IN March 1835, a monthly periodical entitled "The Millennial Harbinger and Voluntary Church Advocate," was issued from the press, by Mr. W. Jones of London. We were informed in the first number, that the leading object of that work would be to furnish the British public with authentic information respecting the state and progress of the gospel in America - that Mr. Campbell, who may be justly esteemed the ablest writer of the day, had transmitted to the Editor a copy of all his printed works, amounting to nearly twenty volumes, comprising a great variety of the choicest, most elaborate, and elegant essays on theological and other subjects that are to be found in the English language; and that these essays would be communicated through the pages of the "Millennial Harbinger." For sixteen months this promise was fulfilled by the Editor, with great discrimination and credit to himself, and much edification to his readers. In the month of June, 1836, the public were informed that in consequence of a long and severe affliction, the infirmities attendant upon old age, and the Editor's great desire to accomplish other objects which, in his estimation, were of paramount importance, the "Harbinger" must from that month be discontinued. This announcement was received by many of his readers with mingled feelings of disappointment and grief, yet, at the same time, with resignation to the will of their heavenly Father, who doeth all things well. Since the above named period, the whole of Mr. Campbell's works, with some additional pamphlets by other learned and talented writers, who are advocating the cause of Ecclesiastical Reform, have been received by some brethren in Nottingham, and they for the last five months being engaged in examining their contents, and fully convinced that these Essays, &c., are eminently calculated to unfold the meaning of the Scriptures, to enlarge the mind of all inquirers after truth, to impart a more perfect knowledge of God, and the nature of that kingdom which is not of this world; and thus to be the means of purifying the hearts of all who understand and believe the gospel, have concluded, after much deliberation, to recommence their publication in this country, until the whole, which are not of a personal and local nature, are in circulation. It is calculated that they will make about four volumes, 432 pages each; and that the readers may form some idea of what they are to expect, we shall briefly notice a few of the topics that will appear in the pages of "THE CHRISTIAN MESSENGER." Several Essays on the Primitive State of Man - on the Patriarchal and Jewish Ages - and more than 200 Essays, Addresses, Orations and Letters on the Christian Character - Preacher - Experience - Worship - Order - Faith - Immersion - Prayer - Praise - and the Lord's Supper. Also several Essays on the Co-operation of Primitive Churches in spreading the Truth through the World; the Holy Scriptures God's instrument in converting the World; the Second Coming of Christ; the History of Sin; the Millennium; many Letters and direct Appeals to Christians, Sceptics, Jews, and Infidels, of every class. We shall give a condensed view of the Evidences of Christianity, as delivered by Mr. A. Campbell in his debate with Mr. Owen, the great champion of infidelity, &c.
The Editors wish to be distinctly understood, that although it is their desire that the principles and practices advocated by Mr. Campbell and his able coadjutors should be freely expressed in this work, yet they are not to be considered responsible for them in every particular; nor would they, had they leisure from their present avocations, or talents equal to the task, enter into controversy with their brethren on these subjects, but earnestly desire that the readers will judge for themselves, and take the advice of an apostle, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good."
ED.
JOHN THE HARBINGER, OR THE CHARACTER OF A REFORMER
The great eras of the world have been marked with signal judgments as well as with signal mercies. Every great epoch of mercy has been an epoch of vengeance. The Deluge, the Emancipation of Israel from Egypt, the Babylonish Captivity, and the Christian Institution, are the strongly marked epocha of sacred history. So will be the ruin of Babylon the Great. The fall, ruin, and dispersion of the Jews was called "the impending vengeance" - in the common version, "the wrath to come" upon the Jews, for the rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah. It was called the impending vengeance during the ministry of John the Harbinger: "Who has prompted you, Pharisees and Saducees, to flee from the impending vengeance, about to fall upon this nation." Yes, says Jesus, "I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will scourge in your synagogues, and banish from city to city: so that all the innocent blood shed upon the earth shall be charged upon you, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachia, whom ye slew between the altar and the sanctuary. Indeed, I say to you, all shall be charged upon this generation."* It was, therefore, an era of vengeance as well as an era of mercy.
The coming of the Harbinger, and the rising of the Sun of Mercy, were associated in prophecy by the last of the Jewish line of prophets, with a day of fiery indignation; "Behold," says Malachi, "the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all who do wickedly, shall be as stubble; and the day which approacheth shall burn them up, leaving them neither root nor branch." "I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." "This," says Jesus, referring to John, "is the Elijah who was to come." "For the law and the prophets were your instructors until John came; but since that time the reign of Heaven is announced."
John came to announce the reign of Heaven. He was, therefore, spoken of as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and saying, Prepare a way for the Lord, make for him a straight passage. Let every valley be filled, every mountain and hill be levelled; let the crooked roads be made straight, and the rough ways smooth, that all flesh may see the Saviour sent of God."** "Indeed," says Jesus, "of all that were born of women, a greater (prophet) than John the Immerser has not arisen; yet the least (prophet) under the reign of Heaven shall be greater than he." Since the time that John came announcing the reign, "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence," permits of great and courageous exertions, "and invaders take possession of it by force."
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*Matt. 23. - Quotations are taken from the New Version, unless in matters of criticism.
** Luke 3.
Moral cowards cannot force themselves through the ranks of scribes and rulers, who will neither enter themselves, nor, if they cannot by contumely and persecution, will they permit those to enter who are so disposed. None but the morally brave and bold can invade the city, and therefore the timorous, indolent, and worldly minded, will be vanquished by those whose interest it is to prevent their entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
But as John was the announcer of the approaching reign, it will be instructive to form an intimate acquaintance with his spirit, temper, and behaviour.
As a man, he was humble, self-denied, and abstemious. As a teacher, he was clear, forcible, bold, and severe. While mild, conciliatory, and accessible to the sincere and inquisitive, he was inflexible, unaccommodating, and unyielding to the prejudices of the times. He was no respecter of persons. He reproved civil and ecclesiastical potentates, commanded a general reformation of manners, refused the proud, supercilious, and self-righteous; and adapted his teaching to the capacities and apprehensions of his audience.
His great prototype, in whose spirit and power he came, was Elijah. No twin-brothers were more alike in person or in countenance, than were Elijah and John in spirit and energy. I speak not of the many remarkable coincidences in their history, but of their spirit and behaviour.
These coincidences were very striking. Elijah lived much in the wilderness, and frequented the Jordan: so did John. There the ravens fed Elijah, and there the locusts and bees administered to John. Elijah divided the water of the Jordan with his mantle, and walked in its channel; there, too, stood John, and often divided the stream with his own person and that of the reforming Jew. Elijah was called the troubler of Israel by the court party, and was banished; John troubled the courtiers in his day, and was imprisoned. Elijah reproved kings for their crimes, and John rebuked Herod for his enormities. Zealous for the honour of the God of Israel; bold, fearless, and indefatigable in his service; affable and conciliatory to the humble and the docile; but sharp, fierce, and unsparing in his opposition to the corrupters of the people, was Elijah; such a spirit actuated John. Irresistible was the power of Elijah, and irresistible was the energy of John. There was an air of severity in their reproofs, and unsparing keenness and sharpness in their addresses, which frowned down all opposition. They both set their faces like a flint against iniquity and hypocrisy, and made no truce with the corruptions of men. But as the name John imported the favour of God, or the mighty Lord; so John especially declared the favour of God to the reforming, and Elijah his indignation against the rebellious. They were both reformers, of one spirit, and of the same people, though in different periods of their history.
Such have ever been the prominent traits of character, the temper, and spirit of all real and useful reformers. Great moral courage, boldness, independence of mind, untiring zeal for the glory of the Lord, and unaffected benevolence for men, are essential to a reformer. The man who faints at the sight of blood will make a puny soldier, and a worse general. He that wants nerves to oppose errors can never reform them. One Luther was more puissant than a thousand Melancthons. Many who have the knowledge, possess not the boldness, nor the courage, to reform either men or manners. There are many too, who have much courage, but they want information. The latter may be acquired, but seldom the former. A union of these is essential to a reformer. It is an arduous, and it is an invidious, and often a thankless work. But it must be done. All things are prone to deterioration, and if there were no reformations the world could not exist.
No reformers ever lived to reap an earthly reward; perhaps we might except the political reformers, and these but seldom, and then but in part. If fame be a reward, (and what heart of man is unconscious of its charms?) I say, if fame be a reward, the reformer's fame and praise are almost universally posthumous. The righteous and venerable ancients, Paul says, obtained a good fame, a high reputation; but it was after they died. Death gives consecration to the labours, and life to the reputation of the reformer. He may rationally promise himself reproach, slander, persecution, or death, as the first fruits; but all that is desirable is in long and far distant reversion. No contemporaries have, like posterity, eulogized or admired the great reformers of systems or of men. Some have had a taste, but only a taste of the reputation due to their wisdom or their labours. If Paul, Peter, Wickliffe, Luther, Milton, Locke, Newton, Franklin, Washington, were now to appear amongst us, they would find mankind very differently disposed towards them from those who were their companions in the journey of life. The Jews who railed against Moses, if the Lord had not hid his bones, would have worshipped them.
Those who would have been ashamed to have been seen in the company of Paul, now caress and honour him; and if he could appear amongst us, they would, until they got better acquainted with him, do him the same honours which the barbarians in Melita were willing to bestow, while they thought him a god in the likeness of man. Many who name churches after St. Paul and St. Peter, and dedicate them to them, and who quote them in these buildings as oracles, would, like the Priest and Levite with their brother Jew, have passed them on the other side of the street. Many a Christian Herod, no better than he who gave the head of the Harbinger to his daughter for a plaything, has execrated the Jewish Herod, and extolled the victim of one less ferocious and licentious than himself. Few of us know what sort of spirits we possess. Many are now preaching and extolling Paul who hate the persons most who are most like Paul in spirit and temper; and in the same sermon often admire and commend others, just because they differ from Paul. This is not so strange when we reflect that there are few who know the character which they venerate, nor that which they condemn. They detach one virtue, or one failing, real or imaginary, and through the microscope which prejudice or partiality furnishes, view the whole character. Hence it is that many are in love with they know not what, and despise they know not whom.
It is not uncommon for us to mistake living characters, and not less uncommon to mistake the characters of the dead. The Pauls of the Catholic, Protestant, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist churches, are very unlike Paul the Apostle. The Presbyterian Paul sprinkled infants and consecrated meeting-houses; the Episcopalian Paul was an Archbishop with a mitre and a surplice; the catholic Paul always had a vial of holy water in his pocket, and a walking cane made of the wood of the cross, and was always repeating prayers to the immaculate virgin; the Methodist Paul was President of a Conference of Clergy, and much-addicted to sneezing and shouting, a great lover of camp-meetings, and excessively eccentric in his apparel; the Baptist Paul was a Bishop of four churches, and a friend of Saturday monthly meetings, and extremely fond of annual associations and advisory councils. I cannot enumerate how many Pauls nor how many peculiarities each possess; but one thing I know, that most of them differ as much from the Apostle Paul, as the statue of the Holy Virgin in St. Peter's Church, differs from the daughter of Eli, the wife of Joseph.
But, say many, 'What reformations are wanting - and to what extent? And, if any, who is to effect them - and by what means?' These are questions of great moment. To them we shall pay due regard. But in this article I intended no more than to lay before the mind of the reader the character of two of the greatest reformers in sacred history, actuated by the same spirit, not as if they were exclusively models, but because they give us, in the boldest relief, the most prominent traits essential to all who are public reformers. I do it, too, to correct that squeamishness of taste - delicate to a vice, which condemns as unchristian, as anti-evangelical, the clear, forcible, and pointed exhibition of error - the severe exposure of corruptions and the unsparing development of the schemes of pride, arrogance, and hypocrisy, which we know exist in our generation. I thought of the Harbinger of the Messiah as likely to furnish us with one of the most appropriate models; not as we, or any individual, stand in the same relation to society, or occupy the office that was peculiar to him; but as we learn the excellency of faith from Abraham, meekness from Moses, patience from the history of Job, and universal excellence from the character of Jesus; so we derive peculiar instruction from the character of John, because he was the pioneer and the precursor of the period called "the Reformation," or "the Renovation," in the New Institution. While he prepared the way of the Lord, he reproved all the errors of the time, clearly developed the principles of reformation, and with a zeal, boldness, courage, faithfulness, and perseverance which was never surpassed except by him who was the founder of the New Institution. This shall be our model, sanctioned as it was by the great teacher sent from God, by the most distinguished of the Apostles and Prophets, and all the more illustrious servants of God in every period of the world.
If any, then, should condemn us because exhibiting, in their judgment, an unchristian spirit, let them do us and themselves the justice to examine the memoirs which both Testaments exhibit, especially the New; and whenever we fail in evincing the zeal, plainness, force, severity, mildness, and tenderness, which they displayed in accordance with the characters addressed, let them remind us of it, and we will desist, confess our error, and abandon it. But as at present advised, we shall, God willing, with all impartiality, fairness, boldness, and courage, reprove, exhort, beseech, and expostulate, until there is no longer need for these means; - always cultivating that benevolence, good will, and affection for them who love the truth and the God of truth; always cherishing that holy spirit, that peace of God, and unfeigned brotherly love, without which Christianity is but a name, death terrible, and heaven unattainable. "The conqueror shall inherit all things; and I will be to him a God, and he shall be to me my son. But as for the cowards, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and prostitutes, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
A.C.
ADDRESS TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS.
"When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith which is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded in you also, and that from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation by the faith which is in Christ Jesus." - Paul to Timothy.
[QUERY. - If there were more grandmother Loises and mother Eunices, would there not soon be more Timothys in the congregation of Messiah? - ED.]
DAUGHTERS OF ZION.
The Christian religion has elevated your sex to a very high degree. To it you are indebted for that amelioration of your circumstances, that mitigation of your present grievances, incurred by your having been first in the transgression, that important place you occupy in the Christian affection and esteem of him to whom you were put in subjection. Although some of your sex, in the history of the Old Testament, shine with distinguished lustre, yet it is in the New Testament alone where you appear to the highest advantage. Never, we presume, was Gabriel despatched upon a more honourable or more acceptable errand, than when he visited the cottage of her that was espoused to the son of Jacob; than when he addressed the humble and virtuous virgin in these transporting words, "Hail! favourite of Heaven! The Lord is with you! Blessed are you among women!" From that moment your sex, as the sun after a long gloom, bursts forth with more attractive splendour. All the queens of eastern palaces, in all the pomp of eastern grandeur, never tasted the sweets of such an interview as that between Elizabeth, the mother of the harbinger, and the mother of Israel's King. All the expressions of imperial courtesy, how meagre in comparison of the welcome with which Elizabeth received that visit of her cousin, the salutation with which she embraced her! "How have I this honour, that the mother of my Lord should come to me!" The pious and virtuous Mary, and the humble swain that was made her husband guardian, exhibit a new scene of matrimonial bliss of which mortals never before tasted. He derives all his honour and his bliss from her entrusted to his care. A woman now elevates not only her own sex by the favour of heaven, but also renders conspicuous in the annals of the world a descendant of that royal family that once reigned over Israel.
But we do not dwell at present on these illustrious incidents in your history, as if they were the only occurrences that gave importance and elevation to your sex. Let us just glance at a few others. The first miracle of this incomparable child, born, this only-begotten Son given, was wrought in honour of the mother that nursed him, and in honour of the first commandment with promise. His mother, at the famous marriage of Cana of Galilee, with all the deep solicitude of one concerned in every circumstance that affected the reputation of the family with which she was in the intimacies of friendship, prompted her to appeal to her son, saying, "they have no wine." He shows it to be an occurrence which was of no concern to him, abstractedly considered; but in honour of his mother, who commanded obedience to his will, the water when presented - yes,
"The modest water, aw'd with power divine, Beheld its God, and reddened into wine."
This was the beginning of his fame, the first exhibition of his glorious power. And the last expression of solicitude for the temporal welfare of one of our race, which dropped from his lips amidst the agonies of the cross, was prompted by the keenest sensibilities of humanity, by that grateful recollection of the care of a mother, which is never to be forgotten; by that profound respect which every wise man exhibits to the woman that watched and wept over his childhood; yes, his last concern was for the future welfare of his mother. He says to John, his favourite disciple, casting his eye towards his mother, "Son, behold your mother!" and to his mother, "Behold your son!" Thus he bequeathed his mother, as his richest legacy on earth, to that disciple whom he loved most of all.
Christian women, your praise and your fame, your zeal, your affection, and even your courage, shine with so much resplendence in the New Testament history, as to throw the most distinguished of our sex much, very much, in the shade. The fame of that Mary who sat at the feet of the Messiah, who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, transcends the fame of all the statesmen, warriors, monarchs, philosophers, and poets, that ever lived. Yes, while the fame of the statesman is bounded by our tenure of the soil on which we live; while the laurels that deck the brow of the warrior are stained with the blood he shed, and wither near the cypress that covers the tomb moistened by the tears of the widow and the orphans which he made; while the gems that sparkle in the crown of the monarch are dimmed and obscured by the cankering hand of time; while the renown of the philosopher fades in the presence of every insect, and of every plant, which says to his wisdom, "How limited you are!" and while the praises of the poet and the charms of harmony live only in the fastidious taste of men, O Mary, your memorial, the sweet perfume of your fame extends to all generations! and that which you have done shall be told with ecstasy unalloyed, when time itself shall be no more.
And let the Christian heroes remember, that when the highest and noblest names on their list of eighteen centuries fled like cowards from the scene of danger, and in the hour of darkness and terror deserted their suffering chief, Christian women kept their place, and stood spectators near the cross. Yes, to the eternal praise of female piety, let it be published in all lands that women were the last at the cross, and the first at the tomb of their great and mighty Saviour. And as a token of his remembrance and acknowledgement of their devotion, pious courage, and unabated affection, to them he first showed himself alive after his death and alleviated their sorrows.
But as it is not our intention to make these illustrious incidents in your history a theme from which to deduce all the reflections which they naturally suggest, we proceed to our design.
Your usefulness to the church is not curtailed by the apostolic injunction which allots to you that silence and submission which comport with that modesty and diffidence which are now and ever have been the highest ornaments of female character. You are to nurse and nourish every one that comes into the world; and the God of your offspring has given to you an authority over the mind in its most pliant state, paramount to every other. The babe that smiles in your arms, and finds its support and its refuge in your bosom, receives its first impression from you. It recognizes a relation existing between you and it before it forms an idea of a father. It views you as its best friend, and most willingly submits to your control. Your countenance is the first volume it reads; and it is a volume which conveys to its apprehension more ideas than perhaps any of us imagine. Its articulations are formed from yours, and your language is the first it can understand. You can converse with it, and communicate to its tender mind ideas which the greatest linguists and philosophers that ever lived could not. You, then, occupy a place which cannot be rivalled, and which, if discretely managed, may, under the blessing of Heaven, be of eternal importance to it. Do not be startled when I tell you that you are by the law of nature, which is the law of God, as well as by his written word, ordained to be the only preachers of the gospel, properly so called, to your own offspring. You can tell them in language more intelligible to their apprehension, the wonders of creation; you can, from the lively oracles, teach them the history of our race; you can preach the gospel to them better than any Doctor of Divinity that ever lived. You can narrate to them the nativity and life, the words and deeds of Messiah; you can open to their minds how he died for our sins, and how he rose for our justification. You can tell them of his ascension to the skies, of his coronation in heaven, and that he will come to judge the world. When you have done all this, in a style which you can adopt, more easy of apprehension than any other - if Paul the Apostle was again to visit the world and call at your house, he could not preach to them with greater effect. Nay, you have anticipated all that he could say, and done all that he could do, to give the word effect. If he were to attempt to make known the glad tidings of great joy, to announce the good news to your children - when he had done they might say, "Kind and benevolent friend, this is no news to us; we rejoice to have heard it all from a preacher before; a preacher too, whose love and benevolence were equal to yours, and whom we understand as clearly as we understand you." If he were to ask who the preacher was, and by what authority he spoke, the children might reply, "It was from a preacher which you, beloved friend, yourself licensed; it was our mother whom you commanded to 'bring us up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.'" "O yes," replies the apostle, "I did authorize an order of preachers which were to take my place after my decease, amongst whom your mother was one. My place and my office was to make known to all my contemporaries those glad tidings in the first place; for I was ordained a preacher as well as a teacher, and your parents can best occupy my place, as they can first make known to their offspring the same good news.
These hints, my dear friends, go to show you what is expected from you, and what you ought to do. And surely you will agree with me that the word of God, thus communicated by the fireside, from your own lips, under the blessing of Heaven, is just as efficacious as if pronounced from a pulpit of mahogany, covered with scarlet, and decked with tapestry, from a pontiff, or a rabbi covered with silk and a wig as white as Alpine snow. Remember Lois, Eunice, and Timothy, and Paul's commands to you. The giving of such an injunction to fathers and mothers, implied that they were competent to perform them to the best advantage. The efforts of the clergy to take from you the office of preachers, under a pretence that either their authority or their ability is superior to yours, believe your friend, or rather believe the apostles, is an unjust encroachment upon your rights and privileges. Your example and your prayers, your authority, and your well proved affection and sincerity in all that you say, are worth more than all the logic, mathematics, algebra, and rhetoric which ever were collected in all the seminaries upon earth, to give efficacy to your sermons. How blissful the privilege, and how high the honour conferred on you! Do then, Christian matrons, from your love to your own offspring, and from your love to him that raised your sex to honours so illustrious, and from your hopes of immortality and eternal life in that world where they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels, being the children of God and of the resurrection, bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
A.C.
A RESTORATION OF THE ANCIENT ORDER OF THINGS.
NO. 4.
That the word of the apostles shall be the only creed, formula, and directory of faith, worship, and Christian practice, when the ancient order of things is restored, we have offered some evidence to show.* The constitution and law of the primitive church shall be the constitution and law of the restored church. As the constitution and law then admitted all the faithful disciples of the Lord to an equal participation of all privileges, so when the same is again adopted, the same privileges will be extended to every orderly citizen of the kingdom. Without any of our modern creeds, in substance or in form, the church was once united, complete, and happy, and will be so again. For the same cause will always produce the same effect. When the disciples shall return to the Lord, he will return to them.
In receiving members or citizens into the kingdom, or in naturalizing foreigners, it appeared, in our last essay, that nothing was required of them but an acknowledgement of the word or testimony of the witnesses concerning the King, Jesus of Nazareth. A hearty declaration, or confession with their lips, that they believed in their hearts, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the Son of the living God, the King and Lord of all, qualified them as applicants for naturalization. In the act of immersion into this name, they renounced every other Messiah, Lord, King, or Saviour; they put off their former religion, and renounced every religious obligation to any other system or authority, and put on Jesus, as their Lord and King. From a consideration of the ancient order, it appeared that the apostles did not command men to be baptized into their own experience, but into the faith then delivered to the saints. It was affirmed that the ancient order was wiser, safer, and more honourable to the saving truth, than the modern way of receiving members into a baptist society, and some proof was presented.
In the present essay we shall make a few remarks upon another important preliminary to the restoration of the ancient order of things. There must be, and there shall be, an abandonment of the new and corrupt nomenclature, and a restoration of the inspired one. In other words, there must be an abandonment of the Babylonish or corrupt phraseology of the dark ages and of modern discoveries, in the fixed style of the Christian vocabulary. This is a matter of greater importance than may, at first sight, appear to all. Words and names long consecrated, and sanctified by long prescription, have a very imposing influence upon the human understanding. We think as well as speak by means of words. It is just as impossible for an adult to think as to speak without words. Let him that doubts make the experiment. Now as all correct ideas of God and things invisible are supernatural ideas, no other terms can so suitably express them as the terms adopted by the Holy Spirit, in adapting those supernatural truths to our apprehension. He that taught man to speak, would, doubtless, adopt the most suitable terms in his language to reveal himself to his understanding. To disparage those terms, by adopting others in preference, is presumptuous and insolent on the part of man. Besides, when men adopt terms to express supernatural truths, it is not the truths themselves, but their ideas of them they communicate. They select such terms as suit their apprehensions of revealed truth, and hence the terms they use are expressive only of their conceptions of divine things, and must just be as imperfect as their conceptions are. It is impossible for any man, unless by accident, to express accurately that which he apprehends imperfectly. From this source spring most of our doctrinal controversies. Men's opinions, expressed in their own terms, are often called bible truths. In order, then, to a full restoration of the ancient order of things, there must be "a pure speech." restored. And I think the Lord once said, in order to a restoration, that he would restore to the people "a pure speech." We know that the ancient order of things, amongst the Jews, could not be restored, after their captivity in Babylon, until the law of the Lord, containing the primitive institutions of the Jews' religion, was read and understood by the people, and the dialect of Babylon abandoned, as far as it corrupted the primitive simplicity of that religion. Hence the scribes read them the law from morning to evening, gave them the sense and made them understand the reading. This became necessary because of the corrupt dialect they had learned in Babylon, on account of which their revelation was unintelligible to them, until the language of Canaan was purged from the phraseology of Ashdod. It will, we apprehend, be found precisely similar in the antitype, or in the return of the people of God from the captivity of Babylon the great, the mother of abominations.
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* See Jones' Millennial Harbinger, vol. 1, pp. 46,241; vol. 2, p. 199.
But we shall go on to specify a sample of those Babylonish terms and phrases which must be purified from the Christian vocabulary, before the saints can understand the religion they profess, or one another as fellow disciples. I select these from the approved standards of the most popular establishments: for from these they have become current and sacred style. Such are the following: "Trinity. First, second, and third person in the adorable Trinity; God the Son; and God the Holy Ghost. Eternal Son. The Son is eternally begotten by the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. The divinity of Jesus Christ; the humanity of Jesus Christ; the incarnation of Jesus Christ. This he said as man; and that as God. The common operations, and the special operations of the Spirit of God. Original sin, and original righteousness. Spiritual death, spiritual life. Covenant of works, covenant of grace, and covenant of redemption; a dispensation of the covenant of grace. An administration of the covenant. Effectual calling. Free will. Free grace. Total depravity. Eternal justification. Eternal sleep. Elect world. Elect infants. Light of nature. Natural religion. General and particular atonement. Legal and evangelical repentance. Moral, ceremonial, and judicial law. Under the law as a covenant of works, and as a rule of life. Christian Sabbath. Holy sacrament. Administration of the sacrament. Different kinds of faith and grace. Divine service; the public worship of God," &c. &c.
These are but a mere sample, and all of one species. It will be said that men cannot speak of Bible truths without adopting other terms than those found in the written word. This will be granted, and yet there will be found no excuse for the above species of unauthorized and Babylonish phraseology. It is one thing to speak of divine truths in our own language, and another to adopt a fixed style of expressing revealed truths to the exclusion of, or in preference to, that fixed by the Spirit, and sometimes, too, at variance with it For instance, the terms Trinity, first and second person of - Eternal Son, and the eternal procession of the Spirit, are now the fixed style in speaking of God, his Son Jesus Christ, and of the Spirit, in reference to their "personal character." Now this is not the style of the oracles of God. It is all human, and may be as freely criticised as one of the numbers of the Spectator. Yet because of the sanctified character of these terms, having been baptized, or authorized by the orthodox and pious for centuries, it is at the risk of my reputation for orthodoxy, and at the expense of being charged with heresy, that I simply affirm that they are terms that the wisdom of this world teaches, and not the Spirit of God. I would not be startled to hear that I have denied the faith and rejected the revealed character of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because I have said that the fixed style in speaking of them in the popular establishments is of human origin and of the language of Ashdod, and not of the language of Canaan. This, however, only proves that the terms of human philosophy are held more sacred than the words of the Holy Spirit.
These terms originate new doctrines. Thus the term "trinity" gives rise to the doctrine of the trinity. And what fierce controversies have originated out of this doctrine! How many creeds and martyrs has it made! Courteous and pious reader, would it not be as wise, as humble, and as modest, too, for us, on such topics, to prefer the words of the Holy Spirit, and to speak of God, his Son, and Spirit, as the apostles did. Moreover, these terms, do not help our conceptions of God at all. They rather impede than facilitate our understanding the divine oracles. It is more difficult to conceive of an eternal Son eternally begotten, and of a Spirit eternally proceeding, than to understand any thing God has ever spoken to men. And see on what a slender thread those distinctions hang! Because Jesus Christ told his disciples that he would send them the Spirit, which Spirit would or was to proceed from his Father or to be sent forth by his Father as well as by himself; therefore the schoolmen affirm that the Spirit eternally proceeded, or was eternally coming from the Father!! This is the whole thread on which this "doctrine" hangs. I only instance this, and cannot now pause on the others.
But beside this species of sophistry there is another more dangerous, because more specious. This is really as foreign and as barbarous a dialect as that we have noticed, though in Bible terms. It consists in selecting Bible terms and sentences and in applying to them ideas totally different from those attached to them by the Holy Spirit. Of this sort are the following: "The natural man, spiritual man; in the flesh, in the spirit; regeneration, washing of regeneration; ministration of the Spirit, demonstration of the Spirit; power of God, faith of the operation of God, the grace of God; the letter, the spirit; the old and new covenant; word of God; the ministry of the word; truth of the gospel; mystery, election, charity, heretic, heresy, blasphemy, church communication, baptism, faith," &c. &c. &c. The former dialect rejects the words of the Holy Spirit, and adopts others as more intelligible, less ambiguous, and better adapted to preserve a pure church. The latter dialect takes the terms and sentences of the Spirit, and makes them convey ideas diverse from those communicated by the Spirit. We shall in this, as in the former dialect, specify one instance. Take for this purpose the sentence, "Through faith of the operation of God." This the populars use to designate a faith wrought in the human heart by the operation of the great power of God. But the Spirit of God intended by this phrase to shew that Christians in baptism had represented to them their resurrection with Christ to a new life, through a belief of the great power of God, exhibited in raising Christ from the dead. So the wisest teachers, and so all the learned translators of the last century understood it, amongst whom are, Pierce, Tompson, Macknight and others. Macknight reads it thus: "Being buried with him in baptism, in which also ye have been raised with him through the belief of the strong working of God who raised him from the dead." Now in relation to these two dialects there is one easy and safe course. The first is to be totally abandoned as transubstantiation and purgatory are by Protestants, and the other is to be tried by the context or the design of the writer.
We cannot at present be more particular; but of these terms and sentences we shall not be forgetful hereafter. It is enough at one time to suggest them to the consideration and examination of our readers.
The adoption and constant use of this barbarous dialect, was the cause of making divisions, and is still one existing cause of their continuance. This style furnishes much matter, and many a topic to the gloomy Doctors who delight in metaphysical subtleties, and gains them much credit for their skill in mysteries, which they exhibit in their weekly attempts to unravel the webs which themselves and their worthy predecessors have woven. Let it be remembered that, as these terms were not to be heard in the primitive church, in restoring the ancient order of things they must be sent home to the regions of darkness whence they arose.
A. C.
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ESSAYS ON THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE SALVATION OF MEN.*
NO. 1.
To the Spirit of God are we immediately indebted for all that is known or knowable of God, of the invisible world, and of the ultimate destinies of man. All that ancient Pagans and modern sceptics pretend to have known of these sublime topics, was either borrowed from the oracles of the Revealer of secrets, or was mere uncertain conceits or conjectures of their own. Were it our design, we could easily prove, upon the principles of all modern sceptics, upon their own philosophical notions, that unaided by the oracles of the Spirit, they never could have known that there is a God, that there was a creation or Creator, or that there is within them a spark of life superior to that of a brute. Indeed this has been unanswerably done already, in a work published a few years since, by James Fishback, D.D. This ingenious and profound reasoner has shown with demonstrative certainty, that, on the acknowledged principles of Locke, "the Christian philosopher," and of Hume, the subtle sceptic, all the boasted intelligence of the deistical world is a plagiarism from the oracles of this Divine One. Indeed it all comes to this - if there be no innate ideas as these philosophers teach, then the bible is proved, from the principles of reason, and from the history of the world, to be what it purports, a volume indicted by the Spirit of the invisible God. To pursue this argument is, however, foreign to our present purpose. We are not now, on set purpose, addressing infidels, but those who profess to believe that the Christian religion is of divine authenticity. We may, perhaps, find it our duty to drop a few hints on this subject. In the mean time, we speak to those who profess faith in the sacred scriptures.
It being granted that the bible was dictated from heaven, it follows that it is revealed truth, that there is one God and father of all, one only begotten Son of God who is Lord of all, and one Spirit of God, who alone reveals to men the secrets of God. Leaving out of view all the metaphysical divinity of ancient councils or modern theological schools on the philosophical doctrine of the trinity, we may safely assert, upon the plainest evidence, that these THREE must occupy the attention of every reader of the holy oracles. Scarcely have we time to exhaust one breath in reading the history of the creation, as written by Moses, until the Spirit of God is introduced to our view as operating in this marvellous demonstration of almighty power. And scarcely do we read a page in any one of the four Evangelists, until this Divine One appears to our view as a mighty agent in some work connected with the redemption of man. Even the New Testament closes with a gracious discovery of his benevolence, and the last welcome of heaven to the sons of misery and wretchedness is echoed by this self-same Spirit, who says, "come and drink of the water of life FREELY."
Without presuming to roam in the regions of conjecture, or to indulge in the flights of imagination; or even to run at random through all that is recorded concerning this sacred name, into which we have been baptized, we shall confine our inquiries, and if possible, the attention of our readers, to that office which the Spirit of God evidently occupies in the salvation revealed in the New Testament. That the Christian religion was to be established and consummated by the ministration of this Spirit, is one of the plainest truths in revelation. It was a subject of ancient prophecy, and the facts recorded in the New Testament concerning the gifts and operations of this Spirit, are but the accomplishment of what was long foretold and anxiously expected.
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* There are eleven or twelve others on the same subject, which will appear in this work in due time.
The Christian religion was established by the personal labours of its founder, who appeared to be no more than a Jewish peasant, and the labours of a few illiterate fishermen. It is the most singular fact on the page of history, sacred or profane, the best established, and the most universally admitted, by friends and foes, that a Jewish peasant (as his enemies called him) and a dozen of individuals, without learning, without money, without family, without name, without any kind of human influence, revolutionized, in a few years, the whole world, as the Roman empire was then called; and that, too, at a crisis the most forbidding in its aspect, the most unfavourable that ever existed. Paganism was long established and strongly guarded by the sword of the civil magistrate, and myriads of hungry, cunning, and avaricious priests. Judaism, still better confirmed, as it had truth well attested on its side, and the imposing influence of the most venerable antiquity. On the one side, prejudices, creeds, rubrics, temples, gods in the Gentile world innumerable and indescribable - established and confirmed by many succeeding generations. On the other, the most inveterate antipathies, the most unrelenting malevolence, aggravated and embittered by a superstition that once had much to recommend it. Before their face, poverty, shame, sufferings through life, and martyrdom at last, were presented, not as matters of conjecture, but as awful certainties, to forbid their efforts and to daunt their souls. But by the energies of this Holy Spirit, its gifts and its endowments, they triumphed. Temples were vacated, altars pulled down, and idols abolished in every land, and a new religion established in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Such is the fact, the marvellous fact, recorded, recommended, and proved by a combination of evidence, the splendour of which throws into the shade all the evidence adduced in support of any other historical fact in the annals of the world.
In the contemplation of this wonderful revolution, the Holy Spirit is the most striking object presented to our view, and to it are to be ascribed all these marvellous results. And here we open the New Testament and commence our inquiries into the character of its operations.
That faith is necessary to salvation, is a proposition the truth of which we need not now attempt to prove, as all professors of Christianity admit it: and that testimony is necessary to faith, is a proposition equally true, evident, and universally admitted. He that believes, believes something, and that which he believes is testified to him by others. A man, every body who thinks, knows he cannot see without light, hear without sound, nor believe without testimony. Some people, we know, say they believe what they see; but this is an abuse of language. I know what I see, and believe what I hear - upon the evidence adduced in the first case to my eye, and in the second to my ear. It is as natural for a child to believe as it is to hear, when its capacity expands; and were it not for lying and deceit, it would continue to believe every thing testified to its understanding. Children become incredulous merely from experience. Being deceived by lies and deceit, they become incredulous. Having experienced that some things reported to their ears are false, they afterwards refuse to believe everything which they hear. The more frequently they have been deceived, the more incredulous they become. Hence the examination of testimony becomes as natural, in a little time, as it is necessary. The first lie that was told on earth was believed to be a truth. Fatal experience has rendered the examination of testimony necessary. These observations are altogether gratuitous, as all we demand is cheerfully granted by all professors of Christianity, viz. that faith is necessary to salvation, that testimony is necessary to faith; and that owing to the existence of falsehoods and deceits, the examination of testimony is necessary to full conviction. These positions being adopted as indisputable truth, we proceed to observe that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John testify that there was a woman named Mary who brought forth a son supernaturally, who was called Jesus; that the child was announced by John the Baptist as the Redeemer, or Lamb of God, that was to take away the sin of the world, who had been foretold and expected for many generations; that he was distinguished above all that were born of woman, in the circumstances of his nativity, childhood, baptism, and in every personal accomplishment; that he spoke and taught truths, and performed actions peculiar to himself; that he was maliciously put to death in Judea in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, under the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate, by the Jewish sanhedrin; that he rose from the dead the third day, and after appearing alive for forty days on the earth, he afterwards ascended into heaven, and was placed upon the throne of the universe, and appointed Judge of the living and the dead; and that until his second coming to judge the world, he is exalted to bestow repentance and remission of sins to all that call upon him. These things and many others of the same character the Evangelists and Apostles, una voce, declare. Now their testimony is either true or false. If false, then all Christians are deceived, and all the religion in Christendom and in the world is delusion; for if Christianity is not true, it will he readily admitted by my readers that neither is Mohammedism, Judaism, nor Paganism. If true, then all the Christian religion depends upon their testimony. Their testimony, on either hypothesis, is worthy of the most impartial and patient investigation. But such a testimony required supernatural attestations. For although there is nothing in this astonishing narrative impossible in the nature of things, nor indeed improbable on the acknowledged principles of human reason itself; yet the marvellous character of the facts testified, the frequent impositions practised, and, above all, the momentous stress laid upon them required that they should be authenticated from heaven. In the attestation of this testimony, and in the proof of these facts the office of the Holy Spirit first presents itself to our notice.
It was not enough that the Apostles were qualified by the Spirit to deliver a correct, intelligible, and consistent testimony, but for the reasons above specified, that this testimony be attested by such accompaniments as would render the rejector of it damnably criminal, as well as afford the fullest ground of certainty and joy to all that received their testimony. Nor are we in this inquiry so much called to consider the import of their testimony or their qualifications to deliver it, as we are to exhibit the attestations afforded by the Holy Spirit.
Miracles were wrought by the influence of the Holy Spirit in confirmation of their testimony - that is, signs or proofs of a supernatural character followed their testimony. The very circumstance of miracles being added, proved their necessity; for all declare that God does nothing in vain. If miracles were wrought by the Saviour and his apostles, those miracles were necessary appendages to their testimony. For if faith, which we have agreed, is necessary to salvation, and if testimony is necessary to faith, as also admitted, then, in the case before us, miracles were necessary in order to the confirmation of this testimony, or to its credibility; for this is apparent from the fact that they were exhibited, and from the acknowledged principle that God does nothing in vain. But our remarks upon miracles must be postponed to the next number.
Two conclusions are fairly deducible from the preceding observations. The first is, that the truth to be believed could never have been known but by the revelation of the Spirit; and secondly, that though it had been pronounced in the most explicit language, yet it could not have been believed with certainty, but by the miracles which were offered in attestation of it. It may then safely be affirmed that no man could believe the gospel facts without this work of the Holy Spirit in attestation thereof; for the Spirit of God would not have empowered those witnesses to have wrought those miracles if their mere testimony without them was sufficient to produce faith. For let it be remembered, that it is universally granted that Gods works are all perfect, and that he does nothing superfluous or in vain.
A.C.
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ON TEACHING CHRISTIANITY.
NO. 2.
Reader, you observe that this piece is entitled "An essay on teaching Christianity." Perhaps you are at a loss to know what it means. You will understand it better by and by. My last paper* was intended simply to intimate to Christian bishops or pastors, that, in spite of the discrepant and inapt schemes of sermonizing that now prevail by means of learned and popular establishments, there: yet exists a certain, uniform, authorized plan of preaching Jesus, a plan consecrated by the high examples of all the heavens, and the holy apostles and prophets.
I should immediately proceed to develop it, were I not thoroughly convinced that a recognition of a few preliminaries is absolutely necessary to the adoption of this authorized plan, and even to the understanding of it. These preliminaries, indeed, are neither very numerous nor very remote from vulgar apprehension - they are only two, and a very superficial glance at scripture will put the reader in possession of all that is necessary for understanding the writer of these papers. The first of these prefatory articles is, that the members of a church of Christ are united to one another by the belief of a matter of fact, viz. that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God," and not by any attribute of government, catholic or sectarian. The second is, that the scriptures propose the belief of this fact, that "Jesus is the Christ," as the only means for increasing the body or church of God. Hence the didactical labours of a bishop or elder who would wish to edify and increase the body of Christ, divide themselves into two several sorts. In order to increase the body, he proves to the world by means of those ancient and venerable monuments which God has put into his hands, the four gospels, that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;" and, in order to edify the church, he points out in all the scriptures, those holy and sublime interpretations which the Spirit has everywhere given of this illustrious fact. But if it is true (as we shall immediately see from scripture it is) that the body of Christ is united in its several members by the belief of this matter of fact, viz. that Jesus is the Son of God, and that it is increased by the confession and belief of it - then a number of very important corollaries are deducible from these two revealed propositions: First, the peace and union of a church of Christ are not the result of any sort of ecclesiastical government. Secondly, the increase of Christ's body is not predicated on anything so exceedingly exceptionable as modern confessions of faith; but on the confession of the first truth. Thirdly, the worshipping establishments now in operation throughout Christendom, increased and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith, and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that Mother of Harlots, the Church of Rome. In these establishments a breach of canon is punished with ejection, and to nauseate their vitiated creeds is a certain bar to induction, unless a man is rich, and then he may do or deny anything.
But, in order that the reader may entertain no doubt respecting the above mentioned propositions, let us attend to the scriptures - let us attend to the voice of the beloved Saviour, speaking in Matt. 16:13. "When he came into the coasts of Cesarea, he asked his disciples, saying, who do men say that I the Son of Man am? And they said, some say that you are John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He said unto them, but whom say you that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say also to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." In this beautiful, interesting, and highly significant passage, four things are particularly remarkable: First, the name, Christ, Son of the living God, which Simon gives to Jesus. Second, the name, Petros, stone, which Jesus gives to Simon. Third, the truth itself, which Simon confesses. And fourth, the name, Petra, rock, by which the Saviour, figuratively, in allusion to Simon's name, Petros, stone, designates this eternal truth, that he is the Christ the Son of the living God. On the belief of this fact, then, his church is founded, and by it is held together. I do not remember to have seen it remarked, but it is very much in our Lord's, manner to reply in the very same words in which he is addressed. For instance, the leper says, "if you will;" Jesus replies, "I will." Thomas says, "how can we know the way?" The Lord answers, "I am the way." "Why do your disciples transgress?" say the Pharisees; and "why do you also transgress?" says the Saviour. From want of attending to this, the vivacity of our Lords reply to Simon is not felt, and the spirit of the whole passage, indeed, almost vanishes - you are the Christ - and you are stone, Petros. The Lord Jesus was very apt to speak in metaphor too. He styles Herod a fox; he calls his own body a temple, in allusion to the temple in which he at that time was. When he is on Mount Olivet among the vines, he styles himself the vine; he calls death a sleep; his own death a baptism; Simon a stone, Cephas; and in the above passage he calls the grand truth that he was the Son of the living God, a Petra, rock, in allusion to Simon's name, stone, and on account of its steadfast and indestructable certainty; and he adds that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it;" i.e. as I suppose, his death, which was soon to be effected by the .wicked Jews, should not disprove his pretensions to the Messiahship; or perhaps he means that the grave should not interrupt the fellowship of his church, which was to be founded on this imperishable fact, that he was the Christ. This passage sufficiently shows us what is the bond of union among the despised people; and it shows us even more, for it lets us know that the confession and belief of this bare fact (Peter at this moment knowing nothing more, nothing as yet of his crucifixion for sin) is attended with certain blessing and salvation - "Blessed are you, Simon," &c. To the same purpose Paul says, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." Now, if modern confessions of faith had such blessing and such salvation appended to them by such authorities, their abettors might well boast. But they who bow down to such idols shall go down to the grave with a lie in their right hand. The sword of the Lord's mouth is unsheathed against the man of sin, nor will it kiss the scabbard until his enemies are consumed. O Gamaliel! O Socrates! O Satan! save your sinking disciples whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not!
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* See Jones' Harbinger, vol. 1, p. 60.
But that the glorious truth, and nothing else, holds the saints together in particular churches, is evident from the holy epistles which are addressed to them in their individual capacities. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, who were beginning to name themselves by their respective favourites, as the moderns do, informs that church, that, when he had first come among them, he had determined to know nothing among them but the bare gospel fact, that Jesus was the Christ, and had been crucified; nor did he attempt to ornament it with the eloquence of words, thinking, as I suppose, that a truth so supremely magnificent in itself, was perfectly insusceptible of extrinsic ornament, and in its own native excellency defied the united pens and tongues of men and angels. His only aim was to demonstrate its reality by the spirit and power of God which filled him, that the disciple's faith might not stand in his word, but in the power of God - the miracles. Knowing that if this great argument, supported as it was with miracles, failed to reduce men to union and to Christ, he had nothing of equal importance to propose for this purpose. The apostle, therefore, in order to reduce them to unity, reminds them of the fundamental bond of union by which they had been originally congregated, thus: "according to the grace (apostleship) of God to me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds thereon; but let every man take heed how he builds thereon, for other foundation (of union) can no man lay than that is laid, which is, Jesus is the Christ." These things may suffice to show that the bond of union among Christians is the belief of a matter of fact, viz. that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. The reader may consult Ephesians 2, 3, and 4 chapters, all the Galatians, epistles to the Colossians, Romans, Timothy, &c. &c., where the apostles lay it down as a universal maxim, that this truth or word of salvation works effectually in all them that believe it!
But our second proposition, viz. that the body of Christ is increased by belief of the bare truth that Jesus is the Son of God, and our Saviour, is a scripture doctrine, which the populars nauseate, if possible, more than our first. It is so simple, so manifestly foolish, that the sons of Gamaliel and Socrates are equally scandalized and ashamed of it. Yet, says Paul, it saves them that believe it. But it is chiefly abhorrent to modern establishments on account of the consequences of which it is pregnant - it sets aside all canon, all confession, every thing indeed which opposes and exalts itself against Christ and the New Testament. Nevertheless, this second prefatory article, that the body is increased by the confession and belief of the truth, is perfectly obvious from scripture. "Whosoever shall confess me before men," says the Redeemer, "him will the Son of Man confess before the angels of God." Peter, we have seen, confessed him to be the Son of the living God, though apparently a mere man; and the blessed Saviour honoured his confession with a most gracious benediction - "blessed are you Simon, son of Jonas, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Now Peter at this moment was perfectly ignorant of everything besides this truth, which he had learned from the Father, by the miraculous evidence which he had vouchsafed in support of it. It is wonderful the honour which the scripture writers everywhere do this single truth, that "Jesus was the Son of God." Paul would not dare to use learned words in speaking it, cautions the Hebrews against letting it slip out of their minds, and says to the Corinthians, that they are saved by it, if they keep it in mind! John (1st epistle, Chap. 5) declared that the man who believed it is born of God; and wrote and recorded all the miracles in his gospel to prove this illustrious fact. "These things are written," says he, "that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name." In John's days there were many antichrists; but that holy man did not dare to use any unlawful means for securing the disciples against their deleterious influence. He did not write to them that they should covenant like the Covenanters, form any sort of ecclesiastic government, make confessions of faith, liturgy, rubric, &c. No - these things, says he, I have written concerning them that (would) seduce you - these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may (continue to) believe in the name of the Son of God. One has only to believe in this name, and his is eternal life. The body of Christ, thus, then, is also increased by the belief of this excellent truth; and to be convinced of this, the reader has only to turn to any page of the New Testament, and he will read it in every line.
We have glanced at the vast honour everywhere in scripture put upon this majestic truth, that Jesus is the Son of Almighty God; we have seen how Paul and John exalted it, and also that it is the foundation and bond of union in the church of God, and how that the body of Christ is increased by the belief of it. But look at the marvellous evidence vouchsafed in support of it; the amazing concatenation of miracles drawn out to identify the person of the Christ, miracle after miracle follows each other in rapid succession, surprisingly diversified in manner, kind, and form; until the mighty chain terminates in that amazing and inscrutable wonder, his resurrection from the dead; a miracle which, for its transcendant peculiarities, the apostle (Eph. 1:19) singles out as affording the most illustrious display of the mighty power of God. But the Holy Spirit also, in all his diversified working of gifts and graces, in wisdom and knowledge, and miracles, and healings, discoursing of spirits, tongues, prophecy, and interpretation, was given to prove that Jesus was the Christ. And Peter makes this use of them on the day of Pentecost, when pointing to the multitude of separated tongues that crowned the heads of the apostles, he said, let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God has made that Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. It was to preach and prove this that all the apostles were sent to the nations. But greater reverence could not be paid to any truth than the Lord Jesus himself pays to this, that he was the Son of God; when he bids all men worship him as they would the Father, he says, it is eternal life to know him; and in the moment of quitting the world enforces the belief of the truth with the sanctions of eternal life and death - "he that believes (that he is the Son of God) shall be saved; he that believes not shall be damned." The philosophers indeed have stolen away these sanctions from the faith of Jesus, and have pinned them to their jejune, pretended science of moral philosophy, where the name of the Saviour is perhaps never once mentioned. But they had better confine themselves to their own baubles, and let the truth of God alone, otherwise believe it; for if they do not, he will philosophize them when he comes to be glorified in his saints, when he shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that obey not God, and believe not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
PHILIP.
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GOD'S INSTRUMENT OF INSTRUCTION.
To the Editor of the Millennial Harbinger.
DEAR SIR, - It is very possible that there have been in use among the people called Christians, for upwards of seventeen centuries, two instruments of religious instruction, very different in their origin, character, tendency, and effects. - Of these one has been devised, digested, fitted for its purpose, and transmitted to his perishing creatures man, by an unerring and compassionate God. In this divine instrument there is no mistake, no misconception, no misrepresentation, no inconsistency, nothing false, nothing fictitious. In it truth, and nothing but truth, is to be found. While engaged in searching its divine contents, the honest inquirer is in no danger of imbibing error, or of swallowing falsehood. Here no poison is mixed with his spiritual food, nothing which can conduct his soul to hell, while sincerely seeking here, his way to heaven. And this incomparable instrument of religious instruction is no other than revelation just as it has been arranged and worded by its unerring author, the Holy Spirit, untouched, unaltered, unmixed, uncorrupted by any debasing intermixture of human conjectures, fictions, and conceits.
The other instrument is a human contrivance, most likely devised and introduced by the heathen orators and Jewish priests, who at a very early period embraced the religion of Christ, and corrupted it. It consists generally of some portion, more or less, of revealed truth, mixed up in a huge mass of human fables, conjectures, opinions, and fancies. In this horrid jumble of divine and human conceptions, the discordant elements are blended together in almost every possible proportion. Nor are its external .forms less various than the proportions of its ingredients: sometimes it assumes the form and title of sermons, speeches, discourses, orations, arguments, lectures, commentaries, expositions, paraphrases, economies, catechisms, creeds, confessions, and whole bodies of new tangled divinity, &c. Sometimes it appears in the shape of a pamphlet, or tract of ten pages, and anon in a folio of a thousand, and in every intermediate magnitude. But, perhaps, the most astonishing fact in its astonishing history, is, that it should, however little impregnated with divine truth, or however much crammed with human falsehood, nonsense, and reverie, be termed by its inventors and patrons, God's Word and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and be almost universally preferred to that Word and Gospel by a deluded, credulous, unthinking multitude, who greedily devour the pernicious fiction, and defend it with all the fury of an excited bigot.
After this general view of the nature, origin, tendency, and effects of these two instruments of religious instruction, we proceed to inquire more particularly whether that provided and sent us by God, and just as he has sent it, or that fabricated by men, and made up of the materials just mentioned, be best entitled to our confidence and employment.
First, then, God's instrument of instruction is the only one that can be relied on as perfectly fit for its purpose. In it we are sure that there is no deficiency to be found. Its order, its connexion, its diction, its quantity, its perspicuity, are all the work of an unerring God, and therefore must be the fittest for its intended purpose possible. Its declarations are all true, whether yet accomplished or unaccomplished. Its declarations are all clear, just, and beneficient. Its motives are the most interesting and powerful that the boundless wisdom of God could make them. Its councils, admonitions, reproofs, and threatenings, are full of wisdom, utility, and kindness; and its examples and histories are peculiarly impressive and instructive. In short, like its Divine Author, it is in all respects perfect, and therefore no change can possibly be made on it without destroying, in proportion to the magnitude of that change, its fitness to accomplish its most benevolent and important purpose - to enlighten the mind, regenerate the heart, and rectify the external conduct of mankind.
2. God's instrument of instruction is alone safe. When we resort to any human composition, written or spoken, for religious information, we are in constant and imminent danger of imbibing more or less of that soul-destroying error from which no human production is exempt. But when we consult God's word, we are absolutely certain that we can meet with nothing dangerous there - nothing to mislead or deceive us - nothing untrue - no insidious mixture of truth and falsehood - nothing pregnant with evil tendency - no mortal poison blended with our spiritual food.
3. God’s instrument of instruction is alone authorized. For the employment of any other we have neither precedent nor command within the Book of God. During the patriarchal ages we hear of no uninspired teachers, nor means of religious instruction but the inspired declaration of an unerring and omniscient God. During the Mosaic Institution, before its gross corruption after the Captivity, God employed none but his own inspired teachers, nor means of religious information but his own inspired word. The Prophets who addressed the people in the name of Jehovah, delivered his messages in the very words in which they were communicated to them by the inspiring Spirit; and the Priests and Levites who were constituted the national instructers in conformity to God's express command, (see Deut. 31:11-28) read for their instruction the written laws in the hearing of all Israel. Josiah pursues the same prescribed mode of instruction, (2 Kings, 33:3) and Ezra follows in his steps, (Nehem. 8:3-8) translating the original Hebrew, which few of his hearers understood, into Chaldee, which, from their long residence at Babylon, had become in a manner their vernacular tongue; and we find the same mode of instruction still in use among the Jews, and among Christians even in the time of Christ and his Apostles, (Acts 15:21; 13:15; Ephes. 3:4; Col. 4:16; 1 Thes. 5:27; Rev. 1:3) although after the Captivity uninspired men had arrogated to themselves the honour, functions, and authority of God's inspired instructors, and employed their own crude, pernicious, and unauthorized institutions and notions for the edification of the people, a fatal innovation to the Jewish nation; for their uninspired teachers, presuming to comment on and explain the passages of scripture that related to the Messiah's person, character, and kingdom, mistook their meaning, deceived and misled the ignorant multitude, and by inducing them to form false notions of his character and office, led them to reject him when he appeared among them. (From this awful fact let commentators, expositors, explainers - in short, intermeddlers with God's word, of every name, receive warning, and learn modesty and wisdom.) Nor under his new institution did God entrust the religious instruction of his perishing creatures to any but men rendered infallible by the gifts of the Spirit, till he had caused an inspired system of religious information to be committed to writing, and so rendered permanent, uniform, and transmissible to all parts of the world and to all generations of men - a devise by which, as we shall soon see, the continuance of immediately inspired instructors became unnecessary. As, then, we have no precedent to authorize us to employ any other instrument of religious instruction than that which God has himself directly furnished us - so we have no command. He whom God commissions to teach speaks or relates God’s own words, not man’s - John 3:34; and men are everywhere commanded to read, meditate, and search the scriptures, hear what the Spirit says to them, and earnestly desire the unadulterated milk of God's word; but nowhere, to the best of my knowledge, are they commanded to listen to the speeches or read the writings of uninspired mortals, in order to gain religious knowledge. This seems to be entirely a human invention, and a most dangerous one.
4. God's instrument secures to inspired instruction both perpetuity and uniformity. By this glorious contrivance the instruction offered to God's ignorant creatures, is, in respect of certainty and substance, the same in all places, and at all times. To past generations it has spoken the same inspired language and presented the same inspired ideas which it addresses and exhibits to the present, race, and to future generations it will present no variation. Like its unchangeable Author it is the same to-day, yesterday, and forever. Here the never-changing nature of God shines forth in all its unclouded majesty. How unlike that discordant and ever-changing instrument of religious instruction invented by men!
5. It displays the uniformity of the divine conduct towards all Gods rational offspring. The great Common Parent has not allowed to one portion of his human family all the certainty of inspired instruction, and the advantages of inspired instructors, and to another all the uncertainty of uninspired harangues and all the danger which necessarily attends the employment of uninspired teachers. No, he feeds the first rational production of his wisdom, power, and goodness upon earth, with the same inspired intellectual food which he provides, prepares, and presents to the last men of the race, and to every intermediate member. He commands not his children to sit down at tables so different, and partake of nourishment so very dissimilar as inspired and uninspired instruction is. But with the same inspired knowledge of himself, the only true God, and of Jesus Christ, his glorious commissioner to our guilty and ruined race, he uniformly offers to feed and feast, delight and ravish, every member of it. In his instrument of instruction are no different, conflicting, confounding, separating, and dividing creeds, confessions, formulas of worship, or terms of communion; no different catechisms, sermons, commentaries, expeditions, or blotted bodies of human divinity; no different marks externally imposed on Christ's property, nor different elements required in the constitution of a Christian. These motley, incongruous, discordant inventions are left to decorate and commend the instrument of religious instruction contrived by bungling man.
6. It qualifies, or rather puts in the power of the saints to execute the office and discharge the great and difficult trust devolved on them. Danl. 7:18,22; Eph. 4:12; 2 Tim. 2:2. From these passages it is manifest that the saints are charged with the work or labour called the service and the building up of the body of Christ, which language figuratively denotes the further instruction of converts already made, and the augmentation of their number. Now who are the saints and faithful men on whom this great, important, and honourable labour is devolved? Are they not the human beings who, through the operation of the Divine Word and Spirit in their minds, have set themselves apart to the service of their God? And is not every believer equally a member of the blessed society - equally entitled to all its privileges, and equally bound to perform all its Duties? Has Christ made odious and offensive distinctions among his friends? Is not each dear and acceptable to him in proportion to the zeal which he manifests in his Master's service? Is Christ's family the theatre of senseless and unjust favouritism? Has he conferred any privilege or imposed any duty on one believer, which he has not conferred and imposed on all? I speak now of ordinary believers, not of inspired or gifted men, whose offices were arranged according to the gifts which they had received, and by which they were immediately and infallibly qualified for the performance of the several extraordinary functions which the prosperity of the Christian community in its infant state required. But if the privileges and duties of uninspired believers be the same in kind, then it follows as a necessary consequence that a share, proportioned to ability and opportunity, of the work called the service and the edification of the body of Christ, is assigned to every believer; and every believer is of course not only authorized, but bound to perform it, whether the work to be done be of a private or of a public nature. But as God never imposes a duty or requires an action to be done without furnishing the means for its performance, he must have provided every one of his agents, or faithful men, with an instrument perfectly sufficient to enable him to perform the work assigned him; and this instrument we discover to be God’s word, just as he has arranged and worded it, without any human addition, diminution, or alteration whatever. By the use of this inspired instrument, every saint or believer is enabled to become, not only a teacher, but in reality a teacher of that which is inspired, just as certainly as Paul or Peter ever was; inasmuch as in his attempts to instruct, he employs the very same inspired words or doctrine which the Apostles employed in theirs. Yes, every person who, in his attempts to impart religious information to his fellow creatures, interlards no words, no notions of his own, but employs the inspired words of sacred writ alone for the accomplishment of his object, is, to all intents and purposes, a teacher of this sort; but no sooner does he abandon the words of sacred writ, or intermix them with words and thoughts of his own, than he forfeits all claim to so high, distinguished, and honourable an appellation, and sinks into a fallacious babbler, in whose motley jumble of divine and human notions no confidence can, with safety, be reposed.
PHILALETHES.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
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MILTON'S TREATISE ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
. - "If, then, the scriptures be in themselves so perspicuous, and sufficient of themselves to make men wise unto salvation through faith, and that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, through what infatuation is it that even Protestant divines persist in darkening the most momentous truths of religion by intricate comments, on the plea that such an explanation is necessary; stringing together all the useless technicalities and empty distinctions of scholastic barbarism, for the purpose of elucidating those scriptures which they are continually extolling as models of plainness? as if scripture, which possesses in itself the clearest light, and is sufficient for its own explanation, especially in matters of faith and holiness, required to have the simplicity of its divine truths more fully developed, and placed in a more distinct view, by illustrations drawn from the abstract of human sciences, falsely so called."