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themselves; to compare our sermons and the doctrines we teach with the Book whence we profess to draw them. We must declare, without reservation or equivocation, in the language of our 6th Article, that "whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation;" and, as we have solemnly pledged at our ordination, that we are "determined out of the said scriptures to instruct the people committed to our charge; and to teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation, but that which we shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture." Such, we declare to be the sole authority for all our teaching on articles of faith, the voice, not of the Church, but of Scripture. And "if the Church be thought to speak with authority as well as Scripture, it is only because in our judgment, the Church and the Scripture speak the same things;" that whether by the oral teaching of her ministers, or by her written articles and formularies; her voice is but the echo of the authoritative word. But, if in any point, the Bible should say one thing and the Church another, then, as Churchmen we declare, we bow to the authority of the Bible, and reject that of the Church. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Such then is to be the source from which our teaching is to be derived. "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." "The only Divine record we possess, and the one standard of truth and error, to which all must appeal, and by which all may be guided into truth."*

But it is plain that the Religion of the Gospel, like every other system of truth, must have some principles which are peculiar and essential to it; the belief of which

* Bishop Shirley's Bampton Lectures, p. 25.

is necessary to salvation. And these essential principles are to form the chief subject matter of our teaching, and to be constantly enforced on the minds and consciences of our hearers. It is not difficult to ascertain what these peculiar and essential truths of the Gospel are. They do in fact pervade the whole of the Scriptures, and are mutually dependent on and connected one with the other, so that together and unitedly, not singly and separately, they form the Gospel of Salvation.

The first of these essential truths, and that which forms the basis of the rest, is the infection and helplessness of our nature. The very foundation of the Gospel plan of Salvation rests on this,-that man, every man, in his natural state, is a corrupted creature; that God made man upright, but that by sin he has lost that image and likeness of God in which he was at first made, that as Scripture says, his "heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked;" that " in his flesh," that is, in his fallen human nature "dwelleth no good thing;" that (Article 9.) he is "very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and therefore, in every person born into the world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation." Moreover, that such is the depth in which man has fallen, that (Article 10.) "he cannot turn and prepare his own heart by his own natural strength and good works, to faith and calling upon God." This truth, this humbling truth, of man's lost and helpless state by nature, we must urge again and again on the minds of our hearers. The full and explicit maintaining of it is necessary in order to subdue the pride of the natural heart, to humble it, and make it feel the necessity not only of a Saviour, but a Sanctifier. If this doctrine of man's naturally depraved, and consequently ruined state, be not clearly enforced; if, through false tenderness, it be palliated or disguised; if we teach,

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that as the world is growing older, the heart of man is growing better, we can produce no other effect by this false teaching, on the minds of our hearers, than coldness and indifference to the "one thing needful;" we are practically denying the necessity either of" repentance towards God, or of faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." But when this foundation is clearly and distinctly laid down, as it is stated in the Articles, Homilies, and Services of our Church; and as we find it in Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, when we teach (Gen. 6.) that "the earth is corrupt before God;" that (Rev. 3.) man, by nature is "wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked;" then is seen and felt the necessity of redemption through the Son of God; of His atoning blood, and justifying righteousness,―the one to procure the pardon of all our sins, the other to give us a title to glory.

This is another essential Gospel truth, we are to insist on,-Redemption through the Cross. We are first to exhibit the lost and perishing condition of man by nature, as represented throughout Scripture, and then, to lead our hearers to the Cross; to set before them, in all the fulness and freeness of his power to save to the uttermost," Jesus Christ and him crucified;" to hold Him forth to every penitent sinner as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. We are, (to borrow a homely but forcible expression,) we are to preach "a full Christ to empty sinners;" to say to them " ye are complete in Him," and seek to fix their faith on Him, as their " wisdom, their righteousness, their sanctification and redemption." This indeed is our most delightful theme, as it was that of the Apostle, "Christ and him crucified." We preach the terrors of the law to awaken and alarm, but the still small voice of the Gospel is the golden key that opens the heart to Jesus Christ. " I, if I be lifted up," says Jesus, "will draw all men unto me." No souls therefore can be drawn to him, nor won to him, if his

name, his work, his cross, his glory be not the foremost, the chief, the prominent theme of our ministry. The doctrine of the cross, is indeed from its importance, described as being not only a branch of Gospel truth, but the Gospel itself. "We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to them that are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." "I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified."

But another essential truth of the Gospel to which we must take heed if we would save ourselves and them that hear us, is the great doctrine of Sanctification by the Holy Spirit. We must preach the necessity, not only of obtaining a title to Heaven through the alone satisfaction of Christ, but also of a meetness for Heaven through the sanctifying influences of the Spirit; that all must be born again and quickened to newness of life before they can see the Kingdom of God. Both doctrines are necessarily connected with the truth of man's fallen nature. For, as guilty, we need the Almighty Saviour to atone for our sins, and reconcile us to our offended God; and, as unholy and depraved, we need the Almighty Sanctifier to cleanse and purify our hearts, to prepare us for God's service on earth, and for His Kingdom in Heaven. It is the Spirit's work to accomplish this in us. He convinces of sin; he brings us to Christ and shews us the way of Salvation through Him; he converts to holiness of heart and life all the elect people of God. The promise of Christ to his people was, that he would send the Comforter, even the Spirit of Truth, which should "dwell with them, and be in them;" and we must enforce plainly on all who hear us, that unless they have this Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, unless they be made individually, "Temples of the Holy Ghost," (though they may have been received into the visible Church, by the symbol of regenera

tion,) they "are none of His." I have thus alluded to the peculiar, distinguishing truths of the Gospe., which are to form the subject matter of all our preaching. I cay not, that we are to omit other truths, such as those which relate to Christian practice, and to our duties towards God and towards our neighbour. These we are to inculcate in all their various and special details. But the truths that I have named, which are in fact the practical application of the great doctrine contained in our creeds,—the doctrine of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the three persons and one God of our Salvation, are the essentials of our religion; and they lie at the root of all Christian practice. [*For it is utterly in vain that we enforce the necessity of Christian practice, if we do not first, as the Apostle does, lay the foundation in Christian doctrine. The natural heart of man, which is "enmity against God" and true religion, was never truly converted, nor can his soul ever be saved by attention to the mere moral precepts of religion, however excellent in themselves. It is only the cordial reception of the great doctrines that have been mentioned, and their practical application to the soul, by the Spirit of God, that can accomplish this. And it is one of the great excellences of our own Church, as it has probably proved under God, her great bulwark against the assaults of her enemies, from within and from without, that she insists so strongly on the doctrines of religion. "The importance given to doctrine in the Church of England," writes an eminent living Divine † of a foreign church, and never were his remarks more appropriate than at the present juncture, "is her safeguard. Without it, she would long ago have fallen beneath the assaults, not of rationalism, but of traditionalism and superstition. Let the ministers and members of the Church," he continues, "set forth and main

*The above between the [ ] formed part of the sermon, though not delivered from the pulpit.

+ Merle D'Aubignè.

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