Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 35 - The Law Established through Faith, Discourse I - Sermons on Several Occasions

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35 - The Law Established through Faith, Discourse I - Sermons on Several Occasions · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: The law established through faith? Discourse one. Do we then
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  Speaker 1: make void the law through faith? God forbid? Yea, we
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  Speaker 1: establish the law Romans three thirty one. Saint Paul, having
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  Speaker 1: the beginning of this epistle, laid down his general proposition,
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  Speaker 1: namely that the Gospel of Christ is the power of
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  Speaker 1: God unto salvation to every one that believeth the powerful
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  Speaker 1: means whereby God makes every believer a partaker of present
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  Speaker 1: and eternal salvation. Goes on to show that there is
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  Speaker 1: no other way under Heaven whereby men can be saved.
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  Speaker 1: He speaks particularly of salvation from the guilt of sin,
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  Speaker 1: which he commonly terms justification, and that all men stood
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  Speaker 1: in need of this, that none could plead their own innocence.
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  Speaker 1: He proves at large by various arguments addressed to the
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  Speaker 1: Jews as well as to the Heathens. Hence he infers
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteenth verse of this chapter that every mouth,
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  Speaker 1: whether of Jew or Heathen, must be stopped from excusing
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  Speaker 1: or justifying himself, and all the world become guilty before God.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore saith he by his own obedience by the words
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  Speaker 1: of the Law, shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
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  Speaker 1: But now the righteousness of God is without the law,
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  Speaker 1: without our previous obedience. There too is manifested, even the
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  Speaker 1: righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: unto all and upon all that believe. For there is
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  Speaker 1: no difference as to their need of justification or the
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  Speaker 1: manner wherein they obtain it. For all has sinned and
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  Speaker 1: have come short of the glory of God, the glorious
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  Speaker 1: image of God wherein they were created, And all who
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  Speaker 1: attain are justified freely by His grace through the redemption
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  Speaker 1: that is in Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth
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  Speaker 1: to be a propitiation through faith in his blood blud
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  Speaker 1: that he might be just. And yet the justifier of
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  Speaker 1: Him which believeth in Jesus, that without any impeachment to
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  Speaker 1: his justice, he might shew his mercy for the sake
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  Speaker 1: of that propitiation. Therefore we conclude, which was the grand
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  Speaker 1: position he had undertaken, to establish that a man is
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  Speaker 1: justified by faith without the works of the law Verses
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  Speaker 1: twenty through twenty eight. It was easy to foresee an
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  Speaker 1: objection which might be made, and which has in fact
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  Speaker 1: been made in all ages, namely that to say we
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  Speaker 1: are justified without the works of the law is to
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  Speaker 1: abolish the law. The apostle, without entering into a formal dispute,
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  Speaker 1: simply denies the charge. Do we, then, says he make
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  Speaker 1: void the law through faith? God forbid, yea we establish
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  Speaker 1: the law. The strange imagination of some that Saint Paul,
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  Speaker 1: when he says a man is justified without the works
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  Speaker 1: of the law means only ceremonial law is abundantly confuted
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  Speaker 1: by these very verses. For did Saint Paul establish the
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  Speaker 1: ceremonial law? It is evident he did not. He did
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  Speaker 1: not make void the law through faith, and openly avowed
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  Speaker 1: his doing so. It was the moral law only of
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  Speaker 1: which he might truly say, we do not make void,
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  Speaker 1: but established this through faith. But all men are not
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  Speaker 1: hearin of his mind. Many there are who will not
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  Speaker 1: agree to this. Many in all ages of the Church,
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  Speaker 1: even among those who bore the name of Christians, have
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  Speaker 1: contended that the faith, once delivered to the Saints, was
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  Speaker 1: designed to make void the whole law. They would no
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  Speaker 1: more spare the moral than the ceremonial, but were forhewing
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  Speaker 1: as it were, both in peaces before the Lord, vehemently maintaining,
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  Speaker 1: if you establish any law, Christ shall profit you nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Christ is become of no effect to you. He are
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  Speaker 1: fallen from grace. But is the zeal of these men?
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  Speaker 1: According to knowledge? Have they observed the connection between the
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  Speaker 1: law and faith, And that, considering the close connection between them,
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  Speaker 1: to destroy one is indeed to destroy both. And to
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  Speaker 1: abolish the moral law is, in truth, to abolish faith
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  Speaker 1: and the law together, as leaving no proper means either
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  Speaker 1: for bringing us to faith or of stirring up that
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  Speaker 1: gift of God in our soul. It therefore behooves all
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  Speaker 1: who desire either to come to Christ or to walk
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  Speaker 1: in Him whom they have received, to take heed. How
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  Speaker 1: they make void the law through faith to secure us effectually?
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  Speaker 1: Against which let us inquire first which are the most
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  Speaker 1: usual ways of making void the law through faith? And secondly,
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  Speaker 1: how may we follow the apostle and by faith establish
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  Speaker 1: the law. Let us first inquire which are the most
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  Speaker 1: usual ways of making void the law through faith? Now,
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  Speaker 1: the way for a preacher to make it all void
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  Speaker 1: at the stroke is not to preach it at all.
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  Speaker 1: This is just the same thing as to blot it
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  Speaker 1: out of the oracles of God. More especially when it
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  Speaker 1: is done with design when it is made a rule
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  Speaker 1: not to preach the law, and the very phrase a
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  Speaker 1: preacher of the law is used as a term of reproach,
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  Speaker 1: as though it meant little less than an enemy of
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  Speaker 1: the Gospel. All this proceeds from the deepest ignorance of
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  Speaker 1: the nature, properties, and use of the Law, and proves
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  Speaker 1: that those who act thus either know not Christ, are
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  Speaker 1: utter strangers to living faith, or at least that they
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  Speaker 1: are but babes in Christ, and as such unskilled in
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  Speaker 1: the Word of righteousness. The grand plea is this, that
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  Speaker 1: preaching the Gospel, that is, according to their judgment, the
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  Speaker 1: speaking of nothing but the sufferings and merits of Christ
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  Speaker 1: answers all the ends of the law. But this we
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  Speaker 1: utterly deny. It does not answer the very first end
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  Speaker 1: of the law, namely, the convincing man of sin, the
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  Speaker 1: awakening of those who are still asleep on the brink
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  Speaker 1: of health. There may have been here and there an
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  Speaker 1: exempt case. One in a thousand may have been awakened
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  Speaker 1: by the Gospel, but this is no general rule. The
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  Speaker 1: ordinary method of God is to convict sinners of the law,
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  Speaker 1: and that only the Gospel is not the means which
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  Speaker 1: God hath ordained, or which our Lord himself used for
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  Speaker 1: this end. We have no authority in scripture for applying it. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: nor any ground to think it will prove effectual, Nor
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  Speaker 1: have we any more ground to expect this from the
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  Speaker 1: nature of the thing. They that be whole, as our
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  Speaker 1: Lord himself observes, need not a physician, but they that
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  Speaker 1: are sick. It is observed therefore, to offer a physician
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  Speaker 1: to them that are whole, or that at least imagine
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  Speaker 1: themselves to be, we must first convince them that they
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  Speaker 1: are sick. Otherwise they will not thank you for your labor.
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  Speaker 1: It is equally absurd to offer Christ to them whose
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  Speaker 1: heart is whole, having never yet been broken. It is
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  Speaker 1: in the proper sense casting pearls before swine. Doubtless they
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  Speaker 1: will trample them under foot, And it is no more
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  Speaker 1: than you have reason to expect if they also turn
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  Speaker 1: again and rend you. Although there is no command in
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  Speaker 1: scripture to offer Christ to the careless sinner, yet are
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  Speaker 1: there not scriptural precedents for it? I think not, I
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  Speaker 1: know not any I believe you cannot produce one, either
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  Speaker 1: from the four Evangelists or the acts of the Apostles.
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  Speaker 1: Neither can you prove this to have been the practice
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  Speaker 1: of any of the apostles from any passage in their writings. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: does not the Apostle Paul say in his former epistle
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  Speaker 1: to the Corinthians, we preach Christ crucified chapter one, verse
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  Speaker 1: twenty three, And in his latter we preach not ourselves
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  Speaker 1: but Christ Jesus the Lord chapter four, verse five. We
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  Speaker 1: consent to rest the cause on this issue, to tread
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  Speaker 1: in his steps, to follow his example. Only preach you
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  Speaker 1: just as Paul preached. And the dispute is at the end.
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  Speaker 1: For although we are certain he preached Christ in as
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  Speaker 1: perfect a manner as the very chief of the apostle,
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  Speaker 1: Yet who preached the law more than Saint Paul. Therefore
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  Speaker 1: he did not think the Gospel answered the same end.
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  Speaker 1: The very first sermon of Saint Paul, which is recorded,
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  Speaker 1: concludes in these words by him, all that believe are
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  Speaker 1: justified from all things from which ye could not be
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  Speaker 1: justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that
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  Speaker 1: come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets.
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  Speaker 1: Behold ye, despisers, and wonder and perish, for I work
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  Speaker 1: a work in your days, a work for which ye
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  Speaker 1: will in no wise believe, though a man declare it
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  Speaker 1: unto you Acts thirteen thirty nine forty. Now it is
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  Speaker 1: manifest all this is preaching the law in the sense
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  Speaker 1: wherein you understand the term, even although great part of it,
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  Speaker 1: if not all his hearers were either Jews or we
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  Speaker 1: just prostolytes verse forty three, and therefore probably many of
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  Speaker 1: them in some degree at least convicted of sin. Already
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  Speaker 1: He first reminds them that they cannot be justified by
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  Speaker 1: the law of Moses, but only in faith in Christ,
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  Speaker 1: and then severely threatens them with the judgments of God,
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  Speaker 1: which in the strongest sense preaching the law. In his
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  Speaker 1: next discourse that to the heathens of Lystra Chapter fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: verse fifteen, we do not find so much as the
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  Speaker 1: name of Christ. The whole purport of it is that
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  Speaker 1: they should turn from those vain idols unto the living God.
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  Speaker 1: Now confess the truth. Do not you think if you
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  Speaker 1: had been there, you could have preached better than he?
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  Speaker 1: I should not wonder if you thought too that his
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  Speaker 1: preaching so ill occasioned his being so ill treated, and
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  Speaker 1: that him being stoned as a just judgment upon him
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  Speaker 1: for not preaching Christ from the jailer. Indeed, when he
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  Speaker 1: sprang in and came trembling, and fell down before Paul
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  Speaker 1: and Silas and said, sirs, what must I do to
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  Speaker 1: be saved? He immediately said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Acts sixteen, twenty nine and thirty. And in the case
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  Speaker 1: of one so deeply convicted of sin, who would not
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  Speaker 1: have said the same. But to the men of Athens,
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  Speaker 1: you find him speaking in quite a different manner, reproving
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  Speaker 1: their superstition, ignorance, and idolatry, and strongly moving them to
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  Speaker 1: repent from the consideration of a future judgment and of
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection of the dead Chapter seventeen, verse twenty four
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  Speaker 1: through thirty one. Likewise, when Felix sent for Paul on
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  Speaker 1: purpose that he might hear him concerning the faith in Christ,
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  Speaker 1: instead of preaching Christ in your sense, which would probably
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  Speaker 1: have caused a governor either to mock or to contradict
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  Speaker 1: and blaspheme, he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to
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  Speaker 1: come till Felix hardened as he was trembled. Chapter twenty four,
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  Speaker 1: Verses twenty four and twenty five. Go thou and tread
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  Speaker 1: in his steps preach Christ to the careless sinner by
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  Speaker 1: reasoning of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. If you say,
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  Speaker 1: but he preached Christ in a different manner in his epistles,
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  Speaker 1: I answer he did not there preach at all, but
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  Speaker 1: in that sense wherein we speak for preaching in our
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  Speaker 1: present question means speaking before a congregation. But waiving this,
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  Speaker 1: I answer, his epistles are directed not to unbelievers, such
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  Speaker 1: as those we are now speaking of, but to the
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  Speaker 1: saints of God in Rome, Corinth, Philippi, and other places. Now,
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  Speaker 1: unquestionably he would speak more of Christ to these than
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  Speaker 1: to those who were without God in the world. And
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  Speaker 1: yet every one of these is full of the Law,
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  Speaker 1: even the epistles to the Romans and the Galatians, in
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  Speaker 1: both of which he does what you term preaching the law,
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  Speaker 1: and that to believers as well as unbelievers. From hence
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  Speaker 1: it is plain you know not what it is to
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  Speaker 1: preach Christ in the sense of the apostle. For doubtless,
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  Speaker 1: Saint Paul judged himself to be preaching Christ both to
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  Speaker 1: Felix and at Antioch, Lystra and Athens, from whose example
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  Speaker 1: every thinking man must infer that not only the declaring
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  Speaker 1: the love of Christ to sinners, but also the declaring
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  Speaker 1: that He will come from heaven in flaming fire. Is
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  Speaker 1: in the apostle sense, preaching Christ. Yea, in the full
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  Speaker 1: scriptural meaning of the word. To preach Christ is to
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  Speaker 1: preach what he hath revealed, either in the Old or
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  Speaker 1: New Testament, so that you are really preaching Christ when
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  Speaker 1: you are saying the wicked shall be turned into Hell,
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  Speaker 1: and all the people that forget God, as when you
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  Speaker 1: are saying, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away
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  Speaker 1: the sin of the world. Consider this well, that to
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  Speaker 1: preach Christ is to preach all things that Christ hath spoken,
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  Speaker 1: all his promises, all his threatenings and commands, all that
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  Speaker 1: is written in his book. And then you will know
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  Speaker 1: how to preach Christ without making void the law. But
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  Speaker 1: does not the greatest blessing attend those discourses wherein we
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  Speaker 1: particularly preach the merits and suffering of Christ. Probably when
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  Speaker 1: we preach to a congregation of mourners or of believers,
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  Speaker 1: these will be attended with the greatest blessing, because such
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  Speaker 1: discourses are pecuularly suited to their state. At least, these
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  Speaker 1: will usually convey the most comfort. But this is not
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  Speaker 1: always the greatest blessing. I may sometimes receive a far
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  Speaker 1: greater by a discourse that cuts me to the heart
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  Speaker 1: and humbles me to the dust. Neither should I receive
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  Speaker 1: that comfort. If I were to preach or to hear
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  Speaker 1: no discourses but on the sufferings of Christ, these by
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  Speaker 1: constant repetition, would lose their force and grow more and
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  Speaker 1: more flat and dead, till at length they would become
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  Speaker 1: a dull round of words, without any spirit or life
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  Speaker 1: or virtue. So that thus to preach Christ must, in
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  Speaker 1: process of time, make void the Gospel as well as
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  Speaker 1: the Law. A second way of making void the law
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  Speaker 1: through faith is the teaching that faith supersedes the necessity
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  Speaker 1: of holiness. This divides itself into a thousand smaller paths,
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  Speaker 1: and many there are who walk therein. Indeed, there are
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  Speaker 1: few who wholly escape it, few who are convinced, we
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  Speaker 1: are said, by faith, but are sooner or later more
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  Speaker 1: or less drawn aside into this by way. All those
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  Speaker 1: are drawn into this by way, who, if it be
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  Speaker 1: not settled judgment, that faith in Christ entirely sets aside
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  Speaker 1: the necessity of keeping His law. Yet suppose either sets
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  Speaker 1: aside the necessity of keeping his law, yet suppose either
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  Speaker 1: that holiness is less necessary now than it was before
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  Speaker 1: Christ came, or that a less degree of it is necessary,
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  Speaker 1: or that it is less necessary to believers than to others. Yea,
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  Speaker 1: and so are all those who, although their judgment be
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  Speaker 1: right in the general, yet think that they may take
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  Speaker 1: more liberty in particular cases than they could have done
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  Speaker 1: before they believed. Indeed, the using of the term liberty
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  Speaker 1: in such a manner for liberty from obedience or holiness
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  Speaker 1: shows at once that their judgment is perverted, that they
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  Speaker 1: are guilty of what they imagined to be far from them, namely,
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  Speaker 1: of making void the law through faith, by supposing faith
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  Speaker 1: to supersede holiness. The first plea of those who teach
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  Speaker 1: this expressly is that we are now under the covenant
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  Speaker 1: of grace, not works, and therefore we are no longer
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  Speaker 1: under the necessity of performing the works of the law.
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  Speaker 1: And whoever was under the covenant of works, none but
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  Speaker 1: Adam before the fall. He was fully improperly under the covenant,
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  Speaker 1: which required perfect universal obedience as the one condition of acceptance,
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  Speaker 1: and left no place for pardon. Upon the very last transgression.
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  Speaker 1: But no man else was ever under this, neither jew
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  Speaker 1: nor gentile, neither before Christ nor sense. All his sons
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  Speaker 1: were and are under the covenant of grace. The manner
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  Speaker 1: of their acceptance is this. The free grace of God
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  Speaker 1: through the merits of Christ, gives pardon to them that believe,
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  Speaker 1: that believe with such a faith as working by love
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  Speaker 1: produces all obedience and holiness. The case is not therefore,
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  Speaker 1: as you suppose that men were once more obliged to
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  Speaker 1: obey God or to work the works of His law
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  Speaker 1: than they are now. This is a supposition you cannot
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  Speaker 1: make good. But we should have been obliged, if we
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  Speaker 1: had been under the covenant of works, to have done
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  Speaker 1: those works antecedent to our acceptance, whereas now all good works,
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  Speaker 1: though as necessary as ever, are not antecedent to our acceptance,
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  Speaker 1: but consequent upon it. Therefore, the nature of the covenant
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  Speaker 1: of grace gives you no ground, no encouragement at all,
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  Speaker 1: to set aside any insistence or degree of obedience, any
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  Speaker 1: part or measure of holiness. But we are not justified
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  Speaker 1: by faith without the works of the law. Undoubtedly we
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  Speaker 1: are without the works either of the ceremonial or the
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  Speaker 1: moral law, and would to God all men were convicted
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  Speaker 1: of this, it would prevent innumerable evils antinomism in particular.
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  Speaker 1: For generally speaking, they are the Pharisees who make the
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  Speaker 1: Anonomians running into an extreme so palpably contrary to scripture.
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  Speaker 1: They occasion others to run into the opposite one. These
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  Speaker 1: seeking to be justified by works affright those from allowing
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  Speaker 1: any place for them. But the truth lies between both.
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  Speaker 1: We are doubtless justified by faith. This is the cornerstone
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  Speaker 1: of the whole Christian building. We are justified without the
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  Speaker 1: works of the law as any previous condition of justification,
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  Speaker 1: but they are an immediate fruit of that faith, whereby
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  Speaker 1: we are justified. So that if good works do not
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  Speaker 1: follow our faith, even all inward and outward holiness, it
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  Speaker 1: is plain that our faith is nothing worth. We are
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  Speaker 1: yet in our sins. Therefore, that we are justified by faith,
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  Speaker 1: even by our faith without works. Is no ground for
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  Speaker 1: making void the law through faith, or for imagining that
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  Speaker 1: faith is a dispensation from any kind of degree of holiness. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: but does not Paul expressly say unto him that worketh
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  Speaker 1: not but believeth on him that justifieth ungodly, his faith
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  Speaker 1: is counted for righteousness. And does it not follow from
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  Speaker 1: hence that faith is to a believer in the room
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  Speaker 1: in the place of righteousness. But if faith is in
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  Speaker 1: the room of righteousness or holiness, what need is there
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  Speaker 1: of this too? This, it must be acknowledged, comes home
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  Speaker 1: to the point, and is indeed the main pillar of Antiinomianism.
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  Speaker 1: And yet it needs not a long or labored answer.
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  Speaker 1: We allow that God justified the ungodly, him that till
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  Speaker 1: that hour is totally ungodly, full of all evil, void
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  Speaker 1: of all good. That He justified the ungodly that worketh
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  Speaker 1: not that till that moment worketh no good work. Neither
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  Speaker 1: can he for an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.
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  Speaker 1: That he justifies him by faith alone, without any goodness
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  Speaker 1: or righteousness proceeding. And that faith is then counted to
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  Speaker 1: him for righteousness, namely for preceding righteousness. That is, God,
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  Speaker 1: through the merits of Christ, accepts him that believes, as
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  Speaker 1: if he had already fulfilled all righteousness. But what is
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  Speaker 1: all this? To your point? The apostle does not say,
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  Speaker 1: either here or elsewhere, that this faith is counted to
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  Speaker 1: him for subsequent righteousness. He does not teach that there
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  Speaker 1: is no righteousness before faith, but where does he teach
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  Speaker 1: that there is none after it? He does assert holiness
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  Speaker 1: cannot precede justification, but not that it need not follow it.
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  Speaker 1: Saint Paul therefore gives you no color of making void
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  Speaker 1: the law by teaching that faith supersedes the necessity of holiness.
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  Speaker 1: There is yet another way of making void the law
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: through faith, which is more common than either of the former,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: And that is the doing it practically, the making it
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: void in fact, though not in principle, the living. As
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: if faith was designed to excuse us from holiness, how
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: earnestly does the apostle guard us against this? In those
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: well known words, what then shall we sin? Because we
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: are not under the law but under grace God forbid
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Romans six fifteen, A caution which it is needful thoroughly
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to consider, because it is of the last importance. The
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: being under the law may here mean the being obliged
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: to observe the ceremonial law, the being obliged to conform
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: to the whole mosaic institution, the being obliged to keep
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: the whole moral law as a condition of our acceptance
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: with God, and the being under the wrath and curse
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: of God, under the sentence of eternal death, under a
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: sense of guilt and condemnation, full of horror and slavish fear. Now,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: although a believer is not without law to God, but
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: under the law of Christ, yet from the moment he
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: believes he is not under law in any of the
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: preceding senses. On the contrary, he is under grace under
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: a more benign, gracious dispensation. As he is no longer
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: under the ceremonial law, nor under the mosaic institution. He
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: is not obliged to keep even the moral law as
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the condition of his acceptance. So he is delivered from
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the wrath and the curse of God, from all sense
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: of guilt and condemnation, and from all that horror and
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: fear of death and hell, whereby he was all his
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: life before a subject to bondage. And he now performs
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: which while under the law he could not do, a
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: willing and universal obedience. He obeys not from the motive
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: of slavish fear, but on a nobler principle, namely, the
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: grace of God ruling his heart and causing all his
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: works to be wrought in love. What, then, shall this
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: evangelical principle of action be less powerful than the legal?
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Shall we be less obedient to God from filial love
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: than we were from servile fear? It? As well? If
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: this is not a common case, If this practical antinominianism,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: this unobserved way of making void the law through faith,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: has not infected thousands of believers, Has it not infected you?
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Examine yourself honestly and closely? Do you not do now
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: what you durst not have done when you was under
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: the law, or, as we calmly call it, under conviction.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: For instance, you durst not then indulge yourself in food.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: You took just what was needful, and that of the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: cheapest kind. Do you not allow yourself more latitude? Now?
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Do you not indulge yourself a little more than you did? Oh,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: beware lest you sin? Because you are not under the law,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: but under grace. When you are under conviction, you durst
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: not indulge the lust of the eye in any degree.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: You would not do anything great or small merely to
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: gratify your curiosity. You regarded only cleanliness and necessity, or
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: at most very moderate convenience, either in furniture or apparel.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Superfluity and finery of whatever kind, as well as fashionable elegance,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: were both a terror and an abomination to you? Are
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: they so? Still? Is your conscience as tender now in
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: these things as it was? Then? Do you still follow
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the same rule in furniture and apparel, trampling all finer,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: all superfluity, everything useless, everything merely ornamental, however fashionable underfoot? Rather,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: have you not resumed what you had once laid aside,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: and what you can could not then use without wounding
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: your conscience? And have you not learned to say, oh,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I am not so scrupulous now I would to God
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: you were, then you would not sin thus, because you
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: are not under the law, but under grace. You was
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: once scrupulous too, of commending any to their face, and
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: still more of suffering any to command you. It was
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: a slap to your heart. You could not bear it.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: You sought the honor that cometh of God. Only you
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: could not endure such conversation, nor any conversation which was
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: not good to the use of edifying all idle talk,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: all trifling discourse. You abhorred, You hate it as well
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: as feared it, being deeply sensible of the value of time,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: of every precious fleeting moment. In like manner you dreaded
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and abhorred, idle expense, valuing your money only less than
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: your time, and trembling lest you should be found an
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: unfaithful steward even of the mammon of unwe righteousness. Do
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: you now look upon praise a steadily poison which you
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: can neither give nor receive. But at the peril of
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: your soul? Do you still dread and a phoor all
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: conversation which does not tend to the use of edifying
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: and labor to improve every moment that it may not
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: pass without leaving you better than it found you? Are
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: not you less careful as to the expense, both of
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: time and money? And cannot you now lay out either
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: as you could not have done once? Alas, how has
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: that which should have been for your health proved to
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: you an occasion of falling? How have you sinned because
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: you are not under the law, but under grace God
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: forbid you should any longer continue thus to turn the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: grace of God into luscervishness. Oh, remember, how clear and
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: strong a conviction you once had concerning all these things,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: and at the same time you was fully satisfied from
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: whom that conviction came. The world told you you was
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: in a delusion, but you knew it was the voice
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: of God in these things. You was not too scrupulous then,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: But you are not now scrupulous enough. God kept you
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: longer in that painful school that you might learn those
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: great lessons the more perfectly. And have you forgot them already? Oh,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: recollect them before it is too late. Have you suffered
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: so many things in vain? I trust it is not
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: yet in vain? Now use the conviction without the pain,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: practice the lesson without the rod. Let not the mercy
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of God weigh less with you now than his fiery
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: indignation did before. Is love a less powerful motive than fear?
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: If not, let it be an invariable rule. I will
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: do nothing now I am under grace, which I durst
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: not have done when under the law. I cannot conclude
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: this head without exhorting you to examine yourself likewise touching
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: sins of omission? Are you not as clear of these
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: now you are under Gora as you was when under
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: the law. How diligent was you then in hearing the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: word of God? Did you neglect any opportunity? Did you
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: attend thereon day and night? Would a small hindrance have
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: kept you away? A little business, a visitant, a slight indisposition,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: a soft bed, a dark or cold morning. Did not
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: you then fast often or use abstinence to the uttermost
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: of your power? Was not you much in prayer? Cold
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and heavy as you was while you were hanging over
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: the mouth of hell? Did you not speak and not
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: spare even for the unknown God? Did you not boldly
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: plead His cause, reprove sinners and avow the truth before
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: an adulterous generation? And are you now a believer in Christ?
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Have you the faith that overcometh the world? What? And
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: are less zealous for your Master now than you was
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: when you knew him? Not less diligent and fasting in
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: prayer and hearing his word? In calling sinners to God?
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Oh repent, see and feel your grievous loss. Remember from
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: whence you are fallen. Bewail your unfaithfulness. Now be zealous
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: and do the first works, Lest if you continue to
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: make void the law through faith, God cut you off
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: and appoint you your portion with the unbelievers. End of
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Section thirty five,