THE RIGHT KNOWLEDGE OF DOCTRINE THE FRUIT OF OBEDIENCE.
“If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.” John, vii. 17.
The malevolent and unremitted opposition, which the truths of revelation have met with from infidels in all ages, hath made it necessary to urge every argument, derived from the external and internal evidences of Christianity, in order to demonstrate that its origin is from God. This business of demonstrating would have been altogether superfluous, were the heart of man naturally accessible to truth and righteousness. But it is deplorably sunk in prejudices against both, in consequence of an apostacy from the Fountain of Wisdom. Hence, men quarrel with revelation, because they have first rebelled against the divine Author of it. An innate aversion to the genius of true Christianity is generally productive of controversies about the proofs of its divine authenticity. Corruption in the heart of an infidel prompts him to wish that some of the doctrines of the gospel may not be true; because they hurt his pride, or propose a bridle to his lusts. And what men earnestly wish, they at last bring themselves obstinately to believe. From this unhappy mixture of credulity and obstinacy in an infidel spring all his objections to the dictates of reason, and the evidences of sacred truth. But the cause of Christianity is supported on all sides by pillars of such strength, that the efforts of its adversaries to overturn the fabric, only serve to shew its firmness, and to expose their weakness. Its plan originated in the mind of Jehovah, and its foundation rests on eternal truth. The same wisdom that arranged the universe modelled the gospel system; and the creation of the world and the revelation of truth in the Bible have but one and the same Almighty Agent. This will appear, if we consider, as proposed, the several arguments, that evince
1. The divine origin of the doctrines of the gospel. But these are so numerous, and would require such a compass of reasoning to discuss them fully, that I must content myself with only giving you the outlines of them. The principal of these, as far as the external evidences of Christianity are concerned, are prophecies and miracles. When events have been predicted thousands of years before they happen, the correspondence between the fact and the prophecy must be the effect of divine interposition. Yet such a correspondence, the most punctual, even in the minutiæ of time and circumstances, is visible from the very face of scripture prophecy. Miracles are justly considered as an additional evidence of the divine origin of any doctrine, and of the divine mission of him who preaches it. And having been performed before a number of credible witnesses, under circumstances of public notoriety, with marks of preternatural operation, and with a tendency the most beneficial to mankind, they become so many indubitable vouchers to the cause of truth. Much accessional strength to this sacred cause might be derived from a consideration of the character of the first preachers of the gospel; who went forth to spread its truths, under the expectation, not of ease and honor, but of contempt, and poverty, and death itself; and, without any aid, save what they derived from the presence and blessing of the Lord, amidst universal opposition, erected the standard of truth in divers countries, and planted truth in the most distant regions of darkness and error.
But the internal excellences of the doctrine are among the other proofs of its divine original. Here you meet with none of the monstrous absurdities of paganism or superstition, that have often made virtues of the most abominable passions, and deified vice itself, by consecrating temples to lust and cruelty; or that have dethroned both reason and religion, and established the most egregious fooleries, as maxims of truth, and modes of worship. Here every virtue is rescued from the false glosses that had been imposed upon it by the craft, or ignorance, or wickedness of men; and every moral precept is placed in its true light of purity and extensive obligation; shewing, that what is so pure in its tendency must have for its author the Holy One of Israel.
What other system, but that of the gospel, produces such a harmony between the divine perfections! Here, notwithstanding the opposite claims of mercy and truth, justice and peace, each is respectively honored, yet all mutually harmonize. They meet at the cross of Jesus, and, from his great propitiatory satisfaction, derive a power to unite with perfect concord in the salvation of sinners. While Jesus bleeds, justice is satisfied, truth is fulfilled, mercy erects her throne, and peace extends an olive branch to a guilty world.
Where is the system that carries such marks of divinity, as the gospel does? even from the suitableness of its provision to the peculiar necessities of lost sinners? If any are oppressed with fears, or burdened with a load of guilt; here they are pointed to the fountain of a crucified Saviour’s blood, which is of infinite efficacy to heal the broken hearted, and make the foulest clean. If the world is a scene of misery and sin; here life and immortality are brought to light, and the horrors of death changed into the portals of bliss. The king of terrors appears bereft of his sting, and he that had the power of death, that is the devil, receives his deadly bruise. The weak and ignorant, the poor and wretched, are invited to the feast, where all is of God’s providing; and all is offered without money and without price. Happy they who obey the invitation, and taste of the rich provision! Their own experience is then the best comment on the truth of the text. They have an internal evidence of the truth of the doctrine, because they have felt the power of it: which leads me to consider,
2. Wherein consisteth the privilege of knowing that the gospel is of God.
As the gospel is a system calculated equally to illuminate the understanding and to renovate the heart; the blessedness of knowing that it is from God, must be in proportion to the greatness of the privileges which it communicates. And these are, a deliverance from perplexing doubt and endless speculation—a discernment of the way of truth—and such an established persuasion respecting the believer’s personal interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, as quickens his affections, and engages both heart and life in devotedness to the Lord his God.
I. As the fall of man hath plunged his intellectual faculties in great darkness; in the investigation of truth and the contemplation of spiritual objects, he thinks and judges as absurdly as a man born blind would do, in an attempt to expatiate on the nature and distinctions of colors. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Cor. ii. 14. And as long as this veil of natural obscurity covers his understanding, the very same reason, which, on natural and scientific subjects, exerts itself with such vigor and success, leaves him the subject of doubt and uncertainty on the great concerns of eternity—the humiliating and unhappy situation of every man by nature, from the grossly ignorant up to the acute and learned blasphemer. What a blessing to be extricated from all this scepticism and the darkness which occasions it! To have the mind no longer distracted with doubts and disquietude on what it is concerned to know! This is the privilege of him who knows the gospel to be of God. He is no longer tossed about with every wind of doctrine, or agitated by the clashing opinions of men, who are often more earnest to oppose one another than to investigate truth. The spirit of God hath rent the veil of darkness, and dissipated the mists that rendered his path doubtful and perplexed. Retiring from the din of controversy, and the niceties of the schools, he hath seated himself down at the feet of Jesus, to learn, as an humble pupil, the truth from his mouth. There he listens to that word, which, while it drops refreshing as the dew on the tender herb, pours on his mind a divine light, that puts an end to former cavils at the authority of revelation, and to former doubts about the doctrines contained in it.