In the preceding pages it has been shown that the common‐sense system
presents an intelligible, practical and consistent standard of right and
wrong, by which we can judge clearly of the character and conduct, both of
the Creator and of his creatures.
The mind of the Creator existing from all eternity, independently of his
own will, is the pattern of perfectness in the construction of mind. He
has formed and sustains a system fitted to his own perfections. The chief
end of this system is happiness‐making on the greatest possible scale. In
order to this, his _laws_, by which the most possible good with the least
possible evil will be secured, must be discovered and obeyed.
Accordingly, all that tends to secure happiness without evil is right, and
all that needlessly lessens or destroys happiness is wrong. Every effort
to discover the laws of God and to obey them is right and pleasing to him
as promoting his chief desire and great end. This view furnishes a
foundation for clear conceptions in every practical question of right and
wrong. What is _for the best_ as discovered by reason and experience? This
is the great question, when we have no direct revelation from God. And
even when revelation intervenes, it must be only in regard to _general
rules_, leaving it still a matter of experience and discussion in
_applying_ these rules to the multitudes of varying cases in human
experience. Thus, for example, a command to be honest toward all, leaves
innumerable questions to be settled as to what _is_ honest and fair in the
multiplied cases arising between man and man.
But we always have the great principle of common sense to guide us, that
_whatever is for the best is right_, leaving it for reason and experience
to settle what is and what is not for the best.
But in contrast the Augustinian system, in many ways, tends to becloud the
mind in regard to practical questions of right and wrong.
Thus the assumption that there are no principles in the human mind that
enable us to judge of the character and conduct of God; that we have no
means of learning what is the object or end for which all things are made;
that man is so depraved as to be disqualified to know what is right and
wrong, except as taught by revelations from God; and at the same time
disqualified to interpret such revelations until regenerated, or by the
help of a priesthood; all this tends to create the feeling of incertitude
as to any question of right and wrong, while the abuses of priestly
interpretations have so often set the Bible in opposition to our moral
sense and common sense as greatly to increase the evil.
Add to this, the assumption that there is no true virtue in any acts of
the unregenerate, but that all their moral deeds are sin, and only sin,
and the perplexity is increased as to what is right and what is wrong
moral action.
Again, the fact that salvation from eternal misery is possible only to
those who have gained a new “nature,” while it is often seen that some of
those received into churches as having this new nature, are not so
charitable, amiable, just or honest, as many who are not thus admitted,
and the mind is still more beclouded as to the real nature of right and
wrong in practical conduct.
Again, the manner in which this new nature is recognized by those
appointed to decide who are regenerated and who are not, in order to admit
to or exclude from churches, still farther increases the difficulty. The
questions often propounded on such occasions relate mainly to certain
states of feeling toward God or Christ, or to certain doctrines involved
in the Augustinian theory. If replies to these are satisfactory, the
candidate is pronounced regenerated and received to the church.
Meantime, ever since the days of Luther, the doctrine of “justification by
faith,” in opposition to “salvation by works,” has been assumed to be the
foundation principle, both of Protestantism and of true piety, while there
has been great indistinctness of conception as to the true meaning of
these terms. At the time of the great conflict between Romanism and the
Reformers, the grand evil to be combated was a reliance for salvation on
the prescribed outward rites and forms of the church without any reference
to an internal spiritual principle. The attempt of the Reformers was to
substitute for these outward forms that spiritual principle which consists
in a _ruling purpose to discover and to obey the will of God according to
the teachings of Christ_, whom they regarded as “God manifest in the
flesh.” They recognized the fact that no man ever did or ever could live
without some violations of the laws of God, so that no man could be saved
on the ground of perfect obedience to law. Instead of this they assumed
that man could gain eternal life by “becoming a new creature in Christ
Jesus,” meaning by this that “new life” which consists in ceasing to live
to please self, and living to please God in Christ as the chief end of
life, by earnest conformity to his will as learned either by reason and
experience or by the Bible.
This is what they intended by faith in Jesus Christ. And the opposite
doctrine of “salvation by works” was that which the Romish church was
urging, viz., conformity to her outward rites and forms.
But in process of time, and for want of clear conceptions and clear
teaching, it came about that the real good works, commanded by Christ, as
a part of the love of God required, were confounded with the rites and
forms, and outward deeds commanded by the church, and which may be
performed without the principle of love to Christ, which is exhibited in
obedience to his teachings. The result has been that the teachings and
writings of many Protestants often make the impression that the good works
of a pure morality are of no avail and often very much in the way of a
man’s final salvation. Thus has arisen the distinction often made between
good _moral_ men and good _religious_ men. This classification rests
entirely on the Augustinian dogma, that until the depraved nature received
from Adam is regenerated, all the moral acts of men, however virtuous and
excellent, are “sin, and sin only.”
The true meaning of “justification by faith and not by works,” is that men
are not to be saved by _actually finding out_ in all possible cases what
is for the best and then _doing_ it, which no man ever did or ever can do
without mistake; but rather by _a ruling purpose to discover and to obey_
all the laws of the Creator. This last is the _spiritual_ principle in
opposition to mere _outward acts_. It is _practical_ faith in God which is
to save the soul of man. All, therefore, who believe Christ to be God are
“justified” by _faith_ in Christ. That is, they are regarded and treated
as just and righteous, when they have this internal principle of obedience
to Christ, even though they are never free from actual transgression of
law, either known or unknown. Thus the ancient patriarchs were saved by
faith in Christ, he being the God of the old dispensation as much as of
the new.
That this is the sense in which the Reformers used the words
“justification, or salvation by faith,” in opposition to “salvation by
works,” may easily be proved. At the same time, it is as easy to show that
they used this term in another sense also. But at this time no reference
will be made to any other use than the one under consideration. Their
other use of this term in reference to the atonement of Jesus Christ will
be referred to hereafter.
The preceding exhibits the several ways in which the Angustinian theory
tends to becloud the mind in regard to practical questions of right and
wrong. These tendencies have been more or less counteracted by the
implanted principles of reason. Still more have they been rectified by the
steady and clear teachings of the Bible, which never, when truly
interpreted, contradict either the moral sense or common sense of man, but
rather strengthen them and guide them aright.