two great sects, of Sadducees and of Pharisees. The Sadducees are the Freethinkers, the philosophers, the literati, the men of science, and, with few exceptions, all who handle the pen for the public press, and, amongst the common people, the revilers of authority, the followers of wicked infidel writers, the neglecters of God's ordinances, the profaners of the Sabbath, the despisers of God and of Christ. These are the Sadducees of this time. And the Pharisees are those who have an outward profession of faith, and an outward reverence of the ordinances of religion; who keep the Sabbath, who attend the church, who make long prayers, and consult much for decent appearances. As I said above, the latter are divided into two parts; moral, and spiritual; the former expecting outward obedience and observance of the law before they will give a man confidence towards God; the latter expecting inward signs, spiritual frames and feelings, and evidences of which a man himself is the only judge, before they will permit him confidence toward God, and justification by our Lord Jesus Christ. Of which two forms of the Pharisee if any one ask me which is the more dangerous, I answer at once, The spiritual; because the good works of the moral man are outward and visible, concerning which neither he nor others can be deceived; but the inward works of the other are not visible, concerning which he himself may be in delusion, and others must be in darkness. Besides, the former is not so purely selfish as is the latter: and though both be equally erroneous, yet the former hath in it a good and virtuous intention of kindness and of charity, which, though accompanied with a false trust therein, is nevertheless tending towards the cultivation of the soil of a good and honest heart. I judge also by the fact, when I say that the spiritual Pharisee is the more inveterate form of the evil, because I have ever found them the most self-sufficient, and the most pertinaciously set against the Gospel of the free grace of God, which bringeth present assurance of a Saviour, and the Gospel of the kingdom, which bringeth assurance of hope. Now observe, that as the Scribes and Pharisees of the former church would compass sea and land to make a proselyte, so the Pharisees of the present church would do the same. They think it is to convert and save the soul, so thought the Pharisees of old: but he who goeth about to convert and save a soul, doth it in another spirit, as well knowing that it is God's blessing upon the preaching of the word, upon the preaching and hearing of faith, which ordinarily works this supernatural effect. But the honour of this work is now given to many inventions which they have sought out-such as multiplication of tracts, and the scattering and dispersion of them amongst the people; the entering them into our favourite circles of religious societies; the getting of them to subscribe and to collect for our cha rities; and a thousand other inventions of our own, good enough in their place, but very bad when exalted into the place of the ordinance of preaching, by which it hath pleased God to "save them that believe." A proselytizing spirit differs from a Christian spirit in nothing more than this, that the Christian spirit is calm, and resigned to the will of God, in the midst of the rejection which his word receiveth, saying, "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight:" the proselytizing spirit is restless, anxious, impatient, over-zealous, as not discerning the power of God, nor worshipping the will of God, but trusting in its own resources, and carried on by its own fervid passion and boundless desires. The Christian spirit is one and the same, and never changeth; presenting evermore unto men, the grace and love of God upon the one hand, and the damnation of hell upon the other: the proselytizing spirit is fluctuating and changeable, adopting various means to compass its end; veering this way and that way, as the current setteth; and accommodating to this and to that prejudice of him whom it would gain, The Christian spirit is ever directing men's minds unto God, the Creator and the Disposer of all; and to Christ, the Saviour of all, and specially of those that believe; and to the church of Christ, with its beautiful and perfect ordinances, as the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit, where he nourisheth and cherisheth and edifyeth the soul: therefore it is Divine, merciful, and catholic: But the proselytizing spirit turneth men's attention ever to the distinctions and peculiarities of the sect--for example, Evangelical-to the leaders of the party, to the works which they are carrying on, to the things which they favour; in one word, to the singularities and peculiarities of the sect to which they would proselytize. And as Moses was forgotten in the ancient much zeal for Moses, so Christ is now forgotten in the modern much zeal for Christ; that is to say, as Moses was hidden under the authority of men, so Christ is hidden under the authority of men. I am not deceiving, neither am I speaking rashly, when I declare it to be my conviction that the zeal for religion which at present prevaileth amongst the spiritual is more the zeal of proselytizing unto a party, than of converting unto God and unto Christ. And here again I see the parallelism complete. But our Lord addeth, Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." What say I unto this? will I dare to call these spiritual men the children of hell? Little matter maketh it what I call them, or what they call themselves; but this is what Scripture teacheth me to say concerning myself, and concerning all men,-That there is salvation only in Christ, and that those who think to be saved by the Law do make the Gospel of none effect. I say, that those who are looking to be justified by their own works, shall by their own works be condemned; and it mattereth not whether the works that are added unto Christ, be works outward in the world, or inward in the heart. Therefore I say, that he who withholdeth a sinner from receiving Christ as his assured salvation, and rejoicing in him, and seeing at once God to be reconciled through Christ unto his soul, preacheth not the Gospel, and doth not convert souls unto God, nor yet build up souls unto Christ. He who maintaineth that a season and a time is necessary before a man can take hold of peace and rejoice in God his Saviour, declareth a lie; and they who believe it believe a lie; and both of them shall perish together in the lie wherein they believe. God hath sent me, and all ministers of Christ, to preach forgiveness of sins, and the good news, the Gospel, of the kingdom, unto all men. The thing I preach is, Thy sins are forgiven thee; thy sins are washed away in the blood of Christ believe the good news.' And if the poor wight believeth that this is the verity of God, why should he any more grieve, but instantly rejoice? Being justified by his faith, let him have peace with God. Not to be at peace, is not to be reconciled; and how can that be, if you believe that you are reconciled? Therefore I say, faith giveth peace; and he that is not at peace hath fallen short of his faith, if he hath believed at all. Now, forasmuch as the spiritual and evangelical and moral have risen up as one man in the church, in our own church, against those who thus preach Christ as Christ ought to be preached; I say, they are not preaching Christ, but withholding the preaching of him. And it is no matter to me whom this condemneth-my own father, or my own brother-I say it to the face, as Paul did to Peter, that herein they are to be blamed. And for myself, I do bless God, that, while intent upon wholesome doctrine, and serving him as best I knew, he did instruct me in this very matter of the freeness and the peace of believing; which also I was not slow to receive, and now shall by his grace be bold to declare. Now, brethren, I say, that there is creeping in a false Gospel, which intermingles and intermarries a man's own experience of himself with the work of Christ; and he that believeth and receiveth this, is truly further from God than if he were a publican and a sinner: you have swelled his own importance by marrying his vileness and worthlessness to the infinite preciousness of our blessed Lord. I would rather go and preach the Gospel to the most untutored of the people, to a company of wretched women in the prison, or to the sweepings of the streets, which are gathered into asylums for the night, than preach it to a congregation of men resting upon their experiences and their evidences: and therefore I hold it to be well spoken by our Lord, that these proselytes" are more the children of hell than before;" or, if you will have it more softly expressed, that they are farther from the kingdom of heaven: according as it is written, "The publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven before you." These are solemn and awful truths which I utter; but the time is uncertain, and admitteth not of delay the judgments are near. "Behold, he standeth at the door :" therefore I use penetrating and dividing words, which indeed set my brethren against me; but what can I do? I must obey God rather than man. Let men take heed how they read, and not be offended with these words, which are uttered in love, and in the desire to save my own soul and the souls of those who read and I would fain profit the church, and warn our country, which is nothing without her church. Our conviction is, that God's dealings with the church in this land, and with the land itself, which is included in the church by reason of our Christian laws and government, have their parallel or antitype in his dealings with the former Jewish church and Jewish state; which, like our own, was a true church and state constituted on ecclesiastical principles, and therefore not destroyed, but only humbled and laid low for a season. To the end, therefore, of ascertaining what were the great capital offences for which the Jewish church and state were overthrown for a season, I have taken up the consideration of these woes, being minded, as I go along, to apply them unto the state and the church in our own land. IV. In the 16th verse our blessed Lord denounceth woe upon the Scribes and Pharisees, or the constituted authorities in the church, for their blind guidance of the people, in having taught them that it was a small thing to swear by the temple, but binding to swear by "the gold of the temple;" that it was nothing to swear by the altar, but binding to swear by "the gift" upon it. He rateth them as fools and blind, for not perceiving that the temple sanctified the gold, and that the altar sanctified the gift; and he teacheth them that whoso sweareth by the altar sweareth by it and by all the things thereon, and whoso sweareth by the temple sweareth by it and all things thereon, and whoso sweareth by heaven sweareth by the throne of God and by Him who sitteth thereon. We are not to suppose that our Lord doth hereby justify or encourage oaths for the confirmation of a man's word or promise; seeing in his Sermon on the Mount he had taught the contrary doctrine, saying, "Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King; nor by your head, for ye cannot make one hair thereof white or black but let your communication be Yea, yea, Nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." It was one of the evils founded upon the traditions of the elders, who said, "Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths." Yet evil in its principle as this was, : by giving encouragement to man's impiety, and making a difference in the obligation of our simple word and promise, and the same when confirmed by an oath, it still represented the state of moral obligation which man felt to man for those things which he had promised and here the Scribes and Pharisees had shewn their iniquity, by making the evil thing to be much worse, and by relaxing the obligations, not of a word or promise merely, but even of an oath; allowing some oaths to be binding, and permitting others to be broken. The injury hereby done to the confidence of man in man, under the sanction of the spiritual rulers and guides of the people, is not, however great it was, the main subject whereof our Lord complaineth; but the ignorance, the folly, and the wickedness displayed in the distinction which they took between those oaths which were obligatory and those which were not so. They forgot the sacredness of the temple, in their avaricious and vain-glorious exaggeration of the gold of the temple; they forgot the sacredness of the altar, in their covetousness of gifts: and therefore permitted oaths and promises confirmed by the temple and the altar to be avoided, but those confirmed by the gold of the temple and the gift of the altar they held to be binding. To such an extent did they carry this hunger and thirst after precious gifts, that they did not scruple to set aside the most binding of natural obligations, and the most solemn of Divine commandments, in order to gain their end: as our Lord expressly chargeth upon them in these words (Mark vii. 9), "Full well ye reject [or frustrate] the commandments of God. For Moses saith, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth his father or his mother, let him die the death: but ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and ye suffer him no more to do bought for his father or his mother." Thus could they make the word of God of none effect through their tradition; and not in this instance alone, for the Lord addeth, "Many such like things do ye." Now, that which gave this extraordinary stimulus to the desire of gifts, to the hunger and thirst of golden ornaments for the temple, was, that for a long season, of almost forty years, they had been adorning the temple and enriching it, until it had become the wonder of the world. The sums of money expended in the time of Herod the Great, who was king when our Saviour was born, are not to be reckoned up and they were levied of the people under this system of deception and delusion; by giving to these acts of pecuniary bounty a value and an importance which neither the obligations of nature, nor the commandments of God, nor the ordinances of religion, could stand against. This false morality and false religion the Scribes and Pharisees 1 |