FAITH
By ROBERT BRUCE of Edinburgh.
This eminent divine was one of the greatest preachers Scotland ever possessed. A man of great discernment, spiritual understanding, fearless in the path of duty, and outstanding against all sham and hypocrisy where the honour of his Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, were concerned. He was a nobleman, Christian, scholar, and an able divine. The following are a few notes from his able pen of faith, saving faith, and the nature, and the exercise of it in the redeemed soul: — “Our Lord, when He makes His servants to proclaim this redemption, and to intimate it to our consciences, He works this jewel of faith in our souls, which assures that the Son of God has died for us: for what could it avail us to see our redemption, to see our salvation and our life, afar off, if a way were not found out, and a hand and means given unto us whereby we may apprehend that salvation and apply it to ourselves? What can it avail a sick man to see drugs in an apothecary’s shop, except he may have it and apply it to his sick body? So, to the end that this work of our redemption and salvation may be fully and freely accomplished, look how freely He has given His only Son unto the death of the cross for us as freely has He found this way and means and offered us His hand whereby we may take hold of Christ and apply Him to our souls. This means (to conclude) is faith; there is not a way nor an instrument in the scriptures of God whereby we can apply Christ to our souls, but only the instrument of faith; therefore faith cannot be enough commended. This particular application, which ariseth (no doubt) upon the feeling and sense of mercy, is the special difference, the chief mark and proper note, whereby our faith, who are justified in the blood of Christ, is discerned from the general faith of the Papists: our faith, by this particular application, is not only discerned from the general faith of the Papists, but it is discerned from all the pretended faiths of all the sects in the world: for the Papists dareth not to apply the promise of mercy to his own soul; he accounteth it presumption to say, “I am an elect, I am saved and justified.” They (the Papists), miserable men, content themselves with this general faith, which is no other thing than an historical faith, which groundeth only on the truth of God whereby I know that the promises of God are true in me? Why? Because they have not felt it, and their hearts are not opened. But our justifying faith, as I told you, consecrateth the whole soul upon the obedience of God in Christ; so that it resteth not only upon the truth of God, nor resteth it only upon the power of God (though these be two pillars of our faith also) but especially and chiefly it resteth upon the mercy of God in Christ: it resteth also upon the truth and power of God, but especially upon the promise of mercy and grace in Christ. The soul of the Papists being destitute of the feeling and taste of mercy, dare not enter into this particular application of mercy, and so he cannot be justified.”
BELIEVING
By TRAILL.
“The exhortation is (and it is an exhortation to every one of you, whether you be believers or unbelievers) answer the faithfulness of God in the promise of salvation by Christ in the gospel, answer it by faith—this is what our Lord charges the apostles with: ‘Go, said He, and preach the gospel to every creature; which was preached to every creature which is under heaven’—Col. i, 23. That is, every man and woman that lives in this world, preach the gospel to them. What gospel? ‘Tell them that there is life and salvation for them in Christ Jesus; if they believe it, well and good, and if not, they shall be damned’—Mark xvi, 15. You are to believe that there is no impediment or hinderance, neither on God’s part or thine, to hinder thee from partaking of Christ, if thou be willing: this is a part of that faith that answereth the faithfulness of God in the promise of the gospel, and which a poor creature should believe firmly, that there is no impediment on God’s part, nor on my part, to hinder my partaking of Christ, according to God’s offer, if I accept of Him; the impediment on our part is sin: the impediments on God’s part are law and justice: the Lord has declared that these shall not stand: the law and justice stand in no man’s way to hinder him from partaking of Christ, if he will accept thereof; neither shall sin hinder him, for the offer is made to all men as sinners, whatsoever they have been, and whatsoever they are; but none will accept it but enlightened sinners. As really as the brazen serpent was erected upon the pole that the stung Israelites might look and live, so truly is Christ Jesus held forth in the gospel, that every man that has a mind to salvation may look to Him and get it. All men that live where the gospel is preached, have alike right to believe on Christ Jesus. No man has a right in Christ till he is a believer; there are secret purposes in God’s heart where to apply His grace, but in the public dispensation of it all men are alike off, and all have alike equal right to believe: there is not a poor creature on the face of the earth that lives where the gospel is preached, but he has as much right to believe on Christ for the salvation of his soul; as Saul had when he went to Damascus: indeed, an actual right follows faith.”
ON THE COVENANT OF WORKS
By THOMAS BOSTON.
Convictions not required as warrants for our believing in Christ.
“It is true, sinners will not come to Christ till they be deeply sensible of their sin and misery; but to require such and such qualifications in sinners before they come to Christ is to lay a snare before them, keeping them back from Christ, and teaching them to lay some weight on their qualifications while they are yet under the curse. In a special manner, to tell sinners they must truly repent of their sins before they believe in Christ, or before they apprehend the remission of sin in the promise, is in effect to say they must be holy and repent in a manner acceptable to God while they are lying yet under His curse, for the curse is not removed but by justification. The truth is, there is a legal repentance, agreeing to the state of one under the curse, arising from a legal faith, the faith of the curse, that goes before saving faith and remission of sin; and however necessary it is to stir up the soul to prize Christ, it cannot be acceptable to God since the man is still under the curse. But no doing, no working, no repenting of ours can please God till once we are from under the curse, through faith in Him that justifies the ungodly; and, therefore, to effectuate the sinner’s passing from one covenant and its curse into the other, and the blessing thereof, no doing, no working of ours is required, but only to receive Christ, pardon of sin, deliverance from the curse by faith, they being all offered and exhibited in the free promise of the gospel to the sinner under the curse.”
THE TRUE DIVINE
By SIBBES.
No man is a true divine but the child of God; he only knows holy things by a holy light and life; other men, though they speak of these things, yet they practically know them not. Take the most mystical point in religion—as justification, adoption, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, the sweet benefit of communion of Saints, the excellent state of the Christian in extremity to know what is to be done upon all occasions, inward sight and sorrow for sin—they know not what these things mean, for how aptly soever they may discourse of them, yet the things themselves are mysteries—Repentance is a mystery; joy in the Holy Ghost is a mystery; no natural man though he be ever so great a scholar knows these things experimentally; he knows them only as physicians know physic, by their books, but not as a sick man, by his own experience.
THE DEATH PENALTY
By Rev. CHRISTOPHER MUNRO.
Punishment is inflicted not to benefit the guilty, but to vindicate the law and satisfy the claims of justice. This may be seen in the case of one condemned to die, his crime is so aggravated that nothing else than his death is judged an adequate satisfaction to the laws of his country and of his God. Here the improvement and benefit of the guilty is not taken into consideration at all; on the contrary, the maintenance of justice is looked upon as a far more paramount consideration than the life of a criminal.