Section 3.

SECTION 3.

That according to reason and Scripture there is a saving, almighty power in truth and the word of God.

SHOULD the reader ask here how it is possible the word and the truth should be so nearly related to our Saviour, that to receive them is to receive him, and to reject them is to reject him and his salvation: I answer, that in the spiritual, as well as in the political and mercantile world, signs are necessary by which to convey our thoughts and resolutions. Hence the use of letters, notes, bonds, and charters; of revelations, traditions, Scriptures, and sacraments. Now an honest man’s word is as good as his bond or pledge, and as true as his heart; his word or bond being nothing but his mind or determination fairly conveyed to others by the means of his tongue or of his hand. Therefore, in the very nature of things, to receive the word of Christ is to receive Christ, who “dwells in our hearts by faith;” whom believers “know now after the flesh no more:” who commissioned his favourite apostle to say, “He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son;” and who personally declares, “My mother and my brothers are these,” that “hear the word of God and keep it.” As the legislative power has appointed that pure gold duly stamped, and bank notes properly drawn up, shall represent the value, and procure the possession of all the necessaries and conveniences of life, which can be bought with money; so our heavenly Lawgiver has fixed that the “word of truth” shall answer, in his spiritual kingdom, the end of gold and letters of exchange in the kingdoms of this world; and this spiritual gold, this “word tried to the uttermost,” he offers to all that are “poor, and blind, and naked, that they may be rich in faith. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.”

Again: as a will conveys an immense fortune; and a death warrant a capital punishment; so does the word of God convey “the unsearchable riches of Christ” to obedient believers, and the dreadful punishments of the damned to obstinate unbelievers. I readily grant that a bank note is not gold, that a will is not an estate, and that a death warrant is not the gallows. Nevertheless, so strong is the connection between those seemingly insignificant signs, and the important things which they signify, that none but fools will throw away their bank notes, or the wills of their friends as waste paper; none but madmen will sport with their death warrant as with a play bill. Now if the written word of men, who, through forgetfulness, fickleness, impotence, or unfaithfulness, often break their engagements, can nevertheless have such force; how excessively fool hardy are sinners that disregard the word of the King of kings, “who cannot lie!” the proclamations of the “God of truth, with whom no word is impossible!” the promises and threatenings, the will and testament of the Almighty, who says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away!”

Once more: although “no man knows the Father” immediately “but the Son,” yet the Father may be mediately known by his works, his word, and his Son. For, leaving room for the liberty of moral agents and their works, God’s works are always as his word. Hence we read: “God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Cursed be the ground for man’s sake,” and the ground was cursed. “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” As God’s works are the express image of his word uttered without, — of his out-going word (if I may so speak;) so his out-going word is the express image of his immanent, essential word, which is his eternal mind, and which the Scriptures call indifferently, “the Word, the Wisdom, the Son of God,” or “the express image of his Father’s glory.” Hence it appears that as the essential Word, Christ, is one with the Father; so the word of saving truth is one with the Son; and that David, Solomon, and St. Paul, spoke noble truths when they said, “Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed. By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the ways of the destroyer. The law, or word of the Lord, is an undefiled word: it is sure, and giveth wisdom to the simple; it is right, and rejoiceth the heart; it is pure, and giveth light; it is true, and righteous altogether; more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold: better to me than thousands of gold and silver: sweeter also than honey, and the honey comb. It is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path; by it is thy servant taught and made wise to salvation; and in keeping of it there is great reward, even the reward of the inheritance,” a kingdom of grace here, and a kingdom of glory hereafter.

But let our Lord himself be heard, and he will join himself in mystic trinity to the word, and to the truth of God. He promiscuously uses the expressions truth and word, which make the burden of the last section. When he recommends his disciples to his Father, he says, “Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.” Hence it appears that the truth and the word are terms of the same import; that the word of truth is a sanctifying emanation from God, and the ordinary vehicle of the Divine power; and that our Lord uttered a rational mystery when he said, “He that receiveth you [the witnesses of my truth and the sowers of my word] receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.” But “whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father.” And imperfect believers he encouraged thus: “If ye continue in my word, &c, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, &c. If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Important scriptures these, which show the connection of the truth with the Son of God! Blessed scriptures, which St. Paul sums up in the following words: “Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above;) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith the righteousness which is of faith? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart; that is, the word of faiths which we preach.”

Nor is this doctrine of the apostle contrary to what he says on another occasion: “The kingdom of God is not in words but in power,” i.e. true religion does not consist in fine talking, but in powerful believing and holy living. For what is more powerful than truth? “Truth is great, and will prevail:” truth is the strongest thing in the world: it overturns the thrones of tyrants, and supports God’s everlasting throne.

Again: the word of man brings strange things to pass. Let but a general speak, and an army of Russians marches up through clouds of smoke, flames of fire, and volleys of iron balls, to form heaps of dead or dying bodies before the intrenchments of the Turks. An admiral gives the word of command, it may be only by hoisting a flag, and a fleet is under sail; artificial clouds and thunders are formed over the sea; the billows seem to be mingled with fire; and the king of terror flies from deck to deck in his most dreadful and bloody forms.

If such is the power of the word of a man, who is but a worm, how almighty must be the word of God! “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,” saith David: “The worlds were framed by the word of God,” adds St. Paul, “and he upholdeth all things by the word of his power.” That word no necessary agents can resist. It rolls the planets with as much ease as hurricanes whirl the dust. If free agents can resist his word of commands it is only because he permits it for their trial. But wo to them that resist it to the end of their day of probation: for they shall feel the resistless force of his word of punishment’ “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” And who is the God that shall break the adamantine, infernal chains, which that dreadful word will rivet upon them? We read in the Gospel that our Lord marvelled at the centurion’s faith, as greater faith than he had found in Israel. But wherein consisted the peculiar greatness of that man’s faith? Is it not evident, from the context, that it was in the noble and lively apprehension which he had of the force and energy of Christ’s word? “Lord,” said he, “I am a man under the authority [of my colonel and general, and yet] having soldiers under me,! say to one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh,” &c. Now, Lord, if my word has such power, what cannot thine do? “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.”

Why is Abraham called “the father of the faithful?” Is it not because “judging Him faithful [and almighty] that had promised, against hope he believed in hope, that he should become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be?” Is it not because “he staggered not at the promise, [or word] of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform; and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness? And shall not the like faith be imputed to us also, if we believe” the saving truth revealed, or the Divine record given under the present dispensation of the Gospel, viz. “that God raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification?”

O! who can describe the needless perplexities of those wilful unbelievers that have the truth of their dispensation clearly brought to them, and yet, like Thomas, resolutely set themselves against it, saying, “I will not believe?” And who can enumerate the blessings which those childlike souls inherit, who, instead of quarrelling with, cordially embrace the word of God, and set to their seal that God is true? They seal God’s truth, and God seals their hearts. “Their faith is imputed to them for righteousness; their faith saves them; it is done to them according to their faith; the God of hope fills them with all joy and peace in believing.” Thus, “through faith, they [not only] subdue the kingdom [of darkness, but] inherit the [present] kingdom of God, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, received by the hearing of faith.” Well disposed reader, if thou doubtest the truth of those scriptures, try it by believing now what appears to thee to be the saving truth of thy dispensation: believe it with all thy present might, be it little or be it much; and if in a little time thou dost not find thyself more settled and free, more able to fight against sin, and to take up thy cross, let me bear the blame for ever.

Did the success of God’s word depend only upon him, the truth would always operate in a saving manner. If men were not to “work out their own salvation” by freely repenting, believing, and obeying, with the power “to will and to do,” which God gives them of his good pleasure, all mankind would repent, believe, and obey, as passively as clocks go, and as regularly as the sun rises. But we are moral agents; and works morally good depend as much upon the concurrence of God’s free grace, and of our free obedience of faith, as the birth of the prince of Wales did upon the marriage of the king and queen. Hence we read: “To whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? For the word preached did not profit them,” not because the seed was bad, or because they had no power to receive it, but because “it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it. Wherefore,” says the apostle, “to-day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, &c. Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, &c, and exhort one another daily” to believe.

The genuine seed of the word is then always good, always full of Divine energy. If it does not spring up, or if, after it has sprung up, it does not “bring forth fruit to perfection,” it is entirely the fault of the ground. “The words that I speak,” says our Lord, though it should be only by the mouth of my servants, “they are spirit and they are life” to believing hearts. For “Christ gave himself for the Church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; if it continue in the faith, holding fast the faithful word, — the word of the truth of the Gospel, which is come in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit” since the day it is heard in faith; it being the grand office of the Spirit to make “the word of God,” when it is mixed with faith on our part, “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,” and “to the discerning [and destroying of the bad] thoughts and intents of the heart.” Nothing, therefore, can be more certain than the connection between the power of God and the truth of the Gospel. “Truth (says a divine of the last century) is that eternal word of the Father which, in the Son, by the Holy Ghost, is revealed to us, to be our guide back again to that bosom whence it and we first came: it is that Jacob’s ladder, let down to us from heaven to earth, whereby his angels (his messengers) lead up from earth to heaven: it is that Rahab’s scarlet thread, let down from the window of heaven to wind us up by. The apostle calls it a girdle, ‘the girdle of truth,’ a girdle, that by many several links ending where it began, returning whence it first proceeded, clasps itself again in the bosom of its author, God.” According to this noble description of truth, is it not evident that all the righteous power which works in the spiritual world is the power of God and of truth? And therefore that our Lord answered like Divine wisdom “manifest in the flesh” when he asserted that “to believe on him is to work the work of God:” that “he who believeth hath everlasting life:” that “though he were dead, yet shall he live:” that “he that liveth and believeth on him [which implies a continuance of the action] shall never die:” that “rivers of living water [streams of comfort and power] shall flow out of his belly [i.e. spring from his inmost soul;] and that he shall do great works, the Gospel being the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth;” and “all things being possible to him that believeth,” because his faith apprehends the word, truth, and power of the Almighty.