state is described as "salvation"-deliverance from evil, in all its forms and degrees, forever-a holy happiness, filling to an overflow all the capacities of enjoyment during the entire eternity of man's being as "an inheritance," intimating at once the gratuitousness of the nature, and the security of the tenure, of this happiness-" an inheritance incorruptible," having nothing in its own nature which can lead to decay or termination—“ undefiled," its pure elements unmingled with any inferior or heterogeneous ingredients-"unfading," retaining unimpaired its power to communicate happiness-"laid up in heaven," pure and ethereal in its nature, and secured beyond the reach of fraud or of violence; while those for whom it is destined, those who, according to the divine fore-knowledge, have been selected by a spiritual separation from the world lying under the wicked one, that they may obey the truth, and be sprinkled by the blood of Jesus -that is, possess the blessings secured by his atoning sacrifice-are preserved for its enjoyment amid all the dangers they are exposed to, by the power of God and through the instrumentality of believing. Still further to illustrate the glories of this salvation, this final state of blessedness, we are told, that unlike the present state, in which Jesus Christ is bodily absent from his chosen ones, and in which the imperfect knowledge they have of him is obtained entirely through the medium of believing, in which they are exposed to numerous and severe trials, in which complete deliverance from evil is the object of faith and hope, and in which, owing to these causes, they are often in heaviness-the future state of Christians is a state in which Christ Jesus is bodily present with them, and maintains intimate and uninterrupted intercourse with them-a state in which nothing of their trials but their blissful and glorious results remaina state in which complete deliverance is the object of enjoyment-a state in which, in consequence of all these things, they "rejoice with a joy which is unspeakable and full of glory;" and, as if even all this were not enough to give us just ideas of the glories and felicities "which God has laid up for those who love him," we are told, that this state of final happiness is a leading subject of Old Testament prophecy, apostolical preaching, and angelical study. These delightful and wonderful announcements are not brought forward as abstract principles-things to speculate and to talk about. They are no sooner stated than the apostle proceeds to urge them on Christians as most powerful motives to the duties of their high and holy calling, and equally powerful supports and consolations under the afflictions to which the discharge of those duties might expose them. Wherefore," for those feasons, since these things are so"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ: As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." In this admirable paragraph we have a most instructive view-I. Of Christian duty; II. Of the means of performing it; and III. Of the motives to its performance. Of CHRISTIAN DUTY-described, first, generally, as obedience, Christians being exhorted to act "as obedient children," rather children of obedience; and then described more particularly-first negatively, "Not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in your ignorance;" and then positively—“ Be holy in all manner of conversation.' Of the MEANS OF PERFORMING CHRISTIAN DUTY; first, determined resolution-" Gird up the loins of your mind;" secondly, moderation in all our estimates, and desires, and pursuit of worldly objects" Be sober;" thirdly, hope-" Hope to the end," hope perfectly; fourthly, fear-" Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." Of THE MOTIVES TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CHRISTIAN DUTY; first, the grandeur and excellence and security of the Christian inheritance, the full possession of which we can attain only by Christian obedience-" Wherefore," referring to the whole of the preceding description of the final state of happiness which awaits the saints; secondly, the holiness of God-"Be ye holy, for I am holy;' thirdly, the equity of God-" The Father on whom we call, without respect of persons, judgeth every man according to his works;" and fourthly, the wonderful provision which had been made for securing this holiness, in their having been redeemed, or bought back to God, by the blood of his own Son-" Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." Such is the outline which I shall attempt to fill up in the subsequent illustrations. I-CHRISTIAN DUTY. § 1.-General view-obedience. According to the plan which has just been sketched, our attention must be first directed to the view of Christian duty with which we are presented in the passage before us. Christian duty is in this paragraph represented generally as obediThe apostle calls on Christians to conduct themselves "as obedient children," or rather children of obedience, which is the literal ence. rendering of the original terms. The apostle's meaning does not seem to be "Behave yourselves towards God as obedient children do towards their father," but act the part not of children of disobedience -a strong idiomatic phrase for disobedient persons; but of children of obedience-a strong idiomatic phrase for obedient persons.' Obedience, then, is the great duty of the Christian. Obedience has always a reference to a law to be obeyed. Christians are often, in the epistolary part of the New Testament, represented as not only completely delivered from subjection to the law of Moses; but the state into which they are brought by the faith of the gospel is described as a being "not under law, but under grace." Their pardon and salvation are not to be procured by their own obedience to any law, but to be received as the "gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." But though delivered from the Mosaic law, and though "not under law," in the sense of their final salvation being the stipulated reward of stipulated labor, they are "not without law to God; they are under the law to Christ." " The law to which the Christian owes obedience is the revelation of the divine will contained in the Holy Scriptures. This law is, like its Author, "spiritual" and "holy," both "just and good." 4 It reaches not merely to action, but to the principles of action, and requires obedience of mind, obedience of heart, and obedience of life. Obedience of mind consists in the implicit belief of whatever is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. It is counting true whatever God has said, just because God has said it. A Christian is not left to think as he pleases. The command of God is, "Let the mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." 5 We must think in conformity to the mind of God, as made known in his word. We must receive what is written there, "not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the word of the living God." This submission of mind to the authority of God is the fundamental part of christian obedience, and naturally leads to that obedience of heart which is equally required by that law, which is exceeding broad. By obedience of heart, I understand a state of the affections corres- . ponding to the character of God as revealed in the manifestation he has made of his will. He appears in that manifestation infinitely venerable and estimable, and amiable and trustworthy; and reverence and esteem, and love and confidence, are the dispositions which these excellencies ought to excite in our minds. To "sanctify the Lord God in our hearts," to "make him our fear and dread," to "love him with our heart, and our soul, and our strength, and our mind," and "to trust in him at all times,"-this is the obedience of the heart. As the obedience of the mind naturally leads to the obedience of the heart, as it is impossible to venerate and esteem, and love and trust God, without knowing and believing that he is venerable and excellent, and amiable and trustworthy, and impossible to believe him 1 Τέκνα ὑπακοῆς is a Hebraism of the same kind as τέκνα φωτός, υἱοὶ ἡμέρας, υἱὸς ἀπωλείας, υἱοὶ ἀπειθείας, τέκνα ὀργῆς, τέκνα κατάρας. 2 Rom. vi. 14. 5 Phil. ii. 5. 31 Cor. ix. 21. 7 1 Pet. iii. 15. Isa. viii. 13. Matt. xxii. 37. Psal. lxii. 8. • Rom. vii. 12, 14. possessed of those excellencies without exercising those dispositions, so the obedience of the mind and of the heart naturally express themselves in the obedience of the life. 66 The obedience of the life is twofold-active and passive: the one consisting in conscientiously doing whatever God commands; and the other consisting in cheerfully submitting to whatever God appoints. It is the duty of the Christian to walk in all God's commandments and ordinances blameless," to be "patient in tribulation,' and even to 66 count it all joy when brought into manifold trials.”1 Such is the general idea of obedience as the duty of the Christian: a conformity of mind and heart and conduct to the revealed will of God. There are certain general characters which belong to this obedience when it is genuine, and which distinguish it from all counterfeits. It is implicit obedience. The Christian not only believes what God reveals, but he believes it because God has revealed it; he not only does what God commands, but he does it because God has commanded it; he not only submits to what God appoints, but he submits to it because God has appointed it. It is obviously just so far as the faith and conduct of a Christian have this character, that they deserve the name of obedience at all. The obedience which forms the sum and substance of Christian duty, is impartial and universal obedience. If it be implicit, it will be impartial and universal. If I really regard the will of God at all, I will regard it whenever I see it clearly manifested. I will not, among duties commanded with equal clearness, choose which I will perform, and which I will neglect. I will "esteem all his precepts concerning all things to be right, and I will hate every false way." 2 Cheerfulness is another essential character of Christian obedience. External obedience may often be constrained and mercenary, but the obedience of the life, which proceeds from, and is the expression of, the obedience of the mind and heart, cannot be either. In obeying, the Christian is doing what he knows to be right; and what he feels to be good. He "consents to the law that it is good." He "delights in the law after the inward man." When his heart is enlarged by just and impressive views of the reasonableness and excellence of the divine law, he runs in the ways of God's commandments, and finds that "in keeping them there is great reward." 3 The obedience which is the sum of the Christian's duty, in fine, is not an occasional and temporary, but a habitual and a persevering obedience. It is the business of his life: "Whatsoever he does, whether in word or in deed," ought to be done "in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by him." Whether he eats or drinks, or whatsoever he does," he ought to do "all to the glory of God." His obedience ought to be "a patient continuance in well-doing," "a steadfast, immovable, constant abounding in the work of the Lord," "a forgetting the things which are behind, a reaching forth to those which are before, a pressing to the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 1 Luke i. 6. Rom. xii. 12. James i. 2. 2 Psal. cxix. 128. 4 Col. iii. 17. 1 Cor. x. 31. Rom. ii. 7. 1 Cor. xv. 58. Phil. iii. 13, 14. §2.-Particular view of Christian Duty. (1.) Negative. The duty of Christians is not only described generally as obedience, but more particularly, first, negatively, as a "not fashioning themselves according to the former lusts in their ignorance," and then, positively, as a "being holy in all manner of conversation." Let us shortly attend to these very instructive descriptions of Christian duty. (1.) The apostle's negative statement is, that Christians ought not to fashion themselves "according to the former lusts in their ignorance." While a man continues unacquainted with the meaning and evidence of the revelation which God has made of himself in his word -and this is the case with every unbeliever, he is in a state of ignorance respecting the most important of all subjects, the character. and will of God-the duty and happiness of man. While in that state, he does not "fashion himself," that is, regulate his conduct-form his character, "according to the will of God," but according to his "lusts," his desires. The desires which are natural to men while they are unrenewed, are the principles which regulate their conduct and form their character. One man loves pleasure, another loves money, another loves power, another loves fame. The ruling desire, or lust, is the principle which forms the character and guides the conduct. Now the Christian, being no longer in ignorance, but knowing and believing the revelation God has made of his will, must no longer permit his character to be fashioned by those desires, to the guidance of which, when in a state of ignorance, he delivered himself up. All these desires, so far as they are sinful, must be mortified, and, even so far as they are innocent, they must cease to be governing principles, and must be subordinated to a higher principle-the principle of submission of mind and heart to the will of God. The objects of these desires are sensible and present things-things which are "in the world;" so that the not fashioning ourselves according to our former lusts in our ignorance, and our not being "conformed to this world," are but two different modes of expressing the same thing. An unregenerated man's character is entirely formed by the desires of his fallen nature, excited by their appropriate objects in the present world. It was once so with the Christian, but it must be so with him no longer. On the contrary, " as he who has called him is holy, so must he be holy in all manner of conversation." (2.) This is the apostle's positive statement with respect to Christian duty. There is no word, I apprehend, to which more indistinct ideas are generally attached, than holiness; yet, surely, there is no word of the meaning of which it is of more importance we should have a clear and accurate conception; for "without holiness no man shall see the Lord."1 The clearest and the justest idea we can form of holiness, as a quality of an intelligent creature, is conformity of mind and will with the Supreme Being, who alone is, in all the extent 1 Heb. xii. 14. |