SECTION XIII. Containing:-1. Ten more arguments to prove that all men AN HISTORICAL ESSAY UPON THE IMPORTANCE AND HARMONY OF THE TWO GOSPEL PRECEPTS, BELIEVE AND OBEY; AND UPON THE FATAL CONSEQUENCES THAT FLOW FROM PARTING FAITH AND WORKS. AN HISTORICAL ESSAY, WHEN the gospel is considered as opposed to the error of the pharisees, and that of the antinomians, it may be summed up in the two following propositions: 1. In the day of conversion, we are saved freely as sinners (that is, made freely partakers of the privileges that belong to our gospel dispensation in the church militant) through the merits of Christ, and by the instrumentality of a living faith. 2. In the day of judgment we shall be saved freely as saints (that is, made freely partakers of the privileges of our gospel dispensation in the church triumphant) through the merits of Christ, and by the evidence of evangelical works. Whence it follows: 1. That nothing can absolutely hinder our justification in a gospel day, but the want of true faith; and, 2. That nothing will absolutely hinder our justification in the day of judgment, but the want of good works. If I am not mistaken, all the evangelical doctrine of faith and works turns upon those propositions. They exactly answer to the grand directions of the gospel. Wilt thou enter into Christ's sheepfold? "Believe." Wilt thou stay there? "Believe and obey." Wilt thou be numbered among his sheep in the great day? "Endure unto the end: continue in well-doing:" that is, persevere in faith and obedience. To "believe" then, and "obey," or, as Solomon expresses it, "to fear God and keep his commandments, is the whole duty of man." Therefore a professor of faith without genuine obedience, and a pretender to obedience without genuine faith, equally miss their aim ; while a friend to faith and works put in their proper place, a possessor of the faith which works by love, hits the gospel mark, and so runs as to obtain the prize: for the same true and faithful witness spoke the two following and equally express declarations :-" 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. And, "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of condemnation." John v. 28, 29. See that sculler upon yonder river. The unwearied diligence, and watchful skill, with which he plies his two oars, points out to us the work and wisdom of an experienced divine. What an even, gentle spring does the mutual effort of his oars give to his boat! Observe him : his right hand never rests, but when the stream carries him too much to the left; he slacks not his left hand, unless he is gone too much to the right; nor has he sooner recovered a just medium, than he uses both oars again with mutual harmony. Suppose that for a constancy he employed but one, no matter which, what would be the consequence? He would only move in a circle; and if neither wind nor tide carried him along, after an hard day's work, he would find himself in the very spot where he began his idle toil. This illustration needs very little explaining: I shall just observe that the antinomian is like a sculler, who uses only his right-hand oar; and the pharisee, like him who plies only the oar in his left hand. One makes an endless bustle about grace and faith, the other about charity and works; but both, after all, find themselves exactly in the same place; with this single difference, that one has turned from truth to the right, and the other to the left. Not so the judicious, unbiassed preacher, who will safely enter the haven of eternal rest, for which he and his hearers are bound. He makes an equal use of the doctrine of faith and that of works. If at any time he insists most upon faith, it is only when the stream carries his congregation upon the pharisaic shallows on the left hand : and if he lays a preponderating stress upon works, it is only when he sees unwary souls sucked into the anti nomian whirlpool on the right hand. His skill consists in so avoiding one danger as not to run upon the other. Nor ought this watchful wisdom to be confined to ministers: for though all are not called to direct congregations; yet all moral agents are, and always were, more or less called to direct themselves, that is, to occupy till the Lord comes, by making a proper use of their talents according to the parable, Matt. xxv. 15-30. God gave to angels and man remigium alarum, the two oars, or, if you please, the equal wings, of faith and obedience; charging them to use those grand powers, according to their original wisdom and enlightened conscience. Or, to speak without metaphor, he created them in such a manner, that they believed it their duty, interest, and glory, to obey him without reserve; and this faith was naturally productive of an universal, delightful, perfect obedience. Nor would they ever have been wanting in practice, if they had not first wavered in principle. But when Lucifer had unaccountably persuaded himself, in part at least, either that obedience was mean, or that rebellion would be advantageous; and when the crafty tempter had made our first parents believe in part, that if they ate of the forbidden fruit, far from dying, they should be as God himself; how possible, how easy was it for them to venture upon an act of rebellion! By rashly playing with the serpent, and sucking in the venom of his crafty insinuations, they soon gave their faith a wilful wound, and their obedience naturally died of it. But alas! it did not die unrevenged; for no sooner had fainting faith given birth to a dead work, than she was destroyed by her spurious offspring. Thus faith and obedience, that couple more lovely than David and his friend, more inseparable than Saul and Jonathan, in their death were not divided. They even met with a common grave, the corrupt atrocious breast of a rebellious angel, or of apostate man. Nor does St. James give us a less melancholy account of this fatal event. While faith slumbered, lust conceived, and brought forth sin, and sin finished, brought forth |