COMPLETE DUTY OF MAN: OR, A SYSTEM OF DOCTRINAL & PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. To which are added, FORMS OF PRAYER AND OFFICES OF DEVOTION FOR THE BY H. VENN, Α.Μ. RECTOR OF YELLING, AND CHAPLAIN TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN. Fear God and keep his Commandments, for this is the WHOLE DUTY OF MAN. Eccl. xii. 13. New-Brunswick : PUBLISHED BY J. SIMPSON AND Co. L. DEARE, printer. PREFACE. FAITH in Christ, whatever disputes may have been raised about its nature, is allowed on all hands to be a capital doctrine of the gospel, and essential to a Christian. In full agreement with the great lights of the primitive church, our own, and all the reformed ones, I understand by it a dependence upon Christ for righteousness and strength, as having paid to the justice of God full satisfaction for his broken law, and obtained acceptance for all believers in his name, to the reward of eternal life. Should an explanation of this point, now it seems so offensive to many, be demanded, the following is humbly submitted to consideration. Sin is the transgression of God's law, which, so soon as broken, subjects us to its penalty. The first sin of the first man is a decisive proof of this truth, standing in the front of the Bible, a perpetual important lesson of instruction to mankind, in a point which otherwise could not have been known by them; and which, notwithstanding the solemnity of its delivery, they are always apt to overlook. But this fact ought very particularly to be considered, because designed to give us a clear insight into the nature of God, and the nature of sin, and as a key to the subsequent discoveries of scripture. For if the sin of eating the forbidden fruit, involving in its fatal consequences the whole human race, could not be pardoned, we may fairly presume, sin has always the same nature in the eyes of an unchangeable God. Therefore, every sin, as an act of disobedience and rebellion against him, must be the object of his displeasure at all times, and for ever separate from him every soul of man in whom it is found unpardoned and unpurged. 5707 (RECAP) JUL 311916 373732 |