46 'gloomy aspect" of houses having nothing to sanctify them but the breath of mortal men ?- -to Christians looking devoutly at stone walls of modern architecture, and saying, Having adored that eternal Majesty, who, far from being confined to [Stephen says, who dwelleth not in] temples made with hands, has heaven for his throne, and the earth for his footstool?" what would he have said to Christians paying adoration to the Deity, as manifesting his character or putting his name any where but in Christ Jesus, to whom it well becomes every knee to bow, and every tongue to give thanks? Methinks we Protestants may gratify our itch for idolatry sufficiently, in forming idols by speculation, in imitation of the later Jews, though we leave entirely to our old friends in the south of Europe the business of framing idols and shrines for the Deity, by the hands of masons, carpenters and priests. Is it indeed possible, that any Christian, or even attentive reader of the Scriptures, can seriously think that the “benedictive presence" of the Deity has any connection with St. Paul's, more than with the meanest garret or cellar in London?- -But if after all, through fondness for our stately edifices, and for the honour of our consecrating priests, we scruple to affirm roundly, with Stephen, that the Most High DWELLETH NOT in temples made with hands; methinks, in point of decency, we ought at least to show some uniformity in our regard to the carnal commandment, which appointed the shadows, and not cut and carve upon it also through mere fancy, presuming, by our own private notions of usefulness and fitness, to convert the temples of the Lord of Hosts into receptacles of rottenness and dead men's bones. What horror, what indignation, would not a devout Israelite have conceived, at the proposal to change the temple of the living God into a sepulchre for the dead! -if we still choose rather to strike out a middle path by our own wisdom, and say, The Most High is not confined to temples made with hands, we ought, for uniformity's sake, to proceed in the same manner with all the other types, and say, the communication of the Divine favour is not confined to the intercession of mortal priests: The Divine pleasure is not confined to the blood of bulls and goats, &c. and so leave it to every man's own wisdom and discretion, to share his regard betwixt all the shadows and the substance, in every instance as to him shall seem most convenient. : On the holy mount we see ratified and put in force, the sovereign edict or law by which the kingdom of heaven, or : New Testament church is established, and their eternal salvation secured; even that law foretold, Is. li, 4-6; "Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near: my salvation is gone forth, and mine arm shall judge the people the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished;" even the commandment so often made mention of by 'Jesus, John x, "I lay down my life for the sheep. This commandment have I received of my Father," John xii, 49, 50; "I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." John xiv, 31; "But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence." From the law given by Moses, this commandment of grace is thus distinguished. The former ministered condemnation, this ministers righteousness; that demanded, this bestows righteousness. According to that law, which said, The man that doth these things shall live by them; no man could obtain life but by his own personal obedience. But here by the gracious and sovereign edict of him, whom it becomes to act above and beyond all law for the relief of the guilty, commandment is given to the Son of the Highest, to fulfil the law given by Moses for the transgressors, so as they might live together with him by his righteousness. Jesus Christ, in the days of his humiliation, knew that the certain issue of this commandment was life everlasting.- -When we behold him glorified, we see the life-giving power thereof exerted; we see the grace that gave him to be obedient, reigning through his perfect obedience unto eternal life. This commandment, or royal grant of life through righteousness, was ratified by the blood of Christ when he died as a sacrifice for sin; so takes the notion of a covenant, in reference to the temporary and typical one formerly made with Israel.—It is also set before us under the notion of a testament, as conveying an inheritance by the death of a testator;-and as our sense of condemnation arose from the notion of a law, it is also presented to us in that view, and is confirmed by the Divine oath, that we might have strong consolation. So Paul says, "The law of the spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Agreeable to this, the Apostle John says, "This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son;" not that we should do any thing to obtain life, but that we should live by what he hath done. It is a commandment not requiring any thing of us, but bestowing life by the knowledge which it conveys; for the belief or knowledge of Christ is happiness, as Jesus says, "This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." The belief or knowledge of a comfortable truth, is not work or labour, but rest and peace; and the heavenly gift is conveyed unto men, even as God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, in this manner, "Be it known unto you." As sin reigned unto death in these words, "The soul that sinneth shall die," or somewhat equivalent to them, in the conscience of every man; so grace reigns through righteousness in these words, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;" with the force of an irresistible law to begin, carry forward, and complete the eternal salvation of the whole church of the living God. The church of God, established by this law, needs no other law to support it, nor can it be endangered by any other law or power whatsoever. Jesus said before the Roman governor, " My kingdom is not of this world." But a learned prelate of the church of England hath already, upwards of thirty years ago, with the greatest perspicuity, set forth the scriptural import of these words, to the full conviction of all who have an ear to give to the Scriptures. And his doctrine, on this head, though it met with no answer, but such as was dictated by manifest disaffection to the Scriptures, has been rejected with great indignation by all zealous ecclesiastics. Had that great man understood the truth pointed at in the subsequent answer of Jesus, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice;" he would have been able to show from the Scriptures, what the kingdom of Christ is, as clear as he has shown what it is not; and consequently had become, with the apostles and first Christians, a "brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." However, his deficiency in this respect was supplied not long after, by a minister of the church of Scotland who was ejected on that account. And, indeed, any one who will dare to acknowledge Christianity, as taught in the New Testament, must make but a very indifferent figure in any national church by law established, or yet in any party of dissenters, lamenting the want of such establishment; at least he will find no room to glory in his situation. What would Paul have said to one adopting his words about "glorying only in the cross," and yet glorying in being the member or ministert of a church established by the approbation of the world, or the laws of earthly states and kingdoms ? We may well suppose he would at least have applauded the prudence of such a one, in forbearing to adopt the rest of his sentence-" by which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Paul once gloried in being the member of a national church established by the divine law; but when he knew Christ, he renounced all glorying but in his cross. He now understood, that the carnal church, the carnal commandment, by which it was established, the worldly sanctua ry, and all the earthly blessings, were so many shadows of heavenly things. And he speaks of all who, in his time, walked after his former temper of mind, as glorying in the flesh, in opposition to the spirit: for these contrasts, letter and spirit, flesh and spirit, shadow and body, earthly and heavenly, are all used in the New Testament to the same purpose. And sometimes the contrast is signified by joining the epithet true to the type, as the true vine, the true bread, the true tabernacle, &c. They who, in Paul's time, gloried in the flesh, gloried in what took its rise from Divine appointment, and had a copious fund for the most specious kind of argument on their side. But such as now imitate them without their fund, cannot even with propriety claim the honour of glorying in the flesh as they did; but must be considered as glorying in mere human forgeries, and changing the truth of God into a lie, without any other authority than their own imaginations and worldly lusts. Yet it appears by Paul's epistles, that he thought no epithet too severe, to describe those who in his time glorified in the flesh. What, then, would he have said of us modern Christians? Paul, indeed, 2 Cor. xi, shows us how he could glory in the flesh; but he desires us beforehand to bear with * The doctrine he maintained, may be seen in a small treatise, called, The testimony of the King of martyrs concerning his kingdom, John xviii. 36, 37, explained, &c. Edinburgh, 1729, and in several other tracts of later date. + See the preface to the dialogues. him a little in his folly. He tells us he is going to play the fool, when he is going to act the gravest and most solemn part of his revered antagonists at Corinth; and, indeed, he far outshines them in his fund for glorying. But all this he does to introduce his own true ground of glorying, which Jesus furnished him with, in these words, "My grace is sufficient for thee: my strength is made perfect in weakness." This grace which reigns through the obedience of Jesus Christ, and so may with all propriety be called his, Paul had already known and preached, as sufficient to strengthen the weakest heart, in every case he had either experienced himself, or thought of in others. Yet it seemed good to his Lord to bring him, even after his return from the third heaven, into such a strait, as that he needed a fresh assurance of the first lesson of Christianity, even to be certified, that the grace which had relieved him at the first, was sufficient for his help in this extraordinary case. So that Paul, in the deepest of all his distresses, was relieved by that very faith which we modern Christians, in the height of our complaisance, choose only to call, "of the enfeebled and infantile kind." On this bottom, however feeble it seems to us, Paul steps forth in the height of his glorying, and discovers the greatest excellency of the Christian character. And it may be added, that, even after he came from the third heaven, in order to finish his education," he stood in need of that lesson, which to us appears of very small weight, and at best to be but weak and childish. 66 WHEREAS, national churches flourish or decay by the smiles or frowns of princes, the true church is established by the smile of the Most High. And though the members thereof on the earth may be persecuted unto death; yet "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus their Lord." In this church, the greatest king can be of no more consequence than the meanest of his subjects. This church will receive no establishment on the earth, till the resurrection of the just, when the whole redeemed company shall reign with Christ a thousand years on the earth, after which they shall inherit the new heavens and the new earth forever. The members of this church, who are yet in this mortal state, are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, having here no continuing city or establishment, as the Jews had before |