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STATEMENTS

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE,

EXTRACTED FROM

THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS

R. D. HAMPDEN, D.D.

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF OXFORD.

LONDON:
B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET.
1836.

R.CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD-STREET-HILL.

ADVERTISEMENT.

These Extracts have been made with the know
ledge and sanction of the Author, and they are
submitted to the Public as his present views on the
points to which they refer : the volume of Parochial
Sermons, from which they are chiefly taken, being
in course of republication.

STATEMENTS,

I. Doctrine of the Atonement.
" As in the first Adam, by the unrighteousness
of one, all died ; so in Christ, the second Adam,
— the Lord from heaven, — by the righteousness
of one, all were made alive.
*' Salvation being thus obtained for us solely
through the atoning merits of Christ," &c. —
Sermon IV. p. 70.
"All men, consequently, — whatsoever be their
creed, — whatsoever their religious knowledge, —
whatsoever their attainments in righteousness,
can only be saved through the satisfaction made
once for all on the cross"— Ibid. p. 71.
" Let us consider what, agreeably to this view
of our obligation as Christian professors, sted-
fastness in the faith requires of us. — It requires of
us to know, and heartily believe, this great fun
damental truth — this religion of our religion, if it

may be so termed, — that God was in Jesus Christ
reconciling the world to himself. An unreserved
faith in the atoning blood of the Divine Re
deemer — a faith exclusively devoted to Christ as
its proper object — really Christian in the notion
of it — must be the first great qualification of the
believer, in order that he may have stedfastness
in his religious profession. ' For other founda
tion can no man lay than that is laid, which is
Jesus Christ.' " — Sermon V. p. 98.
" But in learning the truth of God from Scrip->
ture, we have the facts laid before us: they are
entirely out of the reach of our investigation, and
are, at once, by the word of the Spirit, mercifully
stated to us, in forms of expression calculated to'
impress them on our hearts, and enforeej. them on
our belief and conduct. For instance, the great
fact, that God sent his Son Jesus Christ into the
world, that the world by him should be saved, — >
what powers of investigation, however clear
sighted, or however lofty, could ever have dis
covered ?" — Observations on Dissent, 2d Edit.
p. 18.
" As believers in a real atonement for sin, we
may justly feel shocked at the thought which
imputes any merit to man, and regard as a sinful
pride in ourselves, the absence of that self-abase-

ment in the sight of God, which is peculiarly
impressed on us by this holy truth." — Observations
on Dissent. 2d Edit. p. 26.
" Whilst its (the Gospel's) great and peculiar
office is, to render us dead to the world that we
may live to Christ; it represses the frenzies of
fanatical excitement. It throughout subdues and
chastens the mysticism to which its invisible
realities might carry the susceptible mind, both
by express maxims of duty, full of sobriety and
prudence, and by its domestic picture of the Re
deemer, as one mixing in affable converse with
men, and drawing us to him with cords of
humanity, no less than by the life-blood flow
ing from his cross." — Moral Philos. Led. III.
p. 99.

II. Original Sin.
" The Scriptural truth of redemption through
the blood of Christ is founded upon another great
truth of Scripture — the doctrine of Original Sin,
as it is termed in the language of theology; or
the fact, that mankind are in a degenerate, de
graded condition." — Sermon IV. p. 68.
" It is no question, here, of the degree of that
corruption by which, our nature is infected. It is

8
enough that we are forced to confess that a cor
ruption exists in us. And with this humiliating
confession, we own the necessity of seeking a
Redeemer." — Sermon IV. p. 69.
" In learning the truth of our redemption by the
blood of Christ, we shall further be instructed by
the word of God in the proper nature of our con
dition in the world, — in our fall from original
righteousness, — our consequent corruption, — our
state of trial and discipline, — our dependence on
the continual providence of God, — the eternity of
the life to come, — the certainty of a judgment.
In short, every truth of Scripture is cordially
received by him who has a faith ' according to
knowledge' in the atonement of the Son of
God."— Ibid. p. 83.
"We are told, that the sting of death is sin.
How opposite is this information to the notion
generally and practically received in the world
respecting the event of death ! How little are
we accustomed to regard death as a moral
punishment ! From the current of human sen
timents and actions, it would appear as if death
were only a natural evil." — " Whereas, if it be
regarded by the light of Scripture as a grievance
belonging to our moral state — a payment of the
debt of corruption — rather than the settlement

of our account with mortality — then is there some
hope, that by availing ourselves of its moral
use, &c." — " He who beholds in sin the sting
of death, will find his relief in familiarizing his
mind to the thought of death. He will seek to
die daily. He will be incessantly labouring to
provide an antidote against what he knows to be
the only real cause of death — his sinful incli
nations — his alienation from God — his love of
the world, and of the things of the world." —
Sermon III. p. 46 — 50.
" Though the language of the Pelagians did
not adequately express the inveteracy of that
sinfulness of human nature, which Scripture and
the world declare with one voice, we must allow,
I think, that their grounds were right, so far as
they attempted to give a moral account of the
fact ; and that their opponents were wrong, so
far as they attempted to give a physical or
material account of it. Their (the Pelagians')
theory of human sinfulness sufficiently accounted
for the actual sins of men. It showed how our
nature might be depraved or improved ; that its
actual depravation consisted in transgressions,
like those of the first parent ; but it left unex
plained the tendency to sin existing in human
nature, — a fact evidenced in the difficulty of
resistance to temptation ; in the self-denial

10
which riglit conduct exacts, ' the law
in the members,' as the Scripture calls it. The
following evil example, the assimilating . of our
selves to the first transgressor, is only one mode
by which this evil tendency finds its way into
our conduct, and betrays itself. In itself it is
something beyond, and more intimate with our
feelings." — Bampton Lecture, V. p. 223.

III. Justification by Faith.
" The Christian hearer is, with respect to the
salvation of the cross, in the situation of the
impotent man described by Saint John as lying
by the. pool of Bethesda. As this poor sufferer
needed some helping hand to put him into the
troubled water, in order that he might experience
its healing virtue ; so must faith be to the hearer
of the Gospel, his minister on the Way to sal
vation. The blood of Christ is the Christian's
Bethesda. It is that which possesses in it all
the healing virtue. But that he may experience
its efficacy, he must descend into it. That be
may be made clean, he must wash in it. Faith
is that by which he must approach it. Faith
must guide and support the infirm soul, and put
the Christian, as it were, by the hand, into the
pool which shall make him whole.
"Hence arises the force of Saint Paul's assertion,

11
— " that a man is justified by faith without the
deeds of the law," — an assertion which our
Church has formally embodied in her doctrine of
justification by faith. In the exposition of a
religion, such as that of Christianity, — exacting
of its disciple a strict personal holiness, and
raising him to happiness by improving him as to
the principles of his own nature— but at the
same time leading him to depend on a righteous
ness not his own for his ultimate perfection and
happiness, — it becomes especially necessary, to
lay down the principle of justification in the most
explicit manner ; and to establish the human
righteousness which the religion inculcates, on
its proper foundation of the divine righteousness."
— Sermon IV. p. 72 — 74.
'¦ But whereas this tendency in man, to assume
merit to himself from some acts of his own, is of
perpetual force, — for it is part of that very cor
ruption which demanded the grace of redemp
tion, — it is still necessary that we should preserve
that form of sound words, which the Apostle has
set forth ; and assert our exclusive reliance on the
efficacy of the Redeemer's blood, in the same
unqualified manner, in which this inspired teacher
of the Gospel has done. We therefore maintain
our justification by faith alone — intending thereby
entirely to deny ourselves — entirely to exclude

12
ourselves from any merit whatever in saving the
soul alive — utterly to disclaim our own right
eousness, even when we are most righteous." —
Sermon IV. p. 75.

IV. Sanctification by the Holy Spirit.
" ' No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but
by the Holy Ghost.' * If any man have not
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his :' he is no
real Christian — no real believer in the Atone
ment." — Sermon IV. p. 77.
"Are you sincere believers in the doctrine of
Sanctification by the Spirit ? — You are sanctified
in every good word and work. You have contem
plated God, as the Helper of your infirmities, the
Giver of a new life." — " But how can any one
honestly declare the same truth as his own per
sonal conviction, who knows quite the contrary of
himself — that he is such an one in his actions
with whom the Holy Spirit cannot dwell. He
may indeed acknowledge the truth generally.
He may be a professor of a system of doctrines
in which this particular doctrine enters. But as
to any personal acceptance of the truth — which is
the point at issue when a man's real religion is
looked into — he is as one who has never ' heard
whether there be any Holy Ghost.' The grace

13

on which we heartily rely, speaks from the
actions which it sanctifies." — Sermon VII. pp.
160, 161.

u

It is true, indeed, that those who have
heartily embraced their religion, will feel that
sincerity of conviction — that ardency of heavenly
love — that inward consolation and joy and fulness
of hope, — which it is the office of the Holy
Spirit to impart to the faithful servant of Christ :
for Christ sends even now his Comforter, accord
ing to his promise, to strengthen the heart of
faith : but let us recollect, that such as are
animated by this holy joy, — such as feel ' their
faith of eternal salvation to be enjoyed through
Christ ' established and confirmed, and the ' love
of God fervently kindled' in them, — do not
arrogate to themselves any sudden and groundless
confidence. The reality of the Divine presence
by the Spirit with the believer, must not be con
founded with the gross imaginations of the heart
of man. Their feeling of joy is the result of
conduct harmonizing with their belief, and
strengthening their belief by its accordance." . . .
" They find their hope of free justification —
their trust of being made sons of God by adop
tion — ' full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable
comfort,' — because they are ' godly persons ' —
because they are ' walking religiously in good

14
works,' — because they are becoming, (as they
reasonably judge of themselves, by comparison of
their present state with their former,) more and
more ' like the image of Jesus Christ ;' — ' feeling
in themselves the working of the Spirit, mortify
ing the works of the flesh, and their earthly mem
bers,' as well as ' drawing up their minds to high
and heavenly things." — SermonV- pp. 1 12, 1 13.
" Every intimation of the Holy Spirit conveyed
by the Word of God is, in its strict and proper
application, an appeal to the heart of man ; and
each such appeal is an argument and incitement
to duty. Take, for instance, the truth of the
resurrection. Here is at once a truth, from
which innumerable precepts of duty relating to
the whole of the present life, may be deduced;
Take again the truth of the sanctification of the
Christian by the Holy Ghost: here also results
a whole spiritual code for the regulation and
purification of the affections and sentiments."—
Observations on Dissent, p. 12.
• •"  those good works which flow from
the grace of God, and are sanctified through
Christ to the life everlasting." — Moral Philo-

"As Christians, we look to God as our begin-

15
ning and our end. He is our first mover in
whatever we do that is good. The beauty, and
the honour, and the happiness of our virtue, are
of him, creating us in Jesus Christ unto good
works, and sanctifying us by the inspiration of
his Spirit."— Ibid. p. 103.

V. Resurrection & Future Judgment by Christ.
" But whilst the doctrine of a Resurrection
to life eternal, to which the text refers, is preg
nant with wise comfort to the afflicted spirit of
man, — comfort is not its principal practical inten
tion. As life eternal is the peculiar revelation
of Christianity — the exclusive sanction and pro
mise of the faith in Christ Crucified; — the
leading application of it must consist in its im
portance, as an argument for maintaining the
Faith with constancy and zeal ; so that we may
be inheritors of the immortality bequeathed to us
by our Redeemer." — Sermon V. p. 95.
" Further, he who is deeply impressed with a
conviction, that Jesus Christ came into the world
to take away sin, will also habitually expect him,
as surely about to come again, to vindicate, with
power, his despised goodness and long-suffering.
Estimating the exceeding sinfulness of sin, by the
costliness of the sacrifice made to atone for it, he

16
will dread its punishment. He will be assured,
that so awful an expiation cannot have been
undertaken, without the ultimate consequence,
that the righteousness of God shall be made
hereafter to appear with perfect clearness by the
visitation of sin — by its perpetual exile from the
kingdom of God ; — when ' the Son of man shall
send forth his angels, and they shall gather out
of his kingdom all things that offend, and them
which do iniquity ; and shall cast them into a
furnace of fire : there shall be wailing and
gnashing of teeth.' The Christian's belief in
the Atonement of his Saviour, will thus neces
sarily keep him looking for the day of judge
ment."— Smrcora XIX. pp. 412, 413.
"So will your faithful watching, and your
unwearied prayer, come up before him, and
cause you to be remembered by him in the great
day of judgment. In that day he will look on
you, and know you to be of those whom he has
adopted as sons, — whom his Well-beloved died
to save,— whom his Holy Spirit has anointed and
sanctified to life eternal." — Ibid, p. 426.

VI. Incarnation; Divinity of Christ.
" I, for one, would contend as zealously against
Arian or Socinian doctrines as the most strenuous

17
alarmist." — Postscript to Observations on Dissent,
p. 13.
" He that sincerely believes in Jesus Christ as
his Redeemer — regarding him, as the Son of God
made man — the co-equal in glory with the Father
and the Holy Spirit, disrobing himself of that
light in which he walked unseen by mortal eye,
and entering the lowly tabernacle of the flesh for
the sake of men — for the sake of us miserable sin
ners — he, I say, who sincerely believes this won
derful fact, cannot but feel his heart dilate with
reverential love and gratitude at the thought.
When, in the full consciousness of our own ina
bility to retrieve the ruin of our souls, we consider
the great mercy we have obtained — no less than
the gift of immortality with God, when we had
forfeited even the happiness of our earthly con
dition — and contemplate God through the veil of
the Incarnation, himself paying the ransom of our
freedom — do not our hearts burn within us 1 And
are we not ready," &c. — Sermon IV. p. 84.
" You will readily allow this, if you consider
who that sacred Person was, whose presentation
in the Temple was thus greeted by these favoured
saints of God. My Brethren ! — if you have lis
tened to the voice of Scripture with that docility
— with that humble resignation of the thoughts of

18
your heart — which the authority of a Divine
message exacts from those to whom it is sent —
you will not require to be told by me now — or be
startled at the declaration, as if it were a setting
forth of new and unheard-of things, — that the
precious burden which Simeon held in his arms,
as he thus poured forth the devotion of his heart,
was no other than the incarnate God — the Word
made flesh — the Lord of Hosts, appearing in
fashion as a man. You will be pleased to recog
nize in the most exalted description, that I may
give you, of this holiest first-born, that conception
of him, which has ever been the animating prin
ciple of your religious sentiments. You will
remember, that Saint John has introduced him to
our devout contemplation at the very opening of
his gospel, (as if designedly pre-occupying the
mind of his readers with that notion of Jesus
Christ, which should accompany their reading of
him throughout the book,) as the Word that 'was
in the beginning with God and was God;' —
adding, that ' by him all things were made, and
without him was not any thing made that, was
made :' that he is described as ' the only -be
gotten Son of God,' — that is, the Son of God,
not born in the manner, in which all other sons of
God, whether angels or men, are born, but in an
eminently peculiar manner of derivation, consti
tuting him the only Son, and rendering it no

19
presumption in him ' to be equal with God.' With
these pointed expressions, declaring the supreme
dignity of Jesus Christ, you will have combined
many other intimations of his Divine nature ;
found, not only in the writings of the inspired
preachers of the Gospel, but in those sublime
anticipations of him, which glow in the pages of
the Jewish prophets. From a great number of
passages of Scripture, accordingly, you will have
been already convinced, that the wonderful Person,
then hailed by Simeon and Anna at his appear
ance in the Temple, and by whose name we are
called — was neither an angelic spirit ; — nor man
alone : — that, whilst in all things he was made
like unto us, sin only excepted, he was also no
less, perfect God ; — that in him were united two
distinct natures — the divine and the human —
through which mysterious union, he became the
Christ—' Christ the Lord '— ' the Lord's Christ.' "
—Sermon IX. p. 195—198.

VII. Trinity in Unity.
" The only ancient, only catholic, truth is the
Scriptural fact. Let us hold that fast in its
depth and breadth — in nothing extenuating, in
nothing abridging it — in simplicity and sin
cerity; and we can neither be Sabellians, or
b2

20
Tritheists, or Socinians." — Bampton Lecture,
III. p. 249.
" When we look unto Jesus, we must look
unto the Father also, who is ' seen ' in him ; and
unto that Holy Spirit who has received of
Christ's and ' shewn it ' unto us. And so ' by
the confession of a true faith,' we shall ' acknow
ledge the glory of the eternal Trinity.' " — Ser
mon IV. p. 82.
" Thus have we, my brethren, arrived at the
knowledge of that sacred mystery, which we
denote by the comprehensive expresssion of The
Trinity. The doctrine of a Trinity in Unity, is
the ineffably sublime result of all that God is
related to have done in our behalf, in that
narrative of his providences which we call the
Bible. It is not a mere dogma, or formal
declaration of some opinion concerning God,
simply deduced from certain texts of Scripture, —
as the adversaries of the faith once delivered to
the Saints are apt to assert; — but it is a general
fact, clearly resulting from all those manifold
occasions on which the Deity is manifested to us
as we read the pages of the Bible. We discover it,
not in the books of Moses — or in the Prophets—
or in the Scriptures of the New Testament,—-
taken by themselves alone, and independently of

21
each other ; — but in the united views which they
present of the Head of the kingdom of provi
dence. Now, indeed, that we enjoy the full
light, we can trace, with more or less clearness,
in each separate portion of Scripture, intimations
of the doctrine of the Trinity ; — nay, even under
the very terms by which the Deity is announced
to us, in the first chapter of Genesis, those who
are acquainted with the original language of the
Old Testament, detect striking evidences of the
sacred truth : — and, perhaps, no Christian reads
the words — ' Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness' — but recognizes in this form of ex
pression the existence of a plurality of persons
in the Godhead. — Accordingly, to enable the
believer to perceive that Scripture truth is one
and the same throughout, the Church calls our
attention to the opening of the scheme of Reve
lation, by appointing the first and eighteenth
chapters of Genesis to be read in the services of
the festival, set apart in commemoration of the
mystery of the Trinity. But it is because we
enjoy the full light, and reflect back on the past
the rays emitted from the later dispensations of
God, that we see these evidences of him in the
first revelations. To us, the Prophets of the Old
Covenant, speak the message of Apostles and
Evangelists, because we have learned their words
in the school of Apostles and Evangelists. This,

22
indeed, is a consideration which must be ever
borne in mind, when we bring any particular
passage of the older Scriptures in testimony of
the doctrine of the Trinity — that we do not rest,
or found, the doctrine upon this or that passage ;
— but that we adduce it only in confirmation of
a truth which results from the whole tenour of
Scripture — from taking a collective survey of the
successive dispensations therein recorded — from
viewing God, not only as the Creator and
Governor of the world, but also as our Saviour
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, — and
our Comforter and Sanctifier in the person of
the Holy Ghost.
" This is the firm and impregnable ground on
which Christians should maintain the scriptural
truth of a Trinity in Unity. They should never
suffer themselves to be entangled in mere verbal
controversy with the heretical opposers of this
doctrine. The clearest intellect, as well as the
soundest faith, may be sometimes embarrassed
by verbal difficulties — by objections to parti
cular passages — by ingenious interpretations of
particular texts, emptying them of that glory
which they possess as vehicles of the doctrine
of the Trinity ; but there is no disturbing the
faith or the sense of that Christian, who points
to the Bible as a whole, containing this doc
trine in it as a matter of fact — as a truth

23
identified with, and inseparable from, the events
which it records." — Sermon II. p. 27 — 30.
" From these facts, therefore, reaching from
the foundation of the world, and completed by
the declaration of him in his only-begotten Son,
we know assuredly, that we are bound to feel the
same religious regards towards the sacred person
who redeemed us, and towards him who enlightens
and sanctifies the heart, which we feel towards
him who is the Father and Governor of all things;
and yet that we are not to worship the Holy
Three, as if they were three Gods, or three Lords,
but as of one Godhead, one glory, one majesty ;
since the unity of God is no less a fact recorded
in the whole volume of Scripture than his Trinity
is ; and as strongly inculcated on us by those very
transactions on the part of God which reveal to
us his threefold nature." — Sermon II. p. 32.

VIII. Athanasian Creed, &c.
" It may be worth while to state, that it is upon
this view of the doctrine of the Trinity that the
formulary of the Athanasian Creed is grounded.
If that Creed were an expression of abstract
opinions formed by human reason on an incom
prehensible subject ; then it would be both rash
and profane in any Church to exact a «;eneral

24
conformity of declaration on a matter so preca
rious in its foundation. But that Creed, on the
contrary, presupposes that the doctrine of the
Trinity in Unity is a certain fact of Scripture.
It simply notes and records what Scripture re
veals, and it delivers no opinion whatever con
cerning the matters revealed and there specified.
As a brief statement, it brings together points
which are scattered throughout Scripture, col
lecting in one the rays that diverge from the
various facts of the different dispensations of God.
This gives it the appearance of being a declara
tion of opinions ; which appearance is increased
from its including a denial of some opinions
introduced by heretical innovators upon the faith
of Scripture. But we greatly misconceive its
nature, if we imagine that it speaks the language
of speculative theology. Such is not the spirit in
which it has been adopted by our Church. Our
Church, humbly following Scripture, wishes all
her members to make a true confession of what
they learn from Scripture; and, therefore, as I
conceive, appoints the doctrine of the Trinity, as
the most comprehensive declaration of Scripture
truths — as the doctrine in which all other doc
trines ultimately centre — to be confessed by her
members with peculiar emphasis and distinctness
on certain occasions. It is in this spirit, that, as
it seems to me, (whatever may have been the

25
design of the composer of the Athanasian Creed,
or in whatever way it may be received by the
Church of Rome,) our Church at least has made
it one of her standing formularies. If accord-
mgty> *ne providences of God related in the
Bible lead us to a belief in the triune being of
God as a certain fact, — shall we not admit the
sound wisdom and propriety of our declaring this
fact in the boldest and most solemn manner, —
stating it with precision where heretics have
defaced and obscured it, — and showing, that we
hold it as a truth of divine Revelation, (nothing
in which can have been given in vain,) by adding
our profession of its unspeakable importance 1 If
we must admit all this, we admit, at the same
time, the excellence and the use of the Athanasian
Creed ; for it has done nothing more than this. —
I trust, my Christian brethren, that with this view
of our case, we shall be allowed to confess, that, —
' he that will be saved must thus think of the
Trinity ;' — without having either a want of cha
rity, or a vain dogmatism, imputed to us." —
Sermon II. pp. 35 — 38.
" [Note.] The right statement of the Incarna
tion, added in the Creed, is essential to the right
statement of the Trinity." — Ibid.
" It appears to me, then, that the occasion

26
for Articles will probably never cease. At the
same time we must not suppose, that the same
immutability belongs to Articles of Religion,
which we ascribe properly to Scripture - facts
alone. As records of opinions they are essentially
variable. It is no impeachment of their truth, to
regard them as capable of improvement, — of more
perfect adaptation to the existing circumstances of
the Church at different periods. As to the difficulty
and hazard of any actual alteration, I have nothing
to say. I do not presume to say, that alteration
is actually required. I am merely addressing my
self to the general question, as to the capacity of
improvement in Church-Creeds and Articles, with
the view of suggesting a right theory of the sub
ject. To deny the essential variableness of such
documents, is, to admit an human authority to a
parity with the authority of Inspiration. It is to
incur the imputation, which members of the Ro
man Communion have sometimes brought against
the Church of England ; that, professing to make
the Scriptures the sole rule of faith, we have
inconsistently adopted another rule of faith in
the deference paid to our Articles." — Bampton
Lecture, VIII. pp. 380, 381.
" Consider, on the other side, the case of the
Articles. What is the difficulty in accepting
these? Is it the inconceivable nature of the

27
statements there made by the Church ? The fact
is proved to be otherwise. For let any one com
mence the study of them, and the more acquaint
ance he obtains with the controversies agitated
from time to time, the more he enters into the
characters of the agents at the different periods of
Church history, and the spirit of the times when
each dispute was most active ; the more learning,
in short, he acquires, the more opened his mind
is by study ; — the more do his difficulties dis
appear : he sees the reasons, more and more,
for particular statements, and the more readily
assents to the several expositions of doctrine. I
think every one, who has watched the progress of
his mind in theological studies, will confess to
this fact in his own case. His difficulties in
admitting the Articles have gradually diminished :
he has seen more and more the reasons of them.
For my part, I declare such to have been the
result on my own mind ; and, so far from ex
periencing any objection to the Articles from an
increased acquaintance with them by the pro
secution of theological study, I have found my
disposition to receive them increase, from this
very circumstance, that I see more fully the
reasons of the statements contained in them." —
Postscript to Observations on Dissent, p. 9.

28
IX. Inspiration of Scripture.
" Whilst our faith proceeds from the operation
of the Holy Ghost on our hearts, it is through the
word given by the Holy Ghost in the Scripture,
that our faith is formed and perfected. That is
the audible voice of the Spirit calling us to the
Gospel-redemption. Our ears must be opened to
the speaking oracles of the Spirit ; and then his
still and mysterious voice, perceptible only in the
inmost heart, (if perceptible it may be called,) will
not be wanting to us. Agreeably to this, Saint
Paul speaks of the Scriptures of the Old Tes
tament, as able to make the reader ' wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.'
The word preached and delivered in Scripture
does not 'profit' indeed, ' not being mixed with
faith in them that' hear or read it. It must be
heard and read with a view to that precious
redemption of which it tells ; that is the master-
key to God's manifold dispensations ; but it must
be surveyed and studied throughout, in order to a
right faith in the redemption of which it treats.
We cannot form any just notion of the sacrifice of
the Cross, without an enlarged knowledge of the
scheme of revelation. We do not, as some may
erroneously suppose, arrive at our knowledge of
the nature of the Person and sufferings of Jesus
Christ, by simply dwelling on the transactions of
Gethsemane and of Calvary ; nor even by the

29
descriptions of him contained in the writings of
the New Testament; but by making ourselves
familiar with Scripture in all its parts." — Sermon
IV. p. 80—82.
" When God gave an express revelation to man
he signified to human reason, — ' hitherto shalt
thou come, but no further ; and here shall thy
proud waves be stayed,' — He appointed that reve
lation to be accepted by reason, not to be mea
sured by it. — And none therefore, who apply
their reason as the measure of divine truth, can
reach its height. The great Corner-stone of the
Gospel cannot be quarried out with tools of mere
earthly manufacture. It must be dug and fashioned
with those, which the Holy Ghost has placed in
our hands, in giving us the Scriptures." — Serm.V.
pp.101, 102.

X. Importance and Use of Christian Doctrine.
" Whilst religion purifies, and elevates, and
sanctifies the moral feelings, it can effect this
Divine purpose only by going hand in hand
with those very principles which it would trans
form to the image of God. For no true religion
can contradict the moral nature of man ; and the
gospel is eminently the gift of one, who ' knew
what was in man.'" — Moral Philosophy, p. 61.

30

" We shall find, at the same time, that Reli
gion abstains entirely from the Science of Morality.
Its only concern is that morality should exist in
fact — should be exemplified personally in all
religious men." — Moral Philosophy, p. 100.
"You are now fully prepared, I should hope,
to go along with me in the assertion, that the
doctrine of a Trinity in Unity is one, which, no
person who has the Bible before him, and who is
able to search and see whether these things are
so, can hold it a matter of indifference whether
he receives or rejects. What 1 have been endea
vouring to impress on you, is, that if the Scrip
tures exist, this doctrine exists ; that it is the
very substance of our whole faith ; and not a
mere article of it : or rather, that either this
doctrine is, or Christianity is not; and that in
the act of renouncing it, we depart into another
system of faith, and quit that which results from
the records of Scripture. If you are thus per
suaded, you place the doctrine on a right footing,
and hold it in due honour. But, being thus
persuaded, you cannot do otherwise than think,
that your salvation is intimately connected with
this your right belief." — Sermon II. pp. 38, 39.
" Whilst we adopt Christ Crucified, as the
fundamental characteristic of our religious

31
profession, we shall maintain the other doctrines of
Scripture in their full importance. Taking the
Christian Redemption from its proper source—
the Scripture — we shall take along with it, all
those other holy and edifying truths, with which
it is there closely and inseparably intwined. And,
thus obtaining a comprehensive and consistent
view of the whole scheme of Divine Revelation,
we shall not only defy the attacks of the ostensible
infidel, but also be proof against the more dan
gerous wiles of insidious traitors to Christianity,
bearing the sacred name of its disciples, whilst
breathing war against it in their hearts and
their proceedings. Our conviction will be, that
we have placed our trust in One, in whom all
the counsels of God towards man have their
perfection ; — and, that though an angel from
heaven should preach to us any doctrine at
variance with the great mystery of his Atone
ment, we should believe it not — that all must be
true, which the Scripture has joined with this
mystery in the scheme of revelation, however
inexplicable to us, however apparently to our
judgment unconnected with it; — that whatever
militates with this mystery, must be false, how
ever speciously Scriptural in its assertion, and
however plausibly supported by ingenuity of
argument." — Sermon V. p. 105.

32
" It is mere trifling with the redemption of the
Gospel, to say, that we rely on it exclusively for
our acceptance with God, and to have no thought
of the Redeemer himself: — it is a vain profana
tion of his blood, to regard it as poured out for
our sins, and not to sympathise with the heart
from which it flowed : — it is a despite to his
grace, to pretend to love his grace, and not to
cherish his example, and his word, to receive the
pardon, but to slight its obligations." — Ser
mon IV. p. 85.
" Here then you have before you a sketch of
that Faith, by which we are said to be justified.
To fill up the sketch would be to give you the
full portrait of Christianity. For according to the
view which I have endeavoured to present to
you of it, it is only the comprehensive — the
characteristic — expression for the whole religion
of the Bible. It is Christianity in the heart — in
the actions — on the lips. It is divine power
strengthening human weakness — divine wisdom
informing human folly — divine goodness melio
rating human corruption — divine love warming
human coldness — in a word, the life of God
transfused into the life of man." — Ibid, p. 87.
" And let us labour to prove, by our, lives, the
saving efficacy of that pure profession of Chris-

33
tianity, which we make in professing the doctrine
of the Trinity. Our unalterable attachment to this
sacred truth, — our zeal in defending it, — above
all, our wisdom in understanding if, — are best
evinced, not by our dexterity in adducing texts
in proof of it,— not by our readiness of argument
in combating the objections of its opponents — not
by our acuteness in distinguishing and guarding
our notions from heretical imputations, — not, I
say, by all these modes of profession, however
useful and indispensable in themselves to the
maintenance of the doctrine, — but by still more
vital and effectual means, — by shewing forth the
love of the Father, almighty in constraining us
to the obedience of dutiful children, — the grace
of out Lord Jesus Christ, almighty in rescuing us
from the bonds of sin and death, — the communion
of the Holy Ghost, almighty in consecrating our
hearts to the service and glory of that Godhead
in which the Holy Three are One." — Sermon II.
pp. 41, 42.
XI. Means of Grace.
" Those of us, my brethren, who have been
faithfully carried to Christ in baptism, have been
so grafted ; so far as God's promise, of receiving
all who come to him in that sacrament, is involved.
We have thus been born of God. But the
healthiness of that graft — the abiding in Christ, —
is a matter of our own personal faith,— of our
c

34
personal endeavours to strengthen the grace
given to us in the laver of regeneration. If you
are now, therefore, abiding in Christ, know that
you have cherished in you the Communion of the
Spirit. Give God the glory of your faith. Hum
bly thank him, that you ' have received the Spirit
of adoption, whereby,' being endeared to him as
his children in Christ, you are enabled, as such,
to * cry Abba, Father.' And henceforth ' grow in
grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ.' "—Sermon IV. p. 79.
" Proceed, then, to ask yourselves, whether your
faith is indeed the Atonement of the Cross revealed
to your hearts — whether it realizes in your case
the Atonement made for sin ? Look to the points
to which I have called your attention. Has your
faith brought you to God the Father, as his sons
by a new creation ; as really born of him ? Is it
founded on a trust in the secret indwelling of the
Spirit in your hearts ; and maintained, by cherish
ing that blessed communion, according to the ap
pointed means 1 To ascertain this satisfactorily, —
inquire of yourselves, whether you have strictly
followed the directions of Scripture in order to
obtaining the Spirit of sanctification: whether
you have sought the gift of a saving faith in
Christ, by the means of grace, — by prayer, the
word of God, and the sacraments. Unless you

35
have thus rooted and stablished yourselves in the
faith, it is too certain that you have not a justify
ing faith. That must come from the Spirit. If,
then, you have not fervently prayed for the
Spirit, — if you have not made yourselves familiar
with the words of the Spirit, — if you have not
valued the washing of the Spirit in baptism, — nor
fed on the banquet of the Spirit by partaking of
the mystical food of Christ's body and blood ; —
where is there any ground of trust, that you have
that faith which is the gift of the Spirit ?" — Ser
mon IV. pp. 89, 90.
" Who, then, can justly question the importance
of prayer ? For, whilst the Christian is praying,
that blessed Person of the Holy Trinity, — to
whose immediate care the souls of the redeemed
are committed, now that the great High Priest
himself is passed into the heavens ; — comes dowri
and visits hira. Even whilst he prays for the
Spirit, the Spirit anticipates the holy request,
and is present with the suppliant for his aid." —
Sermon XIX. p. 419.
" Men are not content with the simple decla
rations ; — ' Repent, and be baptized :' — ' Except
a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God :' — ' Go, and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' Nor will they

36
acquiesce in the duty of conforming their practice
to these scriptural injunctions.  In regard, in
deed, to both the sacraments, singleness of heart is
the only human means that we possess of appre
hending their true import. ' He which hath said,'
observes Hooker, ' of the one sacrament, Wash
and be clean ;' hath said concerning the other
likewise; 'Eat, and live.' If, 'therefore,' he
continues, (I quote his words for their general
application to the whole subject of the sacra
ments,) if ' without any such particular and
solemn warrant as this is, that poor distressed
woman, coming unto Christ for health, could so
constantly resolve herself;' ' May I but touch
the skirt of his garment, I shall be whole ;' what
moveth us to argue of the manner how life should
come by bread ; our duty being here but to take
what is offered, and most assuredly to rest per
suaded of this, that, can we but eat, we are safe ?
.... What these elements are in themselves, it
skilleth not ; it is enough, that to me which take
them, they are the body and blood of Christ:
his promise in witness hereof sufficeth ; his word
he knoweth which way to accomplish : why
should any cogitation possess the mind of a faith
ful communicant, but this; O my God, thou art
true ! O my soul, thou art happy ?' " — Bampton
Led. VII. pp. 343, 344.

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD-STREET-HILL.