matter of fact, respecting the position of the enemy; which he had just observed "with indubitable clearness," and therefore "testified to" all in a hurry : upon which report, a military movement of some consequence was immediately ordered; the whole army was set on march; a lofty hill-top eminence was stoutly gained; and the victorious troops exulted without a battle-for no enemy was there! the lieutenant, in the inspiration of his zeal, having reported an unreal spectacle; "quod non vidisset, pro viso, sibi renunciasse;" but with all the certainty of a man who misleads a multitude, and even trepans a great commander, because he moves too fast in his observations to possess himself of the truth as it is, or to understand the subject of his sanguine communications. Not unwisely therefore does the saying of Luther receive the homage of succeeding ages in reference to this grand fundamental of christianity-“ ARTICULUS STANTIS VEL CADENTIS ECCLESIAE;" THE DOCTRINE BY WHICH THE CHURCH OR STANDS OR FALLS-a sentiment of which I scarce know whether more to admire the solemnity, the poetry, the validity, the utility, or the piety! It deserves the respect of the universe, as it conciliates the testimony of the wise. To understand the doctrine of justification; to master the science of its relations to the law and to the gospel, with correct and profound discrimination; to adjust it in the revealed system, as it respects the atonement and the righteousness of Christ, the moral government of God, the duty of sinners, and the hopes of men; that same great and wise Reformer also justly made his criterion of a qualified theologian and an accomplished minister. O how justly! No man is fit to preach who does not understand it; who does not aggrandize it to the perceptions of his hearers ; who does not glory in it surpassingly himself! But when was Quaker preacher SUCH? I never knew or read of an instance, even by approximation! To be such, is to be a Quaker no more. They do not understand the subject. Barclay does not-pro batum sit. "It is by this inward birth of Christ in man that man is made just, and therefore so accounted by God: wherefore, to be plain, [who has a better right?] we are thereby, and not till that be brought forth in us, formally, if we must use that word, justified in the sight of God; because justification is both more properly and frequently in scripture taken in its proper signification for making one just, and not reputing one merely such, and is all one with sanctification." The italicising is his own. I however will capitalize this sentiment-JUSTIFICATION IS ALL ONE WITH SANCTIFICATION! sanctification, it seems, is all one with the mystic "seed" in us set a growing! What shall I say? Is this the way to expound the word of God; to sustain the protestant cause; and to diffuse christianity in the world? Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis VIRG. And Not such defenders can sustain the cause; Or suit the age, or claim our just applause. Reader, the whole dissertation is "a continent of mud," resolvable into the substance of the precious morceau I have quoted. It is a specimen of the whole territory. It is the seminal nucleus whereof all the total quantity is but the homogeneous expansion. On the above, I would remark, 1. That he evidently dislikes the word justified. "If we must use that word." Indeed! How reluctant to use one of the "words which the Holy Ghost teacheth!" one of the richest in the vocabulary of Jesus Christ! one of the most glorious to authentic hope! I know the reason-neither the word, nor the thing, suits the system he advocates. It explodes that system with mutual repugnance. The matter is in his way; and yet he vaunts as if it were an exact fit. If the word be "all one with sanctification," how great the infelicity of its use ! Why say any thing in the Bible about justification? why not use one word only? and why does he write so much to tell us that both are one and the same? "As many as resist not this light, but receive the same, it becomes in them an holy, pure, and spiritual birth-by which-as we are sanctified, so are we justified in the sight of God." Thus his seventh proposition, "concerning justification," proceeds, as the thesis of his essay in which there are twentyone lines of mythologic wisdom, without even the word faith in all his formal statement. The doctrine of evangelical faith is another enemy of their system. To believe in that light-is all they know of faith; and what they steal from the word of God to confirm their error, they pervert to the same end. The faith of the gospel is intelligent; is rational; is steady; is above the feelings, as their balance and their guide; is just as devoid of fanaticism as of infidelity; is happy and peaceful; "full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." But how terrible is the delusion of sin! The maniac maintains his sanity in the first place, and construes his friends as his foes. The spirit of false religion rejoices in the sparks of its own kindling, and refuses to see itself as it is, in the light of truth! But its sentence will soon be executed! 2. It is plain that Barclay confounds the distinction between person and character, between sanctification and justification; and is either ignorant of the truth or worse-such a vender of "another gospel" that if he were also "an angel from heaven" he ought not to be countenanced in his darkness and delusion; in the destructive malaria of the influence he emits! On one occasion this doctrine of justification was disguised and incidentally vitiated, by the apostle Peter himself, at Antioch in Syria. It occurred in a way of practical "dissimulation" and temporizing. But Paul would not endure it. "To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." Hence, says Paul, "I said unto Peter before them all," &c. He "withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed." He set him right too, in a way magnanimous and paulian indeed: and Peter seems to have received the correction with a "meekness of wisdom" which no one of his pseudosuccessors is known to have exemplified. Gal. 2. The inference is-the cardinal importance of the incorrupt doctrine of justification, and the necessity of resisting its corruption and its obscuration too wherever they occur, no matter in whom and however incidentally. What then are we to think of a whole system that is destitute of the true doctrine; that wretchedly sophisticates it; that supersedes and virtually denies it; and that, in its whole compagination of principles and its wordy ambages of explanatory labor, does nothing but annihilate its character and its glory? Let any enlightened christian, ask Quakerism, where is my hope, where my indemnity, where my Redeemer? But blindness is contented-for it sees not what it loses ignorance has no conception of what is to be known; and where the soul is removed from the knowledge of the true gospel, and is habituated (for the devil's greater pastime) to be amused with "another," it is awfully probable that the siren will continue to sing, and the song will not cease to enchant, and the enchantment will prevail till 'outer darkness' ends the career. "O my soul! come not thou into their secrets unto their assembly, mine honor, be thou not united!" I bless God that I am no more one |