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Division "B32-T^5 Section .^876
V.3
EXPOSITOKY DISCOUKSES
FIRST EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLE PETER.
BY JOHN BROWN, D.D,,
SENIOR MINISTER OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION, BROUGIITON
PLACE, EDINBURGH, AND PROFESSOR OF EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY
TO THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
EinE AE 'O KTPI02- 2IMnN, SIMON . . . 2T nOTK EniSTPE'^-AS 2THPI50N TOTS AAEA*OT2 20T. — AOTK. KB' A«' //3'.
IN THREE VOLUJklES. VOL. III.
THIRD EDITION.
EDINBURGH: WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND CO.
186 6.
PRIMTKD BY MURRAY XSD GIBB
FOR
WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND CO., EDINBURGH.
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., . . . LONDON.
M'GLASHAN AND GILL, DUBLIN.
DAVID ROBERTSON, GLASGOW.
CONTENTS.
I. ORDER AND OUTLINE OF DISCOURSES.
DISCOURSE XVII.
EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS BASED ON THE ATONEMENT.
Chapter iv. 1-6, pp. 1-69.
Part I. The basis of tlie exhortation, page 10. Part II. The exhorta- tion, 12. § 1. The particular object to be sought ; negative — posi- tive, 12. (1.) Negative, " not to live to the lusts of men," 12. (2.) Positive, " To live to the will of God," 17. § 2. The means for obtain- ing the practical object ; the arming themselves with the thought, "He that suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, "22. (1.) The thought explained, 25. (2. ) The thought viewed as referrmg to Christ, 28. (o. ) The thought viewed as referring to Christians, 30. (4. ) The thought viewed as a piece of Christian armour — the instrumental meaiL? of sanctification, 34. Part III. Motives enforcing the exhortation, 46. § 1. Motive cb'awn from the character of the course against which the exhortation is dhected, 47. § 2. Motive drawn from the great design of the gospel revelation, 57. Notes, 68.
DISCOURSE XVIII.
SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED.
Chapter iv. 7, pp. 70-88.
Part I. The duties enjoined by the apostle, page 71. § 1. Sobriety, 71. § 2. " Watching unto prayer, " 76. Part II. Motive iirgong to sobrietj' and watching unto prayer : " The end of all things is at hand," 81.
DISCOURSE XIX.
ON THE MAINTENANCE AND MANIFESTATION OF BROTHERLY LOVE.
Chapter iv. 8-11, pp. 89-133.
Part I. The maintenance of brotherly love, page 91. § 1. The duty explained, 91. §2. The duty recommended, 97. Part II. The mani- festation of brotherly love, 109. § 1. Christians are to manifest
CONTENTS.
brotherly love by employing their property for each other's good as men, as in ungrudging hosijitality, 110. § 2. Christians are to manifest brotherly love, by employing their spiritual gifts for promoting one another's spiritual edification, 119. § 3. Motives to these two mani- festations of Christian love, 128. Notes, 133.
DISCOURSE XX.
DIRECTORY TO CIIRISTIAlSfS SUFFERING FOR THEIR RELIGION.
Chapter iv. 12-19, pp. 1.34-179.
Part T. Be not astonished at your sufFermgs, page 135. Part II. Be not depressed by your sufierings, 141. Part III. Be not ashamed of your sufierings, 154. Part IV. Persevering in well-doing, commit your souls to God under sufferings, 164. Notes, 176.
DISCOURSE XXI.
THE ecclesiastical DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS ENJOINED AND ENFORCED.
Chapter v. 1-5, pp. 180-282.
Part I. Of the duties of the rulers in the Christian Church, page 182. Chapter I. The appellation here given to the rvilers in the Christian Church, " elders," 182. § 1. The origin and meaning of the appella- tion, 182. § 2. Qiialifications of Christian elders, 189. § 3. Of the manner in which elders were invested with office, 190. ^ Chapter II. Of the duties of Christian elders, 191. § 1. Of the figurative terms in which these duties are described : acting the part of a shepherd and an overseer, 191. §2. Of the duties themselves, 193. (1.) Instruc- tion, 194. (2.) Superintendence, 200. Chapter III. Of the manner in ■^hich these duties are to be performed, 205. § 1. " Not by con- straint, but willingly," 206. § 2. "Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind," 209. § 3. Not as lords of God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock, 213. Chapter IV. Of the motives to these duties, 217. § I. Motives suggested by the apostle's reference to himself, 218. (1. ) He was also an elder, 218. (2. ) He was a witness of the sufferings of Christ, 220. (3. ) He was a partaker of the glory to be revealed, 224. § 2. Motives from considerations referring to the Church, 226. (1.) It is the flock of God, 226. (2.) It is God's heritage, 227. § 3. Motives from considerations referring to the office-bearers themselves, 229. (1.) The reward of the faithful Chi-istian elder, 229. (2.) The doom of the iinfaithful Christian elder, 232. Part II. Of the duties of the members of the Christian Chiirch to their office-l)earers, 235. § 1. Preliminary requisites to the discharge of the duty of subjection to elders, 244. (1. ) Conviction of the divine authority of church order, 244. (2.) Personal respect for those invested with office, 245. § 2. Subjection to the elders as teachers, 246. § 3. Submission to the elders as superintendents, 249. (1.) Siibmission to the eldership as a body.
CONTENTS. V
249. (2.) Submission to tlie elders as individuals, 252. Part III. Of the duty which all in a Christian church owe to each other : " Mu- tual subjection," 257. Chapter I. Of the mutual subjection which all in a Christian church owe to each other, 269. § 1. What this does not imply, 259. § 2. What this does imply, 261. Chapter II. Of the means of performing this duty : "the being clothed with humility, " 2G6. § 1. Humility explained, 267. § 2. The tendency of humility to secure mutual subjection, 270. Chapter III. Of the motive urging Christians to cultivate humility, 271. Note.s, 279.
DiscouESE xxn.
TWO VIEWS OF AFFLICTION AND ITS DUTIES.
Chapter v. 6, 7, pp. 283-331.
Part I. First view of affliction, and its duty, page 287. § 1. Affliction is subjection to the mighty hand of God, 287. § 2. Our duty in afflic- tion is to " humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, '.' 293. (1.) As creatures under the hand of the Creator, 294. (2.) As subjects under the hand of their Sovereign, rebel subjects under the hand of their righteously offended Sovereign, 295. (3. ) As childi-en under the hand of their Father, 296. § 3. Motives to humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, 298. (1.) It is a part of the humility which God so complacently approves, 298. (2. ) It is the hand of God we are called to humble ourselves under, 299. (3. ) It is the mighty hand of God we are called to humble ourselves under, 300. (4. ) To humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, is the appointed way of our being in due time exalted, 300. Part II. Second view of affliction and its duty, 307. § 1 . Affliction is a state of anxiety and carefulness, 308. § 2. The duty of the Christian under affliction is to "cast all his care on God," 310. (1.) A persuasion that God has power to control what excites our anxiety, 314. (2. ) A persuasion that God will employ his controlling power in the best possible way, 315. (3.) A persuasion that he will employ his controlling power in the best possible way for us, 315. § 3. The motive to casting our care on God is, that he cares for us, 318. Notes, 329.
DISCOUESE XXIII.
THE christian's GREAT ENEMY ; HIS DUTY IN REFERENCE TO HIM, AND HIS ENCOURAGEMENT TO DISCHARGfe IT.
Chapter v. 8-11, pp. 332-394.
Part I. The Christian's great enemy, page 335. Chapter I. TVIio is he? The Devil, 336. Chapter II. What is he? 338. § 1. He is an adversary, their adversary, 338. § 2. He is a subtle adversary, 340. § 3. He is an active adversary, 342. § 4. He is a cruel adversary, 344. § 5. He is a powerful adversary, 345. Part II. The Christian's duty
1 CONTENTS.
in reference to his great enemy, 349. Chapter 1. What lie must do to his great enemy : Resist him, 349. § 1. He must resist his attacks on himself, 350. § 2. He must resist his attacks on the Christian cause, 352. Chapter II. What the Christian is to do that he may resist his great enemy, 354. § 1. He must be sober, 355. § 2. He must be vigilant, 358. § 3. He must be stedfast in the faith, 360. Part III. The Christian's encouragement to perform his duty in refer- ence to his great enemy, 363. Chapter I. The encouraging fact : all the brotherhood have sustained and surmounted this struggle, 363. Chapter II. The faithful promise, 367. § 1. The encouragement con- tained in the promise itself, 369. (1.) They shall be made perfect, 370. (2.) They shall be established, 372. (3.) They shall be strengthened, 372. (4.) They shall be settled, 373. (5.) He who does all this for them is God, 376. § 2. The encouragement contained in the adjuncts of the promise, 379. (1.) The God who has promised this is "the God of all grace," 379. (2.) This God of all grace has "called" the Chris- tian "in Christ Jesus," 382. (3.) The God of all grace has called Christians to his eternal glory, 384. (4. ) The afflictions are moderate in degree, short in duration, and form a part of the divine plan for their ultimate salvation, 387. Part IV. Conclusion, 390.
DISCOUESE XXIV.
POSTSCRIPT OF THE EPISTLE.
Chapter v. 12-14, pp. 395-420.
Part I. Recapitulation, page 397. Chapter I. The subject of the Epistle, 398. § 1. The grace of God, 398. § 2. The Christian's duty in reference to this grace : " to stand, " 400. Chapter II. The form of the Epistle, 402. It is a testimony and exhortation respecting the grace of God, 402. Chapter III. The mode of the writing or transmission of the Epistle, 406. Part II. The sahitation, 409. § 1. The saluta- tion of the church in Babylon, 409. § 2. The salutation of Marcus, 412. Part III. Exhortation, 413. Part IV. Benediction, 415. Notes, 419.
II. TABLE FOR FINDING OUT THE EXPOSITION OF ANY VERSE OR CLAUSE OF THE EPISTLE IN THIS VOLUME.
CHAPTER IV.
Ver.
1. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, 10 ; arm
yourselves likewise with the same mind, 22; for he that hath suffered
2. in the flesh hath ceased from sin, 24 ; that he no longer should live the rest of the time in the flesh to the lusts of men, 12 ; but to the
CONTENTS.
Ver.
3. will of God, 17. For the time past of our life may suffice us, 54 ; to have wi-ought the will of the Gentiles, 48 ; when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and
4. abominable idolatries, 48 ; wherein they think it strange that j^e run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you, 49;
5. who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the qviick
6. and the dead, 51. Foi", for this cause was the gospel also preached to them that are dead, 57; that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, 60 ; but live according to God in the spirit, 61 ;
7. But the end of all things is at hand; 81 ; be ye therefore sober, 71 ;
8. and watch unto prayer, 76 ; and above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, 91; for charity shall cover the multitude
9. of sins, 97. Use hospitality one to another without grudging, 110.
10. As every one hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, 119 ; as good stewards of the manifold grace of God,
11. 128. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God ; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability that God giveth, 121 ; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, 129; to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen, 130.
12. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to
13. try you, as if some strange thing happened unto you, 135; biit re- joice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's suiferings, 141 ; that when his glory is revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding
14. joy, 145. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, 149 ; happy are ye, 149 ; for the Spirit of God and of glory resteth upon you, 150 ; on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glo-
15. rifled, 151. But let none of you sufi'er as a murderer or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, 154 ; or as a busybody in other men's matters,
16. 155. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, 159 ; let him not be
17. ashamed, 161 ; but let him glorify God on this behalf, 161. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, 165 ; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them who
18. obey not the gospel of God ? 170. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, 167 ; where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? 171.
19. Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God, 167 ; commit the keeping of their souls to him, 168 ; in well-doing, 172 ; as unto a faithful Creator, 169.
CHAPTER V.
1. The elders which are among you, 182 ; I exhort, who am also an
elder, 218 ; and a witness of the siifierings of Christ, 220 ; and also
2. a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, 224 ; feed the flock of God which is among you, 226 ; taking the oversight thereof, 200 ; not by constraint, but willingly, 205 ; not for filthy hicre,
3. but of a ready mind, 209 ; neither as being lords, 213 ; over God's
4. heritage, 227 ; but being ensamples to the flock, 214 ; and when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of
5. glory that fadeth not away, 229. Likewise, 230 ; ye younger, 238 ; submit yourselves unto the elder, 244, 246 ; yea, all of you be
Vm CONTENTS.
subject one to anotlier, 257 ; and be clothed with liumility, 266 ; for God resisteth the proud, 271 ; and giveth grace to the humble,
6. 275. Humble yourselves, 293 ; therefore, under the mighty hand
7. of God, 287 ; that he may exalt you in due time, 300 ; casting all
8. your care upon him, 308 ; for he careth for you, 318. Be sober, 355 ; be vigilant, 358 ; because yoiir adversary, 338 ; the devil, 336 ; as a roaring lion, 344 ; walketh about, 342 ; seeking whom
9. he may devour, 345 ; whom resist, 350 ; stedf ast in the faith, 360 ; knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
10. that are in the world, 363. But the God of all grace, 379 ; who hath called us, 382 ; to his eternal glory, 384 ; by Christ Jesus, 383 ; after that ye have suffered a while, 387 ; make you perfect,
11. 370; stablish, 372; strengthen, 372 ; settle you, 373 ; to him be
12. glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen, 390. By Silvanus, 406 ; a faithful brother unto you, 407 ; as I suppose, 408 ; I have written briefly, 404 ; exhorting, 403 ; and testifying, 404 ; that
13. this is the true gi'ace of God, 398 ; wherein ye stand, 400. The church that is at Babylon, 409 ; saluteth joxi, and so doth Marcus,
14. my son, 412. Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity, 413. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus, 415. Amen, 418.
INDEX—
I. Principal Matters, ....... 421
II. Greek Words and Phrases remarked on, . . . 429
III. Authors quoted or referred to, . . . . . 431
TV. Texts of Scripture remarked on, ..... 434
EXPOSITORY DISCOURSES.
DISCOURSE XVIL
EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS BASED ON THE ATONEMENT.
" Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind : for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from siu ; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may sufSce us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, bauquetings, and abominable idolatries : wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you : who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." — 1 Pet. iv. 1-6.
HE paragraph now read presents us with a very important theme of consideration. It directs us to the practical use which we should habitually make of that great fundamental principle of Christianity, " that Christ, the just One, suffered in the room of the unjust, that he might bring them to God." It teaches us to use it as the most serviceable piece of armour, whether defensive or offensive, that we can employ in the spiritual conflict on which as Christians we profess to have entered ; that which in the preceding context is represented as the expiation of our guilt, the price of our pardon, the ground of our hope, being here exhibited as also the means VOL. III. A
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2 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS, [DISC. XVII.
of our sanctification, — tlie strongest motive, the most cheer- ing encouragement, to " cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God," — to " put off the old man, v^hich is corrupt, and put on the new man, which, after God," that is, in the image of God, "is created in righteousness and true holiness;"^ or, as the apostle has it here, " to live no longer the rest of our time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."
The words of the text are so obviously and so intimately related to those which immediately precede them, that we cannot help considering the commencement of a new chap- ter here as injudicious, and as fitted rather to obscure the sense ; the natural place for a division being plainly the close of the eleventh verse. The long and somewhat in- volved sentence which I have read (for it is one sentence), is a following up of the statement which had been made respecting the sufferings of Christ, in their nature, design, and consequences, by an exhortation enforced by two appro- priate motives. The exhortation is contained in the second part of the first verse, and in the whole of the second ; and the first motive is adduced in the third, fourth, and fifth verses, and the second in the sixth verse. This is clearly the general division of the passage ; and even this general view of the construction of the passage will be found useful in guiding our inquiries into its meaning.
Interpreters have been a good deal perplexed, both as to the manner in which the various clauses are connected with each other, and as to the meaning which severally and con- jointly they are intended to express. I have never con- versed with an intelligent Christian, acquainted merely with our English version of the passage, who has not complained of its obscurity, and acknowledged, that while most, though
^ Eph. iv. 24. Karx Qioii.
DISC. XVII.] EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. 3
by no means all, of the expressions seemed clear enough when taken singly, and many of the clauses viewed sepa- rately had an obvious meaning, he had failed in his attempts to obtain a consistent and satisfactory view of the whole ; and I could not very readily point such a person to any interpretation of the passage where he would find a complete solution of his doubts and difficulties.
I have no doubt the passage has often been read without the perception of any difficulty ; but that is only a proof how inattentive many readers of the Bible are to the com- mand of its Author, " He that readeth, let him understand." It is good to observe difficulties ; it is the first step towards having them removed. It may be said — I believe it is often thought — an unobserved difficulty can do no harm ; but this is a mistake, for it may lead into error : at any rate, it must prevent us from apprehending the truth, and from obtain- ing from it the practical advantages it is intended to com- municate.
There is no difficulty in the first clause, " Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh," bearing, as it plainly does, on the statements respecting the sufferings of Christ, in their nature, design, and results, contained in the five concluding verses of the preceding chapter, — "That He once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God ; and that, having become dead in the flesh, he was quickened in the Spirit, and went and preached to the spirits in prison ; and being raised from the dead, is gone into heaven, and, seated at the right hand of God, has angels, and principalities, and powers subjected to him," — and referring to that statement as the basis on which the apostle is about to place the following exhortation. This is sufficiently plain ; but the difficulties immediately commence, and they come in considerable number and close succession.
4 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
"Arm yourselves with the same mind." With what mind ? If it be answered, with the mind or disposition of Christ, the question returns, But what is said about his mind or disposition in the context ? Absolutely nothing. His sufferings are spoken of, — their nature, their design, their results, are particularly referred to ; but there is no- thing said of his mind, his temper, or disposition. Had the words, " Arm yourselves with the same mind," followed the very similar passage in chap. ii. 21-24, — "Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps ; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth ; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him who judgeth righteously," — we should at once have seen the connection. The exhortation would have seemed to rise naturally out of the statement, " Forasmuch as Christ has thus suffered, arm yourselves with the same mind" when ye are called to suffer. But here the exhortation is not to imitate Christ in suffering, but to make the fact of his having suffered, a piece of armour, offensive and defensive, in our conflicts with our spiritual adversaries.
Then come the words, " For^ he that suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin ; that he no longer should live the rest of the time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." Here are a host of perplexities. Who is this that has " suffered in the flesh, and ceased from sin ?" Is it Christ, who in the beginning of the verse is said to have " suffered for us in the flesh V That certainly is the mean- ing naturally suggested by the construction ; but what can be meant by Christ's ceasing from sin ? and, more extra- ordinary still, what can be meant by his ceasing from sin, " that he should no lon£i;er live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God '? " How could he cease from sin who never be£i;an to sin ? He never
DISC. XVII.] EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. 5
lived any part " of his time iu the flesh to the lusts of men." He was always " holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners;"^ he always " lived to the will of God." It was " his meat to do the will of him who sent him, and to finish his work."^ And if "he who suffers in the flesh" be any one who suffers bodily affliction, or any Christian who suffers bodily affliction for Christ's cause, — and it has been supposed to mean all these by different interpreters, — still, we ask, how do any or all of these " cease from sin ?" Is bodily affliction a furnace, which uniformly and entirely separates the dross from the precious metal in the human character ? Does a man need only to be made sufficiently miserable in order to his becoming sufficiently holy? And were this insuperable difficulty got over, what is meant by a man ceasing from sin, " that he may no longer live to the lusts of men?" Is not that very like an assertion, that he ceases from sin that he may cease from sin ? And then, what bearing has this strange declaration on the exhorta- tion, " Arm yourselves with the same mind," of which it seems brought forward as an enforcement ?
And then, lookinsc forward to the conclusion of this sen- tence, the darkness becomes darkness that may be felt. What is the meaning of " the gospel being preached to them who are dead?" what is meant by those dead being "judged according" to men in the flesh?" what by their " living according to God in the spirit?" And what con- nection have these two things with what they seem to be assigned as the reason for — either the general judgment, or Christians avoidins; sin and cultivating; holiness?
I readily acknowledge, that to some of these questions
I cannot give a satisfactory answer ; and from the whole
sentence, as it stands in our version, it does not seem possible
to extract a consistent and pertinent meaning. It is not
1 Heb. vii. 2G. 2 John iv. 34.
6 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
wonderful that some of tlie most learned and acute inter- preters have honestly confessed that they did not under- stand it. It is more wonderful and less creditable, that many expositors slur over the matter, and leave their readers equally uninformed, so far as they are concerned, as to the existence of difficulties, or the means of lessening or remov- ing them. I do not know that they can all be removed. I am persuaded many of them may.
A few remarks on the meaning of a word or two, and on the construction of one or two clauses, will, I am persuaded, go far to remove all difficulty from the first and second verses, and to make them a clear expression of an obviously just and important thought, of a consistent and pertinent sentiment. The first remark as to the meaning of a word is this — that the term rendered " mind,"^ which is, to say the least, not its usual meaning, should have been trans- lated in a sense which it very commonly bears — " thought." "Arm yourselves with this same thought." And if you ask what same thought, the first remark as to the construction of the clauses will give a satisfactory answer : the words that immediately follow contain the thought : " He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased, or rather, has been made to rest, from sin ;" ^ the particle rendered for^ being translated, as it very frequently is, that — thus, " Arm your- selves with this same thought, that He who hath suffered in the flesh, has been made to rest from sin."* This is the same thought referred to in the commencement of the verse, and more fully brought out in the concluding verses of the preceding chapter.
As to the construction of the words, we have to remark, that the second verse is not to be considered as connected directly with the words which immediately precede it, but with the exhortation, " Arm yourselves with this same
l"Ev»o;a. '^ Ui-xavrai. ^"Otl. * See note A.
DISC. XVII] EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. . 7
thought ;" and expresses the end to be sought by that means. It is the reply to the inquiry, For what purpose are we to arm ourselves with this same thought ? It deserves notice, that there is nothing in the words themselves restricting tliem either to the first, second, or third person.^ They are literally, " in order to the no longer living the rest of the time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." There follow in the next four verses two motives, urging compliance with the exhortation : the first contained in the third, fourth, and fifth verses ; the second contained in the sixth.
The whole passage, then, stands thus : " Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with this same thought, that He who hath suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin." And why arm yourselves with this thought 1 " that ye may no longer live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." And why not live the rest of your time to the lusts of men, but to the will of God ? (1.) " Because the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries ; wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you, who shall give account to him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead ; and (2.) Because for this cause was the gospel preached to them who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."
Viewed in this way, the sentence hangs well together, and exhibits a clear, consistent, and important meaning. Its general plan and object thus become apparent, and
El's TO /j-'/iKiTi aiiSfuTTuiv i-vi^uf^icci: aXXa hX'/ifACCTi &iou rov i'^iXoiTTov iv (rapxi
8 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
much of the obscurity resting on particular words and phrases is dispersed.
There is, first, the brief recapitulatory statement of what had just been stated at greater length, which was required to lay a foundation for the exhortation which the apostle is just about to give forth : " Forasmuch as Christ hath suf- fered for us in the flesh, so suffered as to have died, and been raised from the dead, and placed at God's right hand ; seeing Christ hath thus suffered in the flesh for us" —
Then comes, secondly, the exhortation itself : "Arm your- selves with this same thought, that he who has suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin, in order that ye may no longer live your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." The exhortation calls on them to seek a particular end by a particular means ; to engage in a particular course of conduct, which is described both negatively and positively, — negatively as not living to the lusts of men, positively as living to the will of God ; and to cultivate a particular mode of thinking, in order to their successfully following out this mode of acting, — " arm- ing themselves with this thought, He that hath suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin." The first exhorta- tion is, " No longer live your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God ;" the second, " Arm your- selves with this same tliought, that he who has suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin," — in order that you may avoid the one and follow the other of these two modes of conduct.
Then there are, thirdly, the motives which the apostle urges on them to induce them to comply with this exhor- tation. The first refers chiefly to the course they should abandon, and brings forward its criminal and disgraceful character, the strange infatuation and waywardness of those who walk in it, and the awful responsibility in which they
DISC. XVII.] EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. 9
are involved. It is the "way of the Gentiles;" it consists in " lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquet- ings, and abominable idolatries ; " then they who walk in it are so infatuated as to " wonder that you do not run with them into the same excess of riot," and " speak evil of you" on that account ; and finally, " they must give account of themselves to Him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead." Surely this is not a way to walk in. We should never have walked in it ; we have walked in it too long ; we must walk in it no longer. The second motive refers principally to the way that they should follow. To bring men into this way, and keep them in this way, is the great design of preaching the gospel. " For, for this cause was the gospel preached to them who are dead, that they may be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." Some of the phraseology in which this motive is couched is by no means easy of explication ; but that it does express a motive to the duty enjoined, and that that motive is, substantially, that the great design why the gospel is preached is to lead men to the discharge of that duty, cannot reasonably be questioned. This, then, is the general division of the subject, according to which I mean to arrange my subsequent illustrative remarks.
These preliminary observations have been longer than I could have wished; but if they have in any measure gained their object, of enabling us better to understand a con- fessedly difficult, and an obviously important, passage of Scripture, neither you nor I will have cause to regret their length. That man does not rightly estimate the value of the pure ore of divine truth, who grudges the labour that is necessary to dig it out of the mine, and separate it from rubbish ; and who, when he in any good measure succeeds, does not " rejoice as one who findeth great spoil." I am not without hope that we shall find this passage, though at
10 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
first sight beset with so many difficulties, in no ordinary degree rich in Christian doctrine, and law, and motive ; " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in- struction in righteousness."
o I. THE BASIS OF THE EXHORTATION.
The first branch of the subject — the great principle OF Christian truth, " Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh" — which the apostle lays down as the basis of his ex- hortation, need not detain us long, as we have in our last discourse considered at great length the full announcement of it in the close of the last chapter, on which the more abbreviated statement in the text plainly reduplicates. It is a summary of all that is most peculiar and important in the religion of Christ, a comprehensive epitome of the gospel of our salvation. It is that which Paul first received and first declared to the churches, assuring them that it was that go,?pel which, if they received it, and kept it in memoiy, would certainly save the soul.^ Its import may be thus briefly stated.
Christ, the long promised, divinely appointed, divinely qualified, divinely accredited, divine Saviour, in human nature has endured numerous, varied, violent, severe suffer- ings, terminating in death.
These sufferings were penal — " for sins," being the exe- cution of the penal sanction of the divine law, the manifes- tation of the displeasure of God against sin. He was made sin, he became a curse.
These sufferings were vicarious. They were not for his
own sins, for he had none, but for the sins of men. " He
suffered, the just in the room of the unjust." lie "became
a curse" in the room of the accursed. " We all like sheep
1 1 Cor. XV. 1, 2.
PART I.J BASIS OF THE EXHORTATION. 11
had gone astray: we had turned every one to his own way; and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all." " He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was on him."
These sufferings were expiatory. In them the penalty was not only borne, but borne away. He made an end of sin, by making reconciliation for iniquity. " He took away sin by the sacrifice of himself." " He is the propitiation for our sins," and he is " set forth a propitiation ;" and the righteousness of God in the remission of sins is thus declared : " God being just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus."
The design of these penal, vicarious, and expiatory sufferings of the divinely appointed, divinely qualified, divinely accredited, divine Saviour, is to bring men to God ; to restore ignorant and deluded man to the true knowledge of God, guilty man to the favour of God, depraved man to the image of God, and miserable man to the enjoyment of God ; thus making him truly wise, truly good, and truly happy for ever.
Finally, while these sufferings terminated in the death of the incarnate Saviour, they obtained for him as their merited reward, that spiritual power which he exerts through the preaching of the gospel, in giving liberty to the spiritually enslaved, and life to the spiritually dead ; and a seat at God's right hand in the Heaven of heavens, angels and principalities and powers being made subject to him. Such is the great truth referred to by the apostle in the words, " Christ has suffered for us in the flesh," and which he lays down as the basis on which he builds an exhortation to universal holiness — " holiness in all manner of conversation."
12 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
II. THE EXHORTATION.
That EXHORTATION forms the second division of our subject, to the consideration of which we now proceed. It is contained in these words : " Arm yourselves with this same thought, that He who hath suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin, that ye no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." The exhortation, as I have already had occasion to remark, is twofold. The apostle calls on them to use certain means in order to secure a certain end : to cultivate a particular mode of thinking, that they may follow a particular course of conduct ; to arm themselves with an influential thought, that they may perform a diffi- cult work. It will, I believe, subserve the purpose of clear exposition, if we consider the two parts of the exhortation in the inverse order in which they are presented to us in the text : that we first consider the course of conduct which the apostle would have Christians to pursue, and then the means he would have them to employ in order that they may follow that course of conduct.
§ 1. The particular object to be sought ; negative — positive.
The course of conduct which the apostle would have Christians to pursue, is described in these words : " No longer live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but live ^ the rest of your time in the flesh to the will of God." The exhortation, you perceive, is both negative and positive. It forbids one course of conduct and enjoins another.
(1.) Negative : ^^ Not to live to the lusts of men"
The negative exhortation plainly proceeds on the prin- 1 'BiMfftx,!. Aptum verbum : non dicitur de brutis. — Be^'GEL.
PART II.] OBJECT TO BE SOUGHT. 13
ciple, that in the former part of their lives, previously to their conversion, they had been distinguished by a mode of conduct not only different from, but directly opposite to, that by which they ought henceforward to be characterized : they had done what they are now not to do ; they had not done what they are now to do ; they had lived the former part of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men, and not to the will of God. It is of great importance that Chris- tians should keep habitually in mind their state and cha- racter previous to conversion ; " that they should often look to the rock whence they were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence they were dug." ^ It is fitted to hide pride from their eyes, to excite gratitude, to deepen the sense of obli- gation. To gain these ends, God's ancient people were often put in mind of their humble origin, and their enslaved state in Egypt ; and Christians are frequently, directly and indirectly, called on to reflect on the state of error and guilt and condemnation and spiritual enslavement from which they have been delivered. " Once were ye darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord ; walk in the light."
" Such were some of you," says the apostle, after giving a list of enormous transgressors : " Such were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." " In time past," says he, speaking to those who had been, in the great love wherewith the God who is rich in mercy had loved them, quickened together with Christ, and made to sit together in heavenly places in him, " ye were dead in trespasses and sins ; ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of dis- obedience ; among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires 1 Isa. li. 1, 2.
14 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as otliers." " Remember," says he, " that at that time ye were without Christ, being ahens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and being without God in the world." ^ And hei'e the apostle, not the less impressively be- cause indirectly, reminds the Christians to whom he wrote, that they had spent the former part of their lives in rebellion against God, and in base subjection to his and their enemies. " The time in the flesh" is an expression just equivalent to the period of our mortal life. During the past part of this life, previous to their conversion, they had lived " not to the will of God, but to the lusts of men." To live to the will of God is to live according to the will of God, to make the will of God the supreme rule and the ultimate reason of our sentiments and conduct. In his unconverted state, no man does this. He is ignorant and misinformed as to the will of God, and no way disposed to seek after more extended or accurate information on this subject. He does "not like to retain God in his knowledge;" and when God presses the truth respecting his will on such a man's notice, he turns away, saying in his heart, " Let me alone;" "Depart from me, I desire not the knowledge of thy will or thy ways." He " walks after the imagination of his own heart." ^ In most cases, in forming a determination as to a course of conduct, the question, ' Is the course resolved on agreeable to or inconsistent with the will of God 1 ' is never put. God is not in all the thoughts. Nor is this the worst of it : for there are cases in which the man is, from circumstances, compelled to admit into his calcula- tions the element of conformity or disconformity with the will of God ; and then, instead of giving it its proper place, which is that of supreme control, he deliberately sets it 1 Epk V. 8 J 1 Cor. vi. II ; Eph. ii. 1, 2, II, 12. 2 jer. xxiii. 17.
PART II.] OBJECT TO BE SOUGHT. 15
aside, and proceeds to choose and to act in direct opposition to what he knows to be the divine will, choosing and doing what he knows God disapproves, and rejecting and refusing to do what he knows God approves. The language of his conduct is that of the rebellious Jews to Jeremiah : " As to the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken to thee ; but we will certainly do what- soever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth," ^
And while thus not living to the will of God, he is living " to the lusts of men." The lusts of men are just the desires whereby mankind in their fallen state are characterized ; some of them sinful in themselves ; others of them innocent in themselves, but faulty from excess or misdirection ; all of them unfitted for a purpose which they were never meant to answer — to be the regulating principle of conduct. And to live to these desires is just to make them the rule and reason of what we do ; to spend life in endeavouring to obtain the gratification of these desires, seeking to conform ourselves to our own natural inclinations ; " fashioning ourselves," as the apostle phrases it in the first chapter of this epistle, "accordino; to our former lusts in our ignorance :" formincr our character entirely under their influence, and the influ- ence of their objects, present and sensible things, " things seen and temporal;" or seeking to conform ourselves to those desires as reigning in and manifested by others, being "conformed to this world," — embracing commonly preva- lent opinions, regulating ourselves by commonly prevalent maxims, just because they are commonly prevalent, — " walk- ing according to the course of this world;" and, while obstinatelv refusinc; to be servants of God in livino; to his will, basely becoming the slaves of men by living to their .lusts. This is a true account of the mode of life of every unrenewed man. It was once the mode of life of those to 1 Jer. xliv. 16, 17.
16 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
whom the apostle is writing. It was once the mode of life of every true Christian. It is the mode of life of vast multi- tudes of professed Christians still.
But, says the apostle to the strangers scattered abroad, this must be your mode of life no longer. Now that ye are " in Christ," ye have become " new creatures ; old things are passed away, all things are become new."^ You must no more live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. " Worldly desires," whether in yourselves or in others, are not to be the guiding principles of your conduct. You are not, because you desire, or other men desire, a particular object, to set about forthwith to endeavour to obtain it. You are to bring all your own desires, and all the desires of others, viewed as influencing your choice and conduct, before the tribunal of a higher principle ; and according to its awards, you are to refuse, or modify, or gratify them. Where they are con- demned, they are, as existing in ourselves, to be sought to be weakened and destroyed, — cut off, though apparently useful as a right hand, — pulled out, though felt to be dear* as a right eye, and cast from us as an abominable and per- nicious thing; and as existing in others, they are not to be complied with, but steadily resisted. And even where they are not sinful in their nature, but merely in danger of becoming exorbitant in their demands, they are never to be permitted to be the guide of our conduct, the controlling power of action. Christians are not to " obey sin by the desires of the body, yielding their members to it as the instruments of unrighteousness." They are not to " make provision for the flesh to fulfil its desires ;" on the contrary, they are to " mortify their members that are on the earth ;" they are to " crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts ;" they are to "deny themselves;" they are not to be " con- 1 2 Cor. V. 17.
J
PART II] OBJECT TO BE SOUGHT. 17
formed to this present world," and they are to turn away from them "who walk after their own ungodly desires ;" they are to " have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to reprove them." They are not to " walk as men," but as Christians ; not as " born of the flesh," but as " born of the Spirit."^
(2.) Positive ; " To live to the will of Godr
The principle which is to guide their conduct and fashion their character, and which is to control and direct the de- sires, whether in themselves or others, as principles of their conduct, is " the will of God." They are to live the rest of their time in the flesh " to the will of God," that is, accord- ing to the will of God. Not human desire, either in our- selves or others, but divine will, is to be the rule and reason of our conduct.
The will of God is the rule of his own conduct. " He worketh all thinD;s according to the counsel of his own will." " He doeth according to his will in the armies ^of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth." His will is the law of all inanimate and irrational being. " He has estab- lished the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day accordino; to his ordinance, for all are his servants." This will is the rule and the reason of the conduct of all holy, intelligent beings. The angels that excel in strength, " do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word ; they are ministers of his, that do his pleasure."^ This will should be the rule and reason of the conduct of all intelli- gent beings.
The will of God can be the rule and reason of the con-
1 ^att. V. 29, 30, xviii. 8 ; Kom. y\. 12, 13, xiii. 14 ; Col. iii. 5 ; Gal. V. 24; Matt. xvi. 24; Rom. xii. 2; 2 Tim. iii. 5; Eph. v. 11 ; 2 Cor. iii. 3 ; Jolin iii. 4.
2 Epli. i. 11 ; Dan. iv. 35 ; Ps. cxix. 90, ciii. 20, 21.
VOL. III. B
18 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
duct of intelligent beings, only in the degree in wliich it is revealed to and known by them. The secret will of God, or what we ordinarily term his decrees, so far as unrevealed, cannot be the guide of our conduct. But when his will becomes apparent in his providential dispensations, then it is our duty to submit to it with unmurmuring acquiescence, however opposed to our natural inclination, saying, " It is the Lord ; let him do with us what seemeth good in his sight. The will of the Lord be done. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."^
It is however his will, as made known in his v)ord, that is to be the chief, the paramount rule of our conduct. He has, in the Scriptures of truth, " showed us what is good, and what he requires of us," — " his good, and acceptable, and perfect will."^ He has declared to us what is true, and what is right ; and it ought to be our habitual endeavour to ascertain what he has declared to be true, that we may believe it ; what he has declared to be right, that we may do it. To the question. May we do this ? we should reply by the question, Does the revelation of his will permit it I — to the question, Must we do this? by the question. Does the revelation of his will require it "? And no amount of oppo- site influence, from whatever quarter it may come, whether from inclination, or interest, or general opinion, must be permitted to induce us to do what that revelation says we may not do, or to neglect what it says we must do. " What soever we do, whether in word or in deed, we must do it as to the Lord, and not as to men ;" acknowledging his autho- rity, seeking his approbation. Regarding ourselves as his property, we must seek to dispose of that property according to his will. Knowing that we are not our own, and there- fore not to be regulated by our own will, — not other men's,
1 1 Sam. iii. 18 ; Acts xxi. 14 ; Matt. vi. 10.
2 Mic, vi. 8 ; Rom. xii. 2.
PART II.] OBJECT TO BE SOUGHT. 19
and therefore not to be regulated by their will, but God's — originally his, and anew made his, by being " bought with a price," — we are to "glorify him," by working that which is well-pleasing in his sight, " in our bodies and in our spirits, which are his." " Whether we live, we are to live to the Lord ; whether we die, we are to die to the Lord ; whether living or dying," we are to act as His. " Alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, we are to live to him ; yielding ourselves to him as his servants, and our members to him as the instruments of holiness." " For this is the will of God, even our sanctification;" our entire separation in temper, and spirit, and conduct, from " the world lying under the wicked one" — " the Gentiles who know not God."^
This view of Christian duty in its two parts, of not living to the lusts of men, and living to the will of God, is quite coincident with many other representations contained in the New Testament ; — as when Christians are commanded to " put off the old man, and to put on the new man ;" to " cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God ;" to " escape from the corruption that is in the world through lust," and to put on " a divine nature ;" to " be not con- formed to this world, but so transformed by the renewing of the mind, as to prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God ;" " to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." ^
It deserves to be noticed in conclusion here, that the phraseology, " to live the rest of your time in the flesh to the will of God," naturally intimates that the course en- joined is to be a persevering one. There is to be no return-
1 1 Cor. vi. 20 ; Rom. xiv. 8, vi. 11, 1.3 ; 1 Thess. iv. 3.
2 Eph. iv. 22, 24 ; 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; 2 Pet. i. 4 ; Eom. xu. 2 ; Tit. ii. 12.
20 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
ing to living to the lusts of men, but a continuing during the whole of the rest of life to live to the will of God, — a con- stant " continuance in well-doing." Christians " have need of patience,"^ that is, of perseverance. They must persevere, that having done the will of God, they may obtain the promise. He that turns back, turns back to " perdition." ^
Let us, my brethren, endeavour to reduce to practice the lesson which has now been given us, of living not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. To act otherwise is folly and sin in all ; but it is doubly sin and folly in those who profess the faith of Christ. Do you not, brethren, profess to have been delivered from the present evil world by Christ's having given himself for you by the will of God ? Have you not said that the world is crucified to you by that cross of Christ in which you glory I Have you not said that ye are Christ's ? And is it not written, that " they who are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts ?"^ And while you have denied that you are the world's, ye have declared that ye are the Lord's ; and while you have renounced it, ye have avouched Him. You have said, " His we are, and Him we will serve." See, then, that you do not live to the lusts of men who know not God — " worldly lusts." See that you do not make the gratification of your own natural inclinations, in any of their endlessly diversified forms, the object of life. Be not regulated by the love of worldly pleasure, of worldly honour, of worldly power, of worldly wealth. In one word, see that you " love not the world, neither the things that are in the world."* See that you do not make present, sensible, apparent good, the great subject of your thoughts, the great object of your affections.
1 'Tcra/iof;). — Luke viii. 15; Rom. ii. 7, viii. 25; Heb. xii. I. "Per- severance " is the ordinary meaning of this word in the New Testament. 2 Heb. X. 36-39. 3 (Jal, v, 24. * I John ii. 15.
PART II.] OBJECT TO BE SOUGHT. 21
On the other hand, see that you Hve to the will of Him whom ye have called Master and Lord ; and that you may do so, " be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." ^ Grow in the knowledge of his will ; and that you may do so, do his will so far as you know it. " If any man will do," that is, is disposed to do, " his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God."^ " The meek," the docile, the obedient, " he will lead in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way." Seek, then, to stand " perfect and complete in all the will of God." Seek to be like Him whose name you bear ; who said, " I delight to do thy will ; thy law is in my heart." " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish his work." Rest not in profession. Remember the words of our Lord Jesus : " Not every one that saith. Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of God, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven."^
Guard against the soul-destroying delusion, that it is possible to live both to the lusts of men and to the will of God at the same time. The attempt has often been made ; but the thing is impossible. Before it succeed, truth and falsehood, light and darkness, good and evil, must become one. "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world ;" for if ye do, the love of the Father is not in you. " The friendship of the world is enmity with God."
The wisdom of taking the course recommended, is de- monstrable already to all whose senses are in any measure " exercised to discern between good and evil." Yet a little while, and it will be made palpable to all mankind. " All
1 Eph. V. 17. 2 jolm vii. 17.
3 Ps. xl. 8 ; Jolin iv. 34 ; Matt. vii. 21.
22 EXHOETATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII,
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof : but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." ^
Our prayer for you, brethren, -is, that " the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the ever- lasting covenant, may make you perfect in every good work, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight." And let this be the prayer of each of you for himself : " Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God ; thy Spirit is good, lead me to the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's sake ; for thy righteousness' sake bring me out of trouble : And of thy mercy cut off my enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul : for I am thy servant." Yes, say, " Truly, O Lord, I am thy servant, the son of thy handmaid : thou hast loosed my bonds ;" and " I will walk at liberty ; for I seek thy precepts." " Depart from me, ye evil-doers, for I ivill keep the commandments of my God." 2
§ 2. The means for obtaining the practical object; the arming themselves loith the thought, " He that suffered in the ffesh hath ceased from sinP
Having thus shown at once the course which Christians ought to avoid and the course which they ought to follow, I now proceed to consider the second part of the second great division of the text — the view which the apostle gives us of the means which Christians must employ to enable
1 Matt. V. 24; 1 John ii. 15-17. " Perdit quod vivit, qui .te Deum non diligit ; qui curat vivere, non propter te, Domine, niMl est et pro nihilo est ; qui tibi vivere recusat mortuus est ; qui tibi non sapit, desipit. " —
AUGUSTINUS.
2 Heb. xiii. 20, 21 ; Ps. cxliii. 10-12, cxvi. 16, cxix. 45, 115.
PART II ] MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 23
them to avoid the first of tliese courses, which is natural to all men, and to which the Christian is strongly solicited and urged both from within and without ; and to follow the second, which nothing but the new mind, rising out of the belief of Christian truth under divine influence, will induce any man to follow, and to depart from which the Christian is exposed to many and powerful temptations, both internal and external. " Arm yourselves with this thought, that he who has suffered in the flesh has been made to i*est from sin." Arm yourselves with this thought, " in order to your no longer living the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."
The language here is figurative, but by no means obscure. It very clearly and impressively indicates that the course recommended is a course full of difficulty and obstructions. It is a struggle, a conflict. There are powerful influences, both from within and from without, constantly put forth to induce the Christian to " live his time in the flesh to the lusts of men," and to prevent him from living his time in the flesh to the will of God. This is the great object which his spiritual enemies are constantly endeavouring to gain. " The flesh lusteth against the spirit ;" the world, by its allurements and terrors, endeavours to make the Christian " walk according to its course," to " be conformed to it" by living to its " deceitful lusts," and to prevent him from being " transformed by the renewing of his mind, so as to prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God ;" and this, too, is the great end of all the machinations and assaults, " the wiles" and " the fiery darts" of that power- ful and crafty and malignant adversary, the Devil, who is ever seeking to bring back the rescued captives to his debasing slavery, or to retard them in, disable them for, the service of their new Master — the object equally of his terror and his hatred. The Christian must fight his way, and has
24 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
need of " the armour of righteousness" before and behind, " on the right hand and the left." ^
The combat is a spiritual one, and the armour must correspond with it. Truth lodged in the mind, by being understood and believed, and meditated on, is the grand means of warfare, both defensive and offensive, with error and sin, and with those malignant spiritual agencies which are constantly endeavouring to lead us into error and sin. It is by arming ourselves with true thoughts, that the Christian is prepared with determined resolution to stand and to with- stand. His "good fight" is " the fight of faith ;" his sword the word of God ; his shield the confidence, and his helmet the hope, which that word believed excites in the soul. " The word of truth " is " the armour of righteousness."
Every part of the doctrine of Christ may be turned to account in the spiritual warfare. In resisting attempts to bring him again into bondage, and in fighting his way for- ward to perfect holiness and eternal life, there are many tliouglits which the Christian will find available for armour, both for attack and defence. There is, indeed, no scriptural truth which may not be turned to account in this way; and our blessed Lord has, in his conflict with the great adver- sary, as recorded in the gospel, set us an example in this respect, that we may follow his steps. The Captain of salvation has there shown his soldiers what their weapons are, and how to use them.^
But there is ONE thought which the apostle recommends to the Christians to whom he was writing, as pre-eminently useful as armour in this spiritual conflict. "Arm yourselves with this same thought : He that hath suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin." Let this thought sink deep into your hearts by being well understood and firmly
1 Gal. V. 17 ; Rom. xii. 2 ; Eph. vi. 11, 16 ; 2 Cor. vi. 7.
2 Matt. iv. 3-10.
PART II.] MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 25
believed ; let it be habitually present to your minds by being often meditated on ; and you will find it a most powerful means of enabling you, in opposition to all temptations of whatever kind, during the rest of your time in the flesh, to live not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. This truth understood, believed, and reflected on, will be found the grand instrumental means, so far as you are concerned, of Christian sanctification.
(1.) The thought explained.
To illustrate this part of our subject, it is necessary that we should satisfactorily reply to two questions : What is this thought ? And how is it fitted to serve its purpose ?
There is the greater need for attending to the first of these questions, as the language is so general as that, taken by itself, it is somewhat equivocal, and even enigmatical. " He that has suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin."^ What is the precise meaning folded up in these words, to which so powerful an energy is ascribed ?
The words have been considered by some interpreters as a statement of the salutary influence of bodily affliction, or external calamity generally, in promoting moral improve- ment. In their most general sense, that he who sustains bodily or external calamities is made to cease or rest from sin, it is plainly not true without very great limitations. In many cases, affliction, instead of producing cessation from sin, exasperates the depraved principles. The case of Ahaz is no singular one, who " in the time of his distress trespassed yet more against the Lord." When the wrath of God came upon the Israelites, " for all this they sinned still the more."
^ Bengel explains ^ri'7rauTa^ as equivalent to " immunitatem nactiis est ;" and Winer says, that though usually translated "peccare desiit," it may also be taken passively, "he has rest from sin." — Gram. P. iii. sec. 40, p. 207.
26 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
The cessation from sin produced merely by affliction, is but partial and temporary. On another occasion besides that just referred to, " when God slew the Israelites," it is said, " Then they sought him, and they returned and inquired early after God;" but it is added, "yet their heart was not right with him." And it is of these very persons that it is said, " How often did they provoke him in the wilderness, and tempt him in the desert!" Unaccompanied by divine teaching, both by the word and the Spirit, mere affliction will make no man cease from sin. " Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, and teachest him out of thy law : " this is the afflicted man, the only afflicted man, to whom God gives " rest from the days of adversity."^ Even limited to the sufferings of the regenerate, the statement is at once exaggerated and inapposite. Afflictions are indeed most useful to true Christians. They "try and purify" them, and " make them white." Their design is, and to a certain extent it is gained, to " make them partakers of the divine holiness ; " ^ but surely it cannot be said of every, it cannot be said of any, afflicted Christian in the present state, that he has "ceased from sin:" and though the thought that affliction is designed, and under divine in- fluence is calculated, to mortify sin, is well fitted to reconcile a Christian to suffering, it is difflcult to see how it is pre- eminently fitted to enable him to " live the rest of his time not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."
The suffering here referred to is not suffering in the flesh generally ; it is the kind of suffering that the apostle is speaking of in the text and context : " suffering in the flesh for sin," even unto death. It was thus that Christ suffered in the flesh : he " suffered for sins," and he so suffered as to be put to death, or " become dead in the flesh." I have no doubt the expression, " He that hath suffered in the flesh,"
1 Ps. Ixxviii. 32, 34, 37, 40, xciv. 12, 13. ^ ggb. xii. 10.
PART II.] MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE OBJECT, 27
refers to our Lord ; but I have as little, that it does not refer to our Lord alone. It is said that Pie suffered in the flesh "for us," that is, for believers, not only for our benefit, but in our room. He suffered the just in the room of the unjust. When he suffered " for sin," we suffered in him : his flesh was as it were our flesh ; and his sufferings in that flesh were as it were our sufferings. If he died in our room, then, according to the apostle's reasoning, we died too, we died in him.-^ " Pie that has suffered in the flesh," is descriptive of every man who by the faith of the gospel is united to Christ as having died — every man who is "in him."
I apprehend that the apostle intentionally used a con- siderably indefinite expression, for the purpose of including both Christ and those who are Christ's, very much in the same way as his beloved brother Paul, when — in the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, verse seventh, illus- trating the same subject, the necessary connection between the atonement and the sanctification of those who are personally interested in the atonement — he says, " He that is dead," that is, has died, died for sin, " is free from sin." " This thing," to employ the words of the Apostle John, "is true, in Him and in us." The declaration, He that has suffered in the flesh has, in consequence of his sufferings, been made to rest from sin, is one applicable, and, if we do not much mistake, intended to be applied by the apostle, both to Christ and to Christians. It is true of them both, though with some points of diversity of meaning ; and the thought, whether in reference to him or to themselves, is one which is well fitted to promote personal holiness, in lead- ing Christians to avoid all sins, and attend to all duties — not living to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
This is " the same thought" which the apostle had un- 1 2 Cor. V. 14.
28 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
folded largely in the close of the third chapter, and briefly referred to in the first verse of this chapter. Christ suffered to death in human nature, as the expiatory victim of our sins, in our room, and we suffered and died in him : we Christians, we believers, being, in consequence of our faith, viewed as identified with him ; as having done what he did, as having suffered what he suffered.
Now let us look at the thought, first in reference to Christ, and then in reference to Christians ; and let us see how, in both views of it, it is well fitted to "arm" the Christian so that he may no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
(2.) The tJiought viewed as referring to Christ.
Let us look at the thought in reference to Christ. " He that hath suffered in the flesh," that is, for sins, " has been made to rest from sin." Christ suffered in the flesh for sin ; he has been made to rest from sin ; and his being made to rest from sin is the consequence of his having suffered in the flesh for sin.
We have had an opportunity, in a foregoing discourse, of directing your attention to our Lord's sufferings in human nature. They began with his birth, and ended only at his death. All these sufferings were sufferings for sin. " God made to meet on him the iniquities of us all ;" exaction was made for these iniquities, and He, the appointed victim, answered the exaction. He had no rest after being " made of a woman, made under the law," till in his obediential sufferings to the death he had made full expiation of the sins laid on him.^
But having done so, he has obtained rest from sin. On the cross he exclaimed, "It is finished;" and so it was. Sin, armed by the sanction of the law, gave him no rest till 1 Isa. liii. 6, 7 ; Gral. iii. 4.
PART II.] MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 29
it laid him in a bloody, dishonoured grave ; but in doing this, it utterly and for ever lost all power to disquiet him. It could not even retain him in the grave where it had laid him. The debt being fully paid, the surety was set at liberty. He is henceforward a stranger to suffering in all its forms. He can no longer suffer, he can no longer die. He has entered into his rest; and that "rest is glorious." He is " sitting," the posture of repose, " at the right hand of the Majesty on high ; angels and princi^^alities and powers being subject to him." Instead of the incessant toils of his humbled life on earth as the victim of sin, there is the uninterrupted repose of eternity ; to the powerlessness^ of death to which sin reduced him, has succeeded " all power over all flesh, all power in heaven and earth ;" in the room of the days of a mortal man, few and full of trouble, has come " length of days for ever and ever ; " he who was the ] man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs, has become " most blessed for ever ;" and the soul which was exceeding / sorrowful even to death, is "made exceeding glad with Jehovah's countenance." ^
This rest from sin not only followed the sufferings for sin, but was, properly speaking, their effect. It Avas by his sufferina; for sin that he obtained rest from sin. " Havintj died for sin, he was freed from sin." The reason why death can have no more dominion over him is, that he died for sin once, and by that one death completely answered all the demands of law and justice on him as the surety of sinners. The law has nothing further to exact from him ; and the immortal state of life, and rest, and power, and dominion, and glory, and blessedness, is to be considered not only as the natural expression of the infinite complacency of Jehovah, "well pleased for his righteousness' sake," delighted with that love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity mani-
1 1 Pet. iii. 2 ; John xvii. 2 ; Matt, xxviii. 18.
30 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
fested in the voluntary, vicarious, penal sufferings of his incarnate Son, for the vindication of his holy, just, and good law, and the restoration to immortal holy happiness of an innumerable multitude of otherwise hopelessly depraved and miserable human beings : it is to be viewed also as the execution of the stipulations of the eternal covenant, that when he had made his soul an offering for sin, he should see his seed, prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand ; he should see of the travail of his soul, so as to be satisfied ; he should, through the know- ledge of himself, justify many ; he should have the great as his portion, the strong for his spoil; because he had poured out his soul unto death, having been numbered with the transgressors, and having borne the sin of many.^ He who suffered to death in the ilesh for sin has been raised from the dead, and exalted to an immortal state of absolute security from suffering, and of the highest enjoyment, and a station of the highest honour and authority ; and this resurrection and this exaltation are the results, the effects, of his penal, expiatory sufferings. Such seems to me the import of the thought, " He that hath suffered hath been made to rest from sin," viewed in reference to our Lord.^
(3.) The thought vieived as referring to Christians.
Let us now look at the thought in reference to Christians. When Christ suffered in the flesh for sins, it was for them, in their room. They of course suffered in him ; and it is true in a very important sense, that they, having thus suf- fered for sin in him, are made to rest from sin.
Christians are very frequently, especially by the Apostle
Paul, represented as identified with Christ. In consequence
of the faith of the truth respecting his person and work,
they are brought into so intimate a relation to him, that they
1 Isa. liii. 10-12. 2 gee note B.
PART II.] MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 31
are said to be " in him," one with him. This does not refer to that union of mind and heart, of sentiment, affection, will, and operation, which subsists between Christians and Christ, and which is produced by the Spirit through the instrumentality of the word ; that is rather Christ's being in them, than their being in Christ : it is the being so con- nected with Christ, as that they are treated by God as if what he did and suffered had been done and suffered by them personally. All who are united to Christ by that faith of which profession is made in baptism, are by the apostle represented as united to him in his death, that is, as having died in him ; in his burial, that is, as having been buried in him ; in his resurrection, that is, as having risen again in him ; in his life and glory, that is, as living and reigning in him with God in heaven. " Ye are," says he to the Colossians, " dead," or have died, that is, in Christ ; and so, if you live, though you have died, " your life is hid with Christ in God." And of himself he says, what is not peculiar to him as an apostle, but common to him with all Christians, " I am crucified with Christ." When he died, he died for them. It was their sins, not his own, that he bore to the tree.^
When we say then of Christians, that they have suffered in the flesh for sin, we mean that by a divine constitution they have as deep an interest in Christ's sufferings in the flesh for sin, as if they themselves had undergone them. They are so interested in them as to be made to rest from sin in consequence of them. They are delivered from the condemning power of sin, and they are delivered from the reigning power of sin ; and they are delivered from both, not in consequence of their having suffered for sin in the flesh, in their own persons, but in consequence of their having become by faith individually interested in those 1 Rom. vi. 3-5 ; Col. iii. 3 ; Gal. ii. 20.
32 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
sufferings for sin in the flesh which were inflicted on the person of their divinely appointed substitute.
Every human being is a sinner, and every sinner is con- denaned on account of his sin. The curse of God lies on him, and must for ever rest on him, till he become personally connected witli him who suffered the just in the room of the unjust. Till then, the sinner can obtain no rest, no security from sin and its penal consequences. Armed with the power of the law, sin keeps fast hold of him, ready at any moment to produce death, casting the body into the grave, plunging the soul into the abyss of perdition.
From this tremendous state all who are in Christ have obtained deliverance. " There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus ;" and the reason is very obvious. They are in him who was condemned in their stead, and suffered that to which they were condemned. They are redeemed from the curse ; for the righteous One, their divinely appointed substitute, has become a curse for them. Who can lay anything to their charge ? Christ died, died for them. " In him they have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's grace." " In him," the beloved One, they are " accepted, being reconciled in the body of his flesh by death." " His blood cleanseth them from all sin." So that they are " dead to the law," to its condemning sentence, " through the body of Christ;" they are "in him made the righteousness of God," in consequence of "Him who knew no sin being by God made sin in tlieir room;" "sinners, ungodly" in themselves, they are " justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," who is " set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood," — having been " delivered for their offences, and raised again for their justification."^ The unbeliever, unconnected with Christ, 1 Rom. viii. 1-34 ; 1 John i. 7 ; 2 Cor. v. 21 ; Rom. iii. 24, iv. 25.
PART II.] MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 33
and therefore unpardoned, is never safe. Guilt, like the avenrrer of blood, is constantly pursuing him, and at any moment may overtake him and take his life. There is no rest, no peace, no security to the sinner who is not "in him" who has suffered and been made to rest. But he who by faith is '" in Christ," has entered the city of refuge and is safe within its walls ; and, as our High Priest never dies, to secure his safety he must remain within its walls for ever.
But he who by faith is interested in Christ's suffering in the flesh for sin, as if it had been his own suffering, being indeed suffering in his room, is made to rest from sin, not only in its condemning, but in its reigning power. " Sin shall not have dominion over him " who is in Christ Jesus ; for, in consequence of Christ's suffering in the flesh for sin, and his personal interest in his suffering, he is " not under the law, Ibut under grace." He is united to Christ not only as one who was the victim of sin, as one who bore his sins, but to him as one who has borne away his sins ; to Christ not only as one who was under the curse, but to Christ as now, for the manner in which he sustained that load, the object of the highest complacency of his Father. He is regarded by God with a complacency like that with which the Saviour is regarded ; and that is manifested in the com- munication of " the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus," and " delivers him from the law of sin and of death." And this spirit comes not, as " a wayfaring man, to tarry for a night," but to take up his permanent residence in a temple appropriated to him, and which he will in due time make every way suitable for his everlasting dwelling-place.-^
There is thus absolute security obtained by every person who is by faith united to Christ, and thus personally inte- rested in his suffering in the flesh, of being made completely ^ Rom. vi. 14, viii. 2.
VOL. IIT. C
34 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
to rest from sin, of being brought into a state where there shall be no law in the members to war against the law of the mind, — where tliere shall be no striving of the flesh against the Spirit, — where the Spirit shall rule unopposed, and the law of the mind shall have free course, and be glorified, — where the Christian will no more sigh out, "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?" but shall for ever sing, "I thank God," wdio hath delivered me, completely delivered me, " through Christ Jesus."' "Thanks be to God who giveth me the victory."^ Then will the Christian be made completely to "rest from sin."
That this second kind of rest from sin is as really as the first the fruit of the atonement, the consequence of Christ suffering for sin in the flesh, and our being united to him as our surety and representative, is very clearly stated by the Apostle Paul in these important, but we are afraid very generally misapprehended, or at any rate very imperfectly understood, words : " Our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin ; " ^ that is, ' In the atoning death of the Son of God, is laid a foundation of absolute security for the complete sanctification of all who are interested in its saving power, by the faith of the gospel.'
(4.) The thought vieiced as a piece of Christian armour — the instrumental means of sanctification.
Having thus attempted to explain, both in reference to Christ and to Christians, the thought, " He that hath suf- fered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin," it only remains that we endeavour to show how this thought is fitted to serve the purpose of spiritual armour ; or, in other words, how the truth as to the Saviour's accepted atonement, and the interest which believers have in it, is fitted, in opposition 1 Rom. \\i. 24, 25. 2 Rom. vi. 6.
PART II.] MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 35
to all opposing influences, to be a prevailing motive to the cultivation of practical holiness, to the " not living the rest of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." The subject is a wide and important one. It is not a particularly difficult one ; but from its very nature, it requires close attention of mind in order to be distinctly understood.
The thought with which the apostle calls Christians to arm themselves, shows that that holiness in all conversation, that living not according to the lusts of men, but to the will of God, to which he exhorts them, is not an impossible thing. Man is a depraved being ; viewed in his relations to God, an entirely depraved being. " In him, that is, in his flesh," in him as he is by nature, " there dwells no good thing." ^ What God requires of him is in the highest degree reasonable, and needs no physical faculty, either intellectual or active, to its performance, which man does not possess. But he labours under a spiritual disinclination to yield that kind and measure of obedience which God requires, most criminal indeed, but still by all but divine influence invincible. And as man is already criminal, has already incurred the divine displeasure, it obviously seems impossible, if some means are not employed to alter man's relations to the divine government, that God, in consistency either with his wisdom, his holiness, his justice, his faithful- ness, ay, or his goodness, taking a wide view of the subject, can put forth that influence on the sinner s mind that is necessary to incline him to true holiness ; that is, in other words, can confer on the proper object of his judicial dis- pleasure what is the most decided manifestation that a person is an object of his peculiar favour.
The united wisdom and power of men and angels could never have devised and executed a plan for removing this 1 Rom. vii. 18.
36 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC XVII.
difficulty. But the thought, ' Christ has suffered In the flesh for sins, in the room of sinners, and has been made to rest from sin,' — that thought, if understood, will be found to contain in it distinct intimation, that the apparently insur- mountable obstacles in the way of man's compliance with the will of God have been removed. Christ, the only-be- gotten of God, standing in the room of men, has done what they were bound to do, suffered what they deserved to suffer, — has done more to magnify and make honourable the divine law, than either their unsinning obedience, or their everlasting destruction in consequence of their having sinned, could have done. It thus becomes a just thing in God to justify the ungodly, to pardon sinners, to accept them and treat them as righteous, and to give them his H0I3' Spirit to quicken their dead, to sanctify their unholy, hearts. Christ's becoming a curse in the room of men thus lays a foundation equally for " the blessing of Abraham," a fi'ee and full justification being conferred on men ; and their receiving " the promise of the Spirit through faith," that is, the promised Spirit through believing. An infinite atonement having been offered and accepted, God can, in consistency with the perfections of his character and the principles of his government, pardon the guilty, justify the unrighteous, sanctify the unholy. The divinely appointed Saviour has merit enough to obtain pardon for the guiltiest ; and on the ground of this merit, he is in possession of power and authority enough to send that into the heart of the sinner which will overpower all his natural indisposition to the will of God, and lead him, in opposition to all counter- acting influences, to " prove that good, and acceptable, and perfect will."
But this is not all. The thought with which the apostle exhorts Christians to arm themselves, conveys to the mind that understands it the assurance not only that the con-
PART II.] MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 37
formity to the divine will enjoined is something that may be attained, but that it is something that shall most certainly be attained by all believers. It intimates that every believer is actually so interested in the atonement that has been made in his room, by Christ suffering in the flesh for sin, as to have been made to rest from sin. Having suffered in Christ, he has entered with him into his rest. His sins are forgiven. He has received the Holy Spirit, the author of true holiness ; and though the powers of evil with which he has to struggle, both within and without, are strong as well as numerous, yet '^ greater is He" in whom he is, and He " who is in him, than he who is in the world." He is " washed, he is sanctified, he is justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." The con- demning power of sin, the want of quickening, sanctifying influences in the heart, keep unbelieving sinners as it were hopelessly bound in the fetters of depravity ; but to the believer in Christ " there is no condemnation," and he also has "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus;" so that in him, " God, by sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin," that is, as a sin-offering, has " condemned sin in the flesh," has deprived sin of its reigning power over his nature ; and thus " the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in him, not walking after the flesh, but after the Spirit," ^ that is, " not living to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."
From the nature of the case, the security referred to is not a security without reference to the believer's own exer- tions as an intelligent and moral agent ; it is a security that he shall by divine influence be led to use the appropriate means of sanctification, and a security that these means shall not be used by him in vain.
I have only further to remark here, that the thought with 1 Rom. viii. 3, 4.
38 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
which the apostle calls Christians to arm themselves, if understood, brings before the mind the most powerful motives to that disconformity to the lusts of men, and con- formity to the will of God, to which he exhorts ; motives appealing to all our strongest active principles, to gratitude and love, to hope and fear. This remark admits of very extended illustration. I must confine myself to one or two examples.
How powerfully does " this thought" dissuade from sin in all its forms ! In" how clear a light does it place the excellence and obligation of the divine law ; and the ma- lignant nature, the destructive tendency, and the dreadful effects of moral evil ! " The believer," as Archbishop Leighton says, " looking on his Jesus crucified for him, and wounded for his transgressions, and taking in deep thoughts of his spotless innocency that deserved no such thing, and of his matchless love that yet endured it all for him, then will he think, Shall I be a friend to that which was his deadly enemy ? shall sin be sweet to me that was so bitter to him, and that for my sake? Shall I ever have a favour- able thought of, or lend a good look to, them which shed my Lord's blood? Shall I live in that for which he died, and died to kill it in me ?"
How obviously and powerfully is " this thought " calcu- lated to excite and strengthen the love of God, which is the source of all true living to his will ! How strikingly are the venerable and amiable excellences of the divine character exhibited in the atonement of Christ, and its blessed effects both to Him and to those who are united to Him ! How great the display of divine love in Christ's suffering for sins in our room, and in the rest from sin that is thus secured for us !
How great is the encouragement " this thought" gives to the performance of duty ! To borrow again the words
PART II.] MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 39
of the good Arclibisliop : " Our burden that pressed us to hell is taken off ; our chains that bound us over to eternal death are knocked off. Shall we not walk, shall we not run, in his ways ? How heavy, how unsufferable, the burden and yoke of which he has eased us I His yoke is easy, his burden is light ! O the happy change ! rescued from the vilest slavery, and called to conformity and fellow- ship with the Son of God."
The thought that brings all this before the mind must be well fitted to arm it against temptation ; and powerful in constraining us to live not to ourselves, not to other men, but to God, who hath bought us at so dear a price, that we may glorify him in our souls and in our bodies, which are his.
" This thought" being in our mind, habitually in our mind, is essential to our sanctification. We cannot be sanctified if it be not in our mind ; and if it really be habi- tually in our mind, sanctification is a matter of course.
The Apostle Paul, in the first part of the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans,^ has cast a flood of light on the subject which we have been considering. I shall give you a summary of his illustration. ' All true Christians are united to Christ, identified as it were with him ; united to him both in his death and his resurrection ; united to him as having died, and as having risen again to an unending life. His death was a death by sin, for sin — a death penal, vicarious, expiatory. We are united to him in that death. It is as if we ourselves had by death made expiation for our sins. His life is a life conferred on him by God, as a token that he is fully satisfied with the expiation of sin made by his death. We are united to him in that life ; God regards us as he regards him. He who is dead, or who has died, that is, by sin, — he who in death has expiated sin, — is free 1 Rom. vi. 1-14.
40 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
from, is justified from, sin. Sin can no longer condemn him. Death, the penalty of sin, can no longer reign over him. It cannot be exacted, for it has been already paid. This is the case with Christ ; this is the case with us in Christ.
' Let this thought, then, dwell in your minds. He died once by sin, as the victim of sin. lie lives for ever, raised by God as the token of his satisfaction with the sacrifice ; and we are united to him both in this death and in tliis life. We have in him died, been put to death' by sin ; and we in him have been quickened, and made to sit with him in the heavenly places, made partakers of the favour with which God regards him, And taking these views of your state and relation to God, in consequence of your being by faith united to him as your representative, both in dying and in rising again, " let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin ; but yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God; for sin shall not have dominion over you." It reigned unto death over you in the person of your Surety ; but it has done its worst to him and to you. He lives, and so do you, with a life of which you can never be deprived, — a holy, happy life, never to be debased by the slavery of sin, but entirely devoted to the service of God.'
Such, if we mistake not, is the substance of the Apostle Paul's statement ; and what is it but a somewhat more expanded expression of the sentiment in the passage before us 1 " Forasmuch as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with this same thought, that he wlio has suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin, that ye may no longer live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."
PART II.] MEANS FOE OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 41
These illustrations have failed of their object, if they have not led us into a just appreciation of Christianity as the most effectual means of morally improving, the only means of spiritually transforming, depraved man, and disclosed to us the secret in which its great strength lies to make men truly holy. The superior efficacy of Christianity, as an instrument of ameliorating the moral condition of man- kind, to every other means employed for this purpose, vv^ill not be questioned by any enlightened and unprejudiced thinker ; but the true cause of this efficacy, and the manner in which it is put forth, are overlooked by most, misap- prehended by many, and rightly understood by compara- tively few.
The efficacy of Christianity, as a transformer of human character, is attributed by many even of its teachers to the purity, extent, and spirituality of its moral requisitions, and to the plainness with which these are stated, and the energy with which they are enforced in the law, and by the ex- ample of Christ. It is impossible to speak too highly of the Christian morality, unless you exalt it, as has often been done, to the disparagement of the atoning sacrifice and quickening spirit of its author ; and we willingly admit, that in the formation of a christianly good character, the law of Christ occupies an important though still a subordi- nate place.
But he ill understands the principles of human nature, who expects that a being such as both revelation and experience tell us that man is, wholly depraved, alienated from the life of God, strongly inclined to forbidden indul- gence, alike strongly disinclined to the restraints of religious and moral obligation, should merely by a statement and enforcement of duty, however clear and cogent, be made to undergo a radical change in his principles and habits. Who indeed does not know, that the attempt to urge on a person
42 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
a mode of conduct to which he is strongly disinclined, if you do not at the same time employ appropriate and adequate means for altering the inclination, usually ends in increasing the indisposition it was intended to remove, aggravating the disease it was meant to cure I The morality of Christianity far exceeds any other morality which the world has ever seen. Where is to be found anything to be compared with the Sermon on the Mount, or the moral part of the apos- tolical epistles ? Yet the transforming power of the system does not lie here. The morality of Christianity may be useful in convincing a bad man that he is bad, and in helping a good man to become better ; but, constituted as human nature is, it cannot convert a bad man into a good man.
Another class of Christian teachers, in much greater harmony with the principles both of the scriptural revelation and a sound mental philosophy, have held that the power of Christianity to make men new creatures resides in its peculiarities as a doctrinal system : that the clear, well- established disclosures it makes of the grandeur and the grace of the divine character, of the infinite venerableness, and estimableness, and loveliness, and kindness of the Supreme Being, — in the accounts it gives us of the incar- nation and sacrifice of his only-begotten Son, and of the inestimably valuable blessings which through his media- tion are bestowed on mankind, — when apprehended in their meaning and evidence, that is, when understood and be- lieved, naturally and necessarily produce such a revolution in man's mode of thinking and feeling in reference to God, as naturally and necessarily lead to a revolution in his mode of conduct ; and that then, and not till then, the moral or preceptive part of Christianity begins to tell on the amelio- ration of the character.
These sentiments, especially when connected, as they
PART II.] MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 43
usually are, with a persuasion of the necessity of super- natural influence, the influence of the Holy Spirit, to bring the mind and to keep the mind under the moral influence of evangelical truth, appear to us just, so far as they go ; but still they exhibit but an imperfect view of the manner in which Christianity produces — what nothing else can — a radical, permanent, ever progressive improvement of the human character, leading a man to " live the rest of his time in the flesh not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."
Fully to understand this most important subject, it is > necessary to recollect that Christianity, in the most exten- sive sense of the word, is something more than a revelation either of moral or religious truth. It is the development of a divine economy, a system of divine dispensations in reference to a lost world ; and it is in these dispensations, the incarnation and sacrifice of the Only-Begotten of God, — dispensations having for their direct object the change of ; man, the sinner's relation to the Supreme Being as the moral governor of the world, — that the true origin of man's moral \ transformation is to be found; and it is as a development^ of these dispensations that the Christian revelation princi- pally conduces to the sanctification of man.
Nothing is more obvious than that a man's state, rela- tions, and circumstances have a powerful influence on the formation of his character. The same individual, if placed in infancy in the state of slavery, or in the state of royalty, would in mature life be distinguished by very different, and in many points directly opposite, dispositions and habits. A certain set of relations and circumstances may be quite incongruous with a certain character ; and every species of moral means may be employed in vain to produce that character, till these relations and circumstances are changed. Let a slave receive every advantage of the most accom-
44 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
plished education, if he is not enfranchised there is httle probabiHty of his being formed to the generous character of a freeman. Let me know a man to be my enemy, or even suspect him to be so; and no exhibition of his good quahties, though I shoukl be brought to credit them, which I will be very slow to do, can induce me to put confidence in him. Let the relation of hostility be changed into one of friend- ship, and let me be persuaded of this ; and the same moral means which were formerly utterly inefficacious, will pro- duce a powerful effect. These plain, common-sense prin- ciples, transferred to the subject before us, lead us into the truth respecting the origin of the transforming, sanctifying influence of Christianity.
The relations of man, as a righteously condemned sinner, are incompatible with a holy character. While man is con- demned, and knows that he is condemned, how can he be holy, how can he become holy? How can God consistently bestow the highest token of his complacent regard, the Sanctifying Spirit, on one who is the proper object of his moral disapprobation and judicial displeasure ; and how can man love or trust or affectionately obey him whom he knows that he has offended, whom he has reason to consider as his omnipotent enemy? It is by meeting and removing these difficulties that Christianity secures the holiness of man. It is in securing, by a set of divine arrangements, the change of a state of hostility into a state of friendship, — in rendering the pardon and salvation of the guilty con- sistent with, ay, illustrative of, the perfections of the divine character and the principles of the divine government, — that Christianity lays deep, and broad, and sure, the foundation of man's deliverance not only from misery, but from sin ; not only of his endless happiness, but of his moral perfec- tion. In the vicarious sacrifice of the incarnate Son, in his suffering for us in the flesh for sin, the just in the room of
FART II.] MEANS FOK OBTAINING THE OBJECT. 45
the unjust, — so suffering as that he found rest from sin, provision is made for a most happy change in our relations. We united to him, suffering for sin in our room, are made to rest from sin. And in this change of relations is neces- sarily implied, and indubitably secured, a complete change of moral disposition and habits. It is this which leads to no lono-er livins; to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. It is this chief of the works of God, that, like the main- spring or moving power of a complicated piece of machi- nery, gives resistless energy and unfailing efficacy, in the case of the saved, to the moral influence of the doctrines and precepts of the gospel. The better the connection between the atonement and sanctification is understood, the more firmly it is believed, the more habitually it is medi- tated on, the greater progress will the individual Christian make in practical godliness; and he who would comply with the apostle's exhortation, to " live no longer the rest of his time to the lusts of men, but to the will of God," must arm himself with this thought, " He that hath suffered in the flesh is made to rest from sin."^
The sanctifying efficacy of the atonement is exerted through the faith of the atonement. It is only as known and believed that it can either pacify the conscience or purify the heart. Let all, then, who would make progress in holiness, firmly believe, frequently meditate on, habitu- ally keep in memory, the great topic which we have been attempting to illustrate : the grace of God, manifested in his Son suffering in the flesh for sin in our room. That grace revealed in the gospel, if understood and believed, and meditated on, will do what nothing else can : it will effectually " teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts,
1 These thoughts on the nature of the sanctifying power of Christianity, are more fully ilhistrated in the Preliminary Essay to Collins' edition of Maclaiirin's Works.
46 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world ; looking for the blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from, all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works," If ministers wish to make men holy, let them preach the cross ; if Christians wish to grow in holiness, let them look to the cross, and to him who hung on it. It is ours to present to you " this armour;" it is yours, as good soldiers of Christ Jesus, to put it on and prove it. Arm yourselves with this thought, and you shall assuredly put to flight all the armies of the aliens, and be in due time made " more than conquerors through him who loved you." ^
III. MOTIVES ENFORCING THE EXHORTATION.
The motives to comply with the apostle's exhortation come now to be considered. The duty to which the apostle exhorts Christians is twofold : the no longer living the rest of the time in the flesh to the lusts of men ; the living the rest of the time in the flesh to the will of God. And he enforces tliis twofold duty by two motives : the first bearing chiefly on the negative part of the injunction, drawn from a consideration of the nature of that course which, under the influence of the faith of the gospel, they had abandoned, and which he calls on them henceforward carefully to avoid ; the second bearing equally on the negative and the positive part of the injunction, deduced
1 It is most justly remarked by Dr Henry More, ttiat they who do not acknowledge Christ's death as a sacrifice for sin, "by their dry, harsh, and rash reasonings, expunge one of the chiefest powers and choicest artifices of the gospel for the making men good." — Alyst. of Godliness, Book x. ch. 6.
PART III.] MOTIVES. 47
from a consideration of the great design of the gospel reve- lation. The first of these motives is stated in the third, fourth, and fifth verses ; the second in the sixth. Let us attend to them in their order.
§ 1. Motive drawn from the character of the course against wliich the exhortation is directed.
This, then, is the first motive which the a^oostle uses to urce Christians not to live the rest of the time to the lusts of men, but to the will of God : " The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries : wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you ; who shall give account to him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead." The whole of this statement bears on one point — the criminal, disgraceful, dangerous character of that course which the apostle calls on Christians studiously to avoid. The leading ideas are these : To follow that coui'se is to work the will of the Gentiles, the unenlightened heathen, the nations that knew not God. The importance of avoid- ing that course is manifest from the practices in which those who walk in it indulge, the infatuation under which they labour, and the responsibility under which they lie ; and additional force is given to these considerations from the circumstance, that this is a course which Christians themselves once pursued, but which they have through the faith of the truth been led to abandon. Let us endeavour a little more fully to bring out these thoughts, and show how well fitted they are to serve the apostle's purpose, of impressing on the minds of those to whom he wrote a sense of the importance of their not living the rest of the time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
48 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
(1.) The course whicli lie guards them against is that which is characteristic of the Gentiles. It is " the will of the Gentiles." To make " the lusts of men," that is, natural inclination, the rule and reason of conduct, in forgetfulness of, in opposition to, " the will of God," is that which formed the character of the Gentile nations, and made them in a religious and moral point of view the very reverse of what every Christian man must desire to be. The Gentiles are represented in the New Testament as by way of eminence " sinners," as " not knowing God," as " not following after righteousness." The strongest expression for an enormous and uncommon crime is, that it was " not so much as named among the Gentiles ;"^ phraseology intimating that they were familiar with crime in almost every conceivable form. It must be a very strange crime they are unacquainted with, a very shocking one which their moral feelings are revolted by.
We have a few specimens given us here of the kind of conduct by which the Gentiles were generally characterized. They " walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, re- vellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries;" and we have a complete portrait of Gentile chai'acter and manners given us in the close of the first chapter of the Epistle to the llomans, where they are represented as guilty of the most shocking and unnatural crimes, — " filled with all unright- eousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, malicious- ness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful : knowing the judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death, yet not only doing the same, but taking pleasure in 1 Gal. ii. 20 ; 1 Thess. iv. 5 ; Eom. ix. 30 ; 1 Cor. v. 1.
PART III] MOTIVES. 49
those who do them."^ And in what did this fearful de- pravity of character and conduct originate ? Just in hving to the lusts of men, and not to the will of God ; allowing natural inclination, unchecked by a regard to the will of God, to be the rule and the reason of action.
In the very fact that the course of conduct forbidden is that by which the Gentiles were characterized, there is couched a strong dissuasive from it. What characterized Gentiles, could not be becoming saints. In the simple phrase " working the will of the Gentiles," you have folded up the principal motive which the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, so finely amplifies : " I say there- fore, and testify in the Lord, that ye walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their m.ind ; having the imderstanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart : who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work wickedness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ ; if so be ye have heard him, and been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus : that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your minds; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." ^
(2.) The motive suggested by these enormities themselves, to guard against the depraved principle of which all these enormities of the Gentiles were merely the development — the making natural inclination, not the will of God, the rule and reason of conduct, — is greatly strengthened by the view which the apostle takes, in the 4th verse, of the infatua- tion which characterized those who had given themselves up to its guidance. They were " given up to a reprobate," a 1 Rom. i. 18-32. 2 Eph. iv. 17-24.
VOL. III. D
50 - EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
wrong-judging, "mind."^ The very faculty of discovering truth from falsehood, and right from wrong, though not destroyed so as that they ceased to be accountable beings, was weakened and perverted. They called, and to a con- siderable degree thought, in reference to religious and moral subjects, " darkness light, and light darkness ; evil good, and good evil ; bitter sweet, and sweet bitter." As an evidence of this, " they thought it strange" that they who had " escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus, did not run with them to the same excess of riot,"^ and " spoke evil of them" for those very tempers and habits which ought to have drawn forth expressions of their approbation. They ac- counted the abandonment of those courses — in which they sought, in which they confidently though vainly hoped to obtain, happiness — arrant folly ! And they ran down as irreligious, and despisers of the gods, those who had been "turned from dead idols to serve the living God." They mistook their licentious indulgence for true happiness, and their "abominable idolatries" for true religion. "Their foolish hearts were darkened." What fearful delusion was this ! How thankful should Christians be for having been awakened from such a delirious dream, and made sober- minded, sound-minded, in their judgments respecting the most important and interesting of all subjects — God's cha-
1 ' A'h'oKii/.ov votJv. Rom. i. 29.
2 2yv7-^£;^ovr/i)v tf/^uv iU '^hv otiiThv airooTioc). What a striking illustration of the peculiar appropriateness of the apostle's terras avsir^ixo^''''^^ ^'^^ aiTcoriuv do the following lines from a Roman poet, in reference to the orgies of Bacchus, afford !
Turba ruunt : mixtseque viris, matresque nurusque Vulgvisque, proceresque ignota ad sacra feruntur Quis furor —
Feminese voces, et mota insania vino Obscenique greges, et inauia tympana. —
Ovid, Met. iii. 529, etc.
PART III.] MOTIVES. 51
racter and will, and their own duty and happiness ! How carefully should they guard against being in any degree again brought under the intoxicating influence of " this present evil world," operating on unbridled natural inclina- tion,— of being in any degree " entangled or overcome" by these deceitful worldly lusts, from which, through the Spirit and word of Christ, they have almost " clean escaped !"^
(3.) Another consideration suggested by the apostle as fitted to warn Christians against " living to the lusts of men," is the awful responsibility under which they lie who follow this course. " They must give account to him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead." ISIen may act as if they were irresponsible ; but they cannot make them selves irresponsible. They cannot escape the judgment of God ; and though they may make their lusts or their will the rule by which their actions are regulated, they cannot make them the rule by which their actions shall be judged. Their attempts to break the bands that bind them to God are unavailing, except to convert what might have been a silken cord, in the hand of God, to draw them up to heaven, into an iron chain to drag them to the judgment-seat, or adamantine fetters to bind them in the prison of hell. '' For God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." '" The Lord hath prepared his throne for judgment. And He shall judge the world in righteousness ; he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness." Before that tri- bunal all must stand, and " God will render to every man according to his works :" to those " who live to the will of God," " who, in a patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality, he will render eternal life;" but to those "who live to the lusts of men, who work the will of the Gentiles," " who are contentious, and do not 1 2 Pet. ii. 19, 20.
52 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, he will render indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish." " Behold, the Lord cometli with ten thousand of his saints, to execute Judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."^ Who, with the judgment-seat before him, the account which must there be given, and the fearful results if that account is, that the time in the flesh has been spent in obedience to the lusts of men and the will of the Gentiles, instead of the will of God, would not tremble at the thought of allowing natural inclination or common custom to take the place of divine authority as the controlling and guiding power of life? Such is, I apprehend, the force of the statement contained in the 5th verse as a motive to Christians to avoid living to the lusts of men, working the will of the Gentiles ; and it is not easy to estimate the power it ought to have on every mind.
While there can be no doubt that the account here spoken of is the last account at the final judgment, it may be doubted whether that is the judgment which God is here represented as " ready," prepared, just about to execute, on the living and the dead.^ Eighteen hundred years have nearly elapsed since these words were written, and that judgment has not yet taken place. The whole human race are sometimes divided into the living and the dead, meaning by those terms all who have died, and all who are to be found alive at the coming of our Lord. Thus the apostle declares that " Jesus is ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick," that is, the living, and " the dead ;" and Paul orders Timothy to do his official duties " before God and
1 Eccles. xii. 14 ; Ps. ix. 7, 8 ; Rom. ii. 6-9 ; Jude 14, 15.
2 Tm iTOi^w; s^evri.
PART III ] MOTIVES. 53
the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at liis aj)pearance and kingdom."^
But it is difficult to perceive any reason in the passage before us for referring to this division of all mankind, as either dead or living, at the day of judgment. It seems highly probable, that the word "dead," used in the first clause of the next verse as descriptive of persons to whom the gospel is preached, preached when dead, signifies those who are spiritually dead ; as there can be no doubt that they who live, spoken of in the second clause, they who " live to God in the spirit," are those who are spiritually alive ; and there cannot be a reasonable doubt that the living and the dead spoken of in the fifth verse are the dead and living spoken of in the sixth verse. These remarks would go far to prove that, in the verse before us, the divi- sion of mankind here is not into those who shall be naturally dead and those who shall be naturally alive at the coming of our Lord, but into the spiritually dead and the spiritually alive.
On both these classes God was ready, just about, to execute judgment, in the sense of inflicting severe calamities. When we look a little forward in the chapter (ver. 12), we find that a fieiy trial was about to try those whom the apostle calls his "beloved" — that is, "the living;" but it was not to be peculiar to them to be thus tried. Suffering was about to fall with still more crushing w^eight on the " ungodly," " the dead." " The time is come," is just at hand, "when judgment must begin at the house of God" — - that is, just in other Avords, " He is ready to judge the quick," the spiritually alive : but he is ready to judge the spiritually dead too ; for the apostle goes on, " If it first begin at us, what shall tlie end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? and if the righteous, 'the living,' scarcely 1 Acts X. 42 ; 2 Tim. iv. I.
54 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
be saved," are to be all but destroyed by the awful infliction, " where shall the ungodly and the wicked," ' the dead,' "appear*?" The sense of the apostle may, we apprehend, be thus given : These ungodly men, who persist in impeni- tence, unbelief, and disobedience, must appear before the judgment-seat of a righteous God, who even here makes it evident that he is the Judge of the world, and who is about to inflict calamities which will fall heavily both on his people and his enemies, " the living and the dead."
What the judgment referred to is, it is impossible to say with certainty ; some considering it as referring to calamities connected with the overthrow of the ecclesiastical and civil polity of the Jews, which was at hand, and which was the occasion of suffering not only to the Jews of Palestine, but to the Jews of the dispersion ; and others considering it as referring to a severe famine, which in the time of the Emperor Claudius visited the region in which the Christians to whom this epistle is addressed resided. To meet such a trial, few things were better fitted to prepare Christians than habitually living to the will of God ; and nothing more calculated to make it difficult to bear, than losing the testimony of a good conscience by living to the lusts of men.
(4.) We have not yet, however, exhausted the force of the motive contained in the apostle's statement. In this evil way of living to the lusts of men, working the will of the Gentiles, they had ^^ once walked." This they had done " in the time past of their life," that is, in that part of their life which preceded their conversion. It has been a question whether in these words the apostle refers to Christian converts from among the Jews or from among the Gentiles. The churches to which the epistle was ad- dressed were composed of persons belonging to both classes; and therefore it is not wonderful that phrases should be employed, some equally applicable to both classes, some
PART III ] MOTIVES. 55
more applicable to the one than to the other. All of them had lived to the lusts of men, all of them had worked the will of the Gentiles. With all of them, natural inclination, uncontrolled by the will of God, had been the rule and reason of their conduct, the forming principle of their character ; and in some of them this had led to open and shameless violations of the divine law, which manifested the true nature and tendency of the principles by which all were animated and guided.
The passage before us is very similar to the two following, which show us how it is to be understood. After giving a cataloojue of some of the most flao-rant violators of the divine law, the apostle says to the Corinthian Christians, " Such were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." " Ye were dead,' says he to the Ephesian Gentile converts, "in trespasses and sins ; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience : among whom also we all had our conversa- tion in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind." ^
Now, says the apostle, " the time " spent under such in- fluences, in such practices, " may suflfice." We surely have had enough, more than enough, of this. The phraseology is peculiar and very expressive ; probably borrowed from the prophet Ezekiel, when he says, in reference to the enormities of the people of Israel, " Let it suffice you of all your abominations."^ It is a way, with the guilt and disgrace and misery of which we are but too well acquainted. We should never have walked in that way ; we have walked too long in it ; we have been led to abandon it. Surely we 1 I Cor. vi. II ; Eph. ii. 1-3. 2 Ezek. xliv. 6, xlv. 9.
56 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
will not return to it ! Awakened from our dream of de- lirium, surely we will not again put to our lips the narcotic cup which occasioned it ! Recovered from our wanderings in the downward road of ruin, surely we will not again forsake the onward, upward path ! Surely the future part of our time should be as exclusively devoted to the will of God, as the former part of it was to " the lusts of men ! " We should surely serve Him who has the highest con- ceivable claims on our service, as devotedly as we did those who had no claim on our service at all ! " We are not debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh." We have greatly overpaid it, which never had any just demand on us. Let us spend no more of our money for what is not bread, but poison ; no more of our labour for that which does not profit, but ruins.
The import of the whole illustration here seems to co- incide with the striking passage with which the Apostle Paul concludes the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, of which chapter the passage before us is just a compendium : " Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey ; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness 1 But God be thanked, ye were the servants of sin ; but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine delivered to you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh : for as ye have yielded your members servants to unclean- ness and to iniquity ; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death." Surely there has been enough, more than enough, of
PART III.] MOTIVES. 57
what is so full of guilt and degradation, so fruitful of remorse and shame, which implies such infatuation, and incurs such responsibilities ! Surely there should be no more living to the lusts of men, working the will of the Gentiles ! It is matter of deep regret that any of our past time, that so much of our past time, should have been so unworthily spent. It will be tenfold folly and sin if any of our future time should be so squandered. So much for the illustration of the first motive.
§ 2. Motive drawn from the cjveat design of the gospel revelation.
The second motive is derived from the great design of the gospel revelation, and is brought forward in the sixth verse : " For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, or even to the dead, that they might be iudcred accordino; to men in the flesh, but live accordincj to God in the spirit."
The key to the interpretation of this passage, certainly among the most intricate in the whole book of God, seems to lie in its connection. It has been common to seek a connection between these words and those which immedi- ately precede them. I have done so with all the closeness of attention I am capable of, but I have not been able to find it. The statement in this verse is plainly a reason for some- thing previously stated ; but I cannot find in these words anything like a reason why God is ready to jvidge the quick and the dead, or why ungodly, impenitent men must give account to God for their ungodly deeds and hard speeches.
It seems to me that they present another great motive to the duty enjoined in the second verse.^ Christians are not
^ Ver. 6 stands in closer inner connection with the thought of vers. 1 and 2, than with the intermediate thought in vers. 3-5. — Muller : Doc- trine of Sin, vol. ii. p. 322.
58 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
to live the rest of the time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God : first, for the reason contained in the third, fourth, and fifth verses, which we have already illustrated ; and secondly, for that contained in this verse, they are not " to live the rest of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God:" "for, for this cause, the gospel was preached to them who were dead;" that is, the great design of the gospel revelation is just to induce men to make, not the lusts of men, but the will of God, the rule and reason of their conduct.
I have already stated some of the reasons why I con- sider them who are dead, literally " the dead," to be the spiritually dead, those " dead in trespasses and sins." To translate it. The gospel was preached to those who are now dead, though they were alive when the gospel was preached to them, is to give the words a meaning which they will not bear ; and to suppose that they mean, that the gospel has been preached to the dead in the separate state, — the only meaning they can, consistently with the usage of the lan- guage, have, if the term dead is understood in its literal sense, — is to suppose them to assert a fact which seems to have no connection with what the apostle is speaking about, and a fact to which there is no reference, except it be in the .19th verse of the preceding chapter, in the whole Bible. That the events referred to in the two passages are the same, I have no doubt. " The spirits in prison " there, and "the dead" here, are the same class of persons ; and Christ by the Spirit preaching to the former, and the gospel being preached to the latter, are descriptions of the same event. Both the expressions, " spirits in prison " and " the dead," are figurative expressions. A state of uncon- version is often represented as a state of death. " To be carnally minded is death;" the unconverted man "abideth in death;" when he is converted he "passes from death to
PART III] MOTIVES. 59
life ;" while he continues in iinregeneracy he is "dead in trespasses and sins." Unconverted Gentiles are repre- sented as "dead in the uncircumcision of their flesh." ^
Now the gospel is preached to men thus dead, destitute of all spiritual life, utterly incapable of spiritual action and spiritual enjoyment, that by means of it they, through the accompanying energy of the Holy Ghost, may be quickened to a new life, manifesting itself in living and acting not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. Its voice is, " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall iiive thee licrht." The revelation of the frrace of God, which constitutes the gospel, is mainly intended to teach men " to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world ; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." The design of preaching the gospel is to " turn men from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God." The knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ which it communicates, is intended to enable men to " escape the pollutions of the world, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God."^ Where these ends are not gained, the gospel has been preached in vain. Indeed, in some points of view, it had been better for those whom the gospel leaves still the servants of sin, that it had never been preached to them.
This is obviously a very powerful motive to " live the rest of the time in the flesh not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." Thus, thus only, can the great benig- nant purposes of the gospel revelation be answered to the individual. No man continuing unholy can ever obtain
^ See note C.
2 Epk V. 14 ; Tit. ii. 11, 12 ; Acts xxvi. 18 ; 2 Pet. i. 2-4.
60 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
the salvation the gospel announces. Just in the degree in which he is sanctified by the truth, does the truth gain its object.
Taking this view of the passage, there would have been no difficulty, had there been no more in the statement than this : " For, for this purpose, viz. that we should no longer live to the lusts of men, but to the will of God," was the gospel preached to " the dead," the unconverted. But there is difficulty, great difficulty, in the words that follow: "that they may be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."
The difficulty lies in the first clause, " judged according to men in the flesh ;" for M'ere these words not there, the clause that follows, " that they may live according to God in the spirit," might naturally enough be understood as explanatory of the phrase " for this end," and in this case would be of equivalent signification with the phrase in the second verse, " that we may live to the will of God."
It would serve little purpose to state the various attempts which interpreters have made to extort an apposite meaning out of these words. Their number, and the extravagance of some of them, clearly sliow that this is a passage " hard to be understood." One learned interpreter^ states plainly that he does not understand the passage, and therefore lets it alone ; and I have, in the course of my inquiries, some- times been disposed to follow his example.
The following appears to me to be probably the meaning and reference of the words. They seem to describe certain consequences of the gospel being preached with effect to the spiritually dead. The direct design of the gospel being preached to them is, that they may believe it ; and the certain effect of its being preached to them if they believe it, as well as its design, is, that believing it, they " no longer ^ Castalio. " Hunc locum non intelligo ; ideoqiie ad verbum transtuli. "
PART III.] MOTIVES. 61
live the rest of their hfe to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." Such is its designed effect on their character and conduct.
But besides this designed effect on their character and conduct, the gospel, when preached to, believed bj, and influential on the spiritually dead, produces certain effects, some of them unfavourable, others of them favourable, on their condition, external or internal. It is to these, I ap- prehend, the apostle refers, when he speaks of their being " judged according to men in the flesh," but " living accord- ing to God in the spirit."
" According to men," that is, plainly, unconverted men (as in the phrase " lusts of men," or the expression " ye are carnal, and walk as men"^), — so far as men, unconverted, worldly men, are concerned, they — that is, they who have believed the gospel preached to them when dead — are, by depraved and human agency, "judged," that is, condemned, punished, " in the flesh," in the body or in their external circumstances. " According to God," — so far as God is concerned, by a holy, divine agency, they " live " — they enjoy true happiness (as the apostle says, " Now we live if we stand fast in the Lord"^) — " in the spirit," in the soul, in the inner man, a happiness suited to the wants and capa- cities of their higher nature. Had " livinxj accordino; to God in the spirit" been contrasted with " living according to men in the flesh," it would have described character ; contrasted with being " condemned or punished according to men in the flesh," it plainly describes condition.
The particle translated " that"^ not only signifies in order to, marking design, but also so that, marking effect, as when it is said, " Have they stumbled that they should fall ? " '^ ■ that is, " Have they stumbled so as to fall ?" This seems its force here : " For this end was the gospel preached to
1 1 Cor. iii. 3. ^ i Thess. iii. 8. ^"l^<ic. *"lva, Rom. xi. 11.
62 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
you when spiritually dead, that believing it ye should aban- don sin and follow holiness ; and having gained its object, the result has been, ye are persecuted in your external circumstances — your body, your reputation, your outward condition — by men ; but ye are happy in your mind — in all your spiritual relations and circumstances — in God."
It was so then. " Men spoke against them as evil-doers," — they " suffered as Christians," " for well-doing," " for righteousness' sake ;" but while thus judged, condemned, punished, so far as men were concerned, " in the flesh," they " lived according to God in the spirit." They had a " life hid with Christ in God ;" they were happy in their spirits, for " the Spirit of glory and of God rested on them."
Thus were the apostles " judged according to men in the flesh," when they were beaten before the Sanhedrim, and commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus ; and thus did they " live according to God in the spirit," when " they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were worthy to suffer shame for his name." Thus were Paul and Silas " judged according to men in the flesh," when, by order of the magistrates of Philippi, they were beaten, and, " after many stripes had been laid on them, thrust into the inner prison, and had their feet made fast in the stocks ;" and thus did they " live according to God in the spirit," when " at midnight they prayed and sang praises to God," with a voice so loud and clear that " the prisoners heard them."^
And it is so still. Whenever the gospel believed trans- forms the character, the individual becomes an object of dislike to worldly men ; he is " judged according to men in . the flesh ;" and the manner in which that dislike is mani- fested depends on circumstances : it may be in silent con- tempt, in malignant misrepresentation, in spoiling of goods, 1 Acts V. 40, 41, xvi. 22-25.
PART III.] MOTIVES. 63
in persecution to the death ; — and just as certainly does he " Hve to God in the spirit," obtaining " a peace" in God " which passeth all understanding," which, as the world could not give, it cannot take away ; a new life so superior to all that he formerly experienced, that, when he looks back to the time that is past, it appears to him as he had been " dead while he lived."
Materially the same sense may be brought out of the words, giving to " that " its more common sense, " to the end that," by interpreting the passage on the same principle as you must interpret the words, " God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin ; but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine delivered to you;"^ that is, God be thanked, that, though you were the servants of sin, ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine de- livered to you. So here : " For this cause, that they may give over living to the lusts of men, and begin to live to the will of God, was the gospel preached to the spiritually dead ; that they, believing the gospel and yielding to its influence, though persecuted as to their external circum- stances by men, may enjoy true spiritual happiness in God."
The only interpretation that can come into competition with this, is that which considers both clauses as referring to the direct and intended effect of the preaching of the gospel ; understanding by being " judged in the flesh," the being condemned and punished in reference to that which is depraved in our nature, "the flesh," — having the body of sin destroyed, the being made to deny self, — " mortifying our members on the earth," taking up the cross, — all which, " according to men," in the estimation of men, unregenerate men, is no better than death; and understanding by "living in the spirit according to God," such an exercise of all their faculties, under the influence of their renewed nature, as in
1 Rom. vi. 17.
64 EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
God's estimation deserves the name of life ; as if he had said, ' The gospel was preached to the dead in trespasses and sins, that they might become dead to sin, and alive to God, — dead in the sense in which they were alive, alive in the sense in which they were dead;' which is just equivalent to, " that they may no longer live to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." This is Archbishop Leigh ton's view of the passage, so far as I can understand it ; but I do not see how this sense can be broucrht out of the words without doing violence to them.
The force of the motive may be thus briefly expressed : ' Ye ought to live the rest of the time in the flesh to the will of God, not to the lusts of men, for that was the grand design of the gospel when preached to you " dead in tres- passes and sins ;" and though by believing the gospel, and yielding yourselves up to its sanctifying influence, you will certainly expose yourselves to the condemnation and perse- cution of an ungodly world (which, however, can only affect your external condition), you will find far more than a compensation for this in the life, the happiness, which in your spirits you will obtain from God.'
In the very important, but, as we have found, some- what difficult, paragraph commencing with the 18th verse of the preceding chapter and ending with the 6tli verse of this, the great leading features of the divine method of transforming depraved human nature are strikingly de- lineated. Man has gone astray from God, and is living not to his will, but to his own lusts. He has thus incurred the righteous displeasure of God, and brought on himself the dreadful curse of his holy law. That curse rivets, as it were, the chains of his depravity. He is lost, beyond the power of created wisdom and agency to rescue him. But what man, what angels could not do, God has done. The
PART III.] MOTIVES. 65
obedience unto the death of the incarnate Son, the divinely appointed Saviour, the just One, in the room of the unjust, gives full satisfaction to the violated law, and is the pro- pitiation for our sins ; securing for Him all the power and authority necessary to gain the ultimate ends of his sacrifice. This well-attested record of this mystery of wisdom, right- eousness, and love, is the " gospel of our salvation," which, attended by the Spirit, finds its way into the understanding and conscience and affections of men, transforming them by the renewing of their mind, and leading them to live henceforth no more to the lusts of men, but to the will of God ; while, at the same time, sinners thus justified and renewed by the grace of God have presented to them motives the most powerful and persuasive to induce them to abstain from every kind of evil, and to cultivate holiness in all manner of conversation ; and, amid all the sufferings to which they may be exposed from an evil world, are sus- tained by the energies of that spiritual life in God, the exhaustless source of peace and joy, which they enjoy by their union to him who died for them in weakness, but lives for ever by the power of God.
It deeply concerns us all seriously to inquire whether we, through the atonino- death and restored life of our Lord, have become dead to the world and to sin, alive to God and holiness ; whether, under the influence of the truth on these subjects, we are living not as we once did, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. This is the appropriate evidence, this is the only satisfactory evidence, that the gospel of salvation has come to us not in word only, but in power ; that the end for which the gospel is preached to the dead has been gained in us.
Let Christians seek clearer views, more settled convic- tions, respecting the death of Christ as the great atoning sacrifice, and their own interest in it as not only the price
VOL. III. E
GQ EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS. [DISC. XVII.
of their pardon, but the means of their sanctification ; and let them open their minds and hearts to all those powerful motives, from such a variety of sources, which urge them to live devoted to Him who died devoted for them, — to glorify Him whom they have so long dishonoured, — to deny ungod- liness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world ; constantly seeking more and more disconformity to this world, by being more thoroughly " transformed by the renewing of their minds, and proving the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."
And let those who are still running the mad career of thoughtlessness and sin, living not to the will of God, but to the lusts of men, consider, ere it be too late, what must be the end of these things. Men and brethren, allow me to expostulate with you. You " must give account to Him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead." And that account must be given in, not with joy, but with grief. That judgment must be condemnation. Indeed, you are condemned already ; and you know it, however you mav try to strangle the conviction. God, in his word, condemns you, and your consciences condemn you also. Where is the man who dare say, it is right, it is wise, it is safe, to live to the lusts of men, so foolish, so shameful, so ruinous, and not to the will of God, so wise, so benignant, so reason- able, so advantageous, — to make human inclination rather than divine law the rule of conduct ? What has the time past of your life been, but a blank or a blot, guilty inutility or noxious guilt, inglorious inaction or base activity ? and how many years have been thus wasted ? In many cases, I am afraid, by far the greater part even of a long life.
Surely " the time that is past may suffice." Enough, more than enough, of such madness. Dishonour has re- ceived sufficient measure. Close the term of infamy. It is time for fairer days to begin their course. Oh, relinquish
PART III.] MOTIVES. 67
those foolish and deceitful lusts to which you have been so long enslaved, and come to Christ, who will bring you to God, that you may know him and love him, and serve him and enjoy him. In him there is spirit and life: dead though you be, he will enable you to live this heavenly life which the apostle enjoins ; this life to the will of God, his God and your God, his Father and your Father.
Delay no longer this happy exchange of the slavery of sin for the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Put it off till to-morrow, and it may become impossible. The seal of eternity ere to-morrow may be put on thy thraldom. Thinkest thou that it is irksome to do the will of God? Think that it will be found more than irksome to suffer his wrath for ever. But it is not irksome. Ah, thou knowest not how sweet they find his service who have tried it, and who with one voice cry, " O taste and see that the Lord is good ;" "his yoke is easy, his burden is light."
Think not to say within thyself, I will abandon the service of the lusts of men by and by ; I will live to the will of God, though not now, yet afterwards. Ah ! who can make thee sure of the will or of the afterwards ? And if afterwards, why not now ? Hast thou not served sin long enough ? May not the time past suffice ? Is it not more than enough 1 He who does not live to God, is " dead while he liveth." He who lives to sin, lives in a dark dun- geon, laden with fetters ; he who lives to God, dwells in light, walks at liberty. The uncertain wildfires of worldly pleasure, which but light those who follow them to their doom, will soon be extinguished in the blackness of darkness for ever. But he that followeth Christ, in living to the will of God, " shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." " His path shall be like that of the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." ^ 1 Leigliton.
68 NOTES. [DISC, XVII.
Note A. p. 6.
Amyraut, in his paraphrase, gives the sense very clearly : " Mais encore nous devons armer de cette bonne pensee contre toutes sortes de tentations au mal, ' qne celui qui a souffert en cette nature humaine, n'a desormais plus de commerce avec le peche.' " And Gerhard : " " Or; rectius accipitur expositive, exponit enim Apostolus illam cogitation em hvolav qua nos vult armari : hasc cogitatio erit vobis instar firmissimi scuti et muni- raenti contra peccatum." Erasmus Schmid's version is : " Eadem cogitatione armamini, nempe, quod qui passus est carne destitit a peccato." Beza's version is of the same purport.
Note B. p. 30.
I am aware that the words rendered " hath ceased from sin," have been translated "has caused sin to cease;" bringing out this sense : ' Christ, by suffering in the flesh, has caused sin to cease ; has finished transgression, made an end of sin, brought in an everlasting righteousness.' This is a truth, and a truth suggested, as we have seen, by the words ; but to make them directly express this, requires very great violence to be done to the original language. The words have also been rendered "has ceased from sin-offering;" bringing out the idea, that his one perfect offering has rendered unnecessary any further sacri- fice for sin. This is true too, and, like the other, substantially implied in the statement ; but it is to give an unusual meaning to the word " sin," and it is to give the same word two distinct meanings in the same sentence : for certainly " sin," in the first clause of the first verse, does not mean " sin-offering."
Note C. p. 59.
"Propter hoc enim et mortuis, evangelicatus est, — nobis, (|ui quondam videlicet exstabamus infideles." — Clem. Alex. Adumbrat. ad 1 Ep. Pet. Edit. Pott. Tom. ii. p. 1007.— Apud Beaiisobre.
" Simplicissime per ' mortuos' quibus Evangelium pra^dicatum esse Apostolus asserit, intelliguntur spiritualiter, in peccatis, mortui." — Gerhard. " Fieri potest, ut mortuos dixerit infideles
DISC. XVII ] NOTES. 69
h. e. in anima mortuos. Non cogit apud inferos intelligi." — August. Ep. xcix. ad Enodium. " De mortuis dicit Apostolus quod judicentur came. Jam vero naturaliter mortui non liabent carnem ; ergo intelligitur de hominibus in terra viventibus." — Luther. According to Maimonides (More Nevochim), it was a proverb among the Jews : " Impii etiam viventes vocantur mortui."
DISCOURSE XVIII.
SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED.
" But the eud of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." — 1 Pet. iv. 7.
In the preceding part of this chapter, the apostle presents those to whom he wrote with a general view of Christian duty, as " living not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God;" points out to them the only and effectual means of realizing this view of Christian duty in their own experience — the keeping constantly before their minds the great cha- racteristic truth of tlie gospel, that the perfect and accepted atonement made by Christ has secured for himself, and for all interested in him, rest from sin ; and unfolds to them the powerful motives rising out of the statement he had made of the leading principles of evangelical truth, which urge them to follow the course prescribed to them. In the subsequent context he proceeds to enjoin the cultivation of a variety of particular Christian dispositions, and the per- formance of a variety of particular Christian duties, which the circumstances in which they were placed peculiarly re- quired. Two of these injunctions, with the special ground on which they stand," lie before us in the verse which we have read as the text of the following discourse.
The subject which these words bring before the mind may be treated in two different ways. We may either
PART I.] SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER. 71
illustrate^ first, the statement on which the apostle founds his injunctions, " The end of all things is at hand ;" and then the injunction built on this statement, " Be sober, and watch unto prayer ;" or we may reverse the order, and con- sider, first, the duties which the apostle enjoins, and then the motive by which he urges to their performance. It does not matter much which of these two plans we adopt ; but as a choice must be made, we, upon the whole, prefer the latter.
I. THE DUTIES ENJOINED BY THE APOSTLE.
Let us then proceed to consider the duties which the apostle enjoins. They are — sobriety, and watching unto prayer. " Be sober, and watch unto prayer."
§ 1. Sobriety.
The first duty enjoined is sobriety : " Be sober." In the common usage of the English language, the word sobriety is almost exclusively appropriated to denote temperance in drinking, abstinence from the undue use of intoxicating liquors. That this is a Christian duty, there can be no doubt. Drunkenness is enumerated among the works of the flesh, the indulgence in which excludes a man from inheriting the kingdom of God ; and the command is most explicit: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess'" And there can be as little doubt that this vice is utterly inconsistent with that virtue which, under the name of sobriety, is in our text, and in so many other passages of Scripture, enjoined.
It is certain, however, that the word sober had a much more extensive signification at the time our translation of the Scriptures was made than it has at present ; a significa- tion more in accordance with the sense of the original word
72 SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER [DISC. XVIII.
of which it is the rendering. The word here rendered sober^ (for, as we shall immediately see, the word rendered watchful here is often translated sober) is a term which, in its primary signification, refers rather to a physical than to a moi'al state of the faculties of mind. It signifies to be in the full use of the rational faculties, as opposed to mental alienation or derangement. Thus, it is said of the demoniac who was cured by our Lord, that he was found by his countrymen "sitting, clothed, and in his right mind"^ — sober, the same word as used here. The Apostle Paul, in his noble reply to the unmanly interruption of the Roman governor, " Paul, thou art beside thyself ; much learning hath made thee mad," says, " I am not mad, most noble Festus ; but speak forth the words of soberness." My words are the words not of a madman, but of one in full possession of his reason. And, speaking of himself and his apostolic brethren, he says, " Whether we be beside ourselves," — that is, ^ act like madmen in the world's estimation,' — " it is to God," that is, 'from regard to the will of God, from a desire to promote the cause of God;' " whether we be sober," — that is, 'act cautiously and prudently, like men in the full possession and exercise of all their faculties,' — " it is for your sakes," that is, ' in order to promote your welfare.'^
This is the primary meaning of the word, and it is pro- bably with a direct reference to that that the drunkard is considered as specially unworthy of the appellation sober,
1 loitppovriffaTi. "loji^iiuv Graicis dicitur cui croj; (pfivjv, mens nana est, atqiie adeo qui mania, utpote illius contraria, iion laborat. lui^^uv, nullis in transversum actus aifectiljus, recte de rebus judicat, justumque singulis pretium statuit, atque adeo, media incedendo via, nee in excessu, nee defectu impingit : omnia praemeditate suscipit et cum anhni sani temperie, consequeuter illud ipsis Gentibus adeo commendatum : ^>j§sv cLyav ne quid nimis sedulo observat. — Schkamm in Tit. i. 8.
2 Mark v. 15. 3 Acts xxvi. 24, 25 ; 2 Cor. v. 13.
PART 1.] ILLUSTRATED. 73
of a sound mind. The man who indulges in the undue use of intoxicating Hquors behaves like an idiot, a person devoid of " discourse of reason ;" and by the continued use of them, he brings himself into a state of madness. Certainly, as Solomon says, the man who allows himself to be deceived by wine, that mocker, " is not wise ; " and he who carefully avoids the habit, so far proves himself to be a man in his right senses, a man of sane mind.
The word, however, though originally significant of a physical state of the rational faculties, is usually employed in the New Testament as descriptive of a moral state of the mind. What is its precise signification will best appear from looking at the passages in which it, and the words derived from it, are employed by the sacred writers. The Apostle Paul exhorts every man " not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly;" that is, to think justly, and therefore humbly.^ The same apostle, in the second chapter of his First Epistle to Timothy, exhorts Christian women, instead of decking themselves with broidered hair and gold, or pearls or costly array, to " adorn themselves with shamefacedness," that is, with modesty; "and with sobriety,"^ that is, with prudence or moderation ; and they are required, ver. 1 5, to " continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety," that is, pru- dence or gravity. In the third chapter of the same epistle, he tells us " a Christian bishop must be sober," wise, pru- dent, moderate. In his Second Epistle to Timothy, he describes the spirit or disposition which Christians have received from God, as " not the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind," or sobriety. The spirit of Christianity is not a timid, crouching, time-serving spirit ; it is an energetic, benignant, wise, moderate spirit. In the Epistle to Titus, he states that " a bishop must be sober," 1 Rom. xii. 3. 2 i Tim. ii. 9.
74 SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER [DISC. XVIII.
that is, wise, prudent, moderate ; he requires "the aged men to be sober," which is there plainly something different from temperate ; he requires the aged women to teach the young women to be " discreet ;" and he commands Titus to " exhort the young men also to be sober-minded." In all these instances sobriety is plainly wisdom, prudence, moderation. In the same epistle he also states, that " the grace of God, which brings salvation to all, when understood and believed, teaches men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly," — to live wisely in reference to themselves, righteously with regard to their fellow-men, and piously in reference to God.^ These are all the passages in the New Testament in which the word before us, or those connected with it, are em- ployed ; and on considering them, there can be no great difficulty in determining the meaning of the exhortation before us, "Be sober."
Some interpreters consider it an exhortation to prudence — practical wisdom ; others to temperance, in the extensive sense in which that word is employed in the New Testa- ment— moderation in all things, the riglit regulation of our desires and pursuits. I am strongly disposed to think the apostle's exhortation includes both of these things, and per- haps something more. I apprehend it is equivalent to, ' Exercise a sound mind in reference both to " things seen and temporal," and to " things unseen and eternal." " Be not unwise," be not like children ; or, if in malice ye be as children, " in understanding be ye as men." Take heed not to be imposed on. Beware of mistaking shadows for realities, and realities for shadows. Look at things in their comparative importance, and act accordingly. Be sagacious. Be not content with partial views of the subjects in which you have so deep an interest. Look at all sides of a sub-
1 Tit. i. 8, ii. 2, 4, 6, 12, 13.
PART I.J ILLUSTRATED. 75
ject. Think before you speak. Reflect before you act. " Walk in wisdom," that is, wisely, both in regard to those who are within, and those who are without ; " walk circum- spectly, not as fools, but as wise." '
If Christians are thus morally sound-minded, they will discover this in the way in which they think, and feel, and act in reference to this present world. They will show that they have formed a just, and therefore a moderate, sober estimate, both of its goods and evils. They will not inordinately love the one nor fear the other. They will not rate very high its wealth, its honours, or its pleasures. They will be moderate in their desires to possess these, and moderate in their exertions to obtain them ; moderate in their attachment to them while they are possessed of them, and moderate in their regrets for them when they are deprived of them. " They who have wives will be as if they had none," knowing that earthly relations, the closest and most endearing, must soon be dissolved ; " they who weep as though they wept not," knowing that earthly sorrows, however deep, will soon be over for ever ; " they who rejoice as though they rejoiced not," knowing that earthly delights, however exquisite, are shadowy, uncertain, short-lived ; " those who buy as though they possessed not," knowing that human possessions are insecure and unsatis- factory, that, " as we brought nothing into the world, we can carry nothing out of it," and feeling that " a man's life consists not in the abundance of his possessions ;" " they who use this world as not abusing it," knowing that we must give account to the Supreme Judge for the use of our property ; and that, unimportant as wealth is in itself, it is awfully important viewed as connected with eternity. The great truths, that " the fashion of the world passeth away," and that " the things which are unseen are eternal," will be allowed the full influence which a sound, prudent, wise
76 SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER [DISC. XVIII.
mind perceives they ought to have on the whole of the temper and conduct.^ This is Christian sobriety.
The substance of the apostle's exhortation, then, is : ' Exercise a sound mind, a mind enlightened and trans- formed by Christian truth, in reference to both worlds ; and exhibit its practical conclusions in your wise and prudent conduct, especially in your habitual moderation in thought, feeling, and action, with regard to " things seen and tem- poral," the influence of which intoxicates and infatuates the great body of mankind, and makes them act the part of children and fools.'
§ 2. " Watching unto prayer"
The second duty enjoined by the apostle is watching unto prayer. Prayer is well defined in our Shorter Catechism to be, " the offering up of our desires to God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies." This is a primary, essential duty of religion. It is the natural expression of that state of mind and heart, of thought and affection, in which religion consists. It is to religion what breath is to life. It betokens its existence, and it is the means of its continuance. It is very clearly enjoined and very strongly enforced, both by our Lord and his apostles : " Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened to you : for every one that asketh receiveth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." " ]\Ien ought always to pray," to continue praying, " and not to faint." " Be careful about nothing ; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through 1 1 Cor. vii. 29-31.
PARTI] ILLUSTRATED, 77
Christ Jesus." " Continue instant in prayer." " Pray without ceasing." " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." " Is any man afflicted 1 let him pray,"^
This important duty is not, however, that which the apostle here enjoins. His command is not. Pray, but Watch unto prayer. He takes it for granted that they did pray, that they could not but pray ; but he is anxious that their prayers should be such as to gain in the highest degree the important ends of prayer. It deserves notice that the word prayer is in the plural form. It is watch unto prayers.'^ Some have supposed that the apostle refers here to the four species of devotional exercise which Paul mentions in his Epistle to Timothy, " supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks." ^ John Huss is pro- bably nearer the truth when he finds emphasis in the mode of expression, and says, " Watch unto prayers, not to one, but many ; for ' men ought always to pray, and not to faint.' " That prayers are to be offered, habitually offered, the apostle counts certain. He is not a Christian at all who does not pray, habitually pray. But the apostle is desirous that they should " watch unto prayer."
The language is peculiar. What is its meaning ? What is meant by watching ? what is meant by watching unto prayer?' — First, what is meant by watching? This is not the word which is most frequently used to express the idea of watching, as a shepherd does his flock, or a sentinel that committed to his charge. In the original signification* it refers to a physical state of the body and mind, rather than
1 Matt. vii. 7, 8 ; Luke xviii. 1 ; Phil. iv. 6, 7 ; CoL iv. 2 ; 1 Thess. V. 17 ; James v. 13, 16.
^ E/'y Ta; 'TTfocrtu^a;,
^ 1 Tim. ii. 1. Airio-n;, -rpaa-tv^^a;, hriv^ii;, ivxapariix,;.
* 'iiri-^ocTl, not r^sjyo^Jjo-aTS, as cll. V. 8.
78 SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER [DISC. XVIII.
to a moral state of the mind. It is descriptive of that state ill which all the faculties are awake and active, as opposed to the state of delusion and stupor which intoxication in- duces, and answers nearly to our word sober, in the limited sense in which it is often used. It is always, in the New Testament, employed to express a state of mind. What that state of mind is, will best appear in this, as in the previous case, by attending to the comparatively few in- stances in which the word, and those connected with it, occur in the New Testament. " Awake to righteousness, and sin not ; for some have not the knowledge of God : I speak this to your shame ;" ' that is. Shake off the mental delusion and stupor in which the intoxication of error has involved you, that, with clear and excited faculties, you may attend to this most important subject. " Let us not sleep, as do others ; but let us watch and be sober," — the same word as we have here ; that is, be wakeful ; let us watch, and, that we may watch, let us be wakeful. " Let us who are of the day be sober," — the same word, be wake- ful, " not sleep, as do others."^ " A bishop must be sober,^ vigilant," wakeful, — the same word we have here. " The bishops' wives," or the female superintendents, it may be either, " must be," not slanderers, but " sober," ^ — the same word. It is difficult to see why our translators should have rendered the same word, when used of male superin- tendents, " vigilant," — when used of female superintendents, " sober." In both cases wakeful vigilance is the idea : " But Avatch thou in all things." Keep awake, and be active in the discharge of all thy duties.^ " Speak the words that become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober," ^ vigi- lant in the margin. The only other places where the word occurs in the New Testament, are in this epistle : " Gird
1 I Cor. XV. 34. 2 I Thess. v. 6-8. ^ i xim. iii. 2.
* 2 Tim. iii. II. 5 2 Tim. iv. 5. " Tit. ii. 2.
PART I.] ILLUSTRATED. 79
up the loins of your mind, be sober :"^ where the idea of wakefulness or vigilance seems better to suit the context than sobriety, either in its stricter or more extended mean- ing. " Be sober, be vigilant,"" — be wakeful, and not only be wakeful, but actively watch. From all these passages it seems plain that the apostle's exhortation is, Be wakeful, be on the alert ; look around you ; with excited attention actively exert your mind.
But what are we to understand by being watchful, or watching unto prayer ? The phrase has received two translations. Be watchful in prayer, that is, while engaged in prayer ; or be watchful, in order to prayer. There can be no doubt that they misinterpret the passage who refer it to the vigils or nightly prayers of the ancient Church. This is an interpretation which very properly may take its place alongside of that which would render " repent" ^ by ' do penance.' The primitive Christians were obliged to have their common " j^rayers," as well as " the doctrine" and " the breaking of bread," during the night, for they durst not assemble during the day. But there does not seem any reference to that here, which was indeed more a matter of necessity than of choice ; not a duty in itself, but only in the particular circumstances in which they were placed. All that is included in either of the two renderings mentioned, and something more, is expressed in a transla- tion which, if the words do not demand, they certainly admit : " Be watchful, or watch, in reference to prayer." ^
1 1 Pet. i. 13. 2 1 Pet. v. 8. 3 MsTa.,ouTi.
* Bishop Jebb considers "watching unto prayer" as = "vigilantly guarding against whatever is unfriendly to devotion, — viewing everything mth a reference to the effect it is likely to have on our jjrayers ; this watchfulness respecting not merely things wrong in themselves, but things innocent, useful, laudable. Perimus licetis. What was it that kept the guests in the parable from the supper ? What, then, is the remedy ? are we to renounce these things? By no means, but 1 Cor. \'ii. 29-3L"
80 SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER [DISC. XVIII.
Vigilance requires to be exerted in reference to all duties. We need to watch as to the principles in which they origi- nate, the manner in which they are performed, the motives which influence us in performing them, the end we seek to gain by performing them. But there is special need of vigilance in reference to prayer. Christians should be watchful as to proper subjects of prayer, as to fit oppor- tunities for prayer, as to hindrances from and in prayer, as to the proper manner of prayer, and as to the results or consequences of prayer.
The attention of Christians should be actively alive to the circumstances — in the world, in the Church, in the various spheres of relative duty which they occupy, in their own individual experience — which ought to be made the subjects of prayer ; and in every case see that what they pray for be agreeable to God's will, something they are warranted to ask, and which he has promised to grant. They should look at everything in this particular aspect, that so " in everything they may in prayer and supplication make their requests known to God."
They should wakefully observe what may be fit oppor- tunities for escaping from the world to hold communion with God, that they may carefully improve them. Thus did David watch unto prayer, when he said, " As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud ; and He shall hear my voice."
They should watch against worldliness of mind, and espe- cially against wilful transgressions, remembering that, "if we regard iniquity in our heart, the Lord will not hear us."^
They should watch in reference to the manner of prayer when engaged in it ; taking care that it be prayer, and not merely saying prayers ; that they serve him who is a Spirit, 1 Ps. Iv. 17, Ixvi. 18.
PART II.] ENFORCED. 81
with their spirits "in spirit and truth;" that they "present a living sacrifice ;" that they yiekl " rational worship ;" that they " pray in the spirit," depending on the promised in- fluence of the Holy Ghost as " the Spirit of grace and of supplications ;" that they pray " in faith, nothing wavering ; for he that wavereth is as a wave of the sea driven of the wind and tossed — let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord;" that they pray with intense desire, being "instant in prayer;" that they pray in humble sub- mission, saying, " Not my will, but thine be done." ^
Finally, they should watch in reference to the results of prayer. Like Habakkuk, they should " stand on their watch, and set them upon the tower to see what he will say to them." " I will direct my prayer to thee," says David, " and look up."^ Christians " should look after their prayers, and hear what the Lord will speak, observe what the Lord will do ; that if he grant what they ask, they may be thankful ; that if he deny, they may be patient and humbly inquire the cause ; that if he defer, they may con- tinue to pray and wait, and not. faint. They should look up or look out, as they who have shot an arrow, looking to see how near it has come to the mark. We lose much of the comfort of our prayers for want of observing the returns of them."^
II. MOTIVE URGING TO SOBEIETT AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER : " THE END OF ALL THINGS IS AT HAND."
Let us now, secondly, attend to the motive by which the apostle enforces his exhortation. " The end of all things is at hand;" therefore "be sober, and watch unto prayer."
^ Jolm iv. 24 ; Rom. xiL 1, Xs^/xiv XnTfuav ; Jude 20 ; James i. 6, 7 ; Col. iv. I ; Luke xxii. 42.
2 Hab. ii. 1 ; Ps. v. 3. 3 Matthew Henry.
VOL. III. F
82 SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER [DISC. XVIII.
" The end of all things " is a phrase which, taken by itself, most naturally calls up the idea of the final termina- tion of the present order of things, which is so often men- tioned in the sacred writings. A period is fixed when He who established the present mundane system shall proclaim, " It is done;" and the dead shall live, and the living " shall be changed," and all shall be judged ; death shall be swallowed up in life, and time be no more, having been lost in eternity : " the heavens and the earth that now are shall be dissolved, the heavens passing away with a great noise ; the earth also, and the works that are therein, being burnt up ; the very elements melting with fervent heat ; and the new heavens and the new earth, wherein righteousness is, and shall dwell," shall take their place. These solemn truths are well fitted to operate as powerful motives on all who be- lieve them, to be sober, and to watch unto prayer. " What manner of persons ought we to be," says the apostle, " in all holy conversation and godliness," " looking for and hastening to the coming of this day of God!" "Where- fore, beloved, seeing that we look for such things, be dili- gent, that ye be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless." " He who," to use the language of a great writer, " has seen, as through a telescope, the glorious ap- pearance of the Supreme Judge, the solemn state of his majestic person, the splendid pomp of his magnificent and vastly numerous retinue, the obsequious throng of glorious celestial creatures doing homage to their eternal King ; the swift flight of his royal guards sent forth into the four winds to gather the elect, and covering the face of the heavens with their spreading wings; the universal attention of all to that loud-sounding trumpet that shakes the pillars of the world, pierces the inward caverns of the earth, and resounds through every part of the encircling heavens ; the many myriads of joyful expectants, arising, changing,
PART II.] ENFORCED. 83
putting on glory, taking wing, and contending upwards to join themselves to the triumphant heavenly host ; the judg- ment set ; the books opened ; the fi'ightful, amazed looks of surprised wretches ; the equal administration of the final judgment ; the adjudication of all to their eternal states ; the heavens rolled up as a scroll ; the earth and all things therein consumed and burnt up;"^ — surely that man must be sober, deeply, calmly considerate, knowing how present character and conduct is to affect future events ; and main- taining a steady restraint and moderation of all his affections and passions in reference to a world the fashion of which is thus to pass away : surely he must watch unto prayer, watch and pray always, that he may be accounted worthy to escape " the perdition of ungodly men," and " stand before the Son of man " in the judgment. This is a power- ful motive, fitted to influence the minds and hearts and conduct of all believers in all countries and ages till the end come.
But there are obvious difficulties in this mode of inter- pretation. " The end of all things is" said to be " at hand ;" that is, very near. Now, eighteen centuries have well-nigh run their course since these words were uttered, and the end of tbe world has not come ; nay, when we think of the number and magnitude of the events that must take place before it arrives, we cannot concur with those who are of opinion that it is very soon to take place. " The end is not
yet."
To meet and remove this difficulty, it has been remarked by some, that the age of the Messiah is the last age, — that no such great event as the flood, or the giving of the law, or the coming of the Word in flesh, stands between them who live under that age and the end of the world, so that it may be said to be near all who live under the gospel ^ Howe, Vanity of Alan as mortal.
84 SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER [DISC. XVIII.
economy; by others, that it is ?zmr, if not in the calcula- tions of time, in those of eternity, with him with whom " one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day ; " and by a third class, that as the state of every man is fixed at death, that as deatli leaves him judgment will find him, the end of all things to him is not far off. I must say that these modes of getting over the difficulty do not appear to me to be satisfactory ; and that the apostle's obvious design is to intimate that the events referred to in the phrase " the end of all things" were just about to take place.
Their view of the matter is still less satisfactory, who tell us that the apostles really did expect the immediate dis- solution of the world. We know there were persons who so misunderstood such statements as that before us ; but we find the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, warning them against such a mistake, and telling them that the day of Christ, in the sense of the day of the last judgment, was not at hand.^ Besides, it is not with what the apostles, exercising their own unassisted judgments, expected, but with what the inspiring Spirit spoke by them, that we have to do.
After some deliberation, I have been led to adopt the opinion of those who hold, that " the end of all things " here is the entire and final end of the Jewish economy in the destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the holy people. That was at hand ; for this epistle seems to have been written a very short while before these events took place, not improbably after the commencement of " the wars and rumours of war " of which our Lord spake. This view will not appear strange to any one who has carefully weighed the terms in which our Lord had predicted these events, and the close con- nection which the fulfilment of these predictions had with 1 2 Thess. ii. 1-3.
PART II.] ENFORCED. 85
the interests and duties of Christians, whether in Judea or in Gentile countries.
It is quite plain, that in our Lord's predictions, the ex- pressions "the end," and probably "the end of the world," are used in reference to the entire dissolution of the Jewish economy.^ The events of that period were very minutely foretold ; and our Lord distinctly stated that the existing generation should not pass away till all things respecting " this end " should be fulfilled. This was to be a season of suffering to all ; of trial, severe trial, to the followers of Christ ; of dreadful judgment on his Jewish opposers, and of glorious triumph to his religion. To this period there are repeated references in the apostolical epistles : " Know- ing the time," says the Apostle Paul, " that now it is high time to awake out of sleep ; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand." " Be patient," says the Apostle James ; " stablish your hearts ; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." " The Judge standeth before the door."^ Our Lord's pre- dictions must have been very familiar to the minds of Christians at the time this was written. They must have been looking forward with mingled awe and joy, fear and hope, to their accomplishment — "looking for the things which were coming upon the earth ;" and it was peculiarly natural for Peter to refer to these events, and to refer to them in words similar to those used by our Lord, as he was one of the disciples who, sitting with his Lord in full view of the city and temple, heard these predictions uttered.
The Christians inhabiting Judea had a peculiar interest in these predictions and their fulfilment. But all Christians had a deep interest in them. The Christians of the regions in which those to whom Peter wrote resided, were chiefly
1 Matt. xxiv. 3, 6, 14, 34; Mark xiii. 30 ; Luke xxi. 32.
2 Rom. xiii. 11, 12 ; James v. 8, 9.
86 SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER [DISC. XVIII.
converted Jews. As Christians, they had cause to rejoice in the prospect of the accompHshment of these predictions, as greatly confirming the truth of Christianity, and remov- ing some of the greatest obstructions in the way of its progress ; such as persecutions by the Jews, and the con- founding of Christianity with Judaism on the part of the Gentiles, who were accustomed to view its professors as a Jewish sect. But while they rejoiced, they had cause to "rejoice with trembling," as their Lord had plainly intimated that it was to be a season of severe trial to his friends, as w^ell as of fearful vengeance against his enemies. " The end of all things " which was at hand, seems to be the same thing as the judgment of the quick and the dead, which the Lord was ready to enter on, — the judgment, the time for which was come; which was to begin with the house of God, and then to be executed fully on those who obeyed not the gospel of God — the unbelieving Jews ; in which the righteous should scarcely be saved, and the ungodly and wicked should be fearfully punished.
The contemplation of such events as just at hand, was well fitted to operate as a motive to sobriety, and vigilance unto prayer. These were just the tempers and exercises peculiarly called for in such circumstances ; and they are just the dispositions and employments required by our Lord when he speaks of those days of trial and wrath. " Take heed to yourselves," says our Lord, " lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares : for as a snare shall it come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." ^ It is difficult to believe that the 1 Luke xxi. 34-36.
PART II.] ENFORCED. 87
apostle had not these very words in his mind when he wrote the passage now before us.
While these exhortations had a peculiar appropriateness to those to w^hom they were originally addressed, while they received peculiar enforcement from the circumstances in which they were placed, they are plainly exhortations to which Christians in all countries and ages are called to attend, and especially when placed in circumstances similar in any way to those in which they were primarily given. We are obviously placed in such circumstances. There is now, as then, and to a still greater extent, a breaking up of old systems. Dynasties and hierarchies are shaking into dissolution. Society is in one of the great states of transition, which occur but at distant intervals in the history of our race. Seldom has the state of our times been more graphically and justly described than in the words of a living writer : " What times are coming upon the earth we know not ; but the general expectation of persons of all characters in all nations, is an instinct implanted by God to warn us of a coming storm. Not one nation, but all; not one class of thinkers, but all, — they who fear, and they who hope, and who hope and fear things opposite ; they who are immersed in their worldly schemes, and they who look for some coming of God's kingdom ; they who watch this world's signs, and they who watch for the next, — alike have their eye intently fixed on somewhat that is coming ; though whether it be the vials of his wrath or the glories of his kingdom, or whether the one shall be herald to the other, none can tell. They who calculate what is likely, speak of it ; they who cannot, feel its coming. The spirits of the unseen world seem to be approaching to us, and 'awe comes upon us, and trembling, which maketh all bones to shake.' There is ' upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, men's hearts failing them for fear,
88 SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER. [DISC. XVIII.
and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth.' Times of trouble there have been before ; but such a time, in which everything, everywhere, tends in one direction to one mighty struggle of one sort, — of faith with infidelity, lawlessness with rule, Christ with anti- christ,— there seems never to have been till now." " God warneth us, by the very swiftness with which all things are moving around us, that it is He who is impelling them. Man cannot impart such speed, nor rouse the winds from the four quarters of the heavens, nor bring men's varying wills into a uniform result ; and therewith he w^arns us to beware how we attempt to guide what he is thus manifestly governing." ^
The end of many things seems indeed approaching. Popery, though making convulsive struggles, must ere long expire. Babylon is repairing her battlements, only to make her fall the more signal. The long captivity of Israel is drawing to its close. The Mohammedan delusion is effete. The idols are about to be abolished. The sanctuary is about to be cleansed. Political despotism and ecclesiastical tyranny are doomed. But before the end of these things, what " wars and rumours of wars," what siftings of men and systems ! What struggles, what sacrifices, what suffer- ings are coming, are at hand ! What need of faith and patience, of dependence and exertion, of caution and vigour! Never since the destruction of the Jewish economy was there a louder call to Christians to attend to the inspired declarations, " Be sober, and watch unto prayer."
^ Pusey.
DISCOURSE XIX.
ON THE MAINTENANCE AND MANIFESTATION OF BROTHERLY LOVE.i
" And, above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves : for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another, without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God ; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth ; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ : to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." — 1 Pet. iv. 8-11.
" Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling !" In the sacred services of the forenoon, we have in the most solemn manner recognised the intimate relation in which we stand to each other as Christians. We have declared, that " though many, we are one body, having partaken of one bread," " the bread which came down from heaven, and has been given for the life of the world ;" and "having all drunk into one Spirit," " the Spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind," which Jesus being glorified has given to all who believe in him. We have, over the instituted emblems of the holy, suffering humanity of our Lord, made the good profession, that we have one God and Father, Jehovah ; one Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ ; one faith, the faith of his gospel; one baptism, the baptism of his Spirit ; one hope, the hope of his salvation. We have
^ This discourse was delivered immediately after the administration of the Lord's Supper.
90 BROTHERLY LOVE [DISC. XIX.
avowed ourselves brethren in Christ, and pledged ourselves to perform all the mutual duties which rise out of a relation so intimate and so sacred.
It cannot, then, be inopportune to direct your attention to an inspired account of some of those duties ; and such an account is contained in the paragraph I have just read, which plainly refers to the temper and conduct towards each other by which Christians should be characterized. The whole truth on this subject may be very briefly stated. The entire duty of Christians to each other is summed up in one word — love, brotherly love. The maintenance of brotherly love, that is the temper by which Christians should be characterized ; the manifestation of brotherly love, that is the conduct by which Christians should be characterized.
In the text, both of these are plainly enjoined and power- fully enforced. The maintenance of brotherly love is thus enjoined : " Above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves." And it is thus enforced : " for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." The manifestation of brotherly love is thus enjoined : " Use hospitality one to another, without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, so let him minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God ; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth." And it is thus enforced : " that God may in all things be glorified through Jesus Christ." The jnaintenance and manifestation of the love of the brethren, enjoined and recommended, are thus obviously the substance of the text ; and to unfold the meaning of the injunctions, and to point out the force of the recommendations, are the objects I shall endeavour to gain in the following discourse.
PART I] TO BE MAINTAINED. 91
I. THE MAINTENANCE OF BROTHERLY LOVE.
§ 1. The duty explained.
And first, of the maintenance of brotherly love. " Above all things, have fervent charity ajnong yourselves : for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." The injunction first calls for our consideration : " Above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves." ^
In the ordinary use of language, charity is expressive either of almsgiving, or of that disposition which leads a man to take fully as favourable a view of the character and conduct of other men as facts will justify. In Scripture, however, it is never employed in either of these senses. It is uniformly used as equivalent to the word "love" in its highest sense ; and it would have prevented some hazardous misapprehensions and misinterpretations had the original term been uniformly thus rendered. I have had occasion to remark elsewhere, that " there is a love which every man owes to every other man, without reference to his spiritual state or character, merely because he is a man, — a sincere desire to promote his welfare." This is the love which the Apostle Paul, with obvious propriety, represents as " the fulfilling of the law," so far as it refers to our duties to our fellow-men ; for he who is under its influence can do no ill to any man ; he cannot interfere injuriously with another's personal property or reputation, but on the contrary must, as he has opportunity, "do good to all men." Good-will
^ The subject of this section has already been considered in Discourses VI., XII., and xv. I have preferred laying myself open to the charge of self-repetition, rather than either, by mere reference to these dis- courses, giving this discourse a mangled appearance, or, by studiously seeking novelty in the form of expression, running the risk of injuring the substance of the illustration of brotherly love. Similar reasons have led to similar repetitions in other parts of these volumes.
92 BROTHERLY LOVE [DISC. XIX.
is the essence, indeed the sole component element, of this love.
The love referred to in the text is obviously more limited in its range, and, for that very reason, much more compre- hensive in its elementary principles. It is not love towards all men that the apostle here enjoins, but " love among themselves." This affection is called " the love of the brethren," " brotherly kindness," to contradistinguish it from the benevolent regard which should be cherished towards all human beings ; for though all men are brethren, as they have one Father, " one God has created them," they are not all brethren in the Christian sense of that ex- pression. The appellation is limited to what has always been a comparatively small class of persons, genuine Chris- tians. The affection spoken of in the text can be exercised only by them : it can be exercised only to them. A man who is unchristian, who is antichristian, in his opinions and temper and conduct, may highly esteem, may tenderly love, a true Christian ; but he cannot cherish to him the love which Christians have " among themselves," " brotherly kindness :" he loves him not because he is, but notwith- standing that he is, a Christian. A Christian may love, he ought to love, he does love, all mankind; he desires the happiness of every being capable of happiness ; he esteems what is estimable, he loves what is amiable, he admires what is admirable ; he pities what is suffering wherever he meets with it : but he cannot extend beyond the sacred pale the love which those within it have " among themselves ; " he cannot regard with brotherly kindness any one but a Chris- tian brother. None but a Christian can be either the object or the subject of this benevolent affection. None but a Christian can either be the agent or the recipient in the kind offices in which it finds expression.
This limitation is matter not of choice, but of necessity.
PART I.] TO BE MAINTAINED. 93
Most gladly would the Christian regard all his fellow-men as fellow-Christians, if they would but allow him to do so, by becoming Christians ; but till they do so, it is in the nature of things impossible that he should feel towards them as if they were what they are not. This affection originates in the possession of a peculiar mode of thinking and feeling, produced in the mind by the Holy Spirit, through the knowledge and belief of Christian truth, which naturally leads those who are thus distinguished to a sym- pathy of mind and heart, of thought and affection, with all who, under the same influence, have been led to entertain the same views and to cherish the same dispositions. They love one another "in the truth, for the truth's sake that dwelleth in them, and shall be with them for ever."^
This circumstance, which necessarily limits this principle as to its sphere of operation, gives it a greater intensity and activity in that sphere, as well as much greater compre- hension of elementary principles. It includes good-will in its highest degree ; but to this it adds moral esteem, com- placential delight, tender sympathy. This it does in every instance ; but the degree in which these elementary prin- ciples are to be found, in individual cases of brotherly kindness, depends on a variety of circumstances ; and chiefly on the degree in which he who exercises it, and he to whom it is exercised, approach the completeness and perfection of the Christian character. Every Christian loves every other Christian, when he knows him ; but the more accomplished the Christian is, whether the subject or object of brotherly love, the more does he put forth or draw forth its holy, benignant influence.
The end of all love is the good or the happiness of its object, as that happiness is conceived of by its subject. The great end which Christian brotherly love contemplates, 1 2 John 2.
94 BROTHERLY LOVE [DISC. XIX.
is the well-being of its object, viewed as a Christian man ; his dehverance from ignorance, and error, and sin, in all their forms and all their degrees ; his progressive, and ultimately his complete happiness, in entire conformity to the mind and will of God ; the unclouded sense of the divine favour, the uninterrupted enjoyment of the divine fellowship, the being like " the ever-blessed " Holy, Holy, Holy One. It does not overlook any of the interests of its object ; but it views them all in reference, in subordination, to the enjoyment of " the salvation that is in Christ, with eternal glory."
This is " the love among themselves" of which the apostle speaks ; and his injunction with regard to it is, " Above all things, have fervent love among yourselves." The original word rendered " fervent " is a very expressive one.^ Its primitive and proper signification is, extensive and wide- reaching ; and when applied to love, it describes a benevo- lent affection, which takes a wide view of the capacities for happiness of its objects, and which seeks its gratification in having all these capacities completely filled ; the love expressed in the words of the apostle, " This also we wish, even your perfection;" or in his prayer, "that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God." Nothing short of the perfect holiness, the perfect happiness of its objects, can satisfy it.
This term is also used to signify intensity/ ; as when it is said of our Lord, that " being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly." The love which the apostle calls on Christians to maintain, is not cold, not even lukewarm : it is fervent love ; an active principle like fire ; not lying dormant in the mind, but influencing all the powers of action ; a love which will make the exertion or suffering necessary to gain its purposes, be readily engaged in and submitted to.
' 'E*TSVJJ.
PART I.] TO BE MAINTAINED. 95
This word, too, is employed to signify continuance ; as when it is said, that " prayer was made without ceasing for Peter," when Herod had cast him into prison, intending that he should never come out but to his execution. The love here referred to is love that is to last for life, and which even death is not to extinguish. It is an extensive, intense, permanent affection, which the apostle exhorts Christians to maintain towards each other.
The precise import of his exhortation differs somewhat, according to the place you give to the epithet " fervent " in it. If, with our translators, you read, " Have fervent charity among yourselves," the word have has the sense of hold. He takes for granted that as Christians they were in posses- sion of this fervent love, and his exhortation is to hold it fast. Let not your fervent love wax cold. If, with other interpreters, and fully as much in conformity with the con- struction of the original text, we read, " Have love among yourselves, fervent^'' the apostle takes for granted that they had love among themselves ; if they had not, they were not Christians at all ; and his exhortation to them is, ' See that your love be in extent, in intensity, and in continuance, what it ought to be.' In this case, the passage is exactly parallel with that in chapter i. 22, where he takes for granted, that they had " purified their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren ;" and exhorts them to " see that they love one another with a pure heart fervently." The exhortation unites in it both of Paul's exhortations in reference to the same subject : "Be kindly affectioned to one another, in brotherly love;"^ that is, let your love be intense : and, " Let brotherly love continue;" that is, let your love be permanent.
The only other point in the apostle's injunction to the maintenance of brotherly love that requires illustration, is 1 Rom. xii. 10.
96 BROTHERLY LOVE [DISC. XIX,
the qualifying phrase, "above all things."^ Some have supposed that the apostle's object was to call on Christians to show their love to one another before all: 'Before all men, have love among yourselves fervent. Let your mutual love serve the purpose which our Lord meant it to serve. " Hereby," said he, " shall all men know you to be my disciples, if ye have love one to another."^ Be not ashamed of one another, especially when involved in suffer- ing for Christ. When that "iniquity abounds," let not your love among yourselves " wax cold ;" let not these waters quench it, let not these floods drown it.^ Let it be so fer- vent, that even the heathen may be constrained to say, " Behold how these Christians love one another ! " ' ' We are rather disposed to consider the words as intended to mark the very great importance of this fervent love among themselves, as that without which the great purpose of Christianity could not be gained, either in the individual or in the society, either within the pale of the Christian Church or beyond it ; for it is love that " edifies" both the Chris- tian and the Christian Church. He who has love proves that he has faith, for " faith works by love ;" and he who has love is sure to have holiness, for " love is the f ulfilliufj of the law." He who loves his brother can do no harm to his brother ; he must do him all the good in his power.'*
Paul's estimate of the comparative value of love was not lower than that of his brother apostle ; and his eulogium is the best commentary on the words, " Have charity above all things." " Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove moun-
1 npo Tavrav. - Jolin xiii. 35. 3 Matt. xxiv. 12.
* 1 Cor. viii. 1 ; GaL v. 6 ; Rom. xiii. 10.
PART I.l TO BE MAINTAINED. 97
tains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profitetli me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind ; charity envieth not ; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity