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RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH.

395

We come far short of the spirit of our ministry if our hearts be not intently fixed upon the promotion of personal holiness in the lives of our people; we fail entirely in the effect of our ministry if our doctrine be not successful in securing it. But how is this blessed result to be secured? How shall we preach the way of a sinner's justification by faith, so as the most successfully to promote in him 'the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience?' I answer, not by any reserve on the subject of Justification, exhibiting that doctrine only partially and fearfully, in reduced terms and in a background position, as if afraid of the fulness in which the Scriptures declare it to all who read or hear them. Reserve here is reserve in preaching 'Christ and Him crucified.' Our grand message everywhere is, 'Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin, and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.' St. Paul waited not till men were well initiated into Christian mysteries, before he unveiled the grand object of Atonement and Justification through the blood of Christ. No-the Gospel plan of promoting sanctification is just the opposite of holding in obscurity any feature of the doctrine of Justification. It is simply to preach that doctrine most fully in all its principles and connections; in all its grace and all its works; in its utmost plainness and simplicity; so that whatever leads to it, whatever is contained in it, whether it be sin and condemnation as needing an imputed righteousness; the love of God, as providing that righteousness in His only-begotten Son; the blessed Redeemer, as offering up Himself a sacrifice to obtain it; faith, as embracing it freely; hope, as resting upon it joyfully; the promises, as assuring the believer perfectly; the sacraments, as signing and sealing them effectually to those who duly receive them; a new heart, as the essential companion of a living faith; unreserved obedience, as the necessary expression of a new heart; obedience springing from the love of God in Christ, keeping its eye of faith for motive, strength, and acceptance upon the cross, and embracing in its walk all departments of duty; all this, as coming legitimately within the embrace of the full preaching of Justification by Faith, is the way to promote, through the effectual working of

the Spirit of God upon the conscience and heart of the sinner, his sanctification through the truth.

We cannot preach the righteousness of Christ, for Justifica. tion, with any propriety, unless, as the first thing to show the sinner's need thereof, we preach the righteousness of the law in the condemnation of every soul that sinneth. No more can we preach the righteousness of Christ for Justification with any justice, unless, beside its need and nature, we preach its fruits, and trace them out in all their branches, and show how they all spring out only and necessarily of a true and lively faith. Thus does the doctrine of faith embrace, on one hand, the righteousness of the law in the condemnation of the sinner, bringing him to Christ that he may be justified by faith; and on the other, that same righteousness in the sanctification of the believer, witnessing that he is in Christ, and is justified by faith.

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Does St. Paul describe the blessedness of those who are in Christ Jesus,' witnessing that to them there is no condemnation'? He adds immediately: Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, thus insisting on the essential connection between a justifying faith and a spiritual life. Let this text be carried out by the preacher. Let him show how Christ, if ever made unto us of God, by imputation, righteousness,' must also be made unto us, by the indwelling of His Spirit, sanctification; both equally, though differently, necessary for final redemption-both equally, though differently derived from Christ, through His obedience unto death; both obtained by the same faith, at the same time; distinct in office, but, like the water and the blood from the side of the Lamb of God, inseparable; so that by the blessed union of justification and holiness, peace and purity, in all the way of the believer, he may be complete in Christ. Let the preacher dwell minutely upon the developments, as well as the principle, of personal sanctification. The planting of the root of faith does not supersede the necessity of training and pruning the branches of obedience. It follows not in this husbandry, any more than in any other, that if the root be good, the branches will all take, of themselves, precisely the right direction. We must copy the ministry of the Apostles in the minute tracing out of the fruits of faith in all the ways of holy living-in the

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affections, desires, tempers, habits, conversation, and all relative duties. To expect the issues of life without seeing to the indwelling of the principle of life, is an error only next worse to that of being content with the latter, without attending carefully to all its processes in the former. Parental care is not satisfied when the child is evidently governed by a filial love. It brings line upon line to guide, instruct, admonish, remind, and exhort that love. So is 'the nurture and admonition' by which the minister must seek to lead out the great principle of 'faith that worketh by love '-bringing the various and minute applications of that love, 'seasonably to the remembrance' of the believer, holding up continually to an eye prone to dulness, and a heart prone to negligence, the law; the precept of holiness, as it is in Jesus,' commended by His authority, illustrated in His example, expounded in His Word, enforced by His love, and fulfilled in us by the indwelling of His Spirit. If we have not to urge, as a motive to obedience, that it will obtain or promote the sinner's justification, what matters it? We have it to urge, that without obedience there can be neither the living faith that justifies, nor the true holiness that makes us meet for the presence of God; we have the duty also, as well as the necessity of unreserved obedience, to urge upon the heart and conscience, with just as much authority as if works, instead of faith, were the only way of justification; we have more; we have also the love of God in Christ, preparing for our ruined souls His only-begotten Son to be the sacrifice for our sins; and the amazing love of Christ, bringing Him to be obedient unto the death of the cross for us miserable sinners. And thence, from His agony and bloody sweat, His cross and passion, springs the constraining motive to a diligent, devoted, cheerful, filial, zealous obedience in all things. The love of Christ constraineth us,' said Christians of old, 'because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that He died for all, that they which live should not live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them and rose again.' Here is love fulfilling the law, banishing the living unto ourselves, substituting devotedness to Christ, discerning its conclusive reason, obtaining its all-powerful motive by the eye of faith, which beholds the love of Christ dying for the

ungodly, and thence begins immediately to work by love and keep His commandments.

Such is the inseparable connection between the faith which looks unto Jesus and justifies the soul, through a righteousness imputed, and the love that equally looks unto Jesus, and bears witness to the living power of that faith, and glorifies God, by a righteousness, personal and inherent, doing whatsoever he hath commanded.

The following is the BURIAL SERVICE in the AMERICAN PRAYER BOOK, referred to page 255.

The opening sentences are the same as in the English Service. Anthem taken from the 39th and 90th Psalm.

Lesson, 1 Cor. xv. 20.

When they come to the grave, etc.

Man that is born of a woman, etc.

Then while the earth shall be cast on the body, etc.

Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God in His wise providence to take out of this world the soul of our deceased brother, we therefore commit his body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; looking for the general Resurrection in the last day, and the life of the world to come, through our Lord Jesus Christ; at whose second coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and the sea shall give up their dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in Him shall be changed, and made like unto His own glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto himself.

Then shall be said, or sung,

I heard a voice from Heaven, etc.

Our Father, etc.

Then the Minister shall say one or both of the following Prayers

at his discretion:

Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those who depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity: we give Thee hearty thanks for the good example of all those Thy servants, who, having finished

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their course in faith, do now rest from their labours. And we beseech Thee, that we, with all those departed in the true faith of Thy Holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in Thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life; in whom whosoever believeth shall live though he die; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Him, shall not die eternally; who also hath taught us by His holy Apostle St. Paul, not to be sorry, as men without hope, for those who sleep in Him: we humbly beseech Thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; that, when we shall depart this life, we may rest in Him; and that, at the general Resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in Thy sight; and receive that blessing which Thy well-beloved Son shall then pronounce to all who love and fear Thee, saying, Come, ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. Grant this, we beseech Thee, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer. Amen.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.

The subject had long been considered in England, as will be seen by the following memorial, which was sent to the Most Reverend the Archbishops and the Right Reverend the Bishops of the Provinces of Canterbury and York:

We, the undersigned clergymen of the Church of England, desire to approach your Lordships with the feelings of respect and reverence which are due to your sacred office. We beg to express our conviction that the almost indiscriminate use of 'The Order for the Burial of the Dead,' as practically enforced by the existing state of the law, imposes a heavy burden upon the consciences of the clergy, and is the occasion of a grievous scandal to many Christian people. We, therefore, most humbly pray, that your Lordships will be pleased to give the subject, now brought under your consideration, such attention as the magnitude of these evils appears to require, with a view to the devising of some effectual remedy.

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