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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadAlexander Campbell The Christian System: CS - 59-Remission of Sins õ Effects of Modern Christianity
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It was the indubitable proofs of the superabundance of this fruit, which caused me first to suspect the far-famed tree of evangelical orthodoxy. That cold-heartedness--that stiff and mercenary formality--that tithing of mint, anise, and dill--that negligence of mercy, justice, truth, and the love of God, which stalked through the communions of sectarian altars--that apathy and indifference about "thus saith the Lord"--that zeal for human prescriptions--and, above all, that willing ignorance of the sayings and doings of Jesus Christ and his apostles, which so generally appeared, first of all created, fostered, and matured my distrust in the reformed systems of evangelical sectaries. Communion, with me, was communion of kindred souls, immersed into one God, that celestial magnet which turns our aspirations and adorations to him who washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests to God.
To sit in the same pew; to gather round the same pulpit; to put our names to the same covenant, or subscription list: to contribute for a weekly sermon; to lisp the same opinions, extracted from the same creed, always appeared to me unworthy bonds of union or communion, and therefore my soul abhorred them as substitutes for the love of God shed abroad in the heart, for the communion of the Holy Spirit. "If a man would give all the substance of his house as a substitute for love, it should be utterly contemned."
The Divine Philosopher preached reformation by addressing himself to the heart. We begin with the heart. "Make the tree good," and then good fruit may be expected. But this appears to be the error of all sects in a greater or less degree; they set about mending the heart, as preliminary to that which alone can create a new heart. Jesus gives us the philosophy of his scheme in an address to a sinner of that time--"Your sins," says he, "are forgiven you: go, and sin no more." He first changes the sinner's state, not external but internal, and then says, "Go, and sin no more." He frankly forgave the debt. The sinner loved him.
There was much of this philosophy in question, "Who loves most--he that was forgiven five hundred pence, or he that was forgiven fifty? How much does he love who is not forgiven at all?" Aye, that question brings us onward a little to the reason why the first act of obedience to Jesus Christ should be baptism into his name, and that for the remission of sins.
But now we speak of the exercises of the heart. While any man believes the words of Jesus, "Out of the heart proceed the actions which defile the man," he can never lose sight of the heart, as the object on which all evangelical arguments are to terminate, and as the fons et principium, the fountain and origin, of all piety and humanity.
Once for all, let it be distinctly noted, that we appreciate nothing in religion which tends not directly and immediately, proximately and remotely, to the purification and perfection of the heart. Paul acts the philosopher fully once, and, if we recollect right, but once, in all his writings upon this subject. It has been for many years a favorite topic with me. It is in his first epistle to Timothy--"Now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart--out of a good conscience--out of faith unfeigned." Faith unfeigned brings a person to remission, or to a good conscience; a good conscience precedes, in the order of nature, a pure heart; and that is the only soil in which love, that plant of celestial origin, can grow. This is our philosophy of Christianity--of the gospel. And thus it is the wisdom and power of God to salvation. We proceed upon these as our axiomata in all our reasonings, preachings, writings--1st. unfeigned faith; 2d. a good conscience; 3d. a pure heart; 4th. love. The testimony of God, apprehended, produces unfeigned or genuine faith; faith obeyed, produces a good conscience. This Peter defines to be the use of baptism, the answer of a good conscience. This produces a pure heart, and then the consummation is love--love to God and man.
Paul's order or arrangement is adopted by us as infallible. Testimony--faith unfeigned--remission, or a good conscience--a pure heart--love. Preaching, praying, singing, commemorating, meditating, all issue here. "Happy the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
Reader, be admonished how you speak of bodily acts in obedience to divine institutions. Remember Eve, Adam, and all transgressors on the one hand. Remember Abel, Noah, Enoch, Moses, Abraham, down to the harlot Rahab, on the other; and be cautious how you speak of bodily acts! Rather remember the sacrifice of a body on mount Calvary, and talk not lightly of bodily acts. There is no such things as outward bodily acts in the Christian institution; and less than in all others, in the act of immersion. Then it is that the spirit, soul, and body of man become one with the Lord. Then it is that the power of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, come upon us. Then it is that we are enrolled among the children of God, and enter the ark, which will, if we abide in it, transport us to the Mount of God.
If we examine the word saved in the New Testament, we shall find that we are said to be saved by as many causes, though some of them differently denominated, as those by which we are said to be justified. Let us see: we are said to be "saved by grace," Eph_2:5; "saved through his life," Rom_5:9-10; "saved through faith," Eph_2:8, Act_16:31; "saved by baptism," 1Pe_3:21; or "by faith and baptism," Mar_16:16; or "by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit," Tit_3:5; or "by the gospel," 1Co_15:2; or "by calling upon the Lord," and by "enduring to the end," Act_2:21, Rom_10:13, Mat_10:22. Here we have salvation ascribed to grace, to Jesus Christ, to his death and resurrection--three times to baptism, either by itself or in conjunction, once with faith, and once with the Holy Spirit; to works, or to calling upon the Lord, or to enduring to the end. To these we might add other phrases nearly similar, but these include all the causes to which we have just now alluded. Saved by grace the moving cause; by Jesus the efficient cause; by his death, and resurrection, and life, the procuring cause; by the gospel, the disposing cause; by faith, the formal cause; by baptism, the immediate cause; and by enduring to the end, or persevering in the Lord, the concurring cause.
RECONCILED.
1 The reformer also said: "If the article of justification be once lost, then is all true Christian doctrine lost." Preface to the Ep. Gal, Phil, ed. 1800.
2 1Jn_2:12.
3 Heb_10:17.
4 Heb_10:18.
5 Eph_4:32.
6 Eph_1:7.
7 Col_1:14.
8 1Co_6:11.
9 1Pe_1:22.
10 Rom_5:1.
11 Rom_3:24.
12 Rom_5:9.
13 1Co_6:11.
14 Jam_2:24.
15 Rom_8:33.
16 1Co_6:11.
17 Rom_5:10.
18 2Co_5:18.
19 Col_1:19-22.
20 Gal_4:6.
21 Eph_1:5.
22 Act_2:47.
23 1Co_1:18.
24 1Co_15:2.
25 1Pe_3:21.
26 1Pe_1:1; 1Pe_1:8-9.
27 To prevent mistakes, I shall here transcribe a part of a note found in the Appendix to the second edition of the new version of the Christian Scriptures, p. 452.
"I am not desirous of diminishing the difference of meaning between immersing a person in the name of the Father, and into the name of the Father. They are quite different ideas. But it will be asked, Is this a correct translation? To which I answer most undoubtedly it is. For the preposition eis is that used in this place, and not en. By what inadvertency the king's translators gave it in instead of into in this passage, and elsewhere gave it into when speaking of the same ordinance, I presume not to say. But they have been followed by most modern translators, and with them they translate it into in other places where it occurs, in relation to this institution: For example:--1Co_12:13. For by one spirit we are all immersed into one body; Rom_6:3. Don't you know that so many of you as were immersed into Christ, were immersed into his death? Gal_3:27. As many of you as have been immersed into Christ, have put on Christ. Now, for the same reason they ought to have rendered the following passages the same way. Act_8:16. Only they were immersed into the name of the Lord Jesus. 19: 3. Into what name were you then immersed? When they heard this, they were immersed into the name of the Lord Jesus. 1Co_1:13. Were you immersed into the name of Paul? Lest any should say I had immersed into my own name. 1Co_10:1. Our fathers were all immersed into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Now in all these places it is eis and en is clearly marked in the last quotation. They were immersed into Moses--not into the cloud, and into the sea, but in the cloud and in the sea. To be immersed into Moses is one thing, and in the sea is another. To be immersed into the name of Father, and in the name of the Father, are just as distinct. "In the name" is equivalent to, "by the authority of." In the name of the king, or commonwealth, is by the authority of the king or commonwealth. Now the question is, Did the Saviour mean that the disciples were to be immersed by the authority of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? If by the authority of the Father, for what purpose were they immersed? The authority by which any action is done is one thing, and the object for which it is done is another. Now who that can discriminate, can think that it is one and the same thing to be immersed in the name of the Lord, and to be immersed into the name of the Lord Jesus. The former denotes the authority by which the action is performed--the latter the object for which it is performed. Persons are said to enter into matrimony, to enter into and alliance, to get into debt, to run into danger. Now to be immersed into the name of the Lord Jesus was a form of speech, in ancient usage, as familiar and significant as any of the preceding. And when we analyze these expression, we find they all import that the persons are either under the obligations or influence of those things into which they are said to enter, or into which they are introduced. Hence those immersed into one body, were under the influences and obligations of that body. Those immersed into Moses, assumed Moses as their lawgiver, guide, and protector, and risked every thing upon his authority, wisdom, power, and goodness. Those who were immersed into Christ put him on, and acknowledged his authority and laws, and were governed by his will: and those who were immersed into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, regarded the Father as the fountain of all authority--the Son as the only Saviour--and the Holy Spirit as the only advocate of the truth, and teacher of Christianity. Hence such persons as were immersed into the name of the Father, acknowledged him as the only living and true God--Jesus Christ as his only begotten Son, the Saviour of the world--and the Holy Spirit, as the only successful advocate of the truth of Christianity upon earth."
28 State here has respect to the whole person. It may be argued that state is as pertinently applied to the mind or heart as to the whole person; and that when the state of the mind is changed by a belief of God's testimony, the subject of that change is brought into as near a relation to God as he can be in this life; and as the kingdom of Jesus is a spiritual kingdom, he is as fit for admission into it, and for the enjoyment of its blessings, whenever his heart is changed from enmity to love, as he ever can be; nay, in truth, is actually initiated into the kingdom of Jesus the moment his mind is changed--and that to insist upon any personal act as necessary to admission, because such acts are necessary to admission into all the social and political relations in society, is an over-straining the analogies between things earthly and things heavenly. Not one of our opponents, as far as we remember, has thus argued. We have sometimes thought that they might have thus argued with incomparably more speciosity than appears in any of their objections.
But without pausing to inquire whether the state of the heart can be perfectly changed from enmity to love, without an assurance of remission on some ground, or in consequence of some act of the mind prerequisite thereunto;--without being at pains to show that the truth of this proposition is not at all essential to our argument, but only illustrative of it; we may say, that as Christ has redeemed the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, by his obedience even to death--so in coming into his kingdom on earth, and in order to the enjoyment of all the present salvation, the state of the whole person must be changed; and this is what we apprehend Jesus meant by his saying, "Unless a man is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God," and what we mean in distinguishing a change of heart, or of views and feelings, from a change of state.
29 2Th_1:8.
30 Rom_1:5.
31 Rom_16:26.
32 Act_6:7.
33 Rom_10:16.
34 1Pe_4:17.
35 Rom_5:2. Eph_3:12.
36 There is no propriety in the common version of this member of the sentence--when, instead of that, "seasons of refreshment." Some make modern revivals "seasons of refreshment," such as these here alluded to. Then it would read, 'That your sins may be blotted out in times of revivals'--when revivals shall come! The term is opos, which, in this construction, as various critics have contended, is equivalent to 'that' in our tongue. To promise a future remission is no part of the gospel, nor of the apostolic proclamation. All Christians experience seasons of refreshment in cordially obeying the gospel.
37 Act_15:3.
38 Act_9:1-43 :
39 Act_26:17-18.
40 The following examples of the above general rule illustrate its value and certainty:--"Let us offer up the sacrifice of praise to God, confessing to his name." Heb_13:15. "Let us go forth to him out of the camp, bearing his reproach." Heb_13:13. "Be an approved workman, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2Ti_2:15. "Guard the precious deposit, avoiding profane babblings." 1Ti_6:20. "Observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by partiality." 1Ti_5:21. "Pray every where lifting up holy hands." 1Ti_2:8. "Walking in wisdom to them that are without, gaining time." Col. iv: 5. "Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God." Col_3:17. "Speak the truth, putting away lying." Eph_4:25. "Be not vainglorious, provoking one another. Gal_5:26. "Convert the nations, baptizing them," etc. etc. Now, do not all these participles define their respective imperatives, or show the way and manner in which this command should be obeyed! Many similar examples may be found in all the sacred writings.
This rule has passed through a fiery trial. I have only been more fully convinced of its generality and value. There is no rule in the English syntax more general in its application. I would only add, that the participle does not always express every thing in the command; but it always points out something emphatically in the intention of the imperative, and without which the injunction cannot be suitably and fully performed.
We have, however, no need of this rule, nor of anything not generally conceded, to establish the point before us: for the New Testament and all antiquity teach, that so long as the Apostles lived, no one was regarded as a disciple of Christ who had not confessed his faith and was immersed.
41 Tit_3:5.
42 See the following essay on Regeneration.
43 That Joh_3:5, and Tit_3:5, refer to immersion, is the judgment of all the learned Catholics and Protestants of every name under heaven.
The authors and finishers of the Westminster creed--one hundred and twenty-one Divines, ten Lords, and twenty Commissioners of the Parliament of England, under the question 165, "What is baptism?" quote Joh_3:5, Tit_3:5, to prove that baptism is a washing with water, and a "sign of remission of sins."
Michaelis, Horne, Lightfoot, Beveridge, Taylor, Jones of Nayland, Bp. Mant, Whitby, Burkit, Bp. Hall, Dr. Wells, Hooker, Dr. C. Ridley, Bp. Ryder:--but why attempt a list of great names? There are a thousand more who assert it.
Bp. White says, that "regeneration, as detached from baptism, never entered into any creed before the 17th century."
Whitby, on Joh_3:5, says, "That our Lord here speaks of baptismal regeneration, the whole Christian church from its earliest times has invariably taught."
Our modern "great divines," even in America, have taught the same. Timothy Dwight, the greatest Rabbi of Presbyterians the New World has produced, says, vol. 4: pp. 300, 301, "to be born again, is precisely the same thing as to be born of water and the Spirit."--"To be born of water is to be baptized." And how uncharitable!--He adds, "He who understanding the nature and authority of this institution, refuses to be baptized, WILL NEVER ENTER INTO THE VISIBLE NOR INVISIBLE KINGDOM OF GOD." Vol. 4: p. 302. So preached the President of Yale.
George Whitefield, writing on Joh_3:5, says, "Does not this verse urge the absolute necessity of water baptism? Yes, when it may be had. But how God will deal with persons unbaptized, we cannot tell." Vol. 4: p. 355. I say with him, we cannot tell with certainty. But I am of the opinion, that when a neglect proceeds from a simple mistake of sheer ignorance, and when there is no aversion, but a will to do everything the Lord commands, the Lord will admit into the everlasting kingdom those who by reason of this mistake never had the testimony of God assuring them of pardon or justification here, and consequently never did fully enjoy the salvation of God on earth. But I will say with the renowned President of Yale, that "he who, understanding the nature and authority of this institution, refuses to be baptized, will never enter the visible nor invisible kingdom of God." By the "visible and invisible kingdom," he means the kingdom of grace and glory. He adds on the same page, "He who persists in this act of rebellion against the authority of Christ, will never belong to his kingdom." Vol. 4: p. 302.
John Wesley asserts, that by baptism we enter into covenant with God, an everlasting covenant, are admitted into the church, made members of Christ, made the children of God. By water as the means, the waters of baptism, we are regenerated or born again."
44 Joh_1:12.
45 Act_2:1-47 :
46 Act_15:17.
47 See Christian Baptist, vol. 6, p. 268.
48 Heb_10:24.
49 2Pe_1:9.
50 Book of Similitudes, chap. 16:
51 Com. 4, chap. 3:
52 4th London edition, p. 116, vol. 1, A. D. 1829.
53 Vol. 1, p. 24.
54 Vol. 1, p. 8.
55 Page 194.
56 Common Prayer, p. 165.
57 Page 165.
58 Inst. 50: 4, 115: p. 327.
59 Vitringa, tom. 1. 50. 2: 100: 6. 9.
60 Owen on Justification, 100: 2: p. 183.
61 Col_2:11; Col_2:13-14.
62 Tit_3:5.
63 A second Essay, called the "Extra Defended," on this same subject, in reply to a pamphlet from Elder Andrew Broaddus, of Virginia, titled the "Extra Examined," appeared in October, 1831. From our Defence, we here insert only four extracts. The subject as defended, being fully expressed in the preceding essay.
64 Act_10:43.