people should be blessed from God. Moreover, God has ordained that each particular Church-should, by the Court of his Kingdom erected in its bosom, take care that its members lead blameless and holy lives and that all I have discussed as appertaining to our New Obedience, as rendered unto God, and our Good Works, as performed towards our fellow-creatures-be truly observed, as becometh saints; and as the chief of all, charity-love to God and compassion for our fellow-men. Now, with such a state of case as this disclosed to us by God himself, in connection with the primitive and most elemental part of the organic life of the Church visible, universal; we are left without any possibility of denying-that the idea of the worship of God pervades the total life and organism of the Church of God; and that the nature of the worship and the nature of the Church, must necessarily harmonize. If God is a Spirit, and is true--then the worship of him in spirit and in truth, is an infallible mark of his true Church. 8. Religion is exhausted, as a matter of contemplation, when we have considered it under the aspect of Faith, the aspect of Duty, and the aspect of Worship. It is in these three aspects that it necessarily affords us, the three infallible marks of the true Church. So when the word of God has taught us infallibly, what we ought to believe concerning him, and what duty he requires of us, there remains nothing to be taught concerning salvation, except the expression of both, in the form of worship. If, therefore, purity of Faith be one infallible mark of the Church of Christ, as I have proved-and if holiness of life be another, as I will prove-neither of which, I suppose, any Christian will deny; then, it is perfectly unavoidable, that purity of worship, must be the remaining mark. And the very terms of the whole science of Christianity, give us the same result. God-man-and the Mediator between them; this is its mighty elemental formula. But Faith in that Mediator, and worship rendered to that God-and Holiness-nourished by both of them, through the grace of which all three are the products; this is the infallible manifestation that Christianity is realized in us, in a form responsive to its mighty elemental formula. 12 Cor., xiii. 14. 2 Heb., xiii. 17; 1 Thess., v. 12, 13. * 1 Cor., xiii. passim; Matt., v. 43–48; vi. 1-4, 19–23. CHAPTER XXVI. HOLY LIVING: THE THIRD INFALLIBLE MARK OF THE TRUE CHURCH. I. 1. Relation of all Righteousness, in Man, to the Law of God.-2. Gospel Holiness: its Relation to Christ-to Faith in Him-and to the acceptable Worship of God.— II. 1. The Reality of Moral Distinctions: the Demonstration they afford that God is the Fountain of all Goodness.-2. Neglect or Perversion of these Moral Distinctions, fatal to all Religions in which either occurs.-3. The indissoluble and eternal Connection of Holiness with Blessedness.-4. The inward Aspect of that Holiness, which infallibly distinguishes the True Church.-5. Unity of that Holiness, as a Mark of the True Church, with each of the preceding Marks.-6. The Unity of the Mystery of Godliness; Goodness the perfection of Knowledge, of Duty, and of Grace.-III. 1. The True Life of the Church, is the Power of the Holy Spirit.2. Conclusive Effect of the Supremacy of the Supernatural Element, in the Question of the Church.-3. Majesty and Glory of the True Church. I.-1. To keep and to do all the statutes and judgments of God, is the highest proof of spiritual wisdom and understanding. It has always been required by God as the sum of the whole duty of man-always been declared to be the way of peace and mercy for his people-always been prescribed as the surest evidence of their true faith in Jesus Christ, and their acceptable worship of the most high God.' The sum of the instruction which the Apostles had in charge to give, in discipling all nations, was that all should observe all things whatsoever Jesus had commanded them." And the constant doctrine of Jesus was, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me them eternal life; and they shall never perish, pluck them out of my hand.* and I give unto neither shall any This great truth 2. Without holiness no man shall see God. is involved in every just idea we can form of God and of salvation; and so essential is it in all that the Scriptures intend by Deut., iv. 1-6; Eccl., xii. 13; Matt., xv. 9; John, xii. 50; vii. 17 4 John, x. 27, 28. 3 John, viii. 31, 32. 5 Heb., xii. 14 salvation, that nothing therein relating to us is either explicable, or effectual, if we omit or fatally pervert their teaching concerning this. The everlasting righteousness which has been brought in by Messiah the Prince,' the righteousness which is of God through the faith of Christ,' the righteousness unto which they live who are dead to sin; this is the righteousness which, together with all goodness and truth, is the fruit of the Spirit,' with which the blessed, who hunger and thirst after righteousness, shall be filled -and, in the blessed fruition of which, the pure in heart shall see God. Now, this Gospel holiness-which I have so carefully sought to trace and to disclose-is that which I always intend, when I speak of holy living as a mark of the Church of Christ. For the constant doctrine of the Scriptures is that the just shall live by faith; and the relation between life, and righteousness, and faith is so close, that in every Christian sense, either of the three necessarily involves the other two. So while true faith is the life of the Church, and true worship is the means of nourishing that life-true holiness is the manifestation of its healthful existence. Faith that rejoices in Christ Jesus, is the living testimony to the work of the Mediator between God and men; worship rendered unto God in Spirit and in truth, is the testimony to the whole doctrine of God, of grace, and of salvation: and total abnegation of the flesh-that is, true Gospel holiness, is the testimony that the whole doctrine of God and of Christ, is realized in the power of it and the love of it, in the soul of man. God, man, and, between the two, the God-man: this is the divine formula. To worship God in the Spirit, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, and to have no confidence in the flesh: this is the practical result, in the human soul, as explained by God.' Purity of faith, spirituality of worship, holiness of life; this is the manifestation on the part of the Church, which makes it certain, past doubt, that she is the Kingdom of God-the body of Christ—the holy nation. It is to the exposition of this third infallible mark of the true Church, visible, universal, of the Lord Jesus Christ, that this chapter is devoted. .II.-1. In connection with the general subject of the fall and recovery of man, while discussing various parts of the way of life and our relations thereto; I have found it necessary to enter somewhat fully, into enquiries touching the moral constitution of man, considered in all the estates disclosed in the word of God. It does not seem to me necessary to repeat, in this place, what I have advanced on that subject; just as I have already declined repeating here, what I have taught in previous chapters, on the subject of evangelical holiness. But as the immediate relation of the latter topic to the present subject, demanded the brief exposition I have just given of it: so the close connection of the former topic, with the most direct method of illustrating the subject before us, renders a few words of explanation concerning it, important. I observe, therefore, that the reality of moral distinctions is incontestably established, by the moral constitution. of man, upon principles as clear as those upon which the reality of physical distinctions is established, by the physical constitution of man. Whether such distinctions do, in fact, exist or not, we are obliged by an ultimate law of our being, to recognize them as real; nor have we any faculty more intense, more pervading, or more distinctive of our nature, than that which we call conscience, by means of which we take cognizance of these moral distinctions. To say we have no conscience, is to contradict the universal consciousness of the human race-as really as to say we are not endowed with reason- —or with sight. To admit we have a conscience, but deny that the moral distinctions of which it takes cognizance, have any reality-or existence; is the same as to admit we have reason, and then deny that there is anything true, or anything false; or to admit that we have the sense of sight, and then deny that there is anything to see, or any light to see by. To say nothing of the supremacy of the moral sense -and of the overwhelming ruin in which such a race as ours would be immediately engulphed, but for that supremacy: the statement I have made seems to put beyond question, the absolute and ineffaceable existence of morality itself, independently of us, and paramount to our nature. If that be so, the existence of a creator and moral ruler of the universe is certain and it is in the bosom of the First Cause-the living God-that the source of all good is found. 2. The disregard of these moral distinctions, thus thoroughly fundamental in the spiritual system of the universe; must be utterly fatal to the claims of every religious system, in which it exists, to be considered either revealed by God, or suitable for man. No religion can be true which misunderstands the absolute nature of these moral distinctions-which overlooks or misstates the relation of man's moral nature, in its fallen state most especially, to them-which confounds the distinction between good and evil in the very matter of salvation—which shocks man's natural sense of morality-which inculcates that which is wrong in itself-which denies our felt moral depravity, or proposes as a remedy for it, that which is incompetent, that which is false, or that which is evil. In accepting any such religion as true, we outrage the conscience itself—to sanctify which is the chief end of true religion. The ruin which all false religions spread around them, is produced chiefly by their blinding and depraving influence upon the conscience; a ruin analogous to that which would occur, if the supremacy of conscience could be overthrown. And the readiness with which our depraved nature accepts all false religions, is the clearest proof of the disorder of the moral sense of man, of the overpowering force of his religious instincts, of his absolute need of a moral regeneration, and of the total falsity of all religions which cannot accomplish this. In estimating that purity of life which religion, if it be from God, must produce, we are obliged, therefore, even upon grounds of mere reason and natural morality, to reject, indiscriminately, all religions whose faith is inconsistent with virtue and good morals, or whose worship is a snare to the souls of men, or whose life violates the sense or loosens the bonds of duty. This great rule is laid down by the Saviour. By their fruits ye shall know them: and it is expressly laid down to enforce this great duty, Beware of false prophets.' In this manner, every false religion is rejected by Christ-upon the ground of the fruit it bears; even before we pass the threshold of the subject. That which promotes sin— that which is drunk with blood-which is polluted by uncleanness-which is rank with imposture-that whose very life is sustained by the death of souls: what madness is greater than to recognize such organized unrighteousness as true religion, because mankind is sufficiently brutal to be led captive by the Devil at his will; given over by God to strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned 1 Matt., vii. 15-20. * 2 Tim., ii 26. |