THE STATE OF GRACE.
lOltI, v. ] 2. " Beingjustified byfaith we bave loeace with God through out JL«rd Je««s Christ; by u, hom also we bave access by faith ieto this grace wherein w stand, a»zd rejoice in holge of the glory of God."
HERE are nmny men, nay the greater part of a Christian country, who have ueither hope uor fear about futurity or the unseen world; they do hot think of it at all, or bring the idea of it home to them in anv shape. They do not really understand, or try to understand, that they are in God's lvresence, and nust one day be judged for what they are now doing, auy more than they see wbat is going ou in another quartcr of the world, or concern themselves about what is to hatTen to them ten years hence. The next vorld is far more distant from them than any future I)eriod of this lire or any other country; and consequently, they have neither hope nor fear about it, for they bave no thought about it of any kind. Thee are others vho feel no fear whatever, though they profess to feel much joy and transport. I cannot sympathize with such, nor do I thiuk St. I)atd would,
34 T/w S/a/e of Grace. fin" he bids us " work ou out own salvation with fear and rembling;" nor S. Peter, who bids us "pass the rime of out sojourning here in fear. '' But there are others who seem only to fear, or o have very lit.tle joy in religion. These are in a more hopefld sate t.han those who only joy and do nog fear at all; yet they are no altogether in a righ state. Uowever, ley are in an interesting state. I lmrpose o describe ig now, and to make SOlne relnarks upon if. I is certainly t.he duty, as it is the privilege, of every Christian t.o have his heart so fixed on Christ as to desire tIis coming; yet alasl it too often happens that when we say, "Thy kingdom corne," our sins fise up before out minds, and make out words falter. Now the pem»ns I speak of are in so sad and uncomfortable a state of mind, as to be distressed whenever they think of the next world. They may be weH-living, serious persons, and have ever been such from their youth; yet they have an indefinite sense of guilt on their minds, a consciousness of their own miserable failings and eontimml transgressions, such as annoys and distresses them, as a wound or sore might, when they think of Christ's coming in judgment. A sense of guilt, indeed, every one, the best of us, must have. I mn hot blanng lhat, bu I speak of s«h, a sense as hinders those who feel it ff'oto rejoicing in the Lord. They have one thought alone before their minds, the 'eat irregularity of their lires; they corne to Church, and try to attend, but their thoughts wander; the day passes, and it seems to them unprofitable. They have done God no smwice. Or 1 Phil. ii. 12. 1 Pet. i. 17.
The S/ate of Gracc. 3 5 aga, in, they have sonae natural failing wh/ch breaks out from rime to tilne, and grievously a.ttticts thena on recollection, l'erhaps they are passionate, and are ever saying what they are sor T for afterwards; or they are fll-tenapered, and from rime to rime put eve T thing ahout them into confusion, and naake every onê uni happy by their gloomy looks and sullen words; or they are slothflfl, and with ditîàeulty naoved to tta any thing, and they are ever lamenting wasted hours, and opportunities lost. The consequence is, that their religion is a course of sorrowfld attempting and failing, self-reproach, and dTness of spirits. They are deeply sensible how good God is, and how wonderfld His providence; they really feel very gratefld, and they really put their trust where it should be put. Iht their faith only leads them to see that judgnaent is a fearful thiug, and theh sense of God's mereies to say, " How little grateN1 ana I." They hear of the blessings pronaised to God's true servants after death, and they say, "Oh, how unprepared aih I to receive them." Now no one will fancy, I should trust, that I ana saying any thing in disparagement of sueh feelings; they are very right and true. I only say they shotfld hot be the whole of a naan's religion. He ought to have other and naore eheerful feelings too. No one on eart.h is free from inaperfeetion and sh, no one but has nauch continually to repent of; yet St. Paul bids us "rejoiee in the Lord alway;" and in the text, he describes Christians as having peace with God and rejoicing in hope of His glory. Sins of infirmity, then, such as arise front the infection of oto original nature, and hot from deliberat.ion and wilfulness, have no divine warrant to keep us from joy and peaee in believing. Now, then, t.he question is, how the persons in question eome to have this defeetive kind of religion. 1. In t,he first plaee, of eourse, we nmst, take int.o aeeount bodily disorder, which is hot unfrequent, ly the cause of t.he perplexity of niind I have been deseribing. Many persons have an anxious self-t, orment.ing disposit, ion, or depression of spirit, s, or deadness of the affections, in eonsequenee of eontinued or peeuliar ill-healt.h; and thmgh it is t,heir st, udy, as it is t,heir dut.y, t,o strive against t.his evil as mueh as they ean, yet it often may bc ilnpossible t,o be rid of it.. 0f course, in sueh eases we ea.n impute no fault, to them. It is God's will; He has willed in His inscrutable purpose that they should hot, be able to rejoiee in the Gospel, doubtless for their ultimate good, to try and prove t,heln; as any thing else may be a trial, as ill-health itself is sueh. They should hot, repine. It is an undeserved merey that, they have the (lospel brought, near to then at, ail, that. they have the prospect of heaven, be it faht or distinct,; and they must be patient under their fears, and t.ry to serve God more strictly. 2. But,, again, the uneomfort.able stat.e of mind I have deseribed, somet, imes, if, is to be feared, arises, I will hot say froln wilfltl sin, but from some habitual defieiency which might be eorreet,ed, but is hot. It is very diffieult, of course to draw t.he line between sins which are (as if were)the direct eonsequenees of our old nature, and t,hose whieh me more st, riet.ly and entirely out own, yet t,here is a elass whieh rises above t.he former, though it would be harsh to call them wilflfl. The sins I speak of a.rise partly through frailty, partly through want of love; and t,hey seem just to have this efl'ect, of dimming or quenching our peace and recurring and stated acts of seen and provided against. may overtake a man vhen joy. Such, for instance, are sin, such as might be tbre- Anger, on the contrary, he least expects if. Indolence may show itself in a difliculty or inability to fix his mind on the subject which ought to occupy it, so that rime goes and nothîng is d,me. III-retaper may fall upon him like a spell, and bind his fulties, so that his very attempts to break it may make him seem more gloomy, untoward, and disagreeable, from the apl,earance of an effort and stlaggle. Such need hot be more than sins of infirmity. But there are sins which ha.l,pen at certain rimes or places, and which a man ought to prepare for and overcome. I do hot say that he must overcome them this time or that, but he lnust be in a state of warfare against them, and nmst be tending to overcome them. Such, for instance, is indolence in rising from his bed. Such, again, is a careless, ifregular, or hurried way of saying private prayer. Such is any habitual excess in eating or drinking. Such is running into temptation,—going again a«d again to places, or among people, who will induce him to do what he should hot, to idle, or to jest, or to talk much. Such is extravagance in spending money. All these laxities of conduct impress upon our conscience a -ague sense of irregularity and guilt. The absence of a vigilant walk, of exact conscientiousness in all thhgs, of an earnest a.nd vigorous wa.rfare against out spiritual
3 8 The S/a/c of Çrace. enemies, in a word, of striet.ness, his is what obseures out perce and joy. Sricness is t.be cndition of rejoiciug. The Chrisian is soldier; he my hve many falls; hese need no hinder his joy in t.he Gospel; he mus be lmmlled indeed, bu no downcas; i does no In'ove he is no fight, iug; he has euelnies witbin and wit.houg him; he has the renmins of a fallen nature. Bug wilfld sin in auy shape proves t.hag he is nog an houesg soldier of Chrisk If iV is habitual and deliberate, of course ig destroys his hope; hue if ig be less than deliberage, and yeg of the nature «f wilful sin, iV is sufficient., though u,g (we t.rusg) to separate him ag once ri-oto Christ, yet to separate him from the inward vision of t[im. The saine result will follow, perhaps iemediably, where men have been in t,ast lire open or halitual simers, though they lnay now have repented. Penitent.s eauliOt hope to be as eheerful and joyful in faith as those who bave never fallen away from Goal; perhaps it. is hot desirable t.hey should be, and is a bad sign if t.hey are. I do hot mean t.o say that in the course of years, and after severe humiliation, it. hot possible for a repentant siroter to feel a well-gounded pêaee and eomfort, but he nmst hot expeet it. He must expeet to be haunted with t.he ghosts of past sins, rising ri'oto the eharnel-house, eourt.ing him to sin again, yet filling him the vhile with remorse; he nmst. expeet trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of nind, '' misgivings about his safety, misgivings about the truth of religion, and about partieular doetrines, painfM doubt.s and dieulties, so t.hat he is foreed M Deut. xx'iii. 65.
grope in darkness or in cold and dreary twflight. I do hot say there are hot ways of escapiug all this lnisery at a mtment, but they are false ways; bnt if he coutinues in the truc aud narrow way, he will find it rough and paiful; and this is his fit correction. 3. Again, where there is no room for supposing the existence of wilflfl sins, past or present, this fcarflfl anxious state of mind arises very commolfly from another cause in,me shape or other—froln hot having a lively sense of out present privileges; aud this is the subject to which I shall call your attentions, l\Iauy indeed, finding that Scripture says great thilgS about the joy which truc Christians have in the Gospel, think if consists in their having personally and iudividnally an assurance of their absolute predestination to eternal life; or af least of their being now iu a state of salvatiou, such that, were they at once to die, they would be sure of heaven. Such a knowledge of course would inspire great joy if they had it; and they fancy that the joy of the Christian does arise from it. But since they have if hot, and only thiuk they have if, it is obvious what extravagances will follow from the notion instead of real benefit; what pea'ersion of the Gospel, what rashness, loresumption, self-exaltation, and intemperate conduct. Such persons of course claire the more consolatory parts of Scripture, such as the text, for themselves. They forcibly take them from more sober Christians, as if they were their own, and others had no right to them, nay, as if others had no right to explain them, to comment on them, or to have an opinion about them; as if they alone could understand them, o feel them, or appreciate them, or use them. What is the consequence? better men are robbed of their portion; their comf»rtable texts are gone, they acquiesce in the notion (toc readily) t, hn,t these texts,are 9wt theirs; hot tlmt they exactly allow that they belong to the enthusiastie persons who clim them, but they think they belong to no che af all, that they lelonged indeed foSt, l'aul, and to in,pired or highly-gifted men, but to no che now. And this conclusion is strengthened by the circumstance, t.lmt mt, n of duller and less sensitive minds are williug to give thcm up. There are persons highly respectalle indeed, and serious, lut whose religion is of a dry and cold cha,racter, with little heart or insight into the next worhl. They have strong sense and regular halits; their passions are hot violent, their fcelings not quick, a.nd they lmve no imagination or restless reason to run away with their thoughts or to perplex them. They tic hot gfieve much or joy much. They do joy and grieve, but it is in a way, in a certain line, and hot the highest. They are most excellent men in their line, but they do hot walk in a lofty path. There is nothing unearthly about them; they cannot be said to be worldly, yet they tic hot walk by things unseeu; ihey do hot diseern and contemplate the next wofld. They a,re hot on the alert to deteet, patient in watching, keen-sighted in tracing the movements of God's secret l'rovidence. They do hot feel they are in an immense unbounded system, with a height above and a. depth beneath. They think every thing is plain and easy, they bave no diïculties in religion, they see no reeondite and bdieve in no hidden meaings in Scripture, and discern no hints there symlathetic with guesses within them. Such men are used to explai away such passages as the text; to be "at peace with God," " have,qccess into the grace i1 which we stand," to "rejoice in h,le of the glory of God,"—to them h,qve little or no meaning. Their joy does hot fise higher than what they call "rational fa.ith and hope, a satisfaction in religion, a cheerfulness, a well-ordered mind, and the like,"—all very good words, if 1,rt,perly used, but shallow to express the fulness of the Gospel privileges. What with the enthusiastic, then, on the one hand, who pervert the texts iu question, and with the brrenminded on the other, who explain them away, Christians are commmly left without the texts at ail, and so htve nothing to contemplate but their own failings; and these surely are numerous enough, and fit to m,qke them dejected. Observe, then, what religion becornes to them,—a system of duties with little of privilege or comfort, b'ot that any one would have cause to Coml,ltin (God forbid!) though it had no privilege; for what can sinners claire fo whom it is a great gain to be respited from heil? Not that religion can really be without privflege; for the very leave to serve Goal is a privilege, the very thought of God is a privilege, the very knowledge that Christ, has so loved the world as to die for it is an inestimable privilege. Religion is full of privfleges, involved in the very notion of if, and drawn out on the right hand and on the left, as a man w,qlks along the path of duty. He calmot stir this way or that, but he
142 Thc S/ate of G-acc. awakens some blessed mtd consoling t.houglt wbich cheers and strengt.hens him insensibly, even if it does hot so present itself to him, tlmt he cm contemplate md feed upon it. However, in the religious systêm I speak of, the privilcge of obedience is concenled, and the bare duty 1)romincnt.ly put firwar,_l; the privileges are ruade vague and general rat.her than persona.1; and thus a man is Mmst redueed to e st, ate of natural religion, in which (lod's Law is kliOWll without His Gospel. Under such cireumstanees, religion becomes little more than a code of monds, tbe word and will of an absent God, who will one day corne t.o jndge and recompense, hot t.he voice of a prescrit and bounti%l Saviour. And this may in one sense be ealled a bondage,a bondage, yet without flmreby disparaging the excellence and perfection of God's law. Men at this day so boldly talk of tbe bondage of tbe law, that if you heard them, you would think that the being amder that law was in itself a misery or an inferior state, as if obedience to God's commmdments were something low and second best. But is if really so? tlen are the Angels in a very low star.e. The highest blessedness of any crêature is fo be under the law, the highest glory is obedience. If is our shame, not our privflege, that we do hot obey as the Angels do. Men speak as if the Gospel were glorious, because it destroyed the law of obedience. No; it dest.royed the Jewish law, but not the holy law of God therein contained and manifested. And if t.hat Holy Word, which "endureth for ever in heaven," whieh is co-eternal wifl God, is a bondage to us, as it is by nature, so ranch fle more slmme for us. It is out great
I']e Statc of G'ace. 43 sinfulness, no any inheren defec in t.le lw, which makes it a bondage; and the message of the (lospel is glorious, hot beeattse it releases us ff'oto the law, but beeanse il enables us fo fulfil it,—flflfil it (I do m»t say wholly and perfeet.ly), but with a eont.inual approximat.ion to perfeet obedienee, with an obedience running on into perfeet,ion, and whieh in the mxt wo'ld xvill fise into and resnlt in perfect, ion. This is St.. Paul's accourir of it, "Being hot without, laxv to God," he says, " bnt under t.he law to ('hrist. ''a Again, " Not ha¥ing mine own righteousness, whieh is of the law," t.hat is, that kind of obedienee t,o the laxv fo whieh he bj hi»- self att.ained, " but t, hat whieh is through the faith of Christ, '' that high and spirit, ual obedienee whieh faith in Christ, aided by the graee of Christ, enabled him to aeeomplish. And in another place, "The eomnmndment which was ordained to lire, I fmmd to be unto death..... The Lav is holy, and the eommandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that whieh is good ruade death unt.o me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in inc by that whieh is good, that sin by t, he eommandment might beeome exeeeding sinfifl.... The law is spiritual, but I ara earnal, sold under sin." And again, "Wha.t the law eould hot do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, eondemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of t.he law might be fulfilled in us, who wk hot after the flesh but after the Spirit. '' a 1 Cor. ix. 21. Phil. iii. 9. Rom. viii. 3, l.
44 çhc S/a/c of Çracc. When then I say t.lmt religion, considered as a law or code ,f morals, is a bondtge, let no one suppose me fo countenauce that presumptuous and unchristian spirit, which seems to exult in being through Christ free (as it thinks) from the ]aw, instead of being bound and able through (_',hrist to obey if more perfectly. The glory of the Gosl,el is, hot that it dcstroys the law, but that if makes it ccase to bc a bmdage; hot that if gives us freedom fv» it, bnt i. if; and the notion of the Gospel which I havc bccn dcscvibiag as cold and narrow is, hot that of SUlq,t)sing (2hl'istial6ty a l;w, but of supposing if fo be scarccly more than a law, aud thus leaving us where if found us. tic who thinks if but a law, will of course be fearful and miserable. The commandment of God will seem true, but to him, a helpless sinuer, hard and uninviting; and though if is still his duty to try to obey, and he will do so, if he be Christ's in heart, yet he will do so sadly and sorrowfully, his memory contimmlly embittered, and his conscience laden with fresh and fresh sins. Two thoughts alone will be before him, God's t)effections and his own sinfulness; and he fcel love and gratitude indeed to his Almighty Lord and Saviour, but hot joy. He will look upon the niessage of the Gospel as a series of conditions. He will consider the Gost)el as a covcnt, in which he must do lais pu% and God will assuredly do His. Now, salvation, doubtless, is conditional, and the Gost)el/s a coveriant. These words are as good and as true as the word "law;" but then salvation is hot ncrely conditional, nor the Gost)el vercly a covenant; and those who think so, unless they bave peculiarly happy n6nds, wfll obey in
T/ze S/aæc of G,'ace. 45 a eerta.in dry, du[l, hevy wa.y, without spring, alfimagion, life, vigour, and nol»leness. And if possessed of sensitiYe, gent.le, açetionate minds, they wi be very likely to sink into despondency and fea.r. And they a.re the prey or the moekey of every proud, selaeonrident boaster, vho passes by on the other side, boldly proelainfing himself o be eleeg and safe and possessed of a joyful assurance, a.nd that every one else, vho does hOt mke as venturesome a profession as he, is ca.mal and ci sl,ve of Sata.n, or at least in a state f,r, far below himself. Wht flen is it, tha.t these lit.tle ones of Christ lack, who, without wi[lkfi sin, past or present, on their consciences, are in gloom md sorrow What is the doct.rine that w quicken them, md ma.ke their de¥otion healthy Wha.t wi brace them a.nd nerve them, md make them lift up their heads, and v pour light and joy upon their countenance t it shines e the face of Moses when he came clown from the Momt Wha.t but the great and high doctrines connected with the Chwch They are hot nerely taken into coYenant with God; they are taken into His Church. They ha.ve hot merêly the p-omise of gra.ce; they haxe its presence. They have hot merely the conditiona.1 prosl)ect of a reward; for a blessing, ha.y, unspeakable, fathomless, iimitable, infinite, eternal blessgs are poured into their Ye W hea.rts, even as a first step and an eaaest from Goal out Sa¥iour, of wha.t He w do for those vho loYe Him. They "m'e passed ri'oto death unto fe," and ar the children of Goal and heirs of heaven. Let us steadfly contemplate ts comfoable view, and we sha ga IV] K
4 6 st.rengh, and feel cheerfid and joyfid in spit.e of out sins. 0 fearfitl fçdlower of Christ, how is never flought of what, th,_,u art and what is in thee Art flou n()t Christ's purchased possession? Has He hot reseucd fliee ri'oto t, he devfl, and put a new nature within thee? 1)id l[e hot in Baptisln cast out the evil spirit and enter into thee IIimself, and dwell in thee as if th.u hadst 1,een an Aahallgel, or one «,f the Seralllim wllo worshi 1) 1,efiwe I[im continuallv? A[uch and rightly as th«,u thinkest of thy sins, hast t.hou no thought,, I do hot say of gratitude, 1,ut of wonder, of admirat.i«m, of amazement,, «f awfltl raid overp.wering transp«rt, at wha. t.hou art t,hrough gra.ce? Vhen Jacob woke in the morning, his fil'S tlmugq was danger, t.h,ngh he rightly fel both, said, "How dreadful is this 1,1aeel this is none other lu the bouse of God, and flis is the gate of heaven. '' Congeml,late then thyself, nog in thyself, bng as thou ar in the Egenml God. FN1 down in astonishmeng ag the glories whieh are around ghee and in thee, poured to and fro in such a wouderN1 way tha thou arg (as ig were) dissolved into the MNdt,m of God, as though thon hads nougqg t, do bu t.o eontemplate and feed upon tha greag visi, n. This surely is the state of mind the Apostle speaks of in fle texg when he reminds us who are justified and a peaee with God, glag we have the aeeess o His roy eom'ts, and st, and in His grace, and rejoiee in hope of His glory. 1 ghe t, rouble whieh the world infliets upon us, and whid flesh eanno bug feel, sorrow, pa, eare, bereavemeng, these avail no to disturb the Gen. xxviii. 17.
Thc S/c/c of Cracc.: 4 7 tranquilliy and the intensiy with whieh faith gazes upon the Divine [ajesty. All the necessal T exactness of our obedience, t,he anxiety about failing, the pain of self-denial, the watchfilness, the zèal, the seltZchastisements which are required of us, as litt, le interfere with this vision of faith, as if they were pn, ctised l_,y another, hot ly ourselves. We aa'e two tr three sêlves at once, in the wonderful st'ucture of our minds, and tan weep whe we smile, and l,I,»ur while we meditate. And if so much is given us by the first Scrament of t, he ç*hurch, what, think we, is given us in the second O, lny brethren, le us raise and enlarge our notions of Cln'is's P'esence in that myste6ous Ordinance, and we shall tuderstand htw it is that the Christian, in sldte of lfis infirmities, and hot firgetting thêm, still may rejoice " with j.-y Unsleakable and fiH of glory." For what is it- that is vouchsafed to us af, the I[ç,ly Table, when we commemorate the rd's death? It is, ",lesus Chris before out eyes evidently set fo'th, crucified alnong us. ''r 'ot before otu" l»ody eyes; so far, every thing remai a the end of tha I[eavelfly Conlmmit,n as it did a the beginning. What was bread remains bread, and wha was wine a'emains wine. We need no earnal, earthly, visible miracle fo convinee us of the Presenee of the Lord Incarnate. We lmve, we 'us, more faith than to need o see the hevens opea, or the t[oly Ghost deseend in body shape,more faith than fo atempt, in defiufl of sight, to inddge out a'eson, and fo confine out notion of he Saeramen fo some clea" assemblage of words of our own framhg. We have faith and love enougq, in Gal. Ei. 1.
I48 T/ze Slale of Gracc. St. l'aul's words, fo "diseern the Lord's 9ody." He who is a he righ haud of God, mnifess Hhnself in Holy Seramen as reHy ud fully as if He were visilly here. We are allowed fo draw near, o "give, ta.ke, and et" His saered ody ad 91ood, s truly h,ugh like Thomas we eodd touch His hands and thrust out hand ho His side. When He aseended into the Mmn, "lI fee did shine as the sun, and raimen was white as the ligh. ''8 Such is the gqo6ous preseuee which ftith sees in the Holy Communion, hough every thing ltoks as uual to the natural Not gold or precious stones, pearls of grea price or gold of 01hir, are t,» the eye of faith so radian as those lowly. elements which l[e, the Iligqês, is pleased to make mems tf conveying to our heaoEs and bottes His own gTaci)us self. ot the light of fle sun sevenfold is so awflflly bright and overpowering, if we couM see as the Angels do, as that seed of eternal life, which by eating aad drinking we lay up in out heaoEs against the day of t[is coming. In spite then of a.H recoHections of the past or fear fi)r the future, we bave a present source of rejoicing; whatever cornes, weal or woe, however stands out accomt. yet in the books against tle Last. I)ay, this we have and this we nmy ory , the present power and grace of God in us and over us, and the means thereby given us of victory in the end. Such are the thoughts which fiH the heaoE with joy, yet without tending in consequence to relax our obedience, for a reason already mentioned, riz. that strictnca of fe, exact conscientiousness, is the tenure of our Iatt. x. .
The S/ate of Gracc. 49 privileges. They are ours o possess, tha. i out glory; they are ours to lose, ha. is out solicitude. We can keep them, we have hot to gain them,—but we slmll hot keep them without fear and tremhling; still we havc them, anti there is nothing to hinder our rejoicing in them while we hwe them. For fear has reference to the future; and that we ay lose them to-mwrow (which Goal forbid), but supposing it, is no reason why we should hot rejoice in them to-day.