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The Works Of James Arminius
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Vol. 1

Orations Of Arminius
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ORATION I

THE OBJECT OF THEOLOGY

To Almighty God alone belong the inherent and absolute right, will, and
power of determining concerning us. Since, therefore, it has pleased him to
call me, his unworthy servant, from the ecclesiastical functions which I
have for some years discharged in the Church of his Son in the populous city
of Amsterdam, and to give me the appointment of the Theological
Professorship in this most celebrated University, I accounted it my duty,
not to manifest too much reluctance to this vocation, although I was well
acquainted with my incapacity for such an office, which with the greatest
willingness and sincerity I then confessed and must still acknowledge.
Indeed, the consciousness of my own insufficiency operated as a persuasive
to me not to listen to this vocation; of which fact I can cite as a witness
that God who is both the Inspector and the Judge of my conscience. Of this
consciousness of my own insufficiency, several persons of great probity and
learning are also witnesses; for they were the cause of my engaging in this
office, provided it were offered to me in a legitimate order and manner. But
as they suggested, and as experience itself had frequently taught me, that
it is a dangerous thing to adhere to one’s own judgment with pertinacity and
to pay too much regard to the opinion which we entertain of ourselves,
because almost all of us have little discernment in those matters which
concern ourselves, I suffered myself to be induced by the authority of their
judgment to enter upon this difficult and burdensome province, which may God
enable me to commence with tokens of his Divine approbation and under his
propitious auspices.

Although I am beyond measure cast down and almost shudder with fear, solely
at the anticipation of this office and its duties, yet I can scarcely
indulge in a doubt of Divine approval and support when my mind attentively
considers, what are the causes on account of which this vocation was
appointed, the manner in which it is committed to execution, and the means
and plans by which it is brought to a conclusion. From all these
considerations, I feel a persuasion that it has been Divinely instituted and
brought to perfection.

For this cause I entertain an assured hope of the perpetual presence of
Divine assistance; and, with due humility of mind, I venture in God’s holy
name to take this charge upon me and to enter upon its duties. I most
earnestly beseech all and each of you, and if the benevolence which to the
present time you have expressed towards me by many and most signal tokens
will allow such a liberty, I implore, nay, (so pressing is my present
necessity,) I solemnly conjure you, to unite with me in ardent wishes and
fervent intercessions before God, the Father of lights, that, ready as I am
out of pure affection to contribute to your profit, he may be pleased
graciously to supply his servant with the gifts which are necessary to the
proper discharge of these functions, and to bestow upon me his benevolent
favour, guidance and protection, through the whole course of this vocation.

But it appears to me, that I shall be acting to some good purpose, if, at
the commencement of my office, I offer some general remarks on Sacred
Theology, by way of preface, and enter into an explanation of its extent,
dignity and excellence. This discourse will serve yet more and more to
incite the mind, of students, who profess themselves dedicated to the
service of this Divine wisdom, fearlessly to proceed in the career upon
which they have entered, diligently to urge on their progress and to keep up
an unceasing contest till they arrive at its termination. Thus may they
hereafter become the instruments of God unto salvation in the Church of his
Saints, qualified and fitted for the sanctification of his divine name, and
formed "for the edifying of the body of Christ," in the Spirit. When I have
effected this design, I shall think, with Socrates, that in such an entrance
on my duties I have discharged no inconsiderable part of them to some good
effect. For that wisest of the Gentiles was accustomed to say, that he had
properly accomplished his duty of teaching, when he had once communicated an
impulse to the minds of his hearers and had inspired them with an ardent
desire of learning. Nor did he make this remark without reason. For, to a
willing man, nothing is difficult, especially when God has promised the
clearest revelation of his secrets to those "who shall meditate on his law
day and night." (Psalm i. 2.) In such a manner does this promise of God act,
that, on those matters which far surpass the capacity of the human mind, we
may adopt the expression of Isocrates, If thou be desirous of receiving
instruction, thou shalt learn many things."

This explanation will be of no small service to myself. For in the very
earnest recommendation of this study which I give to others, I prescribe to
myself a law and rule by which I ought to walk in its profession; and an
additional necessity is thus imposed on me of conducting myself in my new
office with holiness and modesty, and in all good conscience; that, in case
I should afterwards turn aside from the right path, (which may our gracious
God prevent,) such a solemn recommendation of this study may be cast in my
face to my shame.

In the discussion of this subject, I do not think it necessary to utter any
protestation before professors most learned in Jurisprudence, most skillful
in Medicine, most subtle in Philosophy, and most erudite in the languages.
Before such learned persons I have no need to enter into any protestation,
for the purpose of removing from myself a suspicion of wishing to bring into
neglect or contempt that particular study which each of them cultivates. For
to every kind of study in the most noble theater of the sciences, I assign,
as it becomes me, its due place, and that an honourable one; and each being
content with its subordinate station, all of them with the greatest
willingness concede the president’s throne to that science of which I am now
treating.

I shall adopt that plain and simple species of oratory which, according to
Euripides, belongs peculiarly to truth. I am not ignorant that some
resemblance and relation ought to exist between an oration and the subjects
that are discussed in it; and therefore, that a certain divine method of
speech is required when we attempt to speak on divine things according to
their dignity. But I choose plainness and simplicity, because Theology needs
no ornament, but is content to be taught, and because it is out of my power
to make an effort towards acquiring a style that may be in any degree worthy
of such a subject.

In discussing the dignity and excellence of sacred Theology, I shall briefly
confine it within four titles. In imitation of the method which obtains in
human sciences, that are estimated according to the excellence of their
OBJECT, their AUTHOR, and their END, and of the IMPORTANCE of the reasons by
which each of them is supported—I shall follow the same plan, speaking,
first, of The OBJECT of Theology, then of its AUTHOR, afterwards of its END,
and lastly, of its CERTAINTY.

I pray God, that the grace of his Holy Spirit may be present with me while I
am speaking; and that he would be pleased to direct my mind, mouth and
tongue, in such a manner as to enable me to advance those truths which are
holy, worthy of our God, and salutary to you his creatures, to the glory of
his name and for the edification of his Church.

I intreat you also, my most illustrious and polite hearers, kindly to grant
me your attention for a short time while I endeavour to explain matters of
the greatest importance; and while your observation is directed to the
subject in which I shall exercise myself, you will have the goodness to
regard IT, rather than any presumed SKILL in my manner of treating it. The
nature of his great subject requires us, at this hour especially, to direct
our attention, in the first instance, to the Object of Theology. For the
objects of sciences are so intimately related, and so essential to them, as
to give them their appellations.

But God is himself the Object of Theology. The very term indicates as much:
for Theology signifies a discourse or reasoning concerning God. This is
likewise indicated by the definition which the Apostle gives of this
science, when he describes it as "the truth which is after godliness." (Tit.
i. 1.) The Greek word here used for godliness, is eusebeia signifying a
worship due to God alone, which the Apostle shews in a manner of greater
clearness, when he calls this piety by the more exact term qeosebeia All
other sciences have their objects, noble indeed, and worthy to engage the
notice of the human mind, and in the contemplation of which much time,
leisure and diligence may be profitably occupied.

In General Metaphysics, the object of study is, "BEING in

But let us consider the conditions that are generally employed to commend
the object of any science. That OBJECT is most excellent (1.) which is in
itself the best, and the greatest, and immutable; (2.) which, in relation to
the mind, is most lucid and clear, and most easily proposed and unfolded to
the view of the mental powers; and (3.) which is likewise able, by its
action on the mind, completely to fill it, and to satisfy its infinite
desires. These three conditions are in the highest degree discovered in God,
and in him alone, who is the subject of theological study.

1. He is the best being; he is the first and chief good, and goodness
itself; he alone is good, as good as goodness itself; as ready to
communicate, as it is possible for him to be communicated: his liberality is
only equaled by the boundless treasures which he possesses, both of which
are infinite and restricted only by the capacity of the recipient, which he
appoints as a limit and measure to the goodness of his nature and to the
communication of himself. He is the greatest Being, and the only great One;
for he is able to subdue to his sway even nothing itself, that it may become
capable of divine good by the communication of himself. "He calleth those
things which are not, as though they were," (Rom. iv. 17) and in that
manner, by his word, he places them in the number of beings, although it is
out of darkness that they have received his commands to emerge and to come
into existence. "All nations before him are as nothing, the inhabitants
thereof are as grasshoppers, and the princes nothing." (Isa. xl. 17, 22,
23.) The whole of this system of heaven and earth appears scarcely equal to
a point "before him, whose center is every where, but whose circumference is
no where." He is immutable, always the same, and endureth forever; "his
years have no end." (Psalm 102)

Nothing can be added to him, and nothing can be taken from him; with him "is
no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James i. 17.) Whatsoever
obtains stability for a single moment, borrows it from him, and receives it
of mere grace. Pleasant, therefore, and most delightful is it to contemplate
him, on account of his goodness; it is glorious in consideration of his
greatness; and it is sure, in reference to his immutability.

2. He is most resplendent and bright; he is light itself, and becomes an
object of most obvious perception to the mind, according to this expression
of the apostle, That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel
after him, and find Him, though he be not far from every one of us; for in
him we live, and move, and have our being; for we are also his offspring:"
(Acts xvii. 27, 28.) And according to another passage, "God left not himself
without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and
fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." (Acts xiv.
17.) Being supported by these true sayings, I venture to assert, that
nothing can be seen or truly known in any object, except in it we have
previously seen and known God himself.

In the first place he is called "Being itself," because he offers himself to
the understanding as an object of knowledge. But all beings, both visible
and invisible, corporeal and incorporeal, proclaim aloud that they have
derived the beginning of their essence and condition from some other than
themselves, and that they have not their own proper existence till they have
it from another. All of them utter speech, according to the saying of the
Royal Prophet:

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his
handy-work." (Psalm xix. 1.) That is, the firmament sounds aloud as with a
trumpet, and proclaims, that it is "the work of the right hand of the Most
High." Among created objects, you may discover many tokens indicating "that
they derive from some other source whatever they themselves possess," mere
strongly than "that they have an existence in the number and scale of
beings." Nor is this matter of wonder, since they are always nearer to
nothing than to their Creator, from whom they are removed to a distance that
is infinite, and separated by infinite space: while, by properties that are
only finite, they are distinguished from nothing, the primeval womb from
whence they sprung, and into which they may fall back again; but they can
never be raised to a divine equality with God their maker. Therefore, it was
rightly spoken by the ancient heathens,

"Of Jove all things are full."

3. He alone can completely fill the mind, and satisfy its (otherwise)
insatiable desires. For he is infinite in his essence, his wisdom, power,
and goodness. He is the first and chief verity, and truth itself in the
abstract. But the human mind is finite in nature, the substance of which it
is formed; and only in this view is it a partaker of infinity—because it
apprehends Infinite Being and the Chief Truth, although it is incapable of
comprehending them. David, therefore, in an exclamation of joyful
self-gratulation, openly confesses, that he was content with the possession
of God alone, who by means of knowledge and love is possessed by his
creatures. These are his words: "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there
is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." (Psalm lxxiii. 25.)

If thou be acquainted with all other things, and yet remain in a state of
ignorance with regard to him alone, thou art always wandering beyond the
proper point, and thy restless love of knowledge increases in the proportion
in which knowledge itself is increased. The man who knows only God, and who
is ignorant of all things else, remains in peace and tranquillity, and,
(like one that has found "a pearl of great price," although in the purchase
of it he may have expended the whole of his substance,) he congratulates
himself and greatly triumphs. This luster or brightness of the object is the
cause why an investigation into it, or an inquiry after it, is never
instituted without obtaining it; and, (such is its fullness,) when it has
once been found, the discovery of it is always attended with abundant
profit.

But we must consider this object more strictly; for we treat of it in
reference to its being the object of our theology, according to which we
have a knowledge of God in this life. We must therefore clothe it in a
certain mode, and invest it in a formal manner, as the logical phrase is;
and thus place it as a foundation to our knowledge.

Three Considerations of this matter offer themselves to our notice: The
First is, that we cannot receive this object in the infinity of its nature;
our necessity, therefore, requires it to be proposed in a manner that is
accommodated to our capacity. The Second is, that it is not proper, in the
first moment of revelation, for such a large measure to be disclosed and
manifested by the light of grace, as may be received into the human mind
when it is illuminated by the light of glory, and, (by that process,)
enlarged to a greater capacity: for by a right use of the knowledge of
grace, we must proceed upwards, (by the rule of divine righteousness,) to
the more sublime knowledge of glory, according to that saying, "To him that
hath shall be given." The Third is, that this object is not laid before our
theology merely to be known, but, when known, to be worshipped. For the
Theology which belongs to this world, is Practical and through Faith:

Theoretical Theology belongs to the other world, and consists of pure and
unclouded vision, according to the expression of the apostle, "We walk by
faith, and not by sight;" (2 Cor. v. 7,) and that of another apostle, "Then
shall we be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (1 John iii. 2.) For
this reason, we must clothe the object of our theology in such a manner as
may enable it to incline us to worship God, and fully to persuade and win us
over to that practice.

This last design is the line and rule of this formal relation according to
which God becomes the subject of our Theology.

But that man may be induced, by a willing obedience and humble submission of
the mind, to worship God, it is necessary for him to believe, from a certain
persuasion of the heart: (1.) That it is the will of God to be worshipped,
and that worship is due to him. (2.) That the worship of him will not be in
vain, but will be recompensed with an exceedingly great reward. (3.) That a
mode of worship must be instituted according to his command. To these three
particulars ought to be added, a knowledge of the mode prescribed.

Our Theology, then, delivers three things concerning this object, as
necessary and sufficient to be known in relation to the preceding subjects
of belief. The First is concerning the nature of God. The Second concerning
his actions. And the Third concerning his will.

(1.) Concerning his nature; that it is worthy to receive adoration, on
account of its justice; that it is qualified to form a right judgment of
that worship, on account of its wisdom; and that it is prompt and able to
bestow rewards, on account of its goodness and the perfection of its own
blessedness.

(2.) Two actions have been ascribed to God for the same purpose; they are
Creation and Providence. (i.) The Creation of all things, and especially of
man after God’s own image; upon which is founded his sovereign authority
over man, and from which is deduced the right of requiring worship from man
and enjoining obedience upon him, according to that very just complaint of
God by Malachi, "If then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a
master, were is my fear," (i, 6.) (ii.) That Providence is to be ascribed to
God by which he governs all things, and according to which he exercises a
holy, just, and wise care and oversight over man himself and those things
which relate to him, but chiefly over the worship and obedience which he is
bound to render to his God.

(3.) Lastly, it treats of the will of God expressed in a certain covenant
into which he has entered with man, and which consists of two parts: (i.)
The one, by which he declares it to be his pleasure to receive adoration
from man, and at the same time prescribes the mode of performing that
worship; for it is his will to be worshipped from obedience, and not at the
option or discretion of man. (ii.) The other, by which God promises that he
will abundantly compensate man for the worship which he performs; requiring
not only adoration for the benefits already conferred upon man, as a trial
of his gratitude; but likewise that He may communicate to man infinitely
greater things to the consummation of his felicity. For as he occupied the
first place in conferring blessings and doing good, because that high
station was his due, since man was about to be called into existence among
the number of creatures; so likewise it is his desire that the last place in
doing good be reserved for him, according to the infinite perfection of his
goodness and blessedness, who is the fountain of good and the extreme
boundary of happiness, the Creator and at the same time the Glorifier of his
worshippers. It is according to this last action of his, that he is called
by some persons "the Object of Theology," and that not improperly, because
in this last are included all the preceding.

In the way which has been thus compendiously pointed out, the infinite
disputes of the schoolmen, concerning the formal relation by which God is
the Object of Theology, may, in my opinion, be adjusted and decided. But as
I think it a culpable deed to abuse your patience, I shall decline to say
any more on this part of the subject.

Our sacred Theology, therefore, is chiefly occupied in ascribing to the One
True God, to whom alone they really belong, those attributes of which we
have already spoken, his nature, actions, and will. For it is not sufficient
to know, that there is some kind of a NATURE, simple, infinite, wise, good,
just, omnipotent, happy in itself, the Maker and Governor of all things,
that is worthy to receive adoration, whose will it is to be worshipped, and
that is able to make its worshippers happy. To this general kind of
knowledge there ought to be added, a sure and settled conception, fixed on
that Deity, and strictly bound to the single object of religious worship to
which alone those qualities appertain. The necessity of entertaining fixed
and determinate ideas on this subject, is very frequently inculcated in the
sacred page: "I am the Lord thy God." (Exod. xx. 2.) "I am the Lord and
there is none else." (Isa. xlv. 5.) Elijah also says, "If the Lord be God,
follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." (1 Kings xviii. 21.) This duty is
the more sedulously inculcated in scripture, as man is more inclined to
depart from the true idea of Deity. For whatever clear and proper conception
of the Divine Being the minds the Heathens had formed, the first
stumbling-block over which they fell appears to have been this, they did not
attribute that just conception to him to whom it ought to have been given;
but they ascribed it either, (1.) to some vague and uncertain individual, as
in the expression of the Roman poet, "O Jupiter, whether thou be heaven, or
air, or earth!" Or, (2) some imaginary and fabulous Deity, whether it be
among created things, or a mere idol of the brain, neither partaking of the
Divine nature nor any other, which the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the
Romans and to the Corinthians, produces as a matter of reproach to the
Gentiles. (Rom. 1, and 1 Corinthians 8.) Or (3,) lastly, they ascribed it to
the unknown God; the title of Unknown being given to their Deity by the very
persons who were his worshippers. The Apostle relates this crime as one of
which the Athenians were guilty: But it is equally true when applied to all
those who err and wander from the true object of adoration, and yet worship
a Deity of some description. To such persons that sentence justly belongs
which Christ uttered in conversation with the woman of Samaria: "Ye worship
YE KNOW NOT WHAT." (John iv. 22.)

Although those persons are guilty of a grievous error who transgress in this
point, so as to be deservedly termed Atheists, in Scripture aqeoi "men
without God;" yet they are by far more intolerably insane, who, having
passed the extreme line of impiety, are not restrained by the consciousness
of any Deity. The ancient heathens considered such men as peculiarly worthy
of being called Atheists. On the other hand, those who have a consciousness
of their own ignorance occupy the step that is nearest to sanity. For it is
necessary to be careful only about one thing; and that is, when we
communicate information to them, we must teach them to discard the falsehood
which they had imbibed, and must instruct them in the truth alone. When this
truth is pointed out to them, they will seize it with the greater avidity,
in proportion to the deeper sorrow which they feel at the thought that they
have been surrounded for a long series of years by a most pernicious error.

But Theology, as it appears to me, principally effects four things in fixing
our conceptions, which we have just mentioned, on that Deity who is true,
and in drawing them away from the invention and formation of false Deities.
First. It explains, in an elegant and copious manner, the relation in which
the Deity stands, lest we should ascribe to his nature any thing that is
foreign to it, or should take away from it any one of its properties. In
reference to this, it is said, "Ye. heard the voice, but saw no similitude;
take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, lest you make you a graven
image." (Deut. iv. 15, 16.) -Secondly. It describes both the universal and
the particular actions of the only true God, that by them it may distinguish
the true Deity from those which are fabulous. On this account it is said,
"The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, shall perish from
the earth, and under these heavens." (Jer. x. 11.) Jonah also said, "I fear
the Lord, the God of heaven, who hath made the sea and the dry land." (i,
9.) And the Apostle declares, "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of
God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or
stone, graven by art and by man’s device:" (Acts xvii. 29.) In another
passage it is recorded, "I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the
land of Egypt;" (Deut. v. 6.) "I am the God that appeared to thee in
Bethel." (Gen. xxvi. 13.) And, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that
they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt, but, The Lord liveth which brought up and
which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the North Country," &c.
(Jer. xxiii. 7, 8.) Thirdly. It makes frequent mention of the covenant into
which the true Deity has entered with his worshippers, that by the
recollection of it the mind of man may be stayed upon that God with whom the
covenant was concluded. In reference to this it is said, "Thus shalt thou
say unto the Children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this
is my name for ever, and this is. my memorial unto all generations", (Exod.
iii. 15.) Thus Jacob, when about to conclude a compact with Laban his
father-in-law, swears "by the fear of his father Isaac." (Gen. xxxi. 53.)
And when Abraham’s servant was seeking a wife for his master’s son, he thus
invoked God, "O Lord God of my master Abraham!" (Gen. xxiv. 12.) Fourthly.
It distinguishes and points out the true Deity, even by a most appropriate,
particular, and individual mark, when it introduces the mention of the
persons who are partakers of the same Divinity; thus it gives a right
direction to the mind of the worshipper, and fixes it upon that God who is
THE FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. This was manifested with some degree of
obscurity in the Old Testament, but with the utmost clearness in the New.
Hence the Apostle says, "I bow my knee unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ." (Ephes. iii. 14.) All these remarks are comprehended and summed up
by Divines, in this brief sentence, "That God must be invoked who has
manifested himself in his own word." But the preceding observations
concerning the Object of Theology, properly respect Legal Theology, which
was accommodated to man’s primeval state. For when man in his original
integrity acted under the protecting favour and benevolence of a good and
just God, he was able to render to God that worship which had been
prescribed according to the law of legal righteousness, that says, "This do,
and thou shalt live" he was able to "love with all his heart and soul" that
Good and Just Being; he was able, from a consciousness of his integrity, to
repose confidence in that Good and Just One; and he was able to evince
towards him, as such, a filial fear, and to pay him the honour which was
pleasing and due to him, as from a servant to his Lord. God also, on his
part, without the least injury to his justice, was able to act towards man,
while in that state, according to the proscript of legal righteousness, to
reward his worship according to justice, and, through the terms of the legal
covenant, and consequently "of debt," to confer life upon him. This God
could do, consistency with his goodness, which required the fulfillment of
the promise. There was no call for any other property of his nature, which
might contribute by its agency to accomplish this purpose: No further
progress of Divine goodness was necessary than that which might repay good
for good, the good of perfect felicity, for the good of entire obedience: No
other action was required, except that of creation, (which had then been
performed,) and that of a preserving and governing providence, in conformity
with the condition with which man was placed: No other volition of God was
needed, than that by which he might both require the perfect obedience of
the law and might repay that obedience with life eternal. In that state of
human affairs, therefore, the knowledge of the nature described in those
properties, the knowledge of those actions, and of that will, to which may
be added the knowledge of the Deity to whom they really pertained, was
necessary for the performance of worship to God, and was of itself amply
sufficient.

But when man had fallen from his primeval integrity through disobedience to
the law, and had rendered himself "a child of wrath" and had become devoted
to condemnations, this goodness mingled with legal justice could not be
sufficient for the salvation of man. Neither could this act of creation and
providence, nor this will suffice; and therefore this legal Theology was
itself insufficient. For sin was to be condemned if men were absolved; and,
as the Apostle says, (in the eighth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans,)
"it could not be condemned by the law." Man was to be justified: but he
could not be justified by the law, which, while it is the strength of sin,
makes discovery of it to us, and is the procurer of wrath.

This Theology, therefore, could serve for no salutary purpose, at that time:
such was its dreadful efficacy in convincing man of sin and consigning him
to certain death. This unhappy change, this unfavourable vicissitude of
affairs was introduced by the fault and the infection of sin; which was
likewise the cause why "the law which was ordained to life and honour,"
(Rom. vii. 10,) became fatal and destructive to our race, and the procurer
of eternal ignominy. (1.) Other properties, therefore, of the Divine Nature
were to be called into action; every one of God’s benefits was to be
unfolded and explained; mercy, long suffering, gentleness, patience, and
clemency were to be brought forth out of the repository of his primitive
goodness, and their services were to be engaged, if it was proper for
offending man to be reconciled to God and reinstated in his favour. (2.)
Other actions were to be exhibited: "Anew creation" was to be effected; "a
new providence," accommodated in every respect to this new creation, was to
be instituted and put in force; "the work of redemption" was to be
performed; "remission of sins" was to be obtained; "the loss of
righteousness" was to be repaired; "the Spirit of grace" was to be asked and
obtained; and a "lost salvation" restored. (3.) Another decree was likewise
to be framed concerning the salvation of man; and another covenant, a new
one," was to be made with him, "not according to that former one, because
those" who were parties on one side "had not continued in that covenant:"
(Heb. viii. 11,) but, by another and a gracious will, they "were to be
sanctified" who might be "consecrated to enter into the Holiest by a new and
living way." (Heb. x. 20.) All these things were to be prepared and laid
down as foundations to the new manifestation.

Another revelation, therefore, and a different species of Theology, were
necessary to make known those properties of the Divine Nature, which we have
described, and which were most wisely employed in repairing our salvation;
to proclaim the actions which were exhibited; and to occupy themselves in
explaining that decree and new covenant which we have mentioned.

But since God, the punisher and most righteous avenger of sinners, was
either unwilling, or, (through the opposition made by the justice and truth
which had been originally manifested in the law,) was unable to unfold those
properties of his nature, to produce those actions, or to make that decree,
except by the intervention of a Mediator, in whom, without the least injury
to his justice and truth, he might unfold those properties, perform those
actions, might through them produce those necessary benefits, and might
conclude that most gracious decree; on this account a Mediator was to be
ordained, who, by his blood, might atone for sinners, by his death might
expiate the sin of mankind, might reconcile the wicked to God, and might
save them from his impending anger; who might set forth and display the
mercy, long suffering and patience of God, might provide eternal redemption,
obtain remission of sin, bring in an everlasting righteousness, procure the
Spirit of grace, confirm the decree of gracious mercy, ratify the new
covenant by his blood, recover eternal salvation, and who might bring to God
those that were to be ultimately saved.

A just and merciful God, therefore, did appoint as Mediator, his beloved
Son, Jesus Christ. He obediently undertook that office which was imposed on
him by the Father, and courageously executed it; nay, he is even now engaged
in executing it. He was, therefore, ordained by God as the Redeemer, the
saviour, the King, and, (under God,) the Head of the heirs of salvation. It
would have been neither just nor reasonable, that he who had undergone such
vast labours, and endured such great sorrows, who had performed so many
miracles, and who had obtained through his merits so many benefits for us,
should ingloriously remain among us in meanness and obscurity, and should be
dismissed by us without honour. It was most equitable, that he should in
return be acknowledged, worshipped, and invoked, and that he should receive
those grateful thanks which are due to him for his benefits.

But how shall we be able to adore, worship and invoke him, unless "we
believe on him? How can we believe in him, unless we hear of him? And how
can we hear concerning him," except he be revealed to us by the word? (Rom.
x. 14.) From this cause, then, arose the necessity of making a revelation
concerning Jesus Christ; and on this account two objects, (that is, God and
his Christ,) are to be placed as a foundation to that Theology which will
sufficiently contribute towards the salvation of sinners, according to the
saying of our saviour Christ: "And this is life eternal, that they might
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom than hast sent." (John
xvii. 3.) Indeed, these two objects are not of such a nature as that the one
may be separated from the other, or that the one may be collaterally joined
to the other; but the-latter of them is, in a proper and suitable manner,
subordinate to the former. Here then we have a Theology, which, from Christ,
its object, is most rightfully and deservedly termed Christian, which is
manifested not by the Law, but in the earliest ages by promise, and in these
latter days by the Gospel, which is called that "of Jesus Christ," although
the words (Christian and Legal) are sometimes confounded. But let us
consider the union and the subordination of both these objects.

I. Since we have God and his Christ for the object of our Christian
Theology, the manner in which Legal Theology explains God unto us, is
undoubtedly much amplified by this addition, and our Theology is thus
infinitely ennobled above that which is legal.

For God has unfolded in Christ all his own goodness. "For it pleased the
Father, that in him should all fullness dwell;" (Col. i. 19,) and that the
"fullness of the Godhead should dwell in him," not by adumbration or
according to the shadow, but "bodily:" For this reason he is called "the
image of the invisible God;" (Col. i. 15,) "the brightness of his Father’s
glory, and the express image of his person," (Heb. i. 3,) in whom the Father
condescends to afford to us his infinite majesty, his immeasurable goodness,
mercy and philanthropy, to be contemplated, beheld, and to be touched and
felt; even as Christ himself says to Philip, "He that hath seen me, hath
seen the Father." (John xiv. 9.) For those things which lay hidden and
indiscernible within the Father, like the fine and deep traces in an
engraved seal, stand out, become prominent, and may be most clearly and
distinctly seen in Christ, as in an exact and protuberant impression, formed
by the application of a deeply engraved seal on the substance to be
impressed.

1. In this Theology God truly appears, in the highest degree, the best and
the greatest of Beings: (1.) The Best, cause he is not only willing, as in
the former Theology, to communicate himself (for the happiness of men,) to
those who correctly discharge their duty, but to receive into his favour and
to reconcile to himself those who are sinners, wicked, unfruitful, and
declared enemies, and to bestow eternal life on them when they repent. (2.)
The Greatest, because he has not only produced all things from nothing,
through the annihilation of the latter, and the creation of the former, but
because he has also effected a triumph over sin, (which is far more noxious
than nothing, and conquered with greater difficulty,) by graciously
pardoning it, and powerfully putting it away;" and because he has "brought
in everlasting righteousness," by means of a second creation, and a
regeneration which far exceeded the capacity of "the law that acted as
schoolmaster." (Gal. iii. 24.) For this cause Christ is called "the wisdom
and the power of God," (1 Cor. i. 24,) far more illustrious than the wisdom
and the power which were originally displayed in the creation of the
universe. (3.) In this Theology, God is described to us as in every respect
immutable, not only in regard to his nature but also to his will, which, as
it has been manifested in the gospel, is peremptory and conclusive, and,
being the last of all, is not to be corrected by another will. For "Jesus
Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever"; (Heb. xiii. 8,) by whom
God hath in these last days spoken unto us." (Heb. i. 2.) Under the law, the
state of this matter was very different, and that greatly to our ultimate
advantage. For if the will of God unfolded in the law had been fatal to us,
as well as the last expression of it, we, of all men most miserable, should
have been banished forever from God himself on account of that declaration
of his will; and our doom would have been in a state of exile from our
salvation. I would not seem in this argument to ascribe any mutability to
the will of God. I only place such a termination and boundary to his will,
or rather to something willed by him, as was by himself before affixed to it
and predetermined by an eternal and peremptory decree, that thus a vacancy
might be made for a "better covenant established on better promises" (Heb.
vii. 22; viii, 6.)

2. This Theology offers God in Christ as an object of our sight and
knowledge, with such clearness, splendour and plainness, that we with open
face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the
same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (1 Cor.
iii. 18.) In comparison with this brightness and glory, which was so
pre-eminent and surpassing, the law itself is said not to have been either
bright or glorious: For it "had no glory in this respect, by reason of the
glory that excelleth." (2 Cor. iii. 8.) This was indeed "the wisdom of God
which was kept secret since the world began :" (1 Cor. ii. 7; Rom. xvi. 25.)
Great and inscrutable is this mystery; yet it is exhibited in Christ Jesus,
and "made manifest" with such luminous clearness, that God is said to have
been "manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. iii. 16,) in no other sense than as
though it would never have been possible for him to be manifested without
the flesh; for the express purpose "that the eternal life which was with the
Father, and the Word of life which was from the beginning with God, might be
heard with our ears, seen with our eyes, and handled with our hands." (1
John i. 1, 2.)

3. The Object of our Theology being clothed in this manner, so abundantly
fills the mind and satisfies the desire, that the apostle openly declares,
he was determined "to know nothing among the Corinthians save Jesus Christ,
and him crucified." (1 Cor. ii. 2.) To the Phillipians he says, that he
"counted all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus; for whom he had suffered the loss of all things, and he counted them
but dung that he might know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and
the fellowship of his sufferings." (Phil. iii. 8, 10.) Nay, in the knowledge
of the object of our theology, modified in this manner, all true glorying
and just boasting consist, as the passage which we before quoted from
Jeremiah, and the purpose to which St. Paul has accommodated it, most
plainly evince. This is the manner in which it is expressed: "Let him. that
glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the
Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment and righteousness in the
earth." (Jer. ix. 24.) When you hear any mention of mercy, your thoughts
ought necessarily to revert to Christ, out of whom "God is a consuming fire"
to destroy the sinners of the earth. (Deut. iv. 24; Heb. xii. 29) The way in
which St. Paul has accommodated it, is this:

"Christ Jesus is made unto us by God, wisdom, righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption; that, according as it is written, He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord!"(1 Cor. i. 30, 31.) Nor is it
wonderful, that the mind should desire to "know nothing save Jesus Christ,"
or that its otherwise insatiable desire of knowledge should repose itself in
him, since in him and in his gospel "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom,
and knowledge." (Col. ii. 3, 9.)

II. Having finished that part of our subject which related to this Union,
let us now proceed to the Subordination which subsists between these two
objects. We will first inspect the nature of this subordination, and then
its necessity:

First. Its nature consists in this, that every saving communication which
God has with us, or which we have with God, is performed by means of the
intervention of Christ.

1. The communication which God holds with us is (i.) either in his
benevolent affection towards us, or, (ii.) in his gracious decree concerning
us, or, (iii.) in his saving efficacy in us. In all these particulars,
Christ comes in as a middle man between the parties. For (i.) when God is
willing to communicate to us the affection of his goodness and mercy, he
looks upon his Anointed One, in whom, as "his beloved, he makes us accepted,
to the praise of the glory of his grace." (Ephes. i. 6.) (ii.) When he is
pleased to make some gracious decree of his goodness and mercy, he
interposes Christ between the purpose and the accomplishment, to announce
his pleasure; for "by Jesus Christ he predestinates us to the adoption of
children." (Ephes. i. 5.) (iii.) When he is willing out of this abundant
affection to impart to us some blessing, according to his gracious decree,
it is through the intervention of the same Divine person. For in Christ as
our Head, the Father has laid up all these treasures and blessings; and they
do not descend to us, except through him, or rather by him, as the Father’s
substitute, who administers them with authority, and distributes them
according to his own pleasure.

2. But the communication which we have with God, is also made by the
intervention of Christ. It consists of three degrees -access to God,
cleaving to him, and the enjoyment of him.

These three particulars become the objects of our present consideration, as
it is possible for them to be brought into action in this state of human
existence, and as they may execute their functions by means of faith, hope,
and that charity which is the offspring of faith.

(1.) Three things are necessary to this access; (i.) that God be in a place
to which we may approach; (ii.) that the path by which we may come to him be
a high-way and a safe one; and (iii.) that liberty be granted to us and
boldness of access. All these facilities have been procured for us by the
mediation of Christ. (i.) For the Father dwelleth in light inaccessible, and
sits at a distance beyond Christ on a throne of rigid justice, which is an
object much too formidable in appearance for the gaze of sinners; yet he
hath appointed Christ to be "apropitiation. through faith in his blood ;"
(Rom. iii. 25,) by whom the covering of the ark, and the accusing,
convincing, and condemning power of the law which was contained in that ark,
are taken away and removed as a kind of veil from before the eyes of the
Divine Majesty; and a throne of grace has been established, on which God is
seated, "with whom in Christ we have to do." Thus has the Father in the Son
been made euwrositov "easy of access to us." (ii.) It is the same Lord Jesus
Christ who "hath not only through his flesh consecrated for us a new and
living way," by which we may go to the Father, (Heb. x. 20,) but who is
likewise "himself the way" which leads in a direct and unerring manner to
the Father. (John xiv. 6.) (iii.) "By the blood of Jesus" we have liberty of
access, nay we are permitted "to enter into the holiest," and even "within
the veil whither Christ, as a High Priest presiding over the house of God
and our fore runner, is entered for us,." (Heb. v. 20,) that "we may draw
near with a true heart, in the sacred and full assurance of faith, (x, 22,)
and may with great confidence of mind "come boldly unto the throne of
grace." (iv, 16.) Have we therefore prayers to offer to God? Christ is the
High Priest who displays them before the Father. He is also the altar from
which, after being placed on it, they will ascend as incense of a grateful
odour to God our Father. Are sacrifices of thanksgiving to be offered to
God? They must be offered through Christ, otherwise "God will not accept
them at our hands." (Mal. i. 10.) Are good works to be performed? We must do
them through the Spirit of Christ, that they may obtain the recommendation
of him as their author; and they must be sprinkled with his blood, that they
may not be rejected by the Father on account of their deficiency.

(2.) But it is not sufficient for us only to approach to God; it is likewise
good for us to cleave to him. To confirm this act of cleaving and to give it
perpetuity, it ought to depend upon a communion of nature. But with God we
have no such communion. Christ, however, possesses it, and we are made
possessors of it with Christ, "who partook of our flesh and blood." (Heb.
ii. 14.) Being constituted our head, he imparts unto us of his Spirit, that
we, (being constituted his members, and cleaving to him as "flesh of his
flesh and bone of his bone,") may be one with him, and through him with the
Father, and with both may become "one Spirit."

(3.) The enjoyment remains to be considered. It is a true, solid and durable
taste of the Divine goodness and sweetness in this life, not only perceived
by the mind and understanding, but likewise by the heart, which is the seat
of all the affections. Neither does this become ours, except in Christ, by
whose Spirit dwelling in us that most divine testimony is pronounced in our
hearts, that "we are the children of God, and heirs of eternal life." (Rom.
viii. 16.) On hearing this internal testimony, we conceive joy ineffable,
"possess our souls in hope and patience," and in all our straits and
difficulties we call upon God and cry, Abba Father, with an earnest
expectation of our final access to God, of the consummation of our abiding
in him and our cleaving to him, (by which we shall have "all in all,") and
of the most blessed fruition, which will consist of the clear and unclouded
vision of God himself. But the third division of our present subject, will
be the proper place to treat more fully on these topics.

Secondly. Having seen the subordination of both the objects of Christian
Theology, let us in a few words advert to its Necessity. This derives its
origin from the comparison of our contagion and vicious depravity, with the
sanctity of God that is incapable of defilement, and with the inflexible
rigor of his justice, which completely separates us from him by a gulf so
great as to render it impossible for us to be united together while at such
a vast distance, or for a passage to be made from us to him—unless Christ
had trodden the wine press of the wrath of God, and by the streams of his
most precious blood, plentifully flowing from the pressed, broken, and
disparted veins of his body, had filled up that otherwise impassable gulf,
"and had purged our consciences, sprinkled with his own blood, from all dead
works ;" (Heb. ix. 14, 22,) that, being thus sanctified, we might approach
to "the living God and might serve him without fear, in holiness and
righteousness before him, all the days of our life." (Luke i. 75.)

But such is the great Necessity of this subordination, that, unless our
faith be in Christ, it cannot be in God: The Apostle Peter says, "By him we
believe in God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; that your
faith and hope might be in God." (1 Pet., i, 21.) On this account the faith
also which we have in God, was prescribed, not by the law, but by the gospel
of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is properly "the word of faith"
and "the word of promise."

The consideration of this necessity is of infinite utility, (i.) both in
producing confidence in the consciences of believers, trembling at the sight
of their sins, as appears most evidently from our preceding observations;
(ii.) and in establishing the necessity of the Christian Religion. I account
it necessary to make a few remarks on this latter topic, because they are
required by the nature of our present purpose and of the Christian Religion
itself.

I observe, therefore, that not only is the intervention of Christ necessary
to obtain salvation from God, and to impart it unto men, but the faith of
Christ is also necessary to qualify men for receiving this salvation at his
hands; not that faith in Christ by which he may be apprehended under the
general notion of the wisdom, power, goodness and mercy of God, but that
faith which was announced by the Apostles and recorded in their writings,
and in such a saviour as was preached by those primitive heralds of
salvation.

I am not in the least influenced by the argument by which some persons
profess themselves induced to adopt the opinion, "that a faith in Christ
thus particular and restricted, which is required from all that become the
subjects of salvation, agrees neither with the amplitude of God’s mercy, nor
with the conditions of his justice, since many thousands of men depart out
of this life, before even the sound of the Gospel of Christ has reached
their ears." For the reasons and terms of Divine Justice and Mercy are not
to be determined by the limited and shallow measure of our capacities or
feelings; but we must leave with God the free administration and just
defense of these his own attributes. The result, however, will invariably
prove to be the same, in what manner soever he may be pleased to administer
those divine properties—for, "he will always overcome when he is judged."
(Rom. iii. 4.) Out of his word we must acquire our wisdom and information.
In primary, and certain secondary matters this word describes—the Necessity
of faith in Christ, according to the appointment of the just mercy and the
merciful justice of God. "He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting
life; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath
of God abideth on him." (John iii. 36.) This is not an account of the first
kindling of the wrath of God against this willful unbeliever; for he had
then deserved the most severe expressions of that wrath by the sins which he
had previously committed against the law; and this wrath "abides upon him,"
on account of his continued unbelief, because he had been favoured with the
opportunity as well as the power of being delivered from it, through faith
in the Son of God. Again: If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in
your sins." (John viii. 24.) And, in another passage, Christ declares, "This
is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent." (John xvii, 3.) The Apostle says, "It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." That
preaching thus described is the doctrine of the cross, "to the Jews a
stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness:

But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God
and the wisdom of God:" (1 Cor. i. 21, 23, 24.) This wisdom and this power
are not those attributes which God employed when he formed the world, for
Christ is here plainly distinguished from them; but they are the wisdom and
the power revealed in that gospel which is eminently "the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth." (Rom. i. 16.) Not only, therefore,
is the cross of Christ necessary to solicit and procure redemption, but the
faith of the cross is also necessary in order to obtain possession of it.

The necessity of faith in the cross does not arise from the circumstance of
the doctrine of the cross being preached and propounded to men; but, since
faith in Christ is necessary according to the decree of God, the doctrine of
the cross is preached, that those who believe in it may be saved. Not only
on account of the decree of God is faith in Christ necessary, but it is also
necessary on account of the promise made unto Christ by the Father, and
according to the Covenant which was ratified between both of them. This is
the word of that promise: "Ask of me, and I will give thee the Heathen for
thine inheritance." (Psalm ii. 8.) But the inheritance of Christ is the
multitude of the faithful; "the people, who, in the days of his power shall
willingly come to him, in the beauties of holiness." (Psalm cx. 3.) "in thee
shall all nations be blessed; so then they which be of faith are blessed
with faithful Abraham." (Gal. iii. 8, 9 In Isaiah it is likewise declared,
"When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.
He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hands. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by
the knowledge of himself [which is faith in him] shall my righteous servant
justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." (Isa. liii. 10, 11.)
Christ adduces the covenant which has been concluded with the Father, and
founds a plea upon it when he says, "Father glorify thy Son; that thy Son
also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life
eternal," &c., &c. (John xvii. 1, 2, 3, 4.) Christ therefore by the decree,
the promise and the covenant of the Father, has been constituted the saviour
of all that believe on him, according to the declaration of the Apostle:
"And being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation, to all
them that obey him." (Heb. v. 9.) This is the reason why the Gentiles
without Christ are said to be "alien from the commonwealth of Israel, and
strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in
the world." Yet through faith "those who some time were thus afar off and in
darkness" are said to be made nigh, and "are now light in the Lord." (Ephes.
ii. 12, 13, and v, 8.) It is requisite, therefore, earnestly to contend for
the Necessity of the Christian religion, as for the altar and the anchor of
our salvation, lest, after we have suffered the Son to be taken away from us
and from our Faith, we should also be deprived of the Father:

"For whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father." (1 John ii.
23.) But if we in the slightest degree connive at the diminution or
limitation of this Necessity, Christ himself will be brought into contempt
among Christians, his own professing people; and will at length be totally
denied and universally renounced. For it is not an affair of difficulty to
take away the merit of salvation, and the power to save from Him to whom we
are not compelled by any necessity to offer our oaths of allegiance. Who
believes, that it is not necessary to return thanks to him who has conferred
a benefit? Nay, who will not openly and confidently profess, that he is not
the Author of salvation whom it is not necessary to acknowledge in that
capacity. The union, therefore, of both the objects, God and Christ, must be
strongly urged and enforced in our Christian Theology; nor is it to be
endured that under any pretext they be totally detached and removed from
each other, unless we wish Christ himself to be separated and withdrawn from
us, and for us to be deprived at once of him and of our own salvation.

The present subject would require us briefly to present to your sight all
and each of those parts of which the consideration of this object ought to
consist, and the order in which they should be placed before our eyes; but I
am unwilling to detain this most famous and crowded auditory by a more
prolix oration.

Since, therefore, thus wonderfully great are the dignity, majesty, splendour
and plenitude of Theology, and especially of our Christian Theology, by
reason of its double object which is God and Christ, it is just and proper
that all those who glory in the title of "men formed in the image of God,"
or in the far more august title of "Christians" and "men regenerated after
the image of God and Christ, should most seriously and with ardent desire
apply themselves to the knowledge of this Theology; and that they should
think no object more worthy, pleasant, or useful than this, to engage their
labourious attention or to awaken their energies. For what is more worthy of
man, who is the image of God, than to be perpetually reflecting itself on
its great archetype? What can be more pleasant, than to be continually
irradiated and enlightened by the salutary beams of his Divine Pattern? What
is more useful than, by such illumination, to be assimilated yet more and
more to the heavenly Original? Indeed there is not any thing the knowledge
of which can be more useful than this is, in the very search for it; or,
when discovered, can be more profitable to the possessor. What employment is
more becoming and honourable in a creature, a servant, and a son than to
spend whole days and nights in obtaining a knowledge of God his Creator, his
Lord, and his Father? What can be more decorous and comely in those who are
redeemed by the blood of Christ, and who are sanctified by his Spirit, than
diligently and constantly to meditate upon Christ, and always to carry him
about in their minds, and hearts, and also on their tongues?

I am fully aware that this animal life requires the discharge of various
functions; that the superintendence of them must be entrusted to those
persons who will execute each of them to the common advantage of the
republic; and that the knowledge necessary for the right management of all
such duties, can only be acquired by continued study and much labour. But if
the very persons to whom the management of these concerns has been
officially committed, will acknowledge the important principle—that in
preference to all others, those things should be sought which appertain to
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, (Matt. vi. 33,) they will confess
that their ease and leisure, their meditations and cares, should yield the
precedence to this momentous study. Though David himself was the king of a
numerous people, and entangled in various wars, yet he never ceased to
cultivate and pursue this study in preference to all others. To the benefit
which he had derived from such a judicious practice, he attributes the
portion of wisdom which he had obtained, and which was "greater than that of
his enemies." (Psalm cxix. 98,) and by it also "he had more understanding
than all his teachers." (99.) The three most noble treatises which Solomon
composed, are to the present day read by the Church with admiration and
thanksgiving; and they testify the great advantage which the royal author
obtained from a knowledge of Divine things, while he was the chief
magistrate of the same people on the throne of his Father. But since,
according to the opinion of a Roman Emperor, "nothing is more difficult than
to govern well" what just cause will any one be able to offer for the
neglect of a study, to which even kings could devote their time and
attention. Nor is it wonderful that they acted thus; for they addicted
themselves to this profitable and pleasant study by the command of God; and
the same Divine command has been imposed upon all and each of us, and is
equally binding. It is one of Plato’s observations, that "commonwealths
would at length enjoy happiness and prosperity, either when their princes
and ministers of state become philosophers, or when philosophers were chosen
as ministers of state and conducted the affairs of government." We may
transfer this sentiment with far greater justice to Theology, which is the
true and only wisdom in relation to things Divine.

But these our admonitions more particularly concern you, most excellent and
learned youths, who, by the wish of your parents or patrons, and at your own
express desire, have been devoted, set apart, and consecrated to this study;
not to cultivate it merely with diligence, for the sake of promoting your
own salvation, but that you may at some future period be qualified to engage
in the eligible occupation, (which is most pleasing to God,) of teaching,
instructing, and edifying the Church of the saints—"which is the body of
Christ, and the fullness of him that filleth all in all." (Ephes. i. 23.)
Let the extent and the majesty of the object, which by a deserved right
engages all our powers, be constantly placed before your eyes; and suffer
nothing to be accounted more glorious than to spend whole days and nights in
acquiring a knowledge of God and his Christ, since true and allowable
glories consists in this Divine knowledge. Reflect what great concerns those
must be into which angels desire to look. Consider, likewise, that you are
now forming an entrance for yourselves into a communion, at least of name,
with these heavenly beings, and that God will in a little time call you to
the employment for which you are preparing, which is one great object of my
hopes and wishes concerning you.

Propose to yourselves for imitation that chosen instrument of Christ, the
Apostle Paul, whom you with the greater willingness acknowledge as your
teacher, and who professes himself to be inflamed with such an intense
desire of knowing Christ, that he not only held every worldly thing in small
estimation when put in competition with this knowledge, but also "suffered
the loss of all things, that he might win the knowledge of Christ." (Phil.
iii. 8.) Look at Timothy, his disciple, whom he felicitates on this
account—"that from a child he had known the holy scriptures." (2 Tim. iii.
15.) You have already attained to a share of the same blessedness; and you
will make further advances in it, if you determine to receive the
admonitions, and to execute the charge, which that great teacher of the
Gentiles addresses to his Timothy.

But this study requires not only diligence, but holiness, and a sincere
desire to please God. For the object which you handle, into which you are
looking, and which you wish to know, is sacred—nay, it is the holy of
holies. To pollute sacred things, is highly indecent; it is desirable that
the persons by whom such things are administered, should communicate to them
no taint of defilement. The ancient Gentiles when about to offer sacrifice
were accustomed to exclaim,

"Far, far from hence, let the profane depart!"

This caution should be re-iterated by you, for a more solid and lawful
reason when you proceed to offer sacrifices to God Most High, and to his
Christ, before whom also the holy choir of angels repeat aloud that
thrice-hallowed song, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!" While you are
engaged in this study, do not suffer your minds to be enticed away by other
pursuits and to different objects. Exercise yourselves, continue to exercise
yourselves in this, with a mind intent upon what has been proposed to you
according to the design of this discourse. If you do this, in the course of
a short time you will not repent of your labour; but you will make such
progress in the way of the knowledge of the Lord, as will render you useful
to others. For "the secret of the Lord, is with them that fear him." (Psalm
xxv. 14) Nay, from the very circumstance of this unremitting attention, you
will be enabled to declare, that you "have chosen the good part which alone
shall not be taken away from you," (Luke x. 42) but which will daily receive
fresh increase. Your minds will be so expanded by the knowledge of God and
of his Christ, that they will hereafter become a most ample habitation for
God and Christ through the Spirit. I have finished.
_________________________________________________________________

ORATION II

THE AUTHOR AND THE END OF THEOLOGY

They who are conversant with the demonstrative species of oratory, and
choose for themselves any subject of praise or blame, must generally be
engaged in removing from themselves, what very readily assails the minds of
their auditors, a suspicion that they are impelled to speak by some
immoderate feeling of love or hatred; and in showing that they are
influenced rather by an approved judgment of the mind; and that they have
not followed the ardent flame of their will, but the clear light of their
understanding, which accords with the nature of the subject which they are
discussing. But to me such a course is not necessary. For that which I have
chosen for the subject of my commendation, easily removes from me all ground
for such a suspicion.

I do not deny, that here indeed I yield to the feeling of love; but it is on
a matter which if any one does not love, he hates himself, and perfidiously
prostitutes the life of his soul. Sacred Theology is the subject whose
excellence and dignity I now celebrate in this brief and unadorned Oration;
and which, I am convinced, is to all of you an object of the greatest
regard. Nevertheless, I wish to raise it, if possible, still higher in your
esteem. This, indeed, its own merit demands; this the nature of my office
requires. Nor is it any part of my study to amplify its dignity by ornaments
borrowed from other objects; for to the perfection of its beauty can be
added nothing extraneous that would not tend to its degradation and loss of
its comeliness. I only display such ornaments as are, of themselves, its
best recommendation. These are, its Object, its Author, its End and its
Certainty. Concerning the Object, we have already declared whatever the Lord
had imparted; and we will now speak of its Author and its End. God grant
that I may ,follow the guidance of this Theology in all respects, and may
advance nothing except what agrees with its nature, is worthy of God and
useful to you, to the glory of his name, and to the uniting of all of us
together in the Lord. I pray and beseech you also, my most excellent and
courteous hearers, that you will listen to me, now when I am beginning to
speak on the Author, and the End of Theology, with the same degree of
kindness and attention as that which you evinced when you heard my preceding
discourse on its Object.

Being about to treat of the Author, I will not collect together the
lengthened reports of his well merited praises, for with you this is
unnecessary. I will only declare (1.) Who the Author is; (2.) In what
respect he is to be considered; (3.) Which of his properties were employed
by him in the revelation of Theology; and (4.) In what manner he has made it
know.

I. We have considered the Object of Theology in regard to two particulars.
And that each part of our subject may properly and exactly answer to the
other, we may also consider its Author in a two-fold respect—that of Legal
and of Evangelical Theology. In both cases, the same person is the Author
and the Object, and the person who reveals the doctrine is likewise its
matter and argument. This is a peculiarity that belongs to no other of the
numerous sciences. For although all of them may boast of God, as their
Author, because he a God of knowledge; yet, as we have seen, they have some
other object than God, which something is indeed derived from him and of his
production. But they do not partake of God as their efficient cause, in an
equal manner with this doctrine, which, for a particular reason, and one
entirely distinct from that of the other sciences, lays claim to God , its
Author. God, therefore, is the author of Legal Theology; God and his Christ,
or God in and through Christ, is the Author of that which is evangelical.
For to this the scripture bears witness, and thus the very nature of the
object requires, both of which we will separately demonstrate.

1. Scripture describes to us the Author of legal theology before the fall in
these words: "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:" (Gen. ii. 16, 17.) A threat was added
in express words, in case the man should transgress, and a promise, in the
type of the tree of life, if he complied with the command. But there are two
things, which, as they preceded this act of legislation, should have been
previously known by man: (1.) The nature of God, which is wise, good, just,
and powerful; (2.) The authority by which he issues his commands, the right
of which rests on the act of creation. Of both these, man had a previous
knowledge, from the manifestation of God, who familiarly conversed with him,
and held communication with his own image through that Spirit by whose
inspiration he said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh."
(Gen. ii. 23.) The apostle has attributed the knowledge of both these things
to faith, and, therefore, to the manifestation of God. He speaks of the
former in these words: "For he that cometh to God must have believed [so I
read it,] that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him." (Heb. xi. 6.) If a rewarder, therefore, he is a wise, good, just,
powerful, and provident guardian of human affairs. Of the latter, he speaks
thus: "Through faith we understand that the world was framed by the word of
God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."
(Heb. xi. 3.) And although that is not expressly and particularly stated of
the moral law, in the primeval state of man; yet when it is affirmed of the
typical and ceremonial law, it must be also understood in reference to the
moral law. For the typical and ceremonial law was an experiment of obedience
to the moral law, that was to be tried on man, and the acknowledgement of
his obligation to obey the moral law. This appears still more evidently in
the repetition of the moral law by Moses after the fall, which was specially
made known to the people of Israel in these words: "And God spake all these
words :" (Exod. xx. 1,) and "What nation is there so great that hath
statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you
this day," (Deut. iv. 8.) But Moses set it before them according to the
manifestation of God to him, and in obedience to his command, as he says:
"The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are
revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the
words of this law." (Deut. xxix. 29.) And according to Paul, "That which may
be known of God, is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them."
(Rom. i. 19.)

2. The same thing is evinced by the nature of the object. For since God is
the Author of the universe, (and that, not by a natural and internal
operation, but by one that is voluntary and external, and that imparts to
the work as much as he chooses of his own, and as much as the nothing, from
which it is produced, will permit,) his excellence and dignity must
necessarily far exceed the capacity of the universe, and, for the same
reason, that of man. On this account, he is said in scripture, "to dwell in
the light unto which no man can approach," (1 Tim. vi. 16,) which strains
even the most acute sight of any creature, by a brightness so great and
dazzling, that the eye is blunted and overpowered, and would soon be blinded
unless God, by some admirable process of attempering that blaze of light,
should offer himself to the view of his creatures: This is the very
manifestation before which darkness is said to have fixed its habitation.

Nor is he himself alone inaccessible, but, as the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our
thoughts." (Isa. lv. 9.) The actions of God are called "the ways of God,"
and the creation especially is called "the beginning of the way of God,"
(Prov. 8,) by which God began, as it were, to arise and to go forth from the
throne of his majesty. Those actions, therefore, could not have been made
known and understood, in the manner in which it is allowable to know and
understand them, except by the revelation of God. This was also indicated
before, in the term "faith" which the apostle employed. But the thoughts of
God, and his will, (both that will which he wishes to be done by us, and
that which he has resolved to do concerning us,) are of free disposition,
which is determined by the divine power and liberty inherent in himself; and
since he has, in all this, called in the aid of no counselor, those thoughts
and that will are of necessity "unsearchable and past finding out." (Rom.
xi. 33.) Of these, Legal Theology consists; and as they could not be known
before the revelation of them proceeded from God, it is evidently proved
that God is its Author.

To this truth all nations and people assent. What compelled Radamanthus and
Minos, those most equitable kings of Crete, to enter the dark cave of
Jupiter, and pretend that the laws which they had promulgated among their
subjects, were brought from that cave, at the inspiration of Deity? It was
because they knew those laws would not meet with general reception, unless
they were believed to have been divinely communicated. Before Lycurgus began
the work of legislation for his Lacedaemonians, imitating the example of
those two kings, he went to Apollo at Delphos, that he might, on his return,
confer on his laws the highest recommendation by means of the authority of
the Delphic Oracle. To induce the ferocious minds of the Roman people to
submit to religion, Numa Pompilius feigned that he had nocturnal conferences
with the goddess Aegeria. These were positive and evident testimonies of a
notion which had preoccupied the minds of men, "that no religion except one
of divine origin, and deriving its principles from heaven, deserved to be
received." Such a truth they considered this, "that no one could know God,
or any thing concerning God, except through God himself."

2. Let us now look at Evangelical Theology. We have made the Author of it to
be Christ and God, at the command of the same scriptures as those which
establish the divine claims of Legal Theology, and because the nature of the
object requires it with the greater justice, in proportion as that object is
the more deeply hidden in the abyss of the divine wisdom, and as the human
mind is the more closely surrounded and enveloped with the shades of
ignorance.

(1.) Exceedingly numerous are the passages of scripture which serve to aid
and strengthen us in this opinion. We will enumerate a few of them: First,
those which ascribe the manifestation of this doctrine to God the Father;
Then, those which ascribe it to Christ. "But we" says the apostle, "speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained
before the world unto our glory. But God hath revealed it unto us by his
Spirit." (1 Cor. ii. 7,10.) The same apostle says, "The gospel and the
preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which
was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest by the
scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God." (Rom. xvi. 25, 26.) When Peter made a correct and just confession of
Christ, it was said to him by the saviour, "Flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. xvi. 17.)
John the Baptist attributed the same to Christ, saying, "The only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, be hath declared God to us." (John
i. 18.) Christ also ascribed this manifestation to himself in these words:
"No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." (Matt. xi. 17.)
And, in another place, "I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou
gavest me out of the world, and they have believed that thou didst send me."
(John xvii. 6, 8.)

(2.) Let us consider the necessity of this manifestation from the nature of
its Object.

This is indicated by Christ when speaking of Evangelical Theology, in these
words: "No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the
Father save the Son." (Matt. xi. 27.) Therefore no man can reveal the Father
or the Son, and yet in the knowledge of them are comprised the glad tidings
of the gospel. The Baptist is an assertor of the necessity of this
manifestation when he declares, that "No man hath seen God at any time."
(John i. 18.) It is the wisdom belonging to this Theology, which is said by
the Apostle to be "hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this
world knew, and which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it
entered into the heart of man." (1 Cor. ii. 7, 8, 9.) It does not come
within the cognizance of the understanding, and is not mixed up, as it were,
with the first notions or ideas impressed on the mind at the period of its
creation; it is not acquired in conversation or reasoning; but it is made
known "in the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth." To this Theology belongs
"that manifold wisdom of God which must be made known by the Church unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places," (Ephes. iii. 10,) otherwise
it would remain unknown even to the angels themselves. What! Are the deep
things of God "which no man knoweth but the Spirit of God which is in
himself," explained by this doctrine? Does it also unfold "the length and
breadth, and depth and height" of the wisdom of God? As the Apostle speaks
in another passage, in a tone of the most impassioned admiration, and almost
at a loss what words to employ in expressing the fullness of this Theology,
in which are proposed, as objects of discovery, "the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding."
(Ephes. iii. 18.) From these passages it most evidently appears, that the
Object of Evangelical Theology must have been revealed by God and Christ, or
it must otherwise have remained hidden and surrounded by perpetual darkness;
or, (which is the same thing,) that Evangelical Theology would not have come
within the range of our knowledge, and, on that account, as a necessary
consequence, there could have been none at all.

If it be an agreeable occupation to any person, (and such it must always
prove,) to look more methodically and distinctly through each part, let him
cast the eyes of his mind on those properties of the Divine Nature which
this Theology displays, clothed in their own appropriate mode; let him
consider those action of God which this doctrine brings to light, and that
will of God which he has revealed in his gospel: When he has done this, (and
of much more than this the subject is worthy,) he will more distinctly
understand the necessity of the Divine manifestation.

If any one would adopt a compendious method, let him only contemplate
Christ; and when he has diligently observed that admirable union of the Word
and Flesh, his investiture into office and the manner in which its duties
were executed; when he has at the same time reflected, that the whole of
these arrangements and proceedings are in consequence of the voluntary
economy, regulation, and free dispensation of God; he cannot avoid
professing openly, that the knowledge of all these things could not have
been obtained except by means of the revelation of God and Christ.

But lest any one should take occasion, from the remarks which we have now
made, to entertain an unjust suspicion or error, as though God the Father
alone, to the exclusion of the Son, were the Author of the legal doctrine,
and the Father through the Son were the Author of the Evangelical
doctrine—a few observations shall be added, that may serve to solve this
difficulty, and further to illustrate the matter of our discourse. As God by
his Word, (which is his own Son,) and by his Spirit, created all things, and
man according to the image of himself, so it is likewise certain, that no
intercourse can take place between him and man, without the agency of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. How is this possible, since the ad extra works
of the Deity are indivisible, and when the order of operation ad extra is
the same as the order of procession ad intra? We do not, therefore, by any
means exclude the Son as the Word of the Father, and the Holy Ghost who is
"the Spirit of Prophecy," from efficiency in this revelation.

But there is another consideration in the manifestation of the gospel, not
indeed with respect to the persons testifying, but in regard to the manner
in which they come to be considered. For the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, have not only a natural relation among themselves, but another
likewise which derives its origin from the will; yet the latter entirely
agrees with the natural relation that subsists among them. There is an
internal procession in the persons; and there is an external one, which is
called in the scriptures and in the writings of the Father, by the name of
"Mission" or "sending." To the latter mode of procession, special regard
must be had in this revelation. For the Father manifests the Gospel through
his Son and Spirit. (i.) He manifests it through the Son, as to his being,
sent for the purpose of performing the office of Mediator between God and
sinful men; as to his being the Word made flesh, and God manifest in the
flesh; and as to his having died, and to his being raised again to life,
whether that was done in reality, or only in the decree and foreknowledge of
God. (ii.) He also manifests it through his Spirit, as to his being the
Spirit of Christ, whom he asked of his Father by his passion and his death,
and whom he obtained when he was raised from the dead, and placed at the
right hand of the Father.

I think you will understand the distinction which I imagine to be here
employed: I will afford you an opportunity to examine and prove it, by
adducing the clearest passages of scripture to aid us in confirming it. (I.)
"All things," said Christ, "are delivered to me of my Father; and no man
knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save
the Son." (Matt. xi. 27.) They were delivered by the Father, to him as the
Mediator, "in whom it was his pleasure that all fullness should dwell."
(Col. i. 19. See also ii, 9.) In the same sense must be understood what
Christ says in John: "I have given unto them the words which thou gavest
me;" for it is subjoined, "and they have known surely that I came out from
thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." (xvii, 8.) From hence
it appears, that the Father had given those words to him as the Mediator: on
which account he says, in another place, "He whom God hath sent, speaketh
the words of God." (John iii. 34.) With this the saying of the Baptist
agrees, "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ." (John i. 17.) But in reference to his being opposed to Moses, who
accuses and condemns sinners, Christ is considered as the Mediator between
God and sinners. The following passage tends to the same point: "No man hath
seen God at any time: the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the
Father," [that is, "admitted," in his capacity of Mediator, to the intimate
and confidential view and knowledge of his Father’s secrets,] "he hath
declared him:" (John i. 18.) "For the Father loveth the Son, and hath given
all things into his hand;" (John iii. 35,) and among the things thus given,
was the doctrine of the gospel, which he was to expound and declare to
others, by the command of God the Father. And in every revelation which has
been made to us through Christ, that expression which occurs in the
beginning of the Apocalypse of St. John holds good and is of the greatest
validity: "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew
unto his servants." God has therefore manifested Evangelical Theology
through his Son, in reference to his being sent forth by the Father, to
execute among men, and in his name, the office of Mediator.

(ii.) Of the Holy Spirit the same scripture testifies, that, as the Spirit
of Christ the Mediator, who is the head of his church, he has revealed the
Gospel. "Christ, by the Spirit," says Peter, "went and preached to the
spirits in prison." (1 Pet. iii. 19.) And what did he preach? Repentance.
This therefore, was done through his Spirit, in his capacity of Mediator,
For, in this respect alone, the Spirit of God exhorts to repentance. This
appears more clearly from the Same Apostle: "Of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of
Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the
sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." And this was the
Spirit of Christ in his character of Mediator and head of the Church, which
the very object of the testimony foretold by him sufficiently evinces. A
succeeding passage excludes all doubt; for the gospel is said in it, to be
preached by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." (1 Pet. i. 12.) For he
was sent down by Christ when he was elevated at the right hand of God, as it
is mentioned in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles; which
passage also makes for our purpose, and on that account deserves to have its
just meaning here appreciated. This is its phraseology, "Therefore, being by
the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear."
(Acts ii. 33.) For it was by the Spirit that the Apostles prophesied and
spoke in divers languages. These passages might suffice; but I cannot omit
that most noble sentence spoken by Christ to console the minds of his
disciples, who were grieving on account of his departure, "If I go not away
the Comforter [or rather, ‘the Advocate, who shall, in my place, discharge
the vicarious office,’ as Tertullian expresses himself;] If I go not away,
the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto
you. And when he is come he will reprove the world, &c. (John xvi. 7, 8.) He
shall glorify me: For he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you."
Christ, therefore, as Mediator, "will send him," and he "will receive of
that which belongs to Christ the Mediator. He shall glorify Christ," as
constituted by God the Mediator and the Head of the Church; and he shall
glorify him with that glory, which, according to the seventeenth chapter of
St. John’s Gospel , Christ thought it necessary to ask of his Father. That
passage brings another to my recollection, which may be called its parallel
in merit: John says, "The Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus
was not yet glorified." (vii, 39.) This remark was not to be understood of
the person of the Spirit, but of his gifts, and especially that of prophecy.
But Christ was glorified in quality of Mediator: and in that glorified
capacity he sends the Holy Ghost; therefore, the Holy Spirit was sent by
Christ as the Mediator. On this account also, the Spirit of Christ the
Mediator is the Author of Evangelical Prophecy. But the Holy Ghost was sent,
even before the glorification of Christ, to reveal the Gospel. The existing
state of the Church required it at that period, and the Holy Spirit was sent
to meet that necessity. "Christ is likewise the same yesterday, today and
forever." (Heb. xiii. 8.) He was also "slain from the foundation of the
world;" (Rev. xiii. 8,) and was, therefore, at that same time raised again
and glorified; but this was all in the decree and fore-knowledge of God. To
make it evident, however, that God has never sent the Holy Spirit to the
Church, except through the agency of Christ the Mediator, and in regard to
him, God deferred that plentiful and exuberant effusion of his most copious
gifts, until Christ, after his exaltation to heaven, should send them down
in a communication of the greatest abundance. Thus he testified by a clear
and evident proof, that he had formerly poured out the gifts of the Spirit
upon the Church, by the same person, as he by whom, (when through his
ascension the dense and overcharged cloud of water above the heavens had
been disparted,) he poured down the most plentiful showers of his graces,
inundating and over spreading the whole body of the Church.

III. But the revelation of Evangelical Theology is attributed to Christ in
regard to his Mediatorship, and to the Holy Ghost in regard to his being the
appointed substitute and Advocate of Christ the Mediator. This is done most
consistently and for a very just reason, both because Christ, as Mediator,
is placed for the ground-work of this doctrine, and because in the duty of
mediation those actions were to be performed, those sufferings endured, and
those blessings asked and obtained, which complete a goodly portion of the
matters that are disclosed in the gospel of Christ. No wonder, therefore,
that Christ in this respect, (in which he is himself the object of the
gospel,) should likewise be the revealer of it, and the person who asks and
procures all evangelical graces, and who is at once the Lord of them and the
communicator. And since the Spirit of Christ, our Mediator and our head, is
the bond of our union with Christ, from which we also obtain communion with
Christ, and a participation in all his blessings—it is just and reasonable,
that, in the respect which we have just mentioned, Christ should reveal to
our minds, and seal upon our hearts, the evangelical charter and evidence of
that faith by which he dwelleth in our hearts. The consideration of this
matter exhibits to us (1.) the cause why it is possible for God to restrain
himself with such great forbearance, patience, and long suffering, until the
gospel is obeyed by those to whom it is preached; and (2.) it affords great
consolation to our ignorance and infirmities.

I think, my hearers, you perceive that this single view adds no small degree
of dignity to our Evangelical Theology, beside that which it possesses from
the common consideration of its Author. If we may be allowed further to
consider what wisdom, goodness and power God expended when he instituted and
revealed this Theology, it will give great importance to our proposition.
Indeed, all kinds of sciences have their origin in the wisdom of God, and
are communicated to men by his goodness and power. But, if it be his right,
(as it undoubtedly is,) to appoint gradations in the external exercise of
his divine properties, we shall say, that all other sciences except this,
have arisen from an inferior wisdom of God, and have been revealed by a less
degree of goodness and power. It is proper to estimate this matter according
to the excellence of its object. As the wisdom of God, by which he knows
himself, is greater than that by which he knows other things; so the wisdom
employed by him in the manifestation of himself is greater than that
employed in the manifestation of other things. The goodness by which he
permits himself to be known and acknowledged by man as his Chief Good, is
greater than that by which he imparts the knowledge of other things. The
power also, by which nature is raised to the knowledge of supernatural
things, is greater than that by which it is brought to investigate things
that are of the same species and origin with itself. Therefore, although all
the sciences may boast of God as their author, yet in these particulars,
Theology, soaring above the whole, leaves them at an immense distance.

But as this consideration raises the dignity of Theology, on the whole far
above all other sciences, so it likewise demonstrates that Evangelical far
surpasses Legal Theology; on which point we may be allowed, with your good
leave, to dwell a little. The wisdom, goodness and power, by which God made
man, after his own image, to consist of a rational soul and a body, are
great, and constitute the claims to precedence on the part of Legal
Theology. But the wisdom, goodness and power, by which "the Word was made
flesh," (John i. 14,) and God was manifest in the flesh," (1 Tim. iii. 16,)
and by which he "who was in the form of God took upon himself the form of a
servant," (Phil. ii. 7,) are still greater, and they are the claims by which
Evangelical Theology asserts its right to precedence. The wisdom and
goodness, by the operation of which the power of God has been revealed to
salvation, are great; but that by which is revealed "the power of God to
salvation to every one that believeth," (Rom. ii. 16,) far exceeds it. Great
indeed are the wisdom and goodness by which the righteousness of God by the
law is made manifest," and by which the justification of the law was
ascribed of debt to perfect obedience; but they are infinitely surpassed by
the wisdom and goodness through which the righteousness of God by faith is
manifested, and through which it is determined that the man is justified
"that worketh not, but [being a sinner,] believeth on him who justifieth the
ungodly," according to the most glorious riches of his grace. Conspicuous
and excellent were the wisdom and goodness which appointed the manner of
union with God in legal righteousness, performed out of conformity to the
image of God, after which man was created. But a solemn and substantial
triumph is achieved through faith in Christ’s blood by the wisdom and
goodness, which, having devised and executed the wonderful method of
qualifying justice and mercy, appoint the manner of union in Christ., and in
his righteousness, "who is the brightness of his Father’s glory and the
express image of his person." (Heb. i. 3.) Lastly, it is the wisdom,
goodness and power, which, out of the thickest darkness of ignorance brought
forth the marvelous light of the gospel; which, from an infinite multitude
of sins, brought in everlasting righteousness; and which, from death and the
depths of hell, "brought life and immortality to light." The wisdom,
goodness and power which have produced these effects, exceed those in which
the light that is added to light, the righteousness that is rewarded by a
due recompense, and the animal life that is regulated according to godliness
by the command of the law, are each of them swallowed up and consummated in
that which is spiritual and eternal.

A deeper consideration of this matter almost compels me to adopt a more
confident daring, and to give to the wisdom, goodness and power of God,
which are unfolded in Legal Theology, the title of Natural," and as in some
sense the beginning of the going forth of God towards his image, which is
man, and a commencement of Divine intercourse with him. The others, which
are manifested in the gospel, I fearlessly call "Supernatural wisdom, power
and goodness," and "the extreme point and the perfect completion of all
revelation;" because in the manifestation of the latter, God appears to have
excelled himself, and to have unfolded every one of his blessings. Admirable
was the kindness of God, and most stupendous his condescension in admitting
man to the most intimate communion with himself—a privilege full of grace
and mercy, after his sins had rendered him unworthy of having the
establishment of such an intercourse. But this was required by the unhappy
and miserable condition of man, who through his greater unworthiness had
become the more indigent, through his deeper blindness required illumination
by a stronger light, through his more grievous wickedness demanded
reformation by means of a more extensive goodness, and who, the weaker he
had become, needed a stronger exertion of power for his restoration and
establishment. It is also a happy circumstance, that no aberration of ours
can be so great, as to prevent God from recalling us into the good way; no
fall so deep, as to disable him from raising us up and causing us to stand
erect; and no evil of ours can be of such magnitude, as to prove a difficult
conquest to his goodness, provided it be his pleasure to put the whole of it
in motion; and this he will actually do, provided we suffer our ignorance
and infirmities to be corrected by his light and power, and our wickedness
to be subdued by his goodness.

IV. We have seen that, (1.) God is the Author of Legal Theology; and God and
his Christ, that of Evangelical Theology. We have seen at the same time (2.)
in what respect God and Christ are to be viewed in making known this
revelation, and (3.) according to what properties of the Divine Nature of
both of them it has been perfected.

We will now just glance at the Manner. The manner of the Divine
manifestation appears to be threefold, according , the three instruments or
organs of our capacity. (1.) The External Senses, (2.) The Inward Fancy or
Imagination, and (3.) The Mind or Understanding. God sometimes reveals
himself and his will by an image or representation offered to the external
sight, or through an audible speech or discourse addressed to the ear.
Sometimes he introduces himself by the same method to the imagination; and
sometimes he addresses the mind in a manner ineffable, which is called
Inspiration. Of all these modes scripture most clearly supplies us with
luminous examples. But time will not permit me to be detained in enumerating
them, lest I should appear to be yet more tedious to this most accomplished
assembly.
_________________________________________________________________

THE END OF THEOLOGY

We have been engaged in viewing the Author,: let us now advert to the End.
This is the more eminent and divine according to the greater excellence of
that matter of which it is the end. In that light, therefore, this science
is far more illustrious and transcendent than all others; because it alone
has a relation to the life that is spiritual and supernatural, and has an
End beyond the boundaries of the present life: while all other sciences have
respect to this animal life, and each has an End proposed to itself,
extending from the center of this earthly life and included within its
circumference. Of this science, then, that may be truly said which the poet
declared concerning his wise friend, "For those things alone he feels any
relish, the rest like shadows fly." I repeat it, "they fly away," unless
they be referred to this science, and firmly fix their foot upon it and be
at rest. But the same person who is the Author and Object, is also the End
of Theology. The very proportion and analogy of these things make such a
connection requisite. For since the Author is the First and the Chief Being,
it is of necessity that he be the First and Chief Good. He is, therefore,
the extreme End of all things. And since He, the Chief Being and the Chief
Good, subjects, lowers and spreads himself out, as an object to some power
or faculty of a rational creature, that by its action or motion it may be
employed and occupied concerning him, nay, that it may in a sense be united
with him; it cannot possibly be, that the creature, after having performed
its part respecting that object, should fly beyond it and extend itself
further for the sake of acquiring a greater good. It is, therefore, of
necessity that it restrain itself within him, not only as within a boundary
beyond which it is impossible for it to pass on account of the infinitude of
the object and on account of its own importance, but also as within its End
and its Good, beyond which, because they are both the Chief in degree, it
neither wishes nor is capable of desiring anything; provided this object be
united with it as far as the capacity of the creature will admit. God is,
therefore, the End of our Theology, proposed by God himself, in the acts
prescribed in it; intended by man in the performance of those actions, and
to be bestowed by God, after man shall have piously and religiously
performed his duty. But because the chief good was not placed in the promise
of it, nor in the desire of obtaining it, but in actually receiving it, the
end of Theology may with the utmost propriety be called THE UNION OF GOD
WITH MAN.

But it is not an Essential union, as if two essences, (for instance that of
God and man,) were compacted together or joined into one, or as that by
which man might himself be absorbed into God. The former of these modes of
union is prohibited by the very nature of the things so united, and the
latter is rejected by the nature of the union. Neither is it a formal union,
as if God by that union might be made in the form of man, like a Spirit
united to a body imparting to it life and motion, and acting upon it at
pleasure, although, by dwelling in the body, it should confer on man the
gift of life eternal. But it is an objective union by which God, through the
agency of his pre-eminent and most faithful faculties and actions, (all of
which he wholly occupies and completely fills,) gives such convincing proofs
of himself to man, that God may then be said to be "all in all." (1 Cor. xv.
21.) This union is immediate, and without any bond that is different to the
limits themselves. For God unites himself to the understanding and to the
will of his creature, by means of himself alone, and without the
intervention of image, species or appearance. This is what the nature of
this last and supreme union requires, as being that in which consists the
Chief Good of a rational creature, which cannot find rest except in the
greatest union of itself with God. But by this union, the understanding
beholds in the clearest vision, and as if "face to face," God himself, and
all his goodness and incomparable beauty. And because a good of such
magnitude and known by the clearest vision cannot fail of being loved on its
own account; from this very consideration the will embraces it with a more
intense love, in proportion to the greater degree of knowledge of it which
the mind has obtained.

But here a double difficulty presents itself, which must first be removed,
in order that our feet may afterwards without stumbling run along a path
that will then appear smooth and to have been for some time well trodden.
(1.) The one is, "How can it be that the eye of the human understanding does
not become dim and beclouded when an object of such transcendent light is
presented to it?" (2.)

The other is, "How can the understanding, although its eye may not be dim
and blinded, receive and contain that object in such great measure and
proportion?" The cause of the first is, that the light exhibits itself to
the understanding not in the infinity of its own nature, but in a form that
is qualified and attempered. And to what is it thus accommodated? Is it not
to the understanding? Undoubtedly, to the understanding; but not according
to the capacity which it possessed before the union: otherwise it could not
receive and contain as much as would suffice to fill it and make it happy.
But it is attempered according to the measure of its extension and
enlargement, to admit of which the understanding is exquisitely formed, if
it be enlightened and irradiated by the gracious and glorious shining of the
light accommodated to that expansion. If it be thus enlightened, the eye of
the understanding will not be overpowered and become dim, and it will
receive that object in such a vast proportion as will most abundantly
suffice to make man completely happy. This is a solution for both these
difficulties. But an extension of the understanding will be followed by an
enlargement of the will, either from a proper and adequate object offered to
it, and accommodated to the same rule; or, (which I prefer,) from the native
agreement of the will and understanding, and the analogy implanted in both
of them, according to which the understanding extends itself to acts of
volition, in the very proportion of its understanding and knowledge. In this
act of the mind and will in seeing a present God, in loving him, and
therefore in the enjoyment of him, the salvation of man and his perfect
happiness consist. To which is added , conformation of our body itself to
this glorious state of soul, which, whether it be effected by the immediate
action of God on the body, or by means of an agency resulting from the
action of the soul on the body, it is neither necessary for us here to
inquire, nor at this time to discover. From hence also arises and shines
forth illustriously the chief and infinite glory of God, far surpassing all
other glory, that he has displayed in every preceding function which he
administered. For since that action is truly great and glorious which is
good, and since goodness alone obtains the title of "greatness," according
to that elegant saying, to eu mega then indeed the best action of God is the
greatest and the most glorious. But that is the best action by which he
unites himself immediately to the creature and affords himself to be seen,
loved and enjoyed in such an abundant measure as agrees with the creature
dilated and expanded to that degree which we have mentioned. This is,
therefore, the most glorious of God’s actions. Wherefore the end of Theology
is the union , God with man, to the salvation of the one and the glory of
the other; and to the glory which he declares by his act, not that glory
which man ascribes to God when he is united to him. Yet it cannot be
otherwise, than that man should be incited to sing forever the high praises
of God, when he beholds and enjoys such large and overpowering goodness.

But the observations we have hitherto made on the End of Theology, were
accommodated to the manner of that which is legal. We must now consider the
End as it is proposed to Evangelical Theology. The End of this is (1.) God
and Christ, (2.) the union of man with both of them, and (3.) the sight and
fruition of both, to the glory of both Christ and God. On each of these
particulars we have some remarks to make from the scriptures, and which most
appropriately agree with, and are peculiar to, the Evangelical doctrine.

But before we enter upon these remarks, we must shew that the salvation of
man, to the glory of Christ himself, consists also in the love, the sight,
and the fruition of Christ. There is a passage in the fifteenth chapter of
the first Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, which imposes this
necessity upon us, because it appears to exclude Christ from this
consideration. For in that place the apostle says, "When Christ shall have
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, then the Son also himself
shall be subject unto him, that God may be all in all." (1 Cor. xv. 24.)
From this passage three difficulties are raised, which must be removed by an
appropriate explanation. They are these: (1.) "If Christ ‘shall deliver up
the kingdom to God, even the Father,’ he will no longer reign himself in
person." (2.) "If he ‘shall be subject to the Father,’ he will no more
preside over his Church:" and (3.) "If ‘God shall be all in all,’ then our
salvation is not placed in the union, sight and fruition of him." I will
proceed to give a separate answer to each of these objections. The kingdom
of Christ embraces two objects: The Mediatorial function of the regal
office, and the Regal glory: The royal function, will be laid aside, because
there will then be no necessity or use for it, but the royal glory will
remain because it was obtained by the acts of the Mediator, and was
conferred on him by the Father according to covenant. The same thing is
declared by the expression "shall be subject," which here signifies nothing
more than the laying aside of the super-eminent power which Christ had
received from the Father, and which he had, as the Father’s Vicegerent,
administered at the pleasure of his own will: And yet, when he has laid down
this power, he will remain, as we shall see, the head and the husband of his
Church. That sentence has a similar tendency in which it is said, "God shall
be ALL IN ALL." For it takes away even the intermediate and deputed
administration of the creatures which God is accustomed to use in the
communication of his benefits; and it indicates that God will likewise
immediately from himself communicate his own good, even himself to his
creatures. Therefore, on the authority of this passage, nothing is taken
away from Christ which we have been wishful to attribute to him in this
discourse according to the scriptures.

This we will now shew by some plain and apposite passages. Christ promises
an union with himself in these words, "If a man love me, he will keep my
words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our
abode with him." (John xiv. 23.) Here is a promise of good: therefore the
good of the Church is likewise placed in union with Christ; and an abode is
promised, not admitting of termination by the bounds of this life, but which
will continue for ever, and shall at length, when this short life is ended,
be consummated in heaven. In reference to this, the Apostle says, "I desire
to depart and to be with Christ;" and Christ himself says, "I will that they
also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." (John xvii. 24.) John
says, that the end of his gospel is, "that our fellowship may be with the
Father and the Son;" (1 John i. 3,) in which fellowship eternal life must
necessarily consist, since in another place he explains the same end in
these words, "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the
Christ: and that, believing, ye might have life through his name." (John xx.
31.) But from the meaning of the same Apostle, it appears, that this
fellowship has an union antecedent to itself. These are his words, "If that
which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye also shall
continue in the Son, and in the Father." (1 John ii. 24.) What! Shall the
union between Christ and his Church cease at a period when he shall place
before his glorious sight his spouse sanctified to himself by his own blood?
Far be the idea from us! For the union, which had commenced here on earth,
will then at length be consummated and perfected.

If any one entertain doubts concerning the vision of Christ, let him listen
to Christ in this declaration: "He that loveth me shall be loved of my
Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John xiv.
21.) Will he thus disclose himself in this world only? Let us again hear
Christ when he intercedes with the Father for the faithful: "Father, I will
that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they
may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before
the foundation of the world." (John xvii. 34) Christ, therefore, promises to
his followers the sight of his glory, as something salutary to them; and his
Father is intreated to grant this favour. The same truth is confirmed by
John when he says, "Then we shall see him as he is." (1 John iii. 2.) This
passage may without any impropriety be understood of Christ, and yet not to
the exclusion of God the Father. But what do we more distinctly desire than
that Christ may become, what it is said he will be, "the light" that shall
enlighten the celestial city, and in whose light "the nations shall walk?"
(Rev. xxi. 23, 24.)

Although the fruition of Christ is sufficiently established by the same
passages as those by which the sight of him is confirmed, yet we will ratify
it by two or three others. Since eternal felicity is called by the name of
"the supper of the lamb," and is emphatically described by this term, "the
marriage of the Lamb," I think it is taught with adequate clearness in these
expressions, that happiness consists in the fruition or enjoyment of the
Lamb. But the apostle, in his apocalypse, has ascribed both these epithets
to Christ, by saying, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him,
for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready
:" (Rev. xix. 7,) and a little afterwards, he says, "Blessed are they which
are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb." (verse 9.) It remains for us
to treat on the glory of Christ, which is inculcated in these numerous
passages of Scripture in which it is stated that "he sits with the Father on
his throne," and is adored and glorified both by angels and by men in
heaven.

Having finished the proof of those expressions, the truth of which we
engaged to demonstrate, we will now proceed to fulfill our promise of
explanation, and to show that all and each of these benefits descend to us
in a peculiar and more excellent manner, from Evangelical Theology, than
they could have done from that which is Legal, if by it we could really have
been made alive.

2. And, that we may, in the first place, dispatch the subject of Union, let
the brief remarks respecting marriage which we have just made, be brought
again to our remembrance. For that word more appropriately honours this
union, and adorns it with a double and remarkable privilege; one part of
which consists of a deeper combination, the other of a more glorious title.
The Scripture speaks thus of the deeper combination; "And the two shall be
one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the
church!" (Ephes. v. 31, 32.) It will therefore be a connubial tie that will
unite Christ with the church. The espousals of the church on earth are
contracted by the agency of the brides-men of Christ, who are the prophets,
the apostles, and their successors, and particularly the Holy Ghost, who is
in this affair a mediator and arbitrator. The consummation will then follow,
when Christ will introduce his spouse into his bride-chamber. From such an
union as this, there arises, not only a communion of blessings, but a
previous communion of the persons themselves; from which the possession of
blessings is likewise assigned, by a more glorious title, to her who is
united in the bonds of marriage. The church comes into a participation not
only of the blessings of Christ, but also of his title. For, being the wife
of the King, she enjoys it as a right due to her to be called QUEEN; which
dignified appellation the scripture does not withhold from her. "Upon thy
right hand stands the Queen in gold of Ophir:" (Psalm xlv. 9.) "There are
three-score queens, and four-score concubines, and virgins without number.
"My dove, my undefiled, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she
is the choice one of her that bare her. The daughter saw her, and blessed
her; yea, the queens and the concubines; and they praised her." (Song of
Sol. vi. 8, 9.) The church could not have been eligible to the high honour
of such an union, unless Christ has been made her beloved, her brother,
sucking the breasts of the same mother." (Cant. 8.) But there would have
been no necessity for this union, "if righteousness and salvation had come
to us by the law." That was, therefore, a happy necessity, which, out of
compassion to the emergency of our wretched condition, the divine
condescension improved to our benefit, and filled with such a plenitude of
dignity! But the manner of this our union with Christ is no small addition
to that union which is about to take place between us and God the Father.
This will be evident to any one who considers what and how great is the bond
of mutual union between Christ and the Father.

3. If we turn our attention to sight or vision, we shall meet with two
remarkable characters which are peculiar to Evangelical Theology.

(1.) In the first place, the glory of God, as if accumulated and
concentrated together into one body, will be presented to our view in Christ
Jesus; which glory would otherwise have been dispersed throughout the most
spacious courts of a "heaven immense;" much in the same manner as the light,
which had been created on the first day, and equally spread through the
whole hemisphere, was on the fourth day collected, united and compacted
together into one body, and offered to the eyes as a most conspicuous and
shining object. In reference to this, it is said in the Apocalypse, that the
heavenly Jerusalem "had no need of the sun, neither of the moon; for the
glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb will be the future light thereof,"
(Rev. xxi. 23,) as a vehicle by which this most delightful glory may diffuse
itself into immensity.

(2.) We shall then not only contemplate, in God himself, the most excellent
properties of his nature, but shall also perceive that all of them have been
employed in and devoted to the procuring of this good for us, which we now
possess in hope, but which we shall in reality then possess by means of this
union and open vision.

The excellence, therefore, of this vision far exceeds that which could have
been by the law; and from this source arises a fruition of greater abundance
and more delicious sweetness. For, as the light in the sun is brighter than
that in the stars, so is the sight of the sun, when the human eye is capable
of bearing it, more grateful and acceptable, and the enjoyment of it is far
more pleasant. From such a view of the Divine attributes, the most delicious
sweetness of fruition will seem to be doubled. For the first delight will
arise from the contemplation of properties so excellent; the other from the
consideration of that immeasurable condescension by which it has pleased God
to unfold all those his properties, and the whole of those blessings which
he possesses in the exhaustless and immeasurable treasury of his riches, and
to give this explanation, that he may procure salvation for man and may
impart it to his most miserable creature. This will then be seen in as
strong a light, as if the whole of that which is essentially God appeared to
exist for the sake of man alone, and for his solo benefit. There is also the
addition of this peculiarity concerning it: "Jesus Christ shall change our
vile body, [the body of our humiliation,] that it may be fashioned like unto
his glorious body: (Phil. iii. 21,) and as we have borne the image of the
earthy [Adam], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (1 Cor. xv.
49.) Hence it is, that all things are said to be made new in Christ Jesus;
(2 Cor. v. 17,) and we are described in the scriptures as "looking,
according to his promise, for new heavens and a new earth, (2 Pet. iii. 13,)
and a new name written on a white stone, (Rev. ii. 17,) the new name of my
God, and the name of the city of my God, which is the new Jerusalem, (Rev.
iii. 12.) and they shall sing a new song to God and his Christ forever."
(Rev. v. 9.)

Who does not now see, how greatly the felicity prepared for us by Christ,
and offered to us through Evangelical Theology excels that which would have
come to us by "the righteousness of the law," if indeed it had been possible
for us to fulfill it? We should in that case have been similar to the elect
angels; but now we shall be their superiors, if I be permitted to make such
a declaration, to the praise of Christ and our God, in this celebrated Hall,
and before an assembly among whom we have some of those most blessed spirits
themselves as spectators. They now enjoy union with God and Christ, and will
probably be more closely united to both of them at the time of the
"restitution of all things." But there will be nothing between the two
parties similar to that Conjugal Bond which unites us, and in which we may
be permitted to glory.

They will behold God himself "face to face," and will contemplate the most
eminent properties of his nature; but they will see some among those
properties devoted to the purpose of man’s salvation, which God has not
unfolded for their benefit, because that was not necessary; and which he
would not have unfolded, even if it had been necessary. These things they
will see, but they will not be moved by envy; it will rather be a subject of
admiration and wonder to them, that God, the Creator of both orders,
conferred on man, (who was inferior to them in nature,) that dignity which
he had of old denied to the spirits that partook with themselves of the same
nature. They will behold Christ, that most brilliant and shining light of
the city of the living God, of which they also are inhabitants: and, from
this very circumstance their happiness will be rendered more illustrious
through Christ. Christ "took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed
of Abraham;" (Heb. ii, 16,) to whom also, in that assumed nature, they will
present adoration and honour, at the command of God, when he introduces his
First begotten into the world to come. Of that future world, and of its
blessings, they also will be partakers: but "it is not put in subjection to
them," (Heb. ii. 5,) but to Christ and his Brethren, who are partakers of
the same nature, and are sanctified by himself. A malignant spirit, yet of
the same order as the angels, had hurled against God the crimes of falsehood
and envy. But we see how signally God in Christ and in the salvation
procured by him, has repelled both these accusations from himself. The
falsehood intimated an unwillingness on the part of God that man should be
reconciled to him, except by the intervention of the death of his Son. His
envy was excited, because God had raised man, not only to the angelical
happiness, (to which even that impure one would have attained had "he kept
his first estate,) but to a state of blessedness far superior to that of
angels.

That I may not be yet more prolix, I leave it as a subject of reflection to
the devoted piety of your private meditations, most accomplished auditors,
to estimate the vast and amazing greatness of the glory of God which has
here manifested itself, and to calculate the glory due from us to him for
such transcendent goodness.

In the mean time, let all of us, however great our number, consider with a
devout and attentive mind, what duty is required of us by this doctrine,
which having received its manifestation from God and Christ, plainly and
fully announces to us such a great salvation, and to the participation of
which we are most graciously invited. It requires to be received,
understood, believed, and fulfilled, in deed and in reality. It is worthy of
all acceptation, on account of its Author; and necessary to be received on
account of its End.

1. Being delivered by so great an Author, it is worthy to be received with a
humble and submissive mind; to have much diligence and care bestowed on a
knowledge and perception of it; and not to be laid aside from the hand, the
mind, or the heart, until we shall have "obtained the End of it—THE
SALVATION OF OUR SOULS." Why should this be done? Shall the Holy God open
his mouth, and our ears remain stopped? Shall our Heavenly Master be willing
to communicate instruction, and we refuse to learn? Shall he desire to
inspire our hearts with the knowledge of his Divine truth, and we, by
closing the entrance to our hearts, exclude the most evident and mild
breathings of his Spirit? Does Christ, who is the Father’s Wisdom, announce
to us that gospel which he has brought from the bosom of the Father, and
shall we disdain to hide it in the inmost recesses of our heart? And shall
we act thus, especially when we have received this binding command of the
Father, which says, "Hear ye him!" (Matt. xvii. 5,) to which he has added a
threat, that "if we hear him not, our souls shall be destroyed from among
the people; (Acts iii. 23,) that is, from the commonwealth of Israel? Let
none of us fall into the commission of such a heinous offense! "For if the
word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and
disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape if we
neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the
Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him ," (Heb. ii. 2, 3.)

2. To all the preceding considerations, let the End of this doctrine be
added, and it will be of the greatest utility in enforcing this the work of
persuasion on minds that are not prodigal of their own proper and Chief
Good—an employment in which its potency and excellence are most apparent.
Let us reflect, for what cause God has brought us out of darkness into this
marvelous light; has furnished us with a mind, understanding, and reason;
and has adorned us with his image. Let this question be revolved in our
minds, "For what purpose or End has God restored the fallen to their
pristine state of integrity, reconciled sinners to himself, and received
enemies into favour," and we shall plainly discover all this to have been
done, that we might be made partakers of eternal salvation, and might sing
praises to him forever. But we shall not be able to aspire after this End,
much less to attain it, except in the way which is pointed out by that
Theological Doctrine which has been the topic of our discourse. If we wander
from this End, our wanderings from it extend, not only beyond the whole
earth and sea, but beyond heaven itself—that city of which nevertheless it
is essentially necessary for us to be made free men, and to have our names
enrolled among the living. This doctrine is "the gate of heaven," and the
door of paradise; the ladder of Jacob, by which Christ descends to us, and
we shall in turn ascend to him; and the golden chain, which connects heaven
with earth. Let us enter into this gate; let us ascend this ladder; and let
us cling to this chain. Ample and wide is the opening of the gate, and it
will easily admit believers; the position of the ladder is movable, and will
not suffer those who ascend it to be shaken or moved; the joining which
unites one link of the chain with another is indissoluble, and will not
permit those to fall down who cling to it, until we come to "him that liveth
forever and ever," and are raised to the throne of the Most High; till we be
united to the living God, and Jesus Christ our Lord, "the Son of the
Highest."

But on you, O chosen youths, this care is a duty peculiarly incumbent; for
God has destined you to become "workers together with him," in the
manifestation of the gospel, and instruments to administer to the salvation
of others. Let the Majesty of the Holy Author of your studies, and the
necessity of the End, be always placed before your eyes. (1.) On attentively
viewing the Author, let the words of the Prophet Amos recur to your
remembrance and rest on your mind: "The lion hath roared, who will not fear?
The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" (Amos ii. 8.) But you
cannot prophesy, unless you be instructed by the Spirit of Prophesy. In our
days he addresses no one in that manner, except in the Scriptures; he
inspires no one, except by means of the Scriptures, which are divinely
inspired. (2.) In contemplating the End, you will discover, that it is not
possible to confer on any one, in his intercourse with mankind, an office of
greater dignity and utility, or an office that is more salutary in its
consequences, than this, by which he may conduct them from error into the
way of truth, from wickedness to righteousness, from the deepest misery to
the highest felicity; and by which he may contribute much towards their
everlasting salvation. But this truth is taught by Theology alone; there is
nothing except this heavenly science that prescribes the true righteousness;
and by it alone is this felicity disclosed, and our salvation made known and
revealed. Let the sacred Scriptures therefore be your models:

"Night and day read them, read them day and night. Colman.

If you thus peruse them, "they will make you that you shall not be barren
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; (2 Pet. i. 8,) but
you will become good ministers of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of
faith and of good doctrine; (1 Tim. iv. 6,) and ready to every good work;
(Tit. iii. 1,) workmen who need not to be ashamed;" (2 Tim. ii. 15,) sowing
the gospel with diligence and patience; and returning to your Lord with
rejoicing, bringing with you an ample harvest, through the blessing of God
and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: to whom be praise and glory from
this time, even forever more! Amen !
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ORATION III

THE CERTAINTY OF SACRED THEOLOGY

Although the observations which I have already offered in explanation of the
Object, the Author and the End of sacred Theology, and other remarks which
might have been made, if they had fallen into the hands of a competent
interpreter, although all of them contain admirable commendations of this
Theology, and convince us that it is altogether divine, since it is occupied
concerning God, is derived from God, and leads to God; yet they will not be
able to excite within the mind of any person a sincere desire of entering
upon such a study, unless he be at the same time encouraged by the bright
rays of an assured hope of arriving at a knowledge of the desirable Object,
and of obtaining the blessed End. For since the perfection of motion is
rest, vain and useless will that motion be which is not able to attain rest,
the limit of its perfection. But no prudent person will desire to subject
himself to vain and useless labour. All our hope, then, of attaining to this
knowledge is placed in Divine revelation. For the anticipation of this very
just conception has engaged the minds of men, "that God cannot be known
except through himself, to whom also there can be no approach but through
himself." On this account it becomes necessary to make it evident to man,
that a revelation has been made by God; that the revelation which has been
given is fortified and defended by such sure and approved arguments, as will
cause it to be considered and acknowledged as divine; and that there is a
method, by which a man may understand the meanings declared in the word, and
may apprehend them by a firm and assured faith. To the elucidation of the
last proposition, this third part of our labour must be devoted. God grant
that I may in this discourse again follow the guidance of his word as it is
revealed in the scriptures, and may bring forth and offer to your notice
such things as may contribute to establish our faith, and to promote the
glory of God, to the uniting together of all of us in the Lord. I pray and
beseech you also, my very famous and most accomplished hearers, not to
disdain to favour me with a benevolent and patient hearing, while I deliver
this feeble oration in your presence.

As we are now entering upon a consideration of the Certainty of Sacred
Theology, it is not necessary that we should contemplate it under the aspect
of Legal and Evangelical; for in both of them there is the same measure of
the truth, and therefore, the same measure of knowledge, and that is
certainty. We will treat on this subject, then, in a general manner, without
any particular reference or application.

But that our oration may proceed in an orderly course, it will be requisite
in the first place briefly to describe Certainty in general; and then to
treat at greater length on the Certainty Of Theology.

I. Certainty, then, is a property of the mind or understanding, and a mode
of knowledge according to which the mind knows an object as it is, and is
certain that it knows that object as it is. It is distinct from Opinion;
because it is possible for opinion to know a matter as it is, but its
knowledge is accompanied by a suspicion of the opposite falsity. Two things,
therefore, are required, to constitute certainty. (1.) The truth of the
thing itself, and (2.) such an apprehension of it in our minds as we have
just described. This very apprehension, considered as being formed from the
truth of the thing itself, and fashioned according to such truth, is also
called Truth on account of the similitude; even as the thing itself is
certain, on account of the action of the mind which apprehends it in that
manner. Thus do those two things, (certainty and truth,) because of their
admirable union, make a mutual transfer of their names, the one to the
other.

But truth may in reality be viewed in two aspects—one simple, and the other
compound. (1.) The former, in relation to a thing as being in the number of
entities; (2.) the latter, in reference to something inherng in a thing,
being present with it or one of its circumstantials—or in reference to a
thing as producing something else, or as being

produced by some other—and if there be any other affections and relations of
things among themselves. The process of truth in the mind is after the same
manner. Its action is of two kinds. (1.) On a simple being or entity which
is called "a simple apprehension;" and (2.) on a complex being, which is
termed composition." The mode of truth is likewise, in reality,
two-fold—necessary and contingent; according to which, a thing, whether it
be simple or complex, is called "necessary" or "contingent." The necessity
of a simple thing is the necessary existence of the thing itself, whether it
obtain the place of a subject or that of an attribute. The necessity of a
complex thing is the unavoidable and essential disposition and habitude that
subsists between the subject and the attribute.

That necessity which, as we have just stated, is to be considered in simple
things, exists in nothing except in God and in those things which, although
they agree with him in their nature, are yet distinguished from him by our
mode of considering them. All other things, whatever may be their qualities,
are contingent, from the circumstance of their being brought into action by
power; neither are they contingent only by reason of their beginning, but
also of their continued duration. Thus the existence of God, is a matter of
necessity; his life, wisdom, goodness, justice, mercy, will and power,
likewise have a necessary existence. But the existence and preservation of
the creatures are not of necessity. Thus also creation, preservation,
government, and whatever other acts are attributed to God in respect of his
creatures, are not of necessity. The foundation of necessity is the nature
of God; the principle of contingency is the free will of the Deity. The more
durable it has pleased God to create anything, the nearer is its approach to
necessity, and the farther it recedes from contingency; although it never
pass beyond the boundaries of contingency, and never reach the inaccessible
abode of necessity.

Complex necessity exists not only in God, but also in the things of his
creation. It exists in God, partly on account of the foundation of his
nature, and partly on account of the principle of his free-will. But its
existence in the creatures is only from the free will of God, who at once
resolved that this should be the relation and habitude between two created
objects. Thus "God lives, understands, and loves," is a necessary truth from
his very nature as God. "God is the Creator," "Jesus Christ is the saviour,"
"An angel is a created spirit endowed with intelligence and will," and "A
man is a rational creature," are all necessary truths from the free will of
God.

From this statement it appears, that degrees may be constituted in the
necessity of a complex truth; that the highest may be attributed to that
truth which rests upon the nature of God as its foundation; that the rest,
which proceed from the will of God, may be excelled by that which (by means
of a greater affection of his will,) God has willed to invest with such
right of precedence; and that it may be followed by that which God has
willed by a less affection of his will. The motion of the sun is necessary
from the very nature of that luminary; but it is more necessary that the
children of Israel be preserved and avenged on their enemies; the sun is
therefore commanded to stand still in the midst of the heavens. (Josh. x.
13.) It is necessary that the sun be borne along from the east to the west,
by the diurnal motion of the heavens. But it is more necessary that Hezekiah
receive, by a sure sign, a confirmation of the prolongation of his life; the
sun, therefore, when commanded, returns ten degrees backward; (Isa. xxxviii.
8,) and thus it is proper, that the less necessity should yield to the
greater, and that from the free will of God, which has imposed a law on both
of them. As this kind of necessity actually exists in things, the mind, by
observing the same gradations, apprehends and knows it, if such a mode of
cognition can truly deserve the name of "knowledge."

But the causes of this Certainty are three. For it is produced on the mind,
either by the senses, by reasoning and discourse, or by revelation. The
first is called the certainty of experience; the second, that of knowledge;
and the last, that of faith. The first is the certainty of particular
objects which come within the range and under the observation of the senses;
the second is that of general conclusions deduced from known principles; and
the last is that of things remote from the cognizance both of the senses and
reason.

II. Let these observations now be applied to our present purpose. The Object
of our Theology is God, and Christ in reference to his being God and Man.
God is a true Being, and the only necessary one, on account of the necessity
of his and he is also a necessary Being, because he will endure to all
eternity. The things which are attributed to God in our Theology: partly
belong to his nature, and partly agree with it by his own free will. By his
nature, life, wisdom, goodness, justice, mercy, will and power belong to
him, by a natural and absolute necessity. By his free will, all his
volitions and actions concerning the creatures agree with his nature, and
that immutably; because he willed at the same time, that they should not be
retracted or repealed. All those things which are attributed to Christ,
belong to him by the free will of God, but on this condition, that "Christ
be the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever," (Heb. xiii. 8,) entirely
exempt from any future change, whether it be that of a subject or its
attributes, or of the affection which exists between the two. All other
things, which are found in the whole superior and inferior nature of things,
(whether they be considered simply in themselves, or as they are mutually
affected among themselves,) do not extend to any degree of this necessity.
The truth and necessity of our Theology, therefore, far exceed the necessity
of all other sciences, in as much as both these [the truth and necessity,]
are situated in the things themselves. The certainty of the mind, while it
is engaged in the act of apprehending and knowing things, cannot exceed the
Truth and Necessity of the thing’s themselves; on the contrary, it very
often may not reach them, [the truth and necessity,] through some defect in
its capacity. For the eyes of our mind are in the same condition with
respect to the pure truth of things, as are the eyes of owls with respect to
the light of the sun. On this account, therefore, it is of necessity, that
the object of no science can be known with greater certainty than that of
Theology; but it follows rather, that a knowledge of this object may be
obtained with the greatest degree of certainty, if it be presented in a
qualified and proper manner to the inspection of the understanding according
to its capacity. For this object is not of such a nature and condition as to
be presented to the external senses; nor can its attributes, properties,
affections, actions and passions be known by means of the observation and
experience of the external senses. It is too sublime for them; and the
attributes, properties, affections, actions and passions, which agree with
it, are so high that the mind, even when assisted by reason and discourse,
can neither know it, investigate its attributes, nor demonstrate that they
agree with the subject, whatever the principles may be which it has applied,
and to whatever causes it may have had recourse, whether they be such as
arise from the object itself, from its attributes, or from the agreement
which subsists between them. The Object is known to itself alone; and the
whole truth and necessity are properly and immediately known to Him to whom
they belong; to God in the first place and in an adequate degree; to Christ,
in the second place, through the communication of God. To itself, in an
adequate manner, in reference to the knowledge which it has of itself; in an
inferior degree to God, in reference to his knowledge of him, [Christ.]
Revelation is therefore necessary by which God may exhibit himself and his
Christ as an object of sight and knowledge to our understanding; and this
exhibition to be made in such a manner as to unfold at once all their
attributes, properties, affections, actions and passions, as far as it is
permitted for them to be known, concerning God and his Christ, to our
salvation and to their glory; and that God may thus disclose all and every
portion of those theorems in which both the subjects themselves and all
their attending attributes are comprehended. Revelation is necessary, if it
be true that God and his Christ ought to be known, and both of them be
worthy to receive Divine honours and worship. But both of them ought to be
known and worshipped; the revelation, therefore, of both of them is
necessary; and because it is thus necessary, it has been made by God. For if
nature, as a partaker and communicator of a good that is only partial, is
not deficient in the things that are necessary; how much less ought we even
to suspect such a deficiency in God, the Author and Artificer of nature, who
is also the Chief Good?

But to inspect this subject a little more deeply and particularly, will
amply repay our trouble; for it is similar to the foundation on which must
rest the weight of the structure—the other doctrines which follow. For
unless it should appear certain and evident, that a revelation has been
made, it will be in vain to inquire and dispute about the word in which that
revelation has been made and is contained. In the first place, then, the
very nature of God most clearly evinces that a revelation has been made of
himself and Christ. His nature is good, beneficent, and communicative of his
blessedness, whether it be that which proceeds from it by creation, or that
which is God himself. But there is no communication made of Divine good,
unless God be made known to the understanding, and be desired by the
affections and the will. But he cannot become an object of knowledge except
by revelation. A revelation, therefore, is made, as a necessary instrument
of communication.

2. The necessity of this revelation may in various ways be inferred and
taught from the nature and condition of man. First. By nature, man possesses
a mind and understanding. But it is just that the mind and understanding
should be turned towards their Creator; this, however, cannot be done
without a knowledge of the Creator, and such knowledge cannot be obtained
except by revelation; a revelation has, therefore, been made. Secondly. God
himself formed the nature of man capable of Divine Good. But in vain would
it have had such a capacity, if it might not at some time partake of this
Divine Good; but of this the nature of man cannot be made a partaker except
by the knowledge of it; the knowledge of this Divine Good has therefore been
manifested. Thirdly. It is not possible, that the desire which God has
implanted within man should be vain and fruitless. That desire is for the
enjoyment of an Infinite Good, which is God; but that Infinite Good cannot
be enjoyed, except it be known; a revelation, therefore, has been made, by
which it may be known.

3. Let that relation be brought forward which subsists between God and man,
and the revelation that has been made will immediately become manifest. God,
the Creator of man, has deserved it as his due, to receive worship and
honour from the workmanship of his hands, on account of the benefit which he
conferred by the act of creation. Religion and piety are due to God, from
man his creature; and this obligation is coeval with the very birth of man,
as the bond which contains this requisition was given on the very day in
which he was created. But religion could not be a human invention. For it is
the will of God to receive worship according to the rule and appointment of
his own will. A revelation was therefore made, which exacts from man the
religion due to God, and prescribes that worship which is in accordance with
his pleasure and his honour.

4. If we turn our attention towards Christ, it is amazing how great the
necessity of a manifestation appears, and how many arguments immediately
present themselves in behalf of a revelation being communicated. Wisdom
wishes to be acknowledged as the deviser of the wonderful attempering and
qualifying of justice and mercy. Goodness and gracious mercy, as the
administrators of such an immense benefit sought to be worshipped and
honoured. And power, as the hand-maid of such stupendous wisdom and
goodness, and as the executrix of the decree made by both of them, deserved
to receive adoration. But the different acts of service which were due to
each of them, could not be rendered to them without revelation. The wisdom,
mercy and power of God, have, therefore, been revealed and displayed most
copiously in Christ Jesus. He performed a multitude of most wonderful works,
by which we might obtain the salvation that we had lost; he endured most
horrid torments and inexpressible distress, which, when pleaded in our
favour, served to obtain this salvation for us; and by the gift of the
Father he was possessed of an abundance of graces, and, at the Divine
command, he became the distributor of them. Having, therefore, sustained all
these offices for us, it is his pleasure to receive those acknowledgments,
and those acts of Divine honour and worship, which are due to him on account
of his extraordinary merits. But in vain will he expect the performance of
these acts from man, unless he be himself revealed. A revelation of Christ
has, therefore, been made. Consult actual experience, and that will supply
you with numberless instances of this manifestation. The devil himself, who
is the rival of Christ, has imitated these instances of gracious
manifestation, has held converse with men under the name and semblance of
the true God, has demanded acts of devotion from them, and prescribed to
them a mode of religious worship. We have, therefore, the truth and the
necessity of our Theology agreeing together in the highest degree; we have
an adequate notion of it in the mind of God and Christ, according to the
word which is called emfutov "engrafted." (James i. 21.) We have a
revelation of this Theology made to men by the word preached; which
revelation agrees both with the things themselves and with the notion which
we have mentioned, but in a way that is attempered and suited to the human
capacity. And as all these are preliminaries to the certainty which we
entertain concerning this Theology, it was necessary to notice them in these
introductory remarks.

Let us now consider this Certainty itself. But since a revelation has been
made in the word which has been published, and since the whole of it is
contained in that word, (so that This Word is itself our Theology,) we can
determine nothing concerning the certainty of Theology in any other way than
by offering some explanation concerning our certain apprehension of that
word. We will assume it as a fact which is allowed and confirmed, that this
word is to be found in no other place than in the sacred books of the Old
and New Testament; and we shall on this account confine this certain
apprehension of our mind to that word. But in fulfilling this design, three
things demand our attentive consideration: First. The Certainty, and the
kind of certainty which God requires from us, and by which it is his
pleasure that this word should be received and apprehended by us as the
Chief Certainty. Secondly. The reasons and arguments by which the truth of
that word, which is its divinity, may be proved. Thirdly. How a persuasion
of that divinity may be wrought in our minds, and this Certainty may be
impressed on our hearts.

I. The Certainty "with which God wishes this word to be received, is that of
faith; and it therefore depends on the veracity of him who utters it." By
this Certainty "it is received," not only as true, but as divine; and it is
not of that involved and mixed kind "of faith" by which any one, without
understanding the meanings expressed by the word as by a sign, believes that
those books which are contained in the Bible, are divine: for not only is a
doubtful opinion opposed to faith, but an obscure and perplexed conception
is equally inimical. Neither is it that species "of historical faith" which
believes the word to be divine that it comprehends only by a theoretical
understanding. But God demands that faith to be given to his word, by which
the meanings expressed in this word may be understood, as far as it is
necessary for the salvation of men and the glory of God; and may be so
assuredly known to be divine, that they may be believed to embrace not only
the Chief Truth, but also the Chief Good of man. This faith not only
believes that God and Christ exist, it not only gives credence to them when
they make declarations of any kind, but it believes in God and Christ when
they affirm such things concerning themselves, as, being apprehended by
faith, create a belief in God as our Father, and in Christ as our saviour.
This we consider to be the office of an understanding that is not merely
theoretical, but of one that is practical. For this cause not only is
asfaleia (certainty,) attributed in the Scriptures to true and living faith,
but to it are likewise ascribed both wlhroforia (a full assurance, Heb. vi.
2,) and wewoiqhsiv (trust or confidence,2 Cor. iii. 4,) and it is God who
requires and demands such a species of certainty and of faith.

II. We may now be permitted to proceed by degrees from this point, to a
consideration of those arguments which prove to us the divinity of the word;
and to the manner in which the required certainty and faith are produced in
our minds. To constitute natural vision we know that, (beside an object
capable of being seen,) not only is an external light necessary to shine
upon it and to render it visible, but an internal strength of eye is also
required, which may receive within itself the form and appearance of the
object which has been illuminated by the external light, and may thus be
enabled actually to behold it. The same accompaniments are necessary to
constitute spiritual vision; for, beside this external light of arguments
and reasoning, an internal light of the mind and soul is necessary to
perfect this vision of faith. But infinite is the number of arguments on
which this world builds and establishes its divinity. We will select and
briefly notice a few of those which are more usual, lest by too great a
prolixity we become too troublesome and disagreeable to our auditory.
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1. THE DIVINITY OF SCRIPTURE

Let scripture itself come forward, and perform the chief part in asserting
its own Divinity. Let us inspect its substance and its matter. It is all
concerning God and his Christ, and is occupied in declaring the nature of
both of them, in further explaining the love, the benevolence, and the
benefits which have been conferred by both of them on the human race, or
which have yet to be conferred; and prescribing, in return, the duties of
men towards their Divine Benefactors. The scripture, therefore, is divine in
its object.

(2.) But how is it occupied in treating on these subjects? It explains the
nature of God in such a way as to attribute nothing extraneous to it, and
nothing that does not perfectly agree with it. It describes the person of
Christ in such a manner, that the human mind, on beholding the description,
ought to acknowledge, that "such a person could not have been invented or
devised by any created intellect," and that it is described with such
aptitude, suitableness and sublimnity, as far to exceed the largest capacity
of a created understanding. In the same manner the scripture is employed in
relating the love of God and Christ towards us, and in giving an account of
the benefits which we receive. Thus the Apostle Paul, when he wrote to the
Ephesians on these subjects, says, that from his former writings, the extent
of "his knowledge of the mystery of Christ" might be manifest to them;
(Ephes. iii. 4.) that is, it was divine, and derived solely from the
revelation of God. Let us contemplate the law in which is comprehended the
duty of men towards God. What shall we find, in all the laws of every
nation, that is at all similar to this, or (omitting all mention of
"equality,") that may be placed in comparison with those ten short
sentences? Yet even those commandments, most brief and comprehensive as they
are, have been still further reduced to two chief heads—the love of God, and
the love of our neighbour. This law appears in reality to have been sketched
and written by the right hand of God. That this was actually the case, Moses
shews in these words, What nation is there so great, that hath statutes and
judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?"
(Deut. iv. 8.) Moses likewise says, that so great and manifest is the
divinity which is inherent in this law, that it compelled the heathen
nations, after they had heard it, to declare in ecstatic admiration of it.
"Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people?" (Deut. iv.
6.) The scripture, therefore, is completely divine, from the manner in which
it treats on those matters which are its subjects.

(3.) If we consider the End, it will as clearly point out to us the divinity
of this doctrine. That End is entirely divine, being nothing less than the
glory of God and man’s eternal salvation. What can be more equitable than
that all things should be referred to him from whom they have derived their
origin? What can be more consonant to the wisdom, goodness, and power of
God, than that he should restore, to his original integrity, man who had
been created by him, but who had by his own fault destroyed himself; and
that he should make him a partaker of his own Divine blessedness? If by
means of any word God had wished to manifest himself to man, what end of
manifestation ought he to have proposed that would have been more honourable
to himself and more salutary to man? That the word, therefore, was divinely
revealed, could not be discerned by any mark which was better or more
legible, than that of its showing to man the way of salvation, taking him as
by the hand and leading him into that way, and not ceasing to accompany him
until it introduced him to the full enjoyment of salvation: In such a
consummation as this, the glory of God most abundantly shines forth and
displays itself. He who may wish to contemplate what we are declaring
concerning this End, in a small but noble part of this word, should place
"the Lord’s Prayer" before the eyes of his mind; he should look most
intently upon it; and, as far as that is possible for human eyes, he should
thoroughly investigate all its parts and beauties. After he has done this,
unless he confess, that in it this double end is proposed in a manner that
is at once so nervous, brief, and accurate, as to be above the strength and
capacity of every created intelligence, and unless he acknowledge, that this
form of prayer is purely divine, he must of necessity have a mind surrounded
and enclosed by more than Egyptian darkness.
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2. THE AGREEMENT OF THIS DOCTRINE IN ITS PARTS

Let us compare the parts of this doctrine together, and we shall discover in
all of them an agreement and harmony, even in points the most minute, that
it is so great and evident as to cause us to believe that it could not be
manifested by men, but ought to have implicit credence placed in it as
having certainly proceeded from God.

Let the Predictions alone, that have been promulgated concerning Christ in
different ages, be compared together. For the consolation of the first
parents of our race, God said to the serpent, "The seed of the woman shall
bruise thy head." (Gen. iii. 15.) The same promise was repeated by God, and
was specially made to Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the nations be
blessed." (Gen. xxii. 18.) The patriarch Jacob, when at the point of death,
foretold that this seed should come forth from the lineage and family of
Judah, in these words: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a
lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the
gathering of the people be." (Gen. xlix. 10.) Let the alien prophet also be
brought forward, and to these predictions he will add that oracular
declaration which he pronounced by the inspiration and at the command of the
God of Israel, in these words: Balaam said, "There shall come a star out of
Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners
of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth." (Num. xxiv. 17.) This
blessed seed was afterwards promised to David, by Nathan, in these words: "I
will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and
I will establish his kingdom." (2 Sam. vii. 12.) On this account Isaiah
says, "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch
shall grow out of his roots." (xi, 1.) And, by way of intimating that a
virgin would be his mother, the same prophet says, "Behold a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel!" (Isa. vii. 14.)
It would be tedious to repeat every declaration that occurs in the psalms
and in the other Prophets, and that agrees most appropriately with this
subject. When these prophecies are compared with those occurrences that have
been described in the New Testament concerning their fulfillment, it will be
evident from the complete harmony of the whole, that they were all spoken
and written by the impulse of one Divine Spirit. If some things in those
sacred books seem to be contradictions, they are easily reconciled by means
of a right interpretation. I add, that not only do all the parts of this
doctrine agree among themselves, but they also harmonize with that Universal
Truth which has been spread through the whole of Philosophy; so that nothing
can be discovered in Philosophy, which does not correspond with this
doctrine. If any thing appear not to possess such an exact correspondence,
it may be clearly confuted by means of true Philosophy and right reason.

Let the Style and Character of the scriptures be produced, and, in that
instant, a most brilliant and refulgent mirror of the majesty which is
luminously reflected in it, will display itself to our view in a manner the
most divine. It relates things that are placed at a great distance beyond
the range of the human imagination—things which far surpass the capacities
of men. And it simply relates these things without employing any mode of
argumentation, or the usual apparatus of persuasion: yet its obvious wish is
to be understood and believed. But what confidence or reason has it for
expecting to obtain the realization of this its desire? It possesses none at
all, except that it depends purely upon its own unmixed authority, which is
divine. It publishes its commands and its interdicts, its enactments and its
prohibitions to all persons alike; to kings and subjects, to nobles and
plebians, to the learned and the ignorant, to those that "require a sign"
and those that "seek after wisdom," to the old and the young; over all
these, the rule which it bears, and the power which it exercises, are equal.
It places its sole reliance, therefore, on its own potency, which is able in
a manner the most efficacious to restrain and compel all those who are
refractory, and to reward those who are obedient.

Let the Rewards and Punishments be examined, by which the precepts are
sanctioned, and there are seen both a promise of life eternal and a
denunciation of eternal punishments. He who makes such a commencement as
this, may calculate upon his becoming an object of ridicule, except he
possess an inward consciousness both of his own right and power; and except
he know, that, to subdue the wills of mortals, is a matter equally easy of
accomplishment with him, as to execute his menaces and to fulfill his
premises. To the scriptures themselves let him have recourse who may be
desirous to prove with the greatest certainty its majesty, from the kind of
diction which it adopts: Let him read the charming swan-like Song of Moses
described in the concluding chapters of the Book of Deuteronomy: Let him
with his mental eyes diligently survey the beginning of Isaiah’s prophecy:
Let him in a devout spirit consider the hundred and fourth Psalm. Then, with
these, let him compare whatever choice specimens of poetry and eloquence the
Greeks and the Romans can produce in the most eminent manner from their
archives; and he will be convinced by the most demonstrative evidence, that
the latter are productions of the human spirit, and that the former could
proceed from none other than the Divine Spirit. Let a man of the greatest
genius, and, in erudition, experience, and eloquence, the most accomplished
of his race—let such a well instructed mortal enter the lists and attempt to
finish a composition at all similar to these writings, and he will find
himself at a loss and utterly disconcerted, and his attempt will terminate
in discomfiture. That man will then confess, that what St. Paul declared
concerning his own manner of speech, and that of his fellow-labourers, may
be truly applied to the whole scripture: "Which things also we speak, not in
the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;
comparing spiritual things with spiritual." (1 Cor. ii. 13.)
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3. THE PROPHECIES

Let us next inspect the prophecies scattered through the whole body of the
doctrine; some of which belong to the substance of the doctrine, and others
contribute towards procuring authority to the doctrine and to its
instruments. It should be particularly observed, with what eloquence and
distinctness they foretell the greatest and most important matters, which
are far removed from the scrutinizing research of every human and angelical
mind, and which could not possibly be performed except by power Divine: Let
it be noticed at the same time with what precision the predictions are
answered by the periods that intervene between them, and by all their
concomitant circumstances; and the whole world will be compelled to confess,
that such things could not have been foreseen and foretold, except by an
omniscient Deity. I need not here adduce examples; for they are obvious to
any one that opens the Divine volume. I will produce one or two passages,
only, in which this precise agreement of the prediction and its fulfillment
is described. When speaking of the children of Israel under the Egyptian
bondage, and their deliverance from it according to the prediction which God
had communicated to Abraham in a dream, Moses says, "And it came to pass at
the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it came
to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt:"
(Exod. xii. 41.) Ezra speaks thus concerning the liberation from the
Babylonish captivity, which event, Jeremiah foretold, should occur within
seventy years: "Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the
word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord
stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia," &c. (Ezra i. 1.) But God
himself declares by Isaiah, that the divinity of the scripture may be
proved, and ought to be concluded, from this kind of prophecies. These are
his words: "Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know
that ye are Gods." (Isa. xli. 23.)
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4. MIRACLES

An illustrious evidence of the same divinity is afforded in the miracles,
which God has performed by the stewards of his word, his prophets and
apostles, and by Christ himself, for the confirmation of his doctrine and
for the establishment of their authority. For these miracles are of such a
description as infinitely to exceed the united powers of all the creatures
and all the powers of nature itself, when their energies are combined. But
the God of truth, burning with zeal for his own glory, could never have
afforded such strong testimonies as these to false prophets and their false
doctrine: nor could he have borne such witness to any doctrine even when it
was true, provided it was not his, that is, provided it was not divine.
Christ, therefore, said, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me
not; but if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works." (John x.
37, 38.) It was the same cause also, which induced the widow of Sarepta to
say, on receiving from the hands of Elijah her son, who, after his death,
had been raised to life by the prophet: "Now by this I know that thou art a
man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth." (1 Kings
xvii. 24.) That expression of Nicodemus has the same bearing: "Rabbi, we
know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him." (John iii. 2.) And it was for a
similar reason that the apostle said, "The signs of an apostle were wrought
among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds." (2 Cor.
xii. 12.) There are indeed miracles on record that were wrought among the
gentiles, and under the auspices of the gods whom they invoked: It is also
predicted, concerning False Prophets, and Antichrist himself, that they will
exhibit many signs and wonders: (Rev. xix. 20.) But neither in number, nor
in magnitude, are they equal to those which the true God has wrought before
all Israel, and in the view of the whole world. Neither were those feats of
their real miracles, but only astonishing operations performed by the agency
and power of Satan and his instruments, by means of natural causes, which
are concealed from the human understanding, and escape the cognizance of
men. But to deny the existence of those great and admirable miracles which
are related to have really happened, when they have also the testimony of
both Jews and gentiles, who were the enemies of the true doctrine—is an
evident token of bare-faced impudence and execrable stupidity.
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5. THE ANTIQUITY OF THE DOCTRINE

Let the antiquity, the propagation, the preservation, and the truly
admirable defense of this doctrine be added—and they will afford a bright
and perspicuous testimony of its divinity. If that which is of the highest
antiquity possesses the greatest portion of truth," as Tertullian most
wisely and justly observes, then this doctrine is one of the greatest truth,
because it can trace its origin to the highest antiquity. It is likewise
Divine, because it was manifested at a time when it could not have been
devised by any other mind; for it had its commencement at the very period
when man was brought into existence. An apostate angel would not then have
proposed any of his doctrines to man, unless God had previously revealed
himself to the intelligent creature whom he had recently formed: That is,
God hindered the fallen angel, and there was then no cause in existence by
which he might be impelled to engage in such an enterprise. For God would
not suffer man, who had been created after his own image, to be tempted by
his enemy by means of false doctrine, until, after being abundantly
instructed in that which was true, he was enabled to know that which was
false and to reject it. Neither could any odious feeling of envy against man
have tormented Satan, except God had considered him worthy of the
communication of his word, and had deigned, through that communication, to
make him a partaker of eternal. felicity, from which Satan had at that
period unhappily fallen.

The Propagation, Preservation, and Defense of this doctrine, most admirable
when separately considered, will all be found divine, if, in the first
place, we attentively fix our eyes upon those men among whom it is
propagated; then on the foes and adversaries of this doctrine; and, lastly,
on the manner in which its propagation, preservation and defense have
hitherto been and still are conducted. (1.) If we consider those men among
whom this sacred doctrine flourishes, we shall discover that their nature,
on account of its corruption, rejects this doctrine for a two-fold reason;
(i.) The first is, because in one of its parts it is so entirely contrary to
human and worldly wisdom, as to subject itself to the accusation of Folly
from men of corrupt minds. (ii.) The second reason is, because in another of
its parts it is decidedly hostile and inimical to worldly lusts and carnal
desires. It is, therefore, rejected by the human understanding and refused
by the will, which are the two chief faculties in man; for it is according
to their orders and commands that the other faculties are either put in
motion or remain at rest. Yet, notwithstanding all this natural repugnance,
it has been received and believed. The human mind, therefore, has been
conquered, and the subdued will has been gained, by Him who is the author of
both. (2.)

This doctrine has some most powerful and bitter enemies: Satan, the prince
of this world, with all his angels, and the world his ally: These are foes
with whom there can be no reconciliation. If the subtlety, the power, the
malice, the audacity, the impudence, the perseverance, and the diligence of
these enemies, be placed in opposition to the simplicity, the inexperience,
the weakness, the fear, the inconstancy, and the slothfulness of the greater
part of those who give their assent to this heavenly doctrine; then will the
greatest wonder be excited, how this doctrine, when attacked by so many
enemies, and defended by such sorry champions, can stand and remain safe and
unmoved. If this wonder and admiration be succeeded by a supernatural and
divine investigation of its cause, then will God himself be discovered as
the propagator, preserver, and defender of this doctrine. (3.) The manner
also in which its propagation, preservation and defense are conducted,
indicates divinity by many irrefragible tokens. This doctrine is carried
into effect, without bow or sword—without horses chariots, or horsemen; yet
it proceeds prosperously along, stands in an erect posture, and remains
unconquered, in the name of the Lord of Hosts: While its adversaries, though
supported by such apparently able auxiliaries and relying on such powerful
aid, are overthrown, fall down together, and perish. It is accomplished, not
by holding out alluring promises of riches, glory, and earthly pleasures,
but by a previous statement of the dreaded cross, and by the prescription of
such patience and forbearance as far exceed all human strength and ability.
"He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the gentiles, and
kings, and the children of Israel; for I will shew him How Great Things he
must suffer for my name’s sake." (Acts ix. 15, 16.) "Behold, I send you
forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." (Matt. x. 16)

Its completion is not effected by the counsels of men, but in opposition to
all human counsels—whether they be those of the professors of this doctrine,
or those of its adversaries. For it often happens, that the counsels and
machinations which have been devised for the destruction of this doctrine,
contribute greatly towards its propagation, while the princes of darkness
fret and vex themselves in vain, and are astonished and confounded, at an
issue so contrary to the expectations which they had formed from their most
crafty and subtle counsels.

St. Luke says, "Saul made havoc of the church, entering into every house,
and, haling men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore they that
were scattered abroad, went every where preaching the word." (Acts vii. 3,
4.) And by this means Samaria received the word of God. In reference to this
subject St. Paul also says, "But I would ye should understand, brethren,
that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the
furtherance of the gospel; so that my bonds are manifest in all the palace,
and in all other places." (Phil. i. 12, 13.) For the same cause that common
observation has acquired all its just celebrity: "The blood of the martyrs
is the seed of the church." What shall we say to these things? "The stone
which the builders refused, is become the head stone of the corner: This is
the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes." (Psalm cxviii. 22, 23.)

Subjoin to these the tremendous judgments of God on the persecutors of this
doctrine, and the miserable death of the tyrants. One of these, at the very
moment when he was breathing out his polluted and unhappy spirit, was
inwardly constrained publicly to proclaim, though in a frantic and
outrageous tone, the divinity of this doctrine in these remarkable words:
"Thou Hast Conquered, O Galilean!"

Who is there, now, that, with eyes freed from all prejudice, will look upon
such clear proofs of the divinity of Scripture, and that will not instantly
confess: the Apostle Paul had the best reasons for exclaiming, "If our
gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not; lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them." (2 Cor. iv. 3, 4) As if he had said, "This is not human darkness;
neither is it drawn as a thick veil over the mind by man himself; but it is
diabolical darkness, and spread by the devil, the prince of darkness, upon
the mind of man, over whom, by the just judgment of God, he exercises at his
pleasure the most absolute tyranny. If this were not the case, it would be
impossible for this darkness to remain; but, how great soever its density
might be, it would be dispersed by this light which shines with such
overpowering brilliancy."
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6. THE SANCTITY OF THOSE BY WHOM IT HAS BEEN ADMINISTERED

The sanctity of those by whom the word was first announced to men and by
whom it was committed to writing, conduces to the same purpose—to prove its
Divinity. For since it appears that those who were entrusted with the
discharge of this duty, had divested themselves of the wisdom of the world,
and of the feelings and affections of the flesh, entirely putting off the
old man—and that they were completely eaten up and consumed by their zeal
for the glory of God and the salvation of men—it is manifest that such great
sanctity as this had been inspired and infused into them, by Him alone who
is the Holiest of the holy.

Let Moses be the first that is introduced: He was treated in a very
injurious manner by a most ungrateful people, and was frequently marked out
for destruction; yet was he prepared to purchase their salvation by his own
banishment. He said, when pleading with God, "Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive
their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast
written." (Exod. xxxii. 32.) Behold his zeal for the salvation of the people
entrusted to his charge—a zeal for the glory of God! Would you see another
reason for this wish to be devoted to destruction? Read what he had
previously said: "Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say? For mischief
did the Lord bring them out to slay them in the mountains," (Exod. xxxii.
12,) "because he was not able to bring them out unto the land which he swear
unto their Fathers." (Num. xiv. 16.) We observe the same zeal in Paul, when
he wishes that himself "were accursed from Christ for his brethren the Jews,
his kinsmen according to the flesh," (Rom. 9) from whom he had suffered many
and great indignities.

David was not ashamed publicly to confess his heavy and enormous crimes, and
to commit them to writing as an eternal memorial to posterity. Samuel did
not shrink from marking in the records of perpetuity the detestable conduct
of his sons; and Moses did not hesitate to bear a public testimony against
the iniquity and the madness of his ancestors. If even the least desire of a
little glory had possessed their minds, they might certainly have been able
to indulge in taciturnity, and to conceal in silence these circumstances of
disgrace. Those of them who were engaged in describing the deeds and
achievements of other people, were unacquainted with the art of offering
adulation to great men and nobles, and of wrongfully attributing to their
enemies any unworthy deed or motive. With a regard to truth alone, in
promoting the glory of God, they placed all persons on an equality; and made
no other distinction between them than that which God himself has commanded
to be made between piety and wickedness. On receiving from the hand of God
their appointment to this office, they at once and altogether bade farewell
to all the world, and to all the desires which are in it. "Each of them said
unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he
acknowledge his brethren; for they observed the word of God, and kept his
covenant." (Deut. xxxiii. 9.)
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7. THE CONSTANCY OF ITS PROFESSORS AND MARTYRS

But what shall we say respecting the constancy of the professors and
martyrs, which they displayed in the torments that they endured for the
truth of this doctrine? Indeed, if we subject this constancy to the view of
the most inflexible enemies of the doctrine, we shall extort from unwilling
judges a confession of its Divinity. But, that the strength of this argument
may be placed in a clearer light, the mind must be directed to four
particulars: the multitude of the martyrs, and their condition; the torments
which their enemies inflicted on them, and the patience which they evinced
in enduring them.

(1.) If we direct our inquiries to the multitude of them, it is innumerable,
far exceeding thousands of thousands; on this account it is out of the power
of any one to say, that, because it was the choice of but a few persons, it
ought to be imputed to frenzy or to weariness of a life that was full of
trouble.

(2.) If we inquire into their condition, we shall find nobles and peasants,
those in authority and their subjects, the learned and the unlearned, the
rich and the poor, the old and the young; persons of both sexes, men and
women, the married and the unmarried, men of a hardy constitution and inured
to dangers, and girls of tender habits who had been delicately educated, and
whose feet had scarcely ever before stumbled against the smallest pebble
that arose above the surface of their smooth and level path. Many of the
early martyrs were honourable persons of this description, that no one might
think them to be inflamed by a desire of glory, or endeavouring to gain
applause by the perseverance and magnanimity that they had evinced in the
maintenance of the sentiments which they had embraced.

(3.) Some of the torments inflicted on such a multitude of persons and of
such various circumstances in life, were of a common sort, and others
unusual, some of them quick in their operation and others of them slow. Part
of the unoffending victims were nailed to crosses and part of them were
decapitated; some were drowned in rivers, whilst others were roasted before
a slow fire. Several were ground to powder by the teeth of wild beasts, or
were torn in pieces by their fangs; many were sawn asunder, while others
were stoned; and not a few of them were subjected to punishments which
cannot be expressed, but which are accounted most disgraceful and infamous,
on account of their extreme turpitude and indelicacy. No species of savage
cruelty was omitted which either the ingenuity of human malignity could
invent, which rage the most conspicuous and furious could excite, or which
even the infernal labouratory of the court of hell could supply.

(4.) And yet, that we may come at once to the patience of these holy
confessors, they bore all these tortures with constancy and equanimity; nay,
they endured them with such a glad heart and cheerful countenance, as to
fatigue even the restless fury of their persecutors, which has often been
compelled, when wearied out, to yield to the unconquerable strength of their
patience, and to confess itself completely vanquished. And what was the
cause of all this endurance? It consisted in their unwillingness to recede
in the least point from that religion, the denial of which was the only
circumstance that might enable them to escape danger, and, in many
instances, to acquire glory. What then was the reason of the great patience
which they shewed under their acute sufferings? It was because they
believed, that when this short life was ended, and after the pains and
distresses which they were called to endure on earth, they would obtain a
blessed immortality. In this particular the combat which God has maintained
with Satan, appears to have resembled a duel; and the result of it has been,
that the Divinity of God’s word has been raised as a superstructure out of
the infamy and ruin of Satan.
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8. THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH

The divine Omnipotence and Wisdom have principally employed these arguments,
to prove the Divinity of this blessed word. But, that the Church might not
defile herself by that basest vice, ingratitude of heart, and that she might
perform a supplementary service in aid of God her Author and of Christ her
Head, she also by her testimony adds to the Divinity of this word. But it is
only an addition; she does not impart Divinity to it; her province is merely
an indication of the Divine nature of this word, but she does not
communicate to it the impress of Divinity. For unless this word had been
Divine when there was no Church in existence, it would not have been
possible for her members "to be born of this word, as of incorruptible
seed," (1 Pet. i. 23,) to become the sons of God, and, through faith in this
word, "to be made partakers of the Divine Nature." (2 Pet. i. 4.) The very
name of "authority" takes away from the Church the power of conferring
Divinity on this doctrine. For Authority is derived from an Author: But the
Church is not the Author, she is only the nursling of this word, being
posterior to it in cause, origin, and time. We do not listen to those who
raise this objection: "The Church is of greater antiquity than the
scripture, because at the time when that word had not been consigned to
writing, the Church had even then an existence." To trifle in a serious
matter with such cavils as this, is highly unbecoming in Christians, unless
they have changed their former godly manners and are transformed into
Jesuits. The Church is not more ancient than this saying: "The seed of the
woman shall bruise the serpent’s head ;" (Gen. iii. 15,) although she had an
existence before this sentence was recorded by Moses in Scripture. For it
was by the faith which they exercised on this saying, that Adam and Eve
became the Church of God; since, prior to that, they were traitors,
deserters and the kingdom of Satan—that grand deserter and apostate. The
Church is indeed the pillar of the truth, (1 Tim. iii. 15,) but it is built
upon that truth as upon a foundation, and thus directs to the truth, and
brings it forward into the sight of men. In this way the Church performs the
part of a director and a witness to this truth, and its guardian, herald,
and interpreter. But in her acts of interpretation, the Church is confined
to the sense of the word itself, and is tied down to the expressions of
Scripture: for, according to the prohibition of St. Paul, it neither becomes
her to be wise above that which is written;" (1 Cor. iv. 6,) nor is it
possible for her to be so, since she is hindered both by her own imbecility,
and the depth of things divine.

But it will reward our labour, if in a few words we examine the efficacy of
this testimony, since such is the pleasure of the Papists, who constitute
"the authority of the Church" the commencement and the termination of our
certainty, when she bears witness to the scripture that it is the word of
God. In the first place, the efficacy of the testimony does not exceed the
veracity of the witness. The veracity of the Church is the veracity of men.
But the veracity of men is imperfect and inconstant, and is always such as
to give occasion to this the remark of truth, "All men are liars." Neither
is the veracity of him that speaks, sufficient to obtain credit to his
testimony, unless the veracity of him who bears witness concerning the truth
appear plain and evident to him to whom he makes the declaration. But in
what manner will it be possible to make the veracity of the Church plain and
evident? This must be done, either by a notion conceived , long time before,
or by an impression recently made on the minds of the hearers. But men
possess no such innate notion of the veracity of the Church as is tantamount
to that which declares, "God is true and cannot lie." (Tit. i. 2.) It is
necessary, therefore, that it be impressed by some recent action; such
impression being made either from within or from without. But the Church is
not able to make any inward impression, for she bears her testimony by
external instruments alone, and does not extend to the inmost parts of the
soul. The impression, therefore, will be external; which can be no other
than a display and indication of her knowledge and probity, as well as
testimony, often truly so called. But all these things can produce nothing
more than an opinion in the minds of those to whom they are offered.
Opinion, therefore, and not knowledge, is the supreme effect of this
efficacy.

But the Papists retort, "that Christ himself established the authority of
his Church by this saying, "He that heareth you, heareth me." (Luke x. 16.)
When these unhappy reasoners speak thus, they seem not to be aware that they
are establishing the authority of Scripture before that of the Church. For
it is necessary that credence should be given to that expression as it was
pronounced by Christ, before any authority can, on its account, be conceded
to the Church. But the same reason will be as tenable in respect to the
whole Scripture as to this expression. Let the Church then be content with
that honour which Christ conferred on her when he made her the guardian of
his word, and appointed her to be the director and witness to it, the herald
and the interpreter.

III. Yet since the arguments arising from all those observations which we
have hitherto adduced, and from any others which are calculated to prove the
Divinity of the scriptures, can neither disclose to us a right understanding
of the scriptures, nor seal on our minds those meanings which we have
understood, (although the certainty of faith which God demands from us, and
requires us to exercise in his word, consists of these meanings,) it is a
necessary consequence, that to all these things ought to be added something
else, by the efficacy of which that certainty may be produced in our minds.
And this is the very subject on which we are not prepared to treat in this
the third part of our discourse
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9. THE INTERNAL WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

We declare, therefore, and we continue to repeat the declaration, till the
gates of hell re-echo the sound, "that the Holy Spirit, by whose inspiration
holy men of God have spoken this word, and by whose impulse and guidance
they have, as his amanuenses, consigned it to writing; that this Holy Spirit
is the author of that light by the aid of which we obtain a perception and
an understanding of the divine meanings of the word, and is the Effector of
that Certainty by which we believe those meaning to be truly divine; and
that He is the necessary Author, the all sufficient Effector." (1.)
Scripture demonstrates that He is the necessary Author, when it says, "The
things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. ii. 11.) No man
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." (1 Cor. xii. 3.)
(2.) But the Scripture introduced him as the sufficient and the more than
sufficient Effector, when it declares, "The wisdom which God ordained before
the world unto our glory, he hath revealed unto us by his Spirit; for the
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." (1 Cor. ii. 7,
10.) The sufficiency, therefore, of the Spirit proceeds from the plenitude
of his knowledge of the secrets of God, and from the very efficacious
revelation which he makes of them. This sufficiency of the Spirit cannot be
more highly extolled than it is in a subsequent passage, in which the same
apostle most amply commends it, by declaring, "he that is spiritual [a
partaker of this revelation,] judgeth all things," (verse 15,) as having the
mind of Christ through his Spirit, which he has received. Of the same
sufficiency the Apostle St. John is the most illustrious herald. In his
general Epistle he writes these words: "But the anointing which ye have
received of Him, abideth in you; and ye need not that any man teach you; but
as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no
lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." (1 John ii.
27.) "He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself." (1
John v. 10.) To the Thessalonians another apostle writes thus: "Our Gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. (1 Thess. i. 3.) In this passage he openly attributes
to the power of the Holy Ghost the Certainty by which the faithful receive
the word of the gospel. The Papists reply, "Many persons boast of the
revelation of the Spirit, who, nevertheless, are destitute of such a
revelation. It is impossible, therefore, for the faithful safely to rest in
it." Are these fair words? Away with such blasphemy! If the Jews glory in
their Talmud and their Cabala, and the Mahometans in their Alcoran, and if
both of these boast themselves that they are Churches, cannot credence
therefore be given with sufficient safety to the scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments, when they affirm their Divine Origin? Will the true Church
be any less a Church because the sons of the stranger arrogate that title to
themselves? This is the distinction between opinion and knowledge. It is
their opinion, that they know that of which they are really ignorant. But
they who do know it, have an assured perception of their knowledge. "It is
the Spirit that beareth witness that the Spirit is truth" (1 John v. 8,)
that is, the doctrine and the meanings comprehended in that doctrine, are
truth."

"But that attesting witness of the Spirit which is revealed in us, cannot
convince others of the truth of the Divine word." What then? It will
convince them when it has also breathed on them: it will breathe its Divine
afflatus on them, if they be the sons of the church, all of whom shall be
taught of God: every man of them will hear and learn of the Father, and will
come unto Christ." (John vi. 45.) Neither can the testimony of any Church
convince all men of the truth and divinity of the sacred writings. The
Papists, who arrogate to themselves exclusively the title of "the Church,"
experience the small degree of credit which is given to their testimonies,
by those who have not received an afflatus from the spirit of the Roman See.

"But it is necessary that there should be a testimony in the Church of such
a high character as to render it imperative on all men to pay it due
deference." True. It was the incumbent duty of the Jews to pay deference to
the testimony of Christ when he was speaking to them; the Pharisees ought
not to have contradicted Stephen in the midst of his discourse; and Jews and
Gentiles, without any exception, were bound to yield credence to the
preaching of the apostles, confirmed as it was by so many and such
astonishing miracles. But the duties here recited, were disregarded by all
these parties. What was the reason of this their neglect? The voluntary
hardening of their hearts, and that blindness of their minds, which was
introduced by the Devil.

If the Papists still contend, that "such a testimony as this ought to exist
in the Church, against which no one shall actually offer any contradiction,"
we deny the assertion. And experience testifies, that a testimony of this
kind never yet had an existence, that it does not now exist, and (if we may
form our judgment from the scriptures,) we certainly think that it never
will exist.

"But perhaps the Holy Ghost, who is the Author and Effector of this
testimony, has entered into an engagement with the Church, not to inspire
and seal on the minds of men this certainty, except through her, and by the
intervention of her authority." The Holy Ghost does, undoubtedly, according
to the good pleasure of his own will, make use of some organ or instrument
in performing these his offices. But this instrument is the word of God,
which is comprehended in the sacred books of scripture; an instrument
produced and brought forward by Himself, and instructed in his truth. The
Apostle to the Hebrews in a most excellent manner describes the efficacy
which is impressed on this instrument by the Holy Spirit, in these words:
"For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart." (Heb. iv, 10.) Its effect is called "Faith," by the Apostle. "Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. x. 7.) If any act
of the Church occurs in this place, it is that by which she is occupied in
the sincere preaching of this word, and by which she sedulously exercises
herself in promoting its publication. But even this is not so properly the
occupation of the Church, as of "the Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists,
Pastors and Teachers," whom Christ has constituted his labourers "for the
edifying of his body, which is the Church.’" (Ephes. iv. 11.) But we must in
this place deduce an observation from the very nature of things in genera],
as well as of this thing in particular; it is, that the First Cause can
extend much farther by its own action, than it is possible for an
instrumental cause to do; and that the Holy Ghost gives to the word all that
force which he afterwards employs, such being the great efficacy with which
it is endued and applied, that whomsoever he only counsels by his word he
himself persuades by imparting Divine meanings to the word, by enlightening
the mind as with a lamp, and by inspiring and sealing it by his own
immediate action. The Papists pretend, that certain acts are necessary to
the production of true faith; and they say that those acts cannot be
performed except by the judgment and testimony of the Church—such as to
believe that any book is the production of Matthew or Luke—to discern
between a Canonical and an Apocryphal verse, and to distinguish between this
or that reading, according to the variation in different copies. But, since
there is a controversy concerning the weight and necessity of those acts,
and since the dispute is no less than how far they may be performed by the
Church— lest I should fatigue my most illustrious auditory by two great
prolixity, I will omit at present any further mention of these topics; and
will by Divine assistance explain them at some future opportunity.

My most illustrious and accomplished hearers, we have already perceived,
that both the pages of our sacred Theology are full of God and Christ, and
of the Spirit of both of them. If any inquiry be made for the Object, God
and Christ by the Spirit are pointed out to us. If we search for the Author,
God and Christ by the operation of the Spirit spontaneously occur. If we
consider the End proposed, our union with God and Christ offers itself—an
end not to be obtained except through the communication of the Spirit. If we
inquire concerning the Truth and Certainty of the doctrine; God in Christ,
by means of the efficacy of the Holy Ghost, most clearly convinces our minds
of the Truth, and in a very powerful manner seals the Certainty on our
hearts.

All the glory, therefore, of this revelation is deservedly due to God and
Christ in the Holy Spirit: and most deservedly are thanks due from us to
them, and must be given to them, through the Holy Ghost, for such an august
and necessary benefit as this which they have conferred on us. But we can
present to our God and Christ in the Holy Spirit no gratitude more grateful,
and can ascribe no glory more glorious, than this, the application of our
minds to an assiduous contemplation and a devout meditation on the knowledge
of such a noble object. But in our meditations upon it, (to prevent us from
straying into the paths of error,) let us betake ourselves to the revelation
which has been made of this doctrine. From the word of this revelation
alone, let us learn the wisdom of endeavouring, by an ardent desire and in
an unwearied course, to attain unto that ultimate design which ought to be
our constant aim—that most blessed end of our union with God and Christ. Let
us never indulge in any doubts concerning the truth of this revelation; but,
"the full assurance of faith being impressed upon our minds and hearts by
the inspiration and sealing of the Holy Spirit, let us adhere to this word,
"till[at length] we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ." (Ephes. iv. 13.) I most humbly supplicate and
intreat God our merciful Father, that he would be pleased to grant this
great blessing to us, through the Son of his love, and by the communication
of his Holy Spirit. And to him be ascribed all praise, and honour, and
glory, forever and ever. Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

ORATION IV

THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST

The Noble the Lord Rector—the Very Famous, Reverend, Skillful, Intelligent,
and Learned Men, who are the Fathers of this Most Celebrated University—the
Rest of You, Most Worthy Strangers of Every Degree—and You, Most Noble and
Studious Young Men, who are the Nursery of the Republic and the Church, and
who are Increasing Every Day in Bloom and vigour:

If there be any order of men in whom it is utterly unbecoming to aspire
after the honours of this world, especially after those honours which are
accompanied by pomp and applause, that, without doubt, is the order
ecclesiastical—a body of men who ought to be entirely occupied with a zeal
for God, and for the attainment of that glory which is at his disposal. Yet,
since, according to the laudable institutions of our ancestors, the usage
has obtained in all well regulated Universities, to admit no man to the
office of instructor in them, who has not previously signalized himself by
some public and solemn testimony of probity and scientific ability—this
sacred order of men have not refused a compliance with such public modes of
decision, provided they be conducted in a way that is holy, decorous, and
according to godliness. So far, indeed, are those who have been set apart to
the pastoral office from being averse to public proceedings of this kind,
that they exceedingly covet and desire them alone, because they conceive
them to be of the first necessity to the Church of Christ. For they are
mindful of this apostolical charge, "Lay hands suddenly on no man ;" (1 Tim.
v. 29,) and of the other, which directs that a Bishop and a Teacher of the
Church be "apt to teach, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been
taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to
convince the gainsayers." (Tit. i. 9.) I do not, therefore, suppose one
person, in this numerous assembly, can be so ignorant of the public
ceremonies of this University, or can hold them in such little estimation,
as either to evince surprise at the undertaking in which we are now engaged,
or wish to give it an unfavourable interpretation. But since it has always
been a part of the custom of our ancestors, in academic festivities of this
description, to choose some subject of discourse, the investigation of which
in the fear of the Lord might promote the Divine glory and the profit of the
hearers, and might excite them to pious and importunate supplication, I also
can perceive no cause why I ought not conscientiously to comply with this
custom. And although at the sight of this very respectable, numerous and
learned assembly, I feel strongly affected with a sense of my defective
eloquence and tremble not a little, yet I have selected a certain theme for
my discourse which agrees well with my profession, and is full of grandeur,
sublimnity and adorable majesty. In making choice of it, I have not been
overawed by the edict of Horace, which says,

"Select, all ye who write, a subject fit, A subject not too mighty for your
wit! And ere you lay your shoulders to the wheel, Weigh well their strength,
and all their wetness feel!"

For this declaration is not applicable in the least to theological subjects,
all of which by their dignity and importance exceed the capacity and mental
energy of every human being, and of angels themselves. A view of them so
affected the Apostle Paul, (who, rapt up into the third heaven, had heard
words ineffable,) that they compelled him to break forth into this
exclamation: "Who is sufficient for these things," (2 Cor. ii. 16.) If,
therefore, I be not permitted to disregard the provisions of this Horatian
statute, I must either transgress the boundaries of my profession, or be
content to remain silent. But I am permitted to disregard the terms of this
statute; and to do so, is perfectly lawful.

For whatever things tend to the glory of God and to the salvation of men,
ought to be celebrated in a devout spirit in the congregations of the
saints, and to be proclaimed with a grateful voice. I therefore propose to
speak on THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST: Not because I have persuaded myself of my
capability to declare anything concerning it, which is demanded either by
the dignity of my subject, or by the respectability of this numerous
assembly; for it will be quite sufficient, and I shall consider that I have
abundantly discharged my duty, if according to the necessity of the case I
shall utter something that will contribute to the general edification: But I
choose this theme that I may obtain, in behalf of my oration, such grace and
favour from the excellence of its subject, as I cannot possibly confer on it
by any eloquence in the mode of my address. Since, however, it is impossible
for us either to form in our minds just and holy conceptions about such a
sublime mystery, or to give utterance to them with our lips, unless the
power of God influence our mental faculties and our tongues, let us by
prayer and supplication implore his present aid, in the name of Jesus Christ
our great High Priest. "Do thou, therefore, O holy and merciful God, the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Fountain of all grace and truth,
vouchsafe to grant thy favourable presence to us who are a great
congregation assembled together in thy holy name. Sprinkle thou our spirits,
souls, and bodies, with the most gracious dew of thy immeasurable holiness,
that the converse of thy saints with each other may be pleasing to thee.
Assist us by the grace of thy Holy Spirit, who may yet more and more
illuminate our minds—imbued with the true knowledge of Thyself and thy Son;
may He also inflame our hearts with a sincere zeal for thy glory; may He
open my mouth and guide my tongue, that I may be enabled to declare
concerning the Priesthood of thy Son those things which are true and just
and holy, to the glory of thy name and to the gathering of all of us
together in the Lord. Amen."

Having now in an appropriate manner offered up those vows which well become
the commencement of our undertaking, we will, by the help of God, proceed to
the subject posed, after I have intreated all of you, who have been pleased
to grace this solemn act of ours with your noble, learned and most
gratifying presence, to give me that undivided attention which the subject
deserves, while I speak on a matter of the most serious importance, and,
according to your accustomed kindness, to shew me that favour and
benevolence which are to me of the greatest necessity. That I may not abuse
your patience, I engage to consult brevity as much as our theme will allow.
But we must begin with the very first principles of Priesthood, that from
thence the discourse may appropriately be brought down to the Priesthood of
Christ, on which we profess to treat.

First. The first of those relations which subsist between God and men, has
respect to something given and something received. The latter requires
another relation supplementary to itself—a relation which taking its
commencement from men, may terminate in God; and that is, an acknowledgment
of a benefit received, to the honour of the munificent Donor. It is also a
debt, due on account of a benefit already conferred, but which is not to be
paid except on the demand and according to the regulation of the Giver;
whose intention it has always been, that the will of a creature should not
be the measure of his honour. His benignity likewise is so immense, that he
never requires from those who are under obligations to him, the grateful
acknowledgment of the benefit communicated in the first instance, except
when he has bound them to himself by the larger, and far superior benefit,
of a mutual covenant. But the extreme trait in that goodness, is, that he
has bound himself to bestow on the same persons favours of yet greater
excellence by infinite degrees. This is the order which he adopts; he wishes
himself first to be engaged to them, before they are considered to be
engaged to Him. For every covenant; that is concluded between God and men,
consists of two parts: (1.) The preceding promise of God, by which he
obliges himself to some duty and to acts correspondent with that duty: and
(2.) The subsequent definition and appointment of the duty, which, it is
stipulated, shall in return be required of men, and according to which a
mutual correspondence subsists between men and God. He promises, that he
will be to them a king and a God, and that he will discharge towards them
all the offices of a good King; while he stipulates, as a counter
obligation, that they become his people, that in this relation they live
according to his commands and that they ask and expect all blessings from
his goodness. These two acts—a life according to his commands, and an
expectation of all blessings from his goodness—comprise the duty of men
towards God, according to the covenant into which he first entered with
them.

On the whole, therefore, the duties of two functions are to be performed
between God and men who have entered into covenant with him: First, a regal
one, which is of supreme authority: Secondly, a religious one, of devoted
submission.

(1.) The use of the former is in the communication of every needful good,
and in the imposing of laws or the act of legislation. Under it we likewise
comprehend the gift of prophecy, which is nothing more than the annunciation
of the royal pleasure, whether it be communicated by God himself, or by some
one of his deputies or ambassadors as a kind of internuncio to the covenant.
That no one may think the prophetic office, of which the scriptures make
such frequent mention, is a matter of little solicitude to us, we assign it
the place of a substitute under the Chief Architect.

(2.) But the further consideration of the regal duty being at present
omitted, we shall proceed to a nearer inspection of that which is
religious.. We have already deduced its origin from the act of covenanting;
we have propounded it, in the exercise of the regal office, as something
that is due; and we place its proper action in thanksgiving and intreaty.
This action is required to be religiously performed, according to their
common vocation, by every one of the great body of those who are in
covenant; and to this end they have been sanctified by the word of the
covenant, and have all been constituted priests to God, that they might
offer gifts and prayers to The Most High. But since God loves order, he who
is himself the only instance of order in its perfection, willed that, out of
the number of those who were sanctified, some one should in a peculiar
manner be separated to him; that he who was thus set apart should, by a
special and extraordinary vocation, be qualified for the office of the
priesthood; and that, approaching more intimately and with greater freedom
to the throne of God, he should, in the place of his associates in the same
covenant and religion, take the charge and management of whatever affairs
were to be transacted before God on their account.

From this circumstance is to be traced the existence of the office of the
priesthood, the duties of which were to be discharged before God in behalf
of others—an office undoubtedly of vast dignity and of special honour among
mankind. Although the priest must be taken from among men, and must be
appointed in their behalf, yet it does not appertain to men themselves, to
designate whom they will to sustain that office; neither does it belong to
any one to arrogate that honour to himself. But as the office itself is an
act of the divine pleasure, so likewise the choice of the person who must
discharge its duties, rests with God himself: and it was his will, that the
office should be fulfilled by him who for some just reason held precedence
among his kindred by consanguinity. This was the father and master of the
family, and his successor was the first born. We have examples of this in
the holy patriarchs, both before and after the deluge. We behold this
expressly in Noah, Abraham, and Job. There are also those, (not occupying
the lowest seats in judgment,) who say that Cain and Abel brought their
sacrifices to Adam their father, that he might offer them to the Lord; and
they derive this opinion from the word aykh used in the same passage. Though
these examples are selected from the description of that period when sin had
made its entrance into the world, yet a confirmation of their truth is
obtained in this primitive institution of the human race, of which we are
now treating. For it is peculiar to that period, that all the duties of the
priesthood were confined within the act of offering only an eucharistic
sacrifice and supplications. Having therefore in due form executed these
functions, the priest, in the name of his compeers, was by the appeased
Deity admitted to a familiar intercourse with Him, and obtained from Him a
charge to execute among his kindred, in the name of God himself, and as "the
messenger, or angel, of the Lord of Hosts." For the Lord revealed to him the
Divine will and pleasure; that, on returning from his intercourse with God,
he might declare it to the people. This will of God consisted of two parts:
(1.) That which he required to be performed by his covenant people; and (2.)
That which it was his wish to perform for their benefit. In this charge,
which was committed to the priest, to be executed by him, the administration
of prophecy was also included; on which account it is said, "They should
seek the LAW at the mouth of the priest, for he is the messenger of the Lord
of Hosts." (Mal. ii. 7.) And since that second part of the Divine will was
to be proclaimed from an assured trust and confidence in the truth of the
Divine promises, and with a holy and affectionate feeling toward his own
species—in that view, he was invested with a commission to dispense
benedictions. In this manner, discharging the duties of a double embassy,
(that of men to God, and that of God to men,) he acted, on both sides, the
part of a Mediator of the covenant into which the parties had mutually
entered. Nevertheless, not content with having conferred this honour on him
whom he had sanctified, our God, all-bountiful, elevated him likewise to the
delegated or vicarious dignity of the regal office, that he, bearing the
image of God among his brethren, might then be able to administer justice to
them in His Name, and might manage, for their common benefit, those affairs
with which he was entrusted. From this source arose what may be considered
the native union of the Priestly and the Kingly offices, which also obtained
among the holy patriarchs after the entrance of sin, and of which express
mention is made in the person of Melchizedec. This was signified in a
general manner by the patriarch Jacob, when he declared Reuben, his first
born son, to be "the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power,"
which were his due on account of the right of primogeniture. For certain
reasons, however, the kingly functions were afterwards separated from the
priestly, by the will of God, who, dividing them into two parts among his
people the children of Israel, transferred the kingly office to Judah and
the priestly to Levi.

But it was proper, that this approach to God, through the oblation of an
eucharistic sacrifice and prayers, should be made with a pure mind, holy
affections, and with hands, as well as the other members of the body, free
from defilement. This was required, even before the first transgression.
"Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy; for I the Lord your God am holy."
(Lev. xix. 2, &c.) "God heareth not sinners." (John ix. 31.) "Bring no more
vain oblations, for your hands are full of blood." (Isa. i. 15). The will of
God respecting this is constant and perpetual. But Adam, who was the first
man and the first priest, did not long administer his office in a becoming
manner; for, refusing to obey God, he tasted the fruit of the forbidden
tree; and, by that foul crime of disobedience and revolt, he at once defiled
his soul which had been sanctified to God, and his body. By this wicked deed
he both lost all right to the priesthood, and was in reality deprived of it
by the Divine sentence, which was clearly signified by his expulsion from
Paradise, where he had appeared before God in that which was a type of His
own dwelling-place. This was in accordance with the invariable rule of
Divine Justice: "Be it far from me, [that thou shouldst any longer discharge
before me the duties of the priesthood:] for them that honour me, I will
honour; and they that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed." (1 Sam. ii.
30.) But he did not fall alone: All whose persons he at that time
represented and whose cause he pleaded, (although they had not then come
into existence,) were with him cast down from the elevated summit of such a
high dignity. Neither did they fall from the priesthood only, but likewise
from the covenant, of which the priest was both the Mediator and the
Internuncio; and God ceased to be the King and God of men, and men were no
longer recognized as his people. The existence of the priesthood itself was
at an end; for there was no one capable of fulfilling its duties according
to the design of that covenant. The eucharistic sacrifice, the invocation of
the name of God, and the gracious communication between God and men, all
ceased together.

Most miserable, and deserving of the deepest commiseration, was the
condition of mankind in that state of their affairs, if this declaration be
a true one, "Happy is the people whose God is the Lord !" (Psalm cxliv. 15.)
And this inevitable misery would have rested upon Adam and his race for
ever, had not Jehovah, full of mercy and commiseration, deigned to receive
them into favour, and resolved to enter into another covenant with the same
parties; not according to that which they had transgressed, and which was
then become obsolete and had been abolished; but into a new covenant of
grace. But the Divine justice and truth could not permit this to be done,
except through the agency of an umpire and surety, who might undertake the
part of a Mediator between the offended God and sinners. Such a Mediator
could not then approach to God with an eucharistic sacrifice for benefits
conferred upon the human race, or with prayers which might intreat only for
a continuance and an increase of them: But he had to approach into the
Divine presence to offer sacrifice for the act of hostility which they had
committed against God by transgressing his commandment, and to offer prayers
for obtaining the remission of their transgressions. Hence arose the
necessity of an Expiatory Sacrifice; and, on that account, a new priesthood
was to be instituted, by the operation of which the sin that had been
committed might be expiated, and access to the throne of God’s grace might
be granted to man through a sinner: this is the priesthood which belongs to
our Christ, the Anointed One, alone.

But God, who is the Supremely Wise Disposer of times and seasons, would not
permit the discharge of the functions appertaining to this priesthood to
commence immediately after the formation of the world, and the introduction
of sin. It was his pleasure, that the necessity of it should be first
correctly understood and appreciated, by a conviction on men’s consciences
of the multitude, heinousness and aggravated nature of their sins. It was
also his will, that the minds of men should be affected with a serious and
earnest desire for it, yet so that they might in the mean time be supported
against despair, arising from a consciousness of their sins, which could not
be removed except by means of that Divine priesthood, the future
commencement of which inspired them with hope and confidence. All these
purposes God effected by the temporary institution of that typical
priesthood, the duties of which infirm and sinful men "after the law of a
carnal commandment" could perform, by the immolation of beasts sanctified
for that service; which priesthood was at first established in different
parts of the world, and afterwards among the Israelites, who were specially
elected to be a sacerdotal nation. When the blood of beasts was shed, in
which was their life, (Lev. xvii. 14) the people contemplated, in the death
of the animals, their own demerits, for the beasts had not sinned that they
by death should be punished as victims for transgression. After
investigating this subject with greater diligence, and deliberately weighing
it in the equal balances of their judgment, they plainly perceived and
understood that their sins could not possibly be expiated by those
sacrifices, which were of a species different from their own, and more
despicable and mean than human beings. From these premises they must of
necessity have concluded, that, notwithstanding they offered those animals,
they in such an act delivered to God nothing less than their own bond,
sealing it in his presence with an acknowledgment of their personal sins,
and confessing the debt which they had incurred. Yet, because these
sacrifices were of Divine Institution, and because God received them at the
hands of men as incense whose odour was fragrant and agreeable, from these
circumstances the offenders conceived the hope of obtaining favour and
pardon, reasoning thus within themselves, as did Sampson’s mother: "If the
Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received burnt-offering and
a meat-offering at our hands." (Judges xiii. 23.) With such a hope they
strengthened their spirits that were ready to faint, and, confiding in the
Divine promise, they expected in all the ardour of desire the dispensation
of a priesthood which was prefigured under the typical one; "searching what,
or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify,
when it testified beforehand the Sufferings of Christ, and the Glory that
should follow." (1 Pet. i. 11.) But, since the mind pants after the very
delightful consideration of this priesthood, our oration hastens towards it;
and, having some regard to the lateness of the hour, and wishing not to
encroach on your comfort, we shall omit any further allusion to that branch
of the priesthood which has hitherto occupied our attention.

Secondly. In discoursing on the Priesthood of Christ, we will confine our
observations to three points; and, on condition that you receive the
succeeding part of my oration with that kindness and attention which you
have hitherto manifested, and which I still hope and desire to receive, we
will describe: First. The Imposing of the Office. Secondly. Its Execution
and Administration. And Thirdly. The Fruits of the Office thus Administered,
and the Utility Which We Derive From It.

I. In respect to the Imposing of the Office, the subject itself presents us
with three topics to be discussed in order. (1.) The person who imposes it.
(2.) The person on whom it is imposed, or to whom it is entrusted. And (3.)
The manner of his appointment, and of his undertaking this charge.

1. The person imposing it is God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since
this act of imposing belongs to the economy and dispensation of our
salvation, the persons who are comprised under this one Divine Monarchy are
to be distinctly considered according to the rule of the scriptures, which
ought to have the precedence in this inquiry, and according to the rules and
guidance of the orthodox Fathers that agree with those scriptures. It is J
EHOVAH who imposes this office, and who, while the princes of darkness fret
themselves and rage in vain, says to his Messiah, "Thou art my Son; this day
have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."
(Psalm ii. 8.) He it is who, when he commanded Messiah to sit at his right
hand, repeated his holy and revered word with an oath, saying, "Thou art a
Priest forever after the order of Melchizedec." (Psalm cx. 4.) This is He
who imposes the office, and that by a right the most just and deserved. For
"with him we have to do, who, dwelling in the light unto which no man can
approach," remains continually in the seat of his Majesty. He preserves his
own authority safe and unimpaired to himself, "without any abasement or
lessening of his person," as the voice of antiquity expresses it; and
retains entire, within himself, the right of demanding satisfaction from the
sinner for the injuries which He has sustained. From this right he has not
thought fit to recede, or to resign any part of it, on account of the rigid
inflexibility of his justice, according to which he hates iniquity and does
not permit a wicked person to dwell in his presence. This, therefore, is the
Divine Person in whose hands rest both the right and the power of
imposition; the fact of his having also the will, is decided by the very act
of imposition.

But an inquiry must be made into the Cause of this imposition which we shall
not find, except, first, in the conflict between justice and gracious mercy;
and, afterwards, in their amicable agreement, or rather their junction by
means of wisdom’s conciliating assistance.

(1.) Justice demanded, on her part, the punishment due to her from a sinful
creature; and this demand she the more rigidly enforced, by the greater
equity with which she had threatened it, and the greater truth with which it
had been openly foretold and declared.

Gracious Mercy, like a pious mother, moving with bowels of commiseration,
desired to avert that punishment in which was placed the extreme misery of
the creature. For she thought that, though the remission of that punishment
was not due to the cause of it, yet such a favour ought to be granted to her
by a right of the greatest equity; because it is one of her chief properties
to "rejoice against judgment." (James ii. 13.)

Justice, tenacious of her purpose, rejoined, that the throne of grace, she
must confess, was sublimely elevated above the tribunal of justice: but she
could not bear with patient indifference that no regard should be paid to
her, and her suit not to be admitted, while the authority of managing the
whole affair was to be transferred to mercy. Since, however, it was a part
of the oath administered to justice when she entered into office, "that she
should render to every one his own," she would yield entirely to mercy,
provided a method could be devised by which her own inflexibility could be
declared, as well as the excess of her hatred to sin.

(2.) But to find out that method, was not the province of Mercy. It was
necessary, therefore, to call in the aid of Wisdom to adjust the mighty
difference, and to reconcile by an amicable union those two combatants that
were, in God, the supreme protectresses of all equity and goodness. Being
called upon, she came, and at once discovered a method, and affirmed that it
was possible to render to each of them that which belonged to her; for if
the punishment due to sin appeared desirable to Justice and odious to Mercy,
it might be transmuted into an expiatory sacrifice, the oblation of which,
on account of the voluntary suffering of death, (which is the punishment
adjudged to sin,) might appease Justice, and open such a way for Mercy as
she had desired. Both of them instantly assented to this proposal, and made
a decree according to the terms of agreement settled by Wisdom, their common
arbitrator.

2. But, that we may come to the Second Point, a priest was next to be
sought, to offer the sacrifice: For that was a function of the priesthood. A
sacrifice was likewise to be sought; and with this condition annexed to it,
that the same person should be both priest and sacrifice. This was required
by the plan of the true priesthood and sacrifice, from which the typical and
symbolical greatly differs. But in the different orders of creatures neither
sacrifice nor priest could be found.

It was not possible for an angel to become a priest; because "he was to be
taken from among men and to be ordained from men in things pertaining to
God." (Heb. v. 1.) Neither could an angel be a sacrifice; because it was not
just that the death of an angel should be an expiation for a crime which a
man had perpetrated: And if this had even been most proper, yet man could
never have been induced to believe that an angelical sacrifice had been
offered by an angel for him, or, if it had been so offered, that it was of
the least avail. Application was then to be made to men themselves. But,
among them, not one could be found in whom it would have been a becoming act
to execute the office of the priesthood, and who had either ability or
inclination for the undertaking. For all men were sinners; all were
terrified with a consciousness of their delinquency; and all were detained
captive under the tyranny of sin and Satan. It was not lawful for a sinner
to approach to God, who is pure Light, for the purpose of offering
sacrifice; because, being affrighted by his own internal perception of his
crime, he could not support a sight of the countenance of an incensed God,
before whom it was still necessary that he should appear. Being placed under
the dominion of sin and Satan, he was neither willing, nor had he the power
to will, to execute an office, the duties of which were to be discharged for
the benefit of others, out of love to them. The same consideration likewise
tends to the rejection of every human sacrifice. Yet the priest was to be
taken from among men, and the oblation to God was to consist of a human
victim.

In this state of affairs, the assistance of Wisdom was again required in the
Divine Council. She declared that a man must be born from among men, who
might have a nature in common with the rest of his brethren, that, being in
all things tempted as they were, he might be able to sympathize with others
in their sufferings; and yet, that he should neither be reckoned in the
order of the rest, nor should be made man according to the law of the
primitive creation and benediction; that he should not be under dominion of
sin; that he should be one in whom Satan could find nothing worthy of
condemnation, who should not be tormented by a consciousness of sin, and who
should not even know sin, that is, one who should be "born in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and yet without sin. For such a high priest became us, who
is holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners." (Heb. vii. 26.)
But, that he might have a community of nature with men, he ought to be born
of a human being; and, that he might have no participation in crime with
them, but might be holy, he ought to be conceived by the Holy Ghost, because
sanctification is his proper work. By the Holy Spirit, the nativity which
was above and yet according to nature, might through the virtue of the
mystery, restore nature, as it surpassed her in the transcendent excellence
of the miracle. But the dignity of this priesthood was greater, and its
functions more weighty and important, than man even in his pure state was
competent to sustain or discharge. The benefits also to be obtained by it,
infinitely exceeded the value of man when in his greatest state of purity.
Therefore, the Word of God, who from the beginning was with God, and by whom
the worlds, and all things visible and invisible, were created, ought
himself to be made flesh, to undertake the office of the priesthood, and to
offer his own flesh to God as a sacrifice for the life of the world. We now
have the person who was entrusted with the priesthood, and to whom the
province was assigned of atoning for the common offense: It is Jesus Christ,
the Son of God and of man, a high priest of such great excellence, that the
transgression whose demerits have obtained this mighty Redeemer, might
almost seem to have been a happy circumstance.

3. Let us proceed to the mode of its being imposed or undertaken. This mode
is according to covenant, which, on God’s part, received an oath for its
confirmation. As it is according to covenant, it becomes a solemnity
appointed by God, with whom rests the appointment to the priesthood. For the
Levitical priesthood was conferred on Levi according to covenant, as the
Lord declares by the prophet Malachi: "My covenant was with him of life and
peace." (ii, 5.) It is, however, peculiar to this priesthood of Christ, that
the covenant on which it is founded, was confirmed by an oath. Let us
briefly consider each of them.

The covenant into which God entered with our High Priest, Jesus Christ,
consisted, on the part of God, of the demand of an action to be performed,
and of the promise of an immense remuneration. On the part of Christ, our
High Priest, it consisted of an accepting of the Promise, and a voluntary
engagement to Perform the Action. First, God required of him, that he should
lay down his soul as a victim in sacrifice for sin, (Isa. liii. 11,) that he
should give his flesh for the light of the world, (John vi. 51,) and that he
should pay the price of redemption for the sins and the captivity of the
human race. God "promised" that, if he performed all this, "he should see a
seed whose days should be prolonged," (Isa. liii. 11,) and that he should be
himself "an everlasting Priest after the order of Melchizedec," (cx, 4,)
that is, he should, by the discharge of his priestly functions, be elevated
to the regal dignity. Secondly, Christ, our High Priest, accepted of these
conditions, and permitted the province to be assigned to him of atoning for
our transgressions, exclaiming "Lo, I come that I may do thy will, O my
God." (Psalm xl. 8.) But he accepted them under a stipulation, that, on
completing his great undertaking, he should forever enjoy the honour of a
priesthood similar to that of Melchizedec, and that, being placed on his
royal throne, he might, as King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace, rule
in righteousness the people subject to his sway, and might dispense peace to
his people. He, therefore, "for the joy that was set before him, endured the
cross, despising the shame," (Heb. xii. 2,) that, "being anointed with the
oil of gladness above his fellows," (Psalm xlv. 7,) he might sit forever in
the throne of equity at the right hand of the throne of God.

Great, indeed, was the condescension of the all-powerful God in being
willing to treat with our High Priest rather in the way of covenant, than by
a display of his authority. And strong were the pious affections of our High
Priest, who did not refuse to take upon himself, on our account, the
discharge of those difficult and arduous duties which were full of pain,
trouble, and misery. Most glorious act, performed by thee, O Christ, who art
infinite in goodness! Thou great High Priest, accept of the honours due to
thy pious affection, and continue in that way to proceed to glory, to the
complete consecration of our salvation! For it was the will of God, that the
duties of the office should be administered from a voluntary and
disinterested zeal and affection for his glory and the salvation of sinners;
and it was a deed worthy of his abundant benignity, to recompense with a
large reward the voluntary promptitude which Christ exhibited.

God added an oath to the covenant, both for the purpose of confirming it,
and as a demonstration of the dignity and unchangeable nature of that
priesthood. Though the constant and unvarying veracity of God’s nature might
very properly set aside the necessity of an oath, yet as he had conformed to
the customs of men in their method of solemnizing agreements, it was his
pleasure by an oath to confirm his covenant; that our High Priest, relying
in assured hope on the two-fold and immovable anchor of the promise and of
the oath, "might despise the shame and endure the cross." The immutability
and perpetuity of this priesthood have been pointed out by the oath which
was added to the covenant. For whatever that be which God confirms by an
oath, it is something eternal and immutable.

But it may be asked, "Are not all the words which God speaks, all the
promises which he makes, and all the covenants into which he enters, of the
same nature, even when they are unaccompanied by the sanctity of an oath ,"
Let me be permitted to describe the difference between the two cases here
stated, and to prove it by an important example. There are two methods or
plans by which it might be possible for man to arrive at a state of
righteousness before God, and to obtain life from him. The one is according
to righteousness through the law, by works and "of debt;" the other is
according to mercy through the gospel, "by grace, and through faith:" These
two methods are so constituted as not to allow both of them to be in a
course of operation at the same time; but they proceed on the principle,
that when the first of them is made void, a vacancy may be created for the
second. In the beginning, therefore, it was the will of God to prescribe to
man the first of these methods; which arrangement was required by his
righteousness and the primitive institution of mankind. But it was not his
pleasure to deal strictly with man according to the process of that legal
covenant, and peremptorily to pronounce a destructive sentence against him
in conformity with the rigor of the law. Wherefore, he did not subjoin an
oath to that covenant, lest such an addition should have served to point out
its immutability, a quality which God would not permit it to possess. The
necessary consequence of this was, that when the first covenant was made
void through sin, a vacancy was created by the good pleasure of God for
another and a better covenant, in the manifestation of which he employed an
oath, because it was to be the last and peremptory one respecting the method
of obtaining righteousness and life. "By myself have I sworn, saith the
Lord, that in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen.
xxii. 18.) "As I live, saith the Lord, have I any pleasure at all that the
wicked should die, and not that he should return from his ways and live"
(Ezek. xviii. 23.) "So I swear in my wrath, They shall not enter into my
rest. And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to
them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of
unbelief." (Heb. iii. 11, 18.) For the same reason, it is said, "The wrath
of God, [from which it is possible for sinners to be liberated by faith in
Christ,] abides on those who are unbelievers." (John iii. 36.) A similar
process is observed in relation to the priesthood. For he did not confirm
with an oath the Levitical priesthood, which had been imposed until the time
of reformation." (Heb. ix. 10.) But because it was his will that the
priesthood of Christ should be everlasting, he ratified it by an oath. The
apostle to the Hebrews demonstrates the whole of this subject in the most
nervous style, by quotations from the 110th Psalm. Blessed are we in whose
behalf God was willing to swear! but most miserable shall we be, if we do
not believe on him who swears. The greatest dignity is likewise obtained to
this priesthood, and imparted to it, by the addition of an oath, which
elevates it far above the honour to which that of Levi attained. "For the
law of a carnal commandment maketh men priests who have infirmities, and are
sinners, to offer both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him perfect
who did the service, as pertaining to the conscience;" (Heb. ix. 9) neither
could they abolish sin, or procure heavenly blessings. "But the words of the
oath, which was since the law, constituteth the Son a High Priest
consecrated forevermore, who, after the power of an endless life and through
the Eternal Spirit, offers himself without spot to God, and by that one
offering, he perfects forever them that are sanctified, their consciences
being purified to serve the living God: by how much also it was a more
excellent covenant, by so much the more ought it to be confirmed, since it
was established upon better promises: (Heb. 7-10,) and that which God hath
deigned to honour with the sanctity of an oath, should be viewed as an
object of the most momentous importance.

II. We have spoken to the act of Imposing the priesthood, as long as our
circumscribed time will allow us. Let us contemplate its Execution, in which
we have to consider the duties to be performed, and in them the feeling and
condition of who performs them. The functions to be executed were two:

(1.) The Oblation of an expiatory sacrifice, and (2.) Prayer.

1. The Oblation was preceded by a preparation through the deepest privation
and abasement, the most devoted obedience, vehement supplications, and the
most exquisitely painful experience of human infirmities, on each of which
it is not now necessary to speak. The oblation consists of two parts
succeeding each other: The First is the immolation or sacrifice of the body
of Christ, by the shedding of his blood on the altar of the cross, which was
succeeded by death—thus paying the price of redemption for sins by suffering
the punishment due to them. The Other Part consists of the offering of his
body re-animated and sprinkled with the blood which he shed—a symbol of the
price which he has paid, and of the redemption which he has obtained. The
First Part of this oblation was to be performed without the Holy of Holies,
that is, on earth, because no effusion of blood can take place in heaven,
since it is necessarily succeeded by death For death has no more sway in
heaven, in the presence and sight of the majesty of the true God, than sin
itself has, which contains within it the deserts of death, and as death
contains within itself the punishment of sin. For thus says the scriptures,
"The Son of man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to
give his life a ransom for many." (Matt. xx. 28.) "For this is my blood of
the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matt.
xxvi. 28.) "Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in
due time." (1 Tim. ii. 6). But the Second Part of this offering was to be
accomplished in heaven, in the Holy of Holies. For that body which had
suffered the punishment of death and had been recalled to life, was entitled
to appear before the Divine Majesty besprinkled with its own blood, that,
remaining thus before God as a continual memorial, it might also be a
perpetual expiation for transgressions. On this subject, the Apostle says:
"Into the second tabernacle went the High Priest alone once every year, not
without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the
people. But Christ being come a High Priest of good things to come, not by
the blood of goat, and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into
the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us;" (Heb. ix. 11)
that is, by his own blood already poured out and sprinkled upon him, that he
might appear with it in the presence of God. That act, being once performed,
was never repeated; "for in that he died, he died unto sin once." But this
is a perpetual act; "for in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." (Rom. vi.
10.) "This man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable
priesthood." (Heb. vii. 24) The former was the act of the Lamb to be slain,
the latter, that of the Lamb already slain and raised again from death to
life. The one was completed in a state of the deepest humiliation, the other
in a state of glory; and both of them out of a consummate affection for the
glory of God and the salvation of sinners. Sanctified by the anointing of
the Spirit, he completed the former act; and the latter was likewise his
work, when he had been further consecrated by his sufferings and sprinkled
with his own blood. By the former, therefore, he sanctified himself, and
made a kind of preparation on earth that he might be qualified to discharge
the functions of the latter in heaven.

2. The Second of the two functions to be discharged, was the act of prayer
and intercession, the latter of which depends upon the former. Prayer is
that which Christ offers for himself, and intercession is what he offers for
believers; each of which is most luminously described to us by John, in the
seventeenth chapter of his Gospel, which contains a perpetual rule and exact
canon of the prayers and intercessions which Christ offers in heaven to his
Father. For although that prayer was recited by Christ while he remained
upon earth, yet it properly belongs to his sublime state of exaltation in
heaven: and it was his will that it should be described in his word, that we
on earth, might derive from it perpetual consolation. Christ offers up a
prayer to the Father for himself, according to the Father’s command and
promise combined, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance." (Psalm ii. 8.) Christ had regard to this promise, when he
said, "Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee, as thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him." This sort of intreaty must be distinguished
from those "supplications which Christ, in the days of his flesh, offered up
to the Father, with strong cries and tears;" (Heb. v. 7,) for by them he
intreated to be delivered from anguish, while by the other he asks, "to see
his seed whose days should be prolonged, and to behold the pleasure of the
Lord which should prosper in his hands." (Isa. liii. 10.) But, for the
faithful, intercession is made, of which the apostle thus speaks, "Who is he
that condemneth, It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."
(Rom. viii. 34) And, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he says, "Wherefore he
is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (vii, 25.) But Christ is said
to intercede for believers, to the exclusion of the world, because, after he
had offered a sacrifice sufficient to take away the sins of all mankind, he
was consecrated a great "High Priest to preside over the house of God,"
(Heb. x. 21,) "which house those are who hold fast the confidence and the
rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (iii, 6.) Christ discharges the
whole of this part of his function in heaven, before the face of the Divine
Majesty; for there, also, is the royal seat and the throne of God, to which,
when we are about to pray, we are commanded to lift up our eyes and our
minds. But he executes this part of his office, not in anguish of spirit, or
in a posture of humble genuflection, as though fallen down before the knees
of the Father, but in the confidence of the shedding of his own blood,
which, sprinkled as it is on his sacred body, he continually presents, as an
object of sight before his Father, always turning it towards his sacred
countenance. The entire efficacy of this function depends on the dignity and
value of the blood effused and sprinkled over the body; for, by his
blood-shedding, he opened a passage for himself "into the holiest, within
the veil." From which circumstance we may with the greatest certainty
conclude, that his prayers will never be rejected, and that whatever we
shall ask in his name, will, in virtue of that intercession, be both heard
and answered.

The sacerdotal functions being thus executed, God, the Father, mindful of
his covenant and sacred oath, not only continued the priesthood with Christ
forever, but elevated him likewise to the regal dignity, "all power being
given unto him in heaven and in earth, (Matt. xxviii. 18,) also power over
all flesh: (John xvii. 2,) a name being conferred on him which is far above
all principality, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come, (Ephes. i. 21,)
angels, and authorities, and powers being made subject unto him," (1 Pet.
iii. 22,) that he might be the Christ and the Lord of his whole Israel, King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. By this admirable covenant, therefore, God hath
united those two supreme functions in one, even in Christ Jesus, and has
thus performed his promise, by which he had sworn that this Priest should be
forever after the order of Melchizedec, "who was at once a King and a
Priest; and is to the present time without beginning of days or end of
life," because his genealogy is not described in the Scriptures, which in
this case are subservient to the figure. This conjunction of the sacerdotal
and regal functions is the highest point and the extreme limit of all the
divine work, a never ending token of the justice and the mercy of God
attempered together for the economy of our salvation, a very luminous and
clear evidence of the most excellent glory of God, and an immovable
foundation for the certainty of obtaining salvation through this royal
Priest. If man is properly styled "the extreme Colophon of the creation," "a
microcosm," on account of the union of his body and soul, "an epitome of the
whole world," and "the marriage of the Universe," what judgment shall we
form of this conjunction, which consists of a most intimate and inseparable
union of the whole church of believers and of God himself, "who dwells in
the light unto which no man can approach," and by what amplitude of title
shall we point out its divinity. This union hath a name above every name
that can be named. It is ineffable, inconceivable, and incomprehensible. If,
chiefly in respect to this I shall say, that Christ is styled "the
brightness of the Father’s glory," "the express image of his person" and
"the image of the invisible God," I shall have expressed its excellency as
fully as it is possible to do.

What can be a more illustrious instance of the admixture of justice with
mercy than that even the Son of God, when he had "made himself of no
reputation and assumed the form of a servant," could not be constituted a
King except through a discharge of the sacerdotal functions; and that all
those blessings which he had to bestow as a King on his subjects, could not
be asked except through the priesthood, and which, when obtained from God,
could not, (except through the intervention of this royal Mediator,) be
communicated by his vicarious distribution under God? What can be a stronger
and a better proof of the certainty of obtaining salvation through Christ,
than that he has, by the discharge of his sacerdotal functions in behalf of
men, asked and procured it for men, and that, being constituted a King
through the priesthood, he has received salvation from the Father to be
dispensed to them? In these particulars consists the perfection of the
divine glory.

III. But this consideration, I perceive, introduces us, almost
imperceptibly, to the third and last portion of our subject, in which we
have engaged to treat on THE FRUITS OF THE SACERDOTAL OFFICE in its
administration by Christ. We will reduce all these fruits, though they are
innumerable, to four chief particulars; and, since we hasten to the end of
this discourse, we bind ourselves down to extreme brevity. These benefits
are, (1.) The concluding and the confirmation of a New Covenant; (2.) The
asking, obtaining, and application of all the blessings necessary for the
salvation of the human race; (3.) The institution of a new priesthood, both
eucharistic and royal; and (4.) lastly, The extreme and final bringing to
God of all his covenant people.

1. The FIRST UTILITY is the contracting and the confirmation of a New
Covenant, in which is the direct way to solid felicity.

We rejoice and glory, that this has been obtained by the priesthood of
Christ. For since the first covenant had been made weak through sin and the
flesh, and was not capable of bringing righteousness and life, it was
necessary, either to enter into another, or that we should be forever
expelled from God’s presence. Such a covenant could not be contracted
between a just God and sinful men, except in consequence of a
reconciliation, which it pleased God, the offended party, should be
perfected by the blood of our High Priest, to be poured out on the altar of
the cross. He who was at once the officiating priest and the Lamb for
sacrifice, poured out his sacred blood, and thus asked and obtained for us a
reconciliation with God. When this great offering was completed, it was
possible for the reconciled parties to enter into an agreement. Hence, it
pleased God, that the same High Priest who had acted as Mediator and Umpire
in this reconciliation, should, with the very blood by which he had effected
their union, go between the two parties, as a middle-man, or, in the
capacity of an ambassador, and as a herald to bear tidings of war or peace,
with the same blood as that by which the consciences of those who were
included in the provisions of the covenant, being sprinkled, might be purged
from dead works and sanctified; with the very blood, which, sprinkled upon
himself, might always appear in the sight of God; and with the same blood as
that by which all things in the heavens might be sprinkled and purified.
Through the intervention, therefore, of this blood, another covenant was
contracted, not one of works, but of faith, not of the law, but of grace,
not an old, but a new one—and new, not because it was later than the first,
but because it was never to be abrogated or repealed; and because its force
and vigour should perpetually endure. "For that which decayeth and waxeth
old, is ready to vanish away." (Heb. viii. 13). If such a covenant as is
described in this quotation should be again contracted, in the several ages
which succeed each other, changes ought frequently to occur in it; and, all
former covenants being rendered obsolete, others more recent ought to
succeed. But it was necessary, at length, that a pause should occur in one
of them, and that such a covenant should at once be made as might endure
forever. It was also to be ratified with blood. But how was it possible to
be confirmed with blood of greater value than that of the High Priest, who
was the Son, both of God and man. But the covenant of which we are now
treating, was ratified with that blood; it was, therefore, a new one, and
never to be annulled. For the perpetual presence and sight of such a great
High Priest, sprinkled with his own blood, will not suffer the mind of his
Father to be regardless of the covenant ratified by it, or his sacred breast
to be moved with repentance. With what other blood will it be possible for
the consciences of those in covenant to be cleansed and sanctified to God,
if, after having become parties to the covenant of grace, they pollute
themselves with any crime, "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, if
any man have trodden under foot this High Priest, and counted the blood of
the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing." (Heb. x. 29).
The covenant, therefore, which has been concluded by the intervention of
this blood and this. High Priest, is a new one, and will endure forever.

2. The SECOND FRUIT is the asking, obtaining, and application, of all the
blessings necessary to those who are in covenant for the salvation both of
soul and body. For, since every covenant must be confirmed by certain
promises, it was necessary that this also should have its blessings, by
which it might be sanctioned, and those in covenant rendered happy.

(1.) Among those blessings, the remission of sins first offers itself;
according to the tenor of the New Covenant, "I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no
more." (Heb. viii. 12). But the scripture testifies, that Christ has asked
this blessing by his blood, when it says, "This is my blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins." (Matt. xxvi.
28). The scripture also proves his having obtained such a blessing by the
discharge of the same office, in these words: "By his own blood Christ
entered in once into the holy place, HAVING OBTAINED eternal redemption for
us." (Heb. ix. 12.) It adds its testimony to the application, saying, "In
Christ WE HAVE REDEMPTION through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace." (Ephes. i. 7.)

(2.) This necessary blessing is succeeded by adoption into sons and by a
right to the heavenly inheritance: And we owe it to the Priesthood of
Christ, that this blessing was asked and obtained for us, as well as
communicated to us. For he being the proper and only begotten Son of the
Father, and the sole heir of all his Father’s blessings, was unwilling to
enjoy such transcendent benefits alone, and desired to have co-heirs and
partners, whom he might anoint with the oil of his gladness, and might
receive into a participation of that inheritance. He made an offering,
therefore, of his soul for sin, that, the travail of his soul being
finished, he might see his seed prolonged in their days—the seed of God
which might come into a participation with him both of name and inheritance.
"He was made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we
might receive THE ADOPTION OF SONS." (Gal. iv. 5). According to the command
of the Father, he asked, that the Heathen might be given to him for an
inheritance. By these acts, therefore, which are peculiar to his priesthood,
he asked for this right of adoption in behalf of his believing people, and
obtained it for the purpose of its being communicated to them, nay, in fact,
he himself became the donor. "For to as many as believed on his name Christ
gave power to become the sons of God." (John i. 12). Through him and in
regard to him, God has adopted us for sons, who are beloved in him the Son
of his love. He, therefore, is the sole heir, by whose death the inheritance
comes to others; which circumstance was predicted by the perfidious
husbandmen, (Mark xii. 7,) who, being Scribes and Pharisees, uttered at that
time a remarkable truth, although they were ignorant of such a great
mystery.

(3.) But because it is impossible to obtain benefits of this magnitude
except in union with the High Priest himself, it was expected of him that he
should ask and obtain the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT, the bond of that union,
and should pour it out on his own people. But since the spirit of grace is
the token as well as the testimony of the love of God towards us, and the
earnest of our inheritance, Christ could not ask this great gift till a
reconciliation had taken place, and to effect this was the duty of the
priest. When, therefore, this reconciliation was effected, he asked of his
Father another Comforter for his people, and his request was granted. Being
elevated to the right hand of God, he obtained this Paraclete promised in
the terms of the sacerdotal covenant; and, when he had procured this Spirit,
he poured it out in a most copious manner on his followers, as the scripture
says, "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which
ye now see and hear." (Acts ii. 33.)

That the asking, the obtaining, and the communication of all these
blessings, have flowed from the functions of the priesthood, God has
testified by a certain seal of the greatest sanctity, when he constituted
Christ the Testator of these very blessings, which office embraces
conjointly both the full possession of the good things devised as legacies
in the Will, and absolute authority over their distribution.

3. The THIRD FRUIT of Christ’s administration is the institution of a new
priesthood both eucharistic and regal, and our sanctification for the
purpose of performing its duties; for when a New Covenant was concluded, it
was needful to institute a new eucharistic priesthood, (because the old one
had fallen into disuse,) and to sanctify priests to fulfill its duties.

(1.) Christ, by his own priesthood, completed such an institution; and he
sanctified us by a discharge of its functions. This was the order in which
he instituted it:

First, he constituted us his debtors, and as bound to thanksgiving on
account of the immense benefits procured for us and bestowed upon us by his
priesthood. Then he instructed us how to offer sacrifices to God, our souls
and bodies being sanctified and consecrated by the sprinkling of his blood
and by the unction of the Holy Spirit, that, if they were offered as
sacrifices to God, they might meet with acceptance. It was also his care to
have an altar erected in heaven before the throne of grace, which being
sprinkled with his own blood he consecrated to God, that the sacrifices of
his faithful people, being placed upon it, might continually appear before
the face of the Majesty of heaven and in presence of his throne. Lastly, he
placed on that altar an eternal and never-ceasing fire—the immeasurable
favour of God, with which the sacrifices on that altar might be kindled and
reduced to ashes.

(2.) But it was also necessary that priests should be consecrated: the act
of consecration, therefore, was performed by Christ, as the Great High
Priest, by his own blood. St. John says, in the Apocalypse, "He hath loved
us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and
priests unto God and his Father." (i, 6.) "Thou hast redeemed us to God by
thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and
hast made us unto our God kings and priests." (v, 10.) Not content to have
us joint-heirs in the participation of his inheritance, he willed that we
should likewise partake of the same dignity as that which he enjoyed. But he
made us partners with him of that dignity in such a manner, as in the mean
time always to retain within himself the first place, "as Head of his body
the Church, the first-born among many brethren and the Great High Priest who
presides over the whole of the House of God." To Him, we, who are "born
again," ought to deliver our sacrifices, that by him they may be further
offered to God, sprinkled and perfumed with the grateful odour of his own
expiatory sacrifice, and may thus through him be rendered acceptable to the
Father. For this cause, the Apostle says, "By him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to his name." (Heb. xiii. 15). We are indeed, by his favour "a
holy priesthood," to offer up spiritual sacrifices; but those sacrifices are
rendered "acceptable to God, only by Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. ii. 5.) Not only
was it his pleasure that we should be partakers of this sacerdotal dignity,
but likewise of the eternity attached to it, that we also might execute the
office of the priesthood after the order of Melchizedec, which by a sacred
oath was consecrated to immortality. For though, at the close of these ages
of time, Christ will not any longer perform the expiatory part of the
priesthood, yet he will forever discharge its eucharistic duties in our
favour. These eucharistic duties we shall also execute in him and through
him, unless, in the midst of the enjoyment of the benefits received by us
from him, we should desire our memories no longer to retain the
recollection, that through him we obtained those blessings, and through him
we have been created priests to render due thanksgiving to God the chief
Donor of all. But, since we are not able to offer to God, so long as we
remain in this mortal body, the sacrifices due to him, except by the
strenuous resistance which we offer to Satan, the world, sin, and our own
flesh, and through the victory which we obtain over them, (both of which are
royal acts,) and since, after this life, we shall execute the sacerdotal
office, being elevated with him on the throne of his Father, and having all
our enemies subdued under us, he hath therefore made us both kings and
priests, yea "a royal priesthood" to our God, that nothing might be found in
the typical priesthood of Melchizedec, in the enjoyment of which we should
not equally participate.

4. The FOURTH, and last FRUIT of the Priesthood of Christ, proposed to be
noticed by us, is the act of bringing to God all the church of the faithful;
which is the end and completion of the three preceding effects. For with
this intent the covenant was contracted between God and men; with this
intent the remission of sins, the adoption of sons, and the Spirit of grace
were conferred on the church; for this purpose the new eucharistic and royal
priesthood was instituted; that, being made priests and kings, all the
covenant people might be brought to their God. In most expressive language
the Apostle Peter ascribes this effect to the priesthood of Christ, in these
words: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the
unjust, THAT HE MIGHT BRING US TO GOD." (1 Pet. iii. 18.) The following are
also the words of an Apostle concerning the same act of bringing them to
God: "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to
God, even the Father." (1 Cor. xv. 24). In Isaiah’s prophecy it is said,
"Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me!" Let these words be
considered as proceeding out of the mouth of Christ, when he is bringing his
children and addressing the Father; not that they may be for signs and for
wonders" to the people, but "a peculiar treasure to the Lord."

Christ will therefore bring all his church, whom he hath redeemed to himself
by his own blood, that they may receive, from the hands of the Father of
infinite benignity, the heavenly inheritance which has been procured by his
death, promised in his word, and sealed by the Holy Spirit, and may enjoy it
forever. He will bring his priests, whom sprinkled with his blood, he hath
sanctified unto God, that they may serve him forever. He will bring his
kings, that they may with God possess the kingdom forever and ever: for in
them, by the virtue of his Holy Spirit, he has subdued and overcome Satan
the Chief, and his auxiliaries, the world, sin, and their own flesh, yea,
and "death itself, the last enemy that shall be destroyed."

Christ will bring, and God even the Father will receive. He will receive the
church of Christ, and will command her as "the bride, the Lamb’s wife," on
her introduction into the celestial bride-chamber, to celebrate a perpetual
feast with the Lamb, that she may enjoy the most complete fruition of
pleasure, in the presence of the throne of his glory. He will receive the
priests, and will clothe them with the comely and beautiful garments of
perfect holiness, that they may forever and ever sing to God a new song of
thanksgiving. And then he will receive the kings, and place them on the
throne of his Majesty, that they may with God and the Lamb obtain the
kingdom and may rule and reign forever.

These are the fruits and benefits which Christ, by the administration of his
priesthood, hath asked and obtained for us, and communicated to us. Their
dignity is undoubtedly great, and their utility immense. For what could
occur of a more agreeable nature to those who are "alienated from the life
of God, and strangers to the covenants of promise," (Ephes. ii. 12,) than to
be received by God into the covenant of grace, and to be reckoned among his
people? What could afford greater pleasure to the consciences which were
oppressed with the intolerable burden of their sins, and fainting under the
weight of the wrath of God, than the remission and pardon of all their
transgressions? What could prove more acceptable to men, sons of the
accursed earth, and to those who are devoted to hell, than to receive from
God the adoption of sons, and to be written in heaven? What greater pleasure
could those enjoy who he under the dominion of Satan and the tyranny of sin,
than a freedom from such a state of most horrid and miserable servitude, and
a restoration to true liberty? What more glorious than to be admitted into a
participation of the Priesthood and of the Monarchy, to be consecrated
priests and kings to God, even royal priests and priestly kings? And,
lastly, what could be more desirable than to be brought to God, the Chief
Good and the Fountain of all happiness, that, in a beautiful and glorious
state, we may spend with him a whole eternity?

This priesthood was imposed by God himself, "with whom we have to do," on
Christ Jesus—the Son of God and the Son of man, our first-born brother,
formerly encompassed about with infirmities, tempted in all things,
merciful, holy, faithful, undefiled, and separate from sinners; and its
imposition was accompanied by a sacred oath, which it is not lawful to
revoke. Let us, therefore, rely with assured faith on this priesthood of
Christ, entertaining no doubt that God hath ratified and confirmed, is now
ratifying and confirming, and will forever ratify and confirm all those
things which have been accomplished, are now accomplishing, and will
continue even to the consummation of this dispensation to be accomplished,
on our account, by a High Priest taken from among ourselves and placed in
the Divine presence, having received in our behalf an appointment from God,
who himself chose him to that office.

Since the same Christ hath by the administration of his own priesthood
obtained a perpetual expiation and purgation of our sins, and eternal
redemption, and hath erected a throne of grace for us in heaven, "let us
draw near [to this throne of grace] with a true heart and in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience," (Heb. x.
22,) "and our conscience purged from dead works," (ix, 14,) assuredly
concluding "that we shall obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of
need." (iv, 16.)

LASTLY. Since, by the administration of this priesthood, so many and such
excellent benefits have been obtained and prepared for us of which we have
already received a part as "the first-fruits," and since we expect to reap
in heaven the choicest part of these benefits, and the whole of them in the
mass, and that most complete—what shall we render to our God for such a
transcendent dignity? What thanks shall we offer to Christ who is both our
High Priest and the Lamb? "We will take the cup of salvation, and call upon
the name of the Lord." We will offer to God "the calves of our lips," and
will "present to him our bodies, souls, and spirits, a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable." (Rom. xii. 1.) Even while remaining in these lower
regions, we will sing, with the four and twenty elders that stand around the
throne, this heavenly song to the God and Father of all: "Thou art worthy, O
Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power. For thou hast created all
things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." (Rev. iv. 11.) To
Christ our High Priest and the Lamb, we will, with the same elders, chant
the new song, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the
seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us
unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." (v, 10.)
Unto both of them together we will unite with every creature in singing,
"BLESSING, AND honour, AND GLORY, AND MIGHT BE TO HIM WHO SITTETH UPON THE
THRONE, AND UNTO THE LAMB FOREVER AND EVER."-I have finished.

After the Academic Act of his promotion to a Doctor’s degree was completed,
Arminius, according to the custom at Leyden, which still obtains in many
Universities, briefly addressed the same audience in the following manner:

Since the countenance necessary for the commencement of every prosperous
action proceeds from God, it is proper that in him also every one of our
actions should terminate. Since, therefore, his Divine clemency and
benignity have hitherto regarded us in a favourable light, and have granted
to this our act the desired success, let us render thanks to Him for such a
great display of His benevolence, and utter praise to His holy name.

"O thou Omnipotent and Merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
give thanks to thee for thine infinite benefits conferred upon us miserable
sinners. But we would first praise thee for having willed that thy Son Jesus
Christ should be the victim and the price of redemption for our sins; that
thou hast out of the whole human race collected for thyself a church by thy
word and Holy Spirit; that thou hast snatched us also from the kingdom of
darkness and of Satan, and hast translated us into the kingdom of light and
of thy Son; that thou hast called Holland, our pleasant and delightful
country, to know and confess thy Son and to enjoy communion with him; that
thou hast hitherto preserved this our native land in safety against the
machinations and assaults of a very powerful adversary; that thou hast
instituted, in our renowned city, this university as a seminary of true
wisdom, piety and righteousness; and that thou hast to this hour accompanied
these scholastic exercises with thy favour. We intreat thee, O holy and
indulgent God, that thou wouldst forever continue to us these benefits; and
do not suffer us, by our ingratitude, to deserve at thy bands, to be
deprived of them. But be pleased rather to increase them, and to confirm the
work which thou hast begun. Cause us always to reflect with retentive minds
on these things, and to utter eternal praises to thy most holy name on
account of them, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."

I thank you, Doctor Francis Gomarus, and am grateful to you, most
illustrious man and very learned promoter, for th