THE WORKS OF
JAMES ARMINIUS
VOL. 1
ORATIONS OF ARMINIUS
ORATION I
THE OBJECT OF THEOLOGY
To Almighty God alone belong the inherent and absolute right,
will, and power of determining concerning us. Since,
therefore, it has pleased him to call me, his unworthy
servant, from the ecclesiastical functions which I have for
some years discharged in the Church of his Son in the
populous city of Amsterdam, and to give me the appointment of
the Theological Professorship in this most celebrated
University, I accounted it my duty, not to manifest too much
reluctance to this vocation, although I was well acquainted
with my incapacity for such an office, which with the
greatest willingness and sincerity I then confessed and must
still acknowledge. Indeed, the consciousness of my own
insufficiency operated as a persuasive to me not to listen to
this vocation; of which fact I can cite as a witness that God
who is both the Inspector and the Judge of my conscience. Of
this consciousness of my own insufficiency, several persons
of great probity and learning are also witnesses; for they
were the cause of my engaging in this office, provided it
were offered to me in a legitimate order and manner. But as
they suggested, and as experience itself had frequently
taught me, that it is a dangerous thing to adhere to one's
own judgment with pertinacity and to pay too much regard to
the opinion which we entertain of ourselves, because almost
all of us have little discernment in those matters which
concern ourselves, I suffered myself to be induced by the
authority of their judgment to enter upon this difficult and
burdensome province, which may God enable me to commence with
tokens of his Divine approbation and under his propitious
auspices.
Although I am beyond measure cast down and almost shudder
with fear, solely at the anticipation of this office and its
duties, yet I can scarcely indulge in a doubt of Divine
approval and support when my mind attentively considers, what
are the causes on account of which this vocation was
appointed, the manner in which it is committed to execution,
and the means and plans by which it is brought to a
conclusion. From all these considerations, I feel a
persuasion that it has been Divinely instituted and brought
to perfection.
For this cause I entertain an assured hope of the perpetual
presence of Divine assistance; and, with due humility of
mind, I venture in God's holy name to take this charge upon
me and to enter upon its duties. I most earnestly beseech all
and each of you, and if the benevolence which to the present
time you have expressed towards me by many and most signal
tokens will allow such a liberty, I implore, nay, (so
pressing is my present necessity,) I solemnly conjure you, to
unite with me in ardent wishes and fervent intercessions
before God, the Father of lights, that, ready as I am out of
pure affection to contribute to your profit, he may be
pleased graciously to supply his servant with the gifts which
are necessary to the proper discharge of these functions, and
to bestow upon me his benevolent favour, guidance and
protection, through the whole course of this vocation.
But it appears to me, that I shall be acting to some good
purpose, if, at the commencement of my office, I offer some
general remarks on Sacred Theology, by way of preface, and
enter into an explanation of its extent, dignity and
excellence. This discourse will serve yet more and more to
incite the mind, of students, who profess themselves
dedicated to the service of this Divine wisdom, fearlessly to
proceed in the career upon which they have entered,
diligently to urge on their progress and to keep up an
unceasing contest till they arrive at its termination. Thus
may they hereafter become the instruments of God unto
salvation in the Church of his Saints, qualified and fitted
for the sanctification of his divine name, and formed "for
the edifying of the body of Christ," in the Spirit. When I
have effected this design, I shall think, with Socrates, that
in such an entrance on my duties I have discharged no
inconsiderable part of them to some good effect. For that
wisest of the Gentiles was accustomed to say, that he had
properly accomplished his duty of teaching, when he had once
communicated an impulse to the minds of his hearers and had
inspired them with an ardent desire of learning. Nor did he
make this remark without reason. For, to a willing man,
nothing is difficult, especially when God has promised the
clearest revelation of his secrets to those "who shall
meditate on his law day and night." (Psalm i, 2.) In such a
manner does this promise of God act, that, on those matters
which far surpass the capacity of the human mind, we may
adopt the expression of Isocrates, If thou be desirous of
receiving instruction, thou shalt learn many things."
This explanation will be of no small service to myself. For
in the very earnest recommendation of this study which I give
to others, I prescribe to myself a law and rule by which I
ought to walk in its profession; and an additional necessity
is thus imposed on me of conducting myself in my new office
with holiness and modesty, and in all good conscience; that,
in case I should afterwards turn aside from the right path,
(which may our gracious God prevent,) such a solemn
recommendation of this study may be cast in my face to my
shame.
In the discussion of this subject, I do not think it
necessary to utter any protestation before professors most
learned in Jurisprudence, most skillful in Medicine, most
subtle in Philosophy, and most erudite in the languages.
Before such learned persons I have no need to enter into any
protestation, for the purpose of removing from myself a
suspicion of wishing to bring into neglect or contempt that
particular study which each of them cultivates. For to every
kind of study in the most noble theater of the sciences, I
assign, as it becomes me, its due place, and that an
honourable one; and each being content with its subordinate
station, all of them with the greatest willingness concede
the president's throne to that science of which I am now
treating.
I shall adopt that plain and simple species of oratory which,
according to Euripides, belongs peculiarly to truth. I am not
ignorant that some resemblance and relation ought to exist
between an oration and the subjects that are discussed in it;
and therefore, that a certain divine method of speech is
required when we attempt to speak on divine things according
to their dignity. But I choose plainness and simplicity,
because Theology needs no ornament, but is content to be
taught, and because it is out of my power to make an effort
towards acquiring a style that may be in any degree worthy of
such a subject.
In discussing the dignity and excellence of sacred Theology,
I shall briefly confine it within four titles. In imitation
of the method which obtains in human sciences, that are
estimated according to the excellence of their OBJECT, their
AUTHOR, and their END, and of the IMPORTANCE of the reasons
by which each of them is supported -- I shall follow the same
plan, speaking, first, of The OBJECT of Theology, then of its
AUTHOR, afterwards of its END, and lastly, of its CERTAINTY.
I pray God, that the grace of his Holy Spirit may be present
with me while I am speaking; and that he would be pleased to
direct my mind, mouth and tongue, in such a manner as to
enable me to advance those truths which are holy, worthy of
our God, and salutary to you his creatures, to the glory of
his name and for the edification of his Church.
I intreat you also, my most illustrious and polite hearers,
kindly to grant me your attention for a short time while I
endeavour to explain matters of the greatest importance; and
while your observation is directed to the subject in which I
shall exercise myself, you will have the goodness to regard
IT, rather than any presumed SKILL in my manner of treating
it. The nature of his great subject requires us, at this hour
especially, to direct our attention, in the first instance,
to the Object of Theology. For the objects of sciences are so
intimately related, and so essential to them, as to give them
their appellations.
But God is himself the Object of Theology. The very term
indicates as much: for Theology signifies a discourse or
reasoning concerning God. This is likewise indicated by the
definition which the Apostle gives of this science, when he
describes it as "the truth which is after godliness." (Tit.
i, 1.) The Greek word here used for godliness, is eusebeia
signifying a worship due to God alone, which the Apostle
shews in a manner of greater clearness, when he calls this
piety by the more exact term qeosebeia All other sciences
have their objects, noble indeed, and worthy to engage the
notice of the human mind, and in the contemplation of which
much time, leisure and diligence may be profitably occupied.
In General Metaphysics, the object of study is, "BEING in
reference to its being;" Particular Metaphysics have for
their objects "intelligence and minds separated and removed
from mortal contagion." Physics are applied to "bodies, as
having the principle of motion in themselves." The
Mathematics have "relation to quantities." Medicine exercises
itself with the human body, in relation to its capacity of
health and soundness." Jurisprudence has a reference to
"justice, in relation to human society." Ethics, to "the
virtues." Economics, to "the government of a family;" and
Politics, to "state affairs." But all these sciences are
appointed in subordination to God; from him also they derive
their origin. They are dependent on him alone; and, in
return, they move back again, and unto him is their natural
re-action. This science is the only one which occupies itself
about the BEING of beings and the CAUSE of causes, the
principle of nature, and that of grace existing in nature,
and by which nature is assisted and surrounded. This object,
therefore, is the most worthy and dignified of all, and full
of adorable majesty, It far excels all the rest; because it
is not lawful for any one, however well and accurately he may
be instructed in the knowledge of all the sciences, to glory
in the least on this account; and because every one that has
obtained a knowledge of this science only, may on solid
grounds and in reality glory in it. For God himself has
forbidden the former species of boasting, while he commands
the latter. His words by the prophet Jeremiah, are "Let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom; but let him. that glorieth
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me." (ix,
23, 24)
But let us consider the conditions that are generally
employed to commend the object of any science. That OBJECT is
most excellent (1.) which is in itself the best, and the
greatest, and immutable; (2.) which, in relation to the mind,
is most lucid and clear, and most easily proposed and
unfolded to the view of the mental powers; and (3.) which is
likewise able, by its action on the mind, completely to fill
it, and to satisfy its infinite desires. These three
conditions are in the highest degree discovered in God, and
in him alone, who is the subject of theological study.
1. He is the best being; he is the first and chief good, and
goodness itself; he alone is good, as good as goodness
itself; as ready to communicate, as it is possible for him to
be communicated: his liberality is only equaled by the
boundless treasures which he possesses, both of which are
infinite and restricted only by the capacity of the
recipient, which he appoints as a limit and measure to the
goodness of his nature and to the communication of himself.
He is the greatest Being, and the only great One; for he is
able to subdue to his sway even nothing itself, that it may
become capable of divine good by the communication of
himself. "He calleth those things which are not, as though
they were," (Rom. iv, 17) and in that manner, by his word, he
places them in the number of beings, although it is out of
darkness that they have received his commands to emerge and
to come into existence. "All nations before him are as
nothing, the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, and the
princes nothing." (Isa. xl, 17, 22, 23.) The whole of this
system of heaven and earth appears scarcely equal to a point
"before him, whose center is every where, but whose
circumference is no where." He is immutable, always the same,
and endureth forever; "his years have no end." (Psalm 102)
Nothing can be added to him, and nothing can be taken from
him; with him "is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning." (James i, 17.) Whatsoever obtains stability for a
single moment, borrows it from him, and receives it of mere
grace. Pleasant, therefore, and most delightful is it to
contemplate him, on account of his goodness; it is glorious
in consideration of his greatness; and it is sure, in
reference to his immutability.
2. He is most resplendent and bright; he is light itself, and
becomes an object of most obvious perception to the mind,
according to this expression of the apostle, That they should
seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find
Him, though he be not far from every one of us; for in him we
live, and move, and have our being; for we are also his
offspring:" (Acts xvii, 27, 28.) And according to another
passage, "God left not himself without witness, in that he
did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons,
filling our hearts with food and gladness." (Acts xiv, 17.)
Being supported by these true sayings, I venture to assert,
that nothing can be seen or truly known in any object, except
in it we have previously seen and known God himself.
In the first place he is called "Being itself," because he
offers himself to the understanding as an object of
knowledge. But all beings, both visible and invisible,
corporeal and incorporeal, proclaim aloud that they have
derived the beginning of their essence and condition from
some other than themselves, and that they have not their own
proper existence till they have it from another. All of them
utter speech, according to the saying of the Royal Prophet:
"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament
showeth his handy-work." (Psalm xix, 1.) That is, the
firmament sounds aloud as with a trumpet, and proclaims, that
it is "the work of the right hand of the Most High." Among
created objects, you may discover many tokens indicating
"that they derive from some other source whatever they
themselves possess," mere strongly than "that they have an
existence in the number and scale of beings." Nor is this
matter of wonder, since they are always nearer to nothing
than to their Creator, from whom they are removed to a
distance that is infinite, and separated by infinite space:
while, by properties that are only finite, they are
distinguished from nothing, the primeval womb from whence
they sprung, and into which they may fall back again; but
they can never be raised to a divine equality with God their
maker. Therefore, it was rightly spoken by the ancient
heathens,
"Of Jove all things are full."
3. He alone can completely fill the mind, and satisfy its
(otherwise) insatiable desires. For he is infinite in his
essence, his wisdom, power, and goodness. He is the first and
chief verity, and truth itself in the abstract. But the human
mind is finite in nature, the substance of which it is
formed; and only in this view is it a partaker of infinity --
because it apprehends Infinite Being and the Chief Truth,
although it is incapable of comprehending them. David,
therefore, in an exclamation of joyful self-gratulation,
openly confesses, that he was content with the possession of
God alone, who by means of knowledge and love is possessed by
his creatures. These are his words: "Whom have I in heaven
but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside
thee." (Psalm lxxiii, 25.)
If thou be acquainted with all other things, and yet remain
in a state of ignorance with regard to him alone, thou art
always wandering beyond the proper point, and thy restless
love of knowledge increases in the proportion in which
knowledge itself is increased. The man who knows only God,
and who is ignorant of all things else, remains in peace and
tranquillity, and, (like one that has found "a pearl of great
price," although in the purchase of it he may have expended
the whole of his substance,) he congratulates himself and
greatly triumphs. This luster or brightness of the object is
the cause why an investigation into it, or an inquiry after
it, is never instituted without obtaining it; and, (such is
its fullness,) when it has once been found, the discovery of
it is always attended with abundant profit.
But we must consider this object more strictly; for we treat
of it in reference to its being the object of our theology,
according to which we have a knowledge of God in this life.
We must therefore clothe it in a certain mode, and invest it
in a formal manner, as the logical phrase is; and thus place
it as a foundation to our knowledge.
Three Considerations of this matter offer themselves to our
notice: The First is, that we cannot receive this object in
the infinity of its nature; our necessity, therefore,
requires it to be proposed in a manner that is accommodated
to our capacity. The Second is, that it is not proper, in the
first moment of revelation, for such a large measure to be
disclosed and manifested by the light of grace, as may be
received into the human mind when it is illuminated by the
light of glory, and, (by that process,) enlarged to a greater
capacity: for by a right use of the knowledge of grace, we
must proceed upwards, (by the rule of divine righteousness,)
to the more sublime knowledge of glory, according to that
saying, "To him that hath shall be given." The Third is, that
this object is not laid before our theology merely to be
known, but, when known, to be worshipped. For the Theology
which belongs to this world, is Practical and through Faith:
Theoretical Theology belongs to the other world, and consists
of pure and unclouded vision, according to the expression of
the apostle, "We walk by faith, and not by sight;" (2 Cor. v,
7,) and that of another apostle, "Then shall we be like him,
for we shall see him as he is." (1 John iii, 2.) For this
reason, we must clothe the object of our theology in such a
manner as may enable it to incline us to worship God, and
fully to persuade and win us over to that practice.
This last design is the line and rule of this formal relation
according to which God becomes the subject of our Theology.
But that man may be induced, by a willing obedience and
humble submission of the mind, to worship God, it is
necessary for him to believe, from a certain persuasion of
the heart: (1.) That it is the will of God to be worshipped,
and that worship is due to him. (2.) That the worship of him
will not be in vain, but will be recompensed with an
exceedingly great reward. (3.) That a mode of worship must be
instituted according to his command. To these three
particulars ought to be added, a knowledge of the mode
prescribed.
Our Theology, then, delivers three things concerning this
object, as necessary and sufficient to be known in relation
to the preceding subjects of belief. The First is concerning
the nature of God. The Second concerning his actions. And the
Third concerning his will.
(1.) Concerning his nature; that it is worthy to receive
adoration, on account of its justice; that it is qualified to
form a right judgment of that worship, on account of its
wisdom; and that it is prompt and able to bestow rewards, on
account of its goodness and the perfection of its own
blessedness.
(2.) Two actions have been ascribed to God for the same
purpose; they are Creation and Providence. (i.) The Creation
of all things, and especially of man after God's own image;
upon which is founded his sovereign authority over man, and
from which is deduced the right of requiring worship from man
and enjoining obedience upon him, according to that very just
complaint of God by Malachi, "If then I be a father, where is
mine honour? and if I be a master, were is my fear," (i, 6.)
(ii.) That Providence is to be ascribed to God by which he
governs all things, and according to which he exercises a
holy, just, and wise care and oversight over man himself and
those things which relate to him, but chiefly over the
worship and obedience which he is bound to render to his God.
(3.) Lastly, it treats of the will of God expressed in a
certain covenant into which he has entered with man, and
which consists of two parts: (i.) The one, by which he
declares it to be his pleasure to receive adoration from man,
and at the same time prescribes the mode of performing that
worship; for it is his will to be worshipped from obedience,
and not at the option or discretion of man. (ii.) The other,
by which God promises that he will abundantly compensate man
for the worship which he performs; requiring not only
adoration for the benefits already conferred upon man, as a
trial of his gratitude; but likewise that He may communicate
to man infinitely greater things to the consummation of his
felicity. For as he occupied the first place in conferring
blessings and doing good, because that high station was his
due, since man was about to be called into existence among
the number of creatures; so likewise it is his desire that
the last place in doing good be reserved for him, according
to the infinite perfection of his goodness and blessedness,
who is the fountain of good and the extreme boundary of
happiness, the Creator and at the same time the Glorifier of
his worshippers. It is according to this last action of his,
that he is called by some persons "the Object of Theology,"
and that not improperly, because in this last are included
all the preceding.
In the way which has been thus compendiously pointed out, the
infinite disputes of the schoolmen, concerning the formal
relation by which God is the Object of Theology, may, in my
opinion, be adjusted and decided. But as I think it a
culpable deed to abuse your patience, I shall decline to say
any more on this part of the subject.
Our sacred Theology, therefore, is chiefly occupied in
ascribing to the One True God, to whom alone they really
belong, those attributes of which we have already spoken, his
nature, actions, and will. For it is not sufficient to know,
that there is some kind of a NATURE, simple, infinite, wise,
good, just, omnipotent, happy in itself, the Maker and
Governor of all things, that is worthy to receive adoration,
whose will it is to be worshipped, and that is able to make
its worshippers happy. To this general kind of knowledge
there ought to be added, a sure and settled conception, fixed
on that Deity, and strictly bound to the single object of
religious worship to which alone those qualities appertain.
The necessity of entertaining fixed and determinate ideas on
this subject, is very frequently inculcated in the sacred
page: "I am the Lord thy God." (Exod. xx, 2.) "I am the Lord
and there is none else." (Isa. xlv, 5.) Elijah also says, "If
the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him."
(1 Kings xviii, 21.) This duty is the more sedulously
inculcated in scripture, as man is more inclined to depart
from the true idea of Deity. For whatever clear and proper
conception of the Divine Being the minds the Heathens had
formed, the first stumbling-block over which they fell
appears to have been this, they did not attribute that just
conception to him to whom it ought to have been given; but
they ascribed it either, (1.) to some vague and uncertain
individual, as in the expression of the Roman poet, "O
Jupiter, whether thou be heaven, or air, or earth!" Or, (2)
some imaginary and fabulous Deity, whether it be among
created things, or a mere idol of the brain, neither
partaking of the Divine nature nor any other, which the
Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans and to the
Corinthians, produces as a matter of reproach to the
Gentiles. (Rom. 1, and 1 Corinthians 8.) Or (3,) lastly, they
ascribed it to the unknown God; the title of Unknown being
given to their Deity by the very persons who were his
worshippers. The Apostle relates this crime as one of which
the Athenians were guilty: But it is equally true when
applied to all those who err and wander from the true object
of adoration, and yet worship a Deity of some description. To
such persons that sentence justly belongs which Christ
uttered in conversation with the woman of Samaria: "Ye
worship YE KNOW NOT WHAT." (John iv, 22.)
Although those persons are guilty of a grievous error who
transgress in this point, so as to be deservedly termed
Atheists, in Scripture aqeoi "men without God;" yet they are
by far more intolerably insane, who, having passed the
extreme line of impiety, are not restrained by the
consciousness of any Deity. The ancient heathens considered
such men as peculiarly worthy of being called Atheists. On
the other hand, those who have a consciousness of their own
ignorance occupy the step that is nearest to sanity. For it
is necessary to be careful only about one thing; and that is,
when we communicate information to them, we must teach them
to discard the falsehood which they had imbibed, and must
instruct them in the truth alone. When this truth is pointed
out to them, they will seize it with the greater avidity, in
proportion to the deeper sorrow which they feel at the
thought that they have been surrounded for a long series of
years by a most pernicious error.
But Theology, as it appears to me, principally effects four
things in fixing our conceptions, which we have just
mentioned, on that Deity who is true, and in drawing them
away from the invention and formation of false Deities.
First. It explains, in an elegant and copious manner, the
relation in which the Deity stands, lest we should ascribe to
his nature any thing that is foreign to it, or should take
away from it any one of its properties. In reference to this,
it is said, "Ye. heard the voice, but saw no similitude; take
ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, lest you make you a
graven image." (Deut. iv, 15, 16.) -Secondly. It describes
both the universal and the particular actions of the only
true God, that by them it may distinguish the true Deity from
those which are fabulous. On this account it is said, "The
gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, shall
perish from the earth, and under these heavens." (Jer. x,
11.) Jonah also said, "I fear the Lord, the God of heaven,
who hath made the sea and the dry land." (i, 9.) And the
Apostle declares, "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of
God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and by man's
device:" (Acts xvii, 29.) In another passage it is recorded,
"I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of
Egypt;" (Deut. v, 6.) "I am the God that appeared to thee in
Bethel." (Gen. xxvi, 13.) And, "Behold the days come, saith
the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which
brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,
but, The Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seed
of the house of Israel out of the North Country," &c. (Jer.
xxiii, 7, 8.) Thirdly. It makes frequent mention of the
covenant into which the true Deity has entered with his
worshippers, that by the recollection of it the mind of man
may be stayed upon that God with whom the covenant was
concluded. In reference to this it is said, "Thus shalt thou
say unto the Children of Israel, the Lord God of your
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and
this is. my memorial unto all generations", (Exod. iii, 15.)
Thus Jacob, when about to conclude a compact with Laban his
father-in-law, swears "by the fear of his father Isaac."
(Gen. xxxi, 53.) And when Abraham's servant was seeking a
wife for his master's son, he thus invoked God, "O Lord God
of my master Abraham!" (Gen. xxiv, 12.) Fourthly. It
distinguishes and points out the true Deity, even by a most
appropriate, particular, and individual mark, when it
introduces the mention of the persons who are partakers of
the same Divinity; thus it gives a right direction to the
mind of the worshipper, and fixes it upon that God who is THE
FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. This was manifested with
some degree of obscurity in the Old Testament, but with the
utmost clearness in the New. Hence the Apostle says, "I bow
my knee unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Ephes.
iii, 14.) All these remarks are comprehended and summed up by
Divines, in this brief sentence, "That God must be invoked
who has manifested himself in his own word." But the
preceding observations concerning the Object of Theology,
properly respect Legal Theology, which was accommodated to
man's primeval state. For when man in his original integrity
acted under the protecting favour and benevolence of a good
and just God, he was able to render to God that worship which
had been prescribed according to the law of legal
righteousness, that says, "This do, and thou shalt live" he
was able to "love with all his heart and soul" that Good and
Just Being; he was able, from a consciousness of his
integrity, to repose confidence in that Good and Just One;
and he was able to evince towards him, as such, a filial
fear, and to pay him the honour which was pleasing and due to
him, as from a servant to his Lord. God also, on his part,
without the least injury to his justice, was able to act
towards man, while in that state, according to the proscript
of legal righteousness, to reward his worship according to
justice, and, through the terms of the legal covenant, and
consequently "of debt," to confer life upon him. This God
could do, consistency with his goodness, which required the
fulfillment of the promise. There was no call for any other
property of his nature, which might contribute by its agency
to accomplish this purpose: No further progress of Divine
goodness was necessary than that which might repay good for
good, the good of perfect felicity, for the good of entire
obedience: No other action was required, except that of
creation, (which had then been performed,) and that of a
preserving and governing providence, in conformity with the
condition with which man was placed: No other volition of God
was needed, than that by which he might both require the
perfect obedience of the law and might repay that obedience
with life eternal. In that state of human affairs, therefore,
the knowledge of the nature described in those properties,
the knowledge of those actions, and of that will, to which
may be added the knowledge of the Deity to whom they really
pertained, was necessary for the performance of worship to
God, and was of itself amply sufficient.
But when man had fallen from his primeval integrity through
disobedience to the law, and had rendered himself "a child of
wrath" and had become devoted to condemnations, this goodness
mingled with legal justice could not be sufficient for the
salvation of man. Neither could this act of creation and
providence, nor this will suffice; and therefore this legal
Theology was itself insufficient. For sin was to be condemned
if men were absolved; and, as the Apostle says, (in the
eighth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans,) "it could not
be condemned by the law." Man was to be justified: but he
could not be justified by the law, which, while it is the
strength of sin, makes discovery of it to us, and is the
procurer of wrath.
This Theology, therefore, could serve for no salutary
purpose, at that time: such was its dreadful efficacy in
convincing man of sin and consigning him to certain death.
This unhappy change, this unfavourable vicissitude of affairs
was introduced by the fault and the infection of sin; which
was likewise the cause why "the law which was ordained to
life and honour," (Rom. vii, 10,) became fatal and
destructive to our race, and the procurer of eternal
ignominy. (1.) Other properties, therefore, of the Divine
Nature were to be called into action; every one of God's
benefits was to be unfolded and explained; mercy, long
suffering, gentleness, patience, and clemency were to be
brought forth out of the repository of his primitive
goodness, and their services were to be engaged, if it was
proper for offending man to be reconciled to God and
reinstated in his favour. (2.) Other actions were to be
exhibited: "Anew creation" was to be effected; "a new
providence," accommodated in every respect to this new
creation, was to be instituted and put in force; "the work of
redemption" was to be performed; "remission of sins" was to
be obtained; "the loss of righteousness" was to be repaired;
"the Spirit of grace" was to be asked and obtained; and a
"lost salvation" restored. (3.) Another decree was likewise
to be framed concerning the salvation of man; and another
covenant, a new one," was to be made with him, "not according
to that former one, because those" who were parties on one
side "had not continued in that covenant:" (Heb. viii, 11,)
but, by another and a gracious will, they "were to be
sanctified" who might be "consecrated to enter into the
Holiest by a new and living way." (Heb. x, 20.) All these
things were to be prepared and laid down as foundations to
the new manifestation.
Another revelation, therefore, and a different species of
Theology, were necessary to make known those properties of
the Divine Nature, which we have described, and which were
most wisely employed in repairing our salvation; to proclaim
the actions which were exhibited; and to occupy themselves in
explaining that decree and new covenant which we have
mentioned.
But since God, the punisher and most righteous avenger of
sinners, was either unwilling, or, (through the opposition
made by the justice and truth which had been originally
manifested in the law,) was unable to unfold those properties
of his nature, to produce those actions, or to make that
decree, except by the intervention of a Mediator, in whom,
without the least injury to his justice and truth, he might
unfold those properties, perform those actions, might through
them produce those necessary benefits, and might conclude
that most gracious decree; on this account a Mediator was to
be ordained, who, by his blood, might atone for sinners, by
his death might expiate the sin of mankind, might reconcile
the wicked to God, and might save them from his impending
anger; who might set forth and display the mercy, long
suffering and patience of God, might provide eternal
redemption, obtain remission of sin, bring in an everlasting
righteousness, procure the Spirit of grace, confirm the
decree of gracious mercy, ratify the new covenant by his
blood, recover eternal salvation, and who might bring to God
those that were to be ultimately saved.
A just and merciful God, therefore, did appoint as Mediator,
his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. He obediently undertook that
office which was imposed on him by the Father, and
courageously executed it; nay, he is even now engaged in
executing it. He was, therefore, ordained by God as the
Redeemer, the saviour, the King, and, (under God,) the Head
of the heirs of salvation. It would have been neither just
nor reasonable, that he who had undergone such vast labours,
and endured such great sorrows, who had performed so many
miracles, and who had obtained through his merits so many
benefits for us, should ingloriously remain among us in
meanness and obscurity, and should be dismissed by us without
honour. It was most equitable, that he should in return be
acknowledged, worshipped, and invoked, and that he should
receive those grateful thanks which are due to him for his
benefits.
But how shall we be able to adore, worship and invoke him,
unless "we believe on him? How can we believe in him, unless
we hear of him? And how can we hear concerning him," except
he be revealed to us by the word? (Rom. x, 14.) From this
cause, then, arose the necessity of making a revelation
concerning Jesus Christ; and on this account two objects,
(that is, God and his Christ,) are to be placed as a
foundation to that Theology which will sufficiently
contribute towards the salvation of sinners, according to the
saying of our saviour Christ: "And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom than hast sent." (John xvii, 3.) Indeed, these two
objects are not of such a nature as that the one may be
separated from the other, or that the one may be collaterally
joined to the other; but the-latter of them is, in a proper
and suitable manner, subordinate to the former. Here then we
have a Theology, which, from Christ, its object, is most
rightfully and deservedly termed Christian, which is
manifested not by the Law, but in the earliest ages by
promise, and in these latter days by the Gospel, which is
called that "of Jesus Christ," although the words (Christian
and Legal) are sometimes confounded. But let us consider the
union and the subordination of both these objects.
I. Since we have God and his Christ for the object of our
Christian Theology, the manner in which Legal Theology
explains God unto us, is undoubtedly much amplified by this
addition, and our Theology is thus infinitely ennobled above
that which is legal.
For God has unfolded in Christ all his own goodness. "For it
pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell;"
(Col. i, 19,) and that the "fullness of the Godhead should
dwell in him," not by adumbration or according to the shadow,
but "bodily:" For this reason he is called "the image of the
invisible God;" (Col. i, 15,) "the brightness of his Father's
glory, and the express image of his person," (Heb. i, 3,) in
whom the Father condescends to afford to us his infinite
majesty, his immeasurable goodness, mercy and philanthropy,
to be contemplated, beheld, and to be touched and felt; even
as Christ himself says to Philip, "He that hath seen me, hath
seen the Father." (John xiv, 9.) For those things which lay
hidden and indiscernible within the Father, like the fine and
deep traces in an engraved seal, stand out, become prominent,
and may be most clearly and distinctly seen in Christ, as in
an exact and protuberant impression, formed by the
application of a deeply engraved seal on the substance to be
impressed.
1. In this Theology God truly appears, in the highest degree,
the best and the greatest of Beings: (1.) The Best, cause he
is not only willing, as in the former Theology, to
communicate himself (for the happiness of men,) to those who
correctly discharge their duty, but to receive into his
favour and to reconcile to himself those who are sinners,
wicked, unfruitful, and declared enemies, and to bestow
eternal life on them when they repent. (2.) The Greatest,
because he has not only produced all things from nothing,
through the annihilation of the latter, and the creation of
the former, but because he has also effected a triumph over
sin, (which is far more noxious than nothing, and conquered
with greater difficulty,) by graciously pardoning it, and
powerfully putting it away;" and because he has "brought in
everlasting righteousness," by means of a second creation,
and a regeneration which far exceeded the capacity of "the
law that acted as schoolmaster." (Gal. iii, 24.) For this
cause Christ is called "the wisdom and the power of God," (1
Cor. i, 24,) far more illustrious than the wisdom and the
power which were originally displayed in the creation of the
universe. (3.) In this Theology, God is described to us as in
every respect immutable, not only in regard to his nature but
also to his will, which, as it has been manifested in the
gospel, is peremptory and conclusive, and, being the last of
all, is not to be corrected by another will. For "Jesus
Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever"; (Heb.
xiii, 8,) by whom God hath in these last days spoken unto
us." (Heb. i, 2.) Under the law, the state of this matter was
very different, and that greatly to our ultimate advantage.
For if the will of God unfolded in the law had been fatal to
us, as well as the last expression of it, we, of all men most
miserable, should have been banished forever from God himself
on account of that declaration of his will; and our doom
would have been in a state of exile from our salvation. I
would not seem in this argument to ascribe any mutability to
the will of God. I only place such a termination and boundary
to his will, or rather to something willed by him, as was by
himself before affixed to it and predetermined by an eternal
and peremptory decree, that thus a vacancy might be made for
a "better covenant established on better promises" (Heb. vii,
22; viii, 6.)
2. This Theology offers God in Christ as an object of our
sight and knowledge, with such clearness, splendour and
plainness, that we with open face, beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from
glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (1 Cor.
iii, 18.) In comparison with this brightness and glory, which
was so pre-eminent and surpassing, the law itself is said not
to have been either bright or glorious: For it "had no glory
in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth." (2
Cor. iii, 8.) This was indeed "the wisdom of God which was
kept secret since the world began :" (1 Cor. ii, 7; Rom. xvi,
25.) Great and inscrutable is this mystery; yet it is
exhibited in Christ Jesus, and "made manifest" with such
luminous clearness, that God is said to have been "manifest
in the flesh" (1 Tim. iii, 16,) in no other sense than as
though it would never have been possible for him to be
manifested without the flesh; for the express purpose "that
the eternal life which was with the Father, and the Word of
life which was from the beginning with God, might be heard
with our ears, seen with our eyes, and handled with our
hands." (1 John i, 1, 2.)
3. The Object of our Theology being clothed in this manner,
so abundantly fills the mind and satisfies the desire, that
the apostle openly declares, he was determined "to know
nothing among the Corinthians save Jesus Christ, and him
crucified." (1 Cor. ii, 2.) To the Phillipians he says, that
he "counted all things but lost for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus; for whom he had suffered the loss
of all things, and he counted them but dung that he might
know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings." (Phil. iii, 8, 10.) Nay, in
the knowledge of the object of our theology, modified in this
manner, all true glorying and just boasting consist, as the
passage which we before quoted from Jeremiah, and the purpose
to which St. Paul has accommodated it, most plainly evince.
This is the manner in which it is expressed: "Let him. that
glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me,
that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment
and righteousness in the earth." (Jer. ix, 24.) When you
hear any mention of mercy, your thoughts ought necessarily to
revert to Christ, out of whom "God is a consuming fire" to
destroy the sinners of the earth. (Deut. iv, 24; Heb. xii,
29) The way in which St. Paul has accommodated it, is this:
"Christ Jesus is made unto us by God, wisdom, righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption; that, according as it is
written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord!"(1 Cor.
i, 30, 31.) Nor is it wonderful, that the mind should desire
to "know nothing save Jesus Christ," or that its otherwise
insatiable desire of knowledge should repose itself in him,
since in him and in his gospel "are hidden all the treasures
of wisdom, and knowledge." (Col. ii, 3, 9.)
II. Having finished that part of our subject which related to
this Union, let us now proceed to the Subordination which
subsists between these two objects. We will first inspect the
nature of this subordination, and then its necessity:
First. Its nature consists in this, that every saving
communication which God has with us, or which we have with
God, is performed by means of the intervention of Christ.
1. The communication which God holds with us is (i.) either
in his benevolent affection towards us, or, (ii.) in his
gracious decree concerning us, or, (iii.) in his saving
efficacy in us. In all these particulars, Christ comes in as
a middle man between the parties. For (i.) when God is
willing to communicate to us the affection of his goodness
and mercy, he looks upon his Anointed One, in whom, as "his
beloved, he makes us accepted, to the praise of the glory of
his grace." (Ephes. i, 6.) (ii.) When he is pleased to make
some gracious decree of his goodness and mercy, he interposes
Christ between the purpose and the accomplishment, to
announce his pleasure; for "by Jesus Christ he predestinates
us to the adoption of children." (Ephes. i, 5.) (iii.) When
he is willing out of this abundant affection to impart to us
some blessing, according to his gracious decree, it is
through the intervention of the same Divine person. For in
Christ as our Head, the Father has laid up all these
treasures and blessings; and they do not descend to us,
except through him, or rather by him, as the Father's
substitute, who administers them with authority, and
distributes them according to his own pleasure.
2. But the communication which we have with God, is also made
by the intervention of Christ. It consists of three degrees -
- access to God, cleaving to him, and the enjoyment of him.
These three particulars become the objects of our present
consideration, as it is possible for them to be brought into
action in this state of human existence, and as they may
execute their functions by means of faith, hope, and that
charity which is the offspring of faith.
(1.) Three things are necessary to this access; (i.) that God
be in a place to which we may approach; (ii.) that the path
by which we may come to him be a high-way and a safe one; and
(iii.) that liberty be granted to us and boldness of access.
All these facilities have been procured for us by the
mediation of Christ. (i.) For the Father dwelleth in light
inaccessible, and sits at a distance beyond Christ on a
throne of rigid justice, which is an object much too
formidable in appearance for the gaze of sinners; yet he hath
appointed Christ to be "apropitiation. through faith in his
blood ;" (Rom. iii, 25,) by whom the covering of the ark, and
the accusing, convincing, and condemning power of the law
which was contained in that ark, are taken away and removed
as a kind of veil from before the eyes of the Divine Majesty;
and a throne of grace has been established, on which God is
seated, "with whom in Christ we have to do." Thus has the
Father in the Son been made euwrositov "easy of access to
us." (ii.) It is the same Lord Jesus Christ who "hath not
only through his flesh consecrated for us a new and living
way," by which we may go to the Father, (Heb. x, 20,) but who
is likewise "himself the way" which leads in a direct and
unerring manner to the Father. (John xiv, 6.) (iii.) "By the
blood of Jesus" we have liberty of access, nay we are
permitted "to enter into the holiest," and even "within the
veil whither Christ, as a High Priest presiding over the
house of God and our fore runner, is entered for us,." (Heb.
v, 20,) that "we may draw near with a true heart, in the
sacred and full assurance of faith, (x, 22,) and may with
great confidence of mind "come boldly unto the throne of
grace." (iv, 16.) Have we therefore prayers to offer to God?
Christ is the High Priest who displays them before the
Father. He is also the altar from which, after being placed
on it, they will ascend as incense of a grateful odour to God
our Father. Are sacrifices of thanksgiving to be offered to
God? They must be offered through Christ, otherwise "God will
not accept them at our hands." (Mal. i, 10.) Are good works
to be performed? We must do them through the Spirit of
Christ, that they may obtain the recommendation of him as
their author; and they must be sprinkled with his blood, that
they may not be rejected by the Father on account of their
deficiency.
(2.) But it is not sufficient for us only to approach to God;
it is likewise good for us to cleave to him. To confirm this
act of cleaving and to give it perpetuity, it ought to depend
upon a communion of nature. But with God we have no such
communion. Christ, however, possesses it, and we are made
possessors of it with Christ, "who partook of our flesh and
blood." (Heb. ii, 14.) Being constituted our head, he imparts
unto us of his Spirit, that we, (being constituted his
members, and cleaving to him as "flesh of his flesh and bone
of his bone,") may be one with him, and through him with the
Father, and with both may become "one Spirit."
(3.) The enjoyment remains to be considered. It is a true,
solid and durable taste of the Divine goodness and sweetness
in this life, not only perceived by the mind and
understanding, but likewise by the heart, which is the seat
of all the affections. Neither does this become ours, except
in Christ, by whose Spirit dwelling in us that most divine
testimony is pronounced in our hearts, that "we are the
children of God, and heirs of eternal life." (Rom. viii, 16.)
On hearing this internal testimony, we conceive joy
ineffable, "possess our souls in hope and patience," and in
all our straits and difficulties we call upon God and cry,
Abba Father, with an earnest expectation of our final access
to God, of the consummation of our abiding in him and our
cleaving to him, (by which we shall have "all in all,") and
of the most blessed fruition, which will consist of the clear
and unclouded vision of God himself. But the third division
of our present subject, will be the proper place to treat
more fully on these topics.
Secondly. Having seen the subordination of both the objects
of Christian Theology, let us in a few words advert to its
Necessity. This derives its origin from the comparison of our
contagion and vicious depravity, with the sanctity of God
that is incapable of defilement, and with the inflexible
rigor of his justice, which completely separates us from him
by a gulf so great as to render it impossible for us to be
united together while at such a vast distance, or for a
passage to be made from us to him -- unless Christ had
trodden the wine press of the wrath of God, and by the
streams of his most precious blood, plentifully flowing from
the pressed, broken, and disparted veins of his body, had
filled up that otherwise impassable gulf, "and had purged our
consciences, sprinkled with his own blood, from all dead
works ;" (Heb. ix, 14, 22,) that, being thus sanctified, we
might approach to "the living God and might serve him without
fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days
of our life." (Luke i, 75.)
But such is the great Necessity of this subordination, that,
unless our faith be in Christ, it cannot be in God: The
Apostle Peter says, "By him we believe in God, that raised
him from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and
hope might be in God." (1 Pet., i, 21.) On this account the
faith also which we have in God, was prescribed, not by the
law, but by the gospel of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which is properly "the word of faith" and "the word of
promise."
The consideration of this necessity is of infinite utility,
(i.) both in producing confidence in the consciences of
believers, trembling at the sight of their sins, as appears
most evidently from our preceding observations; (ii.) and in
establishing the necessity of the Christian Religion. I
account it necessary to make a few remarks on this latter
topic, because they are required by the nature of our present
purpose and of the Christian Religion itself.
I observe, therefore, that not only is the intervention of
Christ necessary to obtain salvation from God, and to impart
it unto men, but the faith of Christ is also necessary to
qualify men for receiving this salvation at his hands; not
that faith in Christ by which he may be apprehended under the
general notion of the wisdom, power, goodness and mercy of
God, but that faith which was announced by the Apostles and
recorded in their writings, and in such a saviour as was
preached by those primitive heralds of salvation.
I am not in the least influenced by the argument by which
some persons profess themselves induced to adopt the opinion,
"that a faith in Christ thus particular and restricted, which
is required from all that become the subjects of salvation,
agrees neither with the amplitude of God's mercy, nor with
the conditions of his justice, since many thousands of men
depart out of this life, before even the sound of the Gospel
of Christ has reached their ears." For the reasons and terms
of Divine Justice and Mercy are not to be determined by the
limited and shallow measure of our capacities or feelings;
but we must leave with God the free administration and just
defense of these his own attributes. The result, however,
will invariably prove to be the same, in what manner soever
he may be pleased to administer those divine properties --
for, "he will always overcome when he is judged." (Rom. iii,
4.) Out of his word we must acquire our wisdom and
information. In primary, and certain secondary matters this
word describes -- the Necessity of faith in Christ, according
to the appointment of the just mercy and the merciful justice
of God. "He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life;
and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but
the wrath of God abideth on him." (John iii, 36.) This is
not an account of the first kindling of the wrath of God
against this willful unbeliever; for he had then deserved the
most severe expressions of that wrath by the sins which he
had previously committed against the law; and this wrath
"abides upon him," on account of his continued unbelief,
because he had been favoured with the opportunity as well as
the power of being delivered from it, through faith in the
Son of God. Again: If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall
die in your sins." (John viii, 24.) And, in another passage,
Christ declares, "This is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent." (John xvii, 3.) The Apostle says, "It pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." That
preaching thus described is the doctrine of the cross, "to
the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness:
But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God:" (1 Cor. i, 21, 23,
24.) This wisdom and this power are not those attributes
which God employed when he formed the world, for Christ is
here plainly distinguished from them; but they are the wisdom
and the power revealed in that gospel which is eminently "the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."
(Rom. i, 16.) Not only, therefore, is the cross of Christ
necessary to solicit and procure redemption, but the faith of
the cross is also necessary in order to obtain possession of
it.
The necessity of faith in the cross does not arise from the
circumstance of the doctrine of the cross being preached and
propounded to men; but, since faith in Christ is necessary
according to the decree of God, the doctrine of the cross is
preached, that those who believe in it may be saved. Not only
on account of the decree of God is faith in Christ necessary,
but it is also necessary on account of the promise made unto
Christ by the Father, and according to the Covenant which was
ratified between both of them. This is the word of that
promise: "Ask of me, and I will give thee the Heathen for
thine inheritance." (Psalm ii, 8.) But the inheritance of
Christ is the multitude of the faithful; "the people, who, in
the days of his power shall willingly come to him, in the
beauties of holiness." (Psalm cx, 3.) "in thee shall all
nations be blessed; so then they which be of faith are
blessed with faithful Abraham." (Gal. iii, 8, 9 In Isaiah it
is likewise declared, "When thou shalt make his soul an
offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his
days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hands. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be
satisfied: by the knowledge of himself [which is faith in
him] shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall
bear their iniquities." (Isa. liii, 10, 11.) Christ adduces
the covenant which has been concluded with the Father, and
founds a plea upon it when he says, "Father glorify thy Son;
that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him
power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal," &c.,
&c. (John xvii, 1, 2, 3, 4.) Christ therefore by the decree,
the promise and the covenant of the Father, has been
constituted the saviour of all that believe on him, according
to the declaration of the Apostle: "And being made perfect he
became the author of eternal salvation, to all them that obey
him." (Heb. v, 9.) This is the reason why the Gentiles
without Christ are said to be "alien from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope, and without God in the world." Yet through faith
"those who some time were thus afar off and in darkness" are
said to be made nigh, and "are now light in the Lord."
(Ephes. ii, 12, 13, and v, 8.) It is requisite, therefore,
earnestly to contend for the Necessity of the Christian
religion, as for the altar and the anchor of our salvation,
lest, after we have suffered the Son to be taken away from us
and from our Faith, we should also be deprived of the Father:
"For whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the
Father." (1 John ii, 23.) But if we in the slightest degree
connive at the diminution or limitation of this Necessity,
Christ himself will be brought into contempt among
Christians, his own professing people; and will at length be
totally denied and universally renounced. For it is not an
affair of difficulty to take away the merit of salvation, and
the power to save from Him to whom we are not compelled by
any necessity to offer our oaths of allegiance. Who believes,
that it is not necessary to return thanks to him who has
conferred a benefit? Nay, who will not openly and confidently
profess, that he is not the Author of salvation whom it is
not necessary to acknowledge in that capacity. The union,
therefore, of both the objects, God and Christ, must be
strongly urged and enforced in our Christian Theology; nor is
it to be endured that under any pretext they be totally
detached and removed from each other, unless we wish Christ
himself to be separated and withdrawn from us, and for us to
be deprived at once of him and of our own salvation.
The present subject would require us briefly to present to
your sight all and each of those parts of which the
consideration of this object ought to consist, and the order
in which they should be placed before our eyes; but I am
unwilling to detain this most famous and crowded auditory by
a more prolix oration.
Since, therefore, thus wonderfully great are the dignity,
majesty, splendour and plenitude of Theology, and especially
of our Christian Theology, by reason of its double object
which is God and Christ, it is just and proper that all those
who glory in the title of "men formed in the image of God,"
or in the far more august title of "Christians" and "men
regenerated after the image of God and Christ, should most
seriously and with ardent desire apply themselves to the
knowledge of this Theology; and that they should think no
object more worthy, pleasant, or useful than this, to engage
their labourious attention or to awaken their energies. For
what is more worthy of man, who is the image of God, than to
be perpetually reflecting itself on its great archetype? What
can be more pleasant, than to be continually irradiated and
enlightened by the salutary beams of his Divine Pattern? What
is more useful than, by such illumination, to be assimilated
yet more and more to the heavenly Original? Indeed there is
not any thing the knowledge of which can be more useful than
this is, in the very search for it; or, when discovered, can
be more profitable to the possessor. What employment is more
becoming and honourable in a creature, a servant, and a son
than to spend whole days and nights in obtaining a knowledge
of God his Creator, his Lord, and his Father? What can be
more decorous and comely in those who are redeemed by the
blood of Christ, and who are sanctified by his Spirit, than
diligently and constantly to meditate upon Christ, and always
to carry him about in their minds, and hearts, and also on
their tongues?
I am fully aware that this animal life requires the discharge
of various functions; that the superintendence of them must
be entrusted to those persons who will execute each of them
to the common advantage of the republic; and that the
knowledge necessary for the right management of all such
duties, can only be acquired by continued study and much
labour. But if the very persons to whom the management of
these concerns has been officially committed, will
acknowledge the important principle -- that in preference to
all others, those things should be sought which appertain to
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, (Matt. vi, 33,)
they will confess that their ease and leisure, their
meditations and cares, should yield the precedence to this
momentous study. Though David himself was the king of a
numerous people, and entangled in various wars, yet he never
ceased to cultivate and pursue this study in preference to
all others. To the benefit which he had derived from such a
judicious practice, he attributes the portion of wisdom which
he had obtained, and which was "greater than that of his
enemies." (Psalm cxix, 98,) and by it also "he had more
understanding than all his teachers." (99.) The three most
noble treatises which Solomon composed, are to the present
day read by the Church with admiration and thanksgiving; and
they testify the great advantage which the royal author
obtained from a knowledge of Divine things, while he was the
chief magistrate of the same people on the throne of his
Father. But since, according to the opinion of a Roman
Emperor, "nothing is more difficult than to govern well" what
just cause will any one be able to offer for the neglect of a
study, to which even kings could devote their time and
attention. Nor is it wonderful that they acted thus; for they
addicted themselves to this profitable and pleasant study by
the command of God; and the same Divine command has been
imposed upon all and each of us, and is equally binding. It
is one of Plato's observations, that "commonwealths would at
length enjoy happiness and prosperity, either when their
princes and ministers of state become philosophers, or when
philosophers were chosen as ministers of state and conducted
the affairs of government." We may transfer this sentiment
with far greater justice to Theology, which is the true and
only wisdom in relation to things Divine.
But these our admonitions more particularly concern you, most
excellent and learned youths, who, by the wish of your
parents or patrons, and at your own express desire, have been
devoted, set apart, and consecrated to this study; not to
cultivate it merely with diligence, for the sake of promoting
your own salvation, but that you may at some future period be
qualified to engage in the eligible occupation, (which is
most pleasing to God,) of teaching, instructing, and edifying
the Church of the saints -- "which is the body of Christ, and
the fullness of him that filleth all in all." (Ephes. i, 23.)
Let the extent and the majesty of the object, which by a
deserved right engages all our powers, be constantly placed
before your eyes; and suffer nothing to be accounted more
glorious than to spend whole days and nights in acquiring a
knowledge of God and his Christ, since true and allowable
glories consists in this Divine knowledge. Reflect what great
concerns those must be into which angels desire to look.
Consider, likewise, that you are now forming an entrance for
yourselves into a communion, at least of name, with these
heavenly beings, and that God will in a little time call you
to the employment for which you are preparing, which is one
great object of my hopes and wishes concerning you.
Propose to yourselves for imitation that chosen instrument of
Christ, the Apostle Paul, whom you with the greater
willingness acknowledge as your teacher, and who professes
himself to be inflamed with such an intense desire of knowing
Christ, that he not only held every worldly thing in small
estimation when put in competition with this knowledge, but
also "suffered the loss of all things, that he might win the
knowledge of Christ." (Phil. iii, 8.) Look at Timothy, his
disciple, whom he felicitates on this account -- "that from a
child he had known the holy scriptures." (2 Tim. iii, 15.)
You have already attained to a share of the same blessedness;
and you will make further advances in it, if you determine to
receive the admonitions, and to execute the charge, which
that great teacher of the Gentiles addresses to his Timothy.
But this study requires not only diligence, but holiness, and
a sincere desire to please God. For the object which you
handle, into which you are looking, and which you wish to
know, is sacred -- nay, it is the holy of holies. To pollute
sacred things, is highly indecent; it is desirable that the
persons by whom such things are administered, should
communicate to them no taint of defilement. The ancient
Gentiles when about to offer sacrifice were accustomed to
exclaim,
"Far, far from hence, let the profane depart!"
This caution should be re-iterated by you, for a more solid
and lawful reason when you proceed to offer sacrifices to God
Most High, and to his Christ, before whom also the holy choir
of angels repeat aloud that thrice-hallowed song, "Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!" While you are engaged in this
study, do not suffer your minds to be enticed away by other
pursuits and to different objects. Exercise yourselves,
continue to exercise yourselves in this, with a mind intent
upon what has been proposed to you according to the design of
this discourse. If you do this, in the course of a short time
you will not repent of your labour; but you will make such
progress in the way of the knowledge of the Lord, as will
render you useful to others. For "the secret of the Lord, is
with them that fear him." (Psalm xxv, 14) Nay, from the very
circumstance of this unremitting attention, you will be
enabled to declare, that you "have chosen the good part which
alone shall not be taken away from you," (Luke x, 42) but
which will daily receive fresh increase. Your minds will be
so expanded by the knowledge of God and of his Christ, that
they will hereafter become a most ample habitation for God
and Christ through the Spirit. I have finished.
ORATION II
THE AUTHOR AND THE END OF THEOLOGY
They who are conversant with the demonstrative species of
oratory, and choose for themselves any subject of praise or
blame, must generally be engaged in removing from themselves,
what very readily assails the minds of their auditors, a
suspicion that they are impelled to speak by some immoderate
feeling of love or hatred; and in showing that they are
influenced rather by an approved judgment of the mind; and
that they have not followed the ardent flame of their will,
but the clear light of their understanding, which accords
with the nature of the subject which they are discussing. But
to me such a course is not necessary. For that which I have
chosen for the subject of my commendation, easily removes
from me all ground for such a suspicion.
I do not deny, that here indeed I yield to the feeling of
love; but it is on a matter which if any one does not love,
he hates himself, and perfidiously prostitutes the life of
his soul. Sacred Theology is the subject whose excellence and
dignity I now celebrate in this brief and unadorned Oration;
and which, I am convinced, is to all of you an object of the
greatest regard. Nevertheless, I wish to raise it, if
possible, still higher in your esteem. This, indeed, its own
merit demands; this the nature of my office requires. Nor is
it any part of my study to amplify its dignity by ornaments
borrowed from other objects; for to the perfection of its
beauty can be added nothing extraneous that would not tend to
its degradation and loss of its comeliness. I only display
such ornaments as are, of themselves, its best
recommendation. These are, its Object, its Author, its End
and its Certainty. Concerning the Object, we have already
declared whatever the Lord had imparted; and we will now
speak of its Author and its End. God grant that I may ,follow
the guidance of this Theology in all respects, and may
advance nothing except what agrees with its nature, is worthy
of God and useful to you, to the glory of his name, and to
the uniting of all of us together in the Lord. I pray and
beseech you also, my most excellent and courteous hearers,
that you will listen to me, now when I am beginning to speak
on the Author, and the End of Theology, with the same degree
of kindness and attention as that which you evinced when you
heard my preceding discourse on its Object.
Being about to treat of the Author, I will not collect
together the lengthened reports of his well merited praises,
for with you this is unnecessary. I will only declare (1.)
Who the Author is; (2.) In what respect he is to be
considered; (3.) Which of his properties were employed by him
in the revelation of Theology; and (4.) In what manner he has
made it know.
I. We have considered the Object of Theology in regard to two
particulars. And that each part of our subject may properly
and exactly answer to the other, we may also consider its
Author in a two-fold respect -- that of Legal and of
Evangelical Theology. In both cases, the same person is the
Author and the Object, and the person who reveals the
doctrine is likewise its matter and argument. This is a
peculiarity that belongs to no other of the numerous
sciences. For although all of them may boast of God, as their
Author, because he a God of knowledge; yet, as we have seen,
they have some other object than God, which something is
indeed derived from him and of his production. But they do
not partake of God as their efficient cause, in an equal
manner with this doctrine, which, for a particular reason,
and one entirely distinct from that of the other sciences,
lays claim to God , its Author. God, therefore, is the author
of Legal Theology; God and his Christ, or God in and through
Christ, is the Author of that which is evangelical. For to
this the scripture bears witness, and thus the very nature of
the object requires, both of which we will separately
demonstrate.
1. Scripture describes to us the Author of legal theology
before the fall in these words: "And the Lord God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it:" (Gen. ii, 16, 17.) A threat
was added in express words, in case the man should
transgress, and a promise, in the type of the tree of life,
if he complied with the command. But there are two things,
which, as they preceded this act of legislation, should have
been previously known by man: (1.) The nature of God, which
is wise, good, just, and powerful; (2.) The authority by
which he issues his commands, the right of which rests on the
act of creation. Of both these, man had a previous knowledge,
from the manifestation of God, who familiarly conversed with
him, and held communication with his own image through that
Spirit by whose inspiration he said, "This is now bone of my
bones, and flesh of my flesh." (Gen. ii, 23.) The apostle
has attributed the knowledge of both these things to faith,
and, therefore, to the manifestation of God. He speaks of the
former in these words: "For he that cometh to God must have
believed [so I read it,] that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Heb. xi, 6.) If
a rewarder, therefore, he is a wise, good, just, powerful,
and provident guardian of human affairs. Of the latter, he
speaks thus: "Through faith we understand that the world was
framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were
not made of things which do appear." (Heb. xi, 3.) And
although that is not expressly and particularly stated of the
moral law, in the primeval state of man; yet when it is
affirmed of the typical and ceremonial law, it must be also
understood in reference to the moral law. For the typical and
ceremonial law was an experiment of obedience to the moral
law, that was to be tried on man, and the acknowledgement of
his obligation to obey the moral law. This appears still more
evidently in the repetition of the moral law by Moses after
the fall, which was specially made known to the people of
Israel in these words: "And God spake all these words :"
(Exod. xx, 1,) and "What nation is there so great that hath
statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I
set before you this day," (Deut. iv, 8.) But Moses set it
before them according to the manifestation of God to him, and
in obedience to his command, as he says: "The secret things
belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are
revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we
may do all the words of this law." (Deut. xxix, 29.) And
according to Paul, "That which may be known of God, is
manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them." (Rom. i,
19.)
2. The same thing is evinced by the nature of the object. For
since God is the Author of the universe, (and that, not by a
natural and internal operation, but by one that is voluntary
and external, and that imparts to the work as much as he
chooses of his own, and as much as the nothing, from which it
is produced, will permit,) his excellence and dignity must
necessarily far exceed the capacity of the universe, and, for
the same reason, that of man. On this account, he is said in
scripture, "to dwell in the light unto which no man can
approach," (1 Tim. vi, 16,) which strains even the most acute
sight of any creature, by a brightness so great and dazzling,
that the eye is blunted and overpowered, and would soon be
blinded unless God, by some admirable process of attempering
that blaze of light, should offer himself to the view of his
creatures: This is the very manifestation before which
darkness is said to have fixed its habitation.
Nor is he himself alone inaccessible, but, as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways,
and his thoughts than our thoughts." (Isa. lv, 9.) The
actions of God are called "the ways of God," and the creation
especially is called "the beginning of the way of God,"
(Prov. 8,) by which God began, as it were, to arise and to go
forth from the throne of his majesty. Those actions,
therefore, could not have been made known and understood, in
the manner in which it is allowable to know and understand
them, except by the revelation of God. This was also
indicated before, in the term "faith" which the apostle
employed. But the thoughts of God, and his will, (both that
will which he wishes to be done by us, and that which he has
resolved to do concerning us,) are of free disposition, which
is determined by the divine power and liberty inherent in
himself; and since he has, in all this, called in the aid of
no counselor, those thoughts and that will are of necessity
"unsearchable and past finding out." (Rom. xi, 33.) Of these,
Legal Theology consists; and as they could not be known
before the revelation of them proceeded from God, it is
evidently proved that God is its Author.
To this truth all nations and people assent. What compelled
Radamanthus and Minos, those most equitable kings of Crete,
to enter the dark cave of Jupiter, and pretend that the laws
which they had promulgated among their subjects, were brought
from that cave, at the inspiration of Deity? It was because
they knew those laws would not meet with general reception,
unless they were believed to have been divinely communicated.
Before Lycurgus began the work of legislation for his
Lacedaemonians, imitating the example of those two kings, he
went to Apollo at Delphos, that he might, on his return,
confer on his laws the highest recommendation by means of the
authority of the Delphic Oracle. To induce the ferocious
minds of the Roman people to submit to religion, Numa
Pompilius feigned that he had nocturnal conferences with the
goddess Aegeria. These were positive and evident testimonies
of a notion which had preoccupied the minds of men, "that no
religion except one of divine origin, and deriving its
principles from heaven, deserved to be received." Such a
truth they considered this, "that no one could know God, or
any thing concerning God, except through God himself."
2. Let us now look at Evangelical Theology. We have made the
Author of it to be Christ and God, at the command of the same
scriptures as those which establish the divine claims of
Legal Theology, and because the nature of the object requires
it with the greater justice, in proportion as that object is
the more deeply hidden in the abyss of the divine wisdom, and
as the human mind is the more closely surrounded and
enveloped with the shades of ignorance.
(1.) Exceedingly numerous are the passages of scripture which
serve to aid and strengthen us in this opinion. We will
enumerate a few of them: First, those which ascribe the
manifestation of this doctrine to God the Father; Then, those
which ascribe it to Christ. "But we" says the apostle, "speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. But God hath
revealed it unto us by his Spirit." (1 Cor. ii, 7,10.) The
same apostle says, "The gospel and the preaching of Jesus
Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was
kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest
by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the
commandment of the everlasting God." (Rom. xvi, 25, 26.)
When Peter made a correct and just confession of Christ, it
was said to him by the saviour, "Flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
(Matt. xvi, 17.) John the Baptist attributed the same to
Christ, saying, "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom
of the Father, be hath declared God to us." (John i, 18.)
Christ also ascribed this manifestation to himself in these
words: "No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him." (Matt. xi, 17.) And, in another
place, "I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou
gavest me out of the world, and they have believed that thou
didst send me." (John xvii, 6, 8.)
(2.) Let us consider the necessity of this manifestation from
the nature of its Object.
This is indicated by Christ when speaking of Evangelical
Theology, in these words: "No man knoweth the Son but the
Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son."
(Matt. xi, 27.) Therefore no man can reveal the Father or
the Son, and yet in the knowledge of them are comprised the
glad tidings of the gospel. The Baptist is an assertor of the
necessity of this manifestation when he declares, that "No
man hath seen God at any time." (John i, 18.) It is the
wisdom belonging to this Theology, which is said by the
Apostle to be "hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes
of this world knew, and which eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man." (1
Cor. ii, 7, 8, 9.) It does not come within the cognizance of
the understanding, and is not mixed up, as it were, with the
first notions or ideas impressed on the mind at the period of
its creation; it is not acquired in conversation or
reasoning; but it is made known "in the words which the Holy
Ghost teacheth." To this Theology belongs "that manifold
wisdom of God which must be made known by the Church unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places," (Ephes. iii,
10,) otherwise it would remain unknown even to the angels
themselves. What! Are the deep things of God "which no man
knoweth but the Spirit of God which is in himself," explained
by this doctrine? Does it also unfold "the length and
breadth, and depth and height" of the wisdom of God? As the
Apostle speaks in another passage, in a tone of the most
impassioned admiration, and almost at a loss what words to
employ in expressing the fullness of this Theology, in which
are proposed, as objects of discovery, "the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge, and the peace of God which passeth
all understanding." (Ephes. iii, 18.) From these passages it
most evidently appears, that the Object of Evangelical
Theology must have been revealed by God and Christ, or it
must otherwise have remained hidden and surrounded by
perpetual darkness; or, (which is the same thing,) that
Evangelical Theology would not have come within the range of
our knowledge, and, on that account, as a necessary
consequence, there could have been none at all.
If it be an agreeable occupation to any person, (and such it
must always prove,) to look more methodically and distinctly
through each part, let him cast the eyes of his mind on those
properties of the Divine Nature which this Theology displays,
clothed in their own appropriate mode; let him consider those
action of God which this doctrine brings to light, and that
will of God which he has revealed in his gospel: When he has
done this, (and of much more than this the subject is
worthy,) he will more distinctly understand the necessity of
the Divine manifestation.
If any one would adopt a compendious method, let him only
contemplate Christ; and when he has diligently observed that
admirable union of the Word and Flesh, his investiture into
office and the manner in which its duties were executed; when
he has at the same time reflected, that the whole of these
arrangements and proceedings are in consequence of the
voluntary economy, regulation, and free dispensation of God;
he cannot avoid professing openly, that the knowledge of all
these things could not have been obtained except by means of
the revelation of God and Christ.
But lest any one should take occasion, from the remarks which
we have now made, to entertain an unjust suspicion or error,
as though God the Father alone, to the exclusion of the Son,
were the Author of the legal doctrine, and the Father through
the Son were the Author of the Evangelical doctrine -- a few
observations shall be added, that may serve to solve this
difficulty, and further to illustrate the matter of our
discourse. As God by his Word, (which is his own Son,) and by
his Spirit, created all things, and man according to the
image of himself, so it is likewise certain, that no
intercourse can take place between him and man, without the
agency of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. How is this
possible, since the ad extra works of the Deity are
indivisible, and when the order of operation ad extra is the
same as the order of procession ad intra? We do not,
therefore, by any means exclude the Son as the Word of the
Father, and the Holy Ghost who is "the Spirit of Prophecy,"
from efficiency in this revelation.
But there is another consideration in the manifestation of
the gospel, not indeed with respect to the persons
testifying, but in regard to the manner in which they come to
be considered. For the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
have not only a natural relation among themselves, but
another likewise which derives its origin from the will; yet
the latter entirely agrees with the natural relation that
subsists among them. There is an internal procession in the
persons; and there is an external one, which is called in the
scriptures and in the writings of the Father, by the name of
"Mission" or "sending." To the latter mode of procession,
special regard must be had in this revelation. For the Father
manifests the Gospel through his Son and Spirit. (i.) He
manifests it through the Son, as to his being, sent for the
purpose of performing the office of Mediator between God and
sinful men; as to his being the Word made flesh, and God
manifest in the flesh; and as to his having died, and to his
being raised again to life, whether that was done in reality,
or only in the decree and foreknowledge of God. (ii.) He also
manifests it through his Spirit, as to his being the Spirit
of Christ, whom he asked of his Father by his passion and his
death, and whom he obtained when he was raised from the dead,
and placed at the right hand of the Father.
I think you will understand the distinction which I imagine
to be here employed: I will afford you an opportunity to
examine and prove it, by adducing the clearest passages of
scripture to aid us in confirming it. (I.) "All things," said
Christ, "are delivered to me of my Father; and no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son." (Matt. xi, 27.) They were delivered by the
Father, to him as the Mediator, "in whom it was his pleasure
that all fullness should dwell." (Col. i, 19. See also ii,
9.) In the same sense must be understood what Christ says in
John: "I have given unto them the words which thou gavest
me;" for it is subjoined, "and they have known surely that I
came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me." (xvii, 8.) From hence it appears, that the Father
had given those words to him as the Mediator: on which
account he says, in another place, "He whom God hath sent,
speaketh the words of God." (John iii, 34.) With this the
saying of the Baptist agrees, "The law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John i, 17.) But
in reference to his being opposed to Moses, who accuses and
condemns sinners, Christ is considered as the Mediator
between God and sinners. The following passage tends to the
same point: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only
begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father," [that is,
"admitted," in his capacity of Mediator, to the intimate and
confidential view and knowledge of his Father's secrets,] "he
hath declared him:" (John i, 18.) "For the Father loveth the
Son, and hath given all things into his hand;" (John iii,
35,) and among the things thus given, was the doctrine of the
gospel, which he was to expound and declare to others, by the
command of God the Father. And in every revelation which has
been made to us through Christ, that expression which occurs
in the beginning of the Apocalypse of St. John holds good and
is of the greatest validity: "The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants." God has
therefore manifested Evangelical Theology through his Son, in
reference to his being sent forth by the Father, to execute
among men, and in his name, the office of Mediator.
(ii.) Of the Holy Spirit the same scripture testifies, that,
as the Spirit of Christ the Mediator, who is the head of his
church, he has revealed the Gospel. "Christ, by the Spirit,"
says Peter, "went and preached to the spirits in prison." (1
Pet. iii, 19.) And what did he preach? Repentance. This
therefore, was done through his Spirit, in his capacity of
Mediator, For, in this respect alone, the Spirit of God
exhorts to repentance. This appears more clearly from the
Same Apostle: "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired
and 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." And this was the Spirit of Christ in his
character of Mediator and head of the Church, which the very
object of the testimony foretold by him sufficiently evinces.
A succeeding passage excludes all doubt; for the gospel is
said in it, to be preached by the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven." (1 Pet. i, 12.) For he was sent down by Christ when
he was elevated at the right hand of God, as it is mentioned
in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles; which
passage also makes for our purpose, and on that account
deserves to have its just meaning here appreciated. This is
its phraseology, "Therefore, being by the right hand of God
exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the
Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and
hear." (Acts ii, 33.) For it was by the Spirit that the
Apostles prophesied and spoke in divers languages. These
passages might suffice; but I cannot omit that most noble
sentence spoken by Christ to console the minds of his
disciples, who were grieving on account of his departure, "If
I go not away the Comforter [or rather, 'the Advocate, who
shall, in my place, discharge the vicarious office,' as
Tertullian expresses himself;] If I go not away, the
Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will
send him unto you. And when he is come he will reprove the
world, &c. (John xvi, 7, 8.) He shall glorify me: For he
shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." Christ,
therefore, as Mediator, "will send him," and he "will receive
of that which belongs to Christ the Mediator. He shall
glorify Christ," as constituted by God the Mediator and the
Head of the Church; and he shall glorify him with that glory,
which, according to the seventeenth chapter of St. John's
Gospel , Christ thought it necessary to ask of his Father.
That passage brings another to my recollection, which may be
called its parallel in merit: John says, "The Holy Ghost was
not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified."
(vii, 39.) This remark was not to be understood of the person
of the Spirit, but of his gifts, and especially that of
prophecy. But Christ was glorified in quality of Mediator:
and in that glorified capacity he sends the Holy Ghost;
therefore, the Holy Spirit was sent by Christ as the
Mediator. On this account also, the Spirit of Christ the
Mediator is the Author of Evangelical Prophecy. But the Holy
Ghost was sent, even before the glorification of Christ, to
reveal the Gospel. The existing state of the Church required
it at that period, and the Holy Spirit was sent to meet that
necessity. "Christ is likewise the same yesterday, today and
forever." (Heb. xiii, 8.) He was also "slain from the
foundation of the world;" (Rev. xiii, 8,) and was, therefore,
at that same time raised again and glorified; but this was
all in the decree and fore-knowledge of God. To make it
evident, however, that God has never sent the Holy Spirit to
the Church, except through the agency of Christ the Mediator,
and in regard to him, God deferred that plentiful and
exuberant effusion of his most copious gifts, until Christ,
after his exaltation to heaven, should send them down in a
communication of the greatest abundance. Thus he testified by
a clear and evident proof, that he had formerly poured out
the gifts of the Spirit upon the Church, by the same person,
as he by whom, (when through his ascension the dense and
overcharged cloud of water above the heavens had been
disparted,) he poured down the most plentiful showers of his
graces, inundating and over spreading the whole body of the
Church.
III. But the revelation of Evangelical Theology is attributed
to Christ in regard to his Mediatorship, and to the Holy
Ghost in regard to his being the appointed substitute and
Advocate of Christ the Mediator. This is done most
consistently and for a very just reason, both because Christ,
as Mediator, is placed for the ground-work of this doctrine,
and because in the duty of mediation those actions were to be
performed, those sufferings endured, and those blessings
asked and obtained, which complete a goodly portion of the
matters that are disclosed in the gospel of Christ. No
wonder, therefore, that Christ in this respect, (in which he
is himself the object of the gospel,) should likewise be the
revealer of it, and the person who asks and procures all
evangelical graces, and who is at once the Lord of them and
the communicator. And since the Spirit of Christ, our
Mediator and our head, is the bond of our union with Christ,
from which we also obtain communion with Christ, and a
participation in all his blessings -- it is just and
reasonable, that, in the respect which we have just
mentioned, Christ should reveal to our minds, and seal upon
our hearts, the evangelical charter and evidence of that
faith by which he dwelleth in our hearts. The consideration
of this matter exhibits to us (1.) the cause why it is
possible for God to restrain himself with such great
forbearance, patience, and long suffering, until the gospel
is obeyed by those to whom it is preached; and (2.) it
affords great consolation to our ignorance and infirmities.
I think, my hearers, you perceive that this single view adds
no small degree of dignity to our Evangelical Theology,
beside that which it possesses from the common consideration
of its Author. If we may be allowed further to consider what
wisdom, goodness and power God expended when he instituted
and revealed this Theology, it will give great importance to
our proposition. Indeed, all kinds of sciences have their
origin in the wisdom of God, and are communicated to men by
his goodness and power. But, if it be his right, (as it
undoubtedly is,) to appoint gradations in the external
exercise of his divine properties, we shall say, that all
other sciences except this, have arisen from an inferior
wisdom of God, and have been revealed by a less degree of
goodness and power. It is proper to estimate this matter
according to the excellence of its object. As the wisdom of
God, by which he knows himself, is greater than that by which
he knows other things; so the wisdom employed by him in the
manifestation of himself is greater than that employed in the
manifestation of other things. The goodness by which he
permits himself to be known and acknowledged by man as his
Chief Good, is greater than that by which he imparts the
knowledge of other things. The power also, by which nature is
raised to the knowledge of supernatural things, is greater
than that by which it is brought to investigate things that
are of the same species and origin with itself. Therefore,
although all the sciences may boast of God as their author,
yet in these particulars, Theology, soaring above the whole,
leaves them at an immense distance.
But as this consideration raises the dignity of Theology, on
the whole far above all other sciences, so it likewise
demonstrates that Evangelical far surpasses Legal Theology;
on which point we may be allowed, with your good leave, to
dwell a little. The wisdom, goodness and power, by which God
made man, after his own image, to consist of a rational soul
and a body, are great, and constitute the claims to
precedence on the part of Legal Theology. But the wisdom,
goodness and power, by which "the Word was made flesh," (John
i, 14,) and God was manifest in the flesh," (1 Tim. iii, 16,)
and by which he "who was in the form of God took upon himself
the form of a servant," (Phil. ii, 7,) are still greater, and
they are the claims by which Evangelical Theology asserts its
right to precedence. The wisdom and goodness, by the
operation of which the power of God has been revealed to
salvation, are great; but that by which is revealed "the
power of God to salvation to every one that believeth," (Rom.
ii, 16,) far exceeds it. Great indeed are the wisdom and
goodness by which the righteousness of God by the law is made
manifest," and by which the justification of the law was
ascribed of debt to perfect obedience; but they are
infinitely surpassed by the wisdom and goodness through which
the righteousness of God by faith is manifested, and through
which it is determined that the man is justified "that
worketh not, but [being a sinner,] believeth on him who
justifieth the ungodly," according to the most glorious
riches of his grace. Conspicuous and excellent were the
wisdom and goodness which appointed the manner of union with
God in legal righteousness, performed out of conformity to
the image of God, after which man was created. But a solemn
and substantial triumph is achieved through faith in Christ's
blood by the wisdom and goodness, which, having devised and
executed the wonderful method of qualifying justice and
mercy, appoint the manner of union in Christ., and in his
righteousness, "who is the brightness of his Father's glory
and the express image of his person." (Heb. i, 3.) Lastly, it
is the wisdom, goodness and power, which, out of the thickest
darkness of ignorance brought forth the marvelous light of
the gospel; which, from an infinite multitude of sins,
brought in everlasting righteousness; and which, from death
and the depths of hell, "brought life and immortality to
light." The wisdom, goodness and power which have produced
these effects, exceed those in which the light that is added
to light, the righteousness that is rewarded by a due
recompense, and the animal life that is regulated according
to godliness by the command of the law, are each of them
swallowed up and consummated in that which is spiritual and
eternal.
A deeper consideration of this matter almost compels me to
adopt a more confident daring, and to give to the wisdom,
goodness and power of God, which are unfolded in Legal
Theology, the title of Natural," and as in some sense the
beginning of the going forth of God towards his image, which
is man, and a commencement of Divine intercourse with him.
The others, which are manifested in the gospel, I fearlessly
call "Supernatural wisdom, power and goodness," and "the
extreme point and the perfect completion of all revelation;"
because in the manifestation of the latter, God appears to
have excelled himself, and to have unfolded every one of his
blessings. Admirable was the kindness of God, and most
stupendous his condescension in admitting man to the most
intimate communion with himself -- a privilege full of grace
and mercy, after his sins had rendered him unworthy of having
the establishment of such an intercourse. But this was
required by the unhappy and miserable condition of man, who
through his greater unworthiness had become the more
indigent, through his deeper blindness required illumination
by a stronger light, through his more grievous wickedness
demanded reformation by means of a more extensive goodness,
and who, the weaker he had become, needed a stronger exertion
of power for his restoration and establishment. It is also a
happy circumstance, that no aberration of ours can be so
great, as to prevent God from recalling us into the good way;
no fall so deep, as to disable him from raising us up and
causing us to stand erect; and no evil of ours can be of such
magnitude, as to prove a difficult conquest to his goodness,
provided it be his pleasure to put the whole of it in motion;
and this he will actually do, provided we suffer our
ignorance and infirmities to be corrected by his light and
power, and our wickedness to be subdued by his goodness.
IV. We have seen that, (1.) God is the Author of Legal
Theology; and God and his Christ, that of Evangelical
Theology. We have seen at the same time (2.) in what respect
God and Christ are to be viewed in making known this
revelation, and (3.) according to what properties of the
Divine Nature of both of them it has been perfected.
We will now just glance at the Manner. The manner of the
Divine manifestation appears to be threefold, according , the
three instruments or organs of our capacity. (1.) The
External Senses, (2.) The Inward Fancy or Imagination, and
(3.) The Mind or Understanding. God sometimes reveals himself
and his will by an image or representation offered to the
external sight, or through an audible speech or discourse
addressed to the ear. Sometimes he introduces himself by the
same method to the imagination; and sometimes he addresses
the mind in a manner ineffable, which is called Inspiration.
Of all these modes scripture most clearly supplies us with
luminous examples. But time will not permit me to be detained
in enumerating them, lest I should appear to be yet more
tedious to this most accomplished assembly.
THE END OF THEOLOGY
We have been engaged in viewing the Author,: let us now
advert to the End. This is the more eminent and divine
according to the greater excellence of that matter of which
it is the end. In that light, therefore, this science is far
more illustrious and transcendent than all others; because it
alone has a relation to the life that is spiritual and
supernatural, and has an End beyond the boundaries of the
present life: while all other sciences have respect to this
animal life, and each has an End proposed to itself,
extending from the center of this earthly life and included
within its circumference. Of this science, then, that may be
truly said which the poet declared concerning his wise
friend, "For those things alone he feels any relish, the rest
like shadows fly." I repeat it, "they fly away," unless they
be referred to this science, and firmly fix their foot upon
it and be at rest. But the same person who is the Author and
Object, is also the End of Theology. The very proportion and
analogy of these things make such a connection requisite. For
since the Author is the First and the Chief Being, it is of
necessity that he be the First and Chief Good. He is,
therefore, the extreme End of all things. And since He, the
Chief Being and the Chief Good, subjects, lowers and spreads
himself out, as an object to some power or faculty of a
rational creature, that by its action or motion it may be
employed and occupied concerning him, nay, that it may in a
sense be united with him; it cannot possibly be, that the
creature, after having performed its part respecting that
object, should fly beyond it and extend itself further for
the sake of acquiring a greater good. It is, therefore, of
necessity that it restrain itself within him, not only as
within a boundary beyond which it is impossible for it to
pass on account of the infinitude of the object and on
account of its own importance, but also as within its End and
its Good, beyond which, because they are both the Chief in
degree, it neither wishes nor is capable of desiring
anything; provided this object be united with it as far as
the capacity of the creature will admit. God is, therefore,
the End of our Theology, proposed by God himself, in the acts
prescribed in it; intended by man in the performance of those
actions, and to be bestowed by God, after man shall have
piously and religiously performed his duty. But because the
chief good was not placed in the promise of it, nor in the
desire of obtaining it, but in actually receiving it, the end
of Theology may with the utmost propriety be called THE UNION
OF GOD WITH MAN.
But it is not an Essential union, as if two essences, (for
instance that of God and man,) were compacted together or
joined into one, or as that by which man might himself be
absorbed into God. The former of these modes of union is
prohibited by the very nature of the things so united, and
the latter is rejected by the nature of the union. Neither is
it a formal union, as if God by that union might be made in
the form of man, like a Spirit united to a body imparting to
it life and motion, and acting upon it at pleasure, although,
by dwelling in the body, it should confer on man the gift of
life eternal. But it is an objective union by which God,
through the agency of his pre-eminent and most faithful
faculties and actions, (all of which he wholly occupies and
completely fills,) gives such convincing proofs of himself to
man, that God may then be said to be "all in all." (1 Cor.
xv, 21.) This union is immediate, and without any bond that
is different to the limits themselves. For God unites himself
to the understanding and to the will of his creature, by
means of himself alone, and without the intervention of
image, species or appearance. This is what the nature of this
last and supreme union requires, as being that in which
consists the Chief Good of a rational creature, which cannot
find rest except in the greatest union of itself with God.
But by this union, the understanding beholds in the clearest
vision, and as if "face to face," God himself, and all his
goodness and incomparable beauty. And because a good of such
magnitude and known by the clearest vision cannot fail of
being loved on its own account; from this very consideration
the will embraces it with a more intense love, in proportion
to the greater degree of knowledge of it which the mind has
obtained.
But here a double difficulty presents itself, which must
first be removed, in order that our feet may afterwards
without stumbling run along a path that will then appear
smooth and to have been for some time well trodden. (1.) The
one is, "How can it be that the eye of the human
understanding does not become dim and beclouded when an
object of such transcendent light is presented to it?" (2.)
The other is, "How can the understanding, although its eye
may not be dim and blinded, receive and contain that object
in such great measure and proportion?" The cause of the first
is, that the light exhibits itself to the understanding not
in the infinity of its own nature, but in a form that is
qualified and attempered. And to what is it thus
accommodated? Is it not to the understanding? Undoubtedly, to
the understanding; but not according to the capacity which it
possessed before the union: otherwise it could not receive
and contain as much as would suffice to fill it and make it
happy. But it is attempered according to the measure of its
extension and enlargement, to admit of which the
understanding is exquisitely formed, if it be enlightened and
irradiated by the gracious and glorious shining of the light
accommodated to that expansion. If it be thus enlightened,
the eye of the understanding will not be overpowered and
become dim, and it will receive that object in such a vast
proportion as will most abundantly suffice to make man
completely happy. This is a solution for both these
difficulties. But an extension of the understanding will be
followed by an enlargement of the will, either from a proper
and adequate object offered to it, and accommodated to the
same rule; or, (which I prefer,) from the native agreement of
the will and understanding, and the analogy implanted in both
of them, according to which the understanding extends itself
to acts of volition, in the very proportion of its
understanding and knowledge. In this act of the mind and will
-- in seeing a present God, in loving him, and therefore in
the enjoyment of him, the salvation of man and his perfect
happiness consist. To which is added , conformation of our
body itself to this glorious state of soul, which, whether it
be effected by the immediate action of God on the body, or by
means of an agency resulting from the action of the soul on
the body, it is neither necessary for us here to inquire, nor
at this time to discover. From hence also arises and shines
forth illustriously the chief and infinite glory of God, far
surpassing all other glory, that he has displayed in every
preceding function which he administered. For since that
action is truly great and glorious which is good, and since
goodness alone obtains the title of "greatness," according to
that elegant saying, to eu mega then indeed the best action
of God is the greatest and the most glorious. But that is the
best action by which he unites himself immediately to the
creature and affords himself to be seen, loved and enjoyed in
such an abundant measure as agrees with the creature dilated
and expanded to that degree which we have mentioned. This is,
therefore, the most glorious of God's actions. Wherefore the
end of Theology is the union , God with man, to the salvation
of the one and the glory of the other; and to the glory which
he declares by his act, not that glory which man ascribes to
God when he is united to him. Yet it cannot be otherwise,
than that man should be incited to sing forever the high
praises of God, when he beholds and enjoys such large and
overpowering goodness.
But the observations we have hitherto made on the End of
Theology, were accommodated to the manner of that which is
legal. We must now consider the End as it is proposed to
Evangelical Theology. The End of this is (1.) God and Christ,
(2.) the union of man with both of them, and (3.) the sight
and fruition of both, to the glory of both Christ and God. On
each of these particulars we have some remarks to make from
the scriptures, and which most appropriately agree with, and
are peculiar to, the Evangelical doctrine.
But before we enter upon these remarks, we must shew that the
salvation of man, to the glory of Christ himself, consists
also in the love, the sight, and the fruition of Christ.
There is a passage in the fifteenth chapter of the first
Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, which imposes
this necessity upon us, because it appears to exclude Christ
from this consideration. For in that place the apostle says,
"When Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even
the Father, then the Son also himself shall be subject unto
him, that God may be all in all." (1 Cor. xv, 24.) From this
passage three difficulties are raised, which must be removed
by an appropriate explanation. They are these: (1.) "If
Christ 'shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the
Father,' he will no longer reign himself in person." (2.) "If
he 'shall be subject to the Father,' he will no more preside
over his Church:" and (3.) "If 'God shall be all in all,'
then our salvation is not placed in the union, sight and
fruition of him." I will proceed to give a separate answer to
each of these objections. The kingdom of Christ embraces two
objects: The Mediatorial function of the regal office, and
the Regal glory: The royal function, will be laid aside,
because there will then be no necessity or use for it, but
the royal glory will remain because it was obtained by the
acts of the Mediator, and was conferred on him by the Father
according to covenant. The same thing is declared by the
expression "shall be subject," which here signifies nothing
more than the laying aside of the super-eminent power which
Christ had received from the Father, and which he had, as the
Father's Vicegerent, administered at the pleasure of his own
will: And yet, when he has laid down this power, he will
remain, as we shall see, the head and the husband of his
Church. That sentence has a similar tendency in which it is
said, "God shall be ALL IN ALL." For it takes away even the
intermediate and deputed administration of the creatures
which God is accustomed to use in the communication of his
benefits; and it indicates that God will likewise immediately
from himself communicate his own good, even himself to his
creatures. Therefore, on the authority of this passage,
nothing is taken away from Christ which we have been wishful
to attribute to him in this discourse according to the
scriptures.
This we will now shew by some plain and apposite passages.
Christ promises an union with himself in these words, "If a
man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love
him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."
(John xiv, 23.) Here is a promise of good: therefore the
good of the Church is likewise placed in union with Christ;
and an abode is promised, not admitting of termination by the
bounds of this life, but which will continue for ever, and
shall at length, when this short life is ended, be
consummated in heaven. In reference to this, the Apostle
says, "I desire to depart and to be with Christ;" and Christ
himself says, "I will that they also whom thou hast given me,
be with me where I am." (John xvii, 24.) John says, that the
end of his gospel is, "that our fellowship may be with the
Father and the Son;" (1 John i, 3,) in which fellowship
eternal life must necessarily consist, since in another place
he explains the same end in these words, "But these are
written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ: and
that, believing, ye might have life through his name." (John
xx, 31.) But from the meaning of the same Apostle, it
appears, that this fellowship has an union antecedent to
itself. These are his words, "If that which ye have heard
from the beginning shall remain in you ye also shall continue
in the Son, and in the Father." (1 John ii, 24.) What! Shall
the union between Christ and his Church cease at a period
when he shall place before his glorious sight his spouse
sanctified to himself by his own blood? Far be the idea from
us! For the union, which had commenced here on earth, will
then at length be consummated and perfected.
If any one entertain doubts concerning the vision of Christ,
let him listen to Christ in this declaration: "He that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him." (John xiv, 21.) Will he thus
disclose himself in this world only? Let us again hear Christ
when he intercedes with the Father for the faithful: "Father,
I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me
where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast
given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the
world." (John xvii, 34) Christ, therefore, promises to his
followers the sight of his glory, as something salutary to
them; and his Father is intreated to grant this favour. The
same truth is confirmed by John when he says, "Then we shall
see him as he is." (1 John iii, 2.) This passage may without
any impropriety be understood of Christ, and yet not to the
exclusion of God the Father. But what do we more distinctly
desire than that Christ may become, what it is said he will
be, "the light" that shall enlighten the celestial city, and
in whose light "the nations shall walk?" (Rev. xxi, 23, 24.)
Although the fruition of Christ is sufficiently established
by the same passages as those by which the sight of him is
confirmed, yet we will ratify it by two or three others.
Since eternal felicity is called by the name of "the supper
of the lamb," and is emphatically described by this term,
"the marriage of the Lamb," I think it is taught with
adequate clearness in these expressions, that happiness
consists in the fruition or enjoyment of the Lamb. But the
apostle, in his apocalypse, has ascribed both these epithets
to Christ, by saying, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give
honour to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his
wife hath made herself ready :" (Rev. xix, 7,) and a little
afterwards, he says, "Blessed are they which are called to
the marriage-supper of the Lamb." (verse 9.) It remains for
us to treat on the glory of Christ, which is inculcated in
these numerous passages of Scripture in which it is stated
that "he sits with the Father on his throne," and is adored
and glorified both by angels and by men in heaven.
Having finished the proof of those expressions, the truth of
which we engaged to demonstrate, we will now proceed to
fulfill our promise of explanation, and to show that all and
each of these benefits descend to us in a peculiar and more
excellent manner, from Evangelical Theology, than they could
have done from that which is Legal, if by it we could really
have been made alive.
2. And, that we may, in the first place, dispatch the subject
of Union, let the brief remarks respecting marriage which we
have just made, be brought again to our remembrance. For that
word more appropriately honours this union, and adorns it
with a double and remarkable privilege; one part of which
consists of a deeper combination, the other of a more
glorious title. The Scripture speaks thus of the deeper
combination; "And the two shall be one flesh. This is a great
mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church!"
(Ephes. v, 31, 32.) It will therefore be a connubial tie that
will unite Christ with the church. The espousals of the
church on earth are contracted by the agency of the brides-
men of Christ, who are the prophets, the apostles, and their
successors, and particularly the Holy Ghost, who is in this
affair a mediator and arbitrator. The consummation will then
follow, when Christ will introduce his spouse into his bride-
chamber. From such an union as this, there arises, not only a
communion of blessings, but a previous communion of the
persons themselves; from which the possession of blessings is
likewise assigned, by a more glorious title, to her who is
united in the bonds of marriage. The church comes into a
participation not only of the blessings of Christ, but also
of his title. For, being the wife of the King, she enjoys it
as a right due to her to be called QUEEN; which dignified
appellation the scripture does not withhold from her. "Upon
thy right hand stands the Queen in gold of Ophir:" (Psalm
xlv, 9.) "There are three-score queens, and four-score
concubines, and virgins without number. "My dove, my
undefiled, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she
is the choice one of her that bare her. The daughter saw her,
and blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines; and they
praised her." (Song of Sol. vi, 8, 9.) The church could not
have been eligible to the high honour of such an union,
unless Christ has been made her beloved, her brother, sucking
the breasts of the same mother." (Cant. 8.) But there would
have been no necessity for this union, "if righteousness and
salvation had come to us by the law." That was, therefore, a
happy necessity, which, out of compassion to the emergency of
our wretched condition, the divine condescension improved to
our benefit, and filled with such a plenitude of dignity! But
the manner of this our union with Christ is no small addition
to that union which is about to take place between us and God
the Father. This will be evident to any one who considers
what and how great is the bond of mutual union between Christ
and the Father.
3. If we turn our attention to sight or vision, we shall meet
with two remarkable characters which are peculiar to
Evangelical Theology.
(1.) In the first place, the glory of God, as if accumulated
and concentrated together into one body, will be presented to
our view in Christ Jesus; which glory would otherwise have
been dispersed throughout the most spacious courts of a
"heaven immense;" much in the same manner as the light, which
had been created on the first day, and equally spread through
the whole hemisphere, was on the fourth day collected, united
and compacted together into one body, and offered to the eyes
as a most conspicuous and shining object. In reference to
this, it is said in the Apocalypse, that the heavenly
Jerusalem "had no need of the sun, neither of the moon; for
the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb will be the
future light thereof," (Rev. xxi, 23,) as a vehicle by which
this most delightful glory may diffuse itself into immensity.
(2.) We shall then not only contemplate, in God himself, the
most excellent properties of his nature, but shall also
perceive that all of them have been employed in and devoted
to the procuring of this good for us, which we now possess in
hope, but which we shall in reality then possess by means of
this union and open vision.
The excellence, therefore, of this vision far exceeds that
which could have been by the law; and from this source arises
a fruition of greater abundance and more delicious sweetness.
For, as the light in the sun is brighter than that in the
stars, so is the sight of the sun, when the human eye is
capable of bearing it, more grateful and acceptable, and the
enjoyment of it is far more pleasant. From such a view of the
Divine attributes, the most delicious sweetness of fruition
will seem to be doubled. For the first delight will arise
from the contemplation of properties so excellent; the other
from the consideration of that immeasurable condescension by
which it has pleased God to unfold all those his properties,
and the whole of those blessings which he possesses in the
exhaustless and immeasurable treasury of his riches, and to
give this explanation, that he may procure salvation for man
and may impart it to his most miserable creature. This will
then be seen in as strong a light, as if the whole of that
which is essentially God appeared to exist for the sake of
man alone, and for his solo benefit. There is also the
addition of this peculiarity concerning it: "Jesus Christ
shall change our vile body, [the body of our humiliation,]
that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body: (Phil.
iii, 21,) and as we have borne the image of the earthy
[Adam], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (1
Cor. xv, 49.) Hence it is, that all things are said to be
made new in Christ Jesus; (2 Cor. v, 17,) and we are
described in the scriptures as "looking, according to his
promise, for new heavens and a new earth, (2 Pet. iii, 13,)
and a new name written on a white stone, (Rev. ii, 17,) the
new name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which
is the new Jerusalem, (Rev. iii, 12.) and they shall sing a
new song to God and his Christ forever." (Rev. v, 9.)
Who does not now see, how greatly the felicity prepared for
us by Christ, and offered to us through Evangelical Theology
excels that which would have come to us by "the righteousness
of the law," if indeed it had been possible for us to fulfill
it? We should in that case have been similar to the elect
angels; but now we shall be their superiors, if I be
permitted to make such a declaration, to the praise of Christ
and our God, in this celebrated Hall, and before an assembly
among whom we have some of those most blessed spirits
themselves as spectators. They now enjoy union with God and
Christ, and will probably be more closely united to both of
them at the time of the "restitution of all things." But
there will be nothing between the two parties similar to that
Conjugal Bond which unites us, and in which we may be
permitted to glory.
They will behold God himself "face to face," and will
contemplate the most eminent properties of his nature; but
they will see some among those properties devoted to the
purpose of man's salvation, which God has not unfolded for
their benefit, because that was not necessary; and which he
would not have unfolded, even if it had been necessary. These
things they will see, but they will not be moved by envy; it
will rather be a subject of admiration and wonder to them,
that God, the Creator of both orders, conferred on man, (who
was inferior to them in nature,) that dignity which he had of
old denied to the spirits that partook with themselves of the
same nature. They will behold Christ, that most brilliant and
shining light of the city of the living God, of which they
also are inhabitants: and, from this very circumstance their
happiness will be rendered more illustrious through Christ.
Christ "took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of
Abraham;" (Heb. ii, 16,) to whom also, in that assumed
nature, they will present adoration and honour, at the
command of God, when he introduces his First begotten into
the world to come. Of that future world, and of its
blessings, they also will be partakers: but "it is not put in
subjection to them," (Heb. ii, 5,) but to Christ and his
Brethren, who are partakers of the same nature, and are
sanctified by himself. A malignant spirit, yet of the same
order as the angels, had hurled against God the crimes of
falsehood and envy. But we see how signally God in Christ and
in the salvation procured by him, has repelled both these
accusations from himself. The falsehood intimated an
unwillingness on the part of God that man should be
reconciled to him, except by the intervention of the death of
his Son. His envy was excited, because God had raised man,
not only to the angelical happiness, (to which even that
impure one would have attained had "he kept his first
estate,) but to a state of blessedness far superior to that
of angels.
That I may not be yet more prolix, I leave it as a subject of
reflection to the devoted piety of your private meditations,
most accomplished auditors, to estimate the vast and amazing
greatness of the glory of God which has here manifested
itself, and to calculate the glory due from us to him for
such transcendent goodness.
In the mean time, let all of us, however great our number,
consider with a devout and attentive mind, what duty is
required of us by this doctrine, which having received its
manifestation from God and Christ, plainly and fully
announces to us such a great salvation, and to the
participation of which we are most graciously invited. It
requires to be received, understood, believed, and fulfilled,
in deed and in reality. It is worthy of all acceptation, on
account of its Author; and necessary to be received on
account of its End.
1. Being delivered by so great an Author, it is worthy to be
received with a humble and submissive mind; to have much
diligence and care bestowed on a knowledge and perception of
it; and not to be laid aside from the hand, the mind, or the
heart, until we shall have "obtained the End of it -- THE
SALVATION OF OUR SOULS." Why should this be done? Shall the
Holy God open his mouth, and our ears remain stopped? Shall
our Heavenly Master be willing to communicate instruction,
and we refuse to learn? Shall he desire to inspire our hearts
with the knowledge of his Divine truth, and we, by closing
the entrance to our hearts, exclude the most evident and mild
breathings of his Spirit? Does Christ, who is the Father's
Wisdom, announce to us that gospel which he has brought from
the bosom of the Father, and shall we disdain to hide it in
the inmost recesses of our heart? And shall we act thus,
especially when we have received this binding command of the
Father, which says, "Hear ye him!" (Matt. xvii, 5,) to which
he has added a threat, that "if we hear him not, our souls
shall be destroyed from among the people; (Acts iii, 23,)
that is, from the commonwealth of Israel? Let none of us fall
into the commission of such a heinous offense! "For if the
word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression
and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at
the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard him ," (Heb. ii, 2, 3.)
2. To all the preceding considerations, let the End of this
doctrine be added, and it will be of the greatest utility in
enforcing this the work of persuasion on minds that are not
prodigal of their own proper and Chief Good -- an employment
in which its potency and excellence are most apparent. Let us
reflect, for what cause God has brought us out of darkness
into this marvelous light; has furnished us with a mind,
understanding, and reason; and has adorned us with his image.
Let this question be revolved in our minds, "For what purpose
or End has God restored the fallen to their pristine state of
integrity, reconciled sinners to himself, and received
enemies into favour," and we shall plainly discover all this
to have been done, that we might be made partakers of eternal
salvation, and might sing praises to him forever. But we
shall not be able to aspire after this End, much less to
attain it, except in the way which is pointed out by that
Theological Doctrine which has been the topic of our
discourse. If we wander from this End, our wanderings from it
extend, not only beyond the whole earth and sea, but beyond
heaven itself -- that city of which nevertheless it is
essentially necessary for us to be made free men, and to have
our names enrolled among the living. This doctrine is "the
gate of heaven," and the door of paradise; the ladder of
Jacob, by which Christ descends to us, and we shall in turn
ascend to him; and the golden chain, which connects heaven
with earth. Let us enter into this gate; let us ascend this
ladder; and let us cling to this chain. Ample and wide is the
opening of the gate, and it will easily admit believers; the
position of the ladder is movable, and will not suffer those
who ascend it to be shaken or moved; the joining which unites
one link of the chain with another is indissoluble, and will
not permit those to fall down who cling to it, until we come
to "him that liveth forever and ever," and are raised to the
throne of the Most High; till we be united to the living God,
and Jesus Christ our Lord, "the Son of the Highest."
But on you, O chosen youths, this care is a duty peculiarly
incumbent; for God has destined you to become "workers
together with him," in the manifestation of the gospel, and
instruments to administer to the salvation of others. Let the
Majesty of the Holy Author of your studies, and the necessity
of the End, be always placed before your eyes. (1.) On
attentively viewing the Author, let the words of the Prophet
Amos recur to your remembrance and rest on your mind: "The
lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath
spoken, who can but prophesy?" (Amos ii, 8.) But you cannot
prophesy, unless you be instructed by the Spirit of Prophesy.
In our days he addresses no one in that manner, except in the
Scriptures; he inspires no one, except by means of the
Scriptures, which are divinely inspired. (2.) In
contemplating the End, you will discover, that it is not
possible to confer on any one, in his intercourse with
mankind, an office of greater dignity and utility, or an
office that is more salutary in its consequences, than this,
by which he may conduct them from error into the way of
truth, from wickedness to righteousness, from the deepest
misery to the highest felicity; and by which he may
contribute much towards their everlasting salvation. But this
truth is taught by Theology alone; there is nothing except
this heavenly science that prescribes the true righteousness;
and by it alone is this felicity disclosed, and our salvation
made known and revealed. Let the sacred Scriptures therefore
be your models:
"Night and day read them, read them day and night. Colman.
If you thus peruse them, "they will make you that you shall
not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ; (2 Pet. i, 8,) but you will become good
ministers of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith
and of good doctrine; (1 Tim. iv, 6,) and ready to every good
work; (Tit. iii, 1,) workmen who need not to be ashamed;" (2
Tim. ii, 15,) sowing the gospel with diligence and patience;
and returning to your Lord with rejoicing, bringing with you
an ample harvest, through the blessing of God and the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ: to whom be praise and glory from
this time, even forever more! Amen !
ORATION III
THE CERTAINTY OF SACRED THEOLOGY
Although the observations which I have already offered in
explanation of the Object, the Author and the End of sacred
Theology, and other remarks which might have been made, if
they had fallen into the hands of a competent interpreter,
although all of them contain admirable commendations of this
Theology, and convince us that it is altogether divine, since
it is occupied concerning God, is derived from God, and leads
to God; yet they will not be able to excite within the mind
of any person a sincere desire of entering upon such a study,
unless he be at the same time encouraged by the bright rays
of an assured hope of arriving at a knowledge of the
desirable Object, and of obtaining the blessed End. For since
the perfection of motion is rest, vain and useless will that
motion be which is not able to attain rest, the limit of its
perfection. But no prudent person will desire to subject
himself to vain and useless labour. All our hope, then, of
attaining to this knowledge is placed in Divine revelation.
For the anticipation of this very just conception has engaged
the minds of men, "that God cannot be known except through
himself, to whom also there can be no approach but through
himself." On this account it becomes necessary to make it
evident to man, that a revelation has been made by God; that
the revelation which has been given is fortified and defended
by such sure and approved arguments, as will cause it to be
considered and acknowledged as divine; and that there is a
method, by which a man may understand the meanings declared
in the word, and may apprehend them by a firm and assured
faith. To the elucidation of the last proposition, this third
part of our labour must be devoted. God grant that I may in
this discourse again follow the guidance of his word as it is
revealed in the scriptures, and may bring forth and offer to
your notice such things as may contribute to establish our
faith, and to promote the glory of God, to the uniting
together of all of us in the Lord. I pray and beseech you
also, my very famous and most accomplished hearers, not to
disdain to favour me with a benevolent and patient hearing,
while I deliver this feeble oration in your presence.
As we are now entering upon a consideration of the Certainty
of Sacred Theology, it is not necessary that we should
contemplate it under the aspect of Legal and Evangelical; for
in both of them there is the same measure of the truth, and
therefore, the same measure of knowledge, and that is
certainty. We will treat on this subject, then, in a general
manner, without any particular reference or application.
But that our oration may proceed in an orderly course, it
will be requisite in the first place briefly to describe
Certainty in general; and then to treat at greater length on
the Certainty Of Theology.
I. Certainty, then, is a property of the mind or
understanding, and a mode of knowledge according to which the
mind knows an object as it is, and is certain that it knows
that object as it is. It is distinct from Opinion; because it
is possible for opinion to know a matter as it is, but its
knowledge is accompanied by a suspicion of the opposite
falsity. Two things, therefore, are required, to constitute
certainty. (1.) The truth of the thing itself, and (2.) such
an apprehension of it in our minds as we have just described.
This very apprehension, considered as being formed from the
truth of the thing itself, and fashioned according to such
truth, is also called Truth on account of the similitude;
even as the thing itself is certain, on account of the action
of the mind which apprehends it in that manner. Thus do those
two things, (certainty and truth,) because of their admirable
union, make a mutual transfer of their names, the one to the
other.
But truth may in reality be viewed in two aspects -- one
simple, and the other compound. (1.) The former, in relation
to a thing as being in the number of entities; (2.) the
latter, in reference to something inhering in a thing, being
present with it or one of its circumstantials -- or in
reference to a thing as producing something else, or as being
produced by some other -- and if there be any other
affections and relations of things among themselves. The
process of truth in the mind is after the same manner. Its
action is of two kinds. (1.) On a simple being or entity
which is called "a simple apprehension;" and (2.) on a
complex being, which is termed composition." The mode of
truth is likewise, in reality, two-fold -- necessary and
contingent; according to which, a thing, whether it be simple
or complex, is called "necessary" or "contingent." The
necessity of a simple thing is the necessary existence of the
thing itself, whether it obtain the place of a subject or
that of an attribute. The necessity of a complex thing is the
unavoidable and essential disposition and habitude that
subsists between the subject and the attribute.
That necessity which, as we have just stated, is to be
considered in simple things, exists in nothing except in God
and in those things which, although they agree with him in
their nature, are yet distinguished from him by our mode of
considering them. All other things, whatever may be their
qualities, are contingent, from the circumstance of their
being brought into action by power; neither are they
contingent only by reason of their beginning, but also of
their continued duration. Thus the existence of God, is a
matter of necessity; his life, wisdom, goodness, justice,
mercy, will and power, likewise have a necessary existence.
But the existence and preservation of the creatures are not
of necessity. Thus also creation, preservation, government,
and whatever other acts are attributed to God in respect of
his creatures, are not of necessity. The foundation of
necessity is the nature of God; the principle of contingency
is the free will of the Deity. The more durable it has
pleased God to create anything, the nearer is its approach to
necessity, and the farther it recedes from contingency;
although it never pass beyond the boundaries of contingency,
and never reach the inaccessible abode of necessity.
Complex necessity exists not only in God, but also in the
things of his creation. It exists in God, partly on account
of the foundation of his nature, and partly on account of the
principle of his free-will. But its existence in the
creatures is only from the free will of God, who at once
resolved that this should be the relation and habitude
between two created objects. Thus "God lives, understands,
and loves," is a necessary truth from his very nature as God.
"God is the Creator," "Jesus Christ is the saviour," "An
angel is a created spirit endowed with intelligence and
will," and "A man is a rational creature," are all necessary
truths from the free will of God.
From this statement it appears, that degrees may be
constituted in the necessity of a complex truth; that the
highest may be attributed to that truth which rests upon the
nature of God as its foundation; that the rest, which proceed
from the will of God, may be excelled by that which (by means
of a greater affection of his will,) God has willed to invest
with such right of precedence; and that it may be followed by
that which God has willed by a less affection of his will.
The motion of the sun is necessary from the very nature of
that luminary; but it is more necessary that the children of
Israel be preserved and avenged on their enemies; the sun is
therefore commanded to stand still in the midst of the
heavens. (Josh. x, 13.) It is necessary that the sun be borne
along from the east to the west, by the diurnal motion of the
heavens. But it is more necessary that Hezekiah receive, by a
sure sign, a confirmation of the prolongation of his life;
the sun, therefore, when commanded, returns ten degrees
backward; (Isa. xxxviii, 8,) and thus it is proper, that the
less necessity should yield to the greater, and that from the
free will of God, which has imposed a law on both of them. As
this kind of necessity actually exists in things, the mind,
by observing the same gradations, apprehends and knows it, if
such a mode of cognition can truly deserve the name of
"knowledge."
But the causes of this Certainty are three. For it is
produced on the mind, either by the senses, by reasoning and
discourse, or by revelation. The first is called the
certainty of experience; the second, that of knowledge; and
the last, that of faith. The first is the certainty of
particular objects which come within the range and under the
observation of the senses; the second is that of general
conclusions deduced from known principles; and the last is
that of things remote from the cognizance both of the senses
and reason.
II. Let these observations now be applied to our present
purpose. The Object of our Theology is God, and Christ in
reference to his being God and Man. God is a true Being, and
the only necessary one, on account of the necessity of his
nature. Christ is a true Being, existing by the will of God;
and he is also a necessary Being, because he will endure to
all eternity. The things which are attributed to God in our
Theology: partly belong to his nature, and partly agree with
it by his own free will. By his nature, life, wisdom,
goodness, justice, mercy, will and power belong to him, by a
natural and absolute necessity. By his free will, all his
volitions and actions concerning the creatures agree with his
nature, and that immutably; because he willed at the same
time, that they should not be retracted or repealed. All
those things which are attributed to Christ, belong to him by
the free will of God, but on this condition, that "Christ be
the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever," (Heb. xiii, 8,)
entirely exempt from any future change, whether it be that of
a subject or its attributes, or of the affection which exists
between the two. All other things, which are found in the
whole superior and inferior nature of things, (whether they
be considered simply in themselves, or as they are mutually
affected among themselves,) do not extend to any degree of
this necessity. The truth and necessity of our Theology,
therefore, far exceed the necessity of all other sciences, in
as much as both these [the truth and necessity,] are situated
in the things themselves. The certainty of the mind, while it
is engaged in the act of apprehending and knowing things,
cannot exceed the Truth and Necessity of the thing's
themselves; on the contrary, it very often may not reach
them, [the truth and necessity,] through some defect in its
capacity. For the eyes of our mind are in the same condition
with respect to the pure truth of things, as are the eyes of
owls with respect to the light of the sun. On this account,
therefore, it is of necessity, that the object of no science
can be known with greater certainty than that of Theology;
but it follows rather, that a knowledge of this object may be
obtained with the greatest degree of certainty, if it be
presented in a qualified and proper manner to the inspection
of the understanding according to its capacity. For this
object is not of such a nature and condition as to be
presented to the external senses; nor can its attributes,
properties, affections, actions and passions be known by
means of the observation and experience of the external
senses. It is too sublime for them; and the attributes,
properties, affections, actions and passions, which agree
with it, are so high that the mind, even when assisted by
reason and discourse, can neither know it, investigate its
attributes, nor demonstrate that they agree with the subject,
whatever the principles may be which it has applied, and to
whatever causes it may have had recourse, whether they be
such as arise from the object itself, from its attributes, or
from the agreement which subsists between them. The Object is
known to itself alone; and the whole truth and necessity are
properly and immediately known to Him to whom they belong; to
God in the first place and in an adequate degree; to Christ,
in the second place, through the communication of God. To
itself, in an adequate manner, in reference to the knowledge
which it has of itself; in an inferior degree to God, in
reference to his knowledge of him, [Christ.] Revelation is
therefore necessary by which God may exhibit himself and his
Christ as an object of sight and knowledge to our
understanding; and this exhibition to be made in such a
manner as to unfold at once all their attributes, properties,
affections, actions and passions, as far as it is permitted
for them to be known, concerning God and his Christ, to our
salvation and to their glory; and that God may thus disclose
all and every portion of those theorems in which both the
subjects themselves and all their attending attributes are
comprehended. Revelation is necessary, if it be true that God
and his Christ ought to be known, and both of them be worthy
to receive Divine honours and worship. But both of them ought
to be known and worshipped; the revelation, therefore, of
both of them is necessary; and because it is thus necessary,
it has been made by God. For if nature, as a partaker and
communicator of a good that is only partial, is not deficient
in the things that are necessary; how much less ought we even
to suspect such a deficiency in God, the Author and Artificer
of nature, who is also the Chief Good?
But to inspect this subject a little more deeply and
particularly, will amply repay our trouble; for it is similar
to the foundation on which must rest the weight of the
structure -- the other doctrines which follow. For unless it
should appear certain and evident, that a revelation has been
made, it will be in vain to inquire and dispute about the
word in which that revelation has been made and is contained.
In the first place, then, the very nature of God most clearly
evinces that a revelation has been made of himself and
Christ. His nature is good, beneficent, and communicative of
his blessedness, whether it be that which proceeds from it by
creation, or that which is God himself. But there is no
communication made of Divine good, unless God be made known
to the understanding, and be desired by the affections and
the will. But he cannot become an object of knowledge except
by revelation. A revelation, therefore, is made, as a
necessary instrument of communication.
2. The necessity of this revelation may in various ways be
inferred and taught from the nature and condition of man.
First. By nature, man possesses a mind and understanding. But
it is just that the mind and understanding should be turned
towards their Creator; this, however, cannot be done without
a knowledge of the Creator, and such knowledge cannot be
obtained except by revelation; a revelation has, therefore,
been made. Secondly. God himself formed the nature of man
capable of Divine Good. But in vain would it have had such a
capacity, if it might not at some time partake of this Divine
Good; but of this the nature of man cannot be made a partaker
except by the knowledge of it; the knowledge of this Divine
Good has therefore been manifested. Thirdly. It is not
possible, that the desire which God has implanted within man
should be vain and fruitless. That desire is for the
enjoyment of an Infinite Good, which is God; but that
Infinite Good cannot be enjoyed, except it be known; a
revelation, therefore, has been made, by which it may be
known.
3. Let that relation be brought forward which subsists
between God and man, and the revelation that has been made
will immediately become manifest. God, the Creator of man,
has deserved it as his due, to receive worship and honour
from the workmanship of his hands, on account of the benefit
which he conferred by the act of creation. Religion and piety
are due to God, from man his creature; and this obligation is
coeval with the very birth of man, as the bond which contains
this requisition was given on the very day in which he was
created. But religion could not be a human invention. For it
is the will of God to receive worship according to the rule
and appointment of his own will. A revelation was therefore
made, which exacts from man the religion due to God, and
prescribes that worship which is in accordance with his
pleasure and his honour.
4. If we turn our attention towards Christ, it is amazing how
great the necessity of a manifestation appears, and how many
arguments immediately present themselves in behalf of a
revelation being communicated. Wisdom wishes to be
acknowledged as the deviser of the wonderful attempering and
qualifying of justice and mercy. Goodness and gracious mercy,
as the administrators of such an immense benefit sought to be
worshipped and honoured. And power, as the hand-maid of such
stupendous wisdom and goodness, and as the executrix of the
decree made by both of them, deserved to receive adoration.
But the different acts of service which were due to each of
them, could not be rendered to them without revelation. The
wisdom, mercy and power of God, have, therefore, been
revealed and displayed most copiously in Christ Jesus. He
performed a multitude of most wonderful works, by which we
might obtain the salvation that we had lost; he endured most
horrid torments and inexpressible distress, which, when
pleaded in our favour, served to obtain this salvation for
us; and by the gift of the Father he was possessed of an
abundance of graces, and, at the Divine command, he became
the distributor of them. Having, therefore, sustained all
these offices for us, it is his pleasure to receive those
acknowledgments, and those acts of Divine honour and worship,
which are due to him on account of his extraordinary merits.
But in vain will he expect the performance of these acts from
man, unless he be himself revealed. A revelation of Christ
has, therefore, been made. Consult actual experience, and
that will supply you with numberless instances of this
manifestation. The devil himself, who is the rival of Christ,
has imitated these instances of gracious manifestation, has
held converse with men under the name and semblance of the
true God, has demanded acts of devotion from them, and
prescribed to them a mode of religious worship.
We have, therefore, the truth and the necessity of our
Theology agreeing together in the highest degree; we have an
adequate notion of it in the mind of God and Christ,
according to the word which is called emfutov "engrafted."
(James i, 21.) We have a revelation of this Theology made to
men by the word preached; which revelation agrees both with
the things themselves and with the notion which we have
mentioned, but in a way that is attempered and suited to the
human capacity. And as all these are preliminaries to the
certainty which we entertain concerning this Theology, it was
necessary to notice them in these introductory remarks.
Let us now consider this Certainty itself. But since a
revelation has been made in the word which has been
published, and since the whole of it is contained in that
word, (so that This Word is itself our Theology,) we can
determine nothing concerning the certainty of Theology in any
other way than by offering some explanation concerning our
certain apprehension of that word. We will assume it as a
fact which is allowed and confirmed, that this word is to be
found in no other place than in the sacred books of the Old
and New Testament; and we shall on this account confine this
certain apprehension of our mind to that word. But in
fulfilling this design, three things demand our attentive
consideration: First. The Certainty, and the kind of
certainty which God requires from us, and by which it is his
pleasure that this word should be received and apprehended by
us as the Chief Certainty. Secondly. The reasons and
arguments by which the truth of that word, which is its
divinity, may be proved. Thirdly. How a persuasion of that
divinity may be wrought in our minds, and this Certainty may
be impressed on our hearts.
I. The Certainty "with which God wishes this word to be
received, is that of faith; and it therefore depends on the
veracity of him who utters it." By this Certainty "it is
received," not only as true, but as divine; and it is not of
that involved and mixed kind "of faith" by which any one,
without understanding the meanings expressed by the word as
by a sign, believes that those books which are contained in
the Bible, are divine: for not only is a doubtful opinion
opposed to faith, but an obscure and perplexed conception is
equally inimical. Neither is it that species "of historical
faith" which believes the word to be divine that it
comprehends only by a theoretical understanding. But God
demands that faith to be given to his word, by which the
meanings expressed in this word may be understood, as far as
it is necessary for the salvation of men and the glory of
God; and may be so assuredly known to be divine, that they
may be believed to embrace not only the Chief Truth, but also
the Chief Good of man. This faith not only believes that God
and Christ exist, it not only gives credence to them when
they make declarations of any kind, but it believes in God
and Christ when they affirm such things concerning
themselves, as, being apprehended by faith, create a belief
in God as our Father, and in Christ as our saviour. This we
consider to be the office of an understanding that is not
merely theoretical, but of one that is practical. For this
cause not only is asfaleia (certainty,) attributed in the
Scriptures to true and living faith, but to it are likewise
ascribed both wlhroforia (a full assurance, Heb. vi, 2,) and
wewoiqhsiv (trust or confidence, Cor. iii, 4,) and it is God
who requires and demands such a species of certainty and of
faith.
II. We may now be permitted to proceed by degrees from this
point, to a consideration of those arguments which prove to
us the divinity of the word; and to the manner in which the
required certainty and faith are produced in our minds. To
constitute natural vision we know that, (beside an object
capable of being seen,) not only is an external light
necessary to shine upon it and to render it visible, but an
internal strength of eye is also required, which may receive
within itself the form and appearance of the object which has
been illuminated by the external light, and may thus be
enabled actually to behold it. The same accompaniments are
necessary to constitute spiritual vision; for, beside this
external light of arguments and reasoning, an internal light
of the mind and soul is necessary to perfect this vision of
faith. But infinite is the number of arguments on which this
world builds and establishes its divinity. We will select and
briefly notice a few of those which are more usual, lest by
too great a prolixity we become too troublesome and
disagreeable to our auditory.
1. THE DIVINITY OF SCRIPTURE
Let scripture itself come forward, and perform the chief part
in asserting its own Divinity. Let us inspect its substance
and its matter. It is all concerning God and his Christ, and
is occupied in declaring the nature of both of them, in
further explaining the love, the benevolence, and the
benefits which have been conferred by both of them on the
human race, or which have yet to be conferred; and
prescribing, in return, the duties of men towards their
Divine Benefactors. The scripture, therefore, is divine in
its object.
(2.) But how is it occupied in treating on these subjects? It
explains the nature of God in such a way as to attribute
nothing extraneous to it, and nothing that does not perfectly
agree with it. It describes the person of Christ in such a
manner, that the human mind, on beholding the description,
ought to acknowledge, that "such a person could not have been
invented or devised by any created intellect," and that it is
described with such aptitude, suitableness and sublimnity, as
far to exceed the largest capacity of a created
understanding. In the same manner the scripture is employed
in relating the love of God and Christ towards us, and in
giving an account of the benefits which we receive. Thus the
Apostle Paul, when he wrote to the Ephesians on these
subjects, says, that from his former writings, the extent of
"his knowledge of the mystery of Christ" might be manifest to
them; (Ephes. iii, 4.) that is, it was divine, and derived
solely from the revelation of God. Let us contemplate the law
in which is comprehended the duty of men towards God. What
shall we find, in all the laws of every nation, that is at
all similar to this, or (omitting all mention of "equality,")
that may be placed in comparison with those ten short
sentences? Yet even those commandments, most brief and
comprehensive as they are, have been still further reduced to
two chief heads -- the love of God, and the love of our
neighbour. This law appears in reality to have been sketched
and written by the right hand of God. That this was actually
the case, Moses shews in these words, What nation is there so
great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all
this law, which I set before you this day?" (Deut. iv, 8.)
Moses likewise says, that so great and manifest is the
divinity which is inherent in this law, that it compelled the
heathen nations, after they had heard it, to declare in
ecstatic admiration of it. "Surely this great nation is a
wise and understanding people?" (Deut. iv, 6.) The scripture,
therefore, is completely divine, from the manner in which it
treats on those matters which are its subjects.
(3.) If we consider the End, it will as clearly point out to
us the divinity of this doctrine. That End is entirely
divine, being nothing less than the glory of God and man's
eternal salvation. What can be more equitable than that all
things should be referred to him from whom they have derived
their origin? What can be more consonant to the wisdom,
goodness, and power of God, than that he should restore, to
his original integrity, man who had been created by him, but
who had by his own fault destroyed himself; and that he
should make him a partaker of his own Divine blessedness? If
by means of any word God had wished to manifest himself to
man, what end of manifestation ought he to have proposed that
would have been more honourable to himself and more salutary
to man? That the word, therefore, was divinely revealed,
could not be discerned by any mark which was better or more
legible, than that of its showing to man the way of
salvation, taking him as by the hand and leading him into
that way, and not ceasing to accompany him until it
introduced him to the full enjoyment of salvation: In such a
consummation as this, the glory of God most abundantly shines
forth and displays itself. He who may wish to contemplate
what we are declaring concerning this End, in a small but
noble part of this word, should place "the Lord's Prayer"
before the eyes of his mind; he should look most intently
upon it; and, as far as that is possible for human eyes, he
should thoroughly investigate all its parts and beauties.
After he has done this, unless he confess, that in it this
double end is proposed in a manner that is at once so
nervous, brief, and accurate, as to be above the strength and
capacity of every created intelligence, and unless he
acknowledge, that this form of prayer is purely divine, he
must of necessity have a mind surrounded and enclosed by more
than Egyptian darkness.
2. THE AGREEMENT OF THIS DOCTRINE IN ITS PARTS Let us compare
the parts of this doctrine together, and we shall discover in
all of them an agreement and harmony, even in points the most
minute, that it is so great and evident as to cause us to
believe that it could not be manifested by men, but ought to
have implicit credence placed in it as having certainly
proceeded from God.
Let the Predictions alone, that have been promulgated
concerning Christ in different ages, be compared together.
For the consolation of the first parents of our race, God
said to the serpent, "The seed of the woman shall bruise thy
head." (Gen. iii, 15.) The same promise was repeated by God,
and was specially made to Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the
nations be blessed." (Gen. xxii, 18.) The patriarch Jacob,
when at the point of death, foretold that this seed should
come forth from the lineage and family of Judah, in these
words: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a
lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto
him shall the gathering of the people be." (Gen. xlix, 10.)
Let the alien prophet also be brought forward, and to these
predictions he will add that oracular declaration which he
pronounced by the inspiration and at the command of the God
of Israel, in these words: Balaam said, "There shall come a
star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel,
and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the
children of Sheth." (Num. xxiv, 17.) This blessed seed was
afterwards promised to David, by Nathan, in these words: "I
will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of
thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom." (2 Sam. vii,
12.) On this account Isaiah says, "There shall come forth a
rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of
his roots." (xi, 1.) And, by way of intimating that a virgin
would be his mother, the same prophet says, "Behold a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel!" (Isa. vii, 14.) It would be tedious to repeat
every declaration that occurs in the psalms and in the other
Prophets, and that agrees most appropriately with this
subject. When these prophecies are compared with those
occurrences that have been described in the New Testament
concerning their fulfillment, it will be evident from the
complete harmony of the whole, that they were all spoken and
written by the impulse of one Divine Spirit. If some things
in those sacred books seem to be contradictions, they are
easily reconciled by means of a right interpretation. I add,
that not only do all the parts of this doctrine agree among
themselves, but they also harmonize with that Universal Truth
which has been spread through the whole of Philosophy; so
that nothing can be discovered in Philosophy, which does not
correspond with this doctrine. If any thing appear not to
possess such an exact correspondence, it may be clearly
confuted by means of true Philosophy and right reason.
Let the Style and Character of the scriptures be produced,
and, in that instant, a most brilliant and refulgent mirror
of the majesty which is luminously reflected in it, will
display itself to our view in a manner the most divine. It
relates things that are placed at a great distance beyond the
range of the human imagination -- things which far surpass
the capacities of men. And it simply relates these things
without employing any mode of argumentation, or the usual
apparatus of persuasion: yet its obvious wish is to be
understood and believed. But what confidence or reason has it
for expecting to obtain the realization of this its desire?
It possesses none at all, except that it depends purely upon
its own unmixed authority, which is divine. It publishes its
commands and its interdicts, its enactments and its
prohibitions to all persons alike; to kings and subjects, to
nobles and plebians, to the learned and the ignorant, to
those that "require a sign" and those that "seek after
wisdom," to the old and the young; over all these, the rule
which it bears, and the power which it exercises, are equal.
It places its sole reliance, therefore, on its own potency,
which is able in a manner the most efficacious to restrain
and compel all those who are refractory, and to reward those
who are obedient.
Let the Rewards and Punishments be examined, by which the
precepts are sanctioned, and there are seen both a promise of
life eternal and a denunciation of eternal punishments. He
who makes such a commencement as this, may calculate upon his
becoming an object of ridicule, except he possess an inward
consciousness both of his own right and power; and except he
know, that, to subdue the wills of mortals, is a matter
equally easy of accomplishment with him, as to execute his
menaces and to fulfill his premises. To the scriptures
themselves let him have recourse who may be desirous to prove
with the greatest certainty its majesty, from the kind of
diction which it adopts: Let him read the charming swan-like
Song of Moses described in the concluding chapters of the
Book of Deuteronomy: Let him with his mental eyes diligently
survey the beginning of Isaiah's prophecy: Let him in a
devout spirit consider the hundred and fourth Psalm. Then,
with these, let him compare whatever choice specimens of
poetry and eloquence the Greeks and the Romans can produce in
the most eminent manner from their archives; and he will be
convinced by the most demonstrative evidence, that the latter
are productions of the human spirit, and that the former
could proceed from none other than the Divine Spirit. Let a
man of the greatest genius, and, in erudition, experience,
and eloquence, the most accomplished of his race -- let such
a well instructed mortal enter the lists and attempt to
finish a composition at all similar to these writings, and he
will find himself at a loss and utterly disconcerted, and his
attempt will terminate in discomfiture. That man will then
confess, that what St. Paul declared concerning his own
manner of speech, and that of his fellow-labourers, may be
truly applied to the whole scripture: "Which things also we
speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but
which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things
with spiritual." (1 Cor. ii, 13.)
3. THE PROPHECIES
Let us next inspect the prophecies scattered through the
whole body of the doctrine; some of which belong to the
substance of the doctrine, and others contribute towards
procuring authority to the doctrine and to its instruments.
It should be particularly observed, with what eloquence and
distinctness they foretell the greatest and most important
matters, which are far removed from the scrutinizing research
of every human and angelical mind, and which could not
possibly be performed except by power Divine: Let it be
noticed at the same time with what precision the predictions
are answered by the periods that intervene between them, and
by all their concomitant circumstances; and the whole world
will be compelled to confess, that such things could not have
been foreseen and foretold, except by an omniscient Deity. I
need not here adduce examples; for they are obvious to any
one that opens the Divine volume. I will produce one or two
passages, only, in which this precise agreement of the
prediction and its fulfillment is described. When speaking of
the children of Israel under the Egyptian bondage, and their
deliverance from it according to the prediction which God had
communicated to Abraham in a dream, Moses says, "And it came
to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even
the self-same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the
Lord went out from the land of Egypt:" (Exod. xii, 41.) Ezra
speaks thus concerning the liberation from the Babylonish
captivity, which event, Jeremiah foretold, should occur
within seventy years: "Now in the first year of Cyrus, king
of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus,
king of Persia," &c. (Ezra i, 1.) But God himself declares by
Isaiah, that the divinity of the scripture may be proved, and
ought to be concluded, from this kind of prophecies. These
are his words: "Shew the things that are to come hereafter,
that we may know that ye are Gods." (Isa. xli, 23.)
4. MIRACLES
An illustrious evidence of the same divinity is afforded in
the miracles, which God has performed by the stewards of his
word, his prophets and apostles, and by Christ himself, for
the confirmation of his doctrine and for the establishment of
their authority. For these miracles are of such a description
as infinitely to exceed the united powers of all the
creatures and all the powers of nature itself, when their
energies are combined. But the God of truth, burning with
zeal for his own glory, could never have afforded such strong
testimonies as these to false prophets and their false
doctrine: nor could he have borne such witness to any
doctrine even when it was true, provided it was not his, that
is, provided it was not divine. Christ, therefore, said, "If
I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do,
though you believe not me, believe the works." (John x, 37,
38.) It was the same cause also, which induced the widow of
Sarepta to say, on receiving from the hands of Elijah her
son, who, after his death, had been raised to life by the
prophet: "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and
that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth." (1 Kings
xvii, 24.) That expression of Nicodemus has the same
bearing: "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from
God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except
God be with him." (John iii, 2.) And it was for a similar
reason that the apostle said, "The signs of an apostle were
wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and
mighty deeds." (2 Cor. xii, 12.) There are indeed miracles on
record that were wrought among the gentiles, and under the
auspices of the gods whom they invoked: It is also predicted,
concerning False Prophets, and Antichrist himself, that they
will exhibit many signs and wonders: (Rev. xix, 20.) But
neither in number, nor in magnitude, are they equal to those
which the true God has wrought before all Israel, and in the
view of the whole world. Neither were those feats of their
real miracles, but only astonishing operations performed by
the agency and power of Satan and his instruments, by means
of natural causes, which are concealed from the human
understanding, and escape the cognizance of men. But to deny
the existence of those great and admirable miracles which are
related to have really happened, when they have also the
testimony of both Jews and gentiles, who were the enemies of
the true doctrine -- is an evident token of bare-faced
impudence and execrable stupidity.
5. THE ANTIQUITY OF THE DOCTRINE
Let the antiquity, the propagation, the preservation, and the
truly admirable defense of this doctrine be added -- and they
will afford a bright and perspicuous testimony of its
divinity. If that which is of the highest antiquity possesses
the greatest portion of truth," as Tertullian most wisely and
justly observes, then this doctrine is one of the greatest
truth, because it can trace its origin to the highest
antiquity. It is likewise Divine, because it was manifested
at a time when it could not have been devised by any other
mind; for it had its commencement at the very period when man
was brought into existence. An apostate angel would not then
have proposed any of his doctrines to man, unless God had
previously revealed himself to the intelligent creature whom
he had recently formed: That is, God hindered the fallen
angel, and there was then no cause in existence by which he
might be impelled to engage in such an enterprise. For God
would not suffer man, who had been created after his own
image, to be tempted by his enemy by means of false doctrine,
until, after being abundantly instructed in that which was
true, he was enabled to know that which was false and to
reject it. Neither could any odious feeling of envy against
man have tormented Satan, except God had considered him
worthy of the communication of his word, and had deigned,
through that communication, to make him a partaker of
eternal. felicity, from which Satan had at that period
unhappily fallen.
The Propagation, Preservation, and Defense of this doctrine,
most admirable when separately considered, will all be found
divine, if, in the first place, we attentively fix our eyes
upon those men among whom it is propagated; then on the foes
and adversaries of this doctrine; and, lastly, on the manner
in which its propagation, preservation and defense have
hitherto been and still are conducted. (1.) If we consider
those men among whom this sacred doctrine flourishes, we
shall discover that their nature, on account of its
corruption, rejects this doctrine for a two-fold reason; (i.)
The first is, because in one of its parts it is so entirely
contrary to human and worldly wisdom, as to subject itself to
the accusation of Folly from men of corrupt minds. (ii.) The
second reason is, because in another of its parts it is
decidedly hostile and inimical to worldly lusts and carnal
desires. It is, therefore, rejected by the human
understanding and refused by the will, which are the two
chief faculties in man; for it is according to their orders
and commands that the other faculties are either put in
motion or remain at rest. Yet, notwithstanding all this
natural repugnance, it has been received and believed. The
human mind, therefore, has been conquered, and the subdued
will has been gained, by Him who is the author of both. (2.)
This doctrine has some most powerful and bitter enemies:
Satan, the prince of this world, with all his angels, and the
world his ally: These are foes with whom there can be no
reconciliation. If the subtlety, the power, the malice, the
audacity, the impudence, the perseverance, and the diligence
of these enemies, be placed in opposition to the simplicity,
the inexperience, the weakness, the fear, the inconstancy,
and the slothfulness of the greater part of those who give
their assent to this heavenly doctrine; then will the
greatest wonder be excited, how this doctrine, when attacked
by so many enemies, and defended by such sorry champions, can
stand and remain safe and unmoved. If this wonder and
admiration be succeeded by a supernatural and divine
investigation of its cause, then will God himself be
discovered as the propagator, preserver, and defender of this
doctrine. (3.) The manner also in which its propagation,
preservation and defense are conducted, indicates divinity by
many irrefragible tokens. This doctrine is carried into
effect, without bow or sword -- without horses chariots, or
horsemen; yet it proceeds prosperously along, stands in an
erect posture, and remains unconquered, in the name of the
Lord of Hosts: While its adversaries, though supported by
such apparently able auxiliaries and relying on such powerful
aid, are overthrown, fall down together, and perish. It is
accomplished, not by holding out alluring promises of riches,
glory, and earthly pleasures, but by a previous statement of
the dreaded cross, and by the prescription of such patience
and forbearance as far exceed all human strength and ability.
"He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the
gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel; for I will
shew him How Great Things he must suffer for my name's sake."
(Acts ix, 15, 16.) "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the
midst of wolves." (Matt. x, 16)
Its completion is not effected by the counsels of men, but in
opposition to all human counsels -- whether they be those of
the professors of this doctrine, or those of its adversaries.
For it often happens, that the counsels and machinations
which have been devised for the destruction of this doctrine,
contribute greatly towards its propagation, while the princes
of darkness fret and vex themselves in vain, and are
astonished and confounded, at an issue so contrary to the
expectations which they had formed from their most crafty and
subtle counsels.
St. Luke says, "Saul made havoc of the church, entering into
every house, and, haling men and women, committed them to
prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad, went every
where preaching the word." (Acts vii, 3, 4.) And by this
means Samaria received the word of God. In reference to this
subject St. Paul also says, "But I would ye should
understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me
have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; so
that my bonds are manifest in all the palace, and in all
other places." (Phil. i, 12, 13.) For the same cause that
common observation has acquired all its just celebrity: "The
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." What shall
we say to these things? "The stone which the builders
refused, is become the head stone of the corner: This is the
Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes." (Psalm cxviii,
22, 23.)
Subjoin to these the tremendous judgments of God on the
persecutors of this doctrine, and the miserable death of the
tyrants. One of these, at the very moment when he was
breathing out his polluted and unhappy spirit, was inwardly
constrained publicly to proclaim, though in a frantic and
outrageous tone, the divinity of this doctrine in these
remarkable words: "Thou Hast Conquered, O Galilean!"
Who is there, now, that, with eyes freed from all prejudice,
will look upon such clear proofs of the divinity of
Scripture, and that will not instantly confess: the Apostle
Paul had the best reasons for exclaiming, "If our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not; lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image
of God, should shine unto them." (2 Cor. iv, 3, 4) As if he
had said, "This is not human darkness; neither is it drawn as
a thick veil over the mind by man himself; but it is
diabolical darkness, and spread by the devil, the prince of
darkness, upon the mind of man, over whom, by the just
judgment of God, he exercises at his pleasure the most
absolute tyranny. If this were not the case, it would be
impossible for this darkness to remain; but, how great soever
its density might be, it would be dispersed by this light
which shines with such overpowering brilliancy."
6. THE SANCTITY OF THOSE BY WHOM IT HAS BEEN ADMINISTERED
The sanctity of those by whom the word was first announced to
men and by whom it was committed to writing, conduces to the
same purpose -- to prove its Divinity. For since it appears
that those who were entrusted with the discharge of this
duty, had divested themselves of the wisdom of the world, and
of the feelings and affections of the flesh, entirely putting
off the old man -- and that they were completely eaten up and
consumed by their zeal for the glory of God and the salvation
of men -- it is manifest that such great sanctity as this had
been inspired and infused into them, by Him alone who is the
Holiest of the holy.
Let Moses be the first that is introduced: He was treated in
a very injurious manner by a most ungrateful people, and was
frequently marked out for destruction; yet was he prepared to
purchase their salvation by his own banishment. He said, when
pleading with God, "Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin;
and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou
hast written." (Exod. xxxii, 32.) Behold his zeal for the
salvation of the people entrusted to his charge -- a zeal for
the glory of God! Would you see another reason for this wish
to be devoted to destruction? Read what he had previously
said: "Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say? For
mischief did the Lord bring them out to slay them in the
mountains," (Exod. xxxii, 12,) "because he was not able to
bring them out unto the land which he swear unto their
Fathers." (Num. xiv, 16.) We observe the same zeal in Paul,
when he wishes that himself "were accursed from Christ for
his brethren the Jews, his kinsmen according to the flesh,"
(Rom. 9) from whom he had suffered many and great
indignities.
David was not ashamed publicly to confess his heavy and
enormous crimes, and to commit them to writing as an eternal
memorial to posterity. Samuel did not shrink from marking in
the records of perpetuity the detestable conduct of his sons;
and Moses did not hesitate to bear a public testimony against
the iniquity and the madness of his ancestors. If even the
least desire of a little glory had possessed their minds,
they might certainly have been able to indulge in
taciturnity, and to conceal in silence these circumstances of
disgrace. Those of them who were engaged in describing the
deeds and achievements of other people, were unacquainted
with the art of offering adulation to great men and nobles,
and of wrongfully attributing to their enemies any unworthy
deed or motive. With a regard to truth alone, in promoting
the glory of God, they placed all persons on an equality; and
made no other distinction between them than that which God
himself has commanded to be made between piety and
wickedness. On receiving from the hand of God their
appointment to this office, they at once and altogether bade
farewell to all the world, and to all the desires which are
in it. "Each of them said unto his father and to his mother,
I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren;
for they observed the word of God, and kept his covenant."
(Deut. xxxiii, 9.)
7. THE CONSTANCY OF ITS PROFESSORS AND MARTYRS
But what shall we say respecting the constancy of the
professors and martyrs, which they displayed in the torments
that they endured for the truth of this doctrine? Indeed, if
we subject this constancy to the view of the most inflexible
enemies of the doctrine, we shall extort from unwilling
judges a confession of its Divinity. But, that the strength
of this argument may be placed in a clearer light, the mind
must be directed to four particulars: the multitude of the
martyrs, and their condition; the torments which their
enemies inflicted on them, and the patience which they
evinced in enduring them.
(1.) If we direct our inquiries to the multitude of them, it
is innumerable, far exceeding thousands of thousands; on this
account it is out of the power of any one to say, that,
because it was the choice of but a few persons, it ought to
be imputed to frenzy or to weariness of a life that was full
of trouble.
(2.) If we inquire into their condition, we shall find nobles
and peasants, those in authority and their subjects, the
learned and the unlearned, the rich and the poor, the old and
the young; persons of both sexes, men and women, the married
and the unmarried, men of a hardy constitution and inured to
dangers, and girls of tender habits who had been delicately
educated, and whose feet had scarcely ever before stumbled
against the smallest pebble that arose above the surface of
their smooth and level path. Many of the early martyrs were
honourable persons of this description, that no one might
think them to be inflamed by a desire of glory, or
endeavouring to gain applause by the perseverance and
magnanimity that they had evinced in the maintenance of the
sentiments which they had embraced.
(3.) Some of the torments inflicted on such a multitude of
persons and of such various circumstances in life, were of a
common sort, and others unusual, some of them quick in their
operation and others of them slow. Part of the unoffending
victims were nailed to crosses and part of them were
decapitated; some were drowned in rivers, whilst others were
roasted before a slow fire. Several were ground to powder by
the teeth of wild beasts, or were torn in pieces by their
fangs; many were sawn asunder, while others were stoned; and
not a few of them were subjected to punishments which cannot
be expressed, but which are accounted most disgraceful and
infamous, on account of their extreme turpitude and
indelicacy. No species of savage cruelty was omitted which
either the ingenuity of human malignity could invent, which
rage the most conspicuous and furious could excite, or which
even the infernal labouratory of the court of hell could
supply.
(4.) And yet, that we may come at once to the patience of
these holy confessors, they bore all these tortures with
constancy and equanimity; nay, they endured them with such a
glad heart and cheerful countenance, as to fatigue even the
restless fury of their persecutors, which has often been
compelled, when wearied out, to yield to the unconquerable
strength of their patience, and to confess itself completely
vanquished. And what was the cause of all this endurance? It
consisted in their unwillingness to recede in the least point
from that religion, the denial of which was the only
circumstance that might enable them to escape danger, and, in
many instances, to acquire glory. What then was the reason of
the great patience which they shewed under their acute
sufferings? It was because they believed, that when this
short life was ended, and after the pains and distresses
which they were called to endure on earth, they would obtain
a blessed immortality. In this particular the combat which
God has maintained with Satan, appears to have resembled a
duel; and the result of it has been, that the Divinity of
God's word has been raised as a superstructure out of the
infamy and ruin of Satan.
8. THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH
The divine Omnipotence and Wisdom have principally employed
these arguments, to prove the Divinity of this blessed word.
But, that the Church might not defile herself by that basest
vice, ingratitude of heart, and that she might perform a
supplementary service in aid of God her Author and of Christ
her Head, she also by her testimony adds to the Divinity of
this word. But it is only an addition; she does not impart
Divinity to it; her province is merely an indication of the
Divine nature of this word, but she does not communicate to
it the impress of Divinity. For unless this word had been
Divine when there was no Church in existence, it would not
have been possible for her members "to be born of this word,
as of incorruptible seed," (1 Pet. i, 23,) to become the sons
of God, and, through faith in this word, "to be made
partakers of the Divine Nature." (2 Pet. i, 4.) The very name
of "authority" takes away from the Church the power of
conferring Divinity on this doctrine. For Authority is
derived from an Author: But the Church is not the Author, she
is only the nursling of this word, being posterior to it in
cause, origin, and time. We do not listen to those who raise
this objection: "The Church is of greater antiquity than the
scripture, because at the time when that word had not been
consigned to writing, the Church had even then an existence."
To trifle in a serious matter with such cavils as this, is
highly unbecoming in Christians, unless they have changed
their former godly manners and are transformed into Jesuits.
The Church is not more ancient than this saying: "The seed of
the woman shall bruise the serpent's head ;" (Gen. iii, 15,)
although she had an existence before this sentence was
recorded by Moses in Scripture. For it was by the faith which
they exercised on this saying, that Adam and Eve became the
Church of God; since, prior to that, they were traitors,
deserters and the kingdom of Satan -- that grand deserter and
apostate. The Church is indeed the pillar of the truth, (1
Tim. iii, 15,) but it is built upon that truth as upon a
foundation, and thus directs to the truth, and brings it
forward into the sight of men. In this way the Church
performs the part of a director and a witness to this truth,
and its guardian, herald, and interpreter. But in her acts of
interpretation, the Church is confined to the sense of the
word itself, and is tied down to the expressions of
Scripture: for, according to the prohibition of St. Paul, it
neither becomes her to be wise above that which is written;"
(1 Cor. iv, 6,) nor is it possible for her to be so, since
she is hindered both by her own imbecility, and the depth of
things divine.
But it will reward our labour, if in a few words we examine
the efficacy of this testimony, since such is the pleasure of
the Papists, who constitute "the authority of the Church" the
commencement and the termination of our certainty, when she
bears witness to the scripture that it is the word of God. In
the first place, the efficacy of the testimony does not
exceed the veracity of the witness. The veracity of the
Church is the veracity of men. But the veracity of men is
imperfect and inconstant, and is always such as to give
occasion to this the remark of truth, "All men are liars."
Neither is the veracity of him that speaks, sufficient to
obtain credit to his testimony, unless the veracity of him
who bears witness concerning the truth appear plain and
evident to him to whom he makes the declaration. But in what
manner will it be possible to make the veracity of the Church
plain and evident? This must be done, either by a notion
conceived , long time before, or by an impression recently
made on the minds of the hearers. But men possess no such
innate notion of the veracity of the Church as is tantamount
to that which declares, "God is true and cannot lie." (Tit.
i, 2.) It is necessary, therefore, that it be impressed by
some recent action; such impression being made either from
within or from without. But the Church is not able to make
any inward impression, for she bears her testimony by
external instruments alone, and does not extend to the inmost
parts of the soul. The impression, therefore, will be
external; which can be no other than a display and indication
of her knowledge and probity, as well as testimony, often
truly so called. But all these things can produce nothing
more than an opinion in the minds of those to whom they are
offered. Opinion, therefore, and not knowledge, is the
supreme effect of this efficacy.
But the Papists retort, "that Christ himself established the
authority of his Church by this saying, "He that heareth you,
heareth me." (Luke x, 16.) When these unhappy reasoners speak
thus, they seem not to be aware that they are establishing
the authority of Scripture before that of the Church. For it
is necessary that credence should be given to that expression
as it was pronounced by Christ, before any authority can, on
its account, be conceded to the Church. But the same reason
will be as tenable in respect to the whole Scripture as to
this expression. Let the Church then be content with that
honour which Christ conferred on her when he made her the
guardian of his word, and appointed her to be the director
and witness to it, the herald and the interpreter.
III. Yet since the arguments arising from all those
observations which we have hitherto adduced, and from any
others which are calculated to prove the Divinity of the
scriptures, can neither disclose to us a right understanding
of the scriptures, nor seal on our minds those meanings which
we have understood, (although the certainty of faith which
God demands from us, and requires us to exercise in his word,
consists of these meanings,) it is a necessary consequence,
that to all these things ought to be added something else, by
the efficacy of which that certainty may be produced in our
minds. And this is the very subject on which we are not
prepared to treat in this the third part of our discourse
9. THE INTERNAL WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We declare, therefore, and we continue to repeat the
declaration, till the gates of hell re-echo the sound, "that
the Holy Spirit, by whose inspiration holy men of God have
spoken this word, and by whose impulse and guidance they
have, as his amanuenses, consigned it to writing; that this
Holy Spirit is the author of that light by the aid of which
we obtain a perception and an understanding of the divine
meanings of the word, and is the Effector of that Certainty
by which we believe those meaning to be truly divine; and
that He is the necessary Author, the all sufficient
Effector." (1.) Scripture demonstrates that He is the
necessary Author, when it says, "The things of God knoweth no
man but the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. ii, 11.) No man can say
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." (1 Cor. xii,
3.) (2.) But the Scripture introduced him as the sufficient
and the more than sufficient Effector, when it declares, "The
wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, he
hath revealed unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God." (1 Cor. ii, 7, 10.)
The sufficiency, therefore, of the Spirit proceeds from the
plenitude of his knowledge of the secrets of God, and from
the very efficacious revelation which he makes of them. This
sufficiency of the Spirit cannot be more highly extolled than
it is in a subsequent passage, in which the same apostle most
amply commends it, by declaring, "he that is spiritual [a
partaker of this revelation,] judgeth all things," (verse
15,) as having the mind of Christ through his Spirit, which
he has received. Of the same sufficiency the Apostle St. John
is the most illustrious herald. In his general Epistle he
writes these words: "But the anointing which ye have received
of Him, abideth in you; and ye need not that any man teach
you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,
and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you,
ye shall abide in Him." (1 John ii, 27.) "He that believeth
on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself." (1 John v,
10.) To the Thessalonians another apostle writes thus: "Our
Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and
in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. (1 Thess. i, 3.) In
this passage he openly attributes to the power of the Holy
Ghost the Certainty by which the faithful receive the word of
the gospel. The Papists reply, "Many persons boast of the
revelation of the Spirit, who, nevertheless, are destitute of
such a revelation. It is impossible, therefore, for the
faithful safely to rest in it." Are these fair words? Away
with such blasphemy! If the Jews glory in their Talmud and
their Cabala, and the Mahometans in their Alcoran, and if
both of these boast themselves that they are Churches, cannot
credence therefore be given with sufficient safety to the
scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, when they affirm
their Divine Origin? Will the true Church be any less a
Church because the sons of the stranger arrogate that title
to themselves? This is the distinction between opinion and
knowledge. It is their opinion, that they know that of which
they are really ignorant. But they who do know it, have an
assured perception of their knowledge. "It is the Spirit that
beareth witness that the Spirit is truth" (1 John v, 8,) that
is, the doctrine and the meanings comprehended in that
doctrine, are truth."
"But that attesting witness of the Spirit which is revealed
in us, cannot convince others of the truth of the Divine
word." What then? It will convince them when it has also
breathed on them: it will breathe its Divine afflatus on
them, if they be the sons of the church, all of whom shall be
taught of God: every man of them will hear and learn of the
Father, and will come unto Christ." (John vi, 45.) Neither
can the testimony of any Church convince all men of the truth
and divinity of the sacred writings. The Papists, who
arrogate to themselves exclusively the title of "the Church,"
experience the small degree of credit which is given to their
testimonies, by those who have not received an afflatus from
the spirit of the Roman See.
"But it is necessary that there should be a testimony in the
Church of such a high character as to render it imperative on
all men to pay it due deference." True. It was the incumbent
duty of the Jews to pay deference to the testimony of Christ
when he was speaking to them; the Pharisees ought not to have
contradicted Stephen in the midst of his discourse; and Jews
and Gentiles, without any exception, were bound to yield
credence to the preaching of the apostles, confirmed as it
was by so many and such astonishing miracles. But the duties
here recited, were disregarded by all these parties. What was
the reason of this their neglect? The voluntary hardening of
their hearts, and that blindness of their minds, which was
introduced by the Devil.
If the Papists still contend, that "such a testimony as this
ought to exist in the Church, against which no one shall
actually offer any contradiction," we deny the assertion. And
experience testifies, that a testimony of this kind never yet
had an existence, that it does not now exist, and (if we may
form our judgment from the scriptures,) we certainly think
that it never will exist.
"But perhaps the Holy Ghost, who is the Author and Effector
of this testimony, has entered into an engagement with the
Church, not to inspire and seal on the minds of men this
certainty, except through her, and by the intervention of her
authority." The Holy Ghost does, undoubtedly, according to
the good pleasure of his own will, make use of some organ or
instrument in performing these his offices. But this
instrument is the word of God, which is comprehended in the
sacred books of scripture; an instrument produced and brought
forward by Himself, and instructed in his truth. The Apostle
to the Hebrews in a most excellent manner describes the
efficacy which is impressed on this instrument by the Holy
Spirit, in these words: "For the word of God is quick and
powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart." (Heb. iv, 10.) Its effect is called "Faith," by
the Apostle. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God." (Rom. x, 7.) If any act of the Church occurs in
this place, it is that by which she is occupied in the
sincere preaching of this word, and by which she sedulously
exercises herself in promoting its publication. But even this
is not so properly the occupation of the Church, as of "the
Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers," whom
Christ has constituted his labourers "for the edifying of his
body, which is the Church.'" (Ephes. iv, 11.) But we must in
this place deduce an observation from the very nature of
things in genera], as well as of this thing in particular; it
is, that the First Cause can extend much farther by its own
action, than it is possible for an instrumental cause to do;
and that the Holy Ghost gives to the word all that force
which he afterwards employs, such being the great efficacy
with which it is endued and applied, that whomsoever he only
counsels by his word he himself persuades by imparting Divine
meanings to the word, by enlightening the mind as with a
lamp, and by inspiring and sealing it by his own immediate
action. The Papists pretend, that certain acts are necessary
to the production of true faith; and they say that those acts
cannot be performed except by the judgment and testimony of
the Church -- such as to believe that any book is the
production of Matthew or Luke -- to discern between a
Canonical and an Apocryphal verse, and to distinguish between
this or that reading, according to the variation in different
copies. But, since there is a controversy concerning the
weight and necessity of those acts, and since the dispute is
no less than how far they may be performed by the Church --
lest I should fatigue my most illustrious auditory by two
great prolixity, I will omit at present any further mention
of these topics; and will by Divine assistance explain them
at some future opportunity.
My most illustrious and accomplished hearers, we have already
perceived, that both the pages of our sacred Theology are
full of God and Christ, and of the Spirit of both of them. If
any inquiry be made for the Object, God and Christ by the
Spirit are pointed out to us. If we search for the Author,
God and Christ by the operation of the Spirit spontaneously
occur. If we consider the End proposed, our union with God
and Christ offers itself -- an end not to be obtained except
through the communication of the Spirit. If we inquire
concerning the Truth and Certainty of the doctrine; God in
Christ, by means of the efficacy of the Holy Ghost, most
clearly convinces our minds of the Truth, and in a very
powerful manner seals the Certainty on our hearts.
All the glory, therefore, of this revelation is deservedly
due to God and Christ in the Holy Spirit: and most deservedly
are thanks due from us to them, and must be given to them,
through the Holy Ghost, for such an august and necessary
benefit as this which they have conferred on us. But we can
present to our God and Christ in the Holy Spirit no gratitude
more grateful, and can ascribe no glory more glorious, than
this, the application of our minds to an assiduous
contemplation and a devout meditation on the knowledge of
such a noble object. But in our meditations upon it, (to
prevent us from straying into the paths of error,) let us
betake ourselves to the revelation which has been made of
this doctrine. From the word of this revelation alone, let us
learn the wisdom of endeavouring, by an ardent desire and in
an unwearied course, to attain unto that ultimate design
which ought to be our constant aim -- that most blessed end
of our union with God and Christ. Let us never indulge in any
doubts concerning the truth of this revelation; but, "the
full assurance of faith being impressed upon our minds and
hearts by the inspiration and sealing of the Holy Spirit, let
us adhere to this word, "till[at length] we all come in the
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ." (Ephes. iv, 13.) I most humbly
supplicate and intreat God our merciful Father, that he would
be pleased to grant this great blessing to us, through the
Son of his love, and by the communication of his Holy Spirit.
And to him be ascribed all praise, and honour, and glory,
forever and ever. Amen.
ORATION IV
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST
The Noble the Lord Rector -- the Very Famous, Reverend,
Skillful, Intelligent, and Learned Men, who are the Fathers
of this Most Celebrated University -- the Rest of You, Most
Worthy Strangers of Every Degree -- and You, Most Noble and
Studious Young Men, who are the Nursery of the Republic and
the Church, and who are Increasing Every Day in Bloom and
vigour:
If there be any order of men in whom it is utterly unbecoming
to aspire after the honours of this world, especially after
those honours which are accompanied by pomp and applause,
that, without doubt, is the order ecclesiastical -- a body of
men who ought to be entirely occupied with a zeal for God,
and for the attainment of that glory which is at his
disposal. Yet, since, according to the laudable institutions
of our ancestors, the usage has obtained in all well
regulated Universities, to admit no man to the office of
instructor in them, who has not previously signalized himself
by some public and solemn testimony of probity and scientific
ability -- this sacred order of men have not refused a
compliance with such public modes of decision, provided they
be conducted in a way that is holy, decorous, and according
to godliness. So far, indeed, are those who have been set
apart to the pastoral office from being averse to public
proceedings of this kind, that they exceedingly covet and
desire them alone, because they conceive them to be of the
first necessity to the Church of Christ. For they are mindful
of this apostolical charge, "Lay hands suddenly on no man ;"
(1 Tim. v, 29,) and of the other, which directs that a Bishop
and a Teacher of the Church be "apt to teach, holding fast
the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be
able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the
gainsayers." (Tit. i, 9.) I do not, therefore, suppose one
person, in this numerous assembly, can be so ignorant of the
public ceremonies of this University, or can hold them in
such little estimation, as either to evince surprise at the
undertaking in which we are now engaged, or wish to give it
an unfavourable interpretation. But since it has always been
a part of the custom of our ancestors, in academic
festivities of this description, to choose some subject of
discourse, the investigation of which in the fear of the Lord
might promote the Divine glory and the profit of the hearers,
and might excite them to pious and importunate supplication,
I also can perceive no cause why I ought not conscientiously
to comply with this custom. And although at the sight of this
very respectable, numerous and learned assembly, I feel
strongly affected with a sense of my defective eloquence and
tremble not a little, yet I have selected a certain theme for
my discourse which agrees well with my profession, and is
full of grandeur, sublimnity and adorable majesty. In making
choice of it, I have not been overawed by the edict of
Horace, which says,
"Select, all ye who write, a subject fit, A subject not too
mighty for your wit! And ere you lay your shoulders to the
wheel, Weigh well their strength, and all their wetness
feel!"
For this declaration is not applicable in the least to
theological subjects, all of which by their dignity and
importance exceed the capacity and mental energy of every
human being, and of angels themselves. A view of them so
affected the Apostle Paul, (who, rapt up into the third
heaven, had heard words ineffable,) that they compelled him
to break forth into this exclamation: "Who is sufficient for
these things," (2 Cor. ii, 16.) If, therefore, I be not
permitted to disregard the provisions of this Horatian
statute, I must either transgress the boundaries of my
profession, or be content to remain silent. But I am
permitted to disregard the terms of this statute; and to do
so, is perfectly lawful.
For whatever things tend to the glory of God and to the
salvation of men, ought to be celebrated in a devout spirit
in the congregations of the saints, and to be proclaimed with
a grateful voice. I therefore propose to speak on THE
PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST: Not because I have persuaded myself of
my capability to declare anything concerning it, which is
demanded either by the dignity of my subject, or by the
respectability of this numerous assembly; for it will be
quite sufficient, and I shall consider that I have abundantly
discharged my duty, if according to the necessity of the case
I shall utter something that will contribute to the general
edification: But I choose this theme that I may obtain, in
behalf of my oration, such grace and favour from the
excellence of its subject, as I cannot possibly confer on it
by any eloquence in the mode of my address. Since, however,
it is impossible for us either to form in our minds just and
holy conceptions about such a sublime mystery, or to give
utterance to them with our lips, unless the power of God
influence our mental faculties and our tongues, let us by
prayer and supplication implore his present aid, in the name
of Jesus Christ our great High Priest. "Do thou, therefore, O
holy and merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Fountain of all grace and truth, vouchsafe to grant thy
favourable presence to us who are a great congregation
assembled together in thy holy name. Sprinkle thou our
spirits, souls, and bodies, with the most gracious dew of thy
immeasurable holiness, that the converse of thy saints with
each other may be pleasing to thee. Assist us by the grace of
thy Holy Spirit, who may yet more and more illuminate our
minds -- imbued with the true knowledge of Thyself and thy
Son; may He also inflame our hearts with a sincere zeal for
thy glory; may He open my mouth and guide my tongue, that I
may be enabled to declare concerning the Priesthood of thy
Son those things which are true and just and holy, to the
glory of thy name and to the gathering of all of us together
in the Lord. Amen."
Having now in an appropriate manner offered up those vows
which well become the commencement of our undertaking, we
will, by the help of God, proceed to the subject posed, after
I have intreated all of you, who have been pleased to grace
this solemn act of ours with your noble, learned and most
gratifying presence, to give me that undivided attention
which the subject deserves, while I speak on a matter of the
most serious importance, and, according to your accustomed
kindness, to shew me that favour and benevolence which are to
me of the greatest necessity. That I may not abuse your
patience, I engage to consult brevity as much as our theme
will allow. But we must begin with the very first principles
of Priesthood, that from thence the discourse may
appropriately be brought down to the Priesthood of Christ, on
which we profess to treat.
First. The first of those relations which subsist between God
and men, has respect to something given and something
received. The latter requires another relation supplementary
to itself -- a relation which taking its commencement from
men, may terminate in God; and that is, an acknowledgment of
a benefit received, to the honour of the munificent Donor. It
is also a debt, due on account of a benefit already
conferred, but which is not to be paid except on the demand
and according to the regulation of the Giver; whose intention
it has always been, that the will of a creature should not be
the measure of his honour. His benignity likewise is so
immense, that he never requires from those who are under
obligations to him, the grateful acknowledgment of the
benefit communicated in the first instance, except when he
has bound them to himself by the larger, and far superior
benefit, of a mutual covenant. But the extreme trait in that
goodness, is, that he has bound himself to bestow on the same
persons favours of yet greater excellence by infinite
degrees. This is the order which he adopts; he wishes himself
first to be engaged to them, before they are considered to be
engaged to Him. For every covenant; that is concluded between
God and men, consists of two parts: (1.) The preceding
promise of God, by which he obliges himself to some duty and
to acts correspondent with that duty: and (2.) The subsequent
definition and appointment of the duty, which, it is
stipulated, shall in return be required of men, and according
to which a mutual correspondence subsists between men and
God. He promises, that he will be to them a king and a God,
and that he will discharge towards them all the offices of a
good King; while he stipulates, as a counter obligation, that
they become his people, that in this relation they live
according to his commands and that they ask and expect all
blessings from his goodness. These two acts -- a life
according to his commands, and an expectation of all
blessings from his goodness -- comprise the duty of men
towards God, according to the covenant into which he first
entered with them.
On the whole, therefore, the duties of two functions are to
be performed between God and men who have entered into
covenant with him: First, a regal one, which is of supreme
authority: Secondly, a religious one, of devoted submission.
(1.) The use of the former is in the communication of every
needful good, and in the imposing of laws or the act of
legislation. Under it we likewise comprehend the gift of
prophecy, which is nothing more than the annunciation of the
royal pleasure, whether it be communicated by God himself, or
by some one of his deputies or ambassadors as a kind of
internuncio to the covenant. That no one may think the
prophetic office, of which the scriptures make such frequent
mention, is a matter of little solicitude to us, we assign it
the place of a substitute under the Chief Architect.
(2.) But the further consideration of the regal duty being at
present omitted, we shall proceed to a nearer inspection of
that which is religious.. We have already deduced its origin
from the act of covenanting; we have propounded it, in the
exercise of the regal office, as something that is due; and
we place its proper action in thanksgiving and intreaty. This
action is required to be religiously performed, according to
their common vocation, by every one of the great body of
those who are in covenant; and to this end they have been
sanctified by the word of the covenant, and have all been
constituted priests to God, that they might offer gifts and
prayers to The Most High. But since God loves order, he who
is himself the only instance of order in its perfection,
willed that, out of the number of those who were sanctified,
some one should in a peculiar manner be separated to him;
that he who was thus set apart should, by a special and
extraordinary vocation, be qualified for the office of the
priesthood; and that, approaching more intimately and with
greater freedom to the throne of God, he should, in the place
of his associates in the same covenant and religion, take the
charge and management of whatever affairs were to be
transacted before God on their account.
From this circumstance is to be traced the existence of the
office of the priesthood, the duties of which were to be
discharged before God in behalf of others -- an office
undoubtedly of vast dignity and of special honour among
mankind. Although the priest must be taken from among men,
and must be appointed in their behalf, yet it does not
appertain to men themselves, to designate whom they will to
sustain that office; neither does it belong to any one to
arrogate that honour to himself. But as the office itself is
an act of the divine pleasure, so likewise the choice of the
person who must discharge its duties, rests with God himself:
and it was his will, that the office should be fulfilled by
him who for some just reason held precedence among his
kindred by consanguinity. This was the father and master of
the family, and his successor was the first born. We have
examples of this in the holy patriarchs, both before and
after the deluge. We behold this expressly in Noah, Abraham,
and Job. There are also those, (not occupying the lowest
seats in judgment,) who say that Cain and Abel brought their
sacrifices to Adam their father, that he might offer them to
the Lord; and they derive this opinion from the word aykh
used in the same passage. Though these examples are selected
from the description of that period when sin had made its
entrance into the world, yet a confirmation of their truth is
obtained in this primitive institution of the human race, of
which we are now treating. For it is peculiar to that period,
that all the duties of the priesthood were confined within
the act of offering only an eucharistic sacrifice and
supplications. Having therefore in due form executed these
functions, the priest, in the name of his compeers, was by
the appeased Deity admitted to a familiar intercourse with
Him, and obtained from Him a charge to execute among his
kindred, in the name of God himself, and as "the messenger,
or angel, of the Lord of Hosts." For the Lord revealed to him
the Divine will and pleasure; that, on returning from his
intercourse with God, he might declare it to the people. This
will of God consisted of two parts: (1.) That which he
required to be performed by his covenant people; and (2.)
That which it was his wish to perform for their benefit. In
this charge, which was committed to the priest, to be
executed by him, the administration of prophecy was also
included; on which account it is said, "They should seek the
LAW at the mouth of the priest, for he is the messenger of
the Lord of Hosts." (Mal. ii, 7.) And since that second part
of the Divine will was to be proclaimed from an assured trust
and confidence in the truth of the Divine promises, and with
a holy and affectionate feeling toward his own species -- in
that view, he was invested with a commission to dispense
benedictions. In this manner, discharging the duties of a
double embassy, (that of men to God, and that of God to men,)
he acted, on both sides, the part of a Mediator of the
covenant into which the parties had mutually entered.
Nevertheless, not content with having conferred this honour
on him whom he had sanctified, our God, all-bountiful,
elevated him likewise to the delegated or vicarious dignity
of the regal office, that he, bearing the image of God among
his brethren, might then be able to administer justice to
them in His Name, and might manage, for their common benefit,
those affairs with which he was entrusted. From this source
arose what may be considered the native union of the Priestly
and the Kingly offices, which also obtained among the holy
patriarchs after the entrance of sin, and of which express
mention is made in the person of Melchizedec. This was
signified in a general manner by the patriarch Jacob, when he
declared Reuben, his first born son, to be "the excellency of
dignity and the excellency of power," which were his due on
account of the right of primogeniture. For certain reasons,
however, the kingly functions were afterwards separated from
the priestly, by the will of God, who, dividing them into two
parts among his people the children of Israel, transferred
the kingly office to Judah and the priestly to Levi.
But it was proper, that this approach to God, through the
oblation of an eucharistic sacrifice and prayers, should be
made with a pure mind, holy affections, and with hands, as
well as the other members of the body, free from defilement.
This was required, even before the first transgression.
"Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy; for I the Lord your God
am holy." (Lev. xix, 2, &c.) "God heareth not sinners." (John
ix, 31.) "Bring no more vain oblations, for your hands are
full of blood." (Isa. i, 15). The will of God respecting
this is constant and perpetual. But Adam, who was the first
man and the first priest, did not long administer his office
in a becoming manner; for, refusing to obey God, he tasted
the fruit of the forbidden tree; and, by that foul crime of
disobedience and revolt, he at once defiled his soul which
had been sanctified to God, and his body. By this wicked deed
he both lost all right to the priesthood, and was in reality
deprived of it by the Divine sentence, which was clearly
signified by his expulsion from Paradise, where he had
appeared before God in that which was a type of His own
dwelling-place. This was in accordance with the invariable
rule of Divine Justice: "Be it far from me, [that thou
shouldst any longer discharge before me the duties of the
priesthood:] for them that honour me, I will honour; and they
that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed." (1 Sam. ii, 30.)
But he did not fall alone: All whose persons he at that time
represented and whose cause he pleaded, (although they had
not then come into existence,) were with him cast down from
the elevated summit of such a high dignity. Neither did they
fall from the priesthood only, but likewise from the
covenant, of which the priest was both the Mediator and the
Internuncio; and God ceased to be the King and God of men,
and men were no longer recognized as his people. The
existence of the priesthood itself was at an end; for there
was no one capable of fulfilling its duties according to the
design of that covenant. The eucharistic sacrifice, the
invocation of the name of God, and the gracious communication
between God and men, all ceased together.
Most miserable, and deserving of the deepest commiseration,
was the condition of mankind in that state of their affairs,
if this declaration be a true one, "Happy is the people whose
God is the Lord !" (Psalm cxliv, 15.) And this inevitable
misery would have rested upon Adam and his race for ever, had
not Jehovah, full of mercy and commiseration, deigned to
receive them into favour, and resolved to enter into another
covenant with the same parties; not according to that which
they had transgressed, and which was then become obsolete and
had been abolished; but into a new covenant of grace. But the
Divine justice and truth could not permit this to be done,
except through the agency of an umpire and surety, who might
undertake the part of a Mediator between the offended God and
sinners. Such a Mediator could not then approach to God with
an eucharistic sacrifice for benefits conferred upon the
human race, or with prayers which might intreat only for a
continuance and an increase of them: But he had to approach
into the Divine presence to offer sacrifice for the act of
hostility which they had committed against God by
transgressing his commandment, and to offer prayers for
obtaining the remission of their transgressions. Hence arose
the necessity of an Expiatory Sacrifice; and, on that
account, a new priesthood was to be instituted, by the
operation of which the sin that had been committed might be
expiated, and access to the throne of God's grace might be
granted to man through a sinner: this is the priesthood which
belongs to our Christ, the Anointed One, alone.
But God, who is the Supremely Wise Disposer of times and
seasons, would not permit the discharge of the functions
appertaining to this priesthood to commence immediately after
the formation of the world, and the introduction of sin. It
was his pleasure, that the necessity of it should be first
correctly understood and appreciated, by a conviction on
men's consciences of the multitude, heinousness and
aggravated nature of their sins. It was also his will, that
the minds of men should be affected with a serious and
earnest desire for it, yet so that they might in the mean
time be supported against despair, arising from a
consciousness of their sins, which could not be removed
except by means of that Divine priesthood, the future
commencement of which inspired them with hope and confidence.
All these purposes God effected by the temporary institution
of that typical priesthood, the duties of which infirm and
sinful men "after the law of a carnal commandment" could
perform, by the immolation of beasts sanctified for that
service; which priesthood was at first established in
different parts of the world, and afterwards among the
Israelites, who were specially elected to be a sacerdotal
nation. When the blood of beasts was shed, in which was their
life, (Lev. xvii, 14) the people contemplated, in the death
of the animals, their own demerits, for the beasts had not
sinned that they by death should be punished as victims for
transgression. After investigating this subject with greater
diligence, and deliberately weighing it in the equal balances
of their judgment, they plainly perceived and understood that
their sins could not possibly be expiated by those
sacrifices, which were of a species different from their own,
and more despicable and mean than human beings. From these
premises they must of necessity have concluded, that,
notwithstanding they offered those animals, they in such an
act delivered to God nothing less than their own bond,
sealing it in his presence with an acknowledgment of their
personal sins, and confessing the debt which they had
incurred. Yet, because these sacrifices were of Divine
Institution, and because God received them at the hands of
men as incense whose odour was fragrant and agreeable, from
these circumstances the offenders conceived the hope of
obtaining favour and pardon, reasoning thus within
themselves, as did Sampson's mother: "If the Lord were
pleased to kill us, he would not have received burnt-offering
and a meat-offering at our hands." (Judges xiii, 23.) With
such a hope they strengthened their spirits that were ready
to faint, and, confiding in the Divine promise, they expected
in all the ardour of desire the dispensation of a priesthood
which was prefigured under the typical one; "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." (1 Pet. i, 11.)
But, since the mind pants after the very delightful
consideration of this priesthood, our oration hastens towards
it; and, having some regard to the lateness of the hour, and
wishing not to encroach on your comfort, we shall omit any
further allusion to that branch of the priesthood which has
hitherto occupied our attention.
Secondly. In discoursing on the Priesthood of Christ, we will
confine our observations to three points; and, on condition
that you receive the succeeding part of my oration with that
kindness and attention which you have hitherto manifested,
and which I still hope and desire to receive, we will
describe: First. The Imposing of the Office. Secondly. Its
Execution and Administration. And Thirdly. The Fruits of the
Office thus Administered, and the Utility Which We Derive
From It.
I. In respect to the Imposing of the Office, the subject
itself presents us with three topics to be discussed in
order. (1.) The person who imposes it. (2.) The person on
whom it is imposed, or to whom it is entrusted. And (3.) The
manner of his appointment, and of his undertaking this
charge.
1. The person imposing it is God, the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Since this act of imposing belongs to the
economy and dispensation of our salvation, the persons who
are comprised under this one Divine Monarchy are to be
distinctly considered according to the rule of the
scriptures, which ought to have the precedence in this
inquiry, and according to the rules and guidance of the
orthodox Fathers that agree with those scriptures. It is J
EHOVAH who imposes this office, and who, while the princes of
darkness fret themselves and rage in vain, says to his
Messiah, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask
of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
possession." (Psalm ii, 8.) He it is who, when he commanded
Messiah to sit at his right hand, repeated his holy and
revered word with an oath, saying, "Thou art a Priest forever
after the order of Melchizedec." (Psalm cx, 4.) This is He
who imposes the office, and that by a right the most just and
deserved. For "with him we have to do, who, dwelling in the
light unto which no man can approach," remains continually in
the seat of his Majesty. He preserves his own authority safe
and unimpaired to himself, "without any abasement or
lessening of his person," as the voice of antiquity expresses
it; and retains entire, within himself, the right of
demanding satisfaction from the sinner for the injuries which
He has sustained. From this right he has not thought fit to
recede, or to resign any part of it, on account of the rigid
inflexibility of his justice, according to which he hates
iniquity and does not permit a wicked person to dwell in his
presence. This, therefore, is the Divine Person in whose
hands rest both the right and the power of imposition; the
fact of his having also the will, is decided by the very act
of imposition.
But an inquiry must be made into the Cause of this imposition
which we shall not find, except, first, in the conflict
between justice and gracious mercy; and, afterwards, in their
amicable agreement, or rather their junction by means of
wisdom's conciliating assistance.
(1.) Justice demanded, on her part, the punishment due to her
from a sinful creature; and this demand she the more rigidly
enforced, by the greater equity with which she had threatened
it, and the greater truth with which it had been openly
foretold and declared.
Gracious Mercy, like a pious mother, moving with bowels of
commiseration, desired to avert that punishment in which was
placed the extreme misery of the creature. For she thought
that, though the remission of that punishment was not due to
the cause of it, yet such a favour ought to be granted to her
by a right of the greatest equity; because it is one of her
chief properties to "rejoice against judgment." (James ii,
13.)
Justice, tenacious of her purpose, rejoined, that the throne
of grace, she must confess, was sublimely elevated above the
tribunal of justice: but she could not bear with patient
indifference that no regard should be paid to her, and her
suit not to be admitted, while the authority of managing the
whole affair was to be transferred to mercy. Since, however,
it was a part of the oath administered to justice when she
entered into office, "that she should render to every one his
own," she would yield entirely to mercy, provided a method
could be devised by which her own inflexibility could be
declared, as well as the excess of her hatred to sin.
(2.) But to find out that method, was not the province of
Mercy. It was necessary, therefore, to call in the aid of
Wisdom to adjust the mighty difference, and to reconcile by
an amicable union those two combatants that were, in God, the
supreme protectresses of all equity and goodness. Being
called upon, she came, and at once discovered a method, and
affirmed that it was possible to render to each of them that
which belonged to her; for if the punishment due to sin
appeared desirable to Justice and odious to Mercy, it might
be transmuted into an expiatory sacrifice, the oblation of
which, on account of the voluntary suffering of death, (which
is the punishment adjudged to sin,) might appease Justice,
and open such a way for Mercy as she had desired. Both of
them instantly assented to this proposal, and made a decree
according to the terms of agreement settled by Wisdom, their
common arbitrator.
2. But, that we may come to the Second Point, a priest was
next to be sought, to offer the sacrifice: For that was a
function of the priesthood. A sacrifice was likewise to be
sought; and with this condition annexed to it, that the same
person should be both priest and sacrifice. This was required
by the plan of the true priesthood and sacrifice, from which
the typical and symbolical greatly differs. But in the
different orders of creatures neither sacrifice nor priest
could be found.
It was not possible for an angel to become a priest; because
"he was to be taken from among men and to be ordained from
men in things pertaining to God." (Heb. v, 1.) Neither could
an angel be a sacrifice; because it was not just that the
death of an angel should be an expiation for a crime which a
man had perpetrated: And if this had even been most proper,
yet man could never have been induced to believe that an
angelical sacrifice had been offered by an angel for him, or,
if it had been so offered, that it was of the least avail.
Application was then to be made to men themselves. But, among
them, not one could be found in whom it would have been a
becoming act to execute the office of the priesthood, and who
had either ability or inclination for the undertaking. For
all men were sinners; all were terrified with a consciousness
of their delinquency; and all were detained captive under the
tyranny of sin and Satan. It was not lawful for a sinner to
approach to God, who is pure Light, for the purpose of
offering sacrifice; because, being affrighted by his own
internal perception of his crime, he could not support a
sight of the countenance of an incensed God, before whom it
was still necessary that he should appear. Being placed under
the dominion of sin and Satan, he was neither willing, nor
had he the power to will, to execute an office, the duties of
which were to be discharged for the benefit of others, out of
love to them. The same consideration likewise tends to the
rejection of every human sacrifice. Yet the priest was to be
taken from among men, and the oblation to God was to consist
of a human victim.
In this state of affairs, the assistance of Wisdom was again
required in the Divine Council. She declared that a man must
be born from among men, who might have a nature in common
with the rest of his brethren, that, being in all things
tempted as they were, he might be able to sympathize with
others in their sufferings; and yet, that he should neither
be reckoned in the order of the rest, nor should be made man
according to the law of the primitive creation and
benediction; that he should not be under dominion of sin;
that he should be one in whom Satan could find nothing worthy
of condemnation, who should not be tormented by a
consciousness of sin, and who should not even know sin, that
is, one who should be "born in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and yet without sin. For such a high priest became us, who is
holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners." (Heb.
vii, 26.) But, that he might have a community of nature with
men, he ought to be born of a human being; and, that he might
have no participation in crime with them, but might be holy,
he ought to be conceived by the Holy Ghost, because
sanctification is his proper work. By the Holy Spirit, the
nativity which was above and yet according to nature, might
through the virtue of the mystery, restore nature, as it
surpassed her in the transcendent excellence of the miracle.
But the dignity of this priesthood was greater, and its
functions more weighty and important, than man even in his
pure state was competent to sustain or discharge. The
benefits also to be obtained by it, infinitely exceeded the
value of man when in his greatest state of purity. Therefore,
the Word of God, who from the beginning was with God, and by
whom the worlds, and all things visible and invisible, were
created, ought himself to be made flesh, to undertake the
office of the priesthood, and to offer his own flesh to God
as a sacrifice for the life of the world. We now have the
person who was entrusted with the priesthood, and to whom the
province was assigned of atoning for the common offense: It
is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and of man, a high priest of
such great excellence, that the transgression whose demerits
have obtained this mighty Redeemer, might almost seem to have
been a happy circumstance.
3. Let us proceed to the mode of its being imposed or
undertaken. This mode is according to covenant, which, on
God's part, received an oath for its confirmation. As it is
according to covenant, it becomes a solemnity appointed by
God, with whom rests the appointment to the priesthood. For
the Levitical priesthood was conferred on Levi according to
covenant, as the Lord declares by the prophet Malachi: "My
covenant was with him of life and peace." (ii, 5.) It is,
however, peculiar to this priesthood of Christ, that the
covenant on which it is founded, was confirmed by an oath.
Let us briefly consider each of them.
The covenant into which God entered with our High Priest,
Jesus Christ, consisted, on the part of God, of the demand of
an action to be performed, and of the promise of an immense
remuneration. On the part of Christ, our High Priest, it
consisted of an accepting of the Promise, and a voluntary
engagement to Perform the Action. First, God required of him,
that he should lay down his soul as a victim in sacrifice for
sin, (Isa. liii, 11,) that he should give his flesh for the
light of the world, (John vi, 51,) and that he should pay the
price of redemption for the sins and the captivity of the
human race. God "promised" that, if he performed all this,
"he should see a seed whose days should be prolonged," (Isa.
liii, 11,) and that he should be himself "an everlasting
Priest after the order of Melchizedec," (cx, 4,) that is, he
should, by the discharge of his priestly functions, be
elevated to the regal dignity. Secondly, Christ, our High
Priest, accepted of these conditions, and permitted the
province to be assigned to him of atoning for our
transgressions, exclaiming "Lo, I come that I may do thy
will, O my God." (Psalm xl, 8.) But he accepted them under a
stipulation, that, on completing his great undertaking, he
should forever enjoy the honour of a priesthood similar to
that of Melchizedec, and that, being placed on his royal
throne, he might, as King of Righteousness and Prince of
Peace, rule in righteousness the people subject to his sway,
and might dispense peace to his people. He, therefore, "for
the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising
the shame," (Heb. xii, 2,) that, "being anointed with the oil
of gladness above his fellows," (Psalm xlv, 7,) he might sit
forever in the throne of equity at the right hand of the
throne of God.
Great, indeed, was the condescension of the all-powerful God
in being willing to treat with our High Priest rather in the
way of covenant, than by a display of his authority. And
strong were the pious affections of our High Priest, who did
not refuse to take upon himself, on our account, the
discharge of those difficult and arduous duties which were
full of pain, trouble, and misery. Most glorious act,
performed by thee, O Christ, who art infinite in goodness!
Thou great High Priest, accept of the honours due to thy
pious affection, and continue in that way to proceed to
glory, to the complete consecration of our salvation! For it
was the will of God, that the duties of the office should be
administered from a voluntary and disinterested zeal and
affection for his glory and the salvation of sinners; and it
was a deed worthy of his abundant benignity, to recompense
with a large reward the voluntary promptitude which Christ
exhibited.
God added an oath to the covenant, both for the purpose of
confirming it, and as a demonstration of the dignity and
unchangeable nature of that priesthood. Though the constant
and unvarying veracity of God's nature might very properly
set aside the necessity of an oath, yet as he had conformed
to the customs of men in their method of solemnizing
agreements, it was his pleasure by an oath to confirm his
covenant; that our High Priest, relying in assured hope on
the two-fold and immovable anchor of the promise and of the
oath, "might despise the shame and endure the cross." The
immutability and perpetuity of this priesthood have been
pointed out by the oath which was added to the covenant. For
whatever that be which God confirms by an oath, it is
something eternal and immutable.
But it may be asked, "Are not all the words which God speaks,
all the promises which he makes, and all the covenants into
which he enters, of the same nature, even when they are
unaccompanied by the sanctity of an oath ," Let me be
permitted to describe the difference between the two cases
here stated, and to prove it by an important example. There
are two methods or plans by which it might be possible for
man to arrive at a state of righteousness before God, and to
obtain life from him. The one is according to righteousness
through the law, by works and "of debt;" the other is
according to mercy through the gospel, "by grace, and through
faith:" These two methods are so constituted as not to allow
both of them to be in a course of operation at the same time;
but they proceed on the principle, that when the first of
them is made void, a vacancy may be created for the second.
In the beginning, therefore, it was the will of God to
prescribe to man the first of these methods; which
arrangement was required by his righteousness and the
primitive institution of mankind. But it was not his pleasure
to deal strictly with man according to the process of that
legal covenant, and peremptorily to pronounce a destructive
sentence against him in conformity with the rigor of the law.
Wherefore, he did not subjoin an oath to that covenant, lest
such an addition should have served to point out its
immutability, a quality which God would not permit it to
possess. The necessary consequence of this was, that when the
first covenant was made void through sin, a vacancy was
created by the good pleasure of God for another and a better
covenant, in the manifestation of which he employed an oath,
because it was to be the last and peremptory one respecting
the method of obtaining righteousness and life. "By myself
have I sworn, saith the Lord, that in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen. xxii, 18.) "As I
live, saith the Lord, have I any pleasure at all that the
wicked should die, and not that he should return from his
ways and live" (Ezek. xviii, 23.) "So I swear in my wrath,
They shall not enter into my rest. And to whom swear he that
they should not enter into his rest, but to them that
believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because
of unbelief." (Heb. iii, 11, 18.) For the same reason, it is
said, "The wrath of God, [from which it is possible for
sinners to be liberated by faith in Christ,] abides on those
who are unbelievers." (John iii, 36.) A similar process is
observed in relation to the priesthood. For he did not
confirm with an oath the Levitical priesthood, which had been
imposed until the time of reformation." (Heb. ix, 10.) But
because it was his will that the priesthood of Christ should
be everlasting, he ratified it by an oath. The apostle to the
Hebrews demonstrates the whole of this subject in the most
nervous style, by quotations from the 110th Psalm. Blessed
are we in whose behalf God was willing to swear! but most
miserable shall we be, if we do not believe on him who
swears. The greatest dignity is likewise obtained to this
priesthood, and imparted to it, by the addition of an oath,
which elevates it far above the honour to which that of Levi
attained. "For the law of a carnal commandment maketh men
priests who have infirmities, and are sinners, to offer both
gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him perfect who did
the service, as pertaining to the conscience;" (Heb. ix, 9)
neither could they abolish sin, or procure heavenly
blessings. "But the words of the oath, which was since the
law, constituteth the Son a High Priest consecrated
forevermore, who, after the power of an endless life and
through the Eternal Spirit, offers himself without spot to
God, and by that one offering, he perfects forever them that
are sanctified, their consciences being purified to serve the
living God: by how much also it was a more excellent
covenant, by so much the more ought it to be confirmed, since
it was established upon better promises: (Heb. 7-10,) and
that which God hath deigned to honour with the sanctity of an
oath, should be viewed as an object of the most momentous
importance.
II. We have spoken to the act of Imposing the priesthood, as
long as our circumscribed time will allow us. Let us
contemplate its Execution, in which we have to consider the
duties to be performed, and in them the feeling and condition
of who performs them. The functions to be executed were two:
(1.) The Oblation of an expiatory sacrifice, and (2.) Prayer.
1. The Oblation was preceded by a preparation through the
deepest privation and abasement, the most devoted obedience,
vehement supplications, and the most exquisitely painful
experience of human infirmities, on each of which it is not
now necessary to speak. The oblation consists of two parts
succeeding each other: The First is the immolation or
sacrifice of the body of Christ, by the shedding of his blood
on the altar of the cross, which was succeeded by death --
thus paying the price of redemption for sins by suffering the
punishment due to them. The Other Part consists of the
offering of his body re-animated and sprinkled with the blood
which he shed -- a symbol of the price which he has paid, and
of the redemption which he has obtained. The First Part of
this oblation was to be performed without the Holy of Holies,
that is, on earth, because no effusion of blood can take
place in heaven, since it is necessarily succeeded by death
For death has no more sway in heaven, in the presence and
sight of the majesty of the true God, than sin itself has,
which contains within it the deserts of death, and as death
contains within itself the punishment of sin. For thus says
the scriptures, "The Son of man came, not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for
many." (Matt. xx, 28.) "For this is my blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."
(Matt. xxvi, 28.) "Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom for
all, to be testified in due time." (1 Tim. ii, 6). But the
Second Part of this offering was to be accomplished in
heaven, in the Holy of Holies. For that body which had
suffered the punishment of death and had been recalled to
life, was entitled to appear before the Divine Majesty
besprinkled with its own blood, that, remaining thus before
God as a continual memorial, it might also be a perpetual
expiation for transgressions. On this subject, the Apostle
says: "Into the second tabernacle went the High Priest alone
once every year, not without blood, which he offered for
himself, and for the errors of the people. But Christ being
come a High Priest of good things to come, not by the blood
of goat, and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once
into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us;" (Heb. ix, 11) that is, by his own blood already poured
out and sprinkled upon him, that he might appear with it in
the presence of God. That act, being once performed, was
never repeated; "for in that he died, he died unto sin once."
But this is a perpetual act; "for in that he liveth, he
liveth unto God." (Rom. vi, 10.) "This man, because he
continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood." (Heb. vii,
24) The former was the act of the Lamb to be slain, the
latter, that of the Lamb already slain and raised again from
death to life. The one was completed in a state of the
deepest humiliation, the other in a state of glory; and both
of them out of a consummate affection for the glory of God
and the salvation of sinners. Sanctified by the anointing of
the Spirit, he completed the former act; and the latter was
likewise his work, when he had been further consecrated by
his sufferings and sprinkled with his own blood. By the
former, therefore, he sanctified himself, and made a kind of
preparation on earth that he might be qualified to discharge
the functions of the latter in heaven.
2. The Second of the two functions to be discharged, was the
act of prayer and intercession, the latter of which depends
upon the former. Prayer is that which Christ offers for
himself, and intercession is what he offers for believers;
each of which is most luminously described to us by John, in
the seventeenth chapter of his Gospel, which contains a
perpetual rule and exact canon of the prayers and
intercessions which Christ offers in heaven to his Father.
For although that prayer was recited by Christ while he
remained upon earth, yet it properly belongs to his sublime
state of exaltation in heaven: and it was his will that it
should be described in his word, that we on earth, might
derive from it perpetual consolation. Christ offers up a
prayer to the Father for himself, according to the Father's
command and promise combined, "Ask of me, and I shall give
thee the heathen for thine inheritance." (Psalm ii, 8.)
Christ had regard to this promise, when he said, "Father,
glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee, as thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." This sort of
intreaty must be distinguished from those "supplications
which Christ, in the days of his flesh, offered up to the
Father, with strong cries and tears;" (Heb. v, 7,) for by
them he intreated to be delivered from anguish, while by the
other he asks, "to see his seed whose days should be
prolonged, and to behold the pleasure of the Lord which
should prosper in his hands." (Isa. liii, 10.) But, for the
faithful, intercession is made, of which the apostle thus
speaks, "Who is he that condemneth, It is Christ that died,
yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Rom.
viii, 34) And, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he says,
"Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for them" (vii, 25.) But Christ is said to
intercede for believers, to the exclusion of the world,
because, after he had offered a sacrifice sufficient to take
away the sins of all mankind, he was consecrated a great
"High Priest to preside over the house of God," (Heb. x, 21,)
"which house those are who hold fast the confidence and the
rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (iii, 6.) Christ
discharges the whole of this part of his function in heaven,
before the face of the Divine Majesty; for there, also, is
the royal seat and the throne of God, to which, when we are
about to pray, we are commanded to lift up our eyes and our
minds. But he executes this part of his office, not in
anguish of spirit, or in a posture of humble genuflection, as
though fallen down before the knees of the Father, but in the
confidence of the shedding of his own blood, which, sprinkled
as it is on his sacred body, he continually presents, as an
object of sight before his Father, always turning it towards
his sacred countenance. The entire efficacy of this function
depends on the dignity and value of the blood effused and
sprinkled over the body; for, by his blood-shedding, he
opened a passage for himself "into the holiest, within the
veil." From which circumstance we may with the greatest
certainty conclude, that his prayers will never be rejected,
and that whatever we shall ask in his name, will, in virtue
of that intercession, be both heard and answered.
The sacerdotal functions being thus executed, God, the
Father, mindful of his covenant and sacred oath, not only
continued the priesthood with Christ forever, but elevated
him likewise to the regal dignity, "all power being given
unto him in heaven and in earth, (Matt. xxviii, 18,) also
power over all flesh: (John xvii, 2,) a name being conferred
on him which is far above all principality, and might, and
dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come, (Ephes. i, 21,)
angels, and authorities, and powers being made subject unto
him," (1 Pet. iii, 22,) that he might be the Christ and the
Lord of his whole Israel, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. By
this admirable covenant, therefore, God hath united those two
supreme functions in one, even in Christ Jesus, and has thus
performed his promise, by which he had sworn that this Priest
should be forever after the order of Melchizedec, "who was at
once a King and a Priest; and is to the present time without
beginning of days or end of life," because his genealogy is
not described in the Scriptures, which in this case are
subservient to the figure. This conjunction of the sacerdotal
and regal functions is the highest point and the extreme
limit of all the divine work, a never ending token of the
justice and the mercy of God attempered together for the
economy of our salvation, a very luminous and clear evidence
of the most excellent glory of God, and an immovable
foundation for the certainty of obtaining salvation through
this royal Priest. If man is properly styled "the extreme
Colophon of the creation," "a microcosm," on account of the
union of his body and soul, "an epitome of the whole world,"
and "the marriage of the Universe," what judgment shall we
form of this conjunction, which consists of a most intimate
and inseparable union of the whole church of believers and of
God himself, "who dwells in the light unto which no man can
approach," and by what amplitude of title shall we point out
its divinity. This union hath a name above every name that
can be named. It is ineffable, inconceivable, and
incomprehensible. If, chiefly in respect to this I shall say,
that Christ is styled "the brightness of the Father's glory,"
"the express image of his person" and "the image of the
invisible God," I shall have expressed its excellency as
fully as it is possible to do.
What can be a more illustrious instance of the admixture of
justice with mercy than that even the Son of God, when he had
"made himself of no reputation and assumed the form of a
servant," could not be constituted a King except through a
discharge of the sacerdotal functions; and that all those
blessings which he had to bestow as a King on his subjects,
could not be asked except through the priesthood, and which,
when obtained from God, could not, (except through the
intervention of this royal Mediator,) be communicated by his
vicarious distribution under God? What can be a stronger and
a better proof of the certainty of obtaining salvation
through Christ, than that he has, by the discharge of his
sacerdotal functions in behalf of men, asked and procured it
for men, and that, being constituted a King through the
priesthood, he has received salvation from the Father to be
dispensed to them? In these particulars consists the
perfection of the divine glory.
III. But this consideration, I perceive, introduces us,
almost imperceptibly, to the third and last portion of our
subject, in which we have engaged to treat on THE FRUITS OF
THE SACERDOTAL OFFICE in its administration by Christ. We
will reduce all these fruits, though they are innumerable, to
four chief particulars; and, since we hasten to the end of
this discourse, we bind ourselves down to extreme brevity.
These benefits are, (1.) The concluding and the confirmation
of a New Covenant; (2.) The asking, obtaining, and
application of all the blessings necessary for the salvation
of the human race; (3.) The institution of a new priesthood,
both eucharistic and royal; and (4.) lastly, The extreme and
final bringing to God of all his covenant people.
1. The FIRST UTILITY is the contracting and the confirmation
of a New Covenant, in which is the direct way to solid
felicity.
We rejoice and glory, that this has been obtained by the
priesthood of Christ. For since the first covenant had been
made weak through sin and the flesh, and was not capable of
bringing righteousness and life, it was necessary, either to
enter into another, or that we should be forever expelled
from God's presence. Such a covenant could not be contracted
between a just God and sinful men, except in consequence of a
reconciliation, which it pleased God, the offended party,
should be perfected by the blood of our High Priest, to be
poured out on the altar of the cross. He who was at once the
officiating priest and the Lamb for sacrifice, poured out his
sacred blood, and thus asked and obtained for us a
reconciliation with God. When this great offering was
completed, it was possible for the reconciled parties to
enter into an agreement. Hence, it pleased God, that the same
High Priest who had acted as Mediator and Umpire in this
reconciliation, should, with the very blood by which he had
effected their union, go between the two parties, as a
middle-man, or, in the capacity of an ambassador, and as a
herald to bear tidings of war or peace, with the same blood
as that by which the consciences of those who were included
in the provisions of the covenant, being sprinkled, might be
purged from dead works and sanctified; with the very blood,
which, sprinkled upon himself, might always appear in the
sight of God; and with the same blood as that by which all
things in the heavens might be sprinkled and purified.
Through the intervention, therefore, of this blood, another
covenant was contracted, not one of works, but of faith, not
of the law, but of grace, not an old, but a new one -- and
new, not because it was later than the first, but because it
was never to be abrogated or repealed; and because its force
and vigour should perpetually endure. "For that which
decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away." (Heb.
viii, 13). If such a covenant as is described in this
quotation should be again contracted, in the several ages
which succeed each other, changes ought frequently to occur
in it; and, all former covenants being rendered obsolete,
others more recent ought to succeed. But it was necessary, at
length, that a pause should occur in one of them, and that
such a covenant should at once be made as might endure
forever. It was also to be ratified with blood. But how was
it possible to be confirmed with blood of greater value than
that of the High Priest, who was the Son, both of God and
man. But the covenant of which we are now treating, was
ratified with that blood; it was, therefore, a new one, and
never to be annulled. For the perpetual presence and sight of
such a great High Priest, sprinkled with his own blood, will
not suffer the mind of his Father to be regardless of the
covenant ratified by it, or his sacred breast to be moved
with repentance. With what other blood will it be possible
for the consciences of those in covenant to be cleansed and
sanctified to God, if, after having become parties to the
covenant of grace, they pollute themselves with any crime,
"There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, if any man have
trodden under foot this High Priest, and counted the blood of
the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing."
(Heb. x, 29). The covenant, therefore, which has been
concluded by the intervention of this blood and this. High
Priest, is a new one, and will endure forever.
2. The SECOND FRUIT is the asking, obtaining, and
application, of all the blessings necessary to those who are
in covenant for the salvation both of soul and body. For,
since every covenant must be confirmed by certain promises,
it was necessary that this also should have its blessings, by
which it might be sanctioned, and those in covenant rendered
happy.
(1.) Among those blessings, the remission of sins first
offers itself; according to the tenor of the New Covenant, "I
will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more." (Heb. viii, 12).
But the scripture testifies, that Christ has asked this
blessing by his blood, when it says, "This is my blood of the
New Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of
sins." (Matt. xxvi, 28). The scripture also proves his having
obtained such a blessing by the discharge of the same office,
in these words: "By his own blood Christ entered in once into
the holy place, HAVING OBTAINED eternal redemption for us."
(Heb. ix, 12.) It adds its testimony to the application,
saying, "In Christ WE HAVE REDEMPTION through his blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."
(Ephes. i, 7.)
(2.) This necessary blessing is succeeded by adoption into
sons and by a right to the heavenly inheritance: And we owe
it to the Priesthood of Christ, that this blessing was asked
and obtained for us, as well as communicated to us. For he
being the proper and only begotten Son of the Father, and the
sole heir of all his Father's blessings, was unwilling to
enjoy such transcendent benefits alone, and desired to have
co-heirs and partners, whom he might anoint with the oil of
his gladness, and might receive into a participation of that
inheritance. He made an offering, therefore, of his soul for
sin, that, the travail of his soul being finished, he might
see his seed prolonged in their days -- the seed of God which
might come into a participation with him both of name and
inheritance. "He was made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive THE ADOPTION OF
SONS." (Gal. iv, 5). According to the command of the Father,
he asked, that the Heathen might be given to him for an
inheritance. By these acts, therefore, which are peculiar to
his priesthood, he asked for this right of adoption in behalf
of his believing people, and obtained it for the purpose of
its being communicated to them, nay, in fact, he himself
became the donor. "For to as many as believed on his name
Christ gave power to become the sons of God." (John i, 12).
Through him and in regard to him, God has adopted us for
sons, who are beloved in him the Son of his love. He,
therefore, is the sole heir, by whose death the inheritance
comes to others; which circumstance was predicted by the
perfidious husbandmen, (Mark xii, 7,) who, being Scribes and
Pharisees, uttered at that time a remarkable truth, although
they were ignorant of such a great mystery.
(3.) But because it is impossible to obtain benefits of this
magnitude except in union with the High Priest himself, it
was expected of him that he should ask and obtain the gift of
the HOLY SPIRIT, the bond of that union, and should pour it
out on his own people. But since the spirit of grace is the
token as well as the testimony of the love of God towards us,
and the earnest of our inheritance, Christ could not ask this
great gift till a reconciliation had taken place, and to
effect this was the duty of the priest. When, therefore, this
reconciliation was effected, he asked of his Father another
Comforter for his people, and his request was granted. Being
elevated to the right hand of God, he obtained this Paraclete
promised in the terms of the sacerdotal covenant; and, when
he had procured this Spirit, he poured it out in a most
copious manner on his followers, as the scripture says,
"Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath
shed forth this which ye now see and hear." (Acts ii, 33.)
That the asking, the obtaining, and the communication of all
these blessings, have flowed from the functions of the
priesthood, God has testified by a certain seal of the
greatest sanctity, when he constituted Christ the Testator of
these very blessings, which office embraces conjointly both
the full possession of the good things devised as legacies in
the Will, and absolute authority over their distribution.
3. The THIRD FRUIT of Christ's administration is the
institution of a new priesthood both eucharistic and regal,
and our sanctification for the purpose of performing its
duties; for when a New Covenant was concluded, it was needful
to institute a new eucharistic priesthood, (because the old
one had fallen into disuse,) and to sanctify priests to
fulfill its duties.
(1.) Christ, by his own priesthood, completed such an
institution; and he sanctified us by a discharge of its
functions. This was the order in which he instituted it:
First, he constituted us his debtors, and as bound to
thanksgiving on account of the immense benefits procured for
us and bestowed upon us by his priesthood. Then he instructed
us how to offer sacrifices to God, our souls and bodies being
sanctified and consecrated by the sprinkling of his blood and
by the unction of the Holy Spirit, that, if they were offered
as sacrifices to God, they might meet with acceptance. It was
also his care to have an altar erected in heaven before the
throne of grace, which being sprinkled with his own blood he
consecrated to God, that the sacrifices of his faithful
people, being placed upon it, might continually appear before
the face of the Majesty of heaven and in presence of his
throne. Lastly, he placed on that altar an eternal and never-
ceasing fire -- the immeasurable favour of God, with which
the sacrifices on that altar might be kindled and reduced to
ashes.
(2.) But it was also necessary that priests should be
consecrated: the act of consecration, therefore, was
performed by Christ, as the Great High Priest, by his own
blood. St. John says, in the Apocalypse, "He hath loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and his Father." (i, 6.) "Thou
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our
God kings and priests." (v, 10.) Not content to have us
joint-heirs in the participation of his inheritance, he
willed that we should likewise partake of the same dignity as
that which he enjoyed. But he made us partners with him of
that dignity in such a manner, as in the mean time always to
retain within himself the first place, "as Head of his body
the Church, the first-born among many brethren and the Great
High Priest who presides over the whole of the House of God."
To Him, we, who are "born again," ought to deliver our
sacrifices, that by him they may be further offered to God,
sprinkled and perfumed with the grateful odour of his own
expiatory sacrifice, and may thus through him be rendered
acceptable to the Father. For this cause, the Apostle says,
"By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to
God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving
thanks to his name." (Heb. xiii, 15). We are indeed, by his
favour "a holy priesthood," to offer up spiritual sacrifices;
but those sacrifices are rendered "acceptable to God, only by
Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. ii, 5.) Not only was it his pleasure
that we should be partakers of this sacerdotal dignity, but
likewise of the eternity attached to it, that we also might
execute the office of the priesthood after the order of
Melchizedec, which by a sacred oath was consecrated to
immortality. For though, at the close of these ages of time,
Christ will not any longer perform the expiatory part of the
priesthood, yet he will forever discharge its eucharistic
duties in our favour. These eucharistic duties we shall also
execute in him and through him, unless, in the midst of the
enjoyment of the benefits received by us from him, we should
desire our memories no longer to retain the recollection,
that through him we obtained those blessings, and through him
we have been created priests to render due thanksgiving to
God the chief Donor of all. But, since we are not able to
offer to God, so long as we remain in this mortal body, the
sacrifices due to him, except by the strenuous resistance
which we offer to Satan, the world, sin, and our own flesh,
and through the victory which we obtain over them, (both of
which are royal acts,) and since, after this life, we shall
execute the sacerdotal office, being elevated with him on the
throne of his Father, and having all our enemies subdued
under us, he hath therefore made us both kings and priests,
yea "a royal priesthood" to our God, that nothing might be
found in the typical priesthood of Melchizedec, in the
enjoyment of which we should not equally participate.
4. The FOURTH, and last FRUIT of the Priesthood of Christ,
proposed to be noticed by us, is the act of bringing to God
all the church of the faithful; which is the end and
completion of the three preceding effects. For with this
intent the covenant was contracted between God and men; with
this intent the remission of sins, the adoption of sons, and
the Spirit of grace were conferred on the church; for this
purpose the new eucharistic and royal priesthood was
instituted; that, being made priests and kings, all the
covenant people might be brought to their God. In most
expressive language the Apostle Peter ascribes this effect to
the priesthood of Christ, in these words: "For Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, THAT HE
MIGHT BRING US TO GOD." (1 Pet. iii, 18.) The following are
also the words of an Apostle concerning the same act of
bringing them to God: "Then cometh the end, when he shall
have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father." (1
Cor. xv, 24). In Isaiah's prophecy it is said, "Behold I and
the children whom the Lord hath given me!" Let these words be
considered as proceeding out of the mouth of Christ, when he
is bringing his children and addressing the Father; not that
they may be for signs and for wonders" to the people, but "a
peculiar treasure to the Lord."
Christ will therefore bring all his church, whom he hath
redeemed to himself by his own blood, that they may receive,
from the hands of the Father of infinite benignity, the
heavenly inheritance which has been procured by his death,
promised in his word, and sealed by the Holy Spirit, and may
enjoy it forever. He will bring his priests, whom sprinkled
with his blood, he hath sanctified unto God, that they may
serve him forever. He will bring his kings, that they may
with God possess the kingdom forever and ever: for in them,
by the virtue of his Holy Spirit, he has subdued and overcome
Satan the Chief, and his auxiliaries, the world, sin, and
their own flesh, yea, and "death itself, the last enemy that
shall be destroyed."
Christ will bring, and God even the Father will receive. He
will receive the church of Christ, and will command her as
"the bride, the Lamb's wife," on her introduction into the
celestial bride-chamber, to celebrate a perpetual feast with
the Lamb, that she may enjoy the most complete fruition of
pleasure, in the presence of the throne of his glory. He will
receive the priests, and will clothe them with the comely and
beautiful garments of perfect holiness, that they may forever
and ever sing to God a new song of thanksgiving. And then he
will receive the kings, and place them on the throne of his
Majesty, that they may with God and the Lamb obtain the
kingdom and may rule and reign forever.
These are the fruits and benefits which Christ, by the
administration of his priesthood, hath asked and obtained for
us, and communicated to us. Their dignity is undoubtedly
great, and their utility immense. For what could occur of a
more agreeable nature to those who are "alienated from the
life of God, and strangers to the covenants of promise,"
(Ephes. ii, 12,) than to be received by God into the covenant
of grace, and to be reckoned among his people? What could
afford greater pleasure to the consciences which were
oppressed with the intolerable burden of their sins, and
fainting under the weight of the wrath of God, than the
remission and pardon of all their transgressions? What could
prove more acceptable to men, sons of the accursed earth, and
to those who are devoted to hell, than to receive from God
the adoption of sons, and to be written in heaven? What
greater pleasure could those enjoy who he under the dominion
of Satan and the tyranny of sin, than a freedom from such a
state of most horrid and miserable servitude, and a
restoration to true liberty? What more glorious than to be
admitted into a participation of the Priesthood and of the
Monarchy, to be consecrated priests and kings to God, even
royal priests and priestly kings? And, lastly, what could be
more desirable than to be brought to God, the Chief Good and
the Fountain of all happiness, that, in a beautiful and
glorious state, we may spend with him a whole eternity?
This priesthood was imposed by God himself, "with whom we
have to do," on Christ Jesus -- the Son of God and the Son of
man, our first-born brother, formerly encompassed about with
infirmities, tempted in all things, merciful, holy, faithful,
undefiled, and separate from sinners; and its imposition was
accompanied by a sacred oath, which it is not lawful to
revoke. Let us, therefore, rely with assured faith on this
priesthood of Christ, entertaining no doubt that God hath
ratified and confirmed, is now ratifying and confirming, and
will forever ratify and confirm all those things which have
been accomplished, are now accomplishing, and will continue
even to the consummation of this dispensation to be
accomplished, on our account, by a High Priest taken from
among ourselves and placed in the Divine presence, having
received in our behalf an appointment from God, who himself
chose him to that office.
Since the same Christ hath by the administration of his own
priesthood obtained a perpetual expiation and purgation of
our sins, and eternal redemption, and hath erected a throne
of grace for us in heaven, "let us draw near [to this throne
of grace] with a true heart and in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience," (Heb.
x, 22,) "and our conscience purged from dead works," (ix,
14,) assuredly concluding "that we shall obtain mercy, and
find grace to help in time of need." (iv, 16.)
LASTLY. Since, by the administration of this priesthood, so
many and such excellent benefits have been obtained and
prepared for us of which we have already received a part as
"the first-fruits," and since we expect to reap in heaven the
choicest part of these benefits, and the whole of them in the
mass, and that most complete -- what shall we render to our
God for such a transcendent dignity? What thanks shall we
offer to Christ who is both our High Priest and the Lamb? "We
will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the
Lord." We will offer to God "the calves of our lips," and
will "present to him our bodies, souls, and spirits, a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable." (Rom. xii, 1.) Even while
remaining in these lower regions, we will sing, with the four
and twenty elders that stand around the throne, this heavenly
song to the God and Father of all: "Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory, and honour, and power. For thou hast
created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were
created." (Rev. iv, 11.) To Christ our High Priest and the
Lamb, we will, with the same elders, chant the new song,
saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the
seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to
God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and
people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and
priests: and we shall reign on the earth." (v, 10.) Unto both
of them together we will unite with every creature in
singing, "BLESSING, AND honour, AND GLORY, AND MIGHT BE TO
HIM WHO SITTETH UPON THE THRONE, AND UNTO THE LAMB FOREVER
AND EVER."-I have finished.
After the Academic Act of his promotion to a Doctor's degree
was completed, Arminius, according to the custom at Leyden,
which still obtains in many Universities, briefly addressed
the same audience in the following manner:
Since the countenance necessary for the commencement of every
prosperous action proceeds from God, it is proper that in him
also every one of our actions should terminate. Since,
therefore, his Divine clemency and benignity have hitherto
regarded us in a favourable light, and have granted to this
our act the desired success, let us render thanks to Him for
such a great display of His benevolence, and utter praise to
His holy name.
"O thou Omnipotent and Merciful God, the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we give thanks to thee for thine infinite
benefits conferred upon us miserable sinners. But we would
first praise thee for having willed that thy Son Jesus Christ
should be the victim and the price of redemption for our
sins; that thou hast out of the whole human race collected
for thyself a church by thy word and Holy Spirit; that thou
hast snatched us also from the kingdom of darkness and of
Satan, and hast translated us into the kingdom of light and
of thy Son; that thou hast called Holland, our pleasant and
delightful country, to know and confess thy Son and to enjoy
communion with him; that thou hast hitherto preserved this
our native land in safety against the machinations and
assaults of a very powerful adversary; that thou hast
instituted, in our renowned city, this university as a
seminary of true wisdom, piety and righteousness; and that
thou hast to this hour accompanied these scholastic exercises
with thy favour. We intreat thee, O holy and indulgent God,
that thou wouldst forever continue to us these benefits; and
do not suffer us, by our ingratitude, to deserve at thy
bands, to be deprived of them. But be pleased rather to
increase them, and to confirm the work which thou hast begun.
Cause us always to reflect with retentive minds on these
things, and to utter eternal praises to thy most holy name on
account of them, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
I thank you, Doctor Francis Gomarus, and am grateful to you,
most illustrious man and very learned promoter, for this
great privilege with which you have invested one who is
undeserving of it. I promise at all times to acknowledge with
a grateful mind this favour, and to strive that you may never
have just cause to repent of having conferred this honour
upon me.
To you also, most noble Lord Rector, and to the very
honourable the Senate of the University, (unless I should
desire to defile myself with the crime of an ungrateful
spirit,) I owe greater thanks than I am able to express, for
the honourable judgment which you have formed concerning me,
and for your liberal testimony, which by no deed of mine have
I ever deserved. But I promise and bind myself to exert my
powers to the utmost, that I may not at any time be found to
be entirely unworthy of it. If I thus exert myself, I know
that you will accept it as a payment in full of all the debt
of gratitude which you have a right to demand.
I now address you, most noble, honourable and famous men, to
all and to each of whom I confess myself to be greatly
indebted for your continued and liberal benevolence towards
me, which you have abundantly demonstrated by your wish to
honour this our act with your most noble, honourable, famous
and worthy presence. I would promise to make you a requital
at some future period, did not the feebleness of my powers
shrink from the magnitude of the undertaking implied in that
expression, and did not the eminence of your stations repress
the attempt.
In the duty of returning thanks which I am now discharging, I
must not omit you, most noble and studious youths: For I owe
this acknowledgment to your partial and kind inclination to
me, of which you have given a sufficiently exuberant
declaration in your honourable appearance and modest demeanor
while you have been present at this our act. I give my
promise and solemn undertaking, that if an occasion hereafter
offer itself in which I can render myself serviceable to you,
I will endeavour in every capacity to compensate you for this
your kind partiality. The occurrence of such an opportunity
is at once the object of my hopes and my wishes.
ORATION V
ON RECONCILING RELIGIOUS DISSENSIONS AMONG CHRISTIANS
Never since the first entrance of sin into the world, have
there been any ages so happy as not to be disturbed by the
occurrence of some evil or other; and, on the contrary, there
has been no age so embittered with calamities, as not to have
had a sweet admixture of some good, by the presence of the
divine benevolence renewed towards mankind. The experience of
all ages bears witness to the truth of this observation; and
it is taught by the individual history of every nation. If,
from a diligent consideration of these different histories
and a comparison between them, any person should think fit to
draw a parallel of the blessings and of the calamities which
have either occurred at one and the same period, or which
have succeeded each other, he would in reality be enabled to
contemplate, as in a mirror of the greatest clearness and
brilliancy, how the Benignity of God has at all times
contended with his Just Severity, and what a conflict the
Goodness of The Deity has always maintained with the
Perversity of men. Of this a fair specimen is afforded to us
in the passing events of our own age, within that part of
Christendom with which we are more immediately acquainted. To
demonstrate this, I do not deem it necessary to recount all
the Evils which have rushed, like an overwhelming inundation,
upon the century which has been just completed: for their
infinity would render such an attempt difficult and almost
impossible. Neither do I think it necessary, to enumerate, in
a particular manner, the Blessings which those evils have
been somewhat mitigated.
To confirm this truth, it will be abundantly sufficient to
mention one very remarkable Blessing, and one Evil of great
magnitude and directly opposed to that blessing. This
Blessing is, that the Divine clemency irradiates our part of
the world by the illustrious light of his sacred truth, and
enlightens it with the knowledge of true religion, or
Christianity. The Evil opposed to it is, that either human
ignorance or human perversity deteriorates and corrupts the
clear light of this Divine truth, by aspersing and beclouding
it with the blackest errors; creates separation and division
among those who have devoted themselves exclusively to the
service of religion; and severs them into parties, and even
into shreds of parties, in direct contradiction to the nature
and genius of Christianity, whose Author is called the
"Prince of peace," its doctrine "the Gospel of peace," and
its professors "the Sons of peace." The very foundation of it
is an act of pacification concluded between God and men, and
ratified by the blood of the Prince of peace. The precepts
inculcated in each of its pages, are concerning peace and
concord; its fruits are "righteousness, peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost;" and its end is peace and eternal tranquillity.
But although the light from this torch of truth, which is
diffused through the Christian world, affords no small
refreshment to my mind; and although a view of that clearer
light which shines among the Churches that profess to have
been Reformed from Popery, is most exhilarating; yet I cannot
dissemble the intense grief which I feel at my heart on
account of that religious discord which has been festering
like a gangrene, and pervading the whole of Christianity:
Unhappily, its devastations have not terminated. In this
unfeigned feeling of deep regret, I think, all those who love
Christ and his Church, will partake with me; unless they
possess hearts of greater hardness than Parian marble, and
bowels secured from compassionate attacks by a rigidity
stronger than that of the oak, and by defenses more
impregnable than those of triple brass.
This is the cause which has incited me to offer a few remarks
on religious dissensions in the Christian world; for,
according to that common proverb, "Whenever a man feels any
pain, his hand is almost spontaneously moved to the part
affected." This, therefore, is the subject which I propose to
introduce to the notice of the present celebrated assembly,
in which the province has been awarded to me, of delivering
an oration at this Academic Festival, according to an
established and laudable custom. I shall confine myself to
three particulars: In the first place, I will give a
dissertation on This Discord Itself and The Evils Which
Spring From It. I will then show its Causes; and, lastly, its
Remedies.
The first particular includes within itself the Necessity of
removing such a great evil; and the last prescribes the
Manner in which it may be removed, to which the middle
particular materially contributes. The union of the whole
together explains and justifies the nature of the design
which I have now undertaken.
I humbly pray and intreat the God of peace, that he will, by
his Spirit of truth and peace, be present with me while
engaged in speaking; and that he will govern my mind and
direct my tongue, that I may utter such things as may be
pleasing to him and salutary to the Church of Christ, for the
glory of his name and our mutual instruction.
I likewise prefer a request to you, my very famous and
accomplished hearers, that you will deign to grant me your
favourable attention, while I glance at each of these
particular, with much brevity, and discharge the office of a
director to you rather than that of an orator, lest I
trespass on your patience.
I. Union is a great good: it is indeed the chief good and
therefore the only one, whether we separately consider each
thing of which it is composed, or more of them contained
together by a certain social tie or relation between
themselves. For all things together, and each thing
separately, are what they are by that very thing by which
they are one; and, by this union, they are preserved in what
they really are. And, if they have need and are capable of
further perfection, they are, by the same union, still more
strengthened, increased, and perfected, until they attain to
the utmost boundary prescribed to them by nature or by grace,
or by God the Author of both grace and nature. Of such
certainty is this truth, that even the blessedness of God
consists in that union by which he is ONE and always present
with himself, and having all things belonging to him present
together with him. Nothing, therefore, can be more agreeable
or desirable than Union, whether viewed in reference to
single things or to the whole together; nothing can be more
noxious and detestable than Dissension, by which all things
begin at first to decline from their own condition, are
afterwards diminished by degrees, and, at length, perish. But
as there are differences of Good, so are there likewise of
Union. More excellent than another is that good which in its
own nature obtains the pre-eminence above the other, on
account of its being more general and durable, and on account
of its approaching more nearly to the Chief Good. In like
manner that union is also more excellent which consists of a
thing of greater excellence, belongs to many, is more durable
and unites itself most intimately with the Deity. The union
of true religion is, therefore, one of the greatest
excellence.
But as those evil things which are opposed to the good things
of greatest excellence, are the very worst of their kind, so
no discord is more shocking and hideous than that about
religion. The truth of this remark is confirmed by the inward
nature of this discord; and it is further manifested most
clearly by the effects which proceed from it.
1. We shall see its Nature (1.) in the object of discord,
(2.) in the ready inclination for this object, which is
evinced by the discordant partizans, (3.) in its extensive
range, and (4.) its long continuance.
(1.) The Christian Religion is the Object of this discord or
dissension. When viewed with respect to its form, this
religion contains the true knowledge of the true God and of
Christ; and the right mode in which both of them may be
worshipped. And when viewed with regard to its end, it is the
only medium by which we can be bound and united to God and
Christ, and by which on the other hand God and Christ can be
bound and united to us. From this idea of connecting the
parties together, the name of religion is derived, in the
opinion of Lactantius. In the term "Religion," therefore, are
contained true wisdom and true virtue, and the union of both
with God as the Chief Good, in all of which is comprehended
the supreme and the only happiness of this world and of that
which is to come. And not only in reality, but in the
estimation also of every one on whose mind a notion of
religion has been impressed, (that is, on the whole of
mankind,) men are distinguished from other animals, not by
reason, but by a genuine character much more appropriate and
indeed peculiar to them, and that is Religion, according to
the authority of the same Lactantius.
(2.) But if bounds be imposed on the desire towards any thing
by such an opinion of its value as is preconceived in the
mind, an inclination or propensity towards religion is
deservedly entitled to the highest consideration, and holds
the preeminence in the mind of a religious person. Nay, more
than this, if, according to St. Bernard and to truth itself,
"the measure to be observed in loving God, is to love him
without measure," a propensity or inclination towards
religion, (of which the chief and choicest part consists of
love to God and Christ,) is itself without bounds: For it is
at once illimitable and immeasurable. This is tantamount to
the declaration of Christ, the Author of our religion, who
said, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father and
mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea,
and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke xiv,
26.) This strong affection for religion answers equally to
that immeasurable love by which any one desires the union of
himself with God, that is, desires the greatest happiness,
because he knows that Religion is the strongest bond and the
most adhesive cement of this union. Most serious, therefore,
is religious discord when it is engaged in disputes about the
altar itself.
(3.) Besides, it spreads and diffuses itself most
extensively; for it involves within its vortex all the
persons that have been initiated in the sacred rites of the
Christian religion. No one is permitted to profess
neutrality; nay, it is impossible for any man to remain
neutral in the midst of religious dissension. For he who
makes no advances towards the opposite sentiments of each of
the dissidents, is induced thus to act from one of these four
causes: (i.) He either cherishes a third opinion in the
Christian Religion, far removed from both the others: (ii.)
He thinks some other religion better than Christianity.
(iii.) He places Christianity and other systems of religion
on an equality: Or, (iv.) He entertains an equal disregard
for the Christian system and all other modes of religion. The
first of these characters is not neutral, but becomes a third
party among the disputants. The second and the third dissent
entirely from the Christian Religion, the axioms of which
are, "that it is true, and that it alone is true:" for it is
not so accommodating as Paganism, it admits of no other
system to be its associate. Besides, the second of these
characters is an Atheist according to the Christian Religion,
one of the statutes of which, is, that "whosoever denieth
Christ the Son, the same hath not God the Father." (1 John
ii, 23.) Against the third party this sentence is pronounced:
"He that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad." (Matt.
xii, 30.) The fourth is considered an Atheist by all mankind,
and is deemed a second and adverse party in that most general
kind of dissension which exists between true religion and its
adversaries.
(4.) Lastly. This discord is very long in its continuance and
almost incapable of reconciliation. For these traits in it,
two causes may, I think, be assigned, and both of them
deducible from the very nature of religion.
The first is, that since religion is both in reality a matter
that belongs to the Deity, and is so accounted by every one,
being subject to his sole pleasure and management, and exempt
from the jurisdiction of men; and since it has been bestowed,
that it may exercise authority as a rule for the direction of
life, and for prescribing some limits to liberty, and not
that it may be slavishly subservient to the wills of men,
like a Lesbian rule, which may be accommodated to every
condition; since these are some of the properties of
religion, man is not permitted to stipulate concerning it,
and scarcely any one has had the audacity to arrogate to
himself such an assumption of authority.
The other cause is, that the parties individually think, if
they concede even the smallest particle of the matter of
discord, such a concession is nearly connected with the peril
of their own salvation. But this is the genius of all
separatists, not to enter into any treaties of concord with
their adversaries, unless they be permitted to have life at
least, and liberty, secured to them inviolate. But every one
thinks, that his life, (that is, his spiritual life,) and the
liberty which is proper for that life, are included in
religion and its exercise.
To these a third cause may be added, which consists of the
opinion, that each party supposes life and eternal salvation
to be denied to them by their opponents, from this
circumstance, because those opponents disapprove of their
religion, and when it is compared with their own, they treat
it with the utmost contempt. This injury appears to be the
most grievous and aggravating. But every act of pacification
has its commencement in the oblivion of all injuries, and its
foundation in the omission of those injuries which (to an eye
that is jaundiced with such a prejudice as that which we have
just stated,) seem to be continued and perpetual grievances.
When the nature and tendency of this species of discord have
become quite apparent to worldly-minded Rulers, they have
often employed it, or at least the semblance of it, for the
purpose of involving their subjects in enmities, dissensions
and wars, in which they had themselves engaged for other
reasons. Having in this manner frequently implicated the
people committed to his charge, a prince has become at
pleasure prodigal of their property and their persons. These
were readily sacrificed by the people to the defense of the
ancient religion; but they were perverted by their rulers, to
obtain the fulfillment of their desires, which they would
never have procured, had they been deprived of such popular
assistance. The magnitude of the dissension induces the
willing parties cheerfully to make contributions of their
property to their prince; the multitude of the Dissidents
ensures their ability to contribute as much as may be
sufficient; and the obstinate spirit which is indigenous to
dissension, causes the parties never to grow weary of giving,
while they retain the ability.
We have now in some sort delineated the nature of this
discord or dissension, and have shewn that it is most
important in its bearings, most extensive in its range, and
most durable in its continuance.
2. Let us further see what have been, and what still are, the
Effects of an evil of such a magnitude, in this part of the
Christian world. We may, I think, refer the infinitude of
these effects to two chief kinds. The first kind is derived
from the force of the dissension on the Minds of men; and the
second kind has its commencement in the operation of the same
dissension on their Hearts and affections.
First. From the force of this dissension on the Minds of men,
arises, (1.) a degree of doubtful uncertainty respecting
religion. When the people perceive that there is scarcely any
article of Christian doctrine concerning which there are not
different and even contradictory opinions; that one party
calls that "horrid blasphemy" which another party has laid
down as a "complete summary of the truth;" that those points
which some professors consider the perfection of piety,
receive from others the contumelious appellation of "cursed
idolatry;" and that controversies of this description are
objects of warm discussion between men of learning,
respectability, experience and great renown. When all these
things are perceived by the people, and when they do not
observe any discrepancy in the life and manners of the
opposite disputants, sufficiently great to induce them to
believe that God vouchsafes assistance by "the spirit of his
truth," to one of these parties, in preference to the other,
on account of any superior sanctity, they begin then to
indulge in the imagination, that they may esteem the
principles of religion alike obscure and uncertain.
(2.) If an intense desire to institute an inquiry into some
subject shall succeed this dubious uncertainty about
religion, its warmth will abate and become cool, as soon as
serious difficulties arise in the search, and an utter
despair of being able to discern the truth will be the
consequence. For what simple person can hope to discover the
truth, when he understands that a dispute exists about its
very principles -- whether they be contained in the
scriptures alone, or in traditions not committed to writing?
What hope can he entertain when he sees that, question often
arises concerning the translation of some passage of
scripture, which can be solved only by a knowledge of the
Hebrew and Greek languages? How can he hope to find out the
truth, when he remarks, that the opinions of learned men, who
have written on religious subjects, are not unfrequently
quoted in the place of evidence -- while he is ignorant of
all languages except that of the country in which he was
born, is destitute of all other books, and possesses only a
copy of the scriptures translated into the vernacular
language? How can such a person be prevented from forming an
opinion, that nothing like certainty respecting the chief
doctrines of religion can be evident to any one, except that
man who is well skilled in the two sacred languages, has a
perfect knowledge of all traditions, has perused with the
closest attention the writings of all the great Doctors of
the Church, and has thoroughly instructed himself in the
sentiments which they held respecting each single principle
of religion?
(3.) But what follows this despair? Either a most perverse
opinion concerning all religion, an entire rejection of every
species of it, or Atheism. These produce Epicurism, a still
more pestilent fruit of that ill-fated tree. For when the
mind of man is in despair about discovering the truth, and
yet is unable to throw aside at the first impulse all care
concerning religion and personal salvation, it is compelled
to devise a cunning charm for appeasing conscience: (i.) The
human mind in such a state will either conclude, that it is
not only unnecessary for common people to understand the
axioms of religion , and to be well assured of what they
believe; but that the attainment of these objects is a duty
incumbent on the clergy alone, to the faith of whom, as of
"them that must give account" to God for the salvation of
souls, (Heb. xiii, 17,) it is quite sufficient for the people
to signify their assent by a blind concurrence in it. The
clergy also themselves, with a view to their own advantage,
not unfrequently discourage all attempts, on the part of the
people, to gain such a knowledge of religion and such an
assured belief. (ii.) Or the mind in such circumstances will
persuade itself, that all worship paid to God, with the good
intention of a devout mind, is pleasing to him; and therefore
under every form of religion, (provided such good intention
be conscientiously observed,) a man may be saved, and all
sects are to be considered as placed in a condition of
equality. The men who have imbibed such notions as these,
which point out an easy mode of pacifying the conscience, and
one that in their opinion is neither troublesome nor
dangerous -- these men not only desert all study of divine
things themselves, but lay folly to the charge of that person
who institutes a labourious inquiry and search for that which
they imagine can never be discovered, as though he purposely
sought something on which his insanity might riot.
But not less steep and precipitous is the descent from this
state of despair to absolute Atheism. For since these persons
despair of offering to the Deity the adoration of true
religion, they think they may abstain from all acts of
worship to him without incurring any greater harm or
punishment; because God considers no worship agreeable to him
except that which he has prescribed, and he bestows a reward
on no other. The efficacy of this despair is increased by
their religion which seems to be interwoven with the natural
dispositions of some men, and which, eagerly seizing on every
excuse for sin, deceives itself, and veils its native
profaneness and want of reverence for the Deity under the
cloak of the grievous dissensions which have been introduced
about religion. But other two reasons may be adduced why
Religious differences are, in the Christian world, the
fruitful causes of Atheism. (i.) The first is, that by this
battering-ram of dissensions, the foundations of Divine
Providence, which constitute the basis of all Religion,
experience a violent concussion. When this thought enters the
mind, that "it appears to be the first duty of providence,
(if it actually have an existence,) to place her dearest
daughter, Religion, in such a luminous light, that she may
stand manifest and apparent to the view of all who do not
willingly drag their eyes out of their sockets." (ii.) The
other is, that when men are not favoured with Christian
prophecy, which comprises religious instruction, and are
destitute of the exercise of Divine worship, they first
almost imperceptibly slide into ignorance and into the
complete disuse of all worship, and afterwards prolapse into
open impiety. But it has not unfrequently been the case, that
men have suffered themselves to be deprived of these
blessings, sometimes by the prohibition of their own
consciences, and sometimes by those of others. (i.) By the
prohibition of their own consciences, when they do not think
it lawful for them to be present at the public sermons and
other religious ordinances of a party that is adverse to
them. (ii.) By that of the consciences of others, when the
prevailing party forbid their weaker opponents to assemble
together as a congregation, to hear what they account most
excellent truths, and to perform their devotions with such
rites and ceremonies as are agreeable to themselves. In this
manner, therefore, even conscience, when resting on the
foundation of religion, becomes the agent of impiety, where
discord reigns in a religious community. From Atheism, as a
root, Epicurism buds forth, which dissolves all the ties of
morality, is ruinous to it, and causes it to degenerate into
licentiousness. All this, Epicurism effects, by previously
breaking down the barriers of the fear of God, which alone
restrain men within the bounds of their duty.
Secondly. All these evils proceed from religious dissension
when its operation is efficacious on the Mind. Most sincerely
do I wish that it would remain there, content itself with
displaying its insolence in the hall of the mind where
discord has its proper abode, and would not attack the
Affections of the Heart. But, vain is my wish! For so
extensively does it pervade the heart and subdue all its
affections, that it abuses at pleasure the slaves that act as
assistants.
1. For since all similarity in manners, studies and opinions,
possesses very great power in conciliating love and regard;
and since any want of resemblance in these particulars is of
great potency in engendering hatred, it often happens that
from religious dissension arise Enmities more deadly than
that hatred which Vatinius conceived against Cicero, and such
exasperations of heart as are utterly irreconcilable. When
religious discord makes its appearance, even amongst men the
most illustrious in name and of the greatest celebrity, who
had been previously bound together and united among
themselves by a thousand tender ties of nature and affection,
they instantly renounce, one against another, all tokens of
friendship, and burst asunder the strictest bands of amity.
This is signified by Christ, when he says, "I came not to
send peace on earth, but a sword. For I am come to set a man
at variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." (Matt.
x, 31-36.) These words do not indicate the end and purpose of
the coming of Christ, but an event which would succeed his
coming; because he was then about to introduce into the world
a religion which differed greatly from that which was
publicly established, and concerning which many dissensions
would afterwards arise, through the vicious corruption of
mankind.
This dissimilarity was the origin of the rancor of the Jews
against the Samaritans, which displayed itself in not
allowing themselves to derive any benefit from the services
of the Samaritans, even in matters that were necessary for
their own convenience. It was the existence of this feeling
which caused the woman of Samaria to wonder, concerning
Jesus, "how he, who was a Jew, could ask drink of her, a
Samaritan woman." (John iv, 9.) Indeed, it is the utmost
stretch of hatred, to be unwilling to derive any advantage
from another person that is an enemy.
2. Enmities and dissensions of the heart and affections
branch out and become Schisms, factions and secessions into
different parties. For as love is an affection of union, so
is hatred an affection of separation. Thus synagogues are
erected, consecrated and thronged with people, in opposition
to other synagogues, churches against churches, and alters
against altars, when neither party wishes to have intercourse
with the other. This also is the reason why we frequently
hear expressions, entirely similar to those which were
clamorously echoed through the assembled multitude of the
Children of Israel when they were separating into parties,
"To your tents, O Israel! for our adversaries have no portion
in God, nor any inheritance in his Son Christ Jesus." (1
Kings xii, 16.) For both factions equally appropriate to
themselves the renowned name of "the true Israel," which they
severally deny to their adversaries, in such a peremptory
manner as might induce one to imagine each of them
exclusively endowed with a plenary power of passing judgment
upon the other, and as though it had been previously
concluded, that the name of ISRAEL, by which God accosts in a
most gracious manner the whole of his Church, cannot encircle
within its embrace those who differ in any point from the
rest of their brethren.
3. But the irritation of inflamed hearts does not prescribe a
boundary to itself in schism alone. For if it happen, that
one party considers itself the more powerful, it will not be
afraid of instituting Persecutions against the party opposed
to it, and of attempting its entire extermination. In
effecting this, it spares no injury, which either human
ingenuity can devise, the most notable fury can dictate, or
even the office of the infernal regions can supply. Rage is
excited and cruelty exercised against the reputation, the
property, and the persons of the living; against the ashes,
the sepulchers, and the memory of the dead; and against the
souls both of the living and the dead. Those who differ from
the stronger party are attacked with all kinds of weapons;
with cruel mockings, calumnies, execrations, curses,
excommunications, anathemas, degrading and scandalous libels,
prisons and instruments of torture. They are banished to
distant or uninhabited islands, condemned to the mines,
prohibited from having any communication with their fellow-
creatures by land or sea, and excluded from a sight of either
heaven or earth. They are tormented by water, fire and the
sword, on crosses and stakes, on wheels of torture and
gibbets, and by the claws of wild beasts, without any
measure, bounds or end, until the party thus oppressed have
been destroyed, or have submitted themselves to the pleasure
of the more powerful, by rejecting with abjurations the
sentiments which they formerly held, and by embracing with
apparent devotion those of which they had previously
disapproved; that is, by destroying themselves through the
hypocritical profession which had been extolled from them by
violence. Call to mind how the Heathens persecuted the
Christians; and the persecuting conduct of the Aryans against
the orthodox, of the worshippers of images against the
destroyers of images, and vice versa. That we may wander to
no great distance let us look at what has occurred within the
period of our recollection and that of our fathers, in Spain,
Portugal, France, England, and the Low Countries; and we
shall confess with tears, that these remarks are lamentably
too true.
4. But if it happen that the contending parties are nearly
equal in power, or that one of them has been long oppressed,
wearied out by persecutions, and inflamed with a desire for
liberty, after having had their patience converted into fury,
(as it is called,) or rather into just indignation, and if
the pressed party assume courage, summon all its strength,
and collect its forces, then most mighty wars arise,
grievances are repeated, after a flourish of trumpets the
herald's hostile spear is sent forth in defiance, war is
proclaimed, the opposing armies charge each other, and the
struggle is conducted in a most bloody and barbarous manner.
Both the belligerents observe a profound silence about
entering into negotiations for peace, lest that party which
first suggests such a course, should, from that very
circumstance, create a prejudice against its own cause and
make it appear the weaker of the two and the more unjust.
Nay, the strife is carried on with such willful obstinacy,
that he can scarcely be endured who for a moment suspends
their mutual animosities by a mention of peace, unless he
have placed a halter around his neck, and be prepared to be
suspended by it on a gibbet, in case his discourse on this
topic happens to displease. For such a lover of peace would
be stigmatized as a deserter from the common cause, and
considered guilty of heresy, a favourer of heretics, an
apostate and a traitor.
Indeed, all these Enmities, Schisms, Persecutions and Wars,
are commenced, carried on, and conducted with the greater
animosity, on account of every one considering his adversary
as the most infectious and pestilent fellow in the whole
Christian world, a public incendiary, a murderer of souls, an
enemy of God, and a servant of the devil -- as a person who
deserves to be suddenly smitten and consumed by fire
descending from heaven -- and as one, whom it is not only
lawful to hate, to curse and to murder without incurring any
guilt, but whom it is also highly proper to treat in that
manner, and to be entitled to no slight commendation for such
a service, because no other work appears in his eyes to be
more acceptable to God, of greater utility in the salvation
of man, more odious to Satan, or more pernicious to his
kingdom. Such a sanguinary zealot professes to be invited,
instigated and constrained to deeds like these, by a zeal for
the house of God, for the salvation of men, and for the
divine glory. This conduct of violent partizans is what was
predicted by the Judge and the Master of our religion: "When
they shall persecute you and kill you for my sake, they will
think that they do God service." (John xvi, 2.) When the very
conscience, therefore, arouses, assists and defends the
affections, no obstacle can offer a successful resistance to
their impetuosity. Thus we see, that religion itself, through
the vicious corruption of men, has been made a cause of
dissension, and has become the field in which they may
perpetually exercise themselves in cruel and bloody contests.
If, in addition to these things, some individual arrogate to
himself, and, with the consent of a great multitude, usurp
authority to prescribe laws with respect to religion, to
strike with the thunderbolt of excommunication whomsoever he
pleases, to dethrone kings, to absolve subjects from their
oaths of allegiance and fidelity, to arm them against their
lawful rulers, to transfer the right over the dominions of
one prince to others who are his sworn confederates, or to
such as are prepared to seize upon them in the first
instance, to pardon crimes however great their enormity may
be, and whether already perpetrated or to be hereafter
committed, and to canonize ruffians and assassins -- the mere
nod of such a man as is here described, must be instantly
obeyed with blind submission, as if it were the command of
God. Blessed God! what a quantity of most inflammable matter
is thus thrown upon the fire of enmities, persecutions and
wars. What an Iliad of disasters is thus introduced into the
Christian world! It is, therefore, not without just reason
that a man may exclaim, "Is it possible, that Religion can
have persuaded men to introduce this great mass of evils?"
But all the ills which we have enumerated do not only proceed
from real dissensions, in which some fundamental truth is the
subject of discussion, but also from those which are
imaginary, when things affect the mind not as they are in
reality, but according to their appearances. I call these
imaginary dissensions. (i.) Either, because they exist among
parties that have only a fabulous religion, which is at as
great a distance from the true one, as the heaven is distant
from the earth, or as the followers of such a phantom are
from God himself. Differences of this description are found
among the Mahomedans, some parties of whom, (as the Turks,)
follow the interpretation of Omar; while others, (as the
Persians,) are proselytes to the commentaries of Ali. (ii.)
Or, because the discordant parties believe these imaginary
differences to be in the substance of the true doctrine, when
they have it in no existence whatever. Of such a difference
Victor, the Bishop of Rome, afforded an instance, when he
wished to excommunicate all the Eastern Churches, because
they dissented from him in the proper time of celebrating the
Christian festival of Easter.
But, to close this part of my discourse, the very summit and
conclusion of all the evils which arise from religious
discord, is, the destruction of that very religion about
which all the controversy has been raised. Indeed, religion
experiences almost the same fate, as the young lady mentioned
by Plutarch, who was addressed by a number of suitors; and
when each of them found that she could not become entirely
his own, they divided her body into parts, and thus not one
of them obtained possession of her whole person. This is the
nature of discord, to disperse and destroy matters of the
greatest consequence. Of this a very mournful example is
exhibited to us in certain extensive dominions and large
kingdoms, the inhabitants of which were formerly among the
most flourishing professors of the Christian Religion; but
the present inhabitants of those countries have
unchristianized themselves by embracing Mahomedanism -- a
system which derived its origin, and had its chief means of
increase, from the dissensions which arose between the Jews
and the Christians, and from the disputes into which the
Orthodox entered with the Sabellians, the Aryans, the
Nestorians, the Eutychians, and with the Monothelites.
II. Let us proceed to contemplate the Causes of this
Dissention. Philosophers generally divide causes, into those
which directly and of themselves produce an effect, and into
those which indirectly and by accident contribute to the same
purpose. The consideration of each of these classes will
facilitate our present inquiries.
1. The accidental cause of this dissension is (1.) the very
nature of the Christian religion, which not only transcends
the human mind and its affections or passions, but appears to
be altogether contrary to both it and to them. (i.) For the
Christian Religion has its foundation in the Cross of Christ;
and it holds forth this humbling truth, "JESUS THE CRUCIFIED,
IS THE saviour OF THE WORLD," as an axiom most worthy of all
acceptation. For this reason also, the word of which this
religion is composed, is termed "the doctrine of the cross."
(1 Cor. i, 18.) But what can appear to the mind more absurd
or foolish, than for a crucified and dead person to be
accounted the saviour of the world, and for men to believe
that salvation centers in the cross? On this account the
Apostle declares in the same passage, that the doctrine of
the cross, [or, the preaching of Christ Crucified,] is unto
the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness.
(ii.) What is more opposed to the human affections than "for
a man to hate and deny himself, to despise the world and the
things that are in the world, and to mortify the flesh with
the affections and lusts?" Yet this is another axiom of the
Christian Religion, to which he who does not give a cheerful
assent in mind, in will and in deed, is excluded from the
discipleship of Christ Jesus. This indispensable requisite is
the cause why he who is alienated in mind from the Christian
Religion, does not yield a ready compliance with these its
demands; and why he who has enrolled his name with Christ,
and who is too weak and pusillanimous to inflict every
species of violence on his nature, invents certain fictions,
by which he attempts to soften and mitigate a sentence, the
exact fulfillment of which fills him with horror. From these
circumstances, after men have turned aside from purity of
doctrine, dissensions are excited against religion and its
firm and constant professors.
(2.) In the scriptures, as in the only authentic document,
the Christian Religion is at present registered and sealed;
yet even they are seized upon as an occasion of error and
dissension, when, as the Apostle Peter says, "the unlearned
and unstable wrest them unto their own destruction," because
they contain "some things hard to be understood." (2 Pet.
iii, 16.) The figurative expressions and ambiguous sentences,
which occur in certain parts of the scriptures, are
undesignedly forced to conduce to the adulteration of the
truth among those persons, "who have not their senses
exercised" in them.
2. But omitting any further notice of these matters, let us
take into our consideration the proper causes of this
dissension: (1.) In the front of these, Satan appears, that
most bitter enemy of truth and peace, and the most wily
disseminator of falsehood and dissension, who acts as leader
of the hostile band. Envying the glory of God and the
salvation of man, and attentively looking out on all
occasions, he marks every movement; and whenever an
opportunity occurs, during the Lord's seed time, he sows the
tares of heresies and schisms among the wheat. From such a
malignant and surreptitious mode of sowing while men are
sleeping, (Matt. xiii, 23,) he often obtains a most abundant
harvest. (2.) Man himself follows next in this destructive
train, and is easily induced to perform any service for
Satan, however pernicious its operation may prove to his own
destruction; and that most subtle enemy, the serpent, finds
in man several instruments most appropriately fitted for the
completion of his purposes.
First. The mind of man is the first in subserviency to Satan,
both with regard to its blindness and its vanity. First. The
Blindness of the mind is of two kinds, the one a native
blindness, the other accidental. The former of these grows up
with us even from the birth: our very origin is tainted with
the infection of the primitive offense of the Old Adam, who
turned away from God the Great Source of all his light. This
blindness has so fascinated our eyes, as to make us appear
like owls that become dim-sighted when the light of truth is
seen. Yet this truth is not hidden in a deep well; but though
it is placed in the heavens, we cannot perceive it, even when
its beams are clearly shining upon us from above. The latter
is an accidental and acquired blindness, which man has chosen
for himself to obscure the few beams of light which remain
him. "The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not; lest the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ should shine unto them." (2 Cor. iv, 4.) God himself,
the just punisher of those who hate the truth, has inflicted
on them this blindness, by giving efficacy to error. This is
the cause why the veil that remains upon the mind, operates
as a preventive and obstructs the view of the gospel; (2 Cor.
3,) and why he on whom the truth has shone in vain, "believes
a lie." (2 Thess. ii, 11.) But assent to a falsehood is a
dissent and separation from those who are the assertors of
truth. Secondly. The vanity of the mind succeeds its
blindness, and is prone to turn aside from the path of true
religion, in which no one can continue to walk except by a
firm and invariable purpose of heart. This vanity is also
inclined to invent to itself such a Deity as may be most
agreeable to its own vain nature, and to fabricate a mode of
worship that may be thought to please that fictitious Deity.
Each of these ways constitutes a departure from the unity of
true religion, on deserting which men rush heedlessly into
dissensions.
Secondly. But the affections of the mind are, of all others,
the most faithful and trusty in the assistance which they
afford to Satan, and conduct themselves like abject slaves
devoted to his service; although it must be acknowledged that
they are frequently brought thus to act, under a false
conception that they are by such deeds promoting their own
welfare and rendering good service to God himself. Love and
Hatred, the two chief affections, and the fruitful parents
and instigators of all the rest, occupy the first, second,
third, and indeed all the places, in this slavish employment.
Each of them is of a three-fold character, that nothing might
be wanting which could contribute to the perfection of their
number.
The Former of them consists of the love of glory, of riches,
and of pleasures, which the disciple whom Jesus loved, thus
designates, "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life." (1 John ii, 16.) The Latter consists
of hatred to the truth, to peace, and to the professors of
the truth.
(i.) Pride, then, that most prolific mother of dissensions in
religion, produces its fetid offspring in three different
ways: For, First, either it "exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God," (2 Cor. x, 5,) and does not suffer itself
to be brought into captivity by the truth to obey God, being
impatient of the yoke which is imposed by Christ, though it
is both easy and light. Pride says in reality, "Let us break
their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us."
(Psalm ii, 3.) From this baneful source arose the sedition
of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who arrogantly claimed for
themselves a share in the priesthood, which God had given
exclusively to Aaron. (Num. 16.) Or, Secondly, it loveth to
have the pre-eminence in the Church of God, and "to have
dominion over another's faith;" the very crime of which St.
John accuses Diotrephes, when he complains that "neither doth
he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that
would, and casteth them out of the Church." (3 John 9, 10.)
Or, Lastly, having usurped an impotent sovereignty over the
souls of men by appointing and altering at its pleasure the
laws concerning Religion, and over the bodies of men by
employing menaces and force to bring into subjection to it
the consciences of men, it compels those churches which
cannot with a safe conscience bear this most iniquitous
tyranny, to depart from the rest and to assume to themselves
the management of their own affairs. The Greek Church
declared itself to be influenced by this cause, in refusing
to hold communion with the Latin Church, because the Roman
Pontiff had, in opposition to all right and law, and in
defiance of the rule of Christ and of the decrees of the
Fathers, "arrogated to himself a plenitude of power." From
the same fountain has flowed that immense schism which in
this age distracts and divides all Europe. This has been ably
manifested to the whole world by the just complaints and
allegations of Protestant States and Protestant Princes.
But envy, anger, and an eager desire to know all things, are
other three darts, which Pride hurls against concord in
religion. For, first, if any one excels his fellows in the
knowledge of divine things, and in holiness of life, and if
by these means he advances in favour and authority with the
people, pride immediately injects envy into the minds of some
persons, which contaminates all that is fair and lovely;
asperses and defiles whatever is pure; obscures, by vile
calumnies, either his course of life or the doctrines which
he professes; puts a wrong construction, by means of a
malevolent interpretation, on what was well intended and
correctly expressed by him; commences disputes with him who
is thus high in public estimation; and endeavours to lay the
foundations of its own praise on the mass of ignominy which
it heaps upon his name and reputation. If by such actions as
these it cannot obtain for itself a situation equal to its
desires, it then invents new dogmas and draws away the people
after it; that it may enjoy such a dignity, among some
individuals who have separated from the rest of the body,
which it was impossible for it to obtain from the whole while
they lived together in concord and harmony. Secondly. Pride
is also the parent of anger, which may stimulate any one to
revenge, if he think himself injured even in the slightest
degree by a professor of the truth. Such a person reckons
scarcely any injury better suited to his purpose or more
pernicious to the affairs of his adversary, than to speak
contumeliously and in disparagement of his sentiments, and
publicly to proclaim him a Heretic -- than which no term can
be more opprobrious or an object of greater hatred among
mortals. Because, as this crime does not consist of deeds,
but of sentiments, the aspersions cast upon them cannot be so
completely washed away as to leave no stains adhering to
them, or as to create a possibility at least for the
calumniator to remove from himself by some evasive subterfuge
the infamy which attaches itself to him who is an utterer of
slanders. The third weapon which pride employs in this
warfare, is a passionate desire to explore and know all
things. This passion leaves no subject untouched, that its
learning may be displayed to advantage; and, (not to lose the
reward of its labour,) it obtrusively palms upon others as
things necessary to be known, those matters which, by means
of great exertion, it seems to have drawn out from behind the
darkness of ignorance, and accompanies all its remarks by
great boldness of assertion. From such a disposition and
conduct as this, offenses. and schisms must arise in the
Church.
(ii.) Avarice, likewise, or, the love of money, which is
termed by the Apostle, "the root of all evil," (1 Tim. vi,
10,) brings its hostile standard into this embattled field.
For, since the doctrine of truth is not a source of profit,
when those who have faithfully taught it are succeeded by
unbelieving teachers, "who are ravening wolves, and suppose
gain to be godliness," the latter effect a great change in
it, (1.) either by "binding heavy burdens, and grievous to be
borne, and laying them on the shoulders of the disciples,"
(Matt. xxiii, 4,) for whose redemption votive offerings may
be daily made; (2.) by inventing profitable plans for
expiating sins; or, lastly, by preaching, in soft and
complimentary language, such things as are agreeable to the
ears of the people, for the purpose of gaining their favour,
which, according to the expression of the Apostle, is a
"corrupting of the word of God," or making a gain of it. (2
Cor. ii, 17.) From these causes dissensions have often
arisen; (1.) either when the faithful teachers that are in
the church, or those whom God raises up for the salvation of
his people, marshal themselves in opposition to the doctrine
which is prepared for the sake of profit; or, (2.) when the
people themselves, growing weary of impositions and rapine,
become seceders from these pastors, by uniting themselves
with such as are really better, or by receiving those as
their substitutes who are in their estimation better. This
was the torch of dissension between the Pharisees and Christ,
who opposed their avarice and came to loose all those
grievous burdens. This was also the primary consideration by
which Luther was excited to obstruct the sale of Popish
indulgencies; and from that small beginning, he gradually
proceeded to reforms of greater importance.
(iii.) Nor only that Pleasure or "lust of the flesh," which
specially comes under this denomination, and which denotes a
feeling or disposition for carnal things, takes its part in
the performance of this tragedy, but that also which in a
general sense contains a desire to commit sin without any
remorse of conscience: and both these kinds of pleasure most
assiduously employ themselves in collecting inflammable
materials for augmenting the flame of discord in religion.
For this passion or affection, having had some experience in
the important "doctrine of the cross," desires as the very
summit of all its wishes, both to riot, while here, in the
pleasures of voluptuousness, and yet to cherish some hopes of
obtaining the happiness of heaven. With two such incompatible
objects in view this passion chooses teachers for itself, who
may in an easy manner "place under the arm-holes of their
disciples, pillows sewed and filled with soft feathers,"
(Ezek. xiii, 18,) on which they may recline themselves and
take sweet repose, although their sins, like sharply pointed
thorns, continue to sting and molest them in every direction.
They flatter them with the idea of easily obtaining pardon,
provided they purchase the favour of the Deity, by me