Faith : treated in a series of discourses
Alexander, James W. (James Waddel), 1804-1859
:} mk •iii'.m>:mm<. rM, •JhNnnni'^nn?. mmm 'mmmm iiM iilii, iiiiiii 3. 2- 2../?" ^^ tVic all?pnlo0tra/ ^ ^ PRINCETON, N.J. *^ Presented by. XX\\£>^ (5/. IH . GsO^Yy-]^^^ Division L/L<L^ , Sectkn Q.l^- ^.j^^,^ jr^;^^:^ J^^^^t^ By the same Author: THOUGHTS O^ PREACHING. Being Contributions to Homiletics. 1 vol. 12mo. cloth, $1 25. COIS'SOLATIOK In Discourses on Select Topics, ad- dressed to the SuflFering People of God. 1 vol. 12mo. cloth, $1 25. DISCOURSES ON" COMMON TOPICS OF CHRIS- TIAN FAITH AND PKACTICE. 1 vol. 12mo. cloth, $1 25. FORTY YEARS FAMILIAR LETTERS OF JAMES "W. ALEXANDER, D. D. Constituting, with the Notes, a Memoir of his Life. Edited by the Surviving Correspondent, John Hall D. D. 2 vols. crown octavo, with 2 Portraits, cloth, $3. LIFE OF ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER, D.D. With a fine Portrait on Steel. 1 vol. 8vo. cloth, $2 50. FAITH. Treated in a Series of Discourses. 1 voL 12mo. cloth, $1 25. Copies sent by mail {postpaid) on receipt of price. FAITH V MAR 22 1918 TREATED IN A SERIES OF DISCOURSES JAMES W. ALEXANDER, D.D. KEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER, 124 GRAND STREET. 1862. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by CHARLES SCRIBNEK, In tho Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. JOHN" F. TROW, PRINTER, STERF.OTYPER, AND EbECTROTYPER, 43 & 50 Greene Street, New York. PREFACE DuEmG the years 1856 and 1857 Dr. Alex- ander delivered to his congregation at intervals a series of discourses on Faith. These he in- tended to enlarge and throw into the form of a treatise, and had actually made arrangements for its publication, when his failing health pre- vented its accomplishment. Knowing that the author had expended much labour in the prep- aration of these discourses, and believing that they clear up many difficulties connected with the subject, I now present them to the public just as they were delivered. Although much is lost in the arrangement, 4 PREFACE. and in the absence of matter wliicli Dr. Al- exander intended to have incorporated, yet enough remains to authorize their publication. I have added one or two discourses of a more general character, to bring the volume to a con- venient size. S. D. A. New York. CONTENTS •♦» I. PAGE THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS, ... 9 IL SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION, . .... 33 IIL THE NATURE OF FAITH, 63 IV. THE OBJECT OF FAITH, 91 V. FAITH CONSIDERED AS JUSTIFYING, . . . .119 VL JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH, 141 VIL FAITH ESTABLISHING THE LAW. 181 6 CONTENTS. viir. PAGE THE PROGRESS OF FAITH, 20'? IX. EFFECTUAL WORKING OF FAITH, 233 X. JOY IN BELIEVING, 257 XI. HOPE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 281 XII. FAITH AND BAPTISM, 807 XIII. THE EFFICACY OF STRONG FAITH, . . . .335 XIV. IN THE BELOVED, 861 XV. CONVERSION AN OBJECT OF POWER, .... 887 XVI. THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL, . ... 411 I. THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. THE EIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE. FOR SINNERS. 1 John ii. 1.— And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Our translators have left some words in their original Greek and Hebrew form. Sach are Ameii^ Selah, Hallelujah, Baptize, Baptist In some instances this was done on account of the want of an exact equivalent. One of these words, which has no answerable term in English, is the very term here rendered Advo- cate. This Greek word, of frequent occurrence, and great preciousness, sometimes means one who takes up his client's cause, to carry it through by pleadings and acts, an Advocate; sometimes one who goes forth to make peace y^ 10 THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. between two parties, beseeching for an offender, an Intercessor ; sometimes one who stands by the sinking sufferer, uttering words of consola- tion and strength, a Comforter, All these offices concur in Jesus Christ, who is our Advo- cate to urge our cause — an Intercessor to make our peace — our Comforter to fill us with joy ; and hence one might almost wish the text had said, " If any man sin, we have a Paradetos with the Father." Kow, though this name of love is also given to the Holy Spirit, there is something delightful in regarding both the adorable Son and the Spirit as standing towards us in this same benignant relation of manifold good. In our mind's apprehension of Divine consolation, there need be no nice discriminating between the Yfork of the Son and the work of the Spirit, for when the Lord Jesus comforts, it is by the hand of the Comforter. Far different, how- ever, is the work here ascribed to Christ as our Paraclete. Here he transacts, not in us, but for us ; not on earth, but in heaven ; not with creatures, but with God. The topic presented to us is the Lord Jesus Christ as THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. H OUR Mediator and Head, acting on our BEHALF ABOVE, IN VIRTUE OF HiS PEtlFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS. You will at once be struck, on examination, with the strong contrast in tlie text between sin and rio-liteousness. It is I the sinful one : it is Jesus Christ the righteous. And this has a bearing which cui^soiy readers and superficial theologians are apt to overlook, being indeed the solution of the main difficulty to mankind. This is clearly and fully before the mind of the apostle John, whose characteristic it is, as a thinker and writer under Divine guidance, to unite depth of meaning with childlike plainness of words. His truths are solid and precious as the diamond, while they are no less simple and pellucid. I. Consider the case thus : If there were no such thing in the world as consciousness of sin^ the vast structures of all religions for procuring pardon and peace would tumble down or moulder away. It is sense of sin that troubles mankind. It is a pronouncing and punishing Conscience that anoints priests, declares fasts. 12 THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. keeps lents, rears altars, and sacrifices heca- tombs. It is tlie self-accused sinner who cries, " Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and how shall I bow myself before the High God ? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with yearlings ? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? " Mic. vi. 6. Yes, many have replied, and vainly endeavored to offer the rich- est and bloodiest oblations to escape the in- tolerable sting of sin in the conscience. So much worse is pain of mind than pain of body, that pagans and papists do most willingly en- dure and even will inflict on themselves any degree of suffering, from hunger, whips, hot iron, knives, ingenious and continued tortures, in order to get rid of the more direful inward furies of an e\dl Conscience. Under Christian- ity relief is afforded, but (mark it) only through Christian means. Christ cures this inward fever and frenzy; but only in those who drink of his fountain. The consciousness of sin, with its accompanying pain, sometimes dull and sub- THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. 13 dued, but always ready on provocation, or at the dying hour, or in eternity, to become poig- nant and agonizing, exists in all men ; and whenever the thought has become explicit, whenever the soul has come to comprehend it- self, it leads up to the idea of God as holy and as offended. 'Nor is this internal principle ever eradicated. It belongs to man as man ; and it stino-s and wounds and curses sinful man as sin- ful man. And when rehgious transfoiTQation takes place, though there be a new nature, there is no new faculty ; and Conscience abides on the vicarious throne as truly in heaven as in hell. The intermediate realm of the present life affords abundant scope for the work of Con- science, both in the righteous and the wicked. None are wholly pure : all are either wholly or partially unclean. As early as the first century this holy Apostle found reason to guard against the shallow conceit of sinless perfection, i. 8 : " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our- selves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins (a prompting of Conscience when led up to the Lawgiver and Judge) he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 14 THE KIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. US from all unrigliteousness." Consciousness of impurity begets repentance, and so confession, and so cleansing. " If we say (he adds) that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and his truth is not in us." Words which strikingly convey that truth we have been asserting, and which deserve our careful con- sideration. Any proposition introduced by the holy writer mth such unwonted and startling lan- guage must be of singular moment. Any error that would make the Lord a liar is an error not only to be forsaken, but guarded against and abhorred. This error is the alleging that we have not sinned. The doctrine of sin is funda- mental. This dark side of the contrast is always present, like the background of the painting, or, still more exactly, the chaos out of which order and light emerge. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The preaching of every apostle, nay, the entire Christian system, proceeds upon this. There is no such thing as becoming a true Christian by a process of mak- ing that which is not quite good, to grow grad- ually better. It is day out of night. There THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SIXNERS. 15 must be a tliorougli clearing away of every self- righteous figment, before the first stone of the gracious edifice can be laid In this we discern the reason why Paul, as a master workman, in his great epistle to the Romans, begins his sweeping process by utterly demolishing every ground of merit, and clearing away out of sight every pretence of Gentile and of Jewish right- eousness. And we seem to behold him, after the completion of this herculean task, and cleaning of this Augean stable, proclaiming, " But the Scrip- ture hath concluded all under sin, that the prom- ise by faith might be given to them that believe." Gal. iii. 22. Corresponding to which is the secret operation of God in the heart, by which he turns doctrines into experience, the doctrine of sin into the experience of conviction ; and thus he leads the soul to feel its utter condemnation and absolute need of help from without. How- ever deeply a man may feel the discontent of a worldly life, and how much soever he may de- sire religion, as a new and better means of com- forting himself, he has as yet done nothing, un- less he has known himself to be a sinner. In truth, this is the very thing and only thing, for 16 THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. which the Lord Jesus Christ first reveals him- self. All other and lesser benefits are but so many results. That which the sinner wants, is to be freed from his sin. This was the single charm which made the Gospel welcome to thousands, both Jews and Gentiles, at its first publication. The beautiful picture given by Neander in his Memorabilia is not overdrawn. Dire eclipse was over the nations by reason of sin. Athens and Alexandria had reared thought- ful minds, opened their vision to the likeness of virtue, lifted them up to behold the goodly and unattainable prospect, and then dropped them far down into the depth of the ocean. When a conscience-smitten and heart-sick philosopher, like him of the Clementina,^^ had come wan and panting, out of the round of rites, penances, mysteries, necromancies, schools, and systems, to the Church ; which he delighted in, which filled him with rapture, and which was sweetly symbol- ized by his baptism, it was the rising of a new luminary on his midnight of Sin. And the oper- ations of light in the natural world are not more constant than the operations of God's Spirit in * Denkwtirdigkeiteu. THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. 17 the world of grace ; for the soul destined to be saved is invariably brought first to pain for'liis sinfulness, and then to hungerings and thii'st- ings for tlie removal of sin. And in this long- ing the subject does not always, perhaj)s does not often, distinguish the longing for pardon from the longing for purity, justification, and sanctification. The poor sick child that tosses in hot fever on your bosom, yearns for health, for rest, for ease, for water, for the heaven-pro- vided fount ; it makes no nice inquii'ies of the pathologist. The poor sin-sick soul is dying for the one gift which the New Testament calls Righteousness. Every one who has ever come to the good Physician knows the burning wish. Every heathen sage, like Cyprian and Justin, went through what had previously been the ex- perience, of every Hebrew apostle, such as John or Saul. There runs through all the Gospel as the deep base of a harmony this consciousness of sin, which we discovered at the first view of the text as the gloomy part of its important con- trast. And the aged and beloved disciple, al- ways a minister of love, and always sorrowing to give even necessary pain, approaches the bed- 18 THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. side of his patients witli looks and words of un- usual pity, as fearing to uncover the wound which he must probe. His desire is for their holiness : " My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not." This is the great and blessed end, sinlessness, like that of the sin- less One. " This," says Calvin, " is not only a summing-up of what goes before, but, so to speak, a recapitulation of the whole Gospel, that we sliould cease from sinP And when the soul has proceeded thus far in experience, and breaketh for the longing which it hath to be loosed from the loathsome and gigantic foe, which wrestles with it only to defile and poison, the news it hails on bended knees is Glad News, for it is Gospel. 11. In those four or five verses w^hich precede the text, you have observed the concession, that even true disciples sin, a most mortifying yet familiar fact. And the lesson before us is in- troduced with particular reference to the case of sinning believers, who do the evil that they hate. The sequence of thoughts is this : 1. All commit sin, i. 10. 2. It is dreadful to ' THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. 19 commit sin. 3. If^ nevertlieless, we sin, there is one wlio is sinless : " If KWi man sin, there, IN THE COURT ABOVE, IS JeSUS ChRIST, WHO NEVER SINNED." All ! here again is a contrast ; but metMnks we liave called one out of tlie hemi- spliere of night into the hemisphere of day. It is good to transfer our observation from sin to righteousness, from earth to heaven, ft'om self to Jesus. Observe, while the principal figure offered to our gaze is Christ, it is Christ in a particular position. Our help and relief under conscience of sin is to be sought in con- templating the Lord our Saviour, not in the an- temundane gloiy when incarnation was only in decree ; not in the foreshadowings of patriarchal or Mosaic times ; not in humility on earth ; not even dying on the cross or sleeping in the tomb of rock ; but as entered " into heaven himself, now to appear in the presence of God for us," Heb. ix. 24 ; a wonderful commentary on the words, " We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." This heavenly work of our Kedeemer belongs not to the humiliation, but the exaltation. Both are priestly acts of our gi'eat and only Priest ; but one was below and the 20 THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. otlier is above ; one was transient, tlie other is jDerpetual ; one was payment of debt, tlie otlier is demand of release ; one was at tlie bloody al- tar in the outer court, the other is in the most holy place, within the vail, before the resplen- dent glory of the ark. Both concern our sin ; both concern Christ^s righteousness : but in di- vers respects. Our sin was expiated by the passion and death : it is removed by the ap- pearance of our Surety for us in intercession. Chiist's righteousness was in one of the princi- pal parts procured by the oblation of his own holy will in acts of obedience and suffering on earth ; it is gloriously set forth, in the sight of God and the universe in heaven, as an abiding and everlasting merit and ground of our accept- ance to and continuance in favour. The ancient priesthood, by a succession of men transacting with Jehovah in behalf of sinners, was constant- ly interrupted by death, but Jesus, as Paul de- clares, " is able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us," vii. 26. The chain of unstable priests is summed up in one who is immutable. "We have an altar whereof they THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. 21 have no riglit to eat who serve the sanctuary. We have a sacrifice, not of beasts, but of the Lamb of God. We have a tabernacle, model pattern, and antitype of that tent in the desert. We have a vail, embroidered over its dark blue web with constellations, and dividing the court of earth from the Holy of holies in heaven. We have a High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perpetual tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not in this build- ing. " A High Priest " (adds Paul) " who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Heb. \4ii. 2. The eye of the ancient sinner in the camp of Israel, as he stood at the altar, was wistfully fixed on the High Priest as he was lost from sight on the great day of atone- ment, mthin the holiest of all. The eye of the modem sinner, under grace, is equally fixed on the apostle and High Priest of our profession, whom the heavens have received, &c., the Para- clete, who pleads for us by all the beseeching and constraining merits of his life and death, before the throne of the heavenly grace. And 22 THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. blessed is the moment, when, after long and fixed looking at itself and its sins, tlie soul is drawn to look at the sinless One above ! Here within, there is no righteousness ; there above, is all righteousness. I am all sin ; He is with- out sin. If I sin, my advocate never sinned, and he is there with the Father. Thus the faith of the sinner lays its emphasis on the phrase, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now, in order that the doctrinal basis of our confidence may be firmly settled, and that we may escape the weakness of some, whose reli- gion is all sentiment, gust, and emotion, without any substruction of truth, let us consider for a few moments, liow it is that the consciousness of sin is relieved hy tlie vieio of a Jieavenly Advo- cate and 8ponso7\ ivJio is sinless^ Jesus Christ the righteous. Even in the most vague and general view of the subject, one must perceive that he who comes before the Sovereign, to intercede for rebels must be purged from rebellion himself. He who comes into court to answer for offend- ers, must be free from offence himself. He who undertakes for sinners, must be without sin: THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. 23 for who could answer for him ? Looking more nearly, we perceive tlie peculiar nature of this mediatory transaction ; that it was intended to relieve this grand difficulty of the universe ; i. e.y how a just God can pronounce the ungodly heirs of heaven. That which the world of sin- ners had lost and could never produce by itself, is conformity to God's will, and satisfaction of God's law. That which the inspired apostles represent our Redeemer as procuring and offer- ing is this very conformity and satisfaction ; in other words, righteousness. It is common for those who have not gone deeply into the theol- ogy of salvation, to ascribe the justification of the sinner exclusively to the death of Chiist. And it is true that the innocent bloodsheddino: and cruel death of our holy Lord was the chief proof of his love, and the culminating point of the redemptive process. Yet neither this nor all the other unutterable sufferings of our Saviour can be said to constitute the whole of that right- eousness through which we are made righteous. For when we come to examine the aspect under which this suffering is exhibited in Him, we find it to be a mode of obedience. " He was obedient 24 THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. unto deatli, even tlie death of the cross." Tlie enduring of penalty was liigh obedience. The essence of all obedience is the loving oblation of the subject will to the Supreme Will. This oblation of love, this subjugation of will, was indeed signally manifested in the garden and on the cross. But it was manifested elsewhere. It was manifested always. The whole life of the sinless One, from Bethlehem to Golgotha, was one offering-up of. himself in voluntary self- renunciation unto God as the surety of sinners. The entire circle of acts, words, and thoughts, of sentiment, habit, and disposition, was pure and perfect. The obedience included conform- ity to precept and endurance of penalty. In both, the Lord Jesus Christ offered, in the sight of all holy beings, and of God, an example of immaculate and infinitely illustrious holiness. And such is the righteousness which he ever jDresents before the throne of the majesty on high. It is because he is thus pure and glo- rious, that he can be a prevalent advocate. His plea is unanswerable. That the excellencies of Christ are the excellencies of one person, while the host of sinners is beyond numbering, need THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. 25 cause US no scruple. Tlie original Surety, who failed in the probation was one. " Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so, by the righteous- ness of One, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life : for as by one man s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." Komans v. 18, 19. Enhanced as is the intrinsic merit by the infinitude of nature and the divinity of person, it outshines what would be the joint splendor of all creature- righteousness ; even though all creatures had been holy, and men and angels had never fallen. The eye of Him who is so holy that the heavens are unclean in his sight, dwells with acquies- cence, approval, and divine delight, on such a spectacle of impersonated righteousness; and the sinner's heart is satisfied that God can now be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly that believeth in Jesus. Hear the precept^ " My lit- tle children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not." Hear the reliefs " and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ " who never sinned ! " Such a 2 26 THE KIGIITEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. High Priest "became us, who is holy, harmless, unclefiled, separate from sinners, and made hio-her than the heavens." Heb. vii. 26. Be- hold him, as he stands for us, within yonder vail ! The adumbration of this in the type was truly affecting and impressive to ancient Israel. Among all the sacred orders of the most taste- ful Gentiles, there was no personage so majestic as Aaron and his successors. Upon his brow was the plate of pure gold, lettered with the engravings of a signet : Holiness unto the Lord. Fit emblem of Jesus Christ the right- eous. None but the possessor of this " holy crown of pure gold " can fitly approach the King in his glory. Upon Aaron's breast was the twelvefold pectoral, with rows of sculptured gems, bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus our " forerunner " is for us entered, even Jesus, made a High Priest forever, thus he bears the names of his people next his heart. For their sakes he became man ; for their sakes he obeyed and died ; for their sakes he inter- cedes and reigns. All his acts as Elder Brother are sponsorial and vicarious ; and his very sanctity flows down from them. Mark this in THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINXERS 21 his prayer when near Gethsemane, Jolin xvii. 19, " And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." This is good news for sinners. If we sin, our Paraclete is sinless ; if we are guilty, God looks on us in " Jesus Christ the righteous." Justifi- cation by faith is justification by the righteous- ness which faith appropriates. You are never further from being accepted, O beloved sinner, than when you are most vehemently stirring and struggling to fabricate a righteousness of your own. Desist, for the achievement is im- possible. You have groaned under the load of sin, and have wrought hard to make youi^self better, but without success. The stone which you roll to the steep mountain top, continually rebounds upon you. The outward reforms which you sometimes effect only serve to show you how unreformed is the inward principle. Within you is nothing which can appease that wrathful conscience. 'No amount of zeal for ex- ternal service and legal obedience can atone for past sin, or purchase future happiness. These fruitless endeavors are like those of the Jews, whose condition was such a grief to Paul. " For 28 THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteous- ness, have not submitted themselves unto the ricrhteousness of God : for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness unto every one that believeth." Komans x. 3, 4. Endeavors to cope with sin in inflaming conscience, on any principles of mere natural strength, is like fight- ing against the rage of fire with one's naked hands. Attempts to cover up the lacerations of the heart and smother the remorseful pang, are always futile. " When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my moaning all the day long." " I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Ps. xxxii. 3, 4. Bring out, then, the long-concealed distress. Give over the effort to live without pardon and without peace. Dis- close the heavy secret and unbosom thyself to God. Confess judgment, and own the case to be blacker than thy worst enemy ever charged. Go down on thy knees, yea, lie prostrate in the dust, as the leper, the publican, the chief of sin- ners. But O, do not vitiate those sorrows, nor turn those tears into poison, by gauging, weigh- THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. 29 ing, and testing them, as if a certain amount of humbling would jDurcliase a certain amount of peace. No ! This were only to change the de- nomination of your tendered payment. Oj)en the soul at once to the great truth. There re- mains no payment to be made. The Surety hath paid all and cancelled all. The salvation is Avithout money and without price ; that is to say, we are saved by grace. Ask not w^hether you have been convinced enough, whether you have mourned enough, whether you have re- pented enough; as if you were bound to be convinced, to mourn, repent so much, before you could have a title to believe. Your title to be- lieve is the infinite veracity of God in offering Christ and his salvation to the chief of sinners. Believest thou this? Look upwards and see heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Forget thyself, forsake thyself, with all thy merits, all thy strivings, all thy tears, all thy repentings ; yea, even more and harder, forget thy short-comings, thy iniqui- ties, thy hardness of heart, thy unbelief; flee away from it all, and leave all far behind thee while thou dost ^x thine eyes upon the Advo- 30 THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE FOR SINNERS. cate witli the Father. Look unto him and be saved ! This is the beloved Son, in whom the Father is well pleased. Grant that you have sinned to the extent of utter condemnation, so as to be lost in unrighteousness ; he who pleads is Jesus Christ the righteous. The argument which he wields is his obedience unto death. As it pleased the Lord to bruise him, so it pleases the Lord to grant him the travail of his souL Believest thou this? Believe on Jesus Christ the righteous, and thou shalt be right- eous. Dare you close with the offer ? Dare you make a venture, on God's word in promise, and Christ's heart in pledge ? Nay, it is no venture, but the infallible certainty of God. The Judge is ready, the Surety is ready, the righteous- ness, the pardon, the adoption, the kiss of peace, all are ready, except thy lingering, doubting, self righteous, self-destroying soul ! II. SPIRITIJAL ILLUMINATION. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 2 Cob. iv. 6. — '' For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in oui' hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." If we compare tlie record of inspiration in tlie Scripture witli tlie equally divine record of grace, in the experience of tlie lieart, we shall arrive at this satisfactory conclusion with regard to the enlightening influence which precedes Faith. The soul is in widely diverse states, as to vision of truth, before and after the mighty and creative call. That effectual summons marks a dividing point and all-important junc- ture. Before that moment, the mind is dark, and has no right and adequate apprehension of divine truth in its spiritual quality, especially the truth concerning the person and grace of 34 SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. Clirist. After that moment, liglit having been given to tlie understanding, there is spiritual vision of the truth, which thus becomes attrac- tive, credible, and influential. This change is due to a direct operation of the Holy Spirit upon the nature, transfusing grace, implanting life, and opening the mind to believe the truth. Such is the doctrine, and its close connection with saving faith will be obvious at every step of our progress. Now, my brethren, for the or- derly examination of this great enlightening change, it appears to me that no plan can be simpler than to follow the order of time, and consider, first^ the darkness which precedes the act of renewing grace, and secondly^ the light which follows it. This is the method which we observe in the investigation of any change in the natural world. This is the order of scriptural representation, Eph. v. 8 : " For ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." And both states are dis- tinctly presented in their succession in the text. I. We must briefly consider the state of darkness. " God, who commanded the light to SPIRITUAL ILLUMIXATIOX. 35 shine out of darkness." A more powerful figure of illustration could not be employed. 'The mind goes back to the sublime days of creation ; to periods when no sun, moon, or stars beamed upon our chaotic globe, and then to the moment when light w^as born out of dread obscurity. Such was the utter darkness of the unrenewed soul ; such is the w^ork of grace. He must be a careless reader of the New Testament who has not observed how every- where the native condition of man is depicted as one of eiTor, obscurity, ignorance, and even blindness. So constant is this representation, that if we deny or overlook it, we must fail of doing any justice to the transformation w^hich ensues. In this sense, as in many others, the Gospel brings " light to them that sit in dai-k- ness." It is scarcely necessary to inform you, that this is not what w^e commonly mean by ig- norance. No worldly science will supply this defect. The wisdom we are lookins; for is hid- den " from the wise and prudent," and revealed to babes. The darkness in w^hich the ungodly grope may coexist with the brightest attain- ments of civilization, and the consummate lustre 35 SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. of taste. The soul may be all light except in its spiritual chamber, its holy of holies, and here may be all blackness. It is very important for persons of all classes to comprehend this distinc- tion between natural and spiritual ignorance. Men may have all knowledge and philosophy, and yet the " preaching of the Cross " may be to them " foolishness." We see it every day. This was the very career of human degeneracy ; — ■ " the world by wisdom knew not God." 1 Cor. i. 21. The objects which the unrenewed eye cannot take in are spiritual objects. For " the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." The objects them- selves are luminous and lovely ; they are pre- sented in clearness of revelation ; but they are presented to the blind. Men of enlightened and cultivated powers as to every other field, wander in this, without attention, interest, or distinct knowledge. This is the history of the Gospel in every age : " if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost ; in Avhom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 37 them wliicli believe not^ lest the light of the glorious Gosj)el should shine unto them." 2 Cor. iv. 4. These are strong words, but they are those of the Holy Ghost ; and no words are too strong to represent the absence of all spiritual light in most of those who live amidst the clear shining of Christian day. It is an incantation, and the illusory process is ascribed to the evil one. Part of the malady, and its most fearful symp- tom, is that the blind man does not know that he is blind. " Are we blind also ? " asked the indignant Pharisees, John ix. 40, when Jesus pointed out this dazzling consequence of his light on proud minds. Sinners may be ad- dressed as was Laodicea, Eev. iii. 17 : " and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miser- able, and poor, and blind." Complete experience is on the part of those only who have been in both conditions, and who, with eyes newly opened, look back to the day when they were without sight. And they marvel how they could remain so long without impression from the truth. Most obviously, we look for no change in 38 SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. tlie object of knowledge : that abides essentially unaltered forever. God and Clirist vary not. The same truth is objectively presented to the believer and the unbeliever. Both read the same characters. Both hear the same messages. Both crucified robbers beheld the same cross betwixt them. All heaven and all hell shall concentrate their gaze on the same Jesus on the day of doom. Yet the apprehended object differs widely. The object is seen divinely. Every object is seen, whether literally or metaphori- cally, according to the optical condition of the seeing organ. The failure may amount to total absence of vision. He sees nothing. It is there, but not for him. The sun is on high, and in meridian, but these are sightless balls which he rolls. This is the condition of the unrenewed man in the presence of glorious and heavenly realities. Following out the resemblances be- tween natural and spiritual taste, we might liken his heedless ignorance to that of a boor, straying unaffected among the galleries of Florence, Dresden, or Rome. He sees, indeed, with that outward organ which he has in com- mon with beasts — the matter and the form of SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 39 sculptures and paintings ; and tliis may be com- pared to what the natural man beholds of reli- gious verity ; but the higher beauty and con- formity, whether tasteful or moral, are nnseen. The horse sees the mountain or the lake, as well as his master. You can imagine a ^^Tetch so brutalized by passion and base indulgence as to recognize in the purest beauty only a bait for appetite. Every object presented to the cogni- tion of human ruind is apprehended under the forms and conditions belono^ino; to that mind. The rapturous clash of instruments and voices in the Messiah of Handel is to some only a chaos of noise. Having ears, they hear not. Why should it be otherwise in the spiritual world ? It is not otherwise. You are sur- rounded by glories which you do not appreciate. There are qualities, relations, beauties, sublim- ities, to which you are dead. You hear others around you talking of things which you see not. Ah ! the god of this world has made you blind. Not to dwell more than a moment, let me ask what see you of the e\dl of sin, the beauty of holiness, the impersonation of infinite excel lence in Christ, the misery of your defiled and 40 SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. helpless condition, the wrath that is to come, or the free offer of abounding grace made to you by God in Christ ? As to all these things, is not the citation from the prophet applicable to you ? Matt. xiii. 15 : " For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hear- ing, and their eyes have they closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." It has been mooted in the schools of theol- ogy whether the fall has depraved the under- standing, and whether the unregenerate man, as such, sees the truth less clearly or fully than the regenerate man. But surely any one's philosophy must strangely canton off the mind into discerptible faculties, and grossly ignore the unity of the human spirit, if it conceives of a fallen creature wholly unfallen in his under- standing. Whatever Scripture says of this great change lays a mighty emphasis on the clearing of intellectual apprehension. We do not, therefore, hold that the more truly and ade- quately the sinner beholds God, the more he SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 41 hates Mm. Tlie very view of God whicli lie has is vitiated. The clear view of the God THAT IS would be transforming. In point of fact, it is this very view which actually trans- forms ; as numerous Scriptures show. Ungodly men are void of the true knowledge of God in Christ. Paul explains the enmity of those who murdered Jesus to this cause, in a passage which settles the cjuestion, 1 Cor. ii. 7 : " For we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which none of the jDrinces of this world knew : for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Unregenerate men know not this wisdom. If they knew this wisdom, (we may argue with Paul,) they would be rightly affected. Mind and heart are both \\Tong. As has been de- clared to you, a certain sort of seeing they have, but not of the objects, as they are, in their spiritual grace and loveliness. 