ianity, will consider it to be his duty to pay that attention to both parts of the Christian system, which, according to his best judgment, the circumstances of those committed to his charge may require. He will, therefore, from time to time, be a preacher of morality; and he must be so, if he would fully discharge his office; not the morality of the heathen, which looks to the merit of the work as its title to reward, but the morality of the Christian; a morality built upon the Gospel foundation, and deriving all its value from the principle upon which it is performed; a morality dependent upon Divine grace, and looking only to Divine grace for acceptance, upon the terms of the Gospel covenant. The common objection, therefore, that is made to the moral preaching in our Churches, is inapplicable to that species of morality of which we are now speaking; and which, I trust, is now generally inculcated. A morality of this nature, essential to the completion of the Christian plan of salvation, must be preached; and where it is not, the whole truth, as it is in Christ Jesus, not being delivered, the Gospel is, as it were, preached by halves; and the consequence is, what it too generally has been, that the hearers of it are a sort of half Christians; standing (if we may so say) in a tottering condition upon one leg; whilst the design of the Christian revelation was, that they should, stand firmly upon two. Unfortunately, these pious members of our Church, (for in that light I am most willing to consider them) who are led to an occasional separation, from a zeal which they feel for the glory of the blessed Author of salvation, suffer themselves to be frightened with the sound of a word, to which they themselves affix a wrong idea: hence it has happened, that the word has ofttimes been condemned, without the meaning annexed to it by the clergy, from whom they turn away, having been fairly examined; upon the same principle, that indiscríminating Christians are frightened with the words cross, altar, sacrifice, and priest, words peculiarly characteristic of the Christian Church, because they have been severally abused in the Romish communion. it Might I be permitted to speak for the clergy, whom as a body I have always considered to be greatly misrepresented on this subject, (for in all general conclusions individual cases must be put out of the question;) I should not think that I incurred a risk of contradiction by saying, that the doctrine which they preached corresponded in the main with the revelation they have received. There was a time, indeed, when the doctrine of the cross was kept too much out of sight; and when the language of our pulpits, it must be confessed, was calculated to teach men to place a vain dependence on moral performances. But it should in justice be considered that this was an extreme, which grew out of a laudable desire to counteract the fatal effects of that opposite and not less dangerous doctrine, by which the Christianity of this country had long been disgraced. But neither the writings nor discourses of the present clergy, so far as my acquaintance with them has extended, justify, generally speaking, the same charge being brought against them. They preach, I trust, Christ crucified, as the foundation of the Christian building; and "other foundation can no man lay.” "They look, generally speaking, to the Cross as to fallen man's only hope, and only title to salvation. But it being the office of the Christian ministry rightly to divide "the word of truth," the grand object they have before them is, so to preach the doctrine of the Cross that no erroneous conclusion may be drawn from it.t Considering that Christ, by his death, has redeemed fallen man from the curse of the law, and placed him, if the expression may be allowed, in a salvable condition; they occasionally feel themselves called upon to enforce obedience to the moral law, as necessary to the accomplishment of the Christian scheme; necessary to bring fallen man into a state of acceptance with God, by qualifying him for the salvation which has been purchased.|| Man's title to eternal life has been founded on an act of Divine grace and covenant from the beginning. For Adam in his state of innocence had no right to immortality, till God was pleased to make it over to him by covenant. Still it was a right suspended on the performance of a condition. This right lost by the fall, through the mercy of the second covenant, has been re-established in Jesus Christ. Man, therefore, subsequent to the fall, with respect to a right to eternal life, stands on the same ground that Adam did previous to that event. His right to eternal life being, what Adam's originally + 2 Tim. ii. 15. * 1 Cor. iii. 11. ‡ Vindiciæ, c. vi. p. 276. Vindiciæ, c. vi. p. 284. was, a right founded on an act of Divine grace and covenant, but dependent on the performance of a condition. 30mp yd 19 tallosdeg idya Isqoitianos a Hence it becomes necessary that a proper dis tinction should be made between the works of the law, considered as making any part of man's title to eternal salvation; and those works which are required to be performed under the Gospels as the condition on which that title has been suspended. Whoever sees works in the former light, is what the judaizing Christian was in St. Paul's day, he is going about to" establish his own righteousness, not submitting himself to the righteousness of God."+t But if works are weighed in their proper scale, not as a man's title to eternal salvation, but his qualification for it; upon the Gospel axiom, that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord," it appears to be of essential importance that they should be pressed upon Christians at all times, as the condition upon which they are taught to look for the completion of the Divine covenant. 66 They shall walk with me in white," says Christ, "for they are worthy."§ Worthy, not absolutely so in themselves, but relatively so; worthy, in that sense in which God, through Christ, graciously thinks fit to consider them. In this sense, blessed are they that do his 66 * The reader will find this subject handled at large, and fully established by authorities from the early writers of the Church, in a "Discourse on the first Covenant and State of Man before the Fall," by the learned Bishop Bull. 8vo. edit. vol. iii. + Rom. x. 3. + Heb. xii. 14. Vindiciæ, c. vi. p. 276 and 277, &c. commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter into the city" of God.* A conditional right established by grace on the part of God, not by merit on the part of man; for that, we trust, is universally disclaimed. God has graci ously condescended to become, in a certain sense, man's 's debtor; in the language of St. Augustine, "non aliquid debendo, sed omnia promittendo, Deus se facit debitorem. Upon this ground, works become entitled to reward;† not because they possess in themselves a title to reward, but because a gracious God is pleased, through Christ, to regard them as proper subjects for it. Such is the language of Scriptures such the doctrine of the Church of England. R But there is a manner of stating this subject, very common to those who entertain a low opinion of our clergy, upon which it may be proper to remark. The revelation of the Gospel, so far as it respects. the essential point of salvation, delivers a plain and + Extremum utrumque omni curâ vitandum: tum eorum qui opera nostra per se vitæ eternæ meritoria statuunt, (error iste pontificiorum quorundum toto animo detestandus est) tum eorum etiam, qui eadem opera ullam aliam cum cœlesti præmio conexionem habere præter hunc, quòd sint fidei ejus, cui salus promittitur, signia, omniò negant. Hæc enim sententia non paucis, usque clarissimis scripturæ testimoniis (ut vidimus) apertum bellum indicit. Media itaque via hic tenenda est, ut dicamus, relationis istius, quam ad vitam æternam habent opera nostra, unicum illud esse fundamentum, quod sint conditio in fadore Evangelico requisita, cui præstitæ ex eodem gratioso fædore præmium cæleste indulgeatur. BULL. Harm. Apost. cap. v. sect. 5. |