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ON THE ATONEMENT.

"Can a person be considered as having an interest in Christ, who rejects the atonement he has made?"

He gives no evidence of his interest: secret things belong to God; and we know not what God may hereafter do for such a person; but we are warranted to say, he gives no evidence of interest in Christ. A belief of the truth (and this is eminently the truth*) is essential to a state of salvation; and "he that believeth not shall be damned." "Except ye eat the flesh, and drink the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life in you." This passage plainly refers to the atonement of Christ; and signifies the use that a real Christian makes of it. Many, very many, other Scriptures clearly prove the ne cessity of "receiving the atonement," in order to our personal salvation. We must tremble, therefore, for a Socinian, or any one who neglects this great salvation.

QUERY OF A SEEKER AFTER SALVATION.

"WHAT are the duties incumbent on man, in a natural state, in order to acquire an experimental knowledge of the gospel of salvation?" An experimental knowledge of the gospel is certainlyan object of the highest importance: and he is the wisest and happiest man who has attained, through Divine grace, the clearest perceptions of that way of salvation, from which the gospel derives all its impor tance and glory. The proposer of the above Query,

*Galatians iii. 1.

† John vi. 53.

Romans v. 11.

seems to be fully satisfied as to the latter of these points. He confesses the necessity of experimentally knowing the gospel of salvation; but he assumes, that this infinite blessing is to be acquired by the performances of duties; and that man in a natural state, is capable of discharging them. His only question of difficulty is, What are these wonder-working duties?" Now, Sir, as I am persuaded you have but few correspondents who could meet our inquirer upon his own terms, and as some questions are best answered by proposing others, I would take the liberty of requesting his unbiassed attention to the following particulars:

First, What is the scriptural import of the descriptive terms here used,-"Man in a natural state?" Is it not that he is a sinner fallen from God by original sin? that he is altogether ignorant of Divine things? that he is at enmity with God in the appointed medium of salvation? that he is enslaved by error and his own carnal base passions? that he has neither will nor power to perform holy exercises? that, as a natural man, not believing in Christ, his very best sacrifices are bad and abominable in the sight of God? How apposite to our purpose is the thirteenth article of the established church of England! "Works," says that article, "done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive or deserve grace; and as they are not done as God hath willed and commanded, they have the nature of sin."

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Secondly, If this account of man in his natural, or unregenerate state, be scripturally accurate, on what ground cant be, for a moment, admitted that there is any possiilit of his performing spiritual and acceptable duties For these duties, which are to acquire an experimental knowledge of salvation, so far from having the nature of sin, in the sense here understood, and so far from being unpleasant to God, they must be spiritual and acceptable; and must deserve, and make men meet to receive his grace. These will be the natural consequences of the sentiment evidently contained in the Query of your correspondent:-a sentiment which, wherever it obtains, must derogate from the glory of the gospel, and tend to the most dangerous and fatal mistakes as to the ground of a sinner's justification. Who does not see that, if the wisdom and diligence of unholy men are to be employed in acquiring the blessings of salvation, as in the affairs of commerce? who does not see, that in this case the death of Jesus is made a vain oblation, that the influences of the Spirit are discarded, and that it can no longer be said, Salvation is of grace, and not of works?

Surely, there would be no less propriety in asking, What duties are incumbent on the dead to make themselves alive? or, What duties are incumbent on the rock, to make itself sensitive? Certainly there would be just as much propriety in these questions as in asking, What duties are incumbent on wicked men to make themselves Christians? I hope, Sir, none of your readers will angrily exclaim, These are high Calvinistic sentiments! What! are not sinners in general called upon to read and hear?-most certainly, and believe the

word of God; but such exclamations are too common, with many who profess to know the gospel, when the sovereign honors of that gospel are fully asserted, and faithfully vindicated against the prevalence of pharisaical pride. However, the writer of this paper, not pretending to be in the secret of God's decrees, has no fellowship with those who talk of preaching the gospel to none but the elect; nor with those who declaim about the doctrines of grace in a style that encourages the hope of a dispensation from duty. But, deeply convinced, that pharisaical pride is not less the bane of the gospel than practical Antinomianism, he would call the attention of your numerous readers to this momentous truth, That the most accurate and perfect performance of religious duties, affords no more hope of salvation than the most daring and desperate of crimes.

To those who ask, in Scripture language, "What must we do to be saved?"-in scripture language we reply, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved." Here the "experimental knowledge of the gospel salvation" must take its date. From hence the spiritual and acceptable performance of duty must take its rise. Our obedience and our happiness are commensurate with our believing: they are the inseparable companions and essential consequences of it. The true believer, therefore, does not derive his experience from his duties, but his zeal in duty from his experience. His faith in Christ, and his sense of the infinite love of Christ, keep him low at his feet, powerfully animate him in his service and unspeakably exalt him in communion with his glory. All other experience is delusion, all other zeal in the performance of duty is either hypocrisy or pharisaism.

ON THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

In Acts ix. 7, we are informed, That the men who journied with Saul towards Damascus, "heard the voice, but saw no man:" and in chap. xxii. 9, Saul himself, relating this miraculous event says, "They that were with me saw indeed the light, but heard not the voice." How are these texts reconcileable?

ANSWER.

THE semblance of contradiction in these two accounts of the miracle at the conversion of Paul, will vanish, if it be considered that it is no uncommon event to hear the sound of a speaker's voice, yet to be unable to distinguish the articulate words. This was undoubtedly the case with Saul's associates. It is also not improbable, that an awful sound, resembling thunder, preceded the words addressed to Saul, and intelligibly heard only by him. An instance very similar occurs in John xii. 28, 29, "There came a voice from heaven," &c. "Then the multitude which stood by and heard, said, that it thundered; others said, an angel spake to him." If these persons, who were calmly standing by, were unable to distinguish the words spoken from heaven, what a much greater suspension of faculties must have occurred in the minds of men, who saw their leader actually struck to the ground by the terror of what they saw and heard! The fact then was this, The companions of Saul heard a most awful sound, and beheld a divinely majestic splendor; the effect of which was such, that they were fixed speechless and insensible (èvveòi) on the place. They, therefore, neither heard the words spoken, nor saw the glorious person who uttered them.

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