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fore, let us take unto us the whole armour of God, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Having our loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked: taking, also, 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. For we wrestle not in a Warfare that is carnal-but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places: and so the weapons of our Warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.'

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7. It is the universal principle of our Christian life, that in proportion as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also our consolation aboundeth by Christ. It is not surprising, therefore, that we should even glory in tribulations, since we know that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. My grace, said our Lord, is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. The first response of his servant was, I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me :5 his habitual response was, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me: and his matured and final testimony was, Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the career of a true soldier of the cross: the path of the just, like the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Though there be few who even approach very near to this sublime standard, none apparently, who are not many times discomfited by their spiritual enemies, many needing from mere weakness to be borne in the bosom of the good Shepherd of our souls, and nearly all to be led gently along by his hand: nevertheless there is not one of the innumerable multitude, who will be finally vanquished and destroyed by God's enemies and theirs. It is not

1 Eph., vi. 13-18; 2 Cor., x. 4.
4 2 Cor., xii. 9. 5 2 Cor., xii. 9.

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possible for us to understand how, as the result of such a career, such a probation as I have attempted to trace, any should escape destruction, except upon the conditions which actually exist, and by means of the forces which are actually applied; nor yet, upon those conditions, and under the application of those forces, how any could perish. Without the divine support continually given to believers and accepted by them, even they must be destroyed. When judgment begins at the house of God, what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ?1 And yet, how can the righteous perish, when they have a throne of divine grace to which they may always come boldly, and at which they may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need ? Nay, when God himself is their refuge and strength-a very present help in trouble ? To him that overcometh, is the glorious promise of the exalted Saviour, I will give to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne.*

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1 1 Pet., iv. 17, 18.

2 Heb., iv. 16.

3 Psalm xlvi. 1.

4 Rev., iii. 21.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE INFALLIBLE RULE OF FAITH AND DUTY.

I. 1. Relation of the divine Word to the divine Life in the human Soul.-2. All Law implies the Existence both of the Author of it, and the Subject of it.—3. Infinite Lawgiver: Discovery, Comprehension, and Use of any and whatever Law of God. -4. Regulative Principles of Universal Morality: their Nature, Certainty, Origin, and Obligation.—5. Supremacy of the Moral Sense in Fallen Man: Supremacy of the Moral Law in the Universe: The Saviour.-6. Relation of the Moral Law to the Matter and the Form of Salvation: Infinite Grace.-7. Indispensable Necessity to Fallen Man of divine Guidance and Support in the Way of Life.—8. Supreme Relation of the Revealed Will of God to Salvation: Infallible Rule of Faith and Obedience.-II. 1. The true End of our Existence, and the Mode of attaining it, taught only and taught fully in the Sacred Scriptures.-2. What we ought to believe concerning God, considered as the Saviour of Sinners, is matter of pure Revelation.-3. That Revelation the Infallible Rule of Faith: Its Completeness and Efficacy.-4. Relation of Righteousness to Faith-Truth to Duty: the Word of God the Infallible Rule of the New Obedience.-5. Divine Restatement of the Moral Law, and divine Regeneration of the human Soul: The Power of God unto Salvation.-6. All the Work and all the Institutions of God, have Relevancy to the Faith and Righteousness revealed by him, and to the Rule thereof.—7. The Saviour of the World the central Object of all Truth revealed to our Faith, and of all Duty required by the Moral Law.-8. The Sum and Scope of the Moral Law, considered with direct Reference to Christ, and to those who believe on him.— 9. Mediatorial Work of Christ-Universal and Unalterable Law of God-Infallible Rule of Faith and Practice-Infinite Righteousness and Grace of God.—10. Position of the Sacred Scriptures as thus ascertained.

I.—1. It has been proved, and repeatedly stated, that man created in the image of God, and abiding in that condition, would have perceived habitually what was true, and chosen what was good, and thus would have found the habitual service and enjoyment of God, his natural and his blessed condition in a universe free from sin. It has also been proved, and repeatedly stated, that even in that condition of sinless purity, unclouded reason, and abounding felicity, man, being fallible, and dependent on God in every sense, could not, of himself, and if strictly tried, have perpetually maintained his condition, much less risen to a higher state of being. God, who was the fountain of his being,

must also have been the fountain to him of light and strength. We cannot conceive of a created being who is not dependent upon God, and, as compared with him, imperfect and fallible; nor can we conceive that an imperfect and fallible creature, can dispense with the perpetual presence and fruition of God in the pursuit of what is true and good, any more than a created and dependent being can dispense with him and live. How much more obvious is this necessity for divine light and strength when, instead of being merely fallible, we are actually fallen and depraved! Dependent, in our first estate, upon those communications of God's grace whereby his image should be maintained in a fallible soul which had been created in his likeness, and had not yet lost it; how much more are we dependent on him now, in order that we may know with certainty what is true and what is good, and may embrace them both with fervour and constancy! Creatures of an infinite God, we cannot, if we would, extricate ourselves from his infinite dominion. Objects of the love of an infinite Saviour, why should we consummate our ruin, by rejecting him who provides for us an ability in itself divine? It is in him alone that lost men are furnished at once with the ability and the way of eternal life. And the immediate object of this chapter is to point out the supreme relation which his blessed word bears to the support and guidance of that life of God in our souls, which manifests itself in nothing more decisively, than in accepting that word as the only Infallible Rule of all Faith and all Duty; that is, of all Truth and all Good unto salvation. Verily, verily, I say unto you-these are the words of Jesus--he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.'

2. Independently of those permanent and regulative principles which we call laws, which the human mind, by its very constitution, is constantly impelled to search for and to accept in all things; there could exist no permanent relation between one thing and another-nothing which could be called science; knowledge could never have increased, if indeed it could have existed in any proper sense—and the very idea of duty would disappear. They belong so decisively to the very essence of the whole order of the universe, and enter so fundamentally into the constitution of our 1 John, v. 24.

own nature, that they are manifested in every thing that exists, and in every act of our lives their existenee is implied, and thought itself is regulated by their irresistible control. These permanent and regulative principles, in one form or other pervading all things, are in the strictest sense-laws: nor does it alter the case at all to call them laws of nature-laws of thought-laws of morals-laws of this or that particular science. They are laws whose existence implies, on one side, the existence of him who gave them, and, on the other side, the existence of the subject of them, the object upon which they operate. Our ability to discern, to classify, and to use them, implies the existence of our own rational nature and our total inability to create, to produce, or to impress a new one upon any subject, or with reference to any existing thing, implies the complete dependence of our own being. In themselves, and in their relations to us as rational and dependent beings, they demonstrate a Creator and Ruler of the universe, distinct from the universe itself. They do this in the most general and absolute manner, altogether beside any question of their own special nature. For, while it is true that the special object and mode of operation of the law, may be a conclusive evidence of the character of him who gave the law; it is the existence of the law itself, that puts beyond dispute the existence of him who gave it. These laws are the product of an intellect, a will, and a power competent to produce them, and the universe, from whose essence and operation they are inseparable. And operating under an unchangeable purpose, for definite, unalterable, and illimitable ends, through all time, upon all existence, throughout a boundless universe: we are not only warranted, but forced, to attribute them to a lawgiver and ruler who is infinite and eternal. The whole universe, all existence upon which these laws operate, is shown by the fact of that operation, to be dependent and created: it is all regulated by those laws-but produced and sustained, not by the laws, but by him who gave them. The moment we conceive of independent and uncreated existence, the idea of law, in the strict sense, regulative of it-disappears: because, otherwise, something is before and above independent and uncreated existence-which is absurd, since whatever is independent and uncreated, is eternal. In like manner, if we could think either the author of law, or the subject of law, out of existence, the idea of law itself neces

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