TIIE FEAST OF ST. JAMES, THE APO,TLE.
][ATT. XX. 23. " To sit o My right hatd atd on My lc.ft is not Mie to give; bttt it sluzll be given to thctr for whom it is preTaved of My Father."
N these words, t.o which the:Festiwd of St. James the Greater especially d irects our minds, our Lord solemnly declares that the high places of IIis Kingdom are not His to give,which can mean nothing else, than that the assignment of them does not simply and absolutely depend upon Him; for lhat lie will actually dispense them at the last day, and moreover is the meritoriou. cause of any being given, is plain from Scripture. say, lie avers most solemnly that something besides His own will and choice is necessary, for obtai,ing the posts of honour about His throne; so that we are naturally led on to ask, whcrc it is that this awful prerogative is lodged. Is it with His Father? He proceeds to speak of His Father; but neither does lie assign it to Him, "It shall be given to them for whom it is prqared of My Father." The Father's foreknowledge and design modern Systems in which they are fomd. The one is the Predestiuarian Hypoflesis; viz. that, in spite of the text, it is God and Christ with who. the ultimate decision concerniag the individual's state depeds; that His grace does not merely suggest., influence, precede, and follow, but forms in the soul a ew character, not by the soul's instrumentality, but immediately by IIimself, and is effect, ual with some, ot with others, at lIis own will, not at the idividual's. The oe, I sa.y, is this Predestinariau Doctrine; and the other is the doctrine of Purgatory. With this latter I am not now concerned; and I mention it, only as a remarkable fact,.that flae same Teacher, highly to be venerated except where he deviates from Catholic doctrine, hould have first sanctioned certain characteristics of two Systems, which lie on either side, as f the primitive, so of the present Anglic,qn Churcl. l)ismissig the coincidence with this rema.rk, I proceed to mtke some baief observations on the groined of argument on which the Predestinarian Doctrine rests. It is doubtless a great mystery, how it is that one man believes, and another rejects the Gospel. It is altogether a mystery; we cannot get at all beyond the fact, and must be content with our ignorance. But men of reasoning, subtle, and restless minds, haw within them a temptation to inquisitiveess; they cannot acquiesce in the limits of God's revelation, and go on to assume a cause for the strange things they see, when hey are not told one. Thus they argue that a man's self ca.nnot be the ultimate cause of his faith or unbelief, else there would be more first causes than 2
Next, let us inquire whether fhere be any Scripture reason for breakiug the chain,,f doctrine which text suggests. Christ gives tile:Kiugd,)m to those whom it is prepared of the Father; the Father prepares it. fl, r those who love and serve l[im. I)oes Scripture warrant us in re'ersing this order, and considering that any are chosen t,) love:I[im by ][is irreversil,le decree? The disputants in question maintain fhat it does. l. Scripture is supposed expressly (,)2.oi,c perseverance, when men once savingly partake of grace; as where it is said, " lie which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of,lcsus Christ;" and hence it is inferred that tile sal'ation of the individual rests ultimately with Gt,d, and not with himself. But here I would ol,ject in tile outset t.o applying to individuals promises and declarations made to bodies, and of a general nature. Tile question in debate is, not whether God carries forward bodies of men, such as the Christian Church, to salvation, but whether lie has accorded any promise of indefectibility to given individuals? Those who differ from us say, that individuals are absolutely ch,-,sen to eternal life; let them then reckon up the passages in Scripture where perseverance is promised to individuals. Till they can satisfy this demand, they have done nothing by producing such a text as that just cited; which, being spoken of the body of Christians, d,_,es but impart that same kind of encouragement, as is contained in other general declarations, such as tile statement about _od Phil. i. 6.
willingness to save, Ills 1,eing in the midst of us, and the like. But let us suppose, fi)r argument's sake, that such passages may be applied to individuals; fi,r instance, as when ('hrist says, that no one " shall pluck His sheep out of tIis Father's hand." Now, I would maintain that here a condition is understood, as is c, mstautly the case in Scripture, as in other writings; viz. that while the sheep "follow" Christ, and keep within the f, dd, none can phtck them thence. God proclaims his name to Moses, as "foNiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty;" but what would be thought of a commentttor who hence int:rred that the impenitent might be forgiven, and the repenting sinner fail of pard(n? Again, " It is God which worketh in you bogh o will and to do of ills good pleasure. '' Wha is this bug a declaration, that on the whole all our sancificatk, u is from rst to last God's work? how does i interfere with this, to say that. we may effectually resisg that work? 3Iighg it hog truly be said tlat the cure of sick person was wholly attributable to tle physician, withou denying thag tle former, had he so chosen, mighg have obstinately rejected ghe medicine, or thag flmre might have been (though there was hog) some malignang habig of body, which completely baed the medical a.rg? Does the ehauee of failure make i less the physician's work when there is hOg failure? In gruth, the wo doctrines of he soverei and John x. 28. Exod. xxxiv. 7. Phil. ii. 18.
overruling power of Divine grace, and man's power of resistance, need not at all interfere with each other. They lie in different provinces, and are (as it were) incommensurables. Thus St. l'aul evidently accounted them; else he could not have introduced the text in question with the exhortation, " Work out" or accomplish " your own salwi.tion with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh" or acts "in you." So far was he from thinking nlm's distinct working inconsistent with God's continual aiding; that he assigns the knowledge of the latter as an encouragement to the former. Let hie challenge then a I'redestinarian to pm'aphrase this text. We, on the contrary, find no insuperable difficulty in it, considering it to enjoin upon us a deep awe and reverence, while we engage in those acts and eflbrts which are to secure our salvation front the belief that God is in us and with us, inspecting and succouring our every thought and deed. Wotfld not the Jewish IIigh Priest, on the Great 1 ay of Atonement, when going through his several acts of propitiation in God's presence, without and within the Veil, "exceedingly fear and quake," lest he should fail in aught put upon him? and shall not we, in our more blessed Covenant, knowing that God himself is within us, and in all we do, fear the more fi'om the thought that, after all, we have our own part in the work, and mns do it well, if we are to be saved? What, on the other hand, is the meaning of saying with the Predestinarian, "Work anxiously, because, in reality, you have no work to do?" I say this, not so much by way of argument against him, as to shmv that a text which might be adduced in his behalf chances (so to say) to be implicated with an exhortation, such as proves tha it, and therefore similar passages, cannot really be explained as he wonld have it; proves, that his argument fl'om it, " The whole work ,f salvation is of God, lhcrore man has no real part in sccuring it," in fict runs contrary to the Apostle's owu argumcut from his own words, "[an must exert himself, bceaasc God is present with him." It is quite certain that a modern Predestinarian never could have written such a sentcnce. Another instructive passage of this kind is our Lord's declaration, with St. John's commcnt upon it, in the sixth chapter of his Gospel, "There are some of you that lclieve not. For Jesus knew firm the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray I Jim. And lie said, Therefore said I unto you, that no ma can come unto Me, "unless it were given unto him of My Father." lIcre, in the plain meaning of the words, (lod's tbreknowlcdge of the issue of free will in individuals is made compatible (though the maturer how is not told us) with electing grace. "Whom lie did foreknow, lie also did predestinate." Take again another passage. "I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly;" "I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long sufferrag. It appears that the Apostle saw no inconsistency iu preaching that no sinner can claim forgiveness, yet that those who are lc guilty than others obtain it. These two doctrines do not seem to have come into Johnvi. 64, 65. 1 Tim. i. 13, 16.
collision in his mind, ally more than in our own; it is quite plain that a Predestinarian never would have introdneed the first while descanting on the second. 2. In the next place, there are many passages of the following kind, which are sometimes taken to fitvour the Predestinarian view, and require explanation. "God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as I[e hath chosen us in IIim before the foundation of tile worhl, that we shouhl be holy and without blaine before llim in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of chihh'en 1,y Jesus Christ to IIimself, according to the good 1,1casure of tlis will." IIere certainly an election is spoken of, irrespective of the conduct of the individuals who are subjects of it. Again, " By grace are ye saved through fitith; and that salvation not of yourselves, it is the gift of God:"1 and the like. But in such 1-,assages let it be observed, neither heaven nor the grace of sanctificatfin is spoken ot; but the present 1,rivilege, high indeed and peculiar to the Gospel, but only a privilege, of regeneration. This great Christian gift of course includes in it the communication of a sanctifying grace; but snch a grace may be, and under circumstances has been, given without it. The Jews were aided by the Spirit of Sanctification, not of Regeneratiou. They were not the sons of God, as we are; whereas in every age "the just have lived by faith," and the like fruits of Sanctification. Now, where are we told that this sanctifying Grace is irrespective of the free-will of individuals? for this is the point. On the other haml, Eph. i. 3—5; ii. 8.
we readily grant that the grace of Regeneration is such; indeed, we grant that it is more than all that certain teachers hold Sanctification to be. It is a definite and complete gift conveyed, not gradually, but at. once; or at least it has not more than a second degree, in the rite of Confirmation, wherein what is given in ,aptism is sealed and secured; and moreover, it is a state distinct fiom every other, consisting in the Sacred Presence of the Spirit t,f lrist in soul and body; and lastly, it is bestowed on tlfis man, or that, not l,y any rule which wa can discover, but at the inscrutable decree of l[im who calls into llis Church whom lie will. But faith, ". together with the other gifts of,_anctfficaton, is not thus 1,estowed. In its nature it is independent of 12,egcneration, and, in the frmal scheme of the Gospel, it is antecedent to it. It is the antecedent condition for receiving the Ordinances which convey and seal Regeneration,Baptism and C, onfirmation, tlence, St. John says, "As a,ny as received Him, to them gave He power to becone the sons of God, even to them that believe on Ills Name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of tile will of man, but of God." And St. Paul, "BclicviTg in Christ, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession." It avails not, therefore, to enlarge upon the characteristics of the Christian Election, with a view of proving the irreversible decrees of God concerning the final salvation of individuals.
away, what the revealed Will is, and what we are to hold respectirag it. ".I. I live, saith the Lord God, I lmve no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wickc,! turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: for why will ye die, O ] l(use of Irael?"