in the present state. My proper business is to confess His wisdom, goodness, and love, and not to dispute in ignorance and pride. A cavilling spirit is an unsubmissive spirit, struggling in its haughtiness, against the highest authority, to its own confusion and ruin. 20. I might give an idea of Revelation by saying, that it is redeeming power and love put forth by and through a peculiar Mediation. There is one, and only one, Mediator, who unites in Himself both Godhead and Manhood: and through this Mediator mercy and grace, light, life, and power, yea, all spiritual blessings, flow to believing man. I might, therefore, say, that the great and essential idea is Mediation; followed up by Intercession; which may be said to be, Perpetuated Mediation. 21. In Revelation man is abased; but it is in order that he may be exalted. To him belong sin and guilt, weakness and blindness, slavery and wretchedness, poverty and misery. He is a debtor, and he has nothing to pay. Salvation is of grace; the counsel of God, the gift of God, and the work of God. Nevertheless, we bid man glory-not in himself, but in Him who is the Author of all his blessings. 22. In Revelation is God glorified; because all His attributes are manifested in it. It could not be rightly said, that God was glorified if He manifested mercy without justice, or justice without mercy. He is not one perfection only; but all perfections meet together in Him, and form His perfection: and this perfection is manifested in Revelation: and thus He is glorified in it. 23. It may be said, that we leave no sphere for the exertions and activity of man. But this is a mistake: for we call upon all men to consult their reason, and to act as reason requires: further, we call upon all men to pray for divine grace, and to improve the given grace by holy and righteous living. In a word, we give to man a full scope for the exercise of all his powers in seeking the divine grace, and afterwards in seeking its enlargement and then in producing its proper fruits. Revelation does not allow man to be proud and arrogant; but it does not allow him to be indolent and inactive. It treats him as a guilty, sinful, lost creature; but it also treats him as a rational, intelligent, and accountable creature. 24. I thus meditate on Revelation. "Reason high Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, I might but I will not torment myself with difficulties, from which no religion is free: I will not be offended at mysteries; for what is free from mystery? And will there be no mystery in a more exalted state of being? If I madly cavil at any thing in Revelation, why should I not complete my folly and profanity by cavilling at many arrangements in the constitution of the physical world? 25. I thus meditate on Revelation, and the more I study it, the more I see of its excellence. I find in it a surpassing glory with regard to God; and it unfolds to me my own nature and condition: it solves those problems and answers those questions which I am most interested to know. Here I have truth, consolation, life, and peace. How lovely is the sun of truth in the kingdom of grace! How bright will it be in the kingdom of glory! Mists, clouds, and shadows, more or less dense, are here; but they will soon be dissolved and scattered, and that for ever. CHAPTER VI. THE CHURCH. 1. What do I understand by the word Church? First, All persons who receive Revelation, or profess Christianity: these form the visible Church.-Secondly, All true and living believers in Christ, without exception: these form the invisible Church. -Thirdly, We use the word Church to describe the different bodies into which the universal Church is divided; as the Greek Church, the Lutheran Church, &c.-Fourthly, We call a consecrated building a Church.-Fifthly, Some persons form a peculiar idea of the Church as a wonderful and mysterious something, which possesses an inherent efficacy in in its officers, ordinances, and observances. This idea of it has been justly characterized as "first an abstraction, then a personification, afterwards an idol." This last notion of the Church can only be regarded as an illusion, vain and prejudicial. 2. The Church is represented in Scripture as one body: such the invisible Church is; but such the visible Church is not: at least, it is difficult to say how it can be one harmonious body, unless it be one in polity as well as in faith. 3. Disagreement on any point whatever, naturally leads to alienation and division. Uniformity is most desirable; but, men being what they are, is it attainable? 4. I hold that the Church order most agreeable to Scripture, so far as any thing on the subject can be deduced from Scripture, is Episcopal. 4. Scripture illustrated by antiquity is our proper guide in this matter: and it is rash work to set up our own inventions against such authority. As in temporal matters, so in spiritual, there must be laws, rules, polity, regimen, order: and in spiritual matters, (for these only are the subject now in hand, ) that must be the best order which comes nearest to the word of God and to the practice of primitive times. 6. If B may lay down a plan for a Church, why may not C, D, E, &c. do the same? Where will such work end, and what will be its fruits? Can such self-will and confusion be pleasing to God, or beneficial to man? 7. A right Church order being laid down, all schism or division must be viewed as a serious evil. We may learn its character by tracing it to its origin. 8. Man, proud and self-willed, wishes to plan and act for himself. He commends one thing, and blames another. No limits can be put to this; so lawless, restless, and full of vagaries is the human mind, when reason and duty are disregarded, and the reins are given to passion and fancy. where private judgment leads to schism, private But |