become a curse for them ;" that they u through the law are 
dead to the law ;" that " they who are led by the Spirit are not under 

1 1 Sam. sv. 15. a 1 Kings xxi. 10. 3 1 John i. 9. 



278 THE PRIVILEGES OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. VIIX 

the law;" 1 were liable to misapprehension and abuse, and have, in 
all ages, been misapprehended and abused. 

The enemies of apostolical Christianity grounded on these state 
ments one of their strongest objections against it, that it was a 
system that sapped the foundation of all religious and moral obliga 
tion ; and not a few who professed to embrace the gospel, while they 
did not understand it, actually turned the grace of God into lasciv- 
iousness, and the liberty which is in Christ into profane licentious 
ness: saying, and acting out the impious saying, let us " continue in 
sin, because grace does abound." a And this we may remark, by the 
way, is one of the proofs which we have, that what we call evangel 
ical Christianity is indeed substantially apostolical Christianity ; that 
we find the same objection urged against its principles by its oppos- 
ers, and the same abuse made of them by men of corrupt minds who 
profess to embrace them. The system which many men would im 
pose on us as Christianity, giving no occasion for such misrepresen 
tation and abuse, distinctly thus disproves its identity with the Chris 
tianity of the New Testament. 

* This abuse has assumed various forms. Sometimes it has taken 
the form of this assertion : We are free from the law. " Where there 
is no law, there is no transgression." What may be sin to other men 
is no sin to us. "There is no condemnation to us." God sees no 
sin in us. At other times it has embodied itself in the assertion : 
4 " The Spirit dwells in us." We walk according to the Spirit. They 
who want the Spirit may need the law ; but we are a law to ourselves. 
We need only to follow the Spirit, and we are sure all will be right. 
The law is not for righteous men like us. We do not require the 
law as a guide to our conduct. But, whatever form it assumes, this 
is its general character ; it is using Christian liberty as a cloak for 
wickedness. 

It requires very little consideration to perceive that this is a gross 
abuse of the doctrine of Christian liberty. We have seen that the 
Christian s liberty, in reference to God, consists chiefly in two things 
deliverance from the condemning sentence of the law, which we 
have violated, and the curse which we have incurred ; and deliver 
ance from a slavish temper in reference to God and his law. No 
human ingenuity will ever be able to show that either, or both of 
these, imply a release from an obligation to conform ourselves to tho 
will of God, as made known to us in his law. On the contrary, both 
are necessary, in order to our yielding an enlightened, cheerful, and 
therefore acceptable, obedience to that law ; both are intended to 
produce this blessed result ; and in every case where these two spe 
cies of liberty are really enjoyed, they actually produce it, in the de 
gree in which they are enjoyed. 

Indeed, a release from obligation to obey the Divine law is, in the 
nature of things, impossible, except on one or other of the following 
suppositions, that God ceases to be what he is, an absolutely perfect 
being ; or that man ceases to be what he is, a rational being : for the 
law is nothing else but an expression of the duties which arise out 
of the relations which subsist between God as the absolutely perfect 

1 Kom. vii. 4, 6 ; viii. 1 ; x. 4 ; vi. 15. GaL iii. 13 ; ii. 19 ; v. 18. 2 Kom. vi. 1. 



PART II.] TO GUARD AGAINST ABUSE OF FREEDOM. 279 

being, and man as his rational creature. "Were God to become unwise, 
unholy, unjust, unmerciful, his law might, must, change: were man 
to sink into the state of an idiot or a brute, he would cease to be the 
subject of the Divine law : on no other supposition can man s obli 
gation to the Divine law be altered or destroyed. 1 

Were the thing possible, it would be the most dreadful calamity 
which could befall him in reference to whom it took place ; for the law 
of God is just a statement of the direct and only way to improvement 
and happiness. The person released from an obligation to regulate 
himself by it, is a person at liberty to make himself and others as mis 
erable as the caprices of his humor may suggest, or the extent of his 
power permit. And what sort of a world would it be if all men, or 
any large portion of men, were as fully relieved from responsibility, 
and the sense of responsibility, as idiots or madmen are ; if selfishness, 
unchecked by remorse or religious fear, were permitted to guide and 
direct the activities of men possessed of reason ? a 

The truth on this subject has been so well stated by an old divine, 
that I offer no apology lor making a considerable citation from his 
writings : " Not to wade far into a controversy, in which many have 
drowned their reason and their faith, it shall suffice to propound one 
distinction, which, if well heeded and rightly applied, will clear the 
whole point concerning the abrogation and obligation of the moral 
law under the New Testament, and cut off many needless curiosities 
which lead men into error. The law, then, may be considered either 
as a rule or as a covenant. Christ hath freed all believers from the 
rigor and curse of the law considered as a covenant, but he hath not 
freed them from obedience to the law considered as a rule ; and all 
those Scriptures that speak of the law as if it were abrogated or an 
nulled, speak of it considered as a covenant. Those again that speak 
of the law as if it were still in force, take it considered as a rule. 
The law as a covenant is rigorous, and under that rigor we are not, 
if we be in Christ ; but the law as a rule is equal, and under that 
equity we still are, though we be in Christ. The law as a rule only 
showeth us what is good and evil, what we are to do, and what we 
are not to do ( He hath showed thee, man, what is good, and what 
the Lord requireth of thee ), without any condition annexed, either 
of reward if we observe it, or of punishment if we transgress it. But 
the law as a covenant exacteth perfect, punctual, and personal per 
formance of everything that is contained therein, with a condition 
annexed of God s acceptance and blessing if we perform it to the full, 
but of his wrath and curse on us if we fail in anything. Such was 
the law under which man was originally placed. But by reason of 
transgression, we having all broken that covenant, the law hath its 
work upon us ; it worketh wrath, it produceth punishment, and in 
volves us all in the curse ; so that by the covenant of the law no 
flesh living can be justified. Then cometh in Christ, who, subj ecting 
himself for our sakes to the covenant of the law, first fulfilleth it in his 
own person, but in our behalf, as our surety, and then disannulleth 

1 " Without law, or altogether above the law, man can never be, for the law is the ex- 
pressiou of the divine essence itself." OLSHAUSEN. 
8 See note C. 



280 THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XL 

it ; and instead thereof established a better covenant, even the cove 
nant of grace ; so that now as many as believe are free from the cove 
nant of the law, and from the curse of the law, and set under a cove 
nant of grace, and under promises of grace. 

" There is a translation, then, of the covenant ; but what is all this 
to the rule ? That still is where it was ; even as the nature of good 
and evil is still the same as it was. And the law considered as a rule, 
can no more be abolished or changed than can the nature of good and 
evil be abolished or changed. It is our singular comfort, then, and 
the happiest part of our Christian liberty, that we are freed by Christ, 
and through faith in him, from the covenant and the curse of the law ; 
But we must know that it is our privilege to remain subject to the 
law as a rule." God grants his law graciously ; and " our duty, not 
withstanding the liberty we have in Christ, is to frame our lives and 
conversation according to the rule of the law, which, if we shall neg 
lect under the pretence of our Christian liberty, we must answer for 
both both for neglect of our duty, and abusing our liberty." We 
Christians are " not without law to God ;" we are " under the law to 
Christ." 

No man who really enjoys the liberty of the children of God, can 
abuse it as a cloak for wickedness ; for in his mind, freedom from the 
yoke of sin is indissolubly connected with submission to the authority 
of God. But in every age of the church there have been bold, bad 
men, who have indulged unholy, Antinomian speculations, and, given 
up to strong delusions, have supposed themselves free while the slaves 
of sin men, 

"That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood, 
And still revolt when truth would set them free ; 
License they mean when they cry liberty." a 

Such were the men whom the apostle in his second epistle describes 
as " speaking great swelling words of vanity, and alluring, through 
the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those who were 
clean escaped from them who live in error ;" and of whom he says, 
" "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants 
of corruption : for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he 
brought into bondage." s Such men, too, were those of whom Luther 
complains, " Men who would be accounted good Christians merely 
because they rejected the authority of the Pope ; who will do nothing 
that either the magistrate or God would have them to do ; remaining 
in their old, disorderly nature, however much they may make their 
boast of the gospel;" and who, as Calvin says, " reckoned it a great 
part of Christian liberty, that they might eat flesh on Fridays." 

There have been men, too, of a better sort, who, from a fondness 
for paradox and singularity, have adopted Antinomian language, 
while the saving truth, which is sanctifying truth, substantially held 
by them, preserved them in a great measure from corresponding dispo 
sitions and conduct. It is, however, of high importance, that on this, 
and indeed on every subject, we should learn to " speak the things 

derson. 2 Milton. 3 2 Pet. ii. 18, 19. 



PART II.] TO GUARD AGAINST ABUSE OF FREEDOM. 281 

that become sound doctrine," that we employ " sound speech that 
cannot be condemned." ] And though happily in this country An- 
tinomian tenets are in a great measure unknown, let every Christian 
remember that there are Antinomian tendencies in every human 
heart, so far as it is unrenewed ; and let him set himself to watch, to 
check, to mortify all such tendencies in his own heart ; and when 
the thought occurs, " may we not continue in sin, that grace may 
abound ?" let him meet it with the apostle s strong disclaimer, " God 
forbid ! how shall we, who are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?" a 
Or by the plain, common-sense reflection, it would be a strange 
way for a man to prove himself a freeman by voluntarily becoming 
a slave to his worst enemy. 

(2.) Cautions respecting the abuse of their liberty in reference to 



man. 



I remark, in the second place, that Christians must not use their 
liberty with respect to man as a cloak of wickedness. Christians 
may do this principally in two ways : by an unsober and an un- 
chaVitable use of Christian liberty ; and by neglecting what is duty, 
and committing what is sin, under mistaken apprehensions of, or 
false pretences in reference to, Christian liberty. 

Everything that is lawful in itself is not always expedient or proper 
in the circumstances in which we are placed. When it becomes in 
expedient in my circumstances it becomes unlawful for me. The 
Christian who acts on the principle that everything that is lawful in 
itself may be done at all times, and in all circumstances, will often 
make his liberty a cloak of wickedness. My doing what, considered 
in itself, my conscience it may be well informed -would not prevent 
me from doing, but by no means requires me to do, in circumstances 
in which I have reason to believe that it may prove a snare to my 
self, or that it will give offence in the New Testament sense of the 
word, that is, throw a stumbling-block in the way of a worse-informed 
brother, is a violation of the injunction which we are now consider 
ing. A Christian must never do what is unlawful, but it may some 
times be his duty to refrain from doing what is lawful. It has been 
justly remarked, that " scarce is there any one thing wherein the 
devil putteth a slur upon us more frequently, yea and more dangei 
ously too (because unsuspected by us), than by making us to take 
the uttermost of our freedom in indifferent things. It, therefore, con- 
cerneth us so much the more to keep a sober watch over ourselves 
and our souls in the use of God s good creatures, lest, even under 
the fair title and habit of Christian liberty, we yield ourselves up to 
a carnal licentiousness, or to a criminal uncharitableness." 3 

There never was a Christian more fully conscious of his liberty 
than the Apostle Paul, more sensible of its value, and more deter 
mined in maintaining it. Yet observe what he says on this subject: 
" Let no man put a stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall, in his 
brother s way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that 
there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything 

1 Tit. ii. 1, 8. 3 Rom. vi. 2. Sanderson. 



282 THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI 

to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy "brother be grieved 
with thy meat, now walkest -thou not charitably. Destroy not him 
with thy meat for whom Christ died. Let not, then, your good be 
evil spoken of. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink. For 
meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure ; but 
it is evil to that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to 
eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother 
stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith ? have 
it to thyself before God. Happy is he who condemneth not himself 
in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned 
if he eat, because he eateth not of faith ; for whatsoever is not of 
faith is sin. We then who are strong ought to bear the infirmities 
of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us 
please his neighbor for good to edification. Take heed lest by any 
means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them who 
are weak." 1 The rule in reference to matters which conscience 
permits, but does not enjoin, is, ." Give none offence, neither to the 
Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. Please all 
men in all things, seeking not your own profit, but the profit of 
many, that they may be saved." a 

Happy is the Christian who, like Paul, knowing and feeling that he 
is free from all, and determined not to be brought under the power 
of any, yet, like him, thus becomes the servant of all, that by all 
means he may save some. It was an excellent saying of Luther s : 
" Be free in everything by faith. Be a servant in everything by 
charity." We should know and be fully persuaded with the persua 
sion of faith, that all things are lawful ; and yet we should purpose, 
and be fully resolved, for charity s sake, to forbear the use of many 
things, if we find them inexpedient. He that will have his own way 
in everything, in itself indifferent, whosoever may take offence at it, 
makes his liberty but a cloak of wickedness by using it uncharitably. 

But there is still a worse mode of using our liberty in reference to 
man as a cloak of wickedness. Christian liberty has not unfrequently 
been made a cloak of wickedness, by being pleaded as a reason for 
transgressing the laws, neglecting the duties, and disturbing the order 
of civil and domestic society. No man is the less, but rather the 
more, bound, in consequence of his being a Christian, to observe all 
the laws that regulate his civil and domestic relations, that are not 
inconsistent with the law of God. Nay, he whose free servant the 
Christian is, has commanded him to serve HIM in serving those who, 
by the arrangements of his providence, are his superiors. In every 
thing that is not inconsistent with my duty to God, I, as a Christian, 
am bound to be "subject to the powers that be ;" to "obey magis 
trates ;" to " submit to every human institution for the punishment 
of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well ;" for this is the law 
of my Master in heaven. With the same exception, a Christian wife 
is bound to be " subject to her own husband ; a Christian child to his 
parents; a Christian servant to his master; though in all these cases 
the civil or domestic superior should not be a Christian. My liberty 
as a Christian does not in the slightest degree relax the obligation 01 

1 Rom. xiv. 13 ; xv. 1. 1 Cor. x. 32, 33. 



PART II.] TO CMJARD AGAINST ABUSE OF FREEDOM. 283 

my civil or domestic obligations ; and, therefore, whenever the latter 
are violated -under a pretence of the former, liberty is used as a 
cloak of wickedness. Christians should manifest their liberty in this 
matter, not by neglecting or violating civil and Domestic duties, but 
by the cheerfulness with which they perform them, showing that 
here, as in every other department of Christian duty, they serve God 
without fear, they * walk at liberty, keeping his commandments. 7 " 

The honor of Christianity is very much concerned in Christians 
avoiding every approach to thus making their liberty a cloak of wick 
edness. This is very obvious from the language of the apostle : " Let 
as many servants as are under the yoke," that is, as are slaves, " count 
their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his 
doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, 
let them not despise them, because they are brethren (because, as 
Christians, the servant and the master are on the same level) ; but 
rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, par 
takers of the benefit. If any teach otherwise, and consent not to 
wholesome words, even the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to 
the doctrine according to godliness ; he is proud, knowing nothing, 
but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, 
strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt 
minds ; from such withdraw thyself." " Exhort servants to be obedi 
ent to their own masters, and to please men well in all things ; that 
ye may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things*" 1 Our 
text, viewed in its connection, seems plainly to have a peculiar refer 
ence to the abuse of Christian liberty as an excuse for disobedience to 
civil rulers, exercising a malignant influence on the character and 
cause of Christianity. " Submit yourselves to every Imman institu 
tion for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do 
well ; for so" in this way "it is the will of God, that ye with well 
doing put to silence the ignorance of foolish men ; as free, and not 
using your liberty as a cloak of wickedness." 

(3.) Cautions respecting the abuse of their liberty in reference to the 
powers and principles of evil. 

It only remains, on this part of the subject, that I remark, in the 
third place, that Christians must not use their liberty in reference tc 
the powers and principles of evil as a cloak of wickedness. Christians 
must not say, because we are delivered from the wicked one, there 
fore we may, without sin or danger, put ourselves in the way of his 
temptations : there is no need that we watch against his wiles, or re 
sist his attacks. This were to use their liberty as a cloak of wicked 
ness. On the contrary, they are carefully to avoid whatever may 
naturally lead to a partial recovery of their enemy s power, and a 
corresponding loss of their freedom. When they find that anything, 
however innocent in itself, through his craft and their remaining de 
pravity, becomes a temptation to sin, they ought to abandon it. 
" Better it is by voluntary abstinence to part with some of our liberty 
as to God s creatures, than by voluntary transgression to become the 
1 1 Tim. vi. 1-5. Tit ii. 9, 10. 



284 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XT 

devil s captives." l Their duty is distinctly stated by tlie apostle in 
these striking words, " Put on tlie whole armor of G-od, that ye may 
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not 
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, 
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wick 
edness in high places. Wherefore take to yourselves the whole armor 
of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having 
done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with 
truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness ; and your feet 
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace ; above all, taking 
the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery 
darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword 
of the Spirit, which is the word of God ; praying always with all 
prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with 
all perseverance and supplication for all saints." "Be sober, be vig 
ilant ; because your enemy the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, 
seeking whom he may devour ; whom resist steadfast in the faith." a 

Christians must not say, because we have obtained emancipation 
from sin that dwells in us, because we know, and are sure, that this 
enemy shall not have dominion over us ; for we are not under law, 
but under grace ; therefore we need not be constantly engaged in an 
active warfare with conquered foes. That is an obvious abuse of 
Christian liberty. The true use of Christian liberty in this respect 
is pointed out by the apostle in such passages as the following, 
which, though already quoted, we think it well to repeat : " Keckon 
ye yourselves dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God through Jesus 
Christ," i. e. reckon yourselves spiritually free. What then? Have 
you nothing to do but to sit down and enjoy your freedom? No. 
" Let not siri therefore reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should 
obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as in 
struments of unrighteousness to sin ; but yield yourselves unto God, 
as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instru 
ments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion 
over you : for ye are not under the law, but under grace." * " We are 
risen with Christ," says the apostle. That is another figurative view 
of our spiritual freedom. Well, then, have we nothing to do but to 
congratulate ourselves on our felicity, and indolently enjoy it ? Ah ! 
no. " Since ye are risen with Christ, set your affections on things 
above, not on things on the earth. Seek the things that are above, and 
heavenly. Mortify your members which are on the earth. Put off 
the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man with his deeds." 4 

The grace of God towards his people, whom he has made free, is 
not expressed by placing them in a condition where no enemy can 
assail them ; but in enabling them to make such a use of the liberty 
and power he has given them, as that, feeble though they be in them 
selves, they become "more than conquerors through him who loved 
them." If we would " stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has 
made us free," we must be constantly on the alert against " those 
who would again bring us into bondage." It is a good saying of the 

1 Sanderson. a Eph. vi. 11-18. 1 Pet. v. 8, 9. 

3 Rom. vi. 11-14. Col. ill 1-5. 



PART II.] 



TO ACT AS THE SERVANTS OT GOD. 



285 



judicious Hooker : " It was not the meaning of our Lv rd and Saviour, 
in saying, Father, keep them in thy name, that we should be care 
less in keeping ourselves. To our own safety our own sedulity is re 
quired." And we must never bring into antagonism God s promises 
and his commands, our privileges and our duties. His promise en 
forces, not repeals, his law. Our privileges encourage and strengthen 
for duty ; but by no means annul the obligation, or diminish the im 
portance of obedience. 

. 3. The Christian s duty to act out his character " as the servant 

of God: 

"We proceed now to the consideration of the third view of the 
Christian s duty, as corresponding to his condition. As in accordance 
to his condition as a condition of liberty, lie is to act as free ; so in 
accordance with his condition as a condition of subjection, he is to 
act " as a servant of God." 

Obedience, active and passive subjection to the will of God, as 
made known in his word, and in his providential dispensations, forms 
the comprehensive duty of the Christian, as the servant of God. 
What lies at the foundation here, is a just apprehension, and an habit 
ual contemplation of those truths in reference to the character of God, 
and to our relation to him, which form the ground of our obligation 
to serve him, and a perception of which is necessary to our ieeling 
this obligation. He who would act as a servant of God, must keep 
before his mind the infinite wisdom and righteousness of God, which 
make it absolutely impossible that either in the injunctions of his law, 
or in the dispensations of his providence, there should be anything 
unwise or unjust ; he must keep before his mind the infinite benig 
nity of God, which secures that " in keeping," and for keeping, " his 
commandments, there shall be a great reward," that " all his paths, to 
them who keep his covenant, shall be mercy," as well as truth, and 
that " all things shall work together for good to them who love him ;" 
he must keep before his mind the infinite power of God, by which he is 
able to carry fully into effect all the promises, however exceeding groat 
and precious, which he has made to obedience, and all the threaten- 
ings, however dreadful, which he has uttered against disobedience ; 
he must keep before his mind the infinite faithfulness of God, which 
makes it impossible that he should deny himself, and secures that, 
" though heaven and earth should pass away, not one iota or tittle 
shall pass," either from his promises or his threatenin^s, " till all be 
fulfilled." 1 

The Christian must not only keep habitually before his mind those 
perfections of his Divine Master which are displayed in his word and 
providence, but also the relations he bears to this infinitely great, and 
excellent, and benignant being. He must remember that he is Hia 
creature, and his NEW creature ; that all that he is that is good, is the 
work of his hand ; that all that he has that is valuable, is the gift of 
his common bounty, or of his sovereign grace ; that both himself and 
all that he possesses is His property, in a far higher sense than any- 

1 Psal. xiz, 11 ; xxv. 10. Bom. viii. 28. Matt, T. 18. 



286 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 

thing can be the property of any creature ; and that to alienate them 
from the purpose for which he designed them, to employ them in ? 
way different from, opposite to, that in which he has commanded 
them to be employed, is a crime, *bf which the basest fraud which can 
be committed by one fellow-creature on another, in whatever mutual 
relation they may stand, is but an imperfect shadow. It is this set 
ting and keeping the Lord always before us in his essential excellen 
cies, and in his revealed relations, that forms the mind to those sen 
timents of supreme veneration, esteem, confidence, and love towards 
God, to that habitual sense of entire dependence on him, and of infi 
nite obligation to him, which are necessary to lead us to "serve him 
acceptably, with reverence and godly fear ;" and, at the same time, 
to serve him without "the fear that has torment," "in righteousness 
and holiness, all the days of our lives." 

Next in importance to our thus cultivating the principle of obedi 
ence, is our making ourselves acquainted with the rule of obedience. 
He who would act as the servant of God, must " not be unwise, but 
understand what the will of the Lord is." And in order to this, he 
must study the word of God, he must observe the providence of God, 
and he must seek the guidance of the Spirit of God. He must make 
himself well acquainted with those "scriptures given by inspiration 
of God, which are profitable for doctrine, and for reproof, for correc 
tion, and instruction in righteousness, and by which the servant of 
God may be made perfect, thoroughly furnished to every good work." 
He must let this word " dwell in him richly, in all wisdom," that in 
all the variety of circumstances in which he may be placed, he may 
know what God would have him to do. He must make the Divine 
prdcepts the men of his counsel, and take them as " a lamp to his feet, 
and a light to his path." 1 There is no doing a master s will without 
knowing it. 

In order to know our Divine Master s will, we must consider the 
operation of his hand, as well as attend to the declarations of his 
mouth ; we must stndy the Divine providence, in order to enable us 
wisely to apply the instructions of the Divine word ; we must learn 
to "hear the rod" as well as the ivord; and under a deep sense of 
our spiritual blindness, our tendency to overlook, and misapprehend, 
very plain intimations of the Divine will both in his word and in hi? 
providence, and of our indisposition to comply with his will, even 
when we cannot help perceiving it ; we must seek the good Spirit, 
who is promised to enlighten our darkness, and to rectify our obliqui 
ties. Believing that if any man lack wisdom, the knowledge of God s 
will, he should ask it of God, who giveth liberally, and upbraids not, 
we should in faith, nothing doubting, in the full assurance of faith, 
present these prayers : " Open mine eyes ; that I may behold wonders 
out of thy law. Put thy Spirit within me. Write thy law on my 
heart; put it in my inward part. Hide not thy commandments 
from me. Teach me the way of thy statutes. Make me to under 
stand the way of thy precepts . Order my steps in thy word." 

Thus cultivating the principle of obedience, and studying the rule 
of obedience, Christians are to act as the servants of God, by exer- 

1 Eph. v. 17. 2 Tim. iii. 16. CoL iii. 16. Psal. cxix. 105. 



PART II.] TO ACT AS THE SERVANTS OF GOD. 287 

cising the principle, and applying the rule in actual obedience, both 
active and passive. They are to regulate the -whole outer and innei 
man, according to the Divine will. They are to " serve him in then 
bodies, and in their spirits, which are his." 

They are to " serve him with their spirits," believing, willing, loving, 
choosing, fearing, hoping, according to his word. Those high things 
within, which no human, no created power can control, must be en 
tirely subjected to the Divine authority. When a Christian is acting 
in character as a servant of God, the answer to the question, Why do 
you account that true? is, God has said so; Why do you account 
that false ? God has said so ; Why do you will this? God has said it 
is right ; Why do you choose that ? God has said that it is good ; 
Why do you fear that ? God has interposed a prohibition or uttered 
a threatening respecting it ; Why do you hope for that? God has 
promised it. 

This internal obedience must be manifested in external obedience. 
The language of our conduct must be, " The Lord our God we will 
serve, and his voice we will obey :" we must " deny ungodliness and 
worldly lusts, and live soberly, righteously, and godly." We must 
serve him in the various appointed institutions of secret and public 
religion ; " entering into our closets, shutting our doors on us, pray- 
ing to our Father, who seeth in secret :" " not forsaking the assem 
bling of ourselves together," but " walking in all the ordinances of the 
Lord blameless ;" and such of us as have families, saying with Joshua, 
" As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." But we must 
not suppose that it is only when we engage in strictly religious ser 
vices that we are to act as the servants of God. His law of justice, 
truth, and love, is to regulate all our transactions with our fellow men, 
and in performing our various relative duties, as superiors, inferiors, 
or equals, we are to do all " as to the Lord." 

Oar obedience to God as his servants, is to be passive as well as 
active. It has been justly said, that obedience consists in the sub 
jecting of a man s own will to the will of another. If that subjection 
be in. something to be done, it is active obedience ; if it be in some 
thing to be suffered, it is passive obedience. Now, as God s ser 
vants, we must not only do bat suffer his will. And we must show 
our passive obedience, by being contented with his allotments, and by 
being submissive to his chastisements. It is meet that the servant of 
so great, and wise, and good a Master, should be satisfied with the 
place in the family he assigns him, with the kind and degree of work 
he allots him, with the kind and measare of food, support, and wages 
he gives him. We are not acting like the servants of God, when we 
grudge and murmur at his appointments, and envy those to whom he 
may have assigned a higher place, and more abundant accommodations. 
In such a case, we ought to say, " Should it be altogether according 
to my mind?" " Has he not a right to do what he wills with his 
own ?" It is not for God s servant to choose out the lot of his inherit 
ance. It is in better hands. We must never say, never think that 
he is a hard Master. " Having food and raiment," however scanty 
and coarse, we should "be content;" "content with present things." 
We should Icnrn of that old and experienced servant of God, the 



288 THE DUTY OP CHBISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 

apostle Paul, what the good Spirit had taught him : " In whatsoever 
state we are, therewith to be content. Our passive obedience as God s 
servants is to be shown in our patience as well as in our contentment. 
What servant is there whom the great Master does not require to 
chasten ? " He does not afflict willingly." It is always for our fault ; 
such is his justice ; and such is his goodness, it is always for our profit. 
We certainly do not act like well-informed and well-dispositioned 
servants, if we do not take patiently, cheerfully, thankfully, those 
afflictions which we deserve, which we need, and which the great 
Master not only means for our good, but will make effectual for the 
purpose for which he intends them, the making us " partakers of his 
holiness." Such is a hasty sketch of that obedience which, as ser 
vants of God, Christians owe to their Divine Master. 

It may serve a good purpose to notice some of the characteristic 
marks by which the obedience of Christians, as servants of God, ought 
to be, and indeed is, distinguished from what is not unfrequently mis 
taken for it. 1 There are, particularly, four characteristics to which I 
wish to turn your attention. In order to act as the servant of God, 
the Christian s obedience must be implicit, impartial, cheerful, and 
persevering. Let me say a word or two in illustration of each of 
these. If we would act as servants of God, our obedience must be 
implicit. We must do what God bids us do, because God bids us do 
it. There are many who do many things which God commands, who 
never obey God. The doing what God commands may be agreeable 
to my inclination, or conducive to my interest; and if, on these 
grounds, I do it, I serve myself, not God. What God commands may 
be commanded by those whose authority I acknowledge, and whose 
favor I wish to secure ; if I do it on these grounds, I am man s ser 
vant, not God s servant. I serve God only when I do what he bids 
me, because he bids me. Everything he bids me do is right, and 
ought to be done for its own sake. Everything he bids me do is fitted 
to promote my happiness, and ought to be done on this account ; but 
it is only so far as I do it for the Lord s sake that it is obedience. 
God is the only being in the universe that deserves to be implicitly 
obeyed. I act like a fool when I believe what the wisest and best 
man in the world tells me, when I do what the wisest and best man 
in the world bids me do, if he do not give me a satisfactory reason for 
it ; but I act like a wise man, when I believe what God tells me, and 
do what God bids me, though I have no other reason but that he tells 
me, and that he bids me ; for there can be no stronger proof of the 
truth of a proposition than that the omniscient and infinitely -faithful 
One utters it ; no stronger proof that an action is right, than that the 
infinitely wise and righteous Governor of the world has commanded 
it. The temper of the servant of God is expressed in these words, 
" Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth:" he listens ; he listens to under 
stand, and to understand that he may obey. " I will hear," listen to, 
believe, obey, "what God the Lord will speak." 

If we would act as the servants of God, our obedience must be im- 

1 These characteristics are noticed Disc. v. P.I, 1, p. 90 ; but, as the illustration hero 
would be imperfect without a reference to them, I have, at the risk of appearing " actum 
agere," introduced them again. 



PART II.] 



TO ACT AS THE SERVANTS OF GOD. 



289 



partial as well as implicit. It will be impartial if it be implicit. There 
are too many who profess to be Christians who are partial in the law 
of the Lord. To use a familiar but expressive phrase, they " pick and 
choose" among his commandments. They do this, but they leave 
that, which is commanded with equal explicitness, undone. In every 
case of this kind it is plain that the soul of true obedience is wanting. 
If I do anything just because God commands it (and unless I do this, 
I do not obey God at all), I will do whatever he commands me. In 
stead of thinking, as some seem to do, that their strictness with regard 
to certain portions of commanded duty, will be sustained as an excuse 
for their neglect or violation of other parts of commanded duty, I will 
account God s commandments concerning all things to be right, and 
I will abhor every wicked way. " Ye are my ^friends," says our 
Lord ; ye are my servants, says his Father our Father, his God 
our God, " if ye do," not some things that I command you, not many 
things that I command you, but " whatsoever I command you." 

If we would act as the servants of God, our obedience must be 
cheerful. It must be obedience from the heart. " God is a Spirit," 
and he who would serve him must serve him with his spirit. Mere 
bodily service profits nothing. And not only must there be spirit in 
the service, there must be a free spirit ; not the spirit of bondage, but 
the spirit of adoption. It must not be the spirit of fear, but of love. 
There are men who do many things from the fear of punishment. 
The external service of God (and with them there is, there can be, 
nothing but external service), is very irksome ; but then they hope by 
submitting to this penance to escape the still more painful sufferings 
of a future state. It is otherwise with the Christian. His language 
is, " Truly, O Lord ! I am thy servant, thou hast loosed my bonds. 
I walk at liberty, keeping thy commandments. Thy commandments 
are not grievous. In keeping thy commandments there is great re 
ward. I will be thy servant forever." 

This leads me to remark, that if we would act as the servants of 
God, our obedience must be persevering. God s servants are not 
hired servants engaged for a term of years. They are bought with the 
blood of his Son ; and they are to serve him not only on earth, but 
even in the better world they are to " serve him day and night in his 
temple," and to " go no more out." The promise is, " He that en- 
dureth to the end shall be saved." The command with promise is, 
" Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life." The 
perfections of the Divine character, and the relations he bears to us, 
out of which grow our condition as his sons, never change. He 
always continues our Lord, we must always continue his servants. 

There is still another important view of the Christian s duty sug 
gested by his being required to be " as a servant of God," to which I 
wish shortly to call your attention before leaving this part of the 
subject. Every Christian should consider himself as engaged in a 
work committed to him by God, to the right management of which 
all his time, talents, property, and influence are to be devoted, and a 
work to be carried on as under God s eye, and of which an account 
must be given before his tribunal. " No Christian liveth to himself, 
no Christian dieth to himself. Whether he live, he lives to the 

19 



290 THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS. [DESC. XI. 

Lord ; and whether he die, he dies to the Lord : living and dying he 
is the Lord s." 1 When a man becomes a Christian, he is called into 
the vineyard of the Lord, and his work is assigned him ; or to vary 
the figure, he is intrusted with so many talents, and required to oc 
cupy them till the Lord come. 2 He is not here to obtain pleasure, 
honor, or wealth for himself. His business is to " seek the Idngdom 
of God and his righteousness ;" to promote in himself and around him 
that kingdom which is not of this world, " which is not meat and 
drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." 3 
Like his Lord, then, whose meat it was to do the will of his Father 
who is in heaven, and to finish his work, he should continually be 
about his Master s business, " as ever in the great Taskmaster s eye," 
remembering that yet a little while, and he will call his stewards to 
give an account of their stewardship, and " every man shall receive 
his own reward according to his own labor." The Christian should 
always act as if these words were sounding in his ears : " Every 
man s work must be made manifest. The day shall declare it. It 
shall be revealed by fire. The fire shall try every man s work." 4 
Happy is that man whose work shall stand the trial, and abide ! He 
shall receive a great reward. 

So much for the illustration of that view of the Christian s duty 
which corresponds to his condition considered as one of subjection. 
It is to act " as the servant of God." 

The motives which urge Christians to the performance of this duty 
are numerous and powerful. The service of God is in the highest 
degree reasonable, pleasant, honorable, and advantageous. 

It is a most reasonable thing that Christians should act as the 
servants of God. It is most reasonable that all men should serve 
God. A disobedient creature is a moral monster. Can anything be 
more reasonable than that the will of the all- wise and thrice holy and 
infinitely benignant Jehovah, should be the rule of the conduct of his 
creatures ? All that men are and have is the gift of God. He gives 
them their existence, and all their faculties of reason, and action, and 
enjoyment. " In him they live, and move, and have their being." It 
is his sun which warms them ; his air which they breathe ; his flax 
and wool which clothe them : his corn, and wine, and oil, which sup 
port them, It is his Spirit which gives them understanding. He 
gives them life and favor, and his visitation preserves their souls ; and 
far, infinitely far above these manifestations of kindness, he has, for 
the great love wherewith he loved our fallen race, given his Son, 
" that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have ever 
lasting life ;" and is ready with him to bestow on the guiltiest of the 
guilty believing on him, " all heavenly and spiritual blessings." Surely, 
if it be reasonable to be just, if it be reasonable to be grateful, all 
men should serve God. But, besides these powerful reasons why all 
men should serve God, very strong additional ones urge Christians to 
this duty. They have been put in possession of the blessings of the 
Christian salvation. " In Christ they have redemption through his 
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of Divine 

1 Rom. xiv. 7, 8. 2 Luke xix. 13. 

Matt vi. 33. Rom. xiv. 17. * 1 Cor. iii. 13, 14. 



PART IF.] TO ACT AS THE SERVANTS OP GOD. 291 

grace." The very design of this redemption is, "that they may 
serve God. "Christ gave himself for them, that he might redeem 
them from all iniquity, and purify them unto himself a peculiar peo 
ple, zealous of good works." l Is it reasonable that the great design 
of the death of the Son of God should be obstructed ? They have 
had the Holy Spirit in his enlightening, sanctifying, and consoling 
influences bestowed on them. God has given them " one heart," and 
put " a new spirit within them ; and has taken the stony heart out of 
their flesh, and has given them a heart of flesh." For what end ? 
" That they may walk in his statutes, and keep his ordinances, and 
do them." 2 And is it not reasonable that the great design of the 
gift of the Spirit should be accomplished ? It is surely right that the 
great object of their deliverance from the hands of their enemies 
should be attained ; and that is, that they may " serve God in holiness 
and righteousness before him all the days of their lives." Still farther, 
they have in the free exercise of their own choice, devoted them 
selves to God s service. They have said each of them, " I am the 
Lord s ; I am thy servant ; thou hast loosed my bonds. 1 \vill pay 
my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people." 3 And is it 
not reasonable that these obligations, so freely incurred, so solemnly 
acknowledged, should be discharged ? 

But, in the second place, the service of God is in the highest de 
gree pleasant. " His yoke is easy, and his burden is light." " Wis 
dom s ways are pleasantness, her paths are peace." " In keeping 
God s commandments there is great reward." "His commandments 
are not grievous." * It is difficult to convince an unconverted man 
of this. Indeed, he must become a converted man before he can 
have personal experimental evidence of these truths. But every 
converted man knows that it is so. The following is a true as well 
as a beautiful picture : " Behold that servant of the Lord ; he is just 
rising from his knees, where he has been saying to his heavenly Mas 
ter, Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, according to thy word. 
Thou art good, and dost good ; teach me thy statutes/ 5 Take him 
aside, and converse with him. Ask him if the service of God is not 
a delightful one? his answer is, I love his commandments above 
gold, yea, above fine gold ; and I delight myself in his command 
ments, which I love. But you are often in heaviness ? c Yes ; but 
my sorrow shall be turned into joy. The tears of penitential regret 
and patient suffering are sweet : and I am never happier than when, 
with a broken and contrite heart, I turn my feet unto his testi 
monies. 7 But the world frowns on you ? What then, God smiles 
on me ; he life up the light of his countenance on me. I have peace 
peace which the world cannot give, and cannot take away. Hea 
ven is my home ; death is my friend. Providence manages all my 
affairs. My Master in heaven cares for me, and I am " anxious for 
nothing." But your happiness is all in prospect? O, no! I have 
4< the earnest of the inheritance ;" I have a " peace that passeth all 
understanding ;" he is faithful who says, " Great peace have they who 

1 Tit. ii. 14. 2 Ezek. xi. 19, 20. 

8 Isa. xliv. 5. Psal. cxvi. 16, 18. 4 Matt. xi. 30. Psal. xix. 11. 1 John v. 3. 

Psal. cxix 65. c Psal. cxix. 47. 7 Psal. cxix. 59. 



292 THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS. [DISC. XI. 

love my law." I "joy in God;" I find it good to draw near to him. 
" His statutes are my song in the house of my pilgrimage." It was 
once otherwise ; I once thought, that to be God s servant was to be a 
slave ; what I then thought freedom I now see to be most debasing 
slavery, and I find that his service is true freedom/ O taste arid 
see that the Lord is good ; blessed is the man that trusteth in him. " l 

In the third place, the serrice of God is highly honorable. Men 
count it an honor to serve kings and princes. But what is the honor 
of being prime minister to the greatest of earthly monarchs, com 
pared with the honor of being the servants of the Most High God, 
the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. It is well said by an apoc 
ryphal writer, It is a great glory to follow the Lord. a The highest 
angel in heaven counts this his highest honor. The office is honor 
able, and the discharge of its duties secures honor from him who is 
the fountain of all honor obtains the approbation of him whose good 
opinion is of infinitely more value than the applause of the whole 
universe of created intelligent beings. " Them who honor me," says 
Jehovah, " I will honor." " If any man serve me," says our Lord, 
" him will my Father honor." How far elevated above all earthly 
honor will the servant of the Lord stand on that day, " when the 
King shall say to him, Come to me, thou blessed one ; well done, 
good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord !" 3 

Finally, the service of God is in the highest degree advantageous. 
Our service of God can never merit anything from him. It is always 
imperfect and faulty ; and, even though it were not so, we should still 
be unprofitable servants, for we would do only what it is our duty to 
do. We cannot be " profitable to God, as he who is wise is profitable 
to himself." 4 We can lay him under no obligation. But he has 
laid himself under obligations. He has promised that affectionate, 
sincere, persevering service, shall not lose its reward. His command 
and promise to his servants is : " Be strong, and let not your hands 
be weak; for your work shall be rewarded." 5 In illustrating the 
pleasantness of the service of God, we have seen that it brings its 
reward to a considerable degree along with it ; but there remains " the 
recompense of reward" to be bestowed when the work is finished. 
Of that reward we can form but very inadequate ideas. " It does 
not yet appear what we shall be." We may fairly conclude, how 
ever, from the language of Scripture, that "the reward of the in 
heritance" is incomparably superior not only to all we can enjoy, but 
to all we can conceive in the present state. It is " a crown of glory 
and of life ;" an " enduring substance ;" an " inheritance incorruptible, 
undefiled, unfading;" an "eternal weight of glory," "fulness of joy, 
rivers of pleasure for evermore." 6 And this reward is not more 
valuable than secure, to all who act as the servants of God. " To 
them who, by a patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, 

1 Eph. i. 14. Psal. cxix. 165, 54 ; xxxiv. 8. The picture here sketched is more fully 
delineated by Mr. Jay, in his sermon entitled " Neutrality in Religion Exposed." Sermons, 
vol. ii. pp. 337, 8. 

a Wisd. xxiii. 28. s John xii. 26. Matt, xxv. 21. 

4 Job xxii. 2. 6 2 Chron. xv. 7. 

8 Heb. xi. 26. Col. iii. 24. 1 John iii. 1. 1 Pet. v. 4. James i. 12. Heb. x. 34 
1 Pet. L 4. 2 Cor iv. 17. Psal. xvi. 11. 



DISC. XI.] NOTES. 293 

honor, and immortality, he will render," as their gracious reward, 
" eternal life." " Faithful is he that hath promised, who also will do 
it. 7 " God is not a man, that he should lie ; nor the son of man, that 
he should repent : hath he said it, and shall he not do it ? Hath he 
spoken it, and shall he not make it good ?" l Surely, then, Christians 
ought to act as the servants of God. Constrained by the mercies of 
God, they should present themselves to him " a living sacrifice, holy 
and acceptable, which is rational worship ;" they should be " steadfast 
and unmovable, always abounding in the service of God, knowing 
that their labors shall not be in vain in the Lord." 2 

These motives are directly addressed to those who are engaged in 
the service of God ; their force will be perceived and acknowledged 
by them, and I trust under their influence they will become more dil 
igent in the discharge of their honorable and delightful duties than 
ever. But what shall we say to those who are not free, or if free, are 
what the apostle terms " free from righteousness ;" who are not the 
servants of God, but the slaves of his and their great enemy ? We 
could say much of their degradation, and criminality, and wretched 
ness ; but we prefer " proclaiming liberty to these captives, and the 
opening of the prison to those who are thus bound." 3 Fellow-sin 
ners, we call your attention to the truth, "the word of the truth of 
the gospel" That truth, understood and believed, will make you 
free, free indeed ; and that very truth which will loose the fetters of 
guilt and depravity, of Satan and sin, will bind on you the easy yoke, 
lay on you the light burden of the Divine service. Remaining in 
your present state, which you well know is far from a happy one, you 
will become more and more miserable throughout eternity. Unless 
you are released from the chains of condemnation and depravity, you 
must ere long, bound hand and foot, be cast into the prison of hell, 
whose adamantine gates open only inward. He whom you have 
chosen as your master, shall then be constituted your jailer and tor 
mentor. " He opens not the house of his prisoners." The prey of 
the mighty shall not then be taken away, nor the captives of the ter 
rible one be delivered. To his prisoners the gladsome sound, Go 
forth, will never come. Prisoners of hope! It comes now to you. 
It has come to you often, but you have lent a deaf ear to it. It 
comes to you once more, it may be only once more. May it not 
come in vain ! 



NOTE A. p. 255. 

This verse is obviously not a complete sentence, and must be considered as connected either 
with what goes before, or with what follows, or with both. Its meaning and design can 
not well be distinctly apprehended, unless this question respecting its construction be sat 
isfactorily resolved. If it be considered as connected with what precedes it, then the 
Words are descriptive of the manner in which the duty of submission, for the Lord s sake, 

1 Heb. x. 23. 1 Thess. v. 24. Numb, xxiii. 19. 3 1 Cor. xv. 58. a ISA. Ixi 1. 



294 NOTES. [DISC. XL 

to every human institution " for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them 
who do well, whether to the king or emperor, as supreme; or to governors, as to them 
gent by him" i. e. to the institute of civil government, whatever its form may be ought 
to be performed by Christians. It ought to be performed in a manner suitable to their 
condition, as at once a condition of freedom and of subjection; in a way becoming at once 
the glorious liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, and that entire subjection to 
the mind and will of God which befits those who are His servants. It intimates that, 
" being set at liberty by Christ, they are not to enthral themselves to any creature, how 
ever elevated, nor to submit to any human institution as slaves, as if the ordinance or insti 
tution itself, as a human ordinance and institution, did by any inherent power bind the 
conscience ; but that, as the Lord s freemen, in a manner becoming so exalted a character, 
they should yield a cheerful subjection to the power of civil magistrates, and a ready 
obedience to their lawful commands, from a regard to the authority of Christ, the sole 
Lord of their conscience, requiring them so to do, taking heed not to use their liberty 
for an occasion to the flesh, not making that a cloak or excuse for disrespect or disobe 
dience to their civil superiors : for though, in the highest sense of the term, they be not 
the servants of men, but of God, and therefore are not bound to obey any human com 
mand without a reference to the authority of God requiring them to do so ; yet, on the 
ground of his command to be subject to the higher powers, they are bound to yield to 
them such honor and obedience as does not interfere with the supreme reverence and obe 
dience which they owe to him as the only Lord of the conscience." l This, from the punc 
tuation adopted by our translators, seems to have been their view of the reference and 
meaning of the words. The whole passage, from the beginning of the 13th verse to the 
end of the first clause of the 17th, may be viewed as one sentence; in which case, the 
words of the 16th verse stand connected both with what goes before and with what fol 
lows. Thus, " Submit yourselves for the Lord s sake to every ordinance of man for pun 
ishing evil-doers and rewarding those who do well, whether to the king as supreme, or to 
governors as to them who are sent by him (for so is the will of God, that with well-doing 
ye put to silence the ignorance of foolish men : as free, and not using your liberty as a 
cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God, honor them all all civil magistrates, 
whether supreme or subordinate." To the first mode of connecting the 16th verse it is 
an objection, that it seems an unnatural mode of concluding a sentence, and gives a very 
disjointed aspect to the whole period ; and to the second, that the four injunctions in the 
17th verse are so closely connected, that it seems improper to separate one of them from 
the rest. We are disposed, therefore, to consider the 16th verse as the commencement of 
a new sentence, which closes with the 17th. 



B. p. 261. 

The passage referred to, Rom. vi. 20, has received another interpretation. It has been 
supposed that iXcvdepoi here is used as if it were the participle cXnQspwQivn:^ as it 
seems to be, ch. vii. 3, where tXfvtf.-joa is obviously equivalent to Karnnyvrai in verse 
2. In this case ry diKaioav.y must be rendered, " by righteousness ;" and the words, 
tXsfli ifjOoi ijr TTJ 5iKaioavvr> are the statement of the fact, the consequences of which are 
etated in verse 22. This secures to Sixauoavvri its ordinary meaning in the epistle ; and 
the use of dro in verse 22 seems to intimate, that another idea is meant to be convey 
ed there, than by the use of the dative without a preposition, in verse 20. 



NOTE 0. p. 279. 

" When he was to do for us the part of a Redeemer, he was to redeem us from the 
curse of the law, not from the command of it ; to save us from the wrath of God, not from 
his government. Had it been otherwise, so firm and indissoluble is the connection be 
tween our duty and our felicity, that the Sovereign Ruler had been eternally injured, and 
we not advantaged. Were we to have been set free from the preceptive obligation of 
God s holy law ; then, most of all, from that most fundamental precept, Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God, with all thine heart, soul, might, and mind. Had this been redemp 
tion, which supposes only what is evil and hurtful as that we are to be redeemed from ? 
This were a strange sort of self-repugnant redemption, not from sin arid misery, but from 

1 Sanderson. 



DISC. XI.] 



NOTES. 



295 



our duty and felicity. This \vere so to be redeemed as to be still lost, and every way lost, 
both to God and to ourselves forever. Redeemed from loving God ! What a monstrous 
thought ! Redeemed from what is the great, active, and fruitive principle the source 
of obedience and blessedness the eternal spring, even in the heavenly state of adoration 
and fruition. This had been to legitimate everlasting enmity and rebellion against the 
blessed God, and to redeem us into an eternal hell of horror and misery to ourselves. 
This had been to cut off from the Supreme Ruler of the world forever, so considerable a 
limb of his most rightful dominion ; and to leave us as miserable as everlasting separation 
from the fountain of life and blessedness could make us." HOWE. "None can be 
exempted from this law, unless he will be banished from his own essence, and be 
excommunicated from human nature." CULVJEUWEL. 



DISCOURSE XII. 

A FOURFOLD VIEW OF THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS AS FREE, 
YET THE SERVANTS OF GOD. 

1 PET. ii. 17. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 

IN our last discourse our attention was turned to the view which 
the preceding verse gives us of the condition and character of true 
Christians. Their condition is one both of liberty and of subjection : 
they are " free," yet " the servants of God." . They are " free :" free 
in reference to God, both as to state arfti disposition ; free in reference 
to man ; free in reference to the powers and principles of evil : they 
are " the servants of God," redeemed by the blood of his Son ; formed 
by his Spirit to the character of servants, being made acquainted 
with his will, and disposed to do it ; devoted by their own most free 
choice to his service, and actually engaged in that service ; obeying 
his law, and promoting his cause. Their duty, when viewed gener 
ally, consists in acting in a manner suited to their condition, as a con 
dition equally of freedom and subjection. They are to act "as free", 
in all the varied senses in which they enjoy the privilege of liberty, 
guarding against abusing that privilege in any of its forms, " as a 
cloak," pretext, apology, or excuse for sin ; and they are to act " as 
the servants of God," to cultivate the principle of obedience, habitu 
ally keeping in view those perfections of the Divine character, and 
those relations which they bear to God, in which the obligation to 
serve God originates, and the belief of which is the grand means 
which the Holy Spirit employs to fit and dispose us to recognize and 
discharge that obligation ; to make themselves acquainted with ths 
rule of obedience, carefully studying the word of God, observing the 
providence of God, and seeking the guidance of the Spirit of God; 
and to exercise this principle, and apply this rule in actual obedience, 
both inward and outward, both active and passive. 

To this general view of the Christian s duty, as an acting in con 
formity to his condition, the apostle adds a somewhat more detailed 
and particular account, for the purpose of illustration. In the words 
before us, he specifies four different ways in which Christians are to 
conduct themselves "as free," and yet "as the servants of God." 
They are to " honor all men ;" they are to " love the brotherhood ;" 
they are to "fear God;" they are to "honor the king." Let us 
now proceed to inquire into the meaning of these Divine injunctions, 
and into the motives which urge to a cheerful compliance with them. 
And while we do so, may God give us the understanding mind and 



DISC. XII.] FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. 297 

the obedient heart ! May He " open our understandings," to under 
stand this portion of " Scripture given by inspiration of God," that 
we may become wiser ; and open our hearts to love it, that it may be 
the effectual means of making us better as well as wiser ; giving us 
clearer views of what is our duty, and a deeper impression of our 
obligations to discharge it ! 

"Here," as the good Archbishop remarks, "are no dark sentences 
to puzzle the understanding, nor large discourses, and long periods, to 
burden the memory. As the Divine Wisdom says of her instruc 
tions in the book of Proverbs, These precepts are all plain ; there 
is nothing froward or perverse, nothing wreathed, as it is in the 
margin, involved, distorted, perplexed, difficult, in them. And this 
gives check to a double folly among men, contrary the one to the 
other, but both agreeing in mistaking and wronging the word of God. 
The one is, of those who despise the word, and that doctrine and 
preaching which is according to it, for its plainness and simplicity ; 
the other, of those who complain of its difficulty and darkness. As 
for the first, they certainly do not apprehend the true end for which 
the word is designed, that is, to be the law of our life ; and that it is 
mainly requisite in laws that they be both brief and clear. It is our 
guide to light and happiness ; and if that which ought to be our light 
were darkness, how great would that darkness be ! It is true that 
there be dark and deep passages in Scripture for the exercise, yea 
for the humbling, yea for the amazing arid astonishing, of the sharp 
est-sighted readers. But it argues much the pride and vanity of 
men s minds, when they busy themselves only in these, and throw 
aside altogether the most necessary, which are therefore the easiest 
and plainest truths in it, evidencing that they had rather be learned 
than holy, wise than good, and have still more mind to the tree of 
knowledge than to the tree of life. In hearing the word, too many 
are still gaping after new notions, something to add to the stock of 
their speculative and discoursing knowledge, loathing the daily manna 
of such profitable exhortations, and requiring meat for their lust/ 
There is an intemperance of the mind as well as of the mouth. You 
would think it, and may be not spare to call it, a poor cold sermon, 
that was made up of such plain precepts as these : Honor all men : 
love the brotherhood : fear God : honor the king : and yet this is 
the language of God. It is his way, this foolish despicable way, by 
which he guides and brings to heaven them that believe." 

As to those who complain of the difficulties of Scripture, let them 
but believe and do what is perfectly level to the apprehension of the 
simplest mind, and they will thus take the most probable means of 
arriving at just views of what is obscure ; for he is faithful who has 
promised "If any man will do" that is, be willing to do "the 
will of my Father in heaven, he shall know of the doctrine, whether 
it be of God;" 1 and, at all events, he will soon and certainly find his 
way to that region where all difficulties are removed, all mysteries 
are unveiled, all obscurities are explained. There, in God s light, he 
shall see light ; no longer seeing as through a glass darkly, but face 
to face ; no longer knowing in part only, but knowing even as he is 

1 John vii. 17. 



298 FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. [DISC. XII. 

known. But to return to the illustration of the apostle s four compre 
hensive precepts. 

I CHRISTIANS ARE TO "HONOR ALL MEN." 

The first particular duty which he calls on Christians to perform 
"as free, and yet as the servants of God/ is the honoring of all men. 
" Honor all men." To bring out the true and the full meaning of this 
important and very comprehensive precept of the Christian Jaw, it is 
necessary to remark, that " all men" is here used in contrast with 
some men, and to inquire who are these some men referred to; and 
in looking into the immediate context, we find two classes of men 
mentioned, to either, or to both of whom, the apostle may be consid 
ered as referring. 

There are "the brotherhood" that is, true Christians, "the chosen 
generation, the kingdom of priests, the holy nation, the peculiar peo 
ple, the dwellers in light, the people of God." If the reference is to 
them, the sentiment contained in the words before us is : While 
"the saints, the excellent ones of the earth," ought to be the objects 
of your highest respect and honor, as well as affection, yet you are 
not warranted to regard unbelieving men with contempt because they 
do not belong to the Holy Society, are not " partakers of the bene 
fit ;" but, on the contrary, wherever, from civil or natural, or from 
intellectual endowments, or moral dispositions, they are the proper 
objects of respect, you are bound to render honor to whom honor 
is due/ 

The brotherhood is not, however, the only class of men mentioned 
in the context. There are also " the men ordained for the punishment 
of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well: the king as 
supreme, and the governors who are sent by him." These are to be 
honored, all of them honored, by being obeyed and submitted to. If 
the reference is to them, then the sentiment conveyed is : While 
magistrates are to be honored in a manner suited to the nature and 
design of the office which they fill, no human being is to be despised. 
There is a respect due to every man, just because he is a man ; there 
is an honor due to the king, but there is also an honor due to all men/ 
As the language of the apostle, without using undue violence, may be 
considered as suggesting both these important and closely connected 
sentiments, I will endeavor briefly to illustrate and enforce them in 
their order. 

1. Honor not to be confined to the brotherhood, but rendered to all 

to whom it is due. 

The first principle which we consider, as suggested by the apostle s 
words, is, that the respectful regards of Christians are not to be con 
fined " to the brotherhood," but are to be extended to unbelieving 
men, according to the claims which, from civil or natural relation, 
from intellectual endowments or moral dispositions, they may have 
on them. Honor is to be yielded to all to whom honor is due, though 
u aliens from the commonwealth of" spiritual " Israel, and strangers 
to the covenant of promise." 



PART I.] 



TO HONOR ALL MEN. 



299 



The injunction, viewed in this light, like the strikingly similar one, 
" Use not your liberty as a cloak of wickedness," seems, from the pe 
culiar circumstances and previous habits of thought of many of the 
primitive Christians, to have been far from unnecessary. It seems 
plain that a very large proportion at least of those to whom this epis 
tle was addressed, consisted of Jewish converts. The Jews were 
accustomed to consider their own nation as the chosen people of Je 
hovah, and on this account as worthy of the highest honor ; while 
they regarded the Gentiles, the nations as they termed them, all the 
rest of mankind, with a malignant contempt, which its objects, in 
most instances, repaid with liberal interest. They generally consid 
ered all authority exercised by Gentiles over Jews as impious usurpa 
tion ; and if they submitted to it, they did so " for wrath sake," not " for 
conscience sake ;" not because obedience was in their estimation 
right, but because disobedience was found in their experience unsafe ; 
not from a sense of duty, but from a fear of punishment. There was 
some hazard that these habits of thought and feeling, modified by 
their new circumstances and relations, might influence the Jewish 
converts : that they might regard the spiritual nation, of which they 
had become a part by believing, with sentiments similar to those with 
which they used to contemplate " Israel according to the flesh ;" and 
might consider unbelievers, whether Jews or heathens, in a light cor 
responding to that in \vhich they looked on the Gentiles in the days 
of their Judaism ; and indeed, from various passages in the apostolic 
writings, it seems, to say the least, highly probable that this hazard 
was, to some extent, realized. 

It was of importance, then, for the apostles distinctly to assert, that 
the new religious relations and duties of Christians by no means un 
hinged their existing natural and civil relations, or* interfered with 
the duties rising out of these, except by furnishing clearer directions 
for, and stronger motives to, their performance. Christian subjects 
are bound to honor heathen or Jewish magistrates. The command, 
when there were no magistrates that even professed Christianity, was, 
" Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. The powers that 
be are ordained by God." l "Submit to every human institution for 
the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them who do well." 
Christian servants were to regard with the honor which finds its ex 
pression in cheerful, conscientious, uncomplaining obedience, their 
heathen masters. " Servants," says the apostle in the next verse, 
" be subject to your masters with all fear ; not only to the good and 
gentle, but also to the froward." And the Apostle Paul, speaking of 
masters not believing, says, " Let as many servants as are under the 
yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of 
God and his doctrine be not blasphemed." 2 Christian wives were 
bound to honor their heathen husbands. The conjugual relation was 
not dissolved, nor its duties changed, by conversion to Christianity. 
The law is, " If the woman hath a husband that believelh not, and 
if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him ;" 3 and it is 
plainly to Christian wives in these circumstances, that the command 
ment in the beginning of the 3d chapter of this epistle is addressed : 
1 Rom. xiii. 1. 2 1 Pet. ii. 18. 1 Tim. vi. 1. 3 1 Cor. vii. 13. 



300 FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. [DISC. XII. 

" Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands ; that, if 
any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by 
the conversation of the wives ; while they behold your chaste conver 
sation coupled with fear." Christian children were bound to honor 
heathen parents by providing for their support when necessary, and 
by " obeying them in the Lord" that is, so far as their commands 
did not interfere with those of their Master in heaven. 

On the same principle, wherever a Christian met with distinguished 
intellectual endowment or acquirement, extensive knowledge, remark 
able wisdom, or with manifestations of integrity, public spirit, patriot 
ism, benevolence, in unbelieving Jews or heathens, he was not to shut 
his mind against the admission that such intellectual and moral excel 
lencies did exist, nor his heart against the feeling of respect and honor 
which they are naturally fitted to awaken, because their owners did 
not belong to the Christian community. In such cases though so far 
as the display of moral qualities was concerned, they were, we be 
lieve, of very rare occurrence in the primitive age, Christians were 
to do full justice, and "render honor to whom honor was due." In 
yielding honor to heathens, corresponding to the natural and civil 
relations of society, they did honor to Him who established these re 
lations ; and in yielding honor to heathens corresponding to their in 
tellectual and moral endowments, they did honor to Him who con 
ferred these gifts. 

The principle we have been illustrating is of universal application, 
and the precept grounded on it of permanent obligation. Christians 
of the present age are equally bound, with those of the primitive age, 
to " honor all men" in the sense in which we have explained these 
words. The circumstance that individuals, who from their natural 
or civil relation, or from their intellectual or moral qualities, have a 
claim on respect, are not Christians in the only proper sense of the 
term, though necessarily giving to that respect a different character 
from what it would naturally assume if they were Christians, ought 
to be felt by true Christians as a reason why they should be particu 
larly careful in answering such a claim. They should act on the 
principle, recommended to Christian wives by the apostle, to guide 
them in their conduct to their heathen husbands. In that readiness 
to acknowledge what deserves to be honored wherever it is found, 
they may do much to remove prejudice, and to recommend Christian 
ity to a favorable consideration; and "win, without the word," those 
to whom there might be no opportunity of presenting the word ; or 
who, if it were presented to them, would not listen to it. 

Few things have injured the cause of genuine Christianity more, 
than a bigoted blindness on the part of some of its professors to the 
unquestionable claims to respect of various kinds, which some men 
possess, who, unhappily for themselves as well as the world, have 
neglected or resisted the evidence of the truth as it is in Jesus. Such 
men are deeply to be pitied ; they are, in many cases, greatly to be 
blamed ; in no case are they blameless ; but still their fault, their fatal 
fault, if persisted in, ought not to prevent us from honoring them for 
that which, in their station, or attainments, or character, or conduct, 
is really honorable. Those men who please themselves with the 



PART I.] TO HONOR ALL MEN. 301 

thought, that in despising those men they are showing their enlight 
ened zeal for Christianity, are greatly mistaken. They are manifest 
ing their own ignorant, ill-judging mind, and their wayward, ill-regu 
lated temper. Their zeal is " a cloak of maliciousness." In the name 
of the religion of love, they are gratifying low and malignant feelings ; 
and, if they are true Christians, they, pfainly in this case, " know not 
what spirit they are of." 

And surely if the law of Christ expressly requires honor to be given 
to men according to their rank, and endowments, and attainments, 
and character, though they are not Christians at all, its spirit must be 
very hostile to that petty, selfish, malignant temper, which, availing 
itself of the unnaturally divided state of Christ s church, leads those 
possessed by it to withhold honor from men the most distinguished 
for their talents, their worth, and their usefulness, and, it may be, to 
cherish towards them sentiments of bitter contempt, merely because 
they belong to a different section of the great body bearing the name 
of our common Lord, separated by barriers which exist only in their 
prejudiced minds from that to which they happen to be attached. 
Alas ! how much has there been among Christian denominations of 
" biting and devouring" one another, and " smiting fellow-servants," 
who ought to have been "esteemed very highly in love for their 
work s sake !" How different from, how opposite to, the spirit of the 
injunction before us, " Honor all men," is this ! Surely if we are to 
honor all men who deserve honor, much more are we to honor all 
Christian men who deserve honor, though they follow not with us. 

2. Honor not to be confined to classes, but extended to all men. 

But we apprehend the apostle s words not only suggest the princi 
ple, that the respectful regards of Christians are not to be confined 
to the brotherhood, but are to be extended to unbelieving men, ac 
cording to the claims which, from natural or civil relation, or from 
intellectual endowments or moral dispositions, they may have on 
them : They appear to us to intimate another very important princi 
ple, that there is a respect due to every human being, and that it is 
a Christian duty to cherish that respect, and to act accordingly. 

There is an honor which we owe to men, just because they are 
men : an honor of course due to all men, without exception and with 
out distinction. That honor is not the honor of moral esteem. 
There are individuals, many individuals, that deserve to be approved 
and admired for their moral qualities. Man, as God made him, de 
served thus to be honored ; but the moral qualities which univers 
ally characterize mankind as a race, in their present state, are those 
which are the proper objects, not of approbation, but of disapproba 
tion. What is the testimony of Him who knows what is in man? 
"Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continu 
ally. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." 
In man, that is, "in his flesh," that is, a man in his present fallen state, 
"there dwelleth no good thing." Fools, they say in their heart, there 
is no God ; " they are corrupt, they have done abominable works, 
there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven 



302 FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. [DISC. XII. 

upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did under 
stand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether 
become filthy ; there is none that doeth good, no not one. Their "throat 
is an open sepulchre : with their tongues have they used deceit : the 
poison of asps is under their lips : whose mouth is full of cursing and 
bitterness : their feet are swift to shed blood : destruction and misery 
are in their ways : and the way of peace they have not known : there 
is no fear of God before their eyes. 3 l This is what man is, what 
man has made himself, the very reverse indeed of what God made 
him ; yet what he is, and what he must continue to be, till God new- 
make him, " create him anew in Christ Jesus to good works." 

The foundation of the claim for honor to all men, as men, does not 
then consist in their moral state as exemplified in their conduct ; that, 
in t a rightly constituted mind, must call forth the sentiment of strong 
disapprobation, not un mingled with contempt, disapprobation on ac 
count of its wickedness, contempt on account of its folly, both of 
which are plainly immeasurable : it lies in their possession of a spir 
itual, rational, responsible, immortal nature. Every human being is, 
from the very constitution of his nature, of far more importance and 
dignity, than a whole universe of inanimate matter, or even of irra 
tional animated beings. 2 Every human being has the capacity of ap 
prehending truth and its evidence, of distinguishing what is true from 
what is false, and what is good from what is evil ; every man has 
the faculty of knowing, loving, praising, serving, and enjoying God; 
every man is destined to an immortality of being. An eternity of 
ever-growing knowledge, and holiness, and happiness, or of ever-aug 
menting depravity, and degradation, and misery, is before every indi 
vidual of our race. These faculties form the native nobility of every 
human being ; and to think, and feel, and act, towards every human 
being, as possessed of this nobility, is to honor all men, and to perform 
the duty enjoined in the text. And surely to despise the possessor of 
that for the loss of which the gain of the whole world could not com 
pensate, however humble his rank, however low the degree of his 
civilization, however limited his knowledge, ay, however depraved his 
character, is obviously at once irrational and immoral. The feeling 
such endowments should excite in their possessor is mingled gratitude 
and fear. The feeling they should excite in others, that of solemn 
interest. 3 

The cultivation of an habitual reverence for man, as man, the 
noblest of the works God in this region of his universe, and, though 
fallen from his high estate, capable of, destined to, restoration to more 
than his pristine glory, is obviously of the greatest importance. It 
affords constant motive, and gives right direction, to our benevolent 
feelings and exertions in reference to our fellow-men. It impresses 
us with the thought, how much good, and how much good of the very 
highest kind, may be done, when such a being as man is the object 
of our benevolence. It leads us chiefly to think of, and provide for, 

* Gen. vi. 5. Psal. xiv. 1. Rom. iii. 10-18. 

" There is an indelible character of dignity engraven on the reasonable nature by the 
hand of God." BATES. 

NEANDER, finely describes the feeling referred to as " a consciousness of the higher 
dignity of man s nature, in the oneness of the Divine image in all." 



PART I.J TO HONOR ALL MEN. 303 

and relieve, those wants and miseries which belong to him as the 
object of our reverence ; his wants as an intelligent, responsible, re 
ligious, immortal being ; and it at the same time guides us in the use 
of the means fitted to gain the desired end in reference to such a being, 
leading us to remember what, even by some persons not destitute of 
benevolence, seems often overlooked or forgotten, that in endeavor 
ing to reclaim and relieve him, we must deal with him as a being who 
has reason, and conscience, and feeling, as well as ourselves ; who 
may be reasoned or persuaded into a better mind, but cannot be 
scolded, or beaten, or bribed into it, and who must " give an account 
of himself to God/ 

The want of this feeling has contributed, in no limited degree, to 
the production and permanence of some of the greatest social evils 
which prevail in the world. Had man had reverence for man, slavery 
with all its horrors could never have existed. 1 Every feeling like 
honoring our common nature must be extinct, before man can make 
property of his brother, can treat him as if he was not a person at all, 
but a thing, a portion of his goods and chattels. Had this sentiment 
prevailed, there would have been no murder ; far less would there 
have been those wholesale legalized murders which civilized nations 
commit under the name of war. The notorious disgraceful fact never 
could have existed, that it is no uncommon thing for men not only 
outwardly to express, but inwardly to feel, more regard for some 
dog or horse they love, than for poor distressed partakers of their own 
nature ; thus "reflecting," as Archbishop Leighton says, " at once dis 
honor on themselves and mankind/ It has been justly remarked, 
that " respect is the parent of kindness. From contempt to injury the 
transition is short and easy. He that despises human nature, wants 
only the opportunity to oppress man. The pride of man leads him to 
treat the sensitive nature that is beneath him, as if it were so much 
inanimate matter. It is the feeling that they are so far beneath him, 
that induces him to be so careless of the sufferings of the lower crea 
tion, and just the more careless as they are inferior to his level. He 
scarcely thinks of moving in the slightest degree out of his way to save 
the reptile from pain, or mutilation, or death. And it is on the same 
principle that much, very much, of the oppression exercised, and ths 
injury inflicted by one class of men on another, is to be accounted for. 
Would so many rich men have oppressed their poorer brethren, ground 
their faces, and despised their cause ; would so many rulers have 
wrested judgment, and crushed those whom they should have pro 
tected ; would so many princes have spilt as in sport the blood of 
thousands, and made the murder of mankind a game ; would so many 
tyrants have trampled on the neck of nations, and treated millions as 
made for one, had they honored man, had they considered that every 
human creature, whatever may be the meanness of his birth, the con- 
tractedness of his education, the depth of his destitution, is an image 
of God, an heir of immortality, a being containing in him capacities 

1 Misapprehension as to the higher nature common to all men, connected with the 
notion of different races originally of different degrees or even kinds of mental endow 
ment, go far to account for the prevalence of slavery among the civilized Pagans. AIUSTOT. 
Pol. i. 2. A still more discreditable parentage must be found for the monstrous usage 
among self-called civilized Christians. 



304 FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. [DISC. XII. 

of illimitable improvement; a wonderful creature, who in its chrysalis 
state, under a humble form, conceals within his bosom wings which, 
if expanded, may carry him upward and onward in the pursuit of 
glory, honor, and immortality, forever." l It is because man does 
not honor man, that there is so much reason for the complaint 

" The natural bond 
Of brotherhood is sever d as the flax 
That falls asunder at the touch of fire. 
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin 
Not color d like his own ; and, having power 
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause 
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey, 
Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat 
With stripes, that mercy, with a bleeding heart, 
"Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast." a 

The prevalence of infidel opinions is deeply to be deprecated, for 
many reasons ; and, among these reasons, its tendency to destroy 
man s reverence for man is by no means the least important. This 
has been put in a very striking point of view by Robert Hall, and I 
make no apology for laying the substance of his illustration before 
you : " The supposition that man is a moral and accountable being, 
destined to survive the stroke of death, and to live in a future world 
in a never-ending state of happiness or misery, makes him a creature 
of incomparably greater consequence than the opposite supposition. 
When we consider him as placed here by the Almighty Ruler in a 
state of probation, and that the present life is his period of trial, the 
first link in a vast and interminable chain which stretches into eternity, 
he assumes a dignified character in our eyes. Everything that relates 
to him becomes interesting ; and to trifle with his happiness is felt to 
be the most unpardonable levity. On the opposite supposition, he is 
a contemptible creature, whose existence and happiness are insignifi 
cant. He is nothing more than an animal, distinguished from other 
animals merely by the vividness and multiplicity of his perceptions. 
He is entirely of the earth earthy, and his spirit, like those of his fellows, 
goes down to the earth. From these principles it is a fair inference, 
that to extinguish human life by the hand of violence, must be quite a 
different thing in the eyes of a sceptic from what it is in those of a 
Christian. With the sceptic it is merely the diverting the course of 
a little red fluid called blood ; it is merely lessening by one the num 
ber of many millions of fugitive contemptible creatures. The Chris 
tian sees in the same event an accountable being cut off from a state 
of probation, and hurried, perhaps unprepared, into the presence of 
his Judge, to hear that final, that irrevocable sentence, which is to 
fix him forever in an unalterable condition of felicity or of woe." 3 

Reverence for man is the great security for property, liberty, and 
life ; and just views of man as a responsible and immortal being, are 
the foundation of this reverence. Most justly, as well as forcibly, 
has the distinguished author referred to remarked, that " the specula 
tions of atheistical philosophy matured, gave birth to a ferocity which 

1 Joseph Fawcett. " 3 Cowper. 

3 Modern Infidelity Considered. Works, L p. 41-47. 



PART I.J TO HONOR ALL MEN. 305 

converted the most polished people in Europe into a horde of assas 
sins. Having been taught by them to consider mankind as little better 
, than a nest ot insects, in the fierce conflicts of party they trampled 
on them without pity, and extinguished them without remorse." 

Besides the obvious connection which the principle enjoined in the 
text has with the security and promotion of all the more important 
interests of society, there are other and most powerful motives which 
urge us to cultivate and exemplify it. To the question, Why should 
we honor all men ? we have already given the reply, Because all men, 
viewed as rational, responsible, and immortal, deserve to be honored ; 
and because the honoring of men is necessary, in order to the attain 
ment and security of the greatest amount of social happiness. We 
now add : we should honor all men ; for God, the fountain of true 
honor, the best judge of what is to be honored, honors men, honors 
all men. He has honored them, in making them honorable in the pos 
session of those capacities to which we have already referred. The 
eighth Psalm, whether descriptive of man in the primitive, or of man 
in the millennial state, is a striking proof that God honors men. And 
in the place he has assigned them among his creatures on this earth, 
and in the arrangements of his providence, he takes kind notice of 
the whole race. He makes his sun to shine, and his rain to descend 
on them all. " Have we not all one Father," and is he not a kind 
Father to us all ? " Behold God is mighty, yet he despiseth not any." 
He is "mindful" of our race, he "visits" man. 1 

For reasons known only to himself, but necessarily most sufficient, 
he shows a respect to men which he did not show to angels. When 
men ruined themselves, he did not act as if their perdition would be 
a slight matter, an easily reparable loss. He was gracious to them, 
and said, " Deliver them from going down to the pit : I have found a 
ransom." And their deliverer sent by him was not an angel, not the 
highest of angels, but his own Son ; and that deliverance was obtained 
by nothing short of the sacrifice of the life of that Son. What an 
apparatus of means has he called into being for bringing this deliver 
ance home to individual men, in the revelation of his word, the ordi 
nances of his worship, the influence of his Spirit ! And these amazing 
dispensations are the result of love to the race, love to the world, the 
love of man ; 2 and the deliverance is not a deliverance for men of 
particular nations, or particular ranks, but for men of every rank, 
every nation, Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian, male and female, 
bond and free. 3 

In his dealings with man he honors him, treating him in a way 
corresponding to his rational and moral nature. He does not act to 
wards him as if he were a piece of inanimate matter, or a brute ani 
mal. He seeks to enlighten and convince his mind, and to engage 
his affections. He says, " Come now, let us reason together." He 
employs " cords of a man, bands of love ;" arguments and motives 
fitted to his reason, and conscience, and heart, to draw him to himself, 
and bind him to his service. 4 

1 Psal. viii. 5-8 ; com p. Heb. ii. 6, Ac. Matt. v. 45. Mai. ii. 10. Job xxxvi. 5. 
9 John iii. 16. Tit. iii. 4. 0iXuifyjria. 3 Job xxxiii. 24. Col. iii. 11. 

4 Isa. i. 18. Hos. xi. 4. 

20 



306 FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. [DISC. XII. 

Jesus Christ, the only begotten of God, honors man. He has taken 
into union with his divinity man s nature. He never so honored 
angels : they count it an honor to call him Lord ; but man may, with 
out presumption, call him brother. " The word of life," the living 
one who was " in the beginning with God, who was and is God, be 
came flesh/ " Inasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and 
blood, he also took part of the same ;" and in human nature he died 
for men, "the just in the room of the unjust/ 5 giving himself a "ran 
som for all," and bringing in an everlasting salvation a salvation 
suited to all, needed by all, and to which all are invited, with an assur 
ance that " whosoever believeth shall not perish, but have everlasting 
life." His command is, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gos 
pel to every creature." It is his will that his salvation should be 
brought near " to every creature under heaven." 1 Farther, he car 
ried human nature to heaven with him. A man sits on the throne of 
the universe; one who is not ashamed to call men brethren, and 
whom the most abject of the human race may call brother. This is 
the true dignity of human nature. " Human nature," as an old divine 
forcibly remarks, "has become adorable as the true Shekinah, the 
everlasting palace of the supreme Majesty, wherein the fulness of the 
Godhead dwelleth bodily ; the most holy shrine of the divinity, the 
orb of inaccessible light, as this, and more than all this, if more could 
be expressed, or, if we could explain that text, The word was made 
flesh, and dwelt among us. " * 

It is obvious, then, that we cannot treat disrespectfully or contu- 
meliously any human being without dishonoring God and his Son. 
" When a piece even of base metal is coined with the king s stamp," 
to use Bishop Sanderson s illustration, "and made current by his 
edict, no man may henceforth presume either to refuse it in payment, 
or to abate the value of it ; so God, having stamped his own image 
upon every man, and withal signified his blessed pleasure, how pre 
cious he would have him to be in our eyes and esteem, by express edict 
proclaiming, At the hand of every man s brother will I require the 
life of man : I require every man to be his brother s keeper ; for in 
the image of God made he man ; * we must look to answer it as a 
high contempt of that sacred Majesty, if we set any man at naught, 
or make less account of him than God would have us. The contu 
melious use of the image is in common construction ever understood 
as a dishonor meant to the prototype. The Romans, when they meant 
to set a mark of public disgrace or dishonor on any eminent person, 
did manifest their intention by throwing down, breaking, trampling 
upon, or doing some other like disgrace to their statues or pictures. 
And Solomon, in sundry places, interpreted all acts of oppressing, 
mocking, or otherwise despising our neighbors, not without a strong 
reflection upon God himself; as leading to the contempt and dishonor 
of their Maker. He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker : 
but he that honoreth HIM hath mercy on the poor. Whoso mock- 
eth the poor reproacheth his Maker ; and surely there is much force 
in this interrogration, Why settest thou at naught, not only thine 

1 1 Pet. iii. 18. 1 Tim. ii. 6. John iii. 16. Mark xvi. 15. Col. i. 23. Heb. ii. 11. 
9 Barrow. Gen. ix. 5. 



I 

PART I.] TO HONOR ALL MEN. 307 

own brother, but the brother of the Lord of Glory ? Why despiseth 
thou him for whom Christ died ?" l 

There is indeed something revoltingly unnatural, something incon 
ceivably mean and base, something grotesquely absurd, in a human 
being regarding with contempt any other human being. Surely, the 
man who treats any man as a mean contemptible creature, should in 
a double sense be ashamed of himself, for what is HE but & man? 
How insignificant the distinction which elevates one man above ano 
ther, in comparison of the distinction which elevates all men above 
the brutal tribes ? How little does wealth, or rank, or even human 
learning, bulk in the eye of angels ? How highly do they estimate 
reason, conscience, affection, capacity for being like God, immortali 
ty ? The man who contemns any man, shows that he does not so 
much value himself because he is a man, but that whatever respect 
he has for human nature, flows from its being his nature. How mean, 
how absurd, how thoroughly contemptible, is pride ! Surely, " pride 
was not made for man, nor haughtiness of heart for him who is born 
of a woman." 

The sentiment of honor for man, as man, which we have been illus- 
^trating and recommending, should manifest itself in the whole of our 
conduct to our fellow-men, especially to those who in any respect 
may be our inferiors, whether in intellect, or talent, or acquirement, 
or moral worth, or rank, or wealth, leading us to " condescend to them 
that are of low estate :" but it takes its best form, when it leads us 
to use all the means in our power to raise our fellow-men in the scale 
of true honor and excellence ; to rescue them from the influence of 
ignorance, and error, and superstition ; to put down slavery, oppres 
sion, war, and misgovernment in all its endlessly varied forms ; to 
make men free, intelligent, industrious, moral, religious, and happy, to 
the greatest attainable degree on earth ; to save them from the shame 
and everlasting contempt which awaits unimproved advantages and 
unanswered responsibilities in eternity ; and to secure to them that 
"glory, honor, and immortality," which, while it is "the gift of God 
through Jesus Christ," is to be sought for and obtained "in a constant 
continuance in well-doing." 2 

Few things are better fitted at once to stimulate and to guide in 
such noble enterprises, than enlightened, impressive views of the true 
grandeur of human nature. While humbled to the dust with the 
overwhelming evidence, without us, within us, and around us, of the 
fearful degradation of human nature by sin, let us never forget what 
that nature was when God made it, what it is still capable of, what it 
still is when God makes it anew on earth, what it will be when he 
completes the work of transformation in heaven. Human nature 
was a stately, beautiful fabric as God reared it. It is majestic even 
n ruins, exciting in every right constituted mind awe as well as sor- 
ro w. 8 As its desolations are repaired by the plastic powers of the 
Divine Spirit, symmetry and beauty are seen developing themselves ; 
and when, in the heaven of heavens, man stands forth, nearest of all 
crea te d beings to Him who sits on the right hand of the Divine Ma- 
esty> bearing the image of the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven, 

i p r ov. xiv. 31 ; xvii. 5. Rom. xiv. 10. 15. * Rom. vi. 23, 11, 7. 3 See note A. 



308 FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. [DISC. XII. 

then will it be felt by all intelligent beings, that human nature is 
indeed one of the " chief of the works of God," one of the most 
wonderful results of Divine wisdom, and power, and love. 

Rjcrht views, equally of man s meanness and his greatness, are to 
be obtained only by studying the representations which are contained 
in the Divine word, an impressive abstract of which is contained in 
the following plain but striking stanzas : 

" Lord ! what is man ? extremes how wide 

In his mysterious nature join : 
The flesh to worms and dust allied ; 

The soul immortal and divine. 
Divine at first-^-a holy flame, 

Kindled by the Almighty s breath 
Till, stain d by sin, it soon became 

The seat of darkness, strife, and death. 

" But Jesus Oh ! amazing love ! 

Assum d our nature as his own ; 
Obey d and suft er d in our place, 

Then took it with him to his throne. 
Now what is man, when grace reveals 

The virtue of a Saviour s blood ? 
Again a life divine he feels, 

Despises earth, and walks with God. 

" And what, in yonder realms above, 

Is ransom d man ordain d to be ? 
"With honor, holiness, and love, 

No seraph more adorn d than he. 
Nearest the throne, and first in song, 

Man shall his hallelujahs raise ; 
While wond ring angels round him throng, 

And swell the chorus of his praise." l 

He who believes this, he alone who believes this, will " honor ail 
men." 

II CHRISTIANS ARE TO "LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD." 

THE " BROTHERHOOD," and OUR DUTY AS CHRISTIANS TOWARDS THE 
BROTHERHOOD i these are the two interesting topics to which our at 
tention is now to be successively directed. 

l.Of " the brotherhood." 

A brotherhood is an association of brothers. Now, who are the 
brethren that are here referred to, and what is that association of 
them which is termed " the brotherhood ?" It is scarcely necessary 
to say, that the language is not here used in its strictly literal signifi 
cation: the signification in which John is termed the brother of 
James, and Andrew of Peter. In its analogical or figurative employ 
ment, which is manifold, it entirely overlooks the distinction of sex, 
and far overleaps the boundaries of families. " There is neither Jew 
nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, male nor female," 
here. It is usual in Scripture to speak of all the descendants of 

1 Olney Hymn. 



PART II.] TO LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD. 309 

Jacob as brethren, and it is no uncommon thing to represent all hu 
man beings as brethren. The reason of this is obvious. With re 
gard to their animal frames, they are all the descendants of the origi 
nal pair ; for " God has made of one blood all the nations of men for 
to dwell on the face of the earth ;" and with regard to their immortal 
minds, they are all "the offspring of God." He is "the Father of 
Spirirts." " In him we live, and move, and have our being." " We 
have one Father, one God hath created us." l From our common 
human, and our common Divine, paternity, we are all members of the 
same family ; we are all brethren. 

On the footing of this common relation, mankind form a great va 
riety of associations for a corresponding variety of objects, all of 
which, from what lies at their foundation, may be called brotherhoods. 
A nation is a great brotherhood. Municipal bodies, societies for pro 
moting science, for diffusing knowledge, for relieving distress : all 
these are so many minor brotherhoods. To all mankind, as brethren, 
we owe a duty, and that duty is love ; and to all the brotherhoods, all 
the associations, of our human brethren, to which we belong, we 
likewise owe a duty, the fulfilment of which also is expressed in that 
all-comprehensive word, love ; and the manner in which this principle 
of love should manifest itself towards all our brethren of mankind in 
dividually, and towards all the particular brotherhoods with which we 
may be connected, and the motives which urge to the cultivation and 
exercise of this principle in all these various ways, would afford abun 
dant materials for interesting and useful discussion. 

But it cannot be reasonably doubted, that " the brotherhood" spoken 
of in our text, is an association of men, not as men, but as Christians. 
" The brotherhood" to be loved, is placed in contrast with the " all 
men" who are to be honored ; and therefore our appropriate employ 
ment, in this part of our discourse, is to inquire in what peculiar sense 
Christians are brethren, and what we are to understand by that 
brotherhood, that association of brethren, which ought to be the ob 
ject of the love of all individual Christians. 

It is obvious, from the Acts of the Apostles and the Apostolical 
Epistles, that "brethren" was the first name used to express the 
mutual relation of Christians to each other, as " disciples" was that 
employed to express their common relation to their Lord. It was 
indeed the name given them by their Lord: "One," said he, "is 
your Master, and all ye are brethren." 2 

The giving of this figurative appellation to Christians, rests on a 
wide and varied foundation. They are spiritual brethren, for they 
have a common oriffin. They are all " the children of God, by faith 
in Christ Jesus." iTiey all have " received the adoption of sons ;" 
they all have entered into the kingdom of God, by being " born again, 
born of the Spirit, born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 
of the will of man, but of God ;" born, " not of corruptible seed, but 
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for 
ever." They all have Abraham for their Father. " Being Christ s, 
they are Abraham s seed, and heirs according to the promise;" and, 

1 Gal. iii. 28. Col. iii. 11. Heb. xii. 9. Acts xvii. 26, 28. Mai. ii. 10. 
3 Matt, xxiii. 8. 



310 FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. [DISC. XII. 

as they all are Abraham s spiritual children, they all are also the 
offspring of mystical Sarah ; the patriarchal church under the cove 
nant of^promise ; " the children, not of the bond woman, but of the 
free." Ancient Jerusalem, " Jerusalem above," both as to time and 
place, " is the mother of them all." * 

They are spiritual brethren, for they have a common character. 
They all, though in different degrees, resemble their Father in heaven, 
and their great Elder Brother. They all are " renewed after the 
image of him that created them," "in knowledge, righteousness, and 
true holiness." They all " are conformed to the image of God s Son." 
They all already bear the spiritual, as they shall all ere long bear the 
outward image of " the Second Man, the Lord from heaven." They 
all have " the mind in them that was in him;" they all are "in the 
world as he was in the world ;" his animated images, his " living 
epistles, known and read of all men." 2 

They are spiritual brethren, for they have a common education. 
They are all nourished by the "sincere milk of the word." In a 
higher sense than the Israelitish brethren, who were their prototypes, 
" they all eat the same spiritual meat, and they all drink the same 
spiritual drink :" " the flesh of the Son of Man, which is meat indeed ; 
the blood of the Son of Man, which is drink indeed." They all are 
taught by the same Spirit; taught materially the same truths, so that 
the differences on vital subjects among true Christians are always 
rather apparent than real differences rather about the meaning of 
words than the truth of principles ; and they all are disciplined by 
the same paternal Providence, for " what son is he whom the Father 
chasteneth not?" 3 

They are spiritual brethren, for they have a common residence. 
They dwell together in that spiritual " better country," of which 
Canaan was an emblem, a state of favor and fellowship with God; 
and in that spiritual house, of which the temple was a type, " the 
church of the living God." They are " not strangers and foreigners" 
to one another ; they are " fellow-citizens," they belong to the one 
" household of God ;" and they shall all dwell forever in their Father s 
house of many mansions above ; " the house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." 4 

Finally, they are spiritual brethren, for they have a common inher 
itance. " If children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with 
Christ Jesus." They all are "begotten again to a living hope, to an 
inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved 
in heaven for them." * 

Such are the brethren who are here referred to. Men brought out 
of their natural condition of guilt and condemnation, into a state of 
forgiveness and acceptance ; men " transformed" in their characters, 
" by the renewing of their minds," in the exercise of the same Divine 
grace, by the operation of the same Divine influence ; and thus, by 

Gal. iii. 26; iv. 5. John iii. 5, 6 ; i. 13. 1 Pet. i. 23. Gal. iii. 29; iv. 26. 
Col. iii. 10. Rom. viii. 29. Phil. ii. 5. 1 John iv. 17. 2 Cor. iii. 2. 
1 Pet. ii. 1. 1 Cor. x. 3, 4. John vi. 55. Heb. xii. 7. 
Eph. ii. 19. Psal. xci. 1. John xiv. 2. 2 Cor. v. 1. 
Rom. viil 17. 1 PeL i. 3, 4. 



PART II.] TO LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD. 311 

these changes of state and character which are common to them all, 
materially the same in each, placed in a most intimate endearing 
relation to each other; with common views and affections, common 
likings and dislikings, common hopes and fears, common joys and 
sorrows, a common interest, common friends, common enemies, they 
are brothers indeed. 

Relation and duty are correlative ideas, and the weight of obliga 
tion corresponds with the closeness of the connection. Those who 
are connected together as brethren, must be bound to feel towards 
one another, and to act towards one another, as brethren. The 
whole of the duty which one Christian brother owes to another 
Christian brother, to all other Christian brethren, is that which is here 
enjoined towards the brotherhood Love. This duty is clearly de 
scribed, and powerfully enforced, in the following apostolic injunction : 
" Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the 
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one an 
other with a pure heart fervently : being born again, not of corrupti 
ble seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and 
abideth forever." l Christians are bound to love all men with a love 
of benevolence ; but the love of esteem and complacency which a 
Christian ought to cherish towards a Christian, is a sentiment very 
different from this general benevolence ; a sentiment of which none 
but a Christian can be either the object or the subject. This affec 
tion originates in the possession of a peculiar mode of thinking and 
feeling, produced in the mind by the Holy Spirit, through the knowl 
edge and belief of Christian truth, which naturally leads those who are 
thus distinguished to a sympathy of mind and heart, of thought and af 
fection, with all who, under the same influence, have been led to enter 
tain the same views and cherish the same dispositions. It has for its 
end the highest good, the spiritual improvement and final well-being 
of its objects, consisting in entire conformity to the mind and will of 
God, the unclouded sense of the Divine favor, the uninterrupted en 
joyment of the Divine fellowship, the being with and like the ever- 
blessed, Holy, Holy, Holy, One. 

This subject, the duty of the brethren to the brethren, individually 
considered, is a very interesting and important one ; but the subject 
to which our attention is now to be turned, though nearly allied to it, 
is still a different one, the love of the brethren to the brotherhood 
as a body. 

The " brotherhood" is the brethren in the associated form, in a 
social capacity ; and it is plainly necessary, in order to our distinctly 
apprehending the nature and extent of the duty here enjoined, that 
we clearly perceive what is its object. It is the more necessary that 
this be attended to, that mistaken apprehension as to what this broth 
erhood, or, in other words, what the Church of Christ is, has led into 
very important practical mistakes, and induced men, under the impres 
sion that they were loving and honoring the brotherhood, to hate and 
persecute the brethren. Men have often thought they^were showing 
their regard to the Church by maltreating its true members. 

It is impossible to read the New Testament carefully, without per- 

1 Pet. i. 22, 23. 



312 FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. [DISC. XII. 

ceiving that it is the intention of Jesus Christ, not only to render his 
followers individually holy and happy, as so many distinct children 
of God ; but, in subordination to this end, to form them into a happy, 
holy fellowship, the bond of which should be the faith and love of the 
same truth, and the objects of which should be the united worship of 
their common God and Father, the united promotion of the honor 
and interests of their common Lord and Saviour, and their mutual 
improvement in the knowledge of Christian truth, the cultivation of 
Christian dispositions, the performance of Christian duty, and the en 
joyment and diffusion of Christian happiness. This society, founded 
on Christ s institution, subject to his authority, regulated by his law, 
animated by his Spirit, devoted to his honor, and blessed by his pres 
ence, is the Christian Church. This is the brotherhood. None ought 
to be admitted into, or retained in this society, but those who, by an 
intelligent, consistent profession of the faith of the gospel, give evi 
dence that they are brethren ; and all who are brethren should readily 
join themselves to, and be readily welcomed by, the brotherhood. 

This society, though one in its principles and objects, was necessa 
rily from the beginning divided into separate associations, composed 
of the brethren residing in the same immediate vicinity, meeting 
together for the common observance of the Christian ordinances. 
These associations considered themselves each as a component part 
of the great brotherhood, " the Holy Catholic Church," " all who in 
every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus." The members of 
one of these brotherhoods were viewed, of course, as members of the 
great brotherhood, and were recognized as such by being readily ad 
mitted into fellowship in all the offices of religion by other Christian 
societies in other localities, on producing a satisfactory letter of attes 
tation from the society with which they were more immediately con 
nected. 1 

Nor was this all. In joining the Christian brotherhood they con 
nected themselves not only with the whole of the brethren on earth, 
but also with those who had finished their course, and had been ad 
mitted into the mansions of celestial purity and rest. They joined 
the great " family in heaven and in earth called by the one name ;" 
they "sat down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom 
of their Father ;" they came to " an innumerable company of angels, 
the general assembly, to the church of the first-born, whose names 
are written in heaven, and to the spirits of the just made perfect." 3 

There are various important truths respecting the Church of Christ, 
suggested by its being termed a brotherhood, especially the two fol 
lowing, which I shall merely notice in passing. First, none but 
brethren ought to be admitted to be its members : an ungodly man is 
fully as much out of his place in a Christian Church, as Satan was 

Rom. xvi. 1. 5 John 8, 9. "When a Christian entered a foreign city, his first inquiry 
was for the church (the brotherhood) ; and here he was received as a brother, and sup 
plied with whatever could contribute to his spiritual or bodily refreshment. The church 
letters, which were as tesserce hospitales, received the name of ypu^//ara rcrvTrw/j^n, Epistolce 
formates, because, to guard against counterfeits, they were drawn up after a certain form, 
riiToj; and also ypd^para KOIVWVIKO, Epistolce communicatorice, inasmuch as they indicated 



, , 

that the bearers were in the fellowship of the church." EUSEB. iv. 23. CYPBIAN, Epist. 
in. NEANDER, vol. i. sect. ii. p. 280. 

9 Eph. iii. 15. Matt. viii. 11. Heb. xii. 22, 23. 



PART II.] TO LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD. 313 

when he presented himself among the sons of God; and, secondly, 
there must be no tyrannical rule in the Church of Christ. " The 
kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them ; but ye shall not be 
so. Be not ye called Rabbi ; for one is your master, even Christ, and 
all ye are brethren." * 

This goodly fellowship, this noble brotherhood, was not only in its 
elements, but in its social capacity, its organized form, the fit object 
of the respectful ardent attachment of each of its members; and this 
respectful affectionate attachment was to be manifested in a corres 
ponding course of conduct. Every Christian had a duty to discharge, 
the sum of which was, love to the Christian brotherhood with which 
he was connected, and to the whole Christian brotherhood, both on 
earth and in heaven ; and it is to this, we apprehend, that the apostle 
refers, when, in the words before us, he calls on Christians to "love 
the brotherhood." 

The Christian Church does not now, alas ! exhibit, as it did in the 
primitive age, the appearance of one unbroken brotherhood. There 
are many societies who call themselves churches, and who sometimes 
take to themselves the name, as, if not their exclusive property, at 
least belonging to them with some peculiar emphasis of meaning, in 
whom we can scarcely trace the slightest identifying marks of the 
ancient Christian brotherhoods; though even among the adherents of 
these, we find not a few whom we gladly recognize as " faithful and 
beloved brethren in Christ Jesus." Here we have brethren, but not 
a brotherhood. In other cases, we find both brethren and a brother 
hood ; but, in too many instances, we have to regret that additional 
humanly-devised bonds have been added to the divinely-appointed 
simple silken ties of primitive fellowship, and that, by attempting to 
carry union in opinion and uniformity of usage, farther than the great 
Master warrants, they have hazarded the continuance of union within, 
and prevented the recognition of other Christian brethren and other 
Christian brotherhoods, who are determined to " stand fast in the lib 
erty wherewith Christ hath made them free," and to count all terms 
of fellowship not of his establishing, but various forms of " the yoke 
of bondage." 3 

Still, however, there are, under a very considerable variety of ex 
ternal form, many religious societies which, with all their defects and 
faults (and none of them want these), are, in their elementary prin 
ciples, indeed Christian brotherhoods ; and these Christian brother 
hoods, substantially united, though in many respects different from, 
and in some even opposed to, one another, along with those individual 
Christian brethren who are, in too great numbers, to be found in 
connection with societies which are secular and anti-christian in 
their constitution, form the whole Christian brotherhood now on 
earth. 

2. Of the Christian s duty to the brotherhood. 

Now, in this department of the discourse, my object is briefly to 
inquire what is the duty of the individual Christian brother to this 

1 Luke xxii. 25. a Gal. v. 1. 



314 FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY. [DISC. XII. 

brotherhood, both towards that one of its minor divisions with which 
he may be more immediately connected, and towards the whole 
brotherhood, the whole collection of Christian churches and Christian 
individuals whom he can recognize as forming the visible holy family, 
the children of God, the brethren of Jesus Christ, "the Holy Catholic 
Church." 

Let it not be forgotten, that it is the duty of a brother towards 
the brotherhood that I am inquiring into. It is the duty of every one 
who is not a brother to become a brother, of every man who is not a 
Christian to become a Christian ; but, till he does so, he had better 
not seek admission into the brotherhood. What has he who is not a 
brother to do there ? It is a happy thing for all parties concerned, 
when " believers are added to the Church, multitudes both of men 
and women," and when " of the rest," the unbelieving remainder, 
"none dares to join himself to them." l 

The first way in which a Christian brother is to show his love for 
the brotherhood, as an institution or society, is by jojjomg himself to 
it; and, in order to do this, he must connect himself with some par 
ticular Christian brotherhood. It is in this way he forms a visible 
connection with the whole visible brotherhood. There are some 
good men who seem to be fond of being Christians at large, connected 
with the whole society invisibly, but visibly with no individual soci 
ety. The sectarianism and impurity which are to be found, more or 
less, in all existing Christian churches, afford but too plausible an ex 
cuse, but they afford no sufficient reason, for this course. Of the 
great ends to be gained by connection with the Christian brotherhood, 
some cannot be gained at all, none of them gained in a high degree, 
without joining the fellowship of some particular church ; and it is 
plain that, if all Christians were taking the same liberty as those priv 
ileged persons, there would be no such thing as a visible church 
on earth. As soon as Saul came to Jerusalem, " he essayed to join 
himself to the disciples." Both his eagerness and their caution are full 
of instructive example. They were backward to receive him, be 
cause " they doubted whether he was a disciple." And equally wor 
thy of imitation are the conduct of Barnabas, who "took him and 
brought him to the apostles," and their ready reception of him on 
Barnabas testimony, so that " he was with them coming in and 
going out at Jerusalem." * 

Having shown his love to the brotherhood, by joining himself to 
it, the Christian brother is to give further proof of his love to it after 
he has become one of its members. He is to be regular in attending on 
all its meetings for the observance of ordinances. He is not to 
"forsake the assembling together, as the manner of some is;" he is 
to "continue steadfastly in the apostolic doctrine and fellowship, and 
in breaking of bread, and in prayers." All the members of the 
brotherhood are to show their love, by performing the duties belong 
ing to the place they hold in the society. They are cheerfully to 
contribute of their time, and labor, and property, for gaining the 
great objects of the brotherhood, both within and without its pale ; 
the overseers, by " watching for souls as those who must give ac- 
1 Acts v. 13, 14. 2 Acts ix. 26, 27. 



PART II.] TO LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD. 315 

count;" the members, by "obeying them that have the rule over 
them ;" " the younger," by obedience to the elder ; and the whole 
body, by "submitting to each other in the fear of God/ " He that 
ministers, must wait on his ministering ; he that teacheth, on teach 
ing ; he that exhorteth, on exhortation ; he that giveth, must do it 
with simplicity ; he that ruleth, with diligence ; he that showeth 
mercy, with cheerfulness." " He who is taught the Word is to com 
municate to them who teach in all good things/ The statute 
" which the Lord has ordained" must be observed, " that they who 
preach the gospel, should live of the gospel;" and they who, "for 
Christ s sake, go forth, asking nothing of the Gentiles," ought, by the 
other members of the society, to be " brought forward on their jour 
ney after a godly sort." Love to the brotherhood is thus to be shown 
by contributing to the maintenance of those ordinances, by which 
the highest interests of the society are promoted, and by which it is 
enabled to perform one of its principal duties, in "holding forth the 
word of life" to a world perishing for lack of knowledge. 1 

Another way in which the Christian brother is to show his love to 
the brotherhood, is by endeavoring to preserve its purity. The intro 
duction of corrupt members into the Church of Christ, is not only 
great cruelty to the individuals immediately concerned, but it is in 
flicting a most severe injury on the brotherhood. It is in reference 
to this crime for it is no less that the apostle says, " If any man 
defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy." An unchristian 
man can do no good, he must do mischief in a Christian church. 
" A little leaven leavens the whole lump." 2 

It is peculiarly the duty of official Christians, elders, and pastors, 
to show their love to the brotherhood by a careful attention to this 
matter. To them the command is given, " Let every man take heed 
how he buildeth" on the foundation. A Christian brotherhood will 
serve its peculiar purposes, both internal and external, just in propor 
tion to its purity. A small Christian society, composed of right mate 
rials, will be far more powerful in doing good, than a large Christian 
society where the materials are of an interior kind. It should, then, 
be the constant care of the rulers of every Christian brotherhood to 
admit none but those who appear to be Christians, and to retain none 
after they have proved themselves not to be Christians. But this 
will be, this can be, but very imperfectly done, if the members of the 
society generally do not give their assistance to the overseers or 
bishops, by watching for one another s souls, " looking diligently lest 
any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up 
and trouble the brotherhood, and thereby many be defiled." That 
man does not love the brotherhood, who does not conscientiously at 
tend to our Lord s directions in the 18th chapter of the gospel by 
Matthew, for the removal of offences. 3 

Still further, the brother is to show his love of the brotherhood by 
seeking its peace. No society can well gain its object whose mem 
bers are at variance with one another ; and, when the nature and 

1 Heb. x. 25. Acts ii. 42. Heb. xiii. 17. 1 Pet. v. 5. Eph. v. 21. Rom. xii. 7, 8. 
Gal. vi. 6. 1 Cor. ix. 14. 3 John 6, 7. Phil. ii. 16. 

a 1 Cor. iii. 17 ; v. 6. 3 1 Cor. iii. 10. Matt, xviii. 15-20. 



316 FOURFOLD VIEW OF CHRISTIAN DUTY [DISC. XII. 

designs of the Christian brotherhood are considered, it must be plain, 
that to its prosperity peace is of peculiar importance. The things 
which make for peace are the things which edify the brotherhood. 
He who loves the brotherhood, intelligently, will study " to be quiet, 
and to do his own business/ for he knows that the way to secure 
peace in any society is for every member to do his own business ; 
and there is not a more certain likelihood of producing discord than 
for men to neglect their own business, and become " busybodies in 
other men s matters." He will not, like Diotrephes, "love," and 
seek to have " the pre-eminence ;" but " by love serve his brethren." 
He will "avoid foolish questions, which gender strife rather than 
godly edifying." He will " leave off contention before it be meddled 
with ;" and he will " mark those who cause divisions and offences 
contrary to the doctrine which he has learned, and avoid them." He 
will be found a steadfast upholder of the three great laws of the broth- 
erhood, on which its peace so much depends " Let all things be 
done in charity," " let all things be done to edifying," " let all things 
be done decently and in order." l 

In the next place, the brother is to show his love of the brotherhood 
by seeking its increase. Brethren die ; but the brotherhood is immor 
tal. It is the part of a good church-member to exert himself to have 
the breaches made by death and otherwise repaired, and to prepare 
for the blank which his own removal is soon to make. This is not 
to be done by robbing other churches, by seeking to thin the ranks 
of some other brotherhood. There is something very unseemly in 
the proselytizing spirit which distinguishes too many Christian sects, 
and which marks them as sects indeed. Jf a member of one Christian 
brotherhood seek admission into another, bringing satisfactory evi 
dence that he is a brother, he is not to be refused ; nor is Christian 
liberty even to seem to be trenched on by inquisitorial investigation 
either on the part of the church left or the church joined into the 
reasons which, he says, are satisfactory to his own conscience for the 
change ; but it is not the natural order of things to gather churches 
out of churches. Little is gained, and often much is lost in this way. 

Churches should be kept up by conversion rather than by proselyt- 
ism ; and the love of the brotherhood is a principle which operates 
in entire harmony with the love of souls, in seeking to turn men from 
the error of their ways, that it may be said of them, " Ye were as 
sheep going astray ; but ye are returned to the Shepherd and Bishop 
of souls." Every converted man should endeavor to bring as many 
of the prodigal children home to his Father s house as possible, that 
there may be joy in the brotherhood on earth as in heaven, that 
" those who were dead have become alive again, and those who were 
lost are found." 2 The member of a Christian church who, in this 
way, is the means of adding even one member of the right kind to 
its communion, is a real and great benefactor both to the indi 
vidual and to the community, both to the brother and to the brother 
hood. 

1 1 Thesa. iv. 11. l Pet. iv. 15. 3 John 9. Gal. v. 13. 2 Tim. ii. 23. Tit. iii. 9 
Prov. xvii. 14. Rom. xvi. 17. 1 Cor. xiv 16 26 40 
3 1 Pet. iii. 25. Luke xv. 32. 



PART II.] TO LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD. 317 

Finally, the Christian brother is to show his love to the brotherhood 
he is immediately connected with, by making its welfare, in all the 
extent of meaning belonging to that word, the subject of his frequent 
and fervent ]^ ayers. This was one of the ways in which the apostle 
Paul, who had a great deal of the love of the brethren, as well as of 
love to all men, expressed his affection for the brotherhoods with 
which he was peculiarly connected. "Without ceasing he made 
mention of them always in his prayers, for the grace of God to them, 
that they might in everything be enriched by him, and come behind 
in no gift ; and that they might be perfectly joined together in the same 
mind and judgment." We, my brethren, should imitate his example, 
and, like him, when we " bow our knees to the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is 
named," we should bear on our hearts the brotherhood ; and pray 
that it may be made and preserved free, and pure, and peaceful, and 
active, and prosperous, that " the whole body fitly joined together and 
compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the ef 
fectual working in the measure of every part, may make increase 
of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love." l It is thus that 
the Christian brother is to love the brotherhood, of which he is a 
member. 

But he is never to forget that that brotherhood, ay, that that class 
of brotherhoods, however numerous, with which it may be connected 
in ecclesiastical arrangement, is but a very small portion of the great 
Christian brotherhood, consisting as it does of all the associations 
which, whatever be their differences and faults, deserve the name of 
Christian churches, being collections of men honestly associated from 
a regard to Christ s authority, founded on the faith of his gospel, to 
observe his ordinances; and of air true believers, though they may 
not be in Christian fellowship, properly so called, whether stand 
ing aloof from all the sections of Christian churches, or connected 
with societies which we cannot recognize as Christian churches : 
and with regard to all these portions of " the household of faith," 
he is to love them, and " do good to them as he has opportu 
nity." 2 

One of the best ways of showing love to the whole brotherhood, 
is by a careful discharge of our duty to the particular brotherhood we 
are connected with. We shall do more, I believe, towards having 
our neighbors vineyards well kept by keeping our own well, by mak 
ing it quite a pattern vineyard for order, and freedom from weeds, 
and fruitfulness, than by leaving our own vineyard untended, and 
occupying our time in pointing out their neglects and faults, thus ul- 
troneously assuming the office of "keepers of other men s vineyards." 
It is impossible to say how extensively beneficial might be the influ 
ence of a single congregation, however small, all the members of 
which set themselves to do all that lies in their power, according to 
the stations they bear in it, that, in the quiet working of Christ s sim 
ple machinery, their brotherhood should do all the good possible 
within and without its pale. This, however, is by no means to inter 
fere it will not with every legitimate means of obtaining freedom 

1 1 Cor. i. 4, <fcc. Eph. ii. 14 ; iv. 16. f