SERMON 2
SERMON I. The manuscript of the
following sermon bears the date of January 18, 1798 two months before Dr.
Chalmers eighteenth birthday, and a year and a half before he was licensed by
the Presbytery as a preacher of the gospel. It must have been written as a
Divinity Hall class exercise during the last session of his regular attendance
at the University of St. Andrews. Its concluding paragraphs lay bare to us
those fatal misapprehensions of the great doctrine of justification by faith
only, which were cherished by him during the first ten years of his ministry -
against which afterwards all the better fitted to guard others, because of his
having long misled by them himself.
MICAH
VI. 8. He hath showed thee, 0 man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require
of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God
?"
This passage, if taken in connexion with the context, would
naturally direct our thoughts to the evils of hypocrisy and superstition. It
would lead us to infer that the mind alone is the seat of virtue; that in our
estimation of religion we are not to have respect to the works of the hand, but
only to the moral disposition of the heart. Instead, however, of adverting more
the occasion of the text, I propose to consider it and of itself; and shall
first endeavour to illustrate particular duties enjoined in the text, and shall
then consider it in its connexion with the religion of Jesus.
The Lord
requireth of thee to do justly - to love mercy. The promotion of happiness is
the great end of all social duty. Wherefore is it that justice approves itself
to our feelings of virtue? Because without its observance the peace, the
happiness, the very existence of society would be endangered. Mercy, also, is
the object of moral approbation; because by the relief of indigence, by the
consolation of misery, it advances and promotes the happiness of men. Both are
equally incumbent, because both conduce to the same end. In the eye of civil
polity doing justly may be all that is in duty required, but in the eye of
eternal reason and virtue, loving mercy is no less indispensable. It is the end
which these virtues have a tendency to promote that confers upon them their
moral obligation. This end is one and invariable; the means which lead to its
attainment are diversified with the circumstances of the case. Justice and
mercy include in them all the various manners of acting by which we can
contribute to the happiness of mankind. Hence they resolve themselves into that
great duty which consists in devoting our time and our labour to the welfare of
others.
Benevolence or universal charity is the source from which the
observance of these duties proceeds. It is this principle of love which guides
through the path of duty, and is the fountain of all our social virtues. It
equally calls upon us to satisfy the demands of justice and to visit the abodes
of wretchedness; to discharge with fidelity the trust reposed in us, and to
exercise all our tender affections. Let us cultivate this spirit of benevolence
and love, and we fulfil the duties recommended in the text ; for all the
commandments are briefly comprehended in this saying - "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself." Let us now proceed to the last duty which the text
recommends - Thou shalt walk humbly with thy God. Walking humbly with God more
immediately involves in it an entire acquiescence in His authority - an
unbounded resignation to His will. It is opposed to that arrogance of mind
which would lead us to cavil and repine at the dispensations of His providence.
But it also includes in it the whole of piety; to it may be referred all those
affections of mind which should result from the relations we stand in to our
Creator. It is with God that we are required to walk humbly; and if so, we must
be open to every sentiment which the contemplation of His perfections is
calculated to inspire - to the awe of His power, to confidence in His wisdom,
and to the love of His goodness.
The man of humility strives to offer
an acceptable service to the Author of being. Does God speak? he listens to His
words with an awful reverence; he reposes an unlimited trust in His veracity.
Does God declare His will? with unbounded faith he receives sovereign mandates,
and submits to their influence. And reverence for the authority of God keeps
him in the His divine commandments, and leads him to watch with trembling
anxiety. But humility towards God does not consist entirely in the dread of His
power, in that slavish terror which enfeebles the energy of the mind, and
destroys the vitals of our happiness. The Deity hath deigned to reveal Himself
to us the endearing images of our father and friend. He hath softened the sense
of His greatness by giving us a view of His beneficence and love. We ought
therefore to cherish sentiments of gratitude and affection, and the
contemplation of the divine goodness should inspire our hearts with confidence
and joy! Think not, then, that piety casts a gloom over the face of nature.
Think not that sullen and dejected it retires from the world to dwell on
nothing but subjects of melancholy. Think not that the sigh of sadness or the
tears of penitential sorrow are its whole employments. True, the ravages of
sin, the imperfections of infinite nature, may cause it to hide its face for a
while in all the bitterness of grief. But soon will the light of divine
countenance be restored, and that voice of heavenly consolation be heard which
speaketh peace to the soul. Then piety appears arrayed in all its beauty and
lustre. It harmonises with every generous feeling of our nature, and ennobles
the enjoyments of life. It confers new dignity on man; and the dignity affords
a new theme of gratitude and love.
Now may we be convinced of the
propriety of applying the epithet "good" to humility or piety towards God.
Alas, it is only in the sense of His wise providence that we can find any
rational support to the soul amidst the present scenes of obscurity and
confusion! Man mourns over his afflictions; cares and anxieties distract his
mind. Following after peace, earnest in the pursuit of happiness, the events of
every day convince him of the fallacy of his hopes - every hour brings on new
topics of lamentation and complaint. What then shall he do? Shall he sit down
under the despondency of continual apprehension, destitute of all hope in
futurity, and incapable of the sublime exertions of virtue? In sullen despair
shall he drag out his miserable existence without a generous sentiment to
elevate his mind, and without a ray of consolation to cheer the gloom of life?
No; let the infinite wisdom and unbounded goodness of God be impressed on his
mind; let him contemplate those provisions which the Author of nature hath made
for the encouragement and comfort of His creatures; and let him fit himself by
the exercises of humility and piety for the enjoyment of the blessings which
these provisions ensure ; - then will be dispelled those clouds of sorrow and
darkness which overhung his mind; the peace of his soul will be completely
restored. Resting with an humble assurance on the favour of his God, he looks
forward with joy to that felicity which His goodness gives him reason to
expect. Amidst the storms and the tempests of life he extends his prospects to
the regions of everlasting peace. Let us therefore recognise the goodness of
genuine humility. It is good in the moral sense, because in the eye of reason
and of virtue it naturally results from that relation which subsists between
man and his Maker; and it is good also in the natural sense, because it
alleviates the evils of this present life, and prepares us for the enjoyment of
eternal felicity. In the same manner we must acknowledge the goodness of
benevolence.
The exercises of pure and perfect benevolence would
convert this vale of tears into a paradise of bliss. Under its benign influence
want and its attendant evils would be banished from the earth; men would feel
little of the evils, and would enjoy in perfection the blessings of life. Why
has the populous city become an habitation for the beasts of the desert?
Wherefore is that a dreary wilderness which was formerly crowned with the
blessings of eternity - where innocence and peace took up their abode, and
n.othing was heard but the voice of joy? We are not to say that Nature was
unkind, or that she delights in the misery of children. We have seldom to
ascribe it to the ravage of the elements, or to any of those evils which are
essential to our to the wickedness and depravity of the human heart - the the
direr effasions of passion - to the mad ambition of wealth and of power. These
are the principal sources of human wretchedness; and these it is the direct
tendency of benevolence to supress. Under its happy reign all would enjoy the
exquiste pleasures of loving and of being beloved - pleasures which are
congenial to the heart and make up the chief part of our happiness.
Though the powers of nature should conspire ot our peace, yet the voice of
love would invite us to gladness. Though the heavens should withhold their
rain, and earth forbear to yield its increase; or though the fair face of
nature should be overcast in the gloom of night, and the blast of the storm
should threaten to overwhelm us; yet supported by the kind endearments of
friendship, we may continue unruffled and serene, and our minds be open to the
most feeling enjoyments. On the other hand, let everything without unite is
gratify our desires and increase our enjoyments; let the labour of the year be
crowned with success; let the seasons join concert for our accommodation and
ease; let the sun diffuse in due proportion his cheering influences; let the
fury of the tempest be allayed, and all around us be clothed in mildness and
beauty; unless the heart of man accords with the beneficence of nature; unless
his mind is open to the warm impressions of sympathy and love - misery will
still be our lot; the tale of woe will still be heard in our streets; and this
world will continue the abode of wretchedness.
The sufferings of Job
were aggravated in the extreme. Yet the loss of his wealth, the ravages of
disease, the death of his children, the dissolution of the most endearing
connexions in nature, were all unable to shake the patient fortitude of his
mind. Still could he raise to heaven the voice of gratitude and resignation:
The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away; blessed be His name. But when his
companions and friends - instead of allaying the anguish of his grief, instead
of taking upon them the part of a comforter - began to insult him with their
bitter accusations, then the vigour of his mind was unequal to the arduous
contest, and his soul, no longer able to support itself, was subjected to the
mingled emotions of indignation and grief. Nature is kind enough, if we only
were kind to one another. But often, alas, do the dark designs of malice work
in our breasts; often do the silly emotions of pride and of envy obstruct the
enjoyments of social intercourse. 0 that the principle of benevolence within us
were powerful enough to eradicate these passions from our hearts. 0 that we
were sacrificing our absurd notions of importance and dignity, our views of
interest and ambition, to that great object - the good of others. 0 that the
sufferings of our fellow-men were calling forth the tears of sympathy, and
rousing to exertions of beneficence and love; then the burdens of life would
bear light upon us, and our days would pass in the pure enjoyment of innocence
and virtue.
Let us now proceed to consider the religion of Jesus in
its connexion with the spirit of the text.
Justice, mercy, and piety, are
all that are or can be required of us by God. Hence if we are bound to
acquiesce in the doctrines and to obey the precepts of the gospel, this
acquiescence and this obedience must be the consequence of one or other of
those duties which are enjoined in the text. Faith in the religion of Jesus
must be the necessary effect of walking humbly with God, if the testimony of
the apostles and evangelists be entitled to belief. This will appear from
considering the nature of that evidence by which Christianity is supported.
Those arguments for its truth which are derived from our experience of the
usual conduct and behaviour of men have never been refuted. And on the validity
of these arguments, we are capable of forming a right, unerring judgment; since
the conduct of men in all states and circumstances is the subject of daily
observation. But whence are the objections of our opponents derived?
They are derived from some supposed defect in the scheme or dispensation of
Christianity; from something which they imagine to be inconsistent with the
nature of God, or unworthy of His perfections. But can this invalidate the
force of that evidence which we know how to measure and becertain? When
reasoning on the conduct of men, we can form our conclusions with certainty and
precision; but when reasoning on the conduct of God, we are involved in the
clouds of ignorance and error. We are unable to scan the ways or trace the
operations of unerring wisdom. We cannot determine on the rectitude of the
divine dispensations, since we know them not in all their relations and all
their extent. It is not for us, the frai1 insects of a day, who are yet in the
childhood of existence,who scarce have had time to look about us in the immense
theatre of our being; it is not for us to oppose the feeble powers of our
reason to the wonders of Omnipotence. When we know the mechanism of the
universe, when we are acquainted with the laws by which its vast operations are
conducted, when we can trace the connexions which run through the various
systems of being - then, and then only, are we entitled to decide on the
propriety of the means which the Author of nature may adopt for the completion
of His designs. Seeing then our ignorance in the ways of God, we must be
cautious of making some supposed inconsistency with His attributes a ground of
rejecting what is proposed as the revelation of His will. No opinion that we
may form of His conduct can ever be the criterion of its truth or falsehood.
But the case is different with regard to the conduct of men; here we can reason
with all the confidence of truth. Shall therefore a mere assumptiou on the
methods of the divine administration counterbalance those arguments on which
alone we are capable of deciding with assurance? I leave it to the
determination of sound philosophy.
Thus Christianity approves itself to
our understandings as being divinely inspired, and we fail in our duty to God
if we believe not its doctrines, nor submit to its precepts.
When
inquiring into the divine will we would observe that the doctrines of
revelation are laid before us with different degrees of light and clearness.
Hence we would receive them with the hesitation of partial knowledge, or with
the confidence of truth. What is clearly revealed we would treasure up in our
minds as of the most essential importance. What is hid in obscurity or is
remote from our apprehensions we would regard with an awful reverence, but
would forbear to reason on with the assurance of dogmatism. But, alas! this
natural order has been inverted - and to this we are in a great measure to
ascribe the corruptions of Christianity. Instead of employing their zeal in
maintaining that faith and that practice which are clearly laid down in
Scripture, and which it insists upon as our duty to God and as essential to our
happiness, many have directed their chief attention to those subjects on which
it is undecided and obscure. They have attached the highest degree of
importance to those doctrines which transcend the limits of our faculties, and
to these they have sacrificed all that can inform the understanding or improve
the heart.
Thus religion is made to consist in dark speculations and
unprofitable inquiries. The beautiful simplicity of the gospel is defaced, and
a dark veil of mysticism intercepts from our view the light of divine truth.
The effects of heavenly instruction are lost on the world, since Christianity
thus perverted from its original excellence is unsuited to the natures and
capacities of reasonable beings. The corrupters of evangelical purity, in
accordance with their zeal for the particular doctrines they have espoused,
maintain the absolute necessity of believing in them. Thus in their systems of
theological truth, they have had the audacity to heap article on article, and
to crown all with this thundering asserertion - that eternal misery awaits
those who should dare to dissent. What a lamentable deviation from the spirit
of the text! Here the rewards of heaven are attached to the exercise of our
virtuous affections. And what is the line of conduct which these would lead us
to adopt ? They lead us to repose an unlimited confidence in the veracity of
God, to examine the revelation of His will with humility and candour, and to
keep our minds open to those impressions which the perusal of its contents are
fitted to produce. If therefore the tenets of these rehigionists are contained
in the Scriptures of truth, it will be a dictate of piety that we acquiesce in
them, since it would be an insult on the Divine Being to withhold our
assent.
But the faith of Christianity is praiseworthy and meritorious
only because it is derived from the influence of virtuous sentiments on the
mind. Hence the labours of those are grossly misapplied who inculcate the
belief of certain religious truths as the method of obtaining the favour of
heaven. Let us rather endeavour to inspire men with affections; let us impress
upon their hearts the sentiments of humility and piety; and let us refer the
revelations of divine will to their own examination. They will there recognise
the doctrines which it is incumbent on them to believe and they will discern
the sources of this incumbency. Let us themble to think that anything but
virtue can reconcile us to the Almighty. True, we wander in the paths of vanity
and darkness, and Christ is pointed out to us as our only refuge against the
terrors of guilt; but the acknowledgimnt of our Saviour, that faith in Him
which is essential to our happiness, is brought about by the impulse of moral
sentiment, and unless it were so, we cannot see how it could ensure to us the
favour of heaven. In nothing has the genius of mysticism more displayed itself
than in the delineations of that faith which is a requisite to salvation. We
recognise the faith of Christianity as that which is derived from the force of
reason, and the energy of virtuous sentiment. But the misguided votaries of
superstition and fananaticism have involved this subject in darkness.
They talk bf faith, and their notions of this faith are contradictory and
absurd; a faith which consists not in the assent of the understanding, but in
some strange undefinable affection of the mind - a faith not derived from the
calm exercises of the inquiring facilility - or from the sober suggestions of
humility and piety; but a faith which precedes all examination, and is said to
be the primary source of all that is good and excellent in the human character.
I ask the man of common sense, if he can form to himself any idea of this faith
- the favourite topic of declamation with these famed religionists. But they
love to soar aloft; their ears are soothed, their imaginations are dazzled with
those high-sounding words, those notable phrases which they think can explain
all the mysteries of theological science. We consider the faith of Christianity
to be the humble assurance of an honest mind which grounds its confidence on
the consciousness of its own sincerity, on the view of the divine goodness, and
on the contemplation of those provisions which the Author of nature hath made
for the encouragement of erring mortals.
But the perverters of the
truth as it is in Jesus have determined that to be the saving faith which none
but the presumptuous can entertain; not that faith which worketh by love, which
purifieth the heart, and which overcometh the world, but that faith which,
according with the pride of their minds, elevates them in their own esteem as
the peculiar favourites of heaven. This faith (horrible to relate) they carry
about with them as an amulet against the reproaches of a guilty conscience, and
thus do they stifle the feelings of nature, and check the sentiments of virtue.
Sanctioned by this faith they may oppress the poor, the fatherless, and the
widow - they may betray the interests of an unsuspecting friend, while they lay
claim to the friendship of heaven. Sanctioned by this faith they may indulge in
every excess of sensual voluptuousness, while they have confidence in their
hearts towards God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
Sanctioned by this faith they may meditate on schemes of robbery and
murder, while they exclaim with exultation - Lo, the Spirit of Jesus is in us.
- O my soul come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly mine honour be
not thou united. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations; they bathe
their hands in the blood of innocence; they lurk in the dark haunts of villany;
and, good God! they sit secure amidst such enormities, and rejoice in their
presumption as the mark of intimacy wit.h the Spirit, and of growth in grace. 0
Christianity whither hast thou fled? where hast thou taken up thine abode? We
sought for thy instructions, but counsels were darkened by words without
knowledge. We sought for thy beauties, and the picture of horrid deformity was
exhibited to our view. We sought for thy consolations, and our souls were
appalled with the sounds of horror and despair. Surely thou art despoiled of
thy graces and thy ornaments. Surely thou hast resigned the lovely honours of
thy head. We took thee for the messenger of glad tidings, for the of love,
peace, and joy; but we have seen thee clothed with terror, and striking with
dismay thy slavish worshippers. - took thee for the support and encouragement
of virtue, but, we have seen all that accords with the feelings of our minds
despised and overlooked, and we have seen thy blessings attached to the pride
of censorious dogmatism, and to the confidence of presumption, and to the
unmeaning effusions of flase zeal. The soul formed to sentiments of generosity
sickens at the prospect and must either rise superior to the prejudices of the
times or (dreadful alternative) shelter itself in infidel repose.
Let
us therefore pray the Father of Spirits that He would dispel those clouds of
ignorance and error which overwhelm the nations; that He would enable them to
see the religion of Jesus in its native purity; that He would enable them to
see it through that veil of mysticism with which the pernicious superstition of
men bath invested it; that He would enable them to see it as the offspring of
reason and virtue. Then they will leave their dark and intricate speculations.
They will learn to relish the simplicity of the gospel - that affecting strain
of sentiment which pervades it - that warm spirit of benevolence which it
breathes - those sublime precepts of morality which it inculcates. They will
learn to admire and to imitate the rational and elevated piety, the ardent
charity, the pure and exalted virtue of Jesus and His apostles.
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