LECTURES ON THE SHORTER CATECHISM OF THE WESTMINSTER AS

TO YOUTH.

LECTURE XIV.

(Continued from p. 196.) It only remains to consider the penalty of the covenant of works it was the pain of death. There is every reason, both from observation and scripture, to believe that the penalty threatened to Adam for disobedience, was death, in all the various and fearful significations of that word-death temporal, spiritual, and eternal. There is indeed scarcely any thing, against which men of corrupt minds have more vehemently contended, than against this. But the mournful fact is ascertained and confirmed by the whole current of scripture, and by the actual state of the world. Do not men die? Who denies it? Are not men, without exception, depraved? Every day's experience proves it. Where is the human being so foolish and abandoned, as to say that he never sinned, in thought, word, or deed? Should you hear such a declaration, you would only consider it as proving the truth which it denied. And is not eternal punishment threatened to sinners? There is really nothing more clearly declared in holy scripture. Now, was any part of all this incident to man, before the fall? No, certainly. He was immortal; he was sinless; VOL. III. Ch. Adv.

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is he depraved? Why is he an heir of wrath? Beyond all, peradventure, his apostacy from God is the cause of all. This it was that changed the primitive state of man, and changed it totally. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

Some have supposed that there was some natural quality in the forbidden fruit, which changed the state of man's body, so that he became mortal. This is certainly a mere conjecture-There is not the least evidence from scripture, that the forbidden fruit possessed any inherent deleterious properties. On the contrary, as already intimated, it rather appears that the fruit was indifferent, till it was prohibited. The worst effect was, that man's moral powers were changed and prostrated; and this could not be effected, by the mere natural operation of any material substance.

On the whole, the threatened penalty was

(1) Temporal death:-the body should die and return to dust. (2) Spiritual death:-the loss of his original righteousness and the favour of God. (3) Eternal death:-the exclusion of soul and body from God and happiness for ever. Such was the awful penalty threatened for sin:

And however dreadful it may appear, my young friends, it certainly was a just and equitable penalty. You may know it was so, from the character of the infinitely good Being who denounced it. In one respect, without controversy, sin is an infinite evil-It is objectively infinite. That is, it is an offence committed against an infinite God;-infinite in his being, in his goodness, and in his worthiness to be perfectly loved and obeyed. It is not for those who have committed this awful and malignant offence, to undertake to decide how much punishment it deserves. They are parties, most deeply interested in endeavouring to mitigate their offence, and its penal consequences. Their very offence, too-sin itself has blinded their minds, and perverted their judgment. God, who cannot be deceived, and who is infinitely good and merciful, as well as wise and just, has decided that "the wages of sin is death"-death in all the varieties of its form and terror.

Let me close this lecture, therefore, with cautioning and exhorting you, not to be seduced by any speculations or reasonings, which go to diminish the evil of sin. It was observed to me early in life, by a very profound and sagacious divine, that if I would make it an object of particular attention, I should find, that almost all important errors in religion, might be distinctly traced to a light sense of the evil of sin. A careful observation, I can truly say, has fully confirmed, and deeply impressed on my mind, the justice of this remark. Take an illustration, in a single instance-Say that sin is an inconsiderable, or venial evil:-then sorrow or repentance for it will, with a good and compassionate Being, insure its pardon; it needs no atonement; and needing to make no atonement, it was not necessary that the Saviour should be more than a creature--perhaps of an angelick nature; perhaps only human. He needed only to give instruction, and to set a good example, and he did no

more. On the other hand, say that sin is an evil of inconceivable malignity:-then sorrow for it, will not, of itself, insure its pardon;-it may require-it did require-an atonement of infinite efficacy. The Saviour, who made this atonement, and who alone could make it, must have been a Being of infinite dignity; must have been truly a divine person. He gave instruction, indeed, and set a perfect example; but the chief object of his mission was, to make expiation for the sins of the world.

Thus you perceive, that Socinianism, on the one hand, and the orthodox faith on the other, are alike traceable to the views which the parties, severally, entertain of the evil of sin. I have made the statement to show you, that the opinions we form on this important point, are radical-are fundamental. Sin is a moral disease. Think little, or lightly, of the disease, and you will see no need of a powerful remedy, or an infinitely skilful physician. But conceive the disease to be infinitely malignant, and you will see that its remedy, and its physician, must both be divinethat nothing less can be of any avail. We know that our system is reproached with being awful, and gloomy, and derogatory to human nature. Part of this charge is equivocally true. We do hold that our nature is awfully degraded and debased by sin:-we do hold that all who are in their natural state, are in a state of condemnation and wrath. But we also hold, that God, in his infinite mercy, has provided a way of complete relief and restorationyea, a way in which man may be restored, to a better state than he lost by the fall. We admit the disease, and we magnify the remedy-Our opponents deny, or diminish the disease, and reject the remedy. We believe that the whole current of scripture, and the undeniable state and history of the world, in all ages, do incontestably demonstrate that our race is in a state of sin, of extreme degradation, and wretchedness, and ruin. We verily believe that

maintained that truth alone is of an immortal and divine nature-they have said the wisdom which is from above is FIRST pure, then peaceableand, we never will sacrifice the interests of truth to those of charity. The advocates of Christian love, on the other hand, have maintained that truth may be important, but love is more so;-that names, and sects, and parties must fall;-and that we must not be too nice and scrupulous in our researches, even into the will of God, but shut our eyes to little matters for the sake of greater. Thus one party has charged the other with laxness and the other has retorted in outcries of bigotry. On the one side are to be seen the most conscientious and devoted worshippers of the divine wisdom-on the other, the most ardent devotees of charity, and the most popular patrons of liberality and benevolence. But surely the two sides should advance a little nearer to each other, as both are convinced, that there will be an eternal union between the two celestial graces they respectively admire. There is no contrariety or repugnancy between the heat and the light of the sunbeam-they are both qualities or modes of the same heavenborn element: the glorious sun while he shines, and spreads his own warmth, calls forth to life and being the otherwise sleeping and latent embryos of nature. The light of truth gives direction and accuracy to Christian love, and the warmth of love gives fruitfulness to the tree of knowledge. Truth guides love, and love attires truth in its divinest lustre. Without love, truth would be destitute of efficiency, and without truth as its rule, charity would cease to be a virtue. "The light of religion is not that of the moon, light without heat; but neither is its warmth that of the stove, warmth without light. Religion is the sun, whose warmth indeed swells, and stirs, and actuates the life of nature; but who at the same time beholds all the growth of life with a mastereye, makes all objects glorious on

which he looks, and by that glory visible to all others." The highest perfection of the Christian character, consists not in the neglect of the smallest portions of divine light, but in the apportionment to each of its due measure of importance-and this is to be done only by a constant and careful scrutiny of the divine rule. Every man ought not only to have a divine warrant for all he believes and practises; but he ought to be equally conscientious in his efforts to know all that is revealed. It is truth alone that can give stability to his heart's emotions, and arm his charity with the genuine heroism of Christ. The triumphs of love are great, but those of truth are equal. If love makes the philanthropist, yet truth makes the martyr-and the greatest exemplar of our nature combined the two in his one great act at Calvary; and who can say which appeared the more illustrious-the divine philanthropist or the human martyr? If the greatest and the best of beings, to whose perfection the Christian hopes to be assimilated, is-styled "LOVE," in many an emphatic sense; yet let it never be overlooked, that the same high authority denominates him the "FATHER OF LIGHTS," and bis Son, "THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD." Would we become his in the highest and most appropriate sense of that term, we must become "Children of Light." I cannot conceive of any service rendered to the cause of Christian charity in our own day higher or more praiseworthy than a display of the perfect harmony of charity and truth an illustration of the principle which I fear is stronger in my own ideal than I have been able to make it in these brief hints;-that there not only is no discrepancy in the cultivation of charity, and the pursuit of truth; but that the genuine fruit of the latter is, and must, from a necessity of nature, always be an approximation in the other to the likeness of the divine nature. God created man at first in his own image, and the new creation of the

Gospel, if it is less the work of an instant-is not a less perfect representation of the glory and goodness of God. "Truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth, that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it; the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it; and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it; is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God in the works of the days, was the light of sense; the last was the light of reason; and his Sabbathwork, ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First, he breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos; then he breathed light into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth." (LORD BACON.) I could exceedingly wish, Mr. Editor, that some of your correspondents would undertake, either through the medium of your pages, or in some other way, to call the attention of the Christian church to the joint claims of charity and truth, for as the minds of many are affected at present, I fear, what we are gaining on the one side, we are losing on the other. If we have widened the compass of our princi ples, yet we have taken from their depth. And while we have studied extension, we have overlooked solidity. I will yield to no man in devout admiration of Christian charity. I hope I can, not merely in word, but in substantial friendship and Christian communion, accept all whom God has accepted; but at the same time, I should feel it the bitterest satire upon myself to be constrained to acknowledge, that this made me indifferent to the little matters of the revealed will of God. To me, it appears no charity to love those who differ nothing from us, or between whom and ourselves the differences may be veiled or treated as worthless: but that is charity, to love wherever that same love of

truth and truth's Author appears, as we feel in ourselves, though it may be conjoined with opinions and practices diverse from our own-to extend this as far as we are sure God extends his love, notwithstanding all the various shades and hues of his people's characters, views, and practices-and to love as he loves, not in word only, but in deed and in truth. The greatest actions are but the greatest truths, and the greatest perfection is that of the divine nature, where love and truth are eternally united. "Think oft of heaven, and what sort of a thing a saint will be in glory, when he shall shine as the stars, and be equal to the angels; and then you will quickly see cause to love them." (BAXTER.) I hope these few hints will invite an abler pen to the subject, and remain,

Your's, &c.

FRATERNUS AMEN.

FOR THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.

RELIQUIE EVANGELICE.
No. VI.

With what propriety is the salvation of sinners denominated a work of grace! It was the boundless and inconceivable grace of God, which moved him to devise the plan of salvation for a race of apostate rebels; and to give the Son of his love to execute this plan. Boundless and inconceivable, also, were the grace and compassion of the Saviour in undertaking and executing this plan; knowing beforehand, as he perfectly did, at what an amazing expense it was to be done. Then, likewise, it is pure, free, and sovereign grace, that inclines the heart of the sinner to accept of Christ and his benefits, as they are offered in the gospel.-Without this grace, no individual of the human family would ever receive and rest on Christ for salvation; even after the full provision and free offers that are made, and all the exhortations and persuasions which are urged, in the preaching of the gospel.

When we observe, moreover, how divine grace changes the hearts of