THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD WHICH WOULD BE NECESSARY, UNDER THE NEW AND
SPIRITUAL DISPENSATION, TO PRODUCE IN THE SOUL OF MAN AFFECTIONATE
OBEDIENCE.
Man's mental and moral constitution was the same under the New as
under the Old Testament dispensation. The same methods, therefore,
which were adapted to move man's nature under the one, would be
adapted to do so under the other. The difference between the two
dispensations was, the first was a preparatory dispensation, its
manifestations, for the most part, being seen and temporal; the
second, a perfect system of truth, spiritual in its character, and in
the method of its communication. But whether the truths were temporal
or spiritual, and, whether they were brought to view by faith or
sight, in order to produce a given effect upon the soul, or any of its
powers, the same methods under all dispensations would be necessary,
varied only to suit the advancement of the mind in knowledge, the
differences existing in the habits and circumstances of men, and the
character of the dispensation to be introduced. For instance: under
one dispensation--it being in a great measure temporal, preparatory,
and imperfect--love might be produced by making men feel temporal
want, and by God granting temporal benefits: while under a spiritual
and universal system, men must likewise feel the want, and receive the
benefit, in order to love; but the want felt and the benefit conferred
must be of a spiritual character.
Under all dispensations, an essential requisite, after the way for its
introduction was prepared, would be such manifestations of God to men
as would produce love in the human heart for the object of worship and
obedience. 'Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,' is the first
great law of the universe; and God cannot be honoured, nor man made
happy, unless his obedience be actuated by love to the object of
obedience.[32] Now the manifestations of mercy, under the old
dispensation, were mainly temporal in their character, and limited in
their application to the Jews. But God's special goodness to them
could not produce love in the hearts of the Gentiles. The
manifestations in Egypt were, therefore, neither adapted in their
character, nor in the extent of their design, to the spiritual and
universal religion of Jesus Christ. But one part of the Mosaic economy
was universal and immutable in its character. The moral law is the
same for ever in its application to all intelligent beings in the
universe. It is plain to reason that, whatever means may be adopted to
bring men to rectitude of conduct or to pardon them for offences, the
rule of right itself, founded upon the justice and holiness, and
sustained by the conscience, of the Eternal, must be immutable and
eternal as its Author; and the means, manifestations, and influences,
under the different dispensations, are expedients of mercy, designed
and adapted to bring men to act in conformity with its requirements.
[32] See chap. iv. on Affectionate Obedience.
How, then, under the new dispensation, and in conformity with its
spiritual and universal character, could love for God be produced in
the human heart?
We will here, again, as the subject in hand is most important, notice
some of the conditions upon which affection for an object may be
produced in the heart.
The will is influenced by motives and by affection; and all acts of
will produced entirely by pure affection, are disinterested acts.
There is, probably, no one living, who has attained to maturity of
years, but has, at some period of life, felt affection for another, so
that it was more gratifying to please the object of his affection than
to please himself. Love for another always influences the will to do
those things which please the object loved; and the acts which proceed
from affection are disinterested, not being done with any selfish end
in view, but to conform to the will and meet the desires of another.
The moment the affections are fixed upon an object, the will is drawn
into union with the will of the object loved; and if that object be
regarded as superior, in proportion as he rises above us in the scale
of being, to obey his will and secure his regard becomes a spontaneous
volition of the soul; and the pleasure that arises from affectionate
compliance with the will of a worthy and loved object, does not arise
because it is sought for, but from the constitution the Maker has
given to the human soul; it is the result of its activity, produced in
accordance with the law of love.
All happy obedience must arise from affection, exercised towards the
object obeyed. Obedience which arises from affection blesses the
spirit which yields it, if the conscience approve of the object
obeyed. While, on the contrary, no being can be happy in obeying one
whom he does not love. To obey a parent, or to obey God, from
interested motives, would be sin. The devil might be obeyed for the
same reasons. All enlightened minds agree to what the Bible confirms,
and what reason can clearly perceive, without argument, that love for
God is essential to every act of religious duty. To tender obedience
or homage to God, while we had no love for him in our hearts, would be
dishonourable to the Maker, and doing violence to our own nature.
When an object presents itself to the attention, whose character
engages the heart, then the affections flow out, and the soul acts
sweetly in this new relation. There is a bond of sympathy between the
hearts of the two beings, and those things which affect the one affect
the other, in proportion to the strength of the cherished affection.
One meets the desires and conforms to the will of the other, not from
a sense of obligation merely, but from choice. And in thus giving and
receiving affection, the soul experiences its highest enjoyment, its
greatest good; and when the understanding perceives, in the object
loved, perfections of the highest character, and affection of the
purest kind for those that love him, the conscience sanctions the
action of the heart and the obedience of the will, and all the moral
powers of the soul unite in happy and harmonious action.
We return, now, to the problem--Under the spiritual dispensation of
Christ, how could the affections of the soul be awakened by faith, and
fixed upon God their proper object?
The principle has been stated, which everyone will recognise as true
in his own experience, that the more we feel the want of a benefactor,
temporal or spiritual, and the more we feel our inability to rescue
ourselves from existing difficulties and impending dangers, the more
grateful love will the heart feel for the being who, moved by
kindness, and in despite of personal sacrifices, interposes to assist
and save us.
Under the Old Testament dispensation the affections of the Israelites
were educed and fixed upon God in accordance with this law of the
soul. They were placed in circumstances of abject need; and from this
condition of suffering and sorrow, God delivered them, and thus drew
their hearts to himself. Now the Jews, as has been noticed, supposed
that the Messiah would appear, and again confer upon them similar
favours, by delivering them from their state of dependence and
subjection as a nation. But a temporal deliverance of this kind, as
has been shown, was not consistent with the design of Christ's perfect
and spiritual dispensation, which was designed to save men from sin
and spiritual bondage, and restore them to spiritual happiness by
restoring them to affectionate obedience to the only living and true
God.
The inquiry, then, presents itself, as a feeling of want was
necessary, in order that the soul might love the Being who supplied
that want--and as Jesus came to bestow spiritual mercies upon
mankind--_How could men be brought to feel the want of a spiritual
Benefactor and Saviour?_
Allow the thought to be repeated again--According to the constitution
which God has given the soul, it must feel the want of spiritual
mercies before it can feel love for the Giver of those mercies; and
just in proportion as the soul feels its lost, guilty, and dangerous
condition, in the same proportion will it exercise love to the Being
who grants spiritual favour and salvation. How, then, could the
spiritual want be produced in the souls of men, in order that they
might love the spiritual Benefactor?
Not by temporal bondage and temporal suffering, because these would
lead men to desire a temporal deliverance. The only possible way by
which man could be made to hope for and appreciate spiritual mercies,
and to love a spiritual deliverer, would be to produce a conviction in
the soul itself of its evil condition, its danger as a spiritual
being, and its inability, unaided, to satisfy the requirements of a
spiritual law, or to escape its just and spiritual penalty. If man
could be made to perceive that he was guilty and needy, that his soul
was under the condemnation of the holy law of a holy God, he would
then necessarily feel the need of a deliverance from sin and its
consequences; and in this way only could the soul of man be led to
appreciate spiritual mercies or love a spiritual benefactor.
Mark another fact, in connection with the foregoing, which is to be
especially noticed, and which will be developed fully in subsequent
pages--The greater the kindness and self-denial of a benefactor
manifested in our behalf, the warmer and the stronger will be the
affection which his goodness will produce in the human heart.
Here, then, are two facts growing out of the constitution of human
nature--First, the soul must feel its evil and lost state, as the
pre-requisite condition upon which alone it can love a deliverer;
Secondly, the degree of kindness and self-denial in a benefactor,
temporal or spiritual, graduates the degree of affection and gratitude
that will be awakened for him.
Now, in view of these necessary conditions, mark the means which God
has used, and the manifestations which he has made of himself, in
order to secure the supreme love of the human soul.
In the first place, _The soul is brought to see and feel its evil and
lost condition, and its need of deliverance_.
At the advent of Jesus, the Roman world was in precisely the condition
which was necessary to prepare it for his doctrines. The Jews had the
moral law written in their Scriptures, and recognised it as the will
of Jehovah; and the Gentiles had its requirements, concerning their
duty to each other, and their duty to worship, written upon their
hearts. Both the doctors among the Jews, and the schools of philosophy
among the Gentiles, especially those of the Stoics, taught the
obligatory nature of many of the important moral duties which man owes
to man. No period in the history of the heathen mind ever existed
before or since, when man's relations to man were so clearly
perceived.[33] The Jews, however, had these advantages, that while the
few intelligent Gentiles received the instruction of the philosophers
in relation to morals as truth, it was truth without any higher
sanction than that of having been spoken by wise men, and therefore it
contained in itself no authority or weight of obligation to bind the
conscience; while they had the Moral Law as a rule of duty, sanctioned
by the authority and infinite justice of Jehovah. Thus the moral
virtues assumed the sanction of religious duties; and they had not
only the moral precepts thus sanctioned, but, having been taught the
true character of God, their religious duties were likewise united in
the same sacred decalogue.
[33] For the views of the different schools of Grecian and Roman
philosophy at this period, and the amount of their indebtedness to
the Jewish Scriptures, see Enfield's History of Philosophy.
There was, however, in the application of the law, one most important
and vital mistake, in relation to what constituted human guilt. The
moral law was generally applied as the civil law, not to the acts of
the spirit, but to the acts of the body. It was applied to the
external conduct of men, not to the internal life. If there was
conformity to the letter of the law in external manners, there was a
fulfilment, in the eyes of the Jew and the Gentile, of the highest
claims that God or man held upon the spirit. No matter how dark or
damning were the exercises of the soul, if it only kept its sin in its
own habitation, and did not develop it in action, the penalty of the
law was not laid to its charge. The character of the spirit itself
might be criminal, and all its exercises of thought and feeling
sensual and selfish, yet if it added hypocrisy to its guilt, and
maintained an outward conformity to the law--a conformity itself
produced by selfishness--man judged himself, and others adjudged him,
guiltless. Man could not, therefore, understand his own guilt, as a
spiritual being, nor feel his condemned and lost condition, until the
requirements of the holy law were applied to the exercises of his
soul.
Now, Jesus applied the Divine law directly to the soul, and laid its
obligation upon the movements of the will and the desires. He taught
that all wrong thoughts and feelings were acts of transgression
against God, and as such would be visited with the penalty of the
Divine law. Thus he made the law spiritual, and its penalty spiritual,
and appealing to the authority of the supreme God, he laid its claims
upon the naked soul. He entered the secret recesses of the spirit's
tabernacle; he flashed the light of the Divine law upon the awful
secrets known only to the soul itself; and with the voice of a God, he
spoke to the 'I' of the mind: 'Thou shalt not will, nor desire, nor
feel wickedly.'
When he had thus shown that all the wrong exercises of the soul were
sin against God, and that the soul was in a guilty condition, under
the condemnation of the Divine law, he then directs the attention to
the spiritual consequences of this guilt. These he declared to be
exclusion from the kingdom and presence of God, and penalty which
involved either endless spiritual suffering, or destruction of the
soul itself. The punishment which he declared to be impending over the
unbelieving and impenitent spirit, he portrayed by using all those
figures which would lead men to apprehend the most fearful and
unmitigated spiritual misery.
Before the impenitent and unpardoned sinner there was the destruction
of the soul and body in hell--consignment to a state of darkness,
where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched--cursed and
banished from God into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels--agonising in flame, and refused a drop of water to
mitigate the agony. Now, these figures, to the minds both of Jews and
Gentiles, must have conveyed a most appalling impression of the misery
that was impending over the soul, unless it was relieved from sin, and
the consequent curse of the law. Jesus knew that the Jews, especially,
would understand these figures as implying fearful future punishment:
he therefore designed to do, what was undoubtedly accomplished in the
mind of everyone that believed his instruction, which was, to produce
a conviction of sin in the soul, by applying to it the requirements of
the spiritual law of God, and by showing that the penalty consequent
upon sin was fearful and everlasting destruction. We say, then, what
everyone who has followed these thoughts must perceive to be true,
that the instruction of Jesus would necessarily produce, in the mind
of everyone that believed, a conviction that he was a guilty and
condemned creature, and that an awful doom awaited his soul, unless he
received pardon and spiritual deliverance.
Thus, then, by the instruction of Jesus Christ, showing the spirituality
and holiness of the Divine law, and applying it, with its infinite
sanctions, to the exercise of the soul, that condition of mind was
produced which alone could prepare man to love a spiritual deliverer;
and there is no other way in which the soul could have been prepared, in
accordance with truth and the constitution of its own nature, to
appreciate the spiritual mercies of God, and love him as a spiritual
Saviour.
The law and the truth being exhibited by Christ in the manner adapted
to produce the condition of soul pre-requisite to the exercise of
affection for spiritual deliverance--now, as God was the author of
the law, and as he is the only proper object both of supreme love and
obedience; and, as man could not be happy in obeying the law without
loving its author, it follows, that the thing now necessary, in order
that man's affections might be fixed upon the proper object of love
and obedience, was, that the supreme God should, by self-denying
kindness, manifest spiritual mercy to those who felt their spiritual
wants, and thus draw to himself the love and worship of mankind. If
any other being should supply the need, that being would receive the
love; it was therefore necessary that God himself should do it, in
order that the affection of believers might centre upon the proper
object.
But, notice, that in order to the accomplishment of this end, without
violating the moral constitution of the universe, it would be
essentially necessary that the holiness of God's law should be
maintained. This would be necessary, because the law is, in itself,
the will of the Godhead, and God himself must be unholy before his
will can be so. And whatever God may overlook in those who know not
their duty, yet, when he reveals his perfect law, that law cannot,
from the nature of its Author, allow the commission of a single sin.
But, besides, if its holiness were not maintained, man is so
constituted that he could never become holy. Every change to a better
course in man's life must be preceded by a conviction of error; man
cannot repent and turn from sin till he is convicted of sin in
himself. Now, if the holiness of the law, as a standard of duty, was
maintained, man might thus be enlightened and convicted of sin, until
he had seen and felt the last sin in his soul; and if the law allowed
one sin, there would be no way of convicting man of that sin, or of
converting him from it; he would, therefore, remain, in some degree, a
sinner for ever. But, finally and conclusively, if the holiness of the
law was not maintained, that sense of guilt and danger could not be
produced which is necessary in order that man may love a spiritual
Saviour. Jesus produced that condition by applying to the soul the
authority, the claims, and the sanctions of the holy law. It is
impossible, therefore, in the nature of things, for a sinful being to
appreciate God's mercy, unless he first feel his justice as manifested
in the holy law. Love in the soul is produced by the joint influence
of the justice and mercy of God. The integrity of the eternal law,
therefore, must be for ever maintained.[34]
[34] The preceding views are confirmed, both by the character of
the moral law, and by its design and exposition, as given by the
apostles of Christ. The moral law, or the rule and obligation of
moral rectitude in the sight of God, which is revealed in the
Scriptures, and interpreted by Christ as obligatory upon the
thoughts and feelings of the soul, is not only in its nature of
perpetual and universal obligation, and adapted to produce
conviction of sin in every soul that is sensible of transgressing
its requirements; but the Scriptures expressly declare that it was
designed to produce conviction of sin in the soul, in order to
prepare it to receive the gospel.
The moral law is set forth in the Scriptures as holy, just, and
good in its character; and whatever may be its effects upon the
soul itself, that its character is such no intelligent being in
the universe can doubt, because it requires of every one perfect
holiness, justice, and goodness; it requires that the soul should
be perfectly free from sin in the sight of God: and, as we have
seen, God ought not to allow one sin; if he did, the law would not
be holy, nor adapted to make men holy. But the more holy the law,
the more conviction it would produce in the mind of sinners. If
the law extended only to external conduct, men would not feel
guilty for their wrong thoughts, desires, or designs; and if it
extended only to certain classes of spiritual exercises, men would
not feel guilty for those which it did not condemn; but if it
required that the soul itself--the spiritual agent--the 'I' of the
mind--should be holy, and all its thoughts and feelings in
accordance with the law of love and righteousness, then the soul
would be convicted of guilt for a single wrong exercise, because,
while it felt that the law was holy, just, and good, it could not
but feel condemned in breaking it. When Christ came, therefore,
every soul that was taught its spirituality would be convicted of
sin. One of two things men had to do, either shut out its light
from their soul, and refuse to believe its spiritual and perfect
requirements, or judge and condemn themselves by those
requirements. And while the law thus showed sin to exist in the
soul, and condemned the soul as guilty and liable to its penalty,
it imparted no strength to the sinner to enable him to fulfil its
requirements; it merely sets forth the true standard, which is
holy in itself, and which God must maintain; and, by its light, it
shows sinners their guilt, condemns them, and leaves them under
its curse.
Now, the Scriptures declare that this is the end which, by its
nature, it is adapted to accomplish, and that it was revealed to
men with the design to accomplish this end, and thus lead men to
see and feel the necessity of justification and pardon by Jesus
Christ. The Scripture says, 'It is easier for heaven and earth to
pass than one tittle of the law to fail.' 'The law worketh wrath:
for where there is no law, there is no transgression.' 'Moreover
the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin
abounded grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.' Mark the following--'Now
we know that what things soever the law saith it saith to them who
are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the
world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law
is the knowledge of sin.'
The argument of the apostle in vindicating the holiness of the
law, while it, at the same time, produced conviction and
condemnation, is conclusive. 'What shall we say then? Is the law
sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I
had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet;
(that is, I should not have felt covetousness to be sin, except
the law had condemned it as such;) for I was alive (that is, not
consciously condemned) without the law once; but when the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died; and the commandment,
which was ordained to life, (that is, which required the soul to
be holy and therefore alive to God,) I found to be unto death. For
sin, taking occasion by the commandment, (or acts shown to be sin
by the commandment,) deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the
law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was
then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin,
that it might appear sin, (that is, sin which did exist in the
soul, was made to appear in its true evil character,) working
death in me by that which is good; (that is, the holiness of the
law showed the evil of sin;) that sin by the commandment might
become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual:
but I am carnal, sold under sin.' And then, for deliverance from
this bondage, he looks to Christ--'For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death,' etc. And mark again--'Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could
have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law
(that is, while the law showed the soul unholy and condemned to
spiritual death, it provided no means for the relief of the
sinner--no influence by which love and holiness could be produced
in the heart). But the Scripture (that is, the revelation of law
in the Scriptures) hath concluded all under sin, that the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But
before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the
faith which should afterwards be revealed; wherefore the law was
our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith.'
Now, from the above Scriptures it is evident that the apostle
understood the law not only to be adapted, but designed by its
Author, to show the soul its guilty and lost condition, its
inability to free itself from the condemnation to which it was
liable, and to prepare it, at the proper time, to love and trust
in Christ for salvation from sin, and spiritual death, the
consequence of sin.
How, then, could God manifest that mercy to sinners by which love to
himself and to his law would be produced, while his infinite holiness
and justice would be maintained?
We answer, in no way possible, but by some expedient by which his
justice and mercy would both be exalted. If, in the wisdom of the
Godhead, such a way could be devised, by which God himself could save
the soul from the consequences of its guilt--by which he himself could
in some way suffer and make self-denials for its good; and, by his own
interposition, open a way for the soul to recover from its lost and
condemned condition, then the result would follow inevitably, that
every one of the human family who had been led to see and feel his
guilty condition before God, and who believed in God thus manifesting
himself to rescue his soul from spiritual death--everyone, thus
believing, would, from the necessities of his nature, be led to love
God his Saviour; and mark, the greater the self-denial and the
suffering on the part of the Saviour, in ransoming the soul, the
stronger would be the affection felt for him.
This is the central and vital doctrine of the plan of salvation. We
will now, by throwing light and accumulating strength upon this
doctrine from different points, illustrate and establish it beyond the
possibility of rational doubt.
_1. The testimony of Jesus that it was necessary man should feel the
want, in order to exercise the love._
Jesus uniformly speaks of it as being necessary that, previously to
accepting him as a Saviour, the soul should feel the need of
salvation. He does not even invite the thoughtless sinner, or the
Godless worldling, who has no sense of the evil or the guilt of sin,
to come to him. Said Jesus, 'I came not to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance.' 'They that are whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick.' 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.' 'If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink.' 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness for they shall be filled.' Thus, the points which have
been shown to be necessary, from the constitution of things, in order
to the soul's loving God, are presented in the same light by Jesus
himself; and upon the principle which they involve, he acted during
his ministry.
_2. The testimony of the Scriptures that God did thus manifest himself
as suffering and making self-denials for the spiritual good of men._
'God was in Christ,' says the apostle, 'reconciling the world to
himself;' that is, God was in Christ doing those things that would
restore to himself the obedience and affection of everyone that
believed. Christ represents himself as a ransom for the soul, as
laying down his life for sinners. He is represented as descending from
a state of the highest felicity; taking upon him the nature of man,
and humbling himself even to the death of the cross, a death of the
most excruciating torture; and thus bearing the sins of men in his own
body on the tree, that through his death God 'might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.'
It was thus, by a self-denial surpassing description, by a life of
labour for human good, accomplished by constant personal sacrifices,
and tending at every step towards the centre of the vortex, he went on
until, finally, life closed to a crisis, by the passion in the garden,
the rebuke, and the buffeting, and the cruel mockery of the Jews and
the Romans: and then, bearing his cross, faint with former agony of
spirit, and his flesh quivering with recent scourging, he goes to
Calvary, where the agonised Sufferer for human sin cried, 'IT IS
FINISHED;' and gave up the ghost.
Such is the testimony of the Scriptures; and it may be affirmed,
without hesitancy, that it would be impossible for the human soul to
exercise full faith in the testimony that it was a guilty and needy
creature, condemned by the holy law of a holy God; and that from this
condition of spiritual guilt and danger, Jesus Christ suffered and
died to accomplish its ransom--we say a human being could not exercise
full faith in these truths and not love the Saviour.
_3. The atonement of Christ produces the necessary effect upon the
human soul, in restoring it to affectionate obedience, which neither
philosophy, law, nor perceptive truth could accomplish._
The wisdom of Divine Providence was conspicuous in the fact that,
previously to the introduction of Christianity, all the resources of
human wisdom had been exhausted in efforts to confer upon man true
knowledge and true happiness. Although most of the great names of
antiquity were conspicuous rather for those properties which rendered
them a terror and a scourge to mankind; and although society, among the
ancients, in its best state, was little better than semi-barbarism, yet
there was a class in society, during the Augustan and Periclean ages,
and even at some periods before the last-named, that was cultivated in
mind and manners.
From this class, individuals at times arose who were truly great--men
distinguished alike for the strength, compass, and discrimination of
their intellect. In all the efforts of these men, with the exception
of those who applied themselves exclusively to the study of physical
phenomena, the great end sought was the means or secret of human
happiness. All admitted that human nature, as they found it, was in an
imperfect or depraved condition, and not in the enjoyment of its chief
good; and the plans they proposed by which to obtain that happiness of
which they believed the soul susceptible, were as various and diverse
from each other as can be imagined. No one of these plans ever
accomplished, in any degree, the end desired; and no one of them was
ever adapted to, or embraced by, the common people. The philosophers
themselves, after wrangling for the honour of having discovered truth,
and making themselves miserable in the pursuit of happiness, died; and
man was left unsatisfied and unhappy, philosophy having shed only
sufficient light upon his mind to disclose more fully the guilty and
wretched state of his heart.
There are, perhaps, two exceptions to these remarks as applied to the
great minds of antiquity: those are Socrates and his pupil Plato.
These men, with a far-penetrating insight into the constitutional
wants of man, contemplating the disordered and unhappy condition of
human nature, and inquiring for a remedy adequate to enlighten the
mind, and give the heart a satisfying good, perceived that there was
not in the resources of philosophy, nor within the compass of human
means, any power that could reach the source of the difficulty, and
rectify the evil of human nature, which consisted in a want of
benevolent affection.[35] Inferring from the nature of man what would
be necessary, and trusting in the goodness of the Deity to grant the
requisite aid, they expressed their belief that a Divine Teacher would
come from heaven, who would restore truth and happiness to the human
soul.[36]
[35] That Plato had some idea of the want, and none of what was
necessary to supply it, may be seen in the fact that in order to
make men love as brethren, which he saw to be necessary, he
recommended a community of wives to the members of his ideal
republic.
[36] In Plato's dialogue upon the duties of religious worship, a
passage occurs, the design of which appears to be, to show that
man could not, of himself, learn either the nature of the gods, or
the proper manner of worshipping them, unless an instructor should
come from heaven. The following remarkable passage occurs between
Socrates and Alcibiades:--
_Socrates._--To me it appears best to be patient. It is necessary
to wait till you learn how you ought to act towards the gods, and
towards men.
_Alcibiades._--When, O Socrates, shall that time be? and who shall
instruct me? for most willingly would I see this person, who he
is.
_Socrates._--He is one who cares for you; but, as Homer represents
Minerva as taking away darkness from the eyes of Diomedes, that he
might distinguish a god from a man: so it is necessary that he
should first take away the darkness from your mind, and then bring
near those things by which you shall know good and evil.
_Alcibiades._--Let him take away the darkness, or any other thing,
if he will; for whoever this man is, I am prepared to refuse none
of the things which he commands, if I shall be made
better.--_Platonis Alcibiad._ ii.
It is strange that among philosophers of succeeding ages there has
not been wisdom sufficient to discover, from the constitutional
necessities of the human spirit, that demand for the instruction and
aid of the Messiah which Socrates and Plato discovered, even in a
comparatively dark age.
There are two insuperable difficulties which would for ever hinder the
restoration of mankind to truth and happiness from being accomplished
by human means. The first, which has been already alluded to, is that
human instruction, as such, has no power to bind the conscience. Even
if man were competent to discover all the truth necessary for a
perfect rule of conduct, yet that truth would have no reformatory
power, because men could never feel that truth was obligatory which
proceeded from merely human sources. It is an obvious principle of our
nature that the conscience will not charge guilt on the soul for
disobedience, when the command proceeds from a fellow man who is not
recognised as having the prerogative and the right to require
submission. And besides, as men's minds are variously constituted, and
of various capacities, there could be no agreement in such a case
concerning the question, 'What is truth?' As well might we expect two
schoolboys to reform each other's manners in school, without the aid
of the teacher's authority, as that men can reform their fellows
without the sanction of that authority which will quicken and bind the
conscience. The human conscience was made to recognise and enforce the
authority of God; and unless there is belief in the Divine obligation
of truth, conscience refuses to perform its office.
But the grand difficulty is this:--Truth, whether sanctioned by
conscience or not, has no power, as has been shown, to produce love in
the heart. The law may convict and guide the mind, but it has no power
to soften or to change the affections. This was the precise thing
necessary, and this necessary end the wisdom of the world could not
accomplish. All the wisdom of all the philosophers in all ages could
never cause the affections of the soul to rise to the holy, blessed God.
To destroy selfish pride, and produce humility--to eradicate the evil
passions, and produce in the soul desires for the universal good, and
love for the universal Parent, were beyond the reach of earthly wisdom
and power. The wisdom of the world in their efforts to give truth and
happiness to the human soul, was foolishness with God; and the wisdom of
God--Christ crucified--was foolishness with the philosophers, in
relation to the same subject;[37] yet it was Divine philosophy: an
adapted means, and the only adequate means, to accomplish the necessary
end. Said an apostle, in speaking upon this subject: 'The Jews require a
sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified,
unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness: but
unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of
God, and the wisdom of God.' The Jews, while they required a sign, did
not perceive that miracles, in themselves, were not adapted to produce
affection. And the Greeks, while they sought after wisdom, did not
perceive that all the wisdom of the Gentiles would never work love in
the heart. But the apostle preached 'Christ crucified,' an exhibition of
self-denial, of suffering, and of self-sacrificing love and mercy,
endured in behalf of men; which, when received by faith, became 'the
power of God, and the wisdom of God,' to produce love and obedience in
the human soul. Paul understood the efficacy of the cross. He looked to
Calvary and beheld Christ crucified as the sun of the Gospel system. Not
as the moon, reflecting cold and borrowed rays; but as the Sun of
righteousness, glowing with radiant mercy, and pouring warm beams of
life and love into the open bosom of the believer.
[37] From an observation of one of the Fathers, it would seem that
after the Gospel had been preached among the Greeks, many of them
perceived its adaptedness to accomplish the end for which they had
sought in vain. 'Philosophy,' says Clemens, of Alexandria, 'led
the Greeks to Christ, as the law did the Jews.'
Concluding paragraph of the apology of M. Minucius Felix in
defence of Christianity, A.D. 250:
'To conclude: the sum of our boasting is, that we are got into
possession of what the philosophers have been always in quest of;
and what, with all their application, they could never find. Why,
then, so much ill-will stirring against us? If Divine truth is
come to perfection in our time, let us make a good use of the
blessing; let us govern our knowledge with discretion; let
superstition and impiety be no more; and let true religion triumph
in their stead.'
_4. Analogy between the moral and physical laws of the universe._
The laws which govern physical nature are analogous to those which the
gospel introduces into the spiritual world. The earth is held to the
sun by the power of attraction, and performs regularly its circuit
round the central sustaining luminary: maintaining, at the same time,
its equal relations with its sister planets. But the moral system upon
the earth is a chaos of derangement. The attraction of _affection_
which holds the soul to God has been broken, and the soul of man,
actuated by selfishness--revolving upon its own centre only--jars in
its course with its fellow spirits, and crosses their orbits; and the
whole system of the spiritual world upon earth revolves in disorder,
the orbs wandering and rolling away from that centre of moral life and
power which alone could hold them in harmonious and happy motion. Into
the midst of this chaos of disordered spirits, God, the Sun of the
spiritual world, came down. He shed light upon the moral darkness, and
by coming near, like the approaches of a mighty magnet, the attraction
of his mercy, as manifested in Christ crucified, became so powerful,
that many spirits, rolling away into darkness and destruction, felt
the efficacy, and were drawn back, and caused to move again, in their
regular orbits, around the 'Light,' and 'Life,' and 'Love' of the
spiritual system.
If free agency could be predicated of the bodies of the solar system,
the great law which governs their movements might be imposed on
them--_of attraction to the Sun, and mutual attraction among
themselves_. Similar is the great law of the spiritual world: 'Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and thy neighbour as
thyself.' Now, if a planet had broken away from its orbit, it would
have a tendency to fly off for ever, and it never could be restored,
unless the sun, the great centre of attraction, could, in some way,
follow it in its wanderings, and thus by the increased power of his
attraction, as he approached nearer to the fallen planet, attach it to
himself, and then draw it back again to its original orbit. So with
the human spirit; its affections were alienated from God, the centre
of spiritual attraction, and they could never have been restored,
unless God had approached, and by the increased power of his mercy, as
manifested in the self-denial, sufferings, and death of Christ, united
man again to himself, by the power of affection, that he might thus
draw him up from his misery and sin, to revolve around him, in harmony
and love, for ever.
If this earth had, by some means, broken away from the sun, there
would be no way possible of recovering it again to its place in the
system but that which has been mentioned--that the sun should leave
his central position, and approach the wandering orb, and thus, by the
increased power of his attraction, draw back the earth to its original
position. But the sun could not thus leave the centre of the system
without drawing all the other planets from their orbits by the
movement to recover the lost one. The relations of the system would be
broken up, and the whole solar economy sacrificed, if the universal
and equal law of gravitation were infringed by the sun changing his
position and his relations in the system.
Further, the established laws of the physical universe would render
it impossible that any other planet should be the instrument of
recovering the earth to the sun. If another planet should approach the
earth while thus wandering, the increased power of attraction would
cause the two globes to revolve round each other; or if the
approaching planet was of greater magnitude, the earth would revolve
as a satellite round it. But this would not be to restore the earth to
its place in the system, nor to its movement round the sun, but to fix
it in a wrong position and a wrong movement, and thus alienate it for
ever from the central source of light and heat. It follows, therefore,
that in accordance with the established laws of the solar system, the
earth could never be recovered, but would fly off for ever, or be
broken into asteroids.
There would, therefore, be no way possible for the recovery of the
earth, unless God should adopt an expedient unknown to the physical
laws of the universe. This, all who believe that God is almighty, and
himself the Author of those laws, will allow that he might do. That
expedient must not destroy the great laws of the system, upon which
the safety of all its parts depends, but an augmented force of
attraction must be thrown upon the earth from the sun itself, which
would be sufficient to check the force of its departing momentum, and
gradually draw it back to its place. If a portion of the magnetic
power of the sun could be thrown into the earth, an adhesion would
take place between it and the earth, and then, after the cord was
fastened, if that body of attractive matter could ascend again to the
body of the sun, the earth would receive the returning impulse, and a
new and peculiar influence would be created to draw it back to its
allegiance to the sun. If, as has been said, the power came from any
other body but the sun itself, or attracted towards any other body,
the earth would lose its place in the system for ever.[38]
[38] These illustrations are not to be applied to the mode of
existence, or subsistence, in the Godhead; but as God is the
Author of both the physical and moral laws, and as the attraction
of gravitation in physics corresponds with the attraction of
affection in morals, an analogy of what would be necessary under
one, is taken to what was accomplished by Christ under the other.
So in the moral world: God's relations to the moral universe must be
sustained. The infinite justice and holiness of the Divine law must
not be compromised. The end to be gained is, to draw man, as a
revolted sinner, back to God, while the integrity of God's moral
government is maintained. Now _affection_ is the attraction of the
moral universe. And, in accordance with the foregoing deduction, to
reclaim alienated man to God would be impossible, unless there should
be a manifestation of the Godhead in the world to attract to himself
man's estranged affections; and then, after the affinity was fastened
by faith, by his ascending again to the bosom of the Deity, mankind
would thus be gradually drawn back to allegiance to Jehovah.
_5. Illustrations from nature and the Scriptures._
The plan of salvation is likened to a vine which has fallen down from
the boughs of an oak. It lies prone upon the ground; it crawls in the
dust, and all its tendrils and claspers, which were formed to hold it
in the lofty place from which it has fallen, are twined around the
weed and the bramble, and having no strength to raise itself, it lies
fruitless and corrupting, tied down to the base things of the earth.
Now, how shall the vine arise from its fallen condition? But one way
is possible for the vine to rise again to the place from whence it had
fallen. The bough of the lofty oak must be let down, or some
communication must be formed connected with the top of the oak, and at
the same time with the earth. Then, when the bough of the oak was let
down to the place where the vine lay, its tender claspers might fasten
upon it, and, thus supported, it might raise itself up, and bloom and
bear fruit again in the lofty place from whence it fell. So with
man--his affections had fallen from God, and were fastened to the base
things of the earth. Jesus Christ came down, and by his humanity
stood upon the earth, and by his Divinity raised his hands and united
himself with the Deity of the everlasting Father: thus the fallen
affections of man may fasten upon him, and twine around him, until
they again ascend to the bosom of the Godhead, from whence they fell.
It was thus that prophets, evangelists, apostles, and the Son of God
himself, presented the Divine scheme of human redemption. Christ is
the 'Branch' by which the vine may recover itself from its prone and
base condition: he is the 'Arm of the Lord' by which he reaches down
and rescues sinful men from the ruins of the fall: 'through whom,'
says Peter, 'ye believe in God' [that is, believe in God manifested
through Christ], 'that raised him up from the dead, and gave him
glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.' Says Paul, 'Your
life is hid with Christ in God.' Jesus himself proclaimed that the
believer should have within him 'a well of water, springing up into
everlasting life'--that is, he that believeth in Christ crucified, the
hard heart within him will be struck by the rod of faith, and in his
soul there will be a well of pure and living affection springing up to
God for ever. And again: 'Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on
me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me, and he that seeth me
seeth him that sent me'--that is, Christ was _God acting_, developing
the Divine attributes through human nature, so that men might
apprehend and realise them. God might have been as merciful as he is
if Christ had never died; but man could never have known the extent,
nor felt the power, of his mercy, but by the exhibition on the cross.
His mercy could have been manifested to man's heart in no other way.
And men cannot love God for what he truly is, unless they love him as
manifested in the suffering and death of Christ Jesus. 'I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.' 'If
ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also; and from
henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.'
_6. The preceding views established by reductio ad absurdum._
It is necessary that man should know the character of the true God,
and feel the influence of that character upon his mind and heart. But
human nature, as at present constituted, could not be made to feel the
goodness of God's mercy unless God--blessed be his name!--should make
self-denials for man's benefit; either by assuming human nature, or in
some other way. And is it not true that God could make self-denials
for men in no other way than would be plain to their apprehension,
except by embodying his Godhead in human nature? Mercy can be
manifested to man, so as to make an impression upon his heart, in no
other way than by labour and self-denial. This principle is obvious.
Suppose an individual is confined, under condemnation of the law, and
the governor, in the exercise of his powers, pardons him: this act of
clemency would produce upon the heart of the criminal no particular
effect, either to make him grateful, or to make him better. He might,
perhaps, be sensible of a complacent feeling for the release granted;
but so long as he knew that his release cost the governor nothing but
an act of his will, there would be no basis in the prisoner's mind for
gratitude and love. The liberated man would feel more gratitude to one
of his friends, who had laboured to get petitions before the governor
for his release, than to the governor who released him. To vary the
illustration: Suppose that two persons, who are liable to be destroyed
in the flames of a burning dwelling, are rescued by two separate
individuals. The one is enabled to escape by an individual who,
perceiving his danger, steps up to the door and opens it, without any
effort or self-denial on his part. The other is rescued in a different
manner. An individual, perceiving his danger and liability to death,
ascends to him, and by a severe effort, and while he is himself
suffering from the flames, holds open the door until the inmate
escapes for his life. Now, the one who opened the door without
self-denial may have been merciful, and the individual relieved would
recognise the act as a kindness done to one in peril; but no one would
feel that _that_ act proved that the man who delivered the other
manifested any special mercy, because any man would have done the
same act. But the one who ascended the ladder and rescued, by peril,
and by personal suffering, the individual liable to death, would
manifest special mercy, and all who observed it would acknowledge the
claim; and the individual rescued would feel the mercy of the act,
melting his heart into gratitude to his deliverer unless his heart
were a moral petrifaction.
What are, in reality, the facts by which alone men may know that any
being possesses a benevolent nature? Not, certainly, by that being
conferring benefits upon others, which cost him neither personal labour
nor self-denial; because we could not tell but these favours would cease
the moment they involved the least degree of sacrifice, or the moment
they interfered with his selfish interests. But when it requires a
sacrifice, on the part of a benefactor, to bestow a favour, and that
sacrifice is made, then benevolence of heart is made evidently manifest.
Now mark--any being who is prompted, by benevolence of heart, to make
sacrifices, may not lose happiness, in the aggregate, by so doing; for a
benevolent nature finds happiness in performing benevolent acts.
Self-denials are, therefore, not only the appropriate method of
manifesting benevolence to men, but they are likewise the appropriate
manifestations of a benevolent nature. Now, suppose God is perfectly
benevolent; then, it follows in view of the foregoing deductions, in
order to manifest his true nature to men, self-denials would be
necessary, in order that men might see and feel that 'God is love.' It
is clear, therefore, that those who reject the Divinity of Christ, as
connected with the atonement, cannot believe in God's benevolence;
because God is really as benevolent as the self-denials of Christ
(believed in as Divine) will lead men to feel that he is: nor can they
believe in the mercy of God in any way that will produce an effect upon
their hearts. To say that the human heart can be deeply affected by
mercy that is not manifested by self-denial, is to show but little
knowledge of the springs which move the inner life of the human soul.
Man will feel a degree of love and gratitude for a benefactor who
manifests an interest in his wants, and labours to supply them; but he
will feel a greater degree of grateful love for the benefactor who
manifests an interest in his wants, and makes self-denials to aid him.
To deny, therefore, the Divine and meritorious character of the
atonement, is to shut out both the evidence and the effect of God's
mercy from the soul.
In accordance with this view is the teaching of the Scriptures. There
is but one thing which is charged against men, in the New Testament,
as a fundamental and soul-destroying _heresy_, and that is, not
denying the Lord, but 'denying the Lord that bought them.' It is
rejecting the purchase of Christ by his self-denying atonement which
causes the destruction of the soul, because it rejects the truth which
alone can produce love to the God of love.
But further: the facts have been fully proved, that God Jehovah, by
taking a personal interest in the well-being of the Israelites, and
labouring to secure their redemption, secured their affections to
himself; and that his acts of mercy produced this effect was
manifested by their song after their final deliverance at the Red Sea.
'I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the
horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my
strength and song, and he is become my salvation.' In like manner,
Jesus Christ secured to himself, in a greater degree, the affections
of Christians, by his self-denying life and death, to ransom them from
spiritual bondage and misery. The Israelites in Egypt were under a
temporal law so severe, that while they suffered in the greatest
degree, they could not fulfil its requirements: they therefore loved
Jehovah for temporal deliverance. The believer was under a spiritual
law, the requirements of which he could not fulfil, and therefore he
loved Christ for spiritual deliverance. This fact, that the supreme
affection of believers was thus fixed upon Christ, and fixed upon him
in view of his self-sacrificing love for them, is manifest throughout
the whole New Testament--even more manifest than that the Jews loved
Jehovah for temporal deliverance. 'The love of Christ constraineth
us,' says one: thus manifesting that his very life was actuated by
affection for Jesus. Says another--speaking of early Christians
generally--'Whom [Christ] having not seen, ye love; in whom, though
now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and
full of glory.' The Bible requires religious men to perform religious
duties, moved by love to Christ: 'And whatsoever ye do, do it
heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye
shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord
Christ.' Mark--these Christians were moved in what they did, what they
said, and what they felt, by love to Christ: love to Jesus actuated
their whole being, body and soul. It governed them.
Now, suppose that Jesus Christ was not God, nor a true manifestation
of the Godhead in human nature, but a man, or angel, authorised by God
to accomplish the redemption of the human race from sin and misery. In
doing this, it appears, from the nature of things, and from the
Scriptures, that he did what was adapted to, and what does, draw the
heart of every true believer--as in the case of the apostle and the
early Christians--to himself, as the supreme or governing object of
affection. Their will is governed by the will of Christ; and love to
him moves their heart and hands. Now, if it be true that Jesus Christ
is not God, then he has devised and executed a plan by which the
supreme affections of the human heart are drawn to himself, and
alienated from God, the proper object of love and worship: and, God
having authorised this plan, he has devised means to make man love
Christ, the creature, more than the Creator, who is God over all,
blessed for evermore.
But it is said that, Christ having taught and suffered by the will and
authority of God, we are under obligation to love God for what Christ
has done for us. It is answered, that this is impossible. We cannot
love one being for what another does or suffers on our behalf. We can
love no being for labours and self-denials in our behalf, but that
being who voluntarily labours and denies himself. It is the kindness
and mercy exhibited in the self-denial that moves the affections; and
the affections can move to no being but the one that makes the
self-denials, because it is the self-denials that draw out the love of
the heart.
It is still said, that Christ was sent by God to do his will and not
his own; and therefore we ought to love God, as the Being to whom
gratitude and love are due for what Christ said and suffered. Then it
is answered: If God willed that Christ, as a creature of his, should
come, and by his sufferings and death redeem sinners, we ought not to
love Christ for it, because he did it as a creature, in obedience to
the commands of God, and was not self-moved nor meritorious in the
work; and we cannot love God for it, for the labour and self-denial
were not borne by him. And further: If one being, by an act of his
authority, should cause another innocent being to suffer, in order
that he might be loved who had imposed the suffering, but not borne
it, it would render him unworthy of love. If God had caused Jesus
Christ, being his creature, to suffer, that he might be loved himself
for Christ's sufferings, while he had no connection with them, instead
of such an exhibition, on the part of God, producing love to him, it
would produce pity for Christ, and aversion towards God. So that,
neither God, nor Christ, nor any other being, can be loved for mercy
extended, by self-denials to the needy, unless those self-denials were
produced by a voluntary act of mercy upon the part of the being who
suffers them; and no being, but the one who made the sacrifices, could
be meritorious in the case. It follows, therefore, incontrovertibly,
that if Christ was a creature--no matter of how exalted worth--and not
God; and if God approved of his work in saving sinners, he approved of
treason against his own government; because, in that case, the work of
Christ was adapted to draw, and did necessarily draw, the affections
of the human soul to himself, as its spiritual Saviour, and thus
alienate them from God, their rightful object. And Jesus Christ
himself had the design of drawing men's affections to himself in view,
by his crucifixion: says he, 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me.' This he said, signifying what death he
should die: thus distinctly stating that it was the self-denials and
mercy exhibited in the crucifixion that would draw out the affections
of the human soul, and that those affections would be drawn to himself
as the suffering Saviour. But that God would sanction a scheme which
would involve treason against himself, and that Christ should
participate in it, is absurd and impossible, and therefore cannot be
true.
But if the Divine nature was united with the human in the teaching and
work of Christ--if 'God was in Christ,' [drawing the affections of
men, or] 'reconciling the world unto himself'--if, when Christ was
lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, he drew,
as he said he would, the affections of all believers unto himself; and
then, if he ascended, as the second person of the Trinity, into the
bosom of the eternal Godhead--he thereby, after he had engaged, by his
work on earth, the affections of the human soul, bore them up to the
bosom of the Father, from whence they had fallen. Thus the ruins of
the fall were rebuilt, and the affections of the human soul again
restored to God, the Creator, and proper object of supreme love. Oh
the length, and the breadth, and the depth, and the height, of the
Divine wisdom and goodness, as manifested in the wonderful plan of
salvation! 'Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in
the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.' Amen.
Blessing and honour, dominion, and power, be unto Him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen and amen.