saints, and without penance and the merit of good works, through the atoning blood and vicarious obedience of the Redeemer. When the Moravians established themselves in Greenland, they endeavoured to reclaim the rude nations of that inhospitable region from idolatry and superstition, by teaching the doctrines of natural religion; but they laboured for several years, without exciting attention, or gaining a single convert. As soon, however, as they changed their system, and began to preach Christ crucified, the poor savages listened with wonder, eagerly inquired whether what they now heard was true, and believing with the heart, were baptised. For a long period a Church has flourished in that frozen clime, and the dreary desert has been enlivened by the songs of salvation. It is still by the same doctrine that the human heart is impressed. The preaching of the law, or of morality, without the Gospel, is a cold and unprofitable exercise; and what every man who knows the truth must have expected a priori, is realized in experience. Virtue is disregarded, and vice is practised, by those in whose ears lessons of duty are sounded from Sabbath to Sabbath. Astonishment has been sometimes expressed, that such preaching should prove totally useless, while the preaching of salvation by grace, which in the opinion of the disputers of this world, tends to licentiousness, should produce a quite contrary effect. But there is no cause for such astonishment. Every man who calmly considers the nature of the Gospel, will perceive that it is calculated to excite love to God, and to engage our active powers in his service; and every man who understands his Bible, knows that it is this doctrine alone which God has promised to accompany with his blessing.

Secondly, It is by the Gospel that peace of conscience is obtained. It is called the Gospel of peace, because it brings tidings to us of the reconciliation effected between God and men by the blood of Christ; and when believed, it dispels our fears, and enables us to look up to him with confidence. Men may talk of peace of mind to be procured by the performance of their duty, of the calm recollections of virtue, and the serenity which they diffuse over the soul; but their ignorance and insensibility are truly pitiable. If they knew their duty, they would feel that they could not perform it so perfectly as to satisfy the demands of an enlightened conscience, and that their best works are attended with such defects as might be made the ground of their condemnation at the tribunal of the Omniscient. It is his voice alone which stills the tumult of the soul. How would it be agitated by the sense of past and present sins, if it had no other refuge than it may find in itself! When conscious of innumerable transgressions and infirmities, and condemned by its own impartial sentence, it is relieved solely by a view of the atonement, and the promise of pardon. It will be found, I presume, that the state of a person's mind is regulated by his views of the Gospel. Those who mingle faith and works together, cannot rise to the confidence of hope but by the aid of presumption; and if their consciences are in any degree faithful, they must be liable to be disturbed and alarmed by every failure. But when a Christian steadfastly contemplates the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, and the evidence that it was perfectly acceptable to his Father, he enjoys peace, notwithstanding his feeling of utter unworthiness; peace which nothing can interrupt, but the suspension of his faith: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ."*

Thirdly, It is from the Gospel that the consolation of Christians flows. Ask them, what soothes their sorrow, sustains their patience, brightens their hopes, and cheers their lonely hours, and they refer to some doctrine or promise of the Gospel. The view which it gives of the character of God is consoling; for it exhibits him as wise, affectionate, faithful, and constant in his

Rom. v. 1.

love as a Father, in whose hands they may trust their best and dearest interests, and of whose attention and regard they are never permitted to doubt. In connexion with this view is the equally comfortable one which it gives of his dispensations. Our fearful and foreboding minds are apt to suspect evil in adverse events, to see tokens of wrath in the surrounding scene, to apprehend the most alarming consequences, to think that we are abandoned for ever. But the Gospel sheds light upon the darkest events; and, although it does not explain every difficulty, and substitute knowledge in the room of faith, yet it enables us to anticipate with confidence a glorious and happy result, for it assures us that the reign of God is the reign of love. In one word, the great remedy for the pains and disappointments of the present life, is the hope of a better. Reason speculates about it, and nature desires immortality; but the Gospel reveals it, and gives the certain hope that our future existence will be happy. Its promises are our charter to the heavenly inheritance, which is rendered valid and unalterable by the death and resurrection of Christ.

Lastly, It is the Gospel alone which purifies the heart. I have already remarked that experience has proved, and is daily proving, the preaching of morality without the Gospel to be fruitless labour. The Gospel alone gives such views of the character, and dispensations, and designs of God, as will make a lasting impression upon that part of our constitution which is the seat of holiness; namely, the heart, or the affections and active principles of our nature. If love is the fulfilling of the law, obedience will be best secured by that system which is best adapted to inspire love. The outcry which has been raised against the doctrine of salvation by grace, is often sounding in our ears; and you know that such representations have been given of its tendency and consequences as might lead us to believe, that licentiousness must abound wherever it is embraced; or, if facts extort an acknowledgment that such is not always the effect, it is insinuated, either that the holiness of its abettors is hypocritical, or that it is owing to some accidental cause, which counteracts the influence of their creed. Nothing, it is pretended, is so effectual to secure obedience, as to suspend our hope of eternal life upon it. This is to make religion a calculation of interest, so that they alone will attend to its injunctions who prefer the happiness of the world to come, to the pleasures of sin. But, if there should be persons who prefer the pleasures of sin because they are present, to the happiness of heaven which is future, this scheme can do nothing for them. It has no other expedient by which it might prevail upon them to make a wiser choice. We know that there are many in whose eyes earthly pleasures possess superior attractions, and have so completely gained the ascendancy, that the strongest arguments can produce no change of inclination; and hence it appears, that this plan, which depends for its success upon an accurate comparison, and a fair estimate of consequences, is, in their case, an airy speculation. In this, as in every other instance, the foolishness of God is wiser than men. The Gospel, by inspiring the love of God, creates the love of holiness, from which obedience flows spontaneously, and does not wait till it is extorted by the consideration of interest. It thus gives a charm to obedience, infuses into it a feeling of delight, and ensures our perseverance; for the pleasures of sin will not, for any length of time, draw the Christian aside from a course of life in which he has experienced greater happiness than they could ever impart. The question is not, whether he shall consent to suffer for a time, in the hope of a recompense hereafter; but whether he shall make a present sacrifice, which no sublunary gain could compensate; whether he shall forsake the fountain of living water, and hew out to himself a broken cistern which can hold no water. As no holiness is genuine but that which springs from the faith of the Gospel, so no other is steady in its principle, and will stand the test of temptation. They alone will serve God with fidelity, who

look upon him as their Father, and confide in the promises of assistance and acceptance; and they alone will follow Christ through good report and bad report, who feel the constraining influence of his love.

LECTURE LXXXV.

ON THE WORD OF GOD.

On Preaching the Gospel.-The Law as distinguished from the Gospel.-Its use in awakening Sinners and as a rule of life to Believers.-Connexion of the Law and Gospel as means of Salvation.-Use of the other portions of Scripture.-Observations on the Reading and Preaching of the Word.-Necessity of the accompaniment of the Spirit.

IN the preceding lecture, I endeavoured to ascertain the various senses which the word Gospel bears in Scripture. It has appeared that, besides being the title of the four inspired narratives of our Saviour, and being used also to denote the whole revelation which was published to the world by him and his Apostles, it is sometimes restricted to that part of it which contains the doctrines of grace, and the promises of salvation. It is contrary to Scripture itself to call this alone the Gospel, as this name belongs to the whole Christian system: but this is exclusively its meaning when we speak of the Gospel as distinguished from the Law..

It is of importance to be accurate in our language on this subject; but it is still more important to be accurate in our ideas. Much confusion prevails, not only among private Christians, whose mistakes can be accounted for from want of instruction or from the neglect of inquiry, but also among those who, being appointed teachers of others in faith and verity, prove blind leaders of the blind. There are not a few of the latter class who are as ignorant of the true distinction between the Law and the Gospel as any of their hearers; who, accordingly, confound them together, and while they profess to preach Christ, teach a doctrine in which he holds only a subordinate place. It is necessary that a minister should be able rightly to divide the word of truth, to distinguish things which in themselves are different, to state them in their order and connexion, and to apply them to the purposes which they are respectively intended to serve. Nothing is more disgraceful to him, than to mistake one thing for another, and by his bungling manner of handling the word of God, to render it of no effect.

Men may preach the grace of God, but not preach the Gospel. The phrase may occur often in their discourses and writings; and thus the simple may be led to believe that they are reading and hearing evangelical doctrine, while those declaimers are in truth labouring to subvert the Gospel of Christ. However loud and eloquent may be his praise of Divine grace, if a person make it consist in giving us a milder law, in lowering the terms of acceptance, and admitting our sincere endeavours, instead of perfect obedience, as the condition of future happiness; if he represents it as grace given to all indiscriminately, to enable them to work out their salvation; or a grace which it is left to ourselves to receive or reject at our pleasure, which may be lost, and will prove ineffectual unless we lend our aid to it; it is evident, that he knows neither what he says, nor whereof he affirms.

Again, A man may preach salvation by faith, and not preach the Gospel of

Christ. His doctrine is orthodox in sound, but is erroneous in sense. For what is the faith which he teaches? Is it a humble dependance upon the righteousness of Christ, to the exclusion of our own? No; it is what he calls believing obedience; not faith alone, but faith and obedience conjoined; the name of the cause being given not only to itself, but to its effect, out of compliment to Scripture, and to please fastidious ears. You will find that, in this manner, some teachers of faith explain their own meaning. We are saved by faith, not solely as it receives Christ, but as it works by love; or, in other words, we are saved not simply by a living faith, which proves its genuineness by good works, but by faith which includes good works, and derives its effiracy from them. And thus, while sinners are told that they are justified by faith, and so far the doctrine seems to be Scriptural, they are in reality led to believe that they are justified by works.

Farther, Ministers may preach the atonement, and yet not preach the Gospel of Christ. They may admit that Christ died for our sins; that his sacrifice was acceptable to God; that, for his sake, he pardons us; and that to his mediation we are indebted for all the blessings of salvation: but, while they give goodly words, they may hold sentiments which render them in a great measure nugatory. If they teach that our Redeemer died, not actually to reconcile God to us, but to render him rec ncilable; that he died to procure the making of a new covenant with us, the terms of which are to be fulfilled by ourselves; that he died to give efficacy to our repentance, meaning that somehow it becomes, through his death, a sort of satisfaction for our sins; in all these cases, they misrepresent the nature, and extenuate the value, of the atonement of the cross. They take away with the one hand what they had given with the other. According to their doctrine, it is not true that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, that through it we have redemption, that by it he has made peace; because there still remains something to be done by us, to render his blood effectual for our deliverance from something to be added to it as the conjunct cause of our pardon.

In the next place, Men may preach the privileges of believers, and not preach the Gospel of Christ. They may talk of justification, without referring to the Scriptural faith by which alone it is enjoyed; of sanctification, without assigning the grace of the Divine Spirit as its only efficient cause; of protection by the power of God, and peace and joy; while the protection depends upon our own dutiful conduct, and may be forfeited if we are not careful to deserve its continuance; the peace arises, not from the application of the blood of Christ to the conscience, but from our own fidelity in the performance of our duty; and the hope is not founded on the promises of God, and the righteousness of Christ, but on the recollection of our own meritorious deeds. The privileges enumerated are conferred by the Gospel, and are exhibited in its declarations; but as soon as you disjoin them from Christ, and ascribe the enjoyment of them to any other cause than his mediation, they cease to be gifts of grace, and are changed into the rewards of the law. It is in Christ, in a state of union to him, and solely for his sake, that God blesses us with all spiritual blessings.

Lastly, Men may preach the happiness of heaven, and yet not preach the Gospel of Christ. They may be chargeable with doing so on two accounts, either because they misrepresent the nature of that happiness, or because they do not truly state the means of obtaining it. To affirm that we are indeed pardoned through the atonement of Christ, but that we must ourselves establish a right to eternal life by our obedience, is to preach something very different from the Gospel; although an attempt should be made to qualify the doctrine, and to give it an evangelical form, by subjoining that it is the grace of God which enables us to obey. This is plainly to set even grace in opposition to Christ, as if it were intended to help us to perform a part of the work of sal

vation, which he claims as exclusively his own. Nor is the Gospel preached when heaven is described as a place of rest and enjoyment, without a reference to the presence of Christ in it, as constituting the chief source of its glory and blessedness. We all condemn the grossness of the Mahometans, who expect a sensual paradise; but even professed Christians are by no means united in their views of the world to come. The notions of many are altogether undefined; but, if it is not considered as a holy as well as a happy place, and if its happiness is contemplated under any view which excludes the love and service of the Saviour, or allows to these only a subordinate place, it is a heaven of imagination, and not of the Scriptures. As Christ is the life and glory of the Gospel, so he is associated with all just conceptions of future felicity. He is the sun of the celestial world.

It is of the utmost importance that private Christians, and especially ministers of religion, should have accurate notions of the Gospel. Truth is one, but error is multifarious. It is truth alone which will promote the salvation of the soul; every modification of error is injurious in a greater or less degree "If ye know the truth, the truth shall make you free."

I have said that there are two great divisions of the Word of God, the Gos pel and the Law. Having spoken of the first, I now proceed to the second. The Law, as distinguished from the Gospel comprehends the preceptive part of the will of God, and the denunciations of his wrath against transgressors. There is a twofold view in which the law may be contemplated—as a covenant of works, and as a rule of life; and in both it is conducive to the general design of the Word, which is the application of redemption.

The Scriptures give an account of the covenant of works, not indeed under this name, but in terms which imply all that it signifies. Considered in itself, this covenant is opposed to our salvation. It prescribes terms which we are utterly incapable of performing, and denounces a curse upon every transgressor. But this is not all. So far as it proves to any the occasion of endeavours to seek justification by their own works, it stands in the way of their final happiness, for it is certain that the attainment of it by such means is impossible. When men, reading in the Scriptures that he who doth these things shall live by them, conceive that this is not merely the statement of a hypothetical case, but the proposal of a plan to be acted upon, and hence, commence a course of obedience in the expectation of success; they turn aside from the grace of the gospel and involve themselves in all the difficulties and perplexities of a hopeless undertaking. They wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction. They convert the information, which, wisely used, might have led them to the Saviour, into the means of blinding their minds, and alienating their hearts from him. This is not the purpose for which the law as a covenant is made known to them in the Scriptures. God did not intend that they should attempt to repair what is broken, and to re-establish what is set aside. The design is altogether of a different nature. It is to rouse men from a state of security, and to apprise them of their danger, that they may flee for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them in the gospel. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." It shows us that we have transgressed, and what are the consequences of unpardoned guilt according to the divine constitution. This is the office which it is appointed to serve, or the relation which it bears to the revelation of Christ. This revelation and the law are distinct; but they are associated for a general purpose, the one being preparatory to the other, and paving the way for the cordial reception of it. The declaration of human guilt, and of the dreadful recompense which awaits it, is intended, not only to vindicate the holiness and justice of God as the moral Governor of the world, but to impress upon his offending subjects a sense of their perilous situ

• John viii. 32,