III.
(Continued from p. 289.)
THE most lucid summary of the Marrow doctrine we have come across is in that excellent Treatise on Saving Faith by Dr. Colquhoun, Leith, who himself accepted the Marrow doctrine. “It may be remarked,” he says, “that there is a very great difference between the assurance of faith and the assurance of sense, which is one of the fruits of faith. The assurance of
sense is a believer’s assurance that he is already united to Christ, and is in a state of grace. The assurance of faith is as inseparable from faith as light is from the sun; but it is quite otherwise with the assurance of sense. A man cannot have faith without having assurance in it; but he may have faith and not have assurance of it. For, though the mind cannot but be conscious of its own act, yet whether that act have the peculiar properties and nature of saving faith cannot satisfactorily be known but by reflexion. The assurance of sense or reflexion, then, is not a believing in Christ; but it is a believing that we have believed in Him. It is not a direct act terminating on Him, but a reflex act by which we are assured of the saving nature of that direct act. But, although the direct act may be without the reflex, yet the latter cannot be without the former. A man must begin to believe before he can begin to know that he has believed . . . . The assurance of faith is commonly not so strong nor sweet as the assurance of sense which is supported by evidences. By the former, a man trusts upon the warrant of the free offer and promise that Christ will do the part of a Saviour to him; by the latter he believes upon the inward evidences of grace, that his faith is unfeigned and operative. By the one, he is assured of the truth of what God hath said to him; by the other, of the reality of what God hath wrought in him. By that he trusts he shall be pardoned and saved; but by this he is persuaded that he is pardoned and saved in part already. The object of the assurance of faith is Christ revealed and offered in the Word; the object of the assurance of sense is Christ formed and perceived in the heart. The former is the root and the latter is the fruit.”
The controversy in connection with the Marrow doctrine of saving faith passed into England where it had an able defender in James Hervey, the author of Theron and Aspasio. His view was attacked by Robert Sandeman with great acuteness in his Letters on Theron and Aspasio. Sandeman’s views were adopted by Dr. John Erskine, Greyfriars, Edinburgh, the noted Evangelical leader in his Theological Dissertations. Archibald
Maclean, Edinburgh, the Baptist preacher, and Dr. Chalmers, the famous preacher and divine, also held Sandeman’s view that faith is a bare belief of the bare truth. Dr. Stewart, Dingwall, in a little book, Hints on Faith and Hope (1845), held the same view. Sandeman was ably answered by Wilson in his Palaemon’s Creed Reviewed, by Cudworth in his Defence of Theron and Aspasio, and by Andrew Fuller in his Strictures on Sandemanianism. Sandeman’s views were adopted by the Glasites to which denomination he belonged and also by the Old Scots Independents who trace their history back to 1768. The Bereans or Barclayites, another small sect, the followers of John Barclay, who was deposed by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1773, while holding that the assurance of the Westminster Divines was of the essence of faith, rejected the Marrow doctrine with scorn (Assurance of Faith Vindicated, p. 185). In America the Marrow view as set forth by Hervey was attacked by Bellamy in his Letters and Dialogues between Theron, Paulinus, and Aspasio, while the Rev. Prof. Anderson, D.D., in his Scripture Doctrine of Appropriation, ably defended it. Among the writings of more recent divines who advocate the same view is to be mentioned Dr. James Buchanan’s Cunningham Lectures, The Doctrine of Justification.
Having briefly discussed the Marrow doctrine of assurance we are now in a position to deal more directly with the teaching of the Confession on the subject. Dr. A. A. Hodge has summarised the Confessional doctrine as set forth in Chapter xviii under the following heads: “1. There is a false assurance of salvation which unregenerate men sometimes indulge, in which they are deceived, and which shall be finally disappointed. 2. There is, on the other hand, a true assurance, amounting to an infallible certainty, which sincere believers may entertain as to their own personal salvation, which shall not be confounded. 3. This infallible assurance of faith rests—(1) Upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation. (2) Upon the inward evidence of those graces unto which those promises are made. (3) The testimony of the Spirit of adoption, witnessing with our spirits that we are
the children of God” (Class-book on the Confession of Faith, p. 230). True assurance may be distinguished from false by the following characteristics:—1. True assurance begets humility; false assurance begets spiritual pride (I. Cor. xv. 10; Gal. vi. 14). 2. True assurance leads to activity; false to sloth and indolence (Ps. li. 12, 13, 19). 3. True assurance leads to self-examination; false to self-satisfaction (Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24). In true assurance there are longings after God (I. John, iii. 2, 3).
The assurance of their personal salvation to which true believers may attain is not a bare conjectural persuasion founded upon a fallible hope “but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation (Heb. vi. 17, 18), the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made (II. Pet. i. 4, 5, 10, 11; I. John, ii. 3), the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God (Rom. viii. 15, 16); which spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption (Eph. i. 13, 14; iv. 30; II. Cor. i. 21, 22).” In sections iii and iv the Confession teaches that this “infallible assurance of faith” (1) does not so belong to the essence of faith but a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be a partaker of it (I. John, v. 13; Is. i. 10; Mark, ix. 24; Ps. lxxxviii; lxxvii. 1-12). (2) Yet diligent use of the ordinary appointed means is to be made for its attainment. “And therefore it is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure” (II. Pet. i. 10).
We return again to the experience of the Reformers. God gave these noble instruments such a convincing assurance of their own salvation such as stood them in good stead in the day of battle though it is true that many of them erred in saying that such personal assurance was of the essence of saving faith. Donald Cargill, the martyr, among others of our Scottish witnesses had this assurance of his own salvation to a remarkable degree as had also Donald Matheson, the Kildonan bard. Others might be mentioned but these will suffice for the present. As
pointed out already great care must be exercised not to condemn the genuine with the false as many are too ready to do. The benefits accompanying such assurance the Confession says are attainable by the use of the ordinary means and surely they are worth striving after. Some of these are as set forth in section iii. of chapter xviii. of the Confession such as:—Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, love and thankfulness to God, strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience.
This personal assurance of salvation is not incompatible with its being shaken, diminished and intermitted. Such experiences arise as our Confession informs us from “negligence in preserving it; by falling into some special sin, which woundeth the conscience and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation; by God’s withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and have no light.” It is when God’s people have such experiences that they may wrongly conclude that the doctrine of personal assurance of salvation is untenable doctrine and so fall into the error of reading into their doctrine what may after all be only a passing phase of their experience. We have in this article and the foregoing endeavoured to “redd the marches,” to use a well-known and significant Scottish phrase, between true and false assurance. It has been pointed out that this true assurance is attainable by the use of ordinary means and is accompanied by comforting and strengthening fruits.
Noted Men Among the Covenants.
DAVID DICKSON.
II.
(Continued from p. 306).
AS a theological writer Dickson has the following works to his credit:
- The Sum of Saving Knowledge, the work which first of all wrought a saving change in Robert Murray MacCheyne, “How
gladly,” he writes, “would I renew the reading of it, if that change might be carried on to perfection.” It is understood that David Dickson and James Durham* consulted together in drawing up this summary.
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Therapeutica Sacra, or the Method of Healing the Diseases of the Conscience concerning Regeneration. This has been described as the greatest of his works. It was originally published in Latin and is the fruit of his maturer years.
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Truth’s Victory over Error; or the true Principles of the Christian Religion stated and vindicated is an explanation of the doctrines of the Confession. It was originally delivered in Latin to his students under the title Prelectiones in Confessionem Fidei.
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His Select Practical Writings were published in 1845 with a biography by Rev. Thomas Thomson. The volume contains sermons preached at communion seasons at Irvine and an exposition of the tenth chapter of Job with extracts from his Therapeutica Sacra.
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True Christian Love is a poetical piece which with the Christian Sacrifice was much valued among the common people. The following are a few lines from his Christian Love :—
By Him the withered rod bears fruit,
With Him is manna hid;
The law in Him lies closed from speech,
Except through mercy’s led,
By Him my prayers are perfum’d
And smell as incense sweet;
By Him my cup is furnished,
And table filled with meat.
The Priest, the Altar, and the Lamb,
The Laver washing all;
And what else any right did sign,
He fills up great and small.
A version of “O Mother, dear Jerusalem” is attributed to him but the original poem, according to Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology, goes much further back than Dickson’s time.
- Dickson was the originator of a notable scheme whereby it was planned that a series of commentaries on the books of the Bible should be undertaken by various expositors. “I have been very instant,” he says, “with the godly learned of my acquaintance, to take this matter in hand; and, to divide, amongst them, the hard parts of Scripture, at least; that this work might be done by the hands of many, which could not be done by one. I found their approbation of my desire, and inclinable willingness, to put hand to work also.” It was easier, however, to plan than to carry out the scheme but, nothing daunted, Dickson pursued it with unflagging zeal. He put his hand to the work himself, as the undernoted commentaries indicate.
(1) This first commentary was issued in 1635 and dealt with the Epistle to the Hebrews. Spurgeon says of it: “We need say no more than—get it, and you will find abundance of suggestions for profitable trains of thought.” (2) In 1647 he issued his Brief Exposition of the Gospel according to Matthew. Spurgeon characterises this work: “A perfect gem. The work is, to men of our school, more suggestive of sermons than almost any other we have met with.” (3) His commentary on the Psalms appeared in three volumes in 1653, 1654. “A rich volume dropping fatness,” says Spurgeon, “invaluable to the preacher. Having read it and re-read it we can speak of its holy savour and suggestiveness. We commend it with much fervour.” (4) In 1645 Dickson published his Expositio analytica omnium Apostolicarum Epistolarum, i.e., Paul, James, Peter, John and Jude. As it was in Latin it did not form part of his scheme of popular commentaries. An English translation appeared in folio at London in 1659.
Though helpers were slow in coming forward at first yet as the years passed by Dickson’s zealous advocacy of his scheme began to bear fruit as the following works show: Hutcheson on the Twelve Minor Prophets and on the Gospel according to John—Exposition of the Book of Job (1669); Fergusson’s Exposition of Paul to the Philippians and Colossians (1656)—Exposition of the Epistle to Galatians and Ephesians (1659)—Exposition of
First and Second Thessalonians, a posthumous publication issued by Hutcheson in 1667; Nisbet’s Exposition of the First and Second Epistles of Peter (1658)—Exposition of Book of Ecclesiastes (1694); James Durham’s Commentary on the Book of Revelation (1658), his Exposition of the Song of Solomon (1668) and Exposition of the Book of Job (1759). When one remembers the strain and stress of the times, this output is to the lasting credit of the ministers who undertook the work and to the honour of David Dickson who originated the scheme and acted as the prompter of a noble work.
Though Dickson’s work as a professor and theologian was most useful to the Church it was chiefly as a preacher of the gospel that he will be remembered in the annals of Scottish church history. There was a good deal of truth in Sir Hugh Campbell of Cessnock’s characterisation of Dickson as professor and preacher of the gospel when he said: “The Professor of Divinity at Edinburgh is truly a great man; the Professor of Divinity at Glasgow was a greater man [Dickson held these Chairs in succession], but the minister of the gospel at Irvine was the greatest man of all.” The story told of the English merchant’s estimate of the three preachers he had heard when he visited Scotland has often been told, but it will bear repeating as it supplements Sir Hugh Campbell’s estimate of Dickson as a preacher. When asked what news he brought back from Scotland, the merchant replied: “Great and good news; I went to St. Andrews, where I heard a sweet majestic-looking man—Blair was his name—who shewed me the majesty of God. After him I heard a little fair man, named Rutherford, and he showed me the loveliness of Christ. I then went to Irvine, where I heard a well-favoured, proper [well formed] old man, with a long beard—his name was David Dickson—and that man showed me all my heart.”
In the contention over the Public Resolutions, Dickson took the side of the Resolutioners though, according to information supplied by Wodrow he lived to see that he was wrong (Anelecta, iii. 10). Latterly he, evidently, was of the mind of his friend
Robert Blair, who is reported to have said about the Protestors: “They were truer prophets than we were.” These divisions and the disasters that followed the short-sighted outlook and policy of the Resolutioners broke the hearts of some worthy men among them and hastened Dickson’s end. The arch-plotters, James Sharpe, duped such men as Douglas, Blair and Dickson to their heart’s grief. In December, 1662, Dickson became very ill. John Livingstone who had been tried and ordered out of the city of Edinburgh within forty-eight hours came to see him on his death-bed. “They had been,” writes Wodrow, “intimate friends near fifty years, and now rejoiced together as fellow-confessors. When Mr. Livingstone asked the professor how he found himself his answer was: “I have taken all my good deeds, and all my bad deeds and cast them through each other in a heap before the Lord and fled from both and betaken myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him I have found sweet peace.” And so he passed from the strife and contentions of earth to the peace of heaven in his seventy-third year.