effectual light? What branch of her affords a barrier against the floods of Infidelity and Socinianism, Ceremonialism and Popery, licentiousness and luxury, the love of money, fraud, violence, insubordination, and extravagance of every kind, which threaten to overwhelm us in Church and State ? Has it, then, come to this, that the Gospel is fitted only to make its way amidst the darkness of heathendom; but that among the more enlightened nations of the world, and amid the blaze of modern science and civilization, it must pale its ineffectual fire? Must the preachers of the Cross retire before the philosophers and savants of the age? Has it come to this, that the world itself must be called in to settle how much of Divine Revelation we may believe-and what is the meaning and value of the portions permitted to pass through its inexorable criticisms ? Must we look hopelessly and pitiably on, while the enemies of the Cross tear down the banner of truth, and upraise in its place the flag of rationalistic infidelity? Or must we stoop to the last degradation of all, and coax the insulting enemy to something like plausible terms, just to save appearances, and to ward off (as it is deemed now-a-days) worse disasters? If it has come to this, or to anything like this, how, and why, have we arrived at such a pass? Where, and what, under God, is the remedy? Or is there none? Is it enough that one section of the Church should lay the blame on another? All may have their respective drawbacks; but it cannot be denied that each has, shine for God as Then, must not to say the least, as much liberty to the Church had in Apostolic days. the fault, whatever it be, lie with each section of the Church in itself alone? What good can come of mutual reproaches? May it not be said with a vengeance, "Sirs, ye are brethren" in shame and trouble, "Why do ye wrong one to another ?" Is not the caution much needed, "If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another ?" Ought we not earnestly to remember, that "if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged ?” Will it, then, suffice, that each branch of the Church should look to its own corporate constitution and administration; its external organisations, means, attractions, and schemes, by which it seeks to advance, as it supposes, the cause of God? These things are well known. May it not be truly said, there is no lack of them, and no lack of attention to them? Clearly, then, it is not for want of such things; for it is in spite of them that the Church has reached her present level. And from this one palpable fact may we not draw this fair inference, that the Church's strength cannot, by possibility, lie in these things? And if this inference is true, does it not involve something more serious? Is it not an equally fair inference, that because of the trust and confidence. which the Church places in these things, she has provoked Him to jealousy, "whose eyes are as a flame of fire"? and that He has therefore left her, to "eat of the fruit of her own way, and to be filled with her own devices"? Does any man say, "Impossible !God forbid!" Does any one shrink from accepting a plain inference, which plain common sense draws from a plain fact? Then I repeat my invitation to such an one-consider "the preaching of the Cross" as it is set forth in Holy Scripture; and I leave him, in the exercise of the same common sense, to draw his own inference from "the first principles of the oracles of God." He will find I have not attempted to trace the consequences of the doctrine advanced. I have laboured only to vindicate its truth. If I have succeeded, the consequences are not far for any man to find. It is time that the axe should be laid, not at the branches, blossoms, and fruits, but at the root of the evils which overshadow us. And if what is advanced in the following treatise be true,-and I submit that substantially it is true,-then, in the Divine word, the axe is indeed so laid. And it must be acknowledged that He, in whose hand the axe is, knows both how and when to use it. May He not have occasion to do to the Protestant Church what He did to the Jewish Church. "If," says the Apostle, "God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee." SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. I. The question raised, What is the preaching of the Cross 1. The effect of an imperfect preaching of the Cross II. Wherein this preaching is defective. Page 9 9 10 13 III. The Scriptural doctrine of the nature of sin... 1. The necessity which arises hence 2. An objection answered...... ...... 20 ........ IV. How the condemnation of sin must be removed V. How the Believer is made partaker in the cleansing efficacy of the death of Christ ..... VI. The doctrine advocated shown to be consistent with the 31 doctrine of justification by faith 36 1. The doctrine of imputed Righteousness explained and vindicated 39 |