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THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD,

SUBJECTIVELY CONSIDERED.

ARGUMENT OF THE THIRD BOOK.

THIS Third Book completes the exhibition of the direct work of divine grace in man, considered individually and with reference to this life. Its aim is to point out with absolute certainty, the operation of the New Life implanted by God in the renewed soul: the uniform operation of that life in every child of God, individually considered. For, however various the experience of renewed souls may be, there are particulars, and they fundamental, in which their experience is necessarily identical: and this Book attempts to disclose the matter of the vital operation of the individual soul renewed by God, in the way of all Christian Offices considered with direct reference to our personal Union and Communion with Christ. All Christian Offices which result indirectly from our Union and Communion with Christ, namely, all such as depend upon the Communion of Saints with each other, in consequence of their mutual Communion with Christ, are omitted here, and will be fully considered afterwards. And the word Offices is used because it is not only the most comprehensive of all, but because no other single word adequately expresses the nature of these operations of the New Life of Christian souls, resulting from their communion with Christ. For these are services-duties, so high, that practical Christianity consists in their performance; so peculiar, that their habitual omission is the distinct evidence that we are not Christians at all: and though they are duties-services so decisive—yet they spring up spontaneously in the renewed soul, as if they were only its delights, and that exactly in proportion to the power of its own New Life: and still, it is only through divine grace that they can be performed at all, or that the desire to perform them exists. They are the effects produced by the action of that New Life, which is itself produced and perfected in the manner pointed out in the immediately preceding Book, and the ground and method for the production of which were explained in the First Book of this Treatise. First, Divine Grace redeeming us-secondly, Divine Grace in its saving work upon our souls-and now, thirdly, Divine Grace manifesting itself through us, in the immediate and necessary operation of this New Life. Faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ, and Repentance towards God, are, therefore, first discussed, they being the two fundamental and universal Offices of all re

newed souls-and of Christianity itself. To the first of these two, Saving Faith, the Thirteenth Chapter, which is the First of this Third Book, is devoted: and its threefold aspect as a condition of the Covenant of Redemption—as a special grace of the Divine Spirit—and as a peculiar and permanent habit of the renewed soul-is considered-and its whole nature, use, and effect attempted to be explained: incidentally, various topics of great importance, amongst them the spiritual helplessness and moral bondage of man, and the futility of all attempts to rob this great distinctive mark of the New Creature of its supernatural character-are discussed; the object of all being to exhibit the New Life in its chief aspect, as one of Faith in the Divine Redeemer. The Fourteenth Chapter, which is the Second of this Book, is occupied in discussing the second great Christian Office, namely, Repentance unto Life-which is indissolubly connected with Saving Faith-being competent, indeed, only to a believing soul, as Faith is competent only to a renewed soul: the relations between which two fundamental graces and the New Obedience are pointed out--as well as those mutually subsisting between Spiritual Life-Righteousness—and Repentance: the whole doctrine of our moral nature, and moral judgments, and moral sense, is attempted to be unfolded-in its relations to the spiritual system disclosed in the Scriptures-and to the spiritual system involved in every form of unbelief: the nature of true Repentance, in its origin, progress, and results, is explained, together with the acts and states of the penitent soul, with reference to God, to sin, to duty, to holiness, and to salvation through Jesus Christ: and the characteristic peculiarity of this perpetual habit of the believing soul, together with the wide connection, the simplicity, the certainty, and the amazing efficacy of the whole doctrine herein asserted, is attempted to be demonstrated. The three following Chapters, namely, the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth, are devoted to those great and universal Christian Offices, which are expressed by the terms New Obedience, Good Works, and Spiritual Warfare—one Chapter to each: Offices which are as inseparable from the exercise of Repentance toward God and Faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, as the exercise of these fundamental graces is from Union and Communion of the New Creature with the Divine Redeemer. The Fifteenth Chapter, which is the Third of this Book, is occupied with an enquiry into the Nature, Fruits, and End of the New Obedience of the New Creature:--wherein those Offices which it owes and renders immediately to God, are distinguished from those it owes and renders more particularly to its fellow-creatures, and the nature, exercise, and influence of the former, are disclosed: amongst the Offices of the New Obedience, due and rendered especially to God by the New Creature-Prayer, Fasting and Watching, Thanksgiving, Vows and Lawful Oaths, are considered: and the gracious and the natural aspect of these distinguishing peculiarities of the Christian life—and the condition of human nature when thoroughly influenced by them, is exhibited. In the Sixteenth Chapter, which is the Fourth of this Book, the Doctrine and Nature of Good Works is attempted to be developed: wherein it is shown that they embrace all duty due by us as followers of Christ, to our fellow-men, that they are the fruits of our New Obedience rendered to God through Christ, that they are regulated absolutely by the will of God, are incompetent in their scriptural sense to any but a child of God, and are diligently and joyfully

performed by us, in proportion to the power of the life of God in us: some of those chiefly insisted on in the Scriptures, such as Charity and Almsgiving, are particularly set forth, in themselves, in their relations to Christ and to all Christian Offices, and in their effects: the connection of Good Works with our holiness, our happiness, and our usefulness—their bearing upon our endeavours to glorify God and adorn the doctrine we profess, and their special relation to our judgment in the great day are disclosed: the bearing of the whole doctrine and practice upon the Kingdom of Christ, and upon Christian life, and upon many incidental questions, such as Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience, implicit Faith and tender Consciences, the power of the Civil Magistrate in things Sacred, and the Spiritual Authority of Councils and Synods, is explicated: and, in the end, a brief and thorough analysis and summary of the whole matter is attempted. The Seventeenth Chapter, which is the Fifth of this Book, is devoted to the consideration of that Spiritual Warfare which every penitent and believing follower of the Son of God must wage through a life of New Obedience and Good Works, that is, of conformity to God, and beneficence towards man-with the Flesh, the World and the Devil, up to the very gate of heaven; wherein the nature, necessity, grounds, progress, and result of this Warfare are explained: its absolute connection with our witness-bearing for Christ, our working together with God, and our suffering together with Jesus, is disclosed: its immediate connection with the means of Grace, with the progress of the life of God in our soul, and with our endeavours to bless our fellow-men and to glorify God, is pointed out: and the certainty and glory of our final victory, through Christ Jesus, is demonstrated. Having thus explained in successive Chapters, the aspects of the divine life as it manifests itself in those in whom it is begotten and established; namely, that our lives are lives of Faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and of Repentance toward God, that these. result necessarily in lives of New Obedience toward God, of which all Good Works toward our fellow-men are the necessary fruits, and that the whole of this Christian Life involves and produces in us a perpetual Spiritual Warfare against all the enemies of the Captain of our Salvation and of our own souls: what remains is, to point out with clearness and certainty an Infallible Rule whereby such a life may be directed and sustained in all things. The Eighteenth Chapter, therefore, which is the Sixth and last of this Book, is devoted to the demonstration of the necessity of such a Rule of Faith and Obedience, and of its actual existence in the sacred Scriptures, inspired and revealed by the Holy Ghost, wherein the nature, origin, restoration, and universal obligation of the Moral Law is set forth the infallible Knowledge of God unto the salvation of sinners is shown to be revealed to our Faith-the relation of Faith and true Righteousness to each other-that of both to the Saviour-that of all three to the sacred Scripturesand that of the whole to our Salvation by Grace, is disclosed: and the reality, completeness, and efficacy of the written word of God as the only and Infallible Rule of all that man ought to believe concerning God, and all that God requires of man is established; and so it is shown that man possesses in them, and in them alone, the perfect Knowledge of the chief end of his existence, in glorifying God and enjoying him for ever. In a field of discussion so vast, and in the midst of such sublime chains of thought disclosed by God himself, if it may be

allowed to suggest and define for each of the six Chapters, one truth which may be considered Supreme, and then to connect these fundamental truths into one general and compact statement, having the force of a great argument, while containing themes for multiplied discussions: perhaps it may be thought that these demands are, in some degree, met in the statement of the truths which follow, as being the capital truths explicated in this Third Book. NamelyThat by a direct act of the renewed soul, convinced of its sin, misery, and impotence, and believing and trusting God, it habitually accepts and rests on Christ crucified for Salvation; the nature of this great act and habit of the soul being, that it is the fundamental and perpetual manifestation of the New Creature; its use being to establish the Union and to perpetuate the Communion between the crucified Saviour and the renewed sinner; and its effect being to advance the soul continually in all fitness for salvation and to secure that salvation; this being Faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, considered as the first of all Christian Offices:-That in the exercise of the second great Office of true religion, which is Repentance toward God, the renewed soul habitually apprehends the evil of all sin and of its own sins in particular, and also apprehends the mercy of God in Christ to believing sinners; and so with grief and hatred for sin and for itself on account of sin it turns penitently to God from all sin, with set purpose after New Obedience; this vital manifestation of the life of God in all believers, this habit of the renewed soul, being, like the preceding grace, wrought in God's children by his Word and Spirit, for the merits' sake of Jesus Christ, and being constantly exercised by them in endeavours to overcome all sin, and to obey the perfect law of God:-That the habitual condition of the Believing and Penitent Soul toward God, is one of true, willing, and joyful Obedience to his Will, exactly in proportion to its own full and stedfast Communion with Christ, and the completeness of its own restoration to the image of God; and that this New Obedience considered as rendered immediately to God, is especially manifested and nourished in the diligent keeping of the heart, the earnest exercise and growth of grace, and the careful and habitual use and enjoyment of those offices and means divinely appointed for the mortification of sin, for the comfort and edification of the soul, and for the promotion of the glory of God in the sanctification of his saints:-That the heart which is right in the sight of God manifests its Communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, in strong and habitual desire and endeavour to perform all Good Works; which are the fruits of its New Obedience exhibited in sincere and continual endeavours after the comfort and edification of every human being, according to their several relations and necessities, and to our opportunities and obligations, as followers of the Lord Jesus, according to his word and for the promotion of his glory and our own salvation; we being prompted thereto by love for him and for our fellow-men, and sustained therein by the grace of God:—That the Christian Life of Faith, Repentance, New Obedience, and Good Works, necessarily involves and produces a Spiritual Warfare in us as followers of Christ the Captain of our Salvation, against the Flesh, the World, and the Devil, who are implacable enemies of our Lord and of our souls; wherein by perpetual fidelity to him through divine grace, the true soldiers of his cross have constant experience of his infinite sufficiency and of their own vileness and nothingness; and

whereby they are at last brought off more than conqueror through him that loved them:-That the Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the Infallible Rule of Faith, Repentance, New Obedience, Good Works, and Spiritual Warfare; God having revealed therein all that man ought to believe concerning God, and all that God requires of man, in order to eternal life; whereby the chief end of our existence in glorifying God and enjoying him for ever, is made known to us with divine certainty and divine authority; and the Saviour and the Spirit which they reveal, make the means of grace instituted in them, effectual towards us, by the power of God.

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