THE GOSPEL WITNESSES.
2 Col. xiii. 1. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established."
T has pleased Almighty God, in His great mercy, to ve us accumulated evidence of the truth of the Gospel; to send out His Witnesses again and again, Prophet after Prophet, Apostle after Apostle, miracle after miracle, that reason might be bronght into captivity, as well as faith rewarded, by the fulness of lIis revelations. The double Festival which we are now celebrating, rem.inds us of this. Our Service is this day distinguished by the commemoration of two Apostles, who are associated together in our minds in nothing except in their being Apostles, in both of them being Witmsses, separate Witnesses of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Thus this union, however originating, of the Feast Days of Apostles, who are not especially connected in Scripture, will serve to remind us of the diversity and numher of the Witnesses by whom
84 St. Phili ad St. acs. one and the same Sacred Truth has been delivered to us.
But, fiu'lhcr than this. Even the twelve Apostles, many as they were, form not the whole company of the Witnesses vouchsafed to us. In order more especially to confirm t.o us, that the Word has really become incarnate, and has sojourned among men, another distinct Witness is vonchsafcd to us in the person f St. i'aul. What could be needed beyond the preaching of the Twelve? they all were attendants upon Christ, they had heard IIis words, iley bad imbibed lIis Spirit; and, as agreeing one and all in the matter of their testimony, they uffwdcd full evidence to those who required it, that, though their Master wrote not t[is Gospel for us with Ills own finger, nevertheless we htve it whole and entire. Yet tic did more than this. When the time came for publishing it o ile world at large, while He gradually initiated their minds into the fifll graciousness cf the New Covenant, as reaching to Gentile as well as Jew, llc raised np to IIimself, by direct miracle and inspiration, a fi'esh and independent Witness of it from among His persecutors; so that from that time the:Dispensation had (as it were)a second begiuning, and went forward upon a twofold foundation, the teaching, on the one hand, of the Apostles of the Circumcision, and of St. Paul on the other. Two schools of Christian doctrine forflwith e.xisted,—if ] may use the word "school," to denote a difference, not of doctrine itself, but of history, between the Apostles. Of the Gentile school, were St. Luke, St. Chnmnt., and others, followers of St. Paul. Of the School of the Circumcision,
St. Peter, and still more, St. John; St. James, and we may add, St. Philip. St. James is known to belong to the latter, in his history as Bishop of Jerusalem; and, though little is known of St. 1)hitip, yet what is known of him indicates that he too is to be ranked with St. John, whom he followed (as hi.tory informs us), in )bserving the Jewish rule f cclehra.ling the Easter Feast, and not the tradition of St. ['cter and St. Paul. I propose upon this Festival to s(,! before you some considerations which arise tnt of this view of the Scripture history. Christianity was, and was not, a new religion, when first preached to the world; it seemed to supersede, but it was merely the fulfilment, the due development and maturity, of the Jewish Law, which, in one sense, vanished away, in another, was perpetuated for ever. This need not be proved here; I will but refer you, by way of illustration, to the language of Prophecy, as (for instance) to the forty-ninth chapter of the Book of Isaiah, in which the Jewish Church is comforted in her afflictions by the promise of her propagation and triumphs (that is, in her Christian form) among the Gentiles.. " Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.... Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold; all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. 4_s I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doth.... The
94 St. P]i@ ad St. in his writings; that is, it is plain, that he was not exMting a mere nmne or idea, any more than the rest, bug a Person, a really existing Masger. For instance, fiL. John says, "Tha which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you;" and St. Peter, " This voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him iu the IIoly Mount;" again, "' We are witnesses of all things which lle did. '' In like manner St. Pa enumerates, as his "(lospel," not mere principles of religion, but the facts of Christ's life, recuing to that yew pa of the lispensation, in which he w inferior to his brethren. "I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for ur sins according to the Scriptures,... was buried,... re again the third day, and that He was seen of Ceph, then of the Twelve, after that... of about five hundred brethren at once... after that... of James, then of all the Apostles;" he adds, with expressions of selI: abement, "And last of aH, He was seen of me. "e AgMn in his directions for administering the Lord's Supper, he refers carefiflly to our rd's manner of ordaining it, as recorded in the Gospels; again, in the seventh chapter of the same Epistle, there would seem a repeated reference to our rd's words in the Gospel; "unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord." In the same chapter the verse beginning, "This I speak for your own profit," h been supposed with reason to refer to St. Luke's account of Martha's complaint of MaW, and our Lord's speech thereupon. In his first Epistle to Timothy, he alludes to our rd's appearance before 1 John i. 3. 2 P,,t. i. 18. Acts x. 39. 1 Cor. xv. 8—8.
Pilate. In his farewell address to the elders of Ephesus he has preserved one of His sayings which the Gospels do not contain; " It is more blessed to give flaan to receive. ''1 And in the Epistle to the Hebrews reference is made to Christ's agony in the garden. 3. The doctrine of the Incarnation, or tlae Gospel Economy, as embracing the two great truths of the Divinity of Christ and the Atonement, was not (as far as we know) clearly revealed, during our Lord's ministry. ]'et, observe how close is St. Paul's agreenlent with St. John. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh."—" Christ Jesus, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; yet humbled Itimself, being made in the likeness of men." St. John calls Christ "the Onlybegotten Son in the bosom of the Father;" and St. Paul, " the Fia'st-begotten." St. John says, that He hath " declared the Father," and, in His own sacred word.-_, that "he that hath seen Him, hath seen the Father;" St. Paul decla.res that He is "the Image of the Invisible God,"" the brightness of His glo W, and the express Image of His Person." St. John says, "All things were made by Him;" St. Paul, that "By Him God made the worlds." Further, St. John says, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us fl'om all sin;"—St. Paul, flat " in Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins;"—St. John, that "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with le Fafler, Jesus Christ the righteous;"St. Paul, that He "is even at the right hand of God, and also maketh intercession for us;" Acts xx. 35.
to each other in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual SOUS. 9. St. Paul makes much of the Holy Eucharist; nay, to him the Church is indebted tbr the direct and clear proof we possess of the sacramental virtue of that, Ordinance. Far different.is the conduct of innovators; who are impatient of nothing more than of ordinances which they find established. He also rccoguises the obligation of the Lord's day, 9 he being the Apostle who denounces, as other Jewish rites, so also the Sabbath. 10. St. Jude bids us "coutend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints." In like manner, St. Paul enjoins Timothy to " hold fist the form of sound words, which he had heard of him;" and Titus, to "hold fast the faithful word as he had been taught, that he might be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. '' St. l'aul bids us " speak the Truth in love;" St. John says, he " loves Gaius in the Truth." 11. It is observable that our Lord speaks of His Gospel being preached, not chiefly as a means of convetting, but as a witness against the world. This is confessedly a remarkable ground to be taken by the Fouuder of a new religion. "The Gospel of the kingdora shah be preached in all the world, for a witness tmto all nations. '' Accordingly, He Himself witnessed even before the heathen Pilate, "To this end was I lorn, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the Truth. ''1 Yet, surely, it is still more remarkable, that the Apostle of the Gentiles should take up precisely the same view, even referring to our Lord's Confession before Pilate, when giving Tinmthy his charge to preach the Truth, declaring, that the Gospel is "a savour of death unto death," as well as "of life unto life," and ibretelling the growth of " evil men and seducers" after his departure, e 12. Observe the agreement of sentiment in the tbl- 1,wing texts- St. James, taught by his Lord and Master, says, " Be ye d,gers of thc word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." St. Paul nearly in thesame words, ":Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers t the law shall be justified. ''a Again, did we not know whence the following passage come, should we not assign them to St. James? " God will render to every man accord-ing to his deeds; t, them, who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek tbr glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath.... tbr there is no respect of persons with God." This, as well as the text just cited, is to be tbund in the opening of that Epistle, in which St. Paul appears most to differ fi'om St. James; now observe how he closes it. " Why dost thou judge thy brother? And why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgnent-seat of Christ.... Every one of us shall give accouut of himself to God." Again, in John xvSii. 37. 1 Tim. vi. 13. 2 Cor. ii. 16. 2 Tim. iiL 13. James i. 22. Rom. ii. 13.
is gradually able, in proportion to his diligence and prayer) to reconcile and satisfy himself as regards St. Patti's apparent discordances in doctrine fi'om the rest of the Apostles, so much after all must remain, just enough, that is, to build the foregoing argument upon. At the same time, as if to ensure even the historical harmony of the whole Dispensation, we are allowed to set against our inibrmation concerning this separate origin of the two Apost,)lical St, ho)ls, the following facts; first, that St. Paul evcr cousidered himself ecclesiastically subordiuate o the Church at Jerusalem, and to St. James, as the Book of Acts shows us; next, that St. John, the beloved disciple, who "was in Christ before him," was appointcd to outlive him, and, as a faithful Steward, to seal up, avouch, and deliver over inviolate to the Church after him, the pure and veritable teaching of his Lord. As to the point of doct'inal agreement and difference which I have been employed in ascertaining, it is scarcely necessary to observe, that beyond controversy the agreement is in essentials—the nature and office of the Mediator, the gifts which IIc vouchsafes to us, and the temper of mind and the duties required of a Christian; whereas the diffcrence of doctrine between them, even admitting there is a difference, relates only at the utmost to the Divine comsels, the sense in which the Jewish law is abolished, and the condition of justification, whether faith or good works. I would not (God forbid!) undervalue these or any other questions on which inspiration has spoken; it is our duty to search diligently after eve T jot and tittle of the Truth graciously revealed to us, and to maintain it: but I am here speaking as to an unbeliever, and he must confess, that viewing lle Gospel Creed in what may be called its historical proportions, a difference of opinion as to these latter subjects cannot detract from that real and substantial agreemeut of System, visible in the course of doctrine which tile Two Witnesses respectively deliver. Next, speaking as a Christian, who will admit neither inconsistency to exist between tile inspired documents of faith, nor poinls of trivial importance in the revelation, I observe notwithstanding, that the foregoing argument affords ns additional certainty respecting tile characteristic doctrines as well as the truth of Christianity. An agreement between St. Pa.ul and St.. John in behalf of a certain doctrine is an agreement not of mere texts, but of separate Witnesses, an evidence of the prominence of the doctrine delivered in the Gospel system. In this way, if in no otler, we learn the momentous character of some particular tenets of revelation which heretics have denied, as the Eternity, ol; again, the Personality of file Divine Word. Farther, we are thus permitted more clearly to ascertain the main outlines of the Christian cha.racter; for instance, that h)ve is its essence,its chief characteristics, resignation, and composure of mind, neither anxious for the morrow, nor hoping from this worhl and its duties, almsgiving, self-denial, prayer and praise. Lastly, the very circumstance that Almighty God has chosen this mode of introducing the Gospel into the world, I mean, this employment of a double ageucy, opens a wide field of thought, had we light to trace out the parallel providences which seem to lie amid the intricacies of His dealings with mankind. As it is, we can but gaze with the Apostle in wonder and adoration upon the mystery of His counsels. "0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and IIis ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been l l is counsellor? Or who hath first given to IIim, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of tlim, and through IIim, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Anlell. ' 1