III. THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS. 1 3 THE young ruler exemplifies our Lord's treatment of this case. Conviction was wanted, and the law was the medium employed. Ignorance of the law is the root of self-deception. An acquaintance with its spirituality unveils the hidden world of guilt and defilement, brings down self-complacency, and lays the sinner prostrate before the cross.2 In another case, he made the necessity of an entire change of heart the instrument of conviction. He denounced the enmity or hypocrisy of this spirit, as the wilful rejection of his gospel, and as making a "stumblingstone and rock of offence" of the foundation laid for the trust, glory, and salvation of his people. The Epistles to the Romans and Galatians exhibit this principle, entrenched in a system of external religion, without faith, love, contrition, separation from the world, or spiritual desires; or depending on the mercy of God, even in the rejection of the ordained means of its communication; of which the man has no other notion, than as a help to supply deficiencies, upon the condition of future amendment. 4 What makes the case of the self-justiciary so affecting, is, that we have no gospel message to deliver to him. Our Master" came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 5 The righteous need him not, seek him not, and have no interest in him. Our commission is to sinners; and, judging from this man's own account of himself; of the goodness of his heart; the correctness of his conduct; and the multitude and excellency of his meritorious actions-we should conceive him not to belong to that "lost" race, whom "the Son of man came expressly and exclusively "to save."8 Indeed his spiritual ignorance presents a difficulty, at the outset, in dealing with him. We have with all simplicity and plainness proved to him the fallacy of his expectations. We have "judged him out of his own mouth." Yet the next conversation finds him as far as ever removed even from the comprehension of the gospel; expressing the same dependence upon his own performances, as if no 2 Rom. vii. 9. Matt. xix. 16-21. 4 Matt. xxi. 42-44. 5 Matt. ix. 12, 13. 3 John iii. 6 Luke xix. 10. with xviii, 9-13, attempt had been made to undeceive him, and no confession extorted of the weakness of his foundation. To pursue the self-justiciary into all his "refuges of lies," and to sweep them away before his face, is a most laborious task. When disturbed in his first refuge of his own righteousness, he flies to repentance. Half-distrusting his security, he strengthens it by the merits of his Saviour, by the delusive substitution of sincerity for perfection, or by the recollection of his best endeavours, as a warrant for his hope in the mercy of God. But place him on his death-bed: is he sure that his works are not deficient in weight, that he has attained the precise measure, commensurate with the full and equitable demands of his holy and inflexible Judge? What if the hand-writing" should then be seen 66 upon the wall," "against him, and contrary to him?" Let sin, the law, and the Saviour, be exhibited before him, fully, constantly, and connectedly; let the pride, guilt, ingratitude, and ruin of unbelief, be faithfully and affectionately applied to his conscience; let him know, that the substitution of any form of doctrine, or course of duties, in the place of a simple reliance on Christ, turns life itself into death, and hinders not only the law, but even the Gospel, from saving him.1 Who knoweth, but thus he may be humbled, enlightened, and accepted, in the renunciation of his own hopes, and the reception of the Gospel of Christ? There is another form of spiritual self-righteousness requiring different treatment. When the sinner is held back from the gospel by a sense of unworthiness, his worthiness is the implied ground of his coming to the gospel-his work-not Christ's. When the Christian longs for a deeper view of sin, and love to Christ, and forgets, that, when attained, he will have the same need as before of the blood and righteousness of Christ-this is again to put spiritual self in the place of Christ. To such the Apostle would say "Christ is become of no effect to you; ye are fallen from grace. Having begun in the Spirit, are ye made perfect in the flesh?" 2 If our ground be sure in Christ, let this be our only confidence in our highest frame; and it will be a satisfactory stay in our lowest. And under all variations, let us give glory to God by simply believing. Matt. xxi. 33-46. Comp. Acts xiii. 38-41. 2 Gal. v. 4; iii. 3. IV. THE FALSE PROFESSOR. THIS is the man, who has listened to the Gospel-who has been "persuaded of these things," but not "embraced them." He gives us his words. He exhibits "the form of godliness." His lusts are either restrained by conviction, or dormant from the absence of temptation, or overcome by some dominant propensity; or he is frightened into hypocrisy by the dread of imminent danger; or perhaps he has relinquished some outward evils. But what is the amount of the work accomplished? Instead of "the axe being laid to the root of the tree," the branches are pruned, only to sprout again with fresh luxuriance. The birds, instead of being driven away, are only chased from bough to bough. Instead of the fountain being dried up, only the course of the stream is changed. Sin is not touched in its principles. The heart is unrenewed. It is of little use to sweep away the open viciousness, when the seeds of the evil lie within in active operation. 1 Let us mark the scriptural treatment of this character. Our Lord sifted him, by applying to his conscience the spirituality of his doctrines, the extent of his requirements, the connection between the heart and conduct, 3 and the remembrance of the different standards of God and the world. The Apostle convicts him in the proof, that union with Christ, and consequent renewal of the heart-not outward attainments or privilegesshow the real Christian. 5 The Epistle of St. John brings him mainly to the test of love, as the presiding and animating principle of the heart and conduct. But the false professor is a very Proteus, evading our grasp by a constant change of form. Yet if he speaks of his comforts, how unlike the awakening and serious consolations of the Christian! There is no dread of self-deception, no acquaintance with his own sinfulness, no assault from Satan, because there is no John vi. 60-66. 3 Matt. vii. 15-23. xii. 33-35. 2 Luke xiv. 25–33. 4 Luke xvi. 15. 5 Rom. ii. 17-29. ix. 6, 7. 2 Cor. v. 17. Col. iii. 11. real exercise of grace, or incentive to diligence. If he speaks of his state before God, can he abide the test of the holiness of God, of the " exceeding breadth" of his law, with its fearful disclosure of his utter depravity and defilement? Can he bear to have the detailed evidences of a radical change, the indispensable importance of an interest in Christ, and the solemn alternative, of "having the Spirit of Christ," or "being none of his "closely pressed upon him? Has the awful consideration -that if "Christ is not in him," "though he speak with the tongues of men and of angels," he is a "reprobate "—ever led him to "examine himself, whether he be in the faith, and to prove his own self?" If he speaks of his love, he owns his obligations; but what are his views of the Divine excellency of the Saviour? Where is his readiness to bear his cross, the proof of delight in his word, or of union with his people? How often is the Saviour's merit made- whether avowedly or nota support for a bold confidence in insensibility to all spiritual affection and Christian deportment! And therefore, as the sum of the whole inquiry -" Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." 4 This case is sometimes beyond the reach of ordinary discernment. Notwithstanding all our vigilance, some counterfeit coin will pass for gold. Judas among the Apostles, and Ananias and others in the Primitive Church, are standing mementos, that it is not our prerogative to search the heart. The form of godliness may be maintained accurate in every feature, and complete in every limb. Generally speaking, however, there will be some inconsistency betraying the self-deceiver, and affording a handle of conviction in dealing with him. Dislike to spiritual religion, and to conversation connected with it; 5 prevalent love of the world; 6 and unsubdued inveterate tempers, indicate his insincere reception of the truth. The love of holiness, and the de 3 Maclaurin admirably observes, that the lively and vigorous exercise of love must be judged of by a better standard, than the natural outward signs of inward emotions, depending upon constitution and other causes; that a main thing, in which its true strength consists, is its influence on universal holiness in practice, which is a matter of great importance for the discovering the delusions of self-deceivers. Essay on Divine Grace, 5 Cant. v. 7. sect. v. 6 2 Tim, iv. 10. 4 1 John iv. 7, 8. 7 Gal. v. 24. sire of conformity to his Saviour, were never in his aim. The truth was received as a speculative dogma; "not in the love of it." Being loosely held, it was therefore ineffectively applied, and (when inconvenience was threatened) readily surrendered. Such persons are the great stumbling-blocks to the unestablished Christian-and not less so to the world. Their discovery should make us cautious and slow in forming our judgment of characters; at the same time not treating the sincere with coldness and suspicion. V.-NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL CONVICTIONS.1 THE power of conviction was strongly and variously exhibited under the New Testament Ministry. The thundering discourses of John pierced the conscience. Many were interested, and partially reformed. Under our Lord's first sermon, and in the cases of "the sorrowful young man," and "the chief rulers," 3 there must have been strong conviction; yet (as the want of universal obedience proved) without Divine influence. The practical effects in the sons of Zebedee, Matthew, and Zaccheus on the other hand,* exhibited spiritual and permanent conviction. Under the Apostolic Ministry, Peter's hearers, Cornelius, Sergius Paulus, Lydia, the jailor, the Gentile hearers at Antioch and other places,5 showed the fruits of spiritual conviction, in faith, love, and universal holiness; while the frantic Jews under Stephen and Paul, and trembling Felix, displayed the power of conscience, overcome by the natural enmity and the love of sin. Few cases more peculiarly need (not, of course, miraculously) the gift of " discerning of spirits," to distinguish between awakenings and humiliation-between a sight of sin, and a I Halyburton's Memoirs may be referred to, as giving the most graphical delineation of the diversified and conflicting exercises of conviction. 2 Matt. iii. 1-6. Luke iii: 10-14. John v. 35. Mark vi. 20. 3 Luke iv. 22-28. Matt. xix. 22. John xii. 42, 43. Acts ii. 37-46. x. xiii. 12. xvi. 14, 15, 30-34. xiii. 44-48. xiv. 1, &c. |