of their professors, of a disposition to evade the laws, or violate the order, or disorganize the constitution of civil society. At the same time it must not be forgotten, that the interests of genuine Christianity may be as really injured by the maintenance and exemplification of slavish principles as by the maintenance and exemplification of revolutionary principles; and that the true medium is not so happily described in the verse which follows our text, the thinking, and feeling, and acting as free men, guarding against making our liberty a cloak of wickedness, conducting ourselves always as the servants of God, honoring all men, loving the brotherhood, fearing God, honoring the king. Thus have I briefly illustrated the apostolic injunction, "Submit yourselves to every human ordinance, for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well;" and the powerful motive by which it is enforced, "for the Lord's sake,” from a regard to the law, the example, and the cause of him who is Lord of all; and, with a peculiar emphasis, "OUR Lord Jesus." The discourse has been throughout practical, so that it stands in little need of what is ordinarily called improvement. Almost all that requires to be said in this way is, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."1 do them." It is an easy matter for us to do them, when compared with those to whom they were originally addressed; and, of course, if we fail, our conduct is doubly criminal. I conclude with a reflection which, I am sure, must have already suggested itself to your minds. If we should submit ourselves to "every ordinance of man, for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well," should we not much more submit ourselves to every ordinance, every institution, every appointment of God, all of which have for their object the glory of his great name and the happiness of his intelligent creatures? If we ought to be obedient to human governments, though necessarily imperfect, faulty both in their constitution and administration, how readily should we yield obedience to the Divine government, which both in principle and administration is absolutely perfect, being formed and conducted by him who is infinite in knowledge and wisdom, and power, and righteousness, and benignity. If we have human governors to whom our bodies are subject, should we not, much rather in our spirits, be subject to the King of souls? "He is a Rock, his work is perfect; all his ways are judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he." "His work" as a legislator, governor, or judge, "is most honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endureth forever." Ho high a privilege should we account it to be the subjects of such a government! What folly and wickedness must it be to neglect or violate any of its laws! What madness to expose ourselves to the consequences of such violation! If, then, every soul should be subject to the powers that be, though they once were not, and may very likely, ere long, cease to be: should not every soul be subject to that power which was, and is, and ever shall be? Is it not of supreme importance that we should be loyal subjects of the King of the universe, the immortal, invisible, only wise God? 1 John xiii. 17. 2 Deut. xxxii. 4. Psal. cxi. 3. Oh, let all of us see that our relations to Him be in a safe and satisfactory state! Have we acquainted ourselves with Him as he has manifested himself "in the face" of his only begotten, his visible image, the great revealer of the unseen, the invisible One, and are we at peace with him? It once was otherwise; we were at war with him. Mad, impious rebellion! Has the manifestation of his authority and grace quelled the rebel principles within, brought every high thing down into subjection to him, and sweetly constrained us to cast from us the weapons we had so foolishly, so wickedly, wielded against him? If not, the sooner such a change take place, the better; for 'He beareth not the sword in vain." 1 If this all-important change has taken place, let us prove that it has taken place by submitting cordially to his authority, as administered by HIM whom he has "set on his holy hill of Zion.' Let us "serve him without fear in holiness, and righteouness, all the days of our lives." Let us "walk in all his ordinances and commandments blameless; let us "count his precepts concerning all things to be right; let us hate every false way false way;" and let us show our supreme regard to his authority, equally, by cheerfully doing everything which our civil rulers require of us, however disagreeable to us, if only not inconsistent with his law, because he has commanded it; and by obstinately refusing to do anything which they command us, however deeply it may involve our worldly interests, which is inconsistent with his law, because he has forbidden it. It is, indeed, inward subjection to His authority, that alone can secure high-principled and duly-regulated subjection to every lawful inferior authority. It has been justly remarked, that when the spirit of the high-minded sinner has been brought down by the gospel, and he has bowed with a broken and contrite heart to the sceptre of the Saviour's grace, the humble subjection of his conscience to God, which then takes place, involves in it a meek and humble spirit of submission to all the authority which that God has vested in any of his creatures. The obedience which he yields as a child, as a servant, as a subject, being yielded from religious principles, becomes obedience to God; and "whatsoever he does henceforward, "he does it heartily to the Lord and not to man." 2 And hence it is that the christian minister feels that he never acts more the part of a good citizen, never employs means more fitted for improving the whole scene of domestic and social and political life, than when he urges on men, "repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ;" and beseeches them, on the ground of the great atonement, to be "reconciled to God.” 3 1 Luke i. 6, 74, 75. Psal. cxix. 128. 2 Col. iii. 23. * The whole subject of this discourse is more fully discussed by the author, in his treatise entitled "The Law of Christ respecting Civil Obedience, especially in the Payment of Tribute." DISCOURSE XI 'THE CONDITION AND DUTY OF CHRISTIANS “AS FREE,” YET "AS THE SERVANTS OF GOD.” 1 PET. ii. 16.—As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.1 THESE words contain in them a very instructive view of the condition and duty of Christians, to the illustration and improvement of which I design to devote the following discourse. The CONDITION of Christians is described as at once a condition of liberty and subjection. They are free," and yet servants, "the servants of God." The DUTY of Christians is stated with a reference to their condition: they are to conduct themselves agreeably to their condition, as free, and as the servants of God; they are to assert and use their liberty; they are not to abuse their liberty; they are to exemplify or act out their subjection. Such is the outline which I will attempt to fill up in the sequel. I-THE CONDITION OF CHRISTIANS. § 1.—They are free. Let us then, in the first place, attend to the account contained in the text of the condition of Christians. They are "free," yet "the servants of God." Christians are a peculiar people. They are freemen among slaves, the servants of God among the servants of the wicked one. This was not always the case. The common condition of the race was originally theirs. They were slaves both in condition and in character, and they were rebels. But "the Son has made them free, and they are free indeed ;" and the determined rebel has become a loyal subject. "If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature," and to him there is a new creation. "Old things have passed away, and all things have become new." Christians are free: free in reference to God; free in reference to man; free in reference to the powers and principles of evil. Let us shortly attend to these various aspects of the Christian's freedom. (1.) Free in reference to God. First, Christians are free in reference to God. They are "the Lord's freemen." By this we do not mean that they are not under the 2 1 See note A. 2 1 Cor. vii. 22. strongest obligations to conform their minds and wills to the mind and will of God, and to regulate the whole of their temper and conduct according to the revelation of that mind and will contained in his word. They are not free in the sense of being "without law to God;" to be so would be the reverse of a privilege; they "are under the law to Christ." Yet still in a very important sense they are free, both as to condition and character, in reference to God; and these two forms or species of freedom are closely connected, the latter being the result and manifestation of the former. 1 The relation in which the Christian, before conversion, stood to God in consequence of sin, was that of a condemned criminal; and the character by which he was distinguished was that of a sullen slave, conscious of having exposed himself to punishment for his indolence and unfaithfulness, and equally hating his Master and his work. "All have sinned, all have lost the approbation of God," all have incurred the condemning sentence of the divine law; and "Chains are the portion of revolted man- Stripes and a dungeon." 3 2 They are, as it were, shut up in prison, reserved for punishment, and bound by the fetters of guilt, which no created power can break, no created ingenuity unlock. In this state, of which no sinner is entirely unconscious, the disposition cherished by him towards God is, must be, not that of an affectionate child or a loyal subject, but that of a slave punished for disobedience, bearing a grudge towards his master, as if the unreasonableness of the task assigned him, rather than his own wilful neglect and disobedience, were the true cause of the evils he feels or fears. He is an entire stranger to the love of God, so that free voluntary obedience is a moral impossibility; and if at any time he assume the appearance of submission, and do those actions which the law requires, such conduct springs entirely from the principles of servile fear or mercenary expectation. This is the natural condition and character of all men in reference to God. This was once the condition and character of every Christian. But the condemned criminal has become a pardoned, accepted child; the slave has obtained both the state and the disposition of a freeman. The prison doors have been thrown open, the fetters of guilt have been unloosed, the prisoner has gone forth. Love has taken the place of dislike, confidence of jealousy, joyful hope of " the fear that had torment;" and while the pardoned, renewed sinner, "keeps God's precepts," "he walks at liberty." The manner in which this change is produced, must be familiar to the mind of every one who properly understands even the "principles of the doctrines of Christ," "the first principles of the oracles of God." It is by the faith of the truth as it is in Jesus, that man, the criminal and slave, is introduced into the state, and formed to the character, of a spiritual freeman. Christ Jesus, the only begotten of God, moved by sovereign love, has by the appointment of his Father, done and suffered, as the substitute of man, all that was necessary to make the salvation of sinners perfectly consistent with, gloriously illustrative of, the holiness and justice, as well as the pity and benignity of the Divine character. That wondrous work of "God manifest in the flesh," is made the subject of a plain, well-accredited revelation. In the case of all the saved, by a sovereign Divine influence, the mind is so fixed on this revelation, in its meaning and evidence, as to understand and believe it. This is the faith of the gospel. This faith, by Divine appointment, brings the sinner within the saving power of the atonement. He is redeemed from the curse of the law through him who became a curse in his stead; the blessing of Abraham, even a free and full justification, by believing, comes on him; and he obtains larger and larger measures of the promised Spirit, by believing. "Being justified by faith, he has peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and has access to God," as his father and friend, "by this faith, in reference to the grace of God;" and he "stands" in this state of reconciliation and favorable fellowship, "rejoicing in hope of the glory of God." "There is no more condemnation to him, being in Christ Jesus; and he walks no more after the flesh, but after the Spirit." The Spirit of Christ the Lord dwells in him, and "where the Spirit of the Lord," which is a free spirit, is, "there is liberty." The love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, given to him, and he loves him who has first, and so, loved him. And his love finds its natural expression in conformity to God's mind and will, and in obedience to his commandments. It is no longer the slave, toiling at intervals at a task which he abhors, to secure the morsel or to escape the lash; it is an enlightened, renewed creature, embracing what he sees to be true, and doing what he knows to be right, following out the impulses of his new nature; and doing all this the more readily, because he knows that, in doing so, he walks in the light of his heavenly Father's countenance, enjoying an elevating consciousness of fellowship of mind and heart with the only wise, the immaculately holy, the infinitely benignant, the ever-blessed God; and because he has learned, by painful experience, "that the way of the transgressor," even of "the backslider in heart," "is hard," and that holiness and happiness are, in the nature of things, as well as by the express Divine appointment, so closely conjoined, as to be all but identified with each other. He "knows the truth, and the truth makes him free.” 1 The whole of the Christian's obedience, when he acts like himself, has this character of true-hearted freedom. With regard to a very large portion of his duties, he so distinctly sees their reasonableness. and excellence, and the important and blissful purposes which obedience is fitted to secure, that he considers the having this peaceful, joyful path, through a world full of sin and misery, so clearly pointed out in the law of the Lord, as one of the greatest proofs of the kindness of his God and his Father. He sees and feels that God has "granted him his law graciously." The language of his heart is, "O! how love I thy law, it is my meditation all the day:" "Great peace 1 Rom. v. 1, 2; viii 1 2 Cor. iii. 17. |