6. As to faith and repentance, if men, when they call them the conditions of salvation, only mean, that we cannot be saved without them, in this point of view we perfectly agree. But if, under these terms, is conveyed an insinuation, either that they are performed by any power of the creature, or possess such a degree of merit, as to be intrinsically conditional of salvation, which I fear is often intended, we then enter our protest against not only the inaccuracy, but the dangerous error, couched under the expression. Both repentance and faith are the gifts of God. What is given, cannot be a condition of the love of the giver; but must be the effect of it. It is the greatest solecism in divinity and common sense, to say, that the favors bestowed are the conditions of antecedent affection. As well might we argue, that the effects produced in the earth by the sun’s rays, are the condition of his existence as the source of light and heat. Whereas the very reverse is true. The light of the universe, and the fertility of the earth, depend upon the influence of that great luminary; without which, the world would be a dungeon, and all creation a blank. Thus the Lord Jesus Christ shines in the firmament of his church as the Sun of Righteousness. The light of faith and the renovating influence of repentance, are those beneficial rays which he emits, as tokens of his love and power. The effects produced prove to individuals that this Sun shineth; but they do not make him shine. His glory is independent, as his goodness is undeserved. Besides, as the power to believe and repent, is from God, Acts, v. 31, John, vi. 29, these acts of the mind can possess no merit or proper conditionally, unless it can be supposed that a sinner has a right to expect heaven for what is not his own. And when so much is attributed to faith and repentance, the great object of both is forgotten. And that object is the Lord our righteousness; whose obedience and death were the great conditions of reconciliation; without which, one sinner could not have been saved. When we talk of the conditions of salvation, we should, therefore, remember, that “to do the will of the Father,” which implies the performance of these conditions, is represented in Psal. xl. 6, and Heb. x. 9, as the sole work of the Redeemer.
7. We conceive it to be of the utmost importance, as well for the consistency of the gospel plan, as the happiness of sinners, to maintain the necessity of a divine inspiration; not for the purpose of working miracles, as some absurdly imagine that expression always implies; but for the purpose of effecting that great change in the heart, without which, none can enter the kingdom of heaven. A change so difficult to produce, that it is called in scripture a new birth, John, iii. 7; a new creation, 2 Cor. v. 17; a translation from darkness to light, and from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of Christ; and that requires an exertion of the same omnipotent power that brought light out of darkness in the beginning, and arranged the universe itself. When St. Paul says, that “if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his,” Rom. viii. 9, we apprehend the apostle declares an awful truth, that not only affected his cotemporaries, but in which all are concerned to the end of time. And since the world as much wants now to be “convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,” John, xvi. 8, as in the day that our Lord promised to send the Holy Ghost for these important purposes; it is reasonable to conclude, that his inspiration is still continued with the church, notwithstanding the opposition which this truth meets with from multitudes, many of whom call that enthusiasm, which they are taught to pray for in the services of the church. But the misfortune is, they make their own stupid feelings a comment upon those of others; and the force of their arguing centres entirely in this, that the influences of the spirit must have ceased, because they never felt them. Which is reasoning, just as wise and conclusive, as if a man born blind should insist that there is no such colour as scarlet, because he never saw it.
Thus have I endeavoured to give you a summary of the truths of God, which, like the several links in a chain, are so closely connected, that whatever affects one, endangers more or less the whole system; while, to maintain the distinct authority of each, and to point out its coherence with every concomitant link in the golden chain of evangelical truth, must necessarily tend to the preservation of the whole. But it remains now that I shew that,
II. The system of doctrine I have laid down, is no more justly chargeable with novelty than with error.
To urge antiquity alone, as a sufficient recommendation of any doctrine, is often the refuge of superstition driven to its last resource. And it is well known how much this plea is maintained by the Church of Rome, as a covert for all the errors, impositions, and pious frauds, that for centuries have banished purity and truth from her communion. The plea of antiquity is but a fallacious one at best; since error is very old as well as truth, and in every age of the church men have always called in the suffrage of their ancestors as a sort of sanction for their own blasphemies; imputing to antiquity a certain virtue to make error venerable, or to stamp a dignity on folly, merely because it may have happened to be folly before the flood. Equally inconclusive and fallacious too, are either the objections started against any doctrine, or the countenance sought in favor of it, merely because it may be new. People are apt, in most cases, to be strangely wedded to antiquity; insomuch, that a friendly effort to rescue them even from nonsense, or to liberate them from slavery, has been at different times construed into a dangerous innovation. When men have been habituated to an old track, they become in time so reconciled to it, that what with indolence and a stupid predilection in favor of antiquity, they discover an unwillingness to be driven out of it. And the man that has courage enough to make the attempt, does it often at his peril. The person that first declared there were any such beings as antipodes, was put to death as a monster of wickedness. The discovery was new; and the mere novelty was enough, in the opinion of a sage pope, to constitute him a heretic, and judge him worthy of death. Yet, it seems necessary to guard with proper caution against the pretensions of novelty. Men are often ambitious of making new discoveries in religion, as well as in other sciences. And when long established truth in the scriptures checks them in their bold attempts to advance any thing absolutely new, they will often put ingenuity upon the rack, at least, to devise some new refinement upon an old error, that they may set themselves at the head of a party, and rear their own consequence upon the ruins of truth and peace. A bigot of this class has more than once complained bitterly, that, “in the Church of England, there is nothing new left to be found out in religion; but that the 39 articles tell all.” As if religion were a fluctuating system, that requires to be changed and improved like fashions of a day.
From these observations it is plain, that the pleas, both of antiquity and novelty, either for or against any thing, are indecisive, and may be dangerous; and that when any doctrines are proposed to us, our principal inquiry should be, not whether they are new or old, but whether they are true. It is not the date of a bond that gives it its validity in law, but the sign manual, and the attestation of witnesses. Who ever thought of inquiring, when a piece of money was coined, provided the metal were pure, and its currency legal. Gold is the same in every age; and none would think it more intrinsically valuable, either for the antiquity or novelty of its coinage. So, the nature of truth cannot be affected by any accidental circumstances of date, time, and place; and all, who are in search of it, merely for its own sake, will make no account of such trivial considerations. However, as prejudices are sometimes best removed by being a little humoured in their requisitions, capricious as they are, I will endeavour to shew that the truths I have stated, claim antiquity as well as purity for the ground of their excellency.
1. If the writings of Moses may be considered among the most venerable and authentic records, I think I can prove my point even from the Pentateuch. A plural substantive and verb singular in the very first verse in the Bible, united in a description of the act and agent in creation, convey, if not a direct proof, yet a very strong intimation, of a plurality of persons in the Godhead, and of their oneness in point of essence. But that truth is more expressly declared, when upon the fall of man Jehovah says, “The man is become as one of us.” Gen. iii. 22.—The history of the first transgression is recorded in the same chapter. And the effects of it soon appeared in the murder committed by Cain against his own brother, and in the flagrant wickedness of one of his descendants, that infamous polygamist Lamech. The communication of the original taint from father to son is so expressly recorded by Moses, that when St. Paul says, that “by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners,” he does not speak more intelligibly, than when the Jewish Lawgiver says, that “Adam begat a son in his own likeness;” Gen. v. 3,—“in his own,” as contradistinguished from the divine image, in which he had been created. What words can more forcibly describe the total and desperate apostacy of the human heart, than the following? “And God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually.” Gen. vi. 5. And what was the universal deluge, but a tremendous comment on this humiliating truth? And, lest it should be presumed, that postdeluvian wickedness was less flagrant than that which provoked God to destroy the inhabitants of the earth with a flood, or, that human nature was materially altered for the better, David says, that “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. But, behold! they are all gone aside, there is none that doeth good, no not one.” Psal. xiv. 2, 3. A passage of scripture this, which the Apostle Paul quotes in Rom. iii. “to prove that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin.” Rom. iii. 9.
2. The appointment of sacrifices, as typifying the way of salvation through Christ, appears to have been one of Jehovah’s earliest institutions after the fall. For the flesh of those animals, with the skins of which the Lord God clothed our first parents, was probably offered up as a sacrifice; the one, prefigurative of the expiatory death of Christ, and the other, of the imputation of his righteousness, that best robe, with which the nakedness of guilty sinners is covered from the eye of God’s justice. This supposition respecting the appointment of sacrifices immediately after the fall, appears to be confirmed by the conduct of Abel. The great characteristic of his piety consisted in the presenting to the Lord “of the firstlings of the flock.” Gen. iv. 4. This act, which implied a consciousness of his guilt, and a dependence on the great propitiation of the Messiah, was done in faith; and, therefore, “Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” Heb. xi. 4. The same institution, which Jehovah appointed to Adam and his household, and was continued through the patriarchal æra, became at last one of the principal ceremonies in the law of Moses. The necessity of an atonement for sin was promulgated in every beast that was slain; and the great truth was not only kept up by the solemnity of an annual festival, but also by a daily sacrifice. The blood poured forth upon these occasions was called the blood of atonement. The constant repetition of sacrifices was intended to preach that unalterable maxim, common both to the law and the gospel, that “without shedding of blood is no remission.” And what the economy of Moses exhibited in shadowy types, was at last illustrated substantially in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who “hath offered one sacrifice for sin, and hath put it away by the offering of himself once for all.” Heb. x. 12. So that both law and gospel unite in proclaiming to the inhabitants of the earth, that “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved;” but the all-meritorious name of the Lamb of God. Acts, iv. 12.
3. If we require the testimony of the prophets, their unanimous suffrage is ready to confirm the truths I am pleading for.—Can the doctrine of original sin be more explicitly or feelingly taught, than in the confession of the Royal Psalmist? “Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me!” Psal. li. 5; or, than in the description of the human heart by Jeremiah? “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Jer. xvii 9. The glory of the Lord of hosts in Isaiah’s vision, (chapter vi. compared with John, xii. 41, and Acts, xxviii. 25,) was the glory of the Trinity: and what words can more expressly or more sublimely delineate the divine nature of Jesus, than those of this enraptured prophet, when he styles him “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Isa. ix. 6. The same inspired writer, who is very justly styled the evangelist of the prophets, declares, in language equally intelligible and sublime, the doctrine of our Lord’s vicarious satisfaction, of the translation of our guilt to him, and of his righteousness to us, in his 53d chapter. “And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all—for the transgression of my people was he smitten—by the knowledge of him shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” Verse 6, 8, 11. The same truth is taught by Daniel, when he prophesies, that “Messiah should be cut off, but not for himself; that he should make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness.” Dan. ix. 24, 26. Zechariah speaks of the sword of justice as drawn against the “man that was Jehovah’s fellow,” and of the “fountain of his blood opened for sin and uncleanness.” Zech. xiii. 1, 7. When we assert that sinners are justified before God, only by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, apprehended by faith, to the exclusion of all works in point of merit, we think ourselves authorized to do so by the authority of the prophets and of the apostles. “This is his name,” says Jeremiah, “whereby he shall be called the Lord our Righteousness.” Jer. xxiii. 6. And Habakkuk speaks the same truth, when he says, that “the just shall live by faith,” Habak. ii. 4, compared with Heb. x. 38. The work of the Holy Ghost, for the purpose of cleansing the heart from the love of sin and the dominion of inward idols, is described by Ezekiel under the similitude of applying clean water to the body. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean—a new heart also will I give you—and I will put my spirit within you.” Ezek. xxxvi. 25–27. The same divine agency is by Malachi compared to the operation of fire on metal, to purify it from any adherent dross: Mal. iii. 3. And our blessed Lord himself hath compared the Spirit’s influence to the effects produced by these two elements respectively. To all these, we may superadd the testimony of Joel: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” Joel, ii. 28. For though this promise, as quoted by Peter in Acts, ii. 17, relates principally to the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, yet it comprehends also a prediction of his saving influences to all that believe among Jews and Gentiles.
4. That God hath loved his people from everlasting, Jer. xxxi. 3,—that he will “rest in his love,” Zeph. iii. 17, without variableness or shadow of turning—that “he knoweth,” with a peculiar and discriminating knowledge, “them that trust in him,” Nab. i. 7,—that “he delighteth in mercy, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage,” Mic. vii. 18,—that “salvation is of the Lord,” Jonah, ii. 9, and must be a glorious certainty, since its contrivance and execution are both the Lord’s—that he will “bring again the captivity of his people,” Amos, viii. 14, and “heal their backslidings, and love them freely,” Hos. xiv. 4,—that “the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but that the kindness of the Lord shall not depart from his people, nor the covenant of his peace be removed,” Isa. liv. 10,—are glorious truths, expressed in scripture language, and corroborated by the concurring testimony of the prophets Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Micah, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah.