5 6 3 2 4 salvation, that nothing therein relating to us is either explicable, or effectual, if we omit or fatally pervert their teaching concerning this. The everlasting righteousness which has been brought in by Messiah the Prince,' the righteousness which is of God through the faith of Christ, the righteousness unto which they live who are dead to sin ;3 this is the righteousness which, together with all goodness and truth, is the fruit of the Spirit, with which the blessed, who hunger and thirst after righteousness, shall be filled --and, in the blessed fruition of which, the pure in heart shall see God. Now, this Gospel holiness-which I have so carefully sought to trace and to disclose-is that which I always intend, when I speak of holy living as a mark of the Church of Christ. For the constant doctrine of the Scriptures is that the just shall live by faith; and the relation between life, and righteousness, and faith is so close, that in every Christian sense, either of the three necessarily involves the other two. So while true faith is the life of the Church, and true worship is the means of nourishing that life-true holiness is the manifestation of its healthful existence. Faith that rejoices in Christ Jesus, is the living testimony to the work of the Mediator between God and men; worship rendered unto God in Spirit and in truth, is the testimony to the whole doctrine of God, of grace, and of salvation: and total abnegation of the flesh-that is, true Gospel holiness, is the testimony that the whole doctrine of God and of Christ, is realized in the power of it and the love of it, in the soul of man. God, man, and, between the two, the God-man: this is the divine formula. To worship God in the Spirit, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, and to have no confidence in the flesh: this is the practical result, in the human soul, as explained by God." Purity of faith, spirituality of worship, holiness of life; this is the manifestation on the part of the Church, which makes it certain, past doubt, that she is the Kingdom of God-the body of Christ-the holy nation. It is to the exposition of this third infallible mark of the true Church, visible, universal, of the Lord Jesus Christ, that this chapter is devoted. 7 II.—1. In connection with the general subject of the fall and 1 Daniel, ix. 24. 8 1 Peter, ii. 24. 5 Matt., v. 6, 8. 7 1 Tim., ii. 5. 2 Phil., iii. 9. 4 Eph., v. 10. 6 Hab., ii. 4; Rom., i. 17. 8 Phil., iii. 3. recovery of man, while discussing various parts of the way of life and our relations thereto; I have found it necessary to enter somewhat fully, into enquiries touching the moral constitution of man, considered in all the estates disclosed in the word of God. It does not seem to me necessary to repeat, in this place, what I have advanced on that subject; just as I have already declined repeating here, what I have taught in previous chapters, on the subject of evangelical holiness. But as the immediate relation of the latter topic to the present subject, demanded the brief exposition I have just given of it: so the close connection of the former topic, with the most direct method of illustrating the subject before us, renders a few words of explanation concerning it, important. I observe, therefore, that the reality of moral distinctions is incontestably established, by the moral constitution of man, upon principles as clear as those upon which the reality of physical distinctions is established, by the physical constitution of man. Whether such distinctions do, in fact, exist or not, we are obliged by an ultimate law of our being, to recognize them as real; nor have we any faculty more intense, more pervading, or more distinctive of our nature, than that which we call conscience, by means of which we take cognizance of these moral distinctions. To say we have no conscience, is to contradict the universal consciousness of the human race-as really as to say we are not endowed with reason—or with sight. To admit we have a conscience, but deny that the moral distinctions of which it takes cognizance, have any reality-or existence; is the same as to admit we have reason, and then deny that there is anything true, or anything false; or to admit that we have the sense of sight, and then deny that there is anything to see, or any light to see by. To say nothing of the supremacy of the moral sense —and of the overwhelming ruin in which such a race as ours would be immediately engulphed, but for that supremacy: the statement I have made seems to put beyond question, the absolute and ineffaceable existence of morality itself, independently of us, and paramount to our nature. If that be so, the existence of a creator and moral ruler of the universe is certain : and it is in the bosom of the First Cause-the living God-that the source of all good is found. 2. The disregard of these moral distinctions, thus thoroughly fundamental in the spiritual system of the universe; must be utterly fatal to the claims of every religious system, in which it exists, to be considered either revealed by God, or suitable for man. No religion can be true which misunderstands the absolute nature of these moral distinctions-which overlooks or misstates the relation of man's moral nature, in its fallen state most especially, to them--which confounds the distinction between good and evil in the very matter of salvation—which shocks man's natural sense of morality-which inculcates that which is wrong in itself——which denies our felt moral depravity, or proposes as a remedy for it, that which is incompetent, that which is false, or that which is evil. In accepting any such religion as true, we outrage the conscience itself to sanctify which is the chief end of true religion. The ruin which all false religions spread around them, is produced chiefly by their blinding and depraving influence upon the conscience; a ruin analogous to that which would occur, if the supremacy of conscience could be overthrown. And the readiness with which our depraved nature accepts all false religions, is the clearest proof of the disorder of the moral sense of man, of the overpowering force of his religious instincts, of his absolute need of a moral regeneration, and of the total falsity of all religions which cannot accomplish this. In estimating that purity of life which religion, if it be from God, must produce, we are obliged, therefore, even upon grounds of mere reason and natural morality, to reject, indiscriminately, all religions whose faith is inconsistent with virtue and good morals, or whose worship is a snare to the souls of men, or whose life violates the sense or loosens the bonds of duty. This great rule is laid down by the Saviour. By their fruits ye shall know them: and it is expressly laid down to enforce this great duty, Beware of false prophets. In this manner, every false religion is rejected by Christ-upon the ground of the fruit it bears; even before we pass the threshold of the subject. That which promotes sin— that which is drunk with blood-which is polluted by uncleanness-which is rank with imposture-that whose very life is sustained by the death of souls: what madness is greater than to recognize such organized unrighteousness as true religion, because mankind is sufficiently brutal to be led captive by the Devil at his will; given over by God to strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned 1 Matt., vii. 15-20. 2 2 Tim., ii. 26. 1 who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous ness.1 3. The connection between virtue and happiness is so immediate, that any attack upon the foundations of morality, is also an attack upon every hope and possibility of blessedness. But whatever is an absolute condition of blessedness for human nature, in any estate, or at any period is an absolute condition of its blessedness, to all eternity; because human nature preserves its essential identity, through all possible estates. Amongst all the results of experience, not one is more certain amongst all the meditations of philosophy, none are more clear-amongst all the teachings of the Holy Spirit, nothing is more distinct, than that virtue, purity, holiness, lie at the foundation of human blessedness. All growth in grace, strengthens this divine union : and its bond will become closer in eternity, when grace is swallowed up in glory-closer forever, as we approach nearer to the presence and the measure of God. To make us pure in heart, that we may see God-discern him-know him-have fruition of him, is amongst the chief blessings of true religion, pointed out by the Saviour; and no mark can be more palpable, that any system of religion is not from God, than that it obscures our vision-our fruition of him-by obstructing a life of holiness, and hardening the heart. Both faith and righteousness, which are indissolubly connected with spiritual life, have their seat in the heart; in which is begotten, and out of which must flow, that true holiness, in which the new man is created, after the image of God. Even in its natural state-much more when it has been renewed by divine grace-how full is the testimony of the heart to its own need of this very holiness! Its deep and sorrowful convictions, at every survey of its best emotions; its profound sense of duty, even in the midst of the clearest manifestations of weakness and sinfulness; its intense longings for that it hath not, even under the burden of pollution that robs it of the power of articulate expression of its very wants; and when it has found what its need was, and has been supplied out of God's unwasting fulness-its clear and joyful vision of all that was confused before, and of its God and Father above all, and through all, and in all can all this mean 2 Matt., v. 8. 3 4 1 2 Thess., ii. 11, 12; 1 Cor., vi. 9, 10; Rev., xxii, 14, 15. 5 Eph., iv. 6. anything less than the perfect relation of the divine remedy, to our fatal disease-the perfect accordance between the testimony concerning our previous emptiness and pollution, and that concerning our satisfying fruition of a new and divine holiness? Well may we say, we were sometimes darkness, but now are we light in the Lord. And since the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth; well does it become us to walk as children of light.' 3 2 4. It is by Revelation from God-outwardly in his word, inwardly by his Spirit-that the soul is made acquainted with the true nature of all these mysteries of God and man. Revealed in that power of the divine word, which is such a glorious peculiarity of the truth of God-and revealed in the power of the Holy Ghost, working by and with that truth, in the human soul: these great mysteries come to us in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." God reveals himself to those to whom it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, in a peculiar light and with a peculiar power, as the God of all grace-the God who saves penitent and believing sinners by the blood of the everlasting covenant. The purity which is needful, in order to this salvation, is also a most peculiar form of righteousness, and is revealed in a most peculiar manner. For the Gospel of Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, reveals the righteousness of God from faith to faith: which Paul first asserts, and then confirms by the perpetual, equivalent truth, The just shall live by faith.* Christ, and his righteousness, revealed to us and revealed in us; life, righteousness, and faithindissolubly united. It is, therefore, a righteousness of such only, as have been renewed in the spirit of their mind of such only, as have put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts-and have put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. This special holiness of truth-and that the very truth of God—is the only form of righteousness which is available in, or unto, a lost sinner. And this is attainable only in, and through, the Lord Jesus Christ. But of his fulness every penitent and believing sinner receives; and that in a manner, at once so complete and so 2 1 Cor., ii. 4. 1 Eph., v. 8, 9. 3 Matt., xiii. 11. 5 5 Eph., iv. 22-24; ii. 10. |