The Christian must serve God with the faculties of the whole Man. he did hear, are each possessed of the same principle of faith; they each make the best use of the talent committed to them; they each walk steadily and faithfully by the light that is given them; and by him who knows the heart, they will be saved in the obedience of faith. If there be a willing mind, saith St. Paul to the Corinthians, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that a man hath not. And likewise to the Romans, God is not the God of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also. As it was consistent with divine justice that the demerit of Adam's disobedience should extend to all mankind, although a large portion of them never heard of Adam or his transgression; so by the same divine justice, the benefits of Christ's obedience are available to all mankind, although many have never heard the name of Christ. What may be the process of justification to those who have never been blessed with revelation, is among the unknown counsels of Heaven. But we may humbly conjecture that the pious heathens, who knowing God only from the information of nature, have believed in Him to the The Christian must serve God with the faculties of the whole Man. the extent of that information, and with truth and sincerity obeyed the divine law written by nature on the hearts of all, will carry with them into the invisible world the spirit of faith, and be prepared to acknowledge and adore the Saviour, as soon as he shall be revealed to them by the means, which the unsearchable wisdom of God shall appoint. The plan of redemption, justification through Christ, with all God's mercies to sinful man, may be as effectually communicated to them in the mansions of rest, as a foundation of love and gratitude through all eternity, as they could have been in the knowledge of the gospel dispensation on earth. They will have had their period of trial, and have been proved faithful. The Christian cannot have been more. With him, therefore, they may stand, in the eye of divine justice, equally eligible by the grace of God, to the justification unto life, which is not of works, but through the obedience of faith. For they will have walked in the steps of that faith of our Father Abraham, which he had being not yet, by the rite of circumsion, sealed a member of God's visible church. The Christian must serve God with the faculties of the whole Man. If these things be so, it may be asked; what are the advantages of the professing Christian, and of the privileges of baptism? In reply to this we may cite St. Paul's answer to a similar question of the Jews. Much every way. Unto him are committed the oracles of God. To him God hath declared his word, and his promises, and his judgements. To him He hath revealed his will: him he hath taught all his commandments, and instructed in the full knowledge of his laws, the keeping of which even in the present life, is a happiness, which the natural man can never know. The state of the Christian, therefore, is the superior state, in as much as light is better than darkness; knowledge than ignorance; the calm assurance of hope, than the anxious disquietude of fear; the power of happiness, than the helpless longing after it; the full ability to lead a life of purity, virtue, and holiness, than the arduous and inefficient endeavours after such a life; the being filled with righteousness, than the thirsting after it. Is the everlasting Creator, and supreme Lord of the universe good? and is his will righteousuess and happiness?— M The Christian must serve God with the faculties of the whole Man. Is disobedience to his will sin? and is sin the cause of misery? Is the practice of obedience to his glory? and the proper employment, as well as the happiness, of the intellectual creature?-Does the knowledge of the Divine will assist to the fulfilment of it? and is every thought, purpose, and work of that fulfilment, health, and pleasure to the soul? So certainly and so clearly is the true professor of the religion of Christ in a happier state than the infidel. In as much as all the comforts and supports promised in Revelation, and supplied to the believer, are superior to the unassisted powers of natural reason; in as much as it is better to act with the spirit of God in putting down the works of the Devil, than to do those works in darkness and ignorance; so much is the case of the Christian superior to the condition of those, who have never heard, or been baptized into, the covenant of salvation. As much as it is better to live after the will of God, and to have a foretaste of that felicity, which He enjoys in infinitude and perfection, than to live in the slavery and misery of sin; so much is the case of the true Christian even in the pre sent The Christian must serve God with the faculties of the whole Man. sent life, better than that of him, who has not embraced the faith of the Gospel. This happy case, my brethren, is yours. Happy it is, if you establish your right in it, by a suitably holy life. Forfeit not the advantages of the blessed state, in which you are placed by a most merciful God. Make not your condition worse than that of the heathen, who never heard the name of Christ. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Consider the mighty weight of obligation that you are under to yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. All the knowledge, and all the assistances, necessary to salvation, are yours. God hath manifested to you in his revealed word, what was just discernible to the eye of reason, that He is the supreme Creator and Lord of all things, pure, holy, just, and good, worthy and desiring to be feared and loved, above every thing that can be named 1; that He loves virtue, and abhors vice, requiring his rational creatures to cultivate one, and renounce the other; that, in a future state, He will make amends for the disorders and suffer |