One evening, which Mr. Tyrrel happened to spend with us, after Mr.
Stanley had performed the family devotions, Mr. Tyrrel said to him:
"Stanley, I don't much like the prayer you read. It seems, by the great
stress it lays on holiness, to imply that a man has something in his own
power. You did indeed mention the necessity of faith and the power of
grace, but there was too much about making the life holy as if that were
all in all. You seem to be putting us so much upon working and doing
that you leave nothing to do for the Saviour."
"I wish," replied Mr. Stanley, "as I am no deep theologian, that you had
started this objection before Dr. Barlow went away, for I know no man
more able or more willing for serious discussion."
"No," replied Mr. Tyrrel, "I see clearly by some things he dropped in
conversation, as well as by the whole tenor of his sermons, that Barlow
and I should never agree. He means well, but knows little. He sees
something, but feels nothing. More argument than unction. Too much
reasoning, and too little religion; a little light, and no heat. He
seems to me so to 'overload the ship with duties' that it will sink by
the very means he takes to keep it afloat. I thank God my own eyes are
opened, and I at last feel comfortable in my mind."
"Religious comfort," said Mr. Stanley, "is a high attainment. Only it is
incumbent on every Christian to be assured that if he is happy it is on
safe grounds."
"I have taken care of that," replied Mr. Tyrrel. "For some years after I
had quitted my loose habits, I attended occasionally at church, but
found no comfort in it, because I perceived so much was to be _done_
and so much was to be _sacrificed_. But the great doctrines of faith, as
opened to me by Mr. _H--n_, have at last given me peace, and liberty,
and I rest myself without solicitude on the mercy so freely offered in
the gospel. No mistakes or sins of mine can ever make me forfeit the
divine favor."
"Let us hear, however," replied Mr. Stanley, "what the Bible says; for
as that is the only rule by which we shall be judged hereafter, it may
be prudent to be guided by it here. God says by the prophet, 'I will put
my Spirit within you;' but he does this for some purpose, for he says in
the very next words, 'I will cause you to _walk_ in my statutes.' And
for fear this should not plainly enough inculcate holiness, he goes on
to say, 'And ye shall _keep_ my judgments, and _do_ them.' Show me, if
you can, a single promise made to an impenitent, unholy man."
"Why," said Tyrrel, "is not the mercy of God promised to the wicked in
every part of the Bible?"
"It is," said Mr. Stanley; "but that is, 'if he forsake his way.'"
"This fondness for works is, in my opinion, nothing else but setting
aside the free grace of God."
"Quite the contrary: so far from setting it aside, it is the way to
glorify it, for it is by that grace alone that we are enabled to perform
right actions. For myself, I always find it difficult to answer persons,
who, in flying to one extreme, think they can not too much degrade the
opposite. If we give faith its due prominence, the mere moralist
reprobates our principles as if we were depreciating works. If we
magnify the beauty of holiness, the advocate for exclusive faith accuses
us of being its enemy."
"For my own part, I am persuaded that unqualified trust is the only
ground of safety."
"He who can not lie has indeed told us so. But trust in God is humble
dependence, not presumptuous security. The Bible does not say, trust in
the Lord and sin on, but 'trust in the Lord, and be doing good.' We are
elsewhere told that, 'God works in us to will and to do.' There is no
getting over that little word to _do_. I suppose you allow the necessity
of prayer."
"Certainly I do."
"But there are conditions to our prayers also: 'if I regard iniquity in
my heart the Lord will not hear me.'"
"The Scriptures affirm that we must live on the promises."
"They are indeed the very aliment of the Christian life. But what are
the promises?"
"Free pardon and eternal life to them that are in Christ Jesus."
"True. But who are they that _are_ in Christ Jesus? The apostle tells
us, 'they who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.' Besides,
is not holiness promised as well as pardon? 'A new heart will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you.'"
"Surely, Stanley, you abuse the grace of the gospel, by pretending that
man is saved by his own righteousness."
"No, no, my dear Tyrrel, it is you who abuse it, by making God's mercy
set aside man's duty. Allow me to observe, that he who exalts the grace
of God with a view to indulge himself in any sin, is deceiving no one
but himself; and he who trusts in Christ, with a view to spare himself
the necessity of watchfulness, humility, and self-denial, that man
depends upon Christ for more than he has promised."
"Well, Mr. Stanley, it appears to me that you want to patch up a
convenient accommodating religion, as if Christ were to do a little, and
we were to do the rest; a sort of partnership salvation, and in which
man has the larger share."
"This, I fear, is indeed the dangerous creed of many worldly Christians.
No; God may be said to do all, because he gives power for all, strength
for all, grace for all. But this grace, is a principle, a vital energy,
a life-giving spirit to quicken us, to make us abound in holiness. He
does not make his grace abound, that we may securely live in sin, but
that we may subdue it, renounce it, live above it."
"When our Saviour was upon earth, there was no one quality he so
uniformly commended in those who came to be healed by him, as faith."
"It is most true. But we do not meet in any of them with such a
presumptuous faith as led them to rush into diseases on purpose to show
their confidence in his power of healing them, neither are we to
'continue in sin that grace may abound.' You can not but observe, that
the faith of the persons you mention was always accompanied with an
earnest desire to get rid of their diseases. And it is worth remarking,
that to the words, 'thy faith has made thee whole,' is added, '_sin no
more_, lest a worse thing come unto thee.'"
"You can not persuade me that any neglect, or even sin of mine, can make
void the covenant of God."
"Nothing can set side the covenant of God, which is sure and steadfast.
But as for him who lives in the allowed practice of any sin, it is clear
that he has no part nor lot in the matter. It is clear that he is not
one of those whom God has taken into the covenant. That God will keep
his word is most certain, but such a one does not appear to be the
person to whom that word is addressed. God as much designed that you
should apply the faculties, the power, and the will he has given you, to
a life of holiness, as he meant when he gave you legs, hands, and eyes,
that you should walk, work, and see. His grace is not intended to
exclude the use of his gifts but to perfect, exalt, and ennoble them."
"I can produce a multitude of texts to prove that Christ has done every
thing, and of course has left nothing for me to do, but to believe on
him."
"Let us take the general tenor and spirit of Scripture, and neither pack
single texts together, detached from the connection in which they stand;
nor be so unreasonable as to squeeze all the doctrines of Christianity
out of every single text, which perhaps, was only meant to inculcate one
individual principle. How consistently are the great leading doctrines
of faith and holiness balanced and reconciled in every part of the
Bible! If ever I have been in danger of resting on a mere dead faith, by
one of those texts on which you exclusively build; in the very next
sentence, perhaps, I am aroused to active virtue, by some lively
example, or absolute command. If again I am ever in danger, as you say,
of sinking the ship with my proud duties, the next passage calls me to
order, by some powerful injunction to renounce all confidence in my
miserable defective virtues, and to put my whole trust in Christ. By
thus assimilating the Creed with the Commandment, the Bible becomes its
own interpreter, and perfect harmony is the result. Allow me also to
remark, that this invariable rule of exhibiting the doctrines of
Scripture in their due proportion, order, and relative connection, is
one of the leading excellences in the service of our Church. While no
doctrine is neglected or undervalued, none is disproportionately
magnified, at the expense of the others. There is neither omission,
undue prominence, nor exaggeration. There is complete symmetry and
correct proportion."
"I assert that we are free by the gospel from the condemnation of the
law."
"But where do you find that we are free from the obligation of obeying
it? For my own part, I do not combine the doctrine of grace, to which I
most cordially assent, with any doctrine which practically denies the
voluntary agency of man. Nor, in my adoption of the belief of that
voluntary agency, do I, in the remotest degree, presume to abridge the
sovereignty of God. I adopt none of the metaphysical subtilties, none of
the abstruse niceties of any party, nor do I imitate either in the
reprobation of the other, firmly believing that heaven is peopled with
the humble and the conscientious out of every class of real Christians."
"Still I insist that if Christ has delivered me from sin, sin can do me
no harm."
"My dear Mr. Tyrrel, if the king of your country were a mighty general,
and had delivered the land from some powerful enemy, would it show your
sense of the obligation, or your allegiance as a subject, if you were to
join the enemy he had defeated? By so doing, though the country might be
saved, you would ruin yourself. Let us not then live in confederacy with
sin, the power of which, indeed, our Redeemer has broken, but both the
power and guilt of which the individual is still at liberty to incur."
"Stanley, I remember when you thought the gospel was all in all."
"I think so still; but I am now, as I was then, for a sober consistent
gospel, a Christianity which must evidence itself by its fruits. The
first words of the apostle after his conversion were, 'Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do?' When he says, 'so run that ye may obtain,' he could
never mean that we could obtain by sitting still, nor would he have
talked of 'laboring _in vain_,' if he meant that we should not labor at
all. We dare not persist in any thing that is wrong, or neglect any
thing that is right, from an erroneous notion that we have such an
interest in Christ as will excuse us from doing the one, or persisting
in the other."
"I fancy you think that a man's salvation depends on the number of good
actions he can muster together."
"No, it is the very spirit of Christianity not to build on this or that
actual work, but sedulously to strive for that temper and those
dispositions which are the seminal principles of all virtues; and where
the heart struggles and prays for the attainment of this state, though
the man should be placed in such circumstances as to be able to do
little to promote the welfare of mankind, or the glory of God, in the
eyes of the world; this very habitual aim and bent of the mind, with
humble sorrow at its low attainments, is in my opinion no slight degree
of obedience.
"But you will allow that the Scriptures affirm that Christ is not only a
sacrifice but a refuge, a consolation, a rest."
"Blessed be God, he is indeed all these. But he is a consolation only to
the heavy laden, a refuge to those alone who forsake sin. The rest he
promises, is not a rest from labor but from evil. It is a rest from the
drudgery of the world, but not from the service of God. It is not
inactivity, but quietness of spirit; not sloth, but peace. He draws men
indeed from slavery to freedom, but not a freedom to do evil, or to do
nothing. He makes his service easy, but not by lowering the rule of
duty, not by adapting his commands to the corrupt inclinations of our
nature. He communicates his grace, gives fresh and higher motives to
obedience, and imparts peace and comfort, not by any abatement in his
demands, but by this infusion of his own grace, and this communication
of his own Spirit."
"You are a strange fellow. According to you, we can neither be saved by
good works, nor without them."
"Come, Mr. Tyrrel, you are nearer the truth than you intended. We can
not be saved by the merit of our good works, without setting at naught
the merits and death of Christ; and we can not be saved without them,
unless we set at naught God's holiness, and make him a favorer of sin.
Now to this the doctrine of the atonement, properly understood, is most
completely hostile. That this doctrine _favors_ sin, is one of the false
charges which worldly men bring against vital Christianity, because they
do not understand the principle, nor inquire into the grounds, on which
it is adopted."
"Still, I think you limit the grace of God, as if people must be very
good first, in order to deserve it, and then he will come and add his
grace to their goodness. Whereas grace has been most conspicuous in the
most notorious sinners."
"I allow that the grace of God has never manifested itself more
gloriously than in the conversion of notorious sinners. But it is worth
remarking, that all such, with St. Paul at their head, have ever after
been eminently more afraid than other men of falling again into sin;
they have prayed with the greater earnestness to be delivered from the
power of it, and have continued to lament most deeply the remaining
corruption of their hearts."
In the course of the conversation Mr. Tyrrel said, "he should be
inclined to entertain doubts of that man's state who could not give an
accurate account of the time, and the manner, in which he was first
awakened, and who had had no sensible manifestations of the divine
favor."
"I believe," replied Mr. Stanley, "that my notions of the evidence of
being in the favor of God differ materially from yours. If a man feel in
himself a hatred of all sin, without sparing his favorite corruption; if
he rest for salvation on the promise of the gospel alone; if he maintain
in his mind such a sense of the nearness and immeasurable importance of
eternal things, as shall enable him to use temporal things with
moderation, and anticipate their end without dismay; if he delight in
the worship of God, is zealous for his service, making _his_ glory the
end and aim of all his actions; if he labor to fulfill his allotted
duties conscientiously; if he love his fellow-creatures as the children
of the same common Father, and partakers of the same common hope; if he
feel the same compassion for the immortal interests, as for the worldly
distresses of the unfortunate; forgiving others, as he hopes to be
forgiven; if he endeavor according to his measure and ability, to
diminish the vice and misery with which the world abounds, _that_ man
has a solid ground of peace and hope, though he may not have those
sensible evidences which afford triumph and exultation. In the mean
while, the man of a heated imagination, who boasts of mysterious
communications within, is perhaps exhibiting outwardly unfavorable marks
of his real state, and holding out by his low practice discouragements
unfriendly to that religion of which he professes himself a shining
instance.
"The sober Christian is as fully convinced that only he who made the
heart can renew it, as the enthusiast. He is as fully persuaded that his
natural dispositions can not be changed, nor his affections purified but
by the agency of the divine Spirit, as the fanatic. And though he
presume not to limit omnipotence to a sudden or a gradual change, yet he
does not think it necessary to ascertain the day, and the hour, and the
moment, contented to be assured that whereas he was once blind he now
sees. If he does not presume in his own case to fix the _chronology of
conversion_, he is not less certain as to its effects. If he can not
enumerate dates, and recapitulate feelings, he can and does produce such
evidence of his improvement, as virtuous habits, a devout temper, an
humble and charitable spirit, repentance toward God, and faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ; and this gives an evidence less equivocal, as
existing more in the heart than on the lips, and more in the life than
in the discourse. Surely, if a plant be flourishing, the branches
green, and the fruit fair and abundant, we may venture to pronounce
these to be indications of health and vigor, though we can not ascertain
the moment when the seed was sown, or the manner in which it sprung up."
Sir John, who had been an attentive listener, but had not yet spoken a
word, now said, smiling, "Mr. Stanley, you steer most happily between
the two extremes. This exclusive cry of grace in one party of
religionists, which drives the opposite side into as unreasonable a
clamor against it, reminds me of the Queen of Louis Quatorze. When the
Jesuits, who were of the court-party, made so violent an outcry against
the Jasenists, for no reason but because they had more piety than
themselves, her majesty was so fearful of being thought to favor the
oppressed side, that in the excess of her party zeal, she vehemently
exclaimed, 'Oh, fie upon grace! fie upon grace!'"
"Party violence," continued Mr. Stanley, "thinks it can never recede far
enough from the side it opposes!"
"But how then," replied Mr. Tyrrel, "is our religion to be known, except
by our making a profession of truths which the irreligious are either
ignorant of, or oppose?"
"There is," rejoined Mr. Stanley, "as I have already observed, a more
infallible criterion. It is best known by the effects it produces on the
heart and on the temper. A religion which consists in opinions only,
will not advance us in our progress to heaven: it is apt to inflate the
mind with the pride of disputation; and victory is so commonly the
object of debate, that eternity slides out of sight. The two cardinal
points of our religion, justification and sanctification, are, if I may
be allowed the term, correlatives; they imply a reciprocal relation, nor
do I call that state Christianity, in which either is separately and
exclusively maintained. The union of these manifests the dominion of
religion in the heart, by increasing its humility, by purifying its
affections, by setting it above the contamination of the maxims and
habits of the world, by detaching it from the vanities of time, and
elevating it to a desire for the riches of eternity."
"All the exhortations to duties," returned Mr. Tyrrel, "with which so
many sermons abound, are only an infringement on the liberty of a
Christian. A true believer knows of no duty but faith, no rule but
love."
"Love is indeed," said Mr. Stanley, "the fountain and principle of all
practical virtue. But love itself requires some regulations to direct
its exertion; some law to guide its motions; some rule to prevent its
aberrations; some guard to hinder that which is vigorous from becoming
eccentric. With such a regulation, such a law, such a guard, the divine
ethics of the gospel have furnished us. The word of God is as much our
rule, as his Spirit is our guide, or his Son our 'way.' This unerring
rule alone secures Christian liberty from disorder, from danger, from
irregularity, from excess. Conformity to the precepts of the Redeemer is
the most infallible proof of having an interest in his death."
We afterward insensibly slid into other subjects, when Mr. Tyrrel, like
a combatant who thought himself victorious, seemed inclined to return to
the charge. The love of money having been mentioned by Sir John with
extreme severity, Mr. Tyrrel seemed to consider it as a venial failing,
and said that both avarice and charity might be constitutional.
"They may be so," said Mr. Stanley, "but Christianity, sir, has a
constitution of its own; a superinduced constitution. A real Christian
'confers not with flesh and blood,' with his _constitution_, whether he
shall give or forbear to give, when it is a clear duty, and the will of
God requires it. If we believe in the principles, we must adopt the
conclusions. Religion is not an unproductive theory, nor charity an
unnecessary, an incidental consequence, nor a contingent left to our own
choice. You are a classic, Mr. Tyrrel, and can not have forgotten that
in your mythological poets, the three Pagan graces were always knit
together hand in hand; the three Christian graces are equally
inseparable, and that the greatest of these is charity; that grand
principle of love, of which almsgiving is only one branch."
Mr. Tyrrel endeavored to evade the subject, and seemed to intimate that
true Christianity might be known without any such evidences as Mr.
Stanley thought necessary. This led the latter to insist warmly on the
vast stress which every part of Scripture laid on the duty of charity.
"Its doctrines," said he, "its precepts, its promises, and its examples
all inculcate it. 'The new commandment' of John; 'the pure and undefiled
religion' of James; 'ye shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the
just' of Luke; the daily and hourly practice of him, who not only taught
to do good, but who went about doing it; 'the store for a good
foundation against the time to come' of Paul--nay, in the only full,
solemn, and express representation of the last day, which the gospel
exhibits, charity is not only brought forward as a predominant, a
distinguishing feature of the righteous, but a specific recompense seems
to be assigned to it, when practiced on true Christian grounds. And it
is not a little observable, that the only posthumous quotation from the
sayings of our divine Saviour which the Scripture has recorded, is an
encouragement to charity: 'Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he
said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"