Chapter 6.
CHAPTER 6.
A fourth objection refuted.
THE objection here proposed has been abundantly more prejudicial to the cause of piety, than any of the preceding. “You suppose,” say formal professors, “that every pastor is called to labour for the salvation of souls, in the present day, with all that zeal which animated St. Paul in primitive times. But their circumstances differ in a very material way. The apostles were commissioned to preach the Gospel, either to obstinate Jews or idolatrous heathens: whereas our pastors are called to exercise their ministry among such as have received the truth from their earliest infancy. Is it not then contrary to common sense, that the same laborious efforts should be thought necessary for the instruction of Christians, which St. Paul was formerly constrained to make use of for the conversion of idolaters?”
As this specious objection has been more frequently repeated than properly refuted, it becomes necessary, in this place, to expose all its weakness, and to demonstrate that the difference between sinners who are baptized, and those with whom St. Paul had to do, is by no means in favour of indolent pastors.
1. There are found swarms of infidels and idolaters in every Christian country upon earth. We need not look beyond Protestant Churches to discover multitudes of impious Christians, who not only despise the Gospel in secret, but who even dare to make it the subject of public ridicule: men, who “have set up their idols in their hearts,” Ezekiel 14:2 and who perfectly answer the apostle’s description of degenerate professors, 2 Timothy 3:2-5.
2. St. Paul himself sufficiently answers this very objection, as follows:—”In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature: and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them,” Galatians 6:15, 16. If there are any who make a profession of receiving the Christian faith, and who follow not this evangelical rule, the apostle thus addresses them with a holy warmth: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves; know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Corinthians 13:5. “Be not deceived: neither covetous persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God,” 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10.
3. Observe how the same objection is combated again in another of St. Paul’s epistles. “Behold, thou art called a Christian, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, being instructed out of the twofold law of Moses and of Christ. Thou, that makest thy boast of this law; if thou, through breaking the law, dishonourest God, the name of God is then blasphemed among the Gentiles through thee. Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art, that judgest” the heathen, as sinners more hopeless than thyself: “for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. And thinkest thou, O man,” that thy privileges unimproved will assist thee to “escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” Beware lest, “after the hardness of thine impenitent heart, thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath,” Romans 2:1-24. If every Scriptural threatening is denounced against those who are without that holiness which the Gospel requires, it would ill become us to flatter either ourselves or others, with being the true followers of Christ, merely on account of that external profession of Christianity, which is generally apparent among us. Is it not undeniably evident, that such a profession, unless it be accompanied with strict holiness, will subject us to more and heavier stripes, than if we had never known the will of our heavenly Father, nor ever acknowledged Christ as our rightful Lord? Luke 12:47, 48. Did not our gracious Master himself once openly manifest a greater degree of abhorrence toward the lukewarm Christian, than toward the notorious sinner? Revelation 3:16. And has he not plainly declared, that myriads of righteous heathens shall be permitted to sit down in the kingdom of God, while multitudes of his professing people shall be cast into outer darkness? Luke 13:28, 29.
5. After infants have been baptized, and after young persons have been admitted to the holy communion, the true pastor, instead of taking it for granted that they are become unfeigned Christians by partaking of these ordinances, examines them with diligence from time to time, and, from an attentive observation of their conduct, forms a judgment of their faith. If, after the strictest scrutiny, he discovers some among them who hold the form without experiencing the power of godliness, he renews his work with increasing ardour. The most painful part of his duty is still before him, when he attempts to convert those sinners, who are baptized, and those infidels who are communicants: since, before he can lead them to that faith which worketh by love, as St. Paul was accustomed to lead unprejudiced heathens, he must first unmask them with a holy severity, as the blessed Jesus was accustomed to unmask the Pharisees of his day.
6. If unregenerate Christians are heathens by their worldly dispositions; if they are Pharisees by their presumption, and confirmed in their Pharisaism by the fallacious opinions they indulge of their prerogative under the Gospel; it follows that every modern pastor is called to a performance of the twofold duty above described, and if this be the case, how unreasonable is it to imagine, that the ministers of our own time have a much less difficult task before them than those who were formerly commissioned to publish the Gospel!
7. All pastors have an important task assigned them, and, till this is performed, they are required to labour without fainting. Observe in what this task consists:—”He that descended from heaven,” saith St. Paul, “gave some apostles, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come, [both pastors and flocks,] unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,” Ephesians 4:11-13. When every Christian has attained to this exalted state, the ministers of the Gospel may then assert their work to be complete, and need no longer imitate the diligence of St. Paul. But while we are surrounded with baptized swearers, Sabbath breakers, slanderers, gamesters, drunkards, gluttons, debauchees, blasphemers, and hypocrites, who are using every effort to render Christianity despicable before infidels, and execrable in the eyes of philosophers; at such a time, it cannot be reasonably imagined, that any individual labourer is permitted to stand idle in the spiritual vineyard. And yet, in this very time of universal degeneracy, there are not wanting many among us, who inconsiderately cry out: “St. Paul, without doubt, had reason to labour with unremitting assiduity for the conversion of idolatrous heathens; but we are converted already, and see no necessity for that burning zeal, and those strenuous efforts among our modern teachers, which were formerly commendable in that apostle.”
8. If it be objected, that Christians are here represented in a more deplorable point of view, than candour or observation can warrant; we make our appeal to those proclamations which have been made with a view to repress the single sin of profaning the name of God, by impious oaths and horrible imprecations. These must undoubtedly be considered as public testimonies of public guilt. In such proclamations, all Christian governments, whether Catholic or Protestant, equally complain, that all the civil laws by which they have endeavoured to enforce the law of God, have proved insufficient to prevent the overflowings of a crime as insipid as it is disgraceful. In vain have new penalties and punishments been decreed; in vain are they constantly held forth from the pulpits of preachers and the thrones of kings; this despicable vice still reigns undisturbed among us, insulting over the broken laws of earth and heaven. Now, if it has hitherto been found impossible to prevent the commission of a sin, which has neither pleasure nor profit to plead in its favour, what can we expect concerning all those thousand vices which allure with promises of both? Are not dissimulation and perjury, injustice and covetousness, lasciviousness and luxury, apparent among the members of every Church? Do not rapine, revenge, and murder, defile every part of Christendom, in spite of prisons, banishment, and death? It is a truth too notorious to be controverted, that every crime, with which human nature has ever been polluted, is still continually practised in the most enlightened parts of the world.
We might here mention, if it were necessary, the contempt in which marriage is held, the instability of that holy estate, and the facility with which so sacred a bond is broken. We might go on to bewail the frequent commission of suicide in Christian communities. But to speak of these, with many other sins which are increasing around us to an alarming degree, would be only to echo back those sad complaints which are every day breathed from the lips of the righteous. The above remarks may possibly appear uncharitable to some: but, if they be without foundation, how many unmeaning expressions do we find in our liturgy! What hypocrisy in our public confessions! What false humility in our prayers!
From all these observations, it is evident that the most heathenish manners are common among Christians, so called, and that the most scandalous vices are prevalent, even in those countries where reformed Christianity has erected its standard. Let the impartial inquirer then declare, whether it be not peculiarly necessary to preach repentance among those whose rebellion against God is accompanied with perfidiousness and hypocrisy?