Page images
PDF
EPUB

ment, these must be cleansed and removed, before the subject can be accepted or accounted as justified:-and this cleansing from the defilements of sin, is Sanctification.

Various opinions have existed among the different denominations of christians on the subject of Justification. While some have imagined it to depend on good works, others rejected works altogether, and supposed it to depend on the merit and righteousness of Christ, imputed to us. And others again imagine our justification and acceptance to depend on an irrevocable decree, existing from all eternity.

The Society of Friends do not exactly coincide with any of these opinions.

As we stand in the fall, or unregenerate state, we possess no merit, or power, of ourselves, by which we can obtain acceptance, or make reconciliation with God. Much less can we have any thing to make atonement for sins committed. God requires nothing but our duty.--Any thing more than duty, could not be acceptable to him. This leaves nothing wherewith to balance the account, of duties omitted or crimes committed. But by the coming and offering of Christ, "the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Here it is shown that this natural incapacity is removed-that this free gift is extended to all men, and that, if not obstructed by disobedience, it ultimately leads "to justification of life."

This grace and gift to us, is the pure love of God, by which we are called and invited to come unto him, and by which we are drawn in love, and gratitude, and obedience to him.

This love of God, through Jesus Christ, is the very spirit of reconciliation, and the only possible medium, by which we can become united to him.

R

But in its first extension to us, we are no further justified than to receive the capacity to salvation, and the offers of forgiveness of sins that are past, and to stand acquitted from them by the atonement of Christ, supplying what was lacking on our part, on condition of our obedience to the manifestations of his Spirit. As these manifestations are obeyed, and repentance, and the laver of regeneration passed through-with the various baptisms and purifying operations of Divine Grace in us, the work of sanctification is effected. And as we are sanctified, so we are justified. Nor does complete justification take place, in moral agents, any other way. We may indeed be sanctified in part, and justified in part: for as this is not (generally) an instantaneous work, so there are many intermediate stages between the beginning & completion of this important change.

As we possess no power or capacity of our own, for any good thing, so we cannot pretend that our own right hand can save us. All the willings and runnings of our will, avail nothing. "By grace we are saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God." But though it is by this alone that we are saved-though we can claim nothing as due to us-but on the contrary are bound to acknowledge after all, that we are unprofitable servantswe have done no more than was our duty to do, and this by the help of the Spirit of God, producing the will, and giving ability to do the deed; yet as this divine principle of light and life, becomes the governing and predominating power in us, it brings forth works of righteousness, as well as a state of sanctification. Good works are the fruits of this divine principle, as said the apostle: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."

And thus also, the same apostle, in another place, says: "By the grace of God, I am what I am."

And as our beneficent Creator, in his inscrutable wisdom and goodness, has constituted us with the freedom of will, to choose the principle and motives by which we will be governed, (for though he produces in us the will, and gives ability to perform his own good pleasure, yet he grants us the privilege to make that will our own,) as this is realized in us, and works of righteousness produced, as the fruit of the Spirit, we not only become sanctified and justified-but also in some sense, objects of rewards-Not by virtue of what we have done, in our own wills, but in the Divine Will.

When we reflect, that not only the ability for every good word and work, but even the most secret inelination of heart to serve God, is the effect of his own divine influence on us-when we further bring to mind the disappointments, the miseries and vexation of spirit, which are the genuine effects of sin, on the one hand, and the pure, substantial enjoyments of peace and animating hope, which are the portion of the righteous in this life-we may exclaim in the language of the poet:

"Astonishing beyond astonishment!

Heaven the reward for heaven enjoyed below!"

To conclude, "let none be so bold as to mock God, supposing themselves justified and accepted in the sight of God, by virtue of Christ's death and sufferings, while they remain unsanctified and unjustified in their own hearts, and polluted in their sins: lest their hope prove that of the hypocrite, which perisheth. Neither let any foolishly imagine, that they can, by their own works, or by the performance of any ceremonies, or traditions, or by the giving of gold or money, or by afflicting their bodies in will worship, and voluntary humility, or foolishly striv

[ocr errors]

ing to conform their way to the outward letter of the law, flatter themselves that they merit before God, or draw a debt upon him, or that any man or men have power to make such kind of things effectual to their justification, lest they be found foolish boasters, and strangers to Christ-indeed. But blessed. forever are they that having truly had a sense of their own unworthiness and sinfulness, and having seen all their own endeavours and performances fruitless and vain, and beheld their own emptiness and the vanity of their hopes, faith and confidence, while they remain inwardly-pursued and condemned by God's holy witness in their hearts, and so having applied themselvs thereto, and suffered his grace to work in them, are become changed and renewed in the spirit of their minds, past from death unto life, and know Jesus arisen in them, working both the will and the deed: and so having put on the Lord Jesus Christ, in effect, are clothed with him, and partake of his righteousness and nature. Such can draw near to the Lord, with boldness and know their acceptance, in and by him, in whom, and in as many as are found in him, the Father is well pleased." (Barclay's Apology, Prop. 7.)

CHAPTER VI.

Of Perfection and Perseverance.

It has been shewn, in the preceding article, that as the Grace of God, which brings salvation, is received, and its teachings obeyed, (for it is always accompanied with power,) as, under its blessed influence, instructing and stengthening us, we come to deny ungodliness and the world's lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and Godly in this present world, we become washed, sanctified, and justified. It remains to be considered how far this work of renovation may be advanced, or how far Christ may prevail in us, & we over our soul's enemies, through the operation of his power in us.

Does the Captain of our salvation, lead us to complete victory? or must we remain, all our lifetime, subject to bondage?

The weapons of the saints' warfare are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity, every thought to the obedience of Christ.

The Society of Friends accordingly believe, that it is possible to obtain a complete victory over sin, in this life. If we believe, that there are some who are completely hardened, and given up to a reprobate mind: such as the apostle said it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, can we suppose that God is not able or willing, to carry on his work of renovation and sanctification, in his devoted

« PreviousContinue »