clung to, the more highly are they appreciated. Thus the Jews valued themselves on the possession of the promised land; “flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands," though "they had not gained it by their own sword, or by their own bow, neither was it their own arm which helped them." Still less was it for their own righteousness, or for the uprightness of their heart, that God gave them that good land; but for the wickedness of its inhabitants, whom the Lord drove out before them, and because he had a delight in their fathers, to love them, and chose their seed after them :† yet they were "a stiff-necked people,"‡ repeatedly rebelling against their God. All this, however, did not prevent the Jew from boasting of himself as the son of Abraham, as the chosen of God, and spurning the idea that any others than himself should partake of his privileges; so that rather than be persuaded to admit the Heathen as united with himself in the chosen church and people of God, he closed his ears, and hardened his heart against the wisdom and miracles, and perfections of the Son of God, and rejected the glad tidings of salvation. Thus experience proves, that this spirit of self-complacency and boasting is excited and strengthened by the possession of any advantage or superiority, which is peculiar to, and distinguishes the possessor. Even though its origin be wholly independent of his personal exertions and personal effort, that circumstance by no means extinguishes, and perhaps seldom even checks the spirit of boasting, excited by the possession of hereditary rank, of hereditary wealth, of national superiority, of attractive beauty, of matchless strength. Now, if the same tendency exists as to religious distinctions, I cannot but suspect, that the doctrine of absolute predestination, eternal and gratuitous election, secured by free grace, independent of any effort on the part of the man, and productive of indefectible perseverance which no temptations can endanger, and final salvation which no crimes can forfeit, as strongly tends to excite a spirit of spiritual pride, of boasting and self-complacency, as any system of religious opinion which can be received. Josh. xxiv. 12. + Deut. vii, 4-8. 2 Chron. xxx. 8. Now is there no danger that he who believes himself one of the elect, of the chosen favourites of heaven, eternally and unalterably predestined to virtue and piety and acceptance in the present world, to immortality and glory in the next; and that this illustrious distinction is enjoyed by himself and the remaining elect, to the exclusion of the great majority of mankind, whom no powers of others, no efforts of their own, can exalt to this pre-eminence, which the elect share only with patriarchs and apostles, saints and martyrs-if any man believes himself thus distinguished and exalted by the power of God, is there no danger of his being elated by self-complacency and infected with spiritual pride? Is there no danger of his boasting, not perhaps of the merits he possesses, but of the favour, the pre-eminence he enjoys, in being thus chosen and exalted by the Sovereign of the world? True it is, his system teaches him, that this is not by his own works, or by his own merits, but solely from first to last the effect of the gratuitous, and unmerited, but the certain and eternal and unalterable preference of the Ruler of the universe. This he may confess with expressions of the deepest humility; but, alas! is there no danger of his being proud of this humility, which still recognises the exaltation conferred by that divine favour which thus exclusively selects him? Is there no danger of his regarding the excluded and the reprobate as an inferior and degraded cast?" Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou." If it be said, this is not a rational and necessary consequence of the predestinarian scheme, but a perversion and abuse of it, this I readily admit. But surely, it may with equal truth be asserted, that the boasting which the apostle condemns, is not a natural and necessary consequence of that scheme, which rejects absolute predestination, and maintains the freedom of human actions, and the conditionality of the divine decrees, but its perversion and abuse. Can he indeed consistently boast of his works, who knows, they are all so blended with imperfection and depravity, as to require forgiveness instead of being entitled to reward ?* Can * Vide supra, Introduction p. 160; also p. 384 to 386. he boast of his own strength and attainments, who knows, he is by nature ignorant, and poor, and blind, and naked, and that from his birth to his death he has not taken, and could not take, a single step in the path which leads to heaven, but by the guidance and support of the ever-present and ever-powerful aid of that Divine Spirit, from whom cometh every good, and every perfect gift; and without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy ?* True it is, we believe ourselves not altogether passive in the work of our salvation; we do not feel ourselves acted on by any resistless force. We believe it to be in our power to resist and quench the workings of divine grace, and thus grieve and alienate the Holy Spirit of God, and reject the merciful offers of salvation by Christ. But, in our accepting this offer of mercy, is there any thing whereof to boast? Will the condemned criminal boast of his accepting of, and rejoicing in a reprieve, rather than in being led to an ignominious death? Will the unhappy being, sinking under a pestilential disease, boast of his accepting a cure from that Great Physician, whom thousands around him hail, as the preserver of their lives? Will the prisoner, plunged in a dark and loathsome dungeon, when his chains are loosened, and the gate thrown open which confined him from the light of heaven, boast because he walks forth to liberty and life? In a word, the nature of that faith, by which we lay hold on the blessings of the Gospel, will assuredly silence all boasting in the true believer, though he reject the doctrine of absolute predestination. "Boasting (according to the apostle,) is not excluded by the law of works; because, to him that worketh the reward is reckoned, not of grace, but of debt." Grace, and works that deserve justification and salvation being perfectly opposite one to another, boasting is excluded by the law of faith. Where, therefore, the acceptance of the act to such a purpose is of free grace-where the reward is still of grace, and not of debt-where it is given on account of faith, testified indeed by works, (but these works imperfect, and deserving nothing from God,) there boasting is excluded. * Vide supra, the entire of the Discourses vii. viii. xiv. Add to this, that the believer "works out his salvation with fear and trembling,"* even to the last moment of his life; conscious, that "it is God alone who worketh in him, to will and do according to his good pleasure;" but also conscious, that his own negligence and his own sinfulness, constantly expose him to the danger of neglecting, abusing, and thus forfeiting that indispensable aid of the Holy Spirit, without which he must irretrievably sink into guilt and perdition. Surely the Christian who feels thus, can scarcely feel at the same time self-confidence, or self-complacency. He feels as the combatant who is still engaged in a doubtful conflict with a formidable enemy, not as the conqueror who triumphs in his victory. Besides this, he knows all his religious and moral attainments have been surpassed by thousands and tens of thousands who have preceded him in the Christian course; and may, and will, in all probability, be exceeded by myriads who are yet to follow. He enjoys no peculiar privileges, no exclusive superiority, nothing that exalts him above the lowest candidate for admission into the kingdom of heaven. Surely this conviction must exclude spiritual pride and boasting, and inspire humility and self-abasement. In the Introduction to this work,† I have explicitly stated my cordial assent to the doctrine of justification by faith; or, to use the language of our truly scriptural church, the doctrine "that we are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, not for our own works or deservings." I have stated, "that we must lay it down to ourselves as an unquestionable principle, that no attempt in religion is to be made in dependence on our own unaided strength, for that, as well at the commencement,‡ as at every step of our progress from sin and misery, to righteousness and happiness, it is the divine aid which sustains, the divine wisdom which guides, the divine mercy which encourages, and accepts the returning sinner;"§ and surely these principles ought decidedly to check this spirit of boasting, so inconsistent with * Vide supra, Discourse viii. p. 296, &c. #p. 294. + Introduction, p. 160 to 163. $ p. 310. our relation to our God, with the correction of our fallen nature, with the growth of grace, with our preparation for heaven. We have already observed, in the last Discourse, the obvious tendency of this sound principle of faith in Christ to remedy the calamitous effects of the fall, to teach us moral and intellectual humility, to redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us unto God as a peculiar people zealous of good works. It is here sufficient, briefly to remark the plain and powerful tendency of the same principle, to check the spirit of self-complacency and boasting, to lead the believer to look out of himself, and concentrate his complacency on another object. This effect it produces by leading us to look to Christ only for salvation, by teaching us we are justified by faith alone, and that we have no merits, no righteousness of our own to plead at the dread tribunal of the Eternal Judge. This is essentially that act of the mind by which we look, not to ourselves, but to Christ, and to Him crucified, as the only source of pardon and acceptance, of life and immortality. Now, this view of the pardon for sin, shuts out all self-complacency. Who that believes the guilt of man was so exceeding sinful that it could not be expiated but by the atoning sacrifice of Christ, and at the same time recollects that his own individual and personal sins make part of the aggregate of human guilt; who that believes this can be proud of his own nature, and boast of his own righteousness? Thus, also, when the eye of faith views the sufferings and cross of Christ as proofs of his love to his people-for "no man hath greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" it must connect with this the return on our part which such love claims, and which our Redeemer so earnestly demands from us. "If ye love me, keep my commandments; and this is my commandment, that ye love one another even as I have loved you ;" and again, "by this shall all men know that ye are my friends, if ye love one another." In this view faith leads us humbly and impartially to compare our own character and conduct, our obedience to the law of our Redeemer, John xv. 12-14. † Ibid. xiii. 35. |