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well in the staple at the right point of suspension, and that it extends unbroken the whole of the proper length, being there also rightly fixed. Nor must we be deceived by names. Living actions, as performed by ourselves, may receive such names as to satisfy us of their propriety without any search into their true nature. Unless we closely apply all to the standard of the law, we shall easily be deceived. Numbers, actually, are thus deceived. Most classes of men have their maxims, such as "the law of honour,"-" professional consistency,"-"the custom of trade;" and often do these justify proceedings which will not abide a moment's examination in the light of the law of God. No wonder, then, that when men will not bring their entire conduct to the law for judgment, they should allow themselves in actions which the law condemns. They are content without supreme and constant reference to the law. They allow themselves in wrong-doing without perceiving it. They are Antinomians. So was St. Paul an Antinomian even when a Pharisee. He thought he ought to do many things against the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. He did them, and his conscience was at rest. And yet when he was exceedingly mad against them ;" when he was 66 breathing out threatenings and slaughter;" he forgot that it was said by the very law in which he trusted, "Thou shalt do no murder:""Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." He himself confesses that when, in his own estimation, he " was alive," it was the law;" and when "the commandment came," when his judgments began to be guided by the law, then the "sin," on the absence of which he had congratulated himself, "revived," stood before him as no longer a forgotten, but real, existence, and he "died."

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And the same remarks may be made as to our character; that is, our conduct, taken as a whole, and in connexion with its originating views and feelings, thus forming a moral whole, considered as the mentally visible moral form of the living man. We may content ourselves if this appears to be right generally, and taken altogether. Instead of this, we ought to make these inquiries, not viewing it as from some distant point, hazed, diminished, and seen in little more than outline: we ought to come close to it, that we may see it as it is, and ask, 1. What are the facts which it really does include? 2. Trying each by the portion of law applicable to it, Are they all right, and are they properly connected? 3. Is all present that ought to be there? For want of such examination something actually wrong may pass unnoticed; some natural disposition may be mistaken for a Christian grace, merely because directed to a religious object; or some real Christian grace, which ought to be present, may be absent, because the disposition to which it is allied may exist in us only in a defective manner, so that we may be content, ourselves, with seeking the sanctification of what is prominent and obvious, without perceiving that something is wanting which ought to be supplied. We may be right so far as we may go; but we may not go far enough. In an important sense, every one needs a rule for himself. Allowing that it is right to have a chart of the whole ocean, that he may not be at a loss if called to a distant voyage, yet he needs to have a most correct one of the portion in which he actually navigates. It is not enough that the mariner, who goes from one port to another, knows the general direction of the coast along which he has to sail; he must know its particular projections and indentations, its rocks and its harbours; else, when he happens to be near the land, and the wind is contrary, the night dark, or the weather foggy, he may easily, especially in a storm, mistake his course and run his vessel ashore, lose his cargo, and perhaps life. And

this is one of the dangers to which the Christian is exposed, and against which he is warned. He may "make shipwreck of the faith, and of a good conscience." On the general points, whether of duty or danger, revelation is sufficiently explicit. But it was impossible that it should describe particular events, as occurring in the history of individuals. We must, ourselves, make the application. We are thus commanded to do justice, and to love mercy. The faithful Minister has no difficulty in constructing a discourse on the text: but here is a difficulty,-the faithful Christian has to discover what it is to do justice and to love mercy in the actual circumstances of his own life. Our safety is to be secured, not by a preservation to which we are no party, but by sufficient grace conferred on watchfulness and prayer. For avoiding danger, and fulfilling our course,-a course, in some respects, differing for every one,-three directions are necessary. 1. We must secure mercy and grace, and keep on the whole armour of God, that we may successfully withstand in every evil day. 2. We must know well, and continue studying, the directions given to us both for doing and shunning. 3. We must possess that practical wisdom, that sound sense in reference to moral subjects, which shall enable us promptly and rightly to apply the rules furnished, to the circumstances through which we are actually ourselves passing. All three are necessary. Such is unpardoned man, that without the first we shall not be able to attend to the two latter. But no attention to the first will compensate for the neglect of the latter. We are only safe while we are kept by the power of God unto salvation through faith. And precisely here is the danger of that practical Antinomianism, against which we so earnestly desire to suggest cautions. True faith is always active. It comprehends in its range of view entire revelation, in its practical references as well as in its redeeming provisions. It not only receives God's promises in Christ, but also the instructions given us that we may secure their accomplishment. But the effect of that practical device of Satan which we are describing, is, so to limit our view to one object, namely, the promised salvation, as to occasion a degree of negligence as to the others,—those which refer to scriptural directions, precepts, and warnings; all, in effect, that is described in the true significance and extent of the term, "the law of the Lord." Mistaken faith practically annuls certain portions of the divine record, deprives them of force, makes them as to us as though they were not. True faith, full, as well as strong, says, "Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way."

We have proposed, in order the more effectually to guard the Christian pilgrim against this God-dishonouring and soul-injuring error, to give instances of the operation of its principle. But that our remarks may be the better understood by being confined to one object, in its several aspects, we observe that we altogether set on one side two cases. We refer not now to those who, in scriptural phrase, are called "backsliders." Previously walking in the way of truth, they have, unhappily, not been faithful. They have "turned aside to their crooked ways;" and, if they do not penitently seek that their backslidings may be healed, "they shall be led forth with the workers of iniquity." But this is a case in which the law of God is evidently violated, not made void through faith. Nor do we now refer to those who have been, it may be through unwatchfulness and temptation, "overtaken in a fault." Judas was a direct backslider; Peter fell through self-confidence and sudden temptation. Happily for the latter, he "wept bitterly," and was restored. This, however, was a single

combat, in which he was overcome; he fell not by making void the law through faith. Others may fall in a similar way, and inflict much injury on themselves, and occasion much dishonour to the cause of God in the world. But these are not the cases with which we are now concerned.

The cases we describe for the illustration of the dangers against which we desire to guard the reader, exhibit something systematically, habitually wrong, wrong always, wrong existing in consequence of such ignorance or misapprehension of the divine law as a mistaken view of faith will cause; wrong which would not exist if the law were better understood or better applied. We suppose the combination—a most unhappy one, and greatly to be deplored, we acknowledge-of undoubted sincerity, with some real but unnoted evil in heart or life. We again admit that these cases are very melancholy. We have spoken strongly on their mischievousness. But we cannot deny their existence. We dare not say of those in whom they occur, that they are fully aware of their own wrong. They who are so, belong to a very different class. Judgment on their character must at once be pronounced. The law of God must be upheld, whatever becomes of them. The instances we have in view are bad enough ; but let us not make them worse than they are. We may stand in doubt, where yet we dare not absolutely deny sincerity. We condemn the inconsistency. We are bound to do that. All attempts to explain it away, to soften it down, would lead directly to its perpetuation. But let us refrain from judging the person. We may not be able to reconcile the defects, we cannot deny, with that evangelical acceptance which they profess to enjoy; but the Searcher of hearts may, and with him we must leave them, sorrowing that the light which sometimes shines so clearly as to preclude doubt, should at other times be so deeply obscured that our confidence is staggered, and we are thrown back on charity and hope.

Practical Antinomianism, as issuing from mistaken views of faith, and its relations to the divine law considered as a rule of life, will generally be found to have, as its direct and proximate source, ignorance or oversight of some portions of that inspired record which contains and declares the law. For particular views of its developments, the way will best be prepared by a succinct statement of the workings of a truly regenerate and enlightened conscience. By first laying down the straight line, we shall be the better enabled to perceive the bendings of the crooked one, and to ascertain the precise points, and thus the occasions, of their departure.

Where vital godliness is truly a governing principle, and he in whom it reigns possesses that true power of spiritual life which successfully resists all destructive influence from without, his earnest desire and practical design will be to be all that God would have him to be, and nothing that God would not have him to be. Knowing that the will of God is contained in his word, to that word he will carefully and continually attend; and he will do this that he may be "filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." He will read Scripture, not as a formal task, a mere duty, to be fulfilled by the external act, passing our eyes over so much of its surface, without any effort to search out its interior significance; but meditating on it so as to ascertain its meaning, and place it in that great receptacle of practical principles, the deep memory and sanctified conscience of our innermost soul; thus working together with the Holy Spirit in having the law of God written on our heart, and put in our inward parts. We thus hide the word of God in our hearts, that we may not sin against him, and have the word of Christ dwelling in us richly.

But this will not be all. Wherewith is a man to cleanse his way, but by taking heed thereto according to the word of God? Our practice will be as closely examined, as severely criticised, as well as the rule carefully applied. Knowing that an object of his calling is, that in him Christ may be glorified before angels, men, and even devils, he will labour according to his light, ever seeking from Scripture for more light, that he may attain to the highest excellence of character that is attainable, that the grace, holiness, and wisdom of Christ may be manifestly declared in him ; so that he will seek to have every blemish removed, every defect supplied, and that he may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. But now comes in, and just here, the Antinomian principle. He contents himself with imperfect views of the designs of mercy, important as far as they go, but yet imperfect as dissociated from others, in their place equally important. Those designs are regarded as only proposing the deliverance of the soul from the final penalty of sin, and the introduction of the whole man to the everlasting joys of heaven. Of heaven itself the notions are extremely vague. It is blessedness, perfect and endless, in God's presence. The idea often comprehends no more, and this only in its general form. Whereas we are called not only to be glorified by Christ, but to glorify him by exhibiting in our character all the results of his holy will, effected by that instrumentality which he has devised and established. He who rightly understands this, will not only labour, as the ordinary phrase is, to get to heaven, but also, and even chiefly, to be made meet for it, by purity and deadness to the world, and the anticipations of its blessedness by the influences of faith and hope and love. He will fix his dwelling, even though the position be less advantageous secularly, in the very neighbourhood of the Pisgah, whence he may survey the beauties and riches of the land of promise, to which all his desires tend. His secondary aims will be subordinated to the ultimate one, and no means employed to promote the former, whatever success they promise, which would at all endanger the latter. He will not consider that his great business is with this world, and then to receive heaven as a sort of unknown appendage, when he can stop in the world no longer; but, as the Apostle did, so will he: "This one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to those which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Let me here pause to request my readers to join me in such inquiries as these. They may think that the subject is carried too far, raised too high; but here is the New Testament. We cannot alter it. What says the word of God? Can we read the Scriptures, and doubt whether this high devotion is enjoined? that as a blessing it is promised? that it is described as actually governing the true people of God? They may come short of their aspirations, intentions, and resolutions; but they lament it, seek for mercy and grace, and renew their unslackened efforts. They who look for heaven otherwise, if the Bible be the word of God, contenting themselves with a sort of general obedience, that is, avoiding evident and open sins, practising evident and visible duties, maintaining a sort of general profession, but never adorning it, remaining substantially the same from its commencement to the close of life, must, if the Bible be true, have admitted, in some way or other, a sort of unacknowledged persuasion, that the method of salvation by mercy lowers the claims of holiness, that is, they are making void the law through faith, they are entangled in the maze of a practical Antinomianism.

The subject is a most serious one. The honour of God as Sovereign is deeply involved in it. Look again at the positive requirements of Scripture. Then look at the conduct of many who profess to desire, and seek to be saved by, grace through faith. Does it furnish a bright and commanding evidence of the wisdom of God, in the arrangement of the wonderful scheme by which they who are in Christ Jesus are to be freed from the condemnation of the law through the blood of Christ, and to have, through the truth and Spirit of Christ, the righteousness of the law fulfilled in them? In the Scripture theory that evidence is most demonstrative; nor is there a stronger proof of the divine origin of religion and its sacred record. Is it equally apparent in the conduct of those who profess to have embraced the scheme? We refer not to the mere results of human weakness, nor to the occasional efforts of sudden temptation, in which they who are thus "overtaken in a fault" perceive, acknowledge, and regret it, and seek at once to recover themselves from it. At the risk of incurring the charge of repetition, we say, that the cases to which we now refer, are those in which there is reason to believe that, on the whole, true piety exists, but exists in connexion with something, which, according to the standard of the New Testament, is undeniably wrong; but the wrong is not perceived, nor is there any attempt at amendment or supply.

Is it doubted whether such cases exist? We appeal to facts. We appeal to general acknowledgment. Is such language as this never heard?— "We should not have been surprised if worldly people had done so ; but we do not understand it in these professors." Is it never said, “Even men of the world, from their sense of honour, would not allow themselves to do as these religious people do?" What are we to say? Must we condemn all such as wilful, or as self-deluded, hypocrites? We dare not; for there are other evidences, and these also we must take into the account, evidences of undoubted piety, so far as their indications extend. As, on the other hand, the purity and excellence of the Gospel-law must be maintained, in all their unbending integrity. Individuals we must leave to God; but, for the honour of religion, we must seek to ascertain the cause of the error, that, if possible, by pointing it out, we may contribute to its extinction. Again, therefore, do we point to what we conceive to be its real sources. There is not a sufficiently minute and extensive acquaintance with that rule of life and standard of character, which the Scriptures do most authoritatively promulgate. Things are done, therefore, or omitted, because it is not practically seen that they are enjoined or forbidden, or there is not a sufficiently clear, vigorous, and impartial examination of conduct or character. What is present may be right, and absence and omission may not strike the attention; or the wrong may exist under a plausible form, may be disguised under some right or innocent name, and the search may not be carried beyond the surface. The only sure method of thoroughly "cleansing our way," is that laid down in Scripture: "By taking heed thereto,' and doing this "according to thy word." Suppose that we were "under the law," and not "under grace," we should confess this to be absolutely necessary, and that, in order to our salvation, we must mind both these things; such taking heed to our way, as implies the accurate perception of every footstep, and such knowledge of the word as implies an accurate acquaintance with each particular injunction; and then, as resulting from this, such a heedful application of the rule to the walk, that our actual path may be the counterpart and representation of the one which is described in Scripture. But we are not under the law, we are under

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