A law should not want its reasons; but yet it is the law, and not those reasons, that properly creates the obligation: for the law would oblige, though we knew nothing of the reasons on which it is founded." 1 And it is only in certain conjunctions, when moral and positive duties are enjoined by the same authority, or appear to be so, and it is impossible to obey both, that the precept of which we do see the reasons may be preferred to one of which we do not see them. But such cases are exceedingly rare; and when it appears that obedience to a positive precept is not inconsistent with our moral duty, the circumstance of its being a positive duty in no respect removes our obligation to obey it. Due attention to this consideration will not only preserve men from a presumptuous disregard of any institution of divine appointment, but also relieve them from any fear either of attaching too much importance to such institutions to the neglect of moral duties, or of regarding them merely as means to an end. For positive as well as moral duties have an internal as well as an external character, and to render them of any avail, require an inward as well as an outward obedience. They can only interfere with moral duties, and in fact only then cease, in a certain sense, to be moral, when they require an obedience which violates the law written on our hearts and is not proportioned to its right. Nor must we refuse obedience to a positive duty or institution, on the ground that we have not demonstrative evidence of its obligation, if the evidence that we have be such as the subject is alone capable of, and as is consistent with the nature of faith. Such evidence is sufficient to place us under an obligation to receive the duty or institution as authoritative; nor ought we to be deterred from yielding to it by fear of its abuse, for this would be fatal to all obedience, and moreover we may be assured that the abuse will always be controlled by a certain notoriety of fact which eventually discovers itself to the common sense of mankind, and will unite them against it. Such evidence reason approves of as sufficient and conclusive, and thus leads us to that faith by which we receive the doctrines and institutions made known in revelation as proceeding from God. It pronounces that the revelation ought to be received, and as a necessary consequence thereof, directs us to give up ourselves to the guidance of it, and so, as expressed by Jeremy Taylor, we enter by our reason into the greatest mysteriousness of our religion, and the deepest articles of faith. Although reason is not to prescribe the matter I Waterland's Works, vol. iv., p. 116. 2 Butler's Analogy of Religion, part 2, c. 1. E of our belief, yet it is a proper judge whether such or such a matter is revealed or no; whether the matter of revelation contradict or not the natural notions which reason gives us of the being and attributes of God, and of the essential difference between good and evil. It enables us to distinguish the fundamental truths of revelation, to trace the mutual relation of those truths, and the duties and obligations therein arising. Such is the office of reason as regards revelation. § 2. Belief in Jesus Christ as our Mediator the fundamental principle of Revelation. Assured by reason that the evidences are such as to prove a revelation to have come from God, and thus led to receive it with humble faith, we have further recourse to reason to assist us in searching the Scriptures, in order to see what the scheme of revelation, or in other words, the Christian system, really is. The result of such an investigation may be briefly summed up in such extracts as the following: "Christianity," says Bishop Butler, "is not only an external institution of natural religion, and a new promulgation of God's general providence as righteous governor and judge of the world, but also contains a revelation of a particular dispensation of Providence carried on by His Son and Spirit, for the recovery and salvation of mankind, who are represented in Scripture to be in a state of ruin. And in consequence of this revelation being made we are commanded to be baptized,' not only 'in the name of the Father,' but also 'of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;' and other obligations of duty unknown before, to the Son and the Holy Ghost, are revealed. Now the importance of these duties may be judged of by observing that they arise, not from positive command merely, but also from the offices, which appear from Scripture to belong to those divine persons in the Gospel dispensation; or from the relations which, we are there informed, they stand in to us. By reason is revealed the relation, which God the Father stands in to us (e.g., that He is the governor of the world). Hence arises the obligation of duty which we are under to Him. In Scripture are revealed the relations which the Son and Holy Spirit stand in to us (e.g., that Christ is the mediator between God and man, and the Holy Ghost our guide and sanctifier). Hence arise the obligations of duty which we are under to them." 1 Butler's Analogy of Religion, part 2, chap. i. See also Barrow's Sermons on the Creed, Sermon xvii., ad init., and Sermon xx., in fin. 1 2 The fundamental principle of revelation is thus fully and clearly stated by the author of the Christian Life:-"As in all arts and sciences there are some first principles upon which the whole scheme of their doctrines depends, and the denial of which, like the removing the foundations of a building, dissolves and ruins the whole structure, so in Christianity there are some principles so fundamental to it, as that the removal of them shakes the whole scheme of it in pieces. Now the great fundamental, as the Apostle tells us, is Jesus Christ, For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ;' so that by removing the belief of Jesus Christ from the Christian religion, we necessarily sink and dissolve the whole structure; and accordingly the Apostle pronounces those men apostates from Christianity who hold not the head,' which is Jesus Christ. But yet the bare belief of Jesus Christ, or of this proposition that Christ came from God, and was his Messias and Anointed, is not all that is essential to the Christian faith, which includes not only His mission from God, but also the end of His mission, namely, to be a mediator between God and man. For Christianity, as it is distinguished from natural religion, is nothing but the religion of the mediator, as consisting solely of the doctrine of the mediator, together with the duties thence arising; so that whatsoever proposition the mediatorship of Christ necessarily and immediately implies, it is a fundamental article of the Christian faith, which no man can deny without innovating the whole religion and turning it into a quite different doctrine from true and real Christianity. For this proposition, that Christ came from God to mediate between God and man, includes the whole doctrine of the Gospel; and therefore whatsoever proposition is either so necessarily included in it, or so inseparably conjoined with it, as that the denial of it doth by necessary and immediate consequence overthrow the mediation of our Saviour, it must be essential to the Christian faith; and the more necessary connection there is between any particular doctrine, and this allcomprehending doctrine of the mediation, the more necessary and essential it is to the Christian faith." Again the same writer observes:-"The great principle of 11 Cor. iii. 11. 2 Col. ii. 19. 3 See Scott's Christian Life, pp. 303, 304, third edition; see also Waterland's Discourse of Fundamentals, Works, vol. v., p. 71, &c., especially p. 79, where reference is made to Sherlock and Stillingfleet, who evidently both followed Scott in the above extract. See also Lord's Bacon's Advancement of Learning, § 25, of Theology, § 6, for reference to fundamentals. Christian religion, strictly so called, as it is distinguished from the religion of nature, is properly the religion of the mediator, and the duties which result from those doctrines, and owe their obligations to them." So also a more modern author writes:-"The mediation of the God-Man-that 'God' is 'in Christ reconciling to Himself the world' brings in the whole system of the church, its services, its servants, its sacramental ordinances, as being that peculiar agency, whereby the line of the new Adam supersedes the line of the old one." In revelation we have a distinct recognition of our Lord, as having come from God to mediate between God and man. His solemn inauguration to the mediatorial office is therein recorded to have taken place after His baptism by John the Baptist (himself a Levite, related to Aaron), and to have been attested by the voice of God. As He went up out of the water the heavens were opened unto Him, and the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and lighted upon him: "And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."* The like heavenly voice was heard some time after at the transfiguration, with the addition, "Hear ye Him." So the Gospels report it; and thus St. Peter himself, a more immediate witness and attendant there, says:-"He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with Him in the holy mount." As man, He did not commissioned so to do. enter upon His office until He was visibly According to the declaration of St. Paul, "No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made a high-priest; but He that said unto Him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten Thee. As He saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec." The particular offices which the respective states of God and man require of Him that mediates between them is to teach and rule for God, and to expiate and atone for men. Accordingly the nature of Christ's mediatorial office, as revealed in Scripture, is usually treated under the three heads of Prophet, Priest, and Scott's Christian Life, vol. iii., p. i. 2 Archdeacon Wilberforce on Baptism, p. 301. 31 Matt. iii. 17. 4 1 Matt. xvii. 5. 5 2 Peter i. 17, 18. 6 Heb. v. 4-6. King. By commission from God the Father He came down into the world, where the first mediatorial office He undertook was that of a prophet, in the discharge. whereof He made a full revelation of God's mind and will to the world. And having performed this, at least so far as was needful in His own person, He next entered upon the first part of His priestly office, which was to make an expiation for the sins of the world by the sacrifice of Himself; and this being finished, He a little after proceeded to the other part of His priestly office, which was to make an oblation of His sacrifice to God in heaven, and in virtue thereof to advocate for us, and solicit our pardon and admission into the divine favour; upon the performance of all which, and as a glorious reward of it, He was admitted to sit down at the right hand of God in the throne of regal authority next and immediately to the Father."1 And this was our Mediator's solemn entry upon His regal office, as to the execution of that full dominion which was due unto Him. Wherefore Christ, after His death and resurrection, saith, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." And this obedience and submission was and is due unto Him, because God "raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalities, and powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under His feet; and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church." " "The regal power of Christ, as a branch of the to continue till all those enemies be subdued. reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet." see not yet all things put under Him.' 9995 mediatorship, is For He must 'But now we It was over the Gentile world particularly that He received power and dominion upon His ascension into heaven; He was King of the Jews long before, but upon His ascension He was invested with a right of dominion over the Gentiles, too, and thereupon became the universal Lord and Monarch of the world under the most high God and Father of all things." 196 His kingdom was His Church. For "the Church is constantly represented in Holy Scripture as a kingdom." It is emphatically 1 Scott, vol. iii, p. 100. 2 Matt. xxviii. 18. Ephes. i. 20-22. See Pearson on the Creed, art. vi., vol. i., pp. 420, 421. 4 1 Cor. xv. 25. 5 Heb. ii. 8. See Pearson on the Creed, art. vi., vol. i., p. 246. |