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52. The principal religious sects of modern times; their pretended groundwork in Scripture; and scriptural

answers.

The chief sects relate

I. To the Trinity; and are, Arians, Socinians, Moravians, and Swedenbourgians as being Sabellians.

II. To the extent of the atonement; Calvinists, Antinomians, and Universalists.

ents.

III. To church-government; Presbyterians and Independ

IV. To the mode and age adapted to baptism; Baptists and Antipædobaptists (including Sabbatarian Baptists), Quakers. V. To the nature and extent of spiritual influence; Methodists.

VI. To the future prospects of the church; Millenarians, including Southcotians, Irvingites, &c.

CLASS I.-Trinity.

The Arians believe the Son to be the first of all created beings, but not one with the Father, and not equal to him; and they rest their notions on such texts as the following:- Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God, Matt. xix. 17; to sit on my right and my left hand is not mine to give, Mark x. 27; of that day and that hour knoweth no man, neither the Son, but the Father, Mark xiii. 32; all power is given unto me, Matt. xxviii. 18; then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him that hath put all things under him, that God may be all in all, 1 Cor. xv. 28. These texts, they think, argue a manifest inferiority in the second Person. But their error consists in confounding the Divinity with the manhood of Christ. That may be true of the former, which may not be predicable as to the latter for instance, omniscience, and inherent power. And what can they make of I and the Father are one, John x. 30; or, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father? John xiv. 9.

The Socinians allow no pre-existing state of being to Christ

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before he came into the world at Bethlehem. Their text, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee (Psalm ii. 7), is a mere quibble—a commodity in which they deal. We oppose to it, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was, John xvii. 5; and, what and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? John vi. 62. They rest on the phrase, the Son of man, Matt. viii. 20; but forget that Jesus is also the Son of God, Mark i. 1; and as such brought on himself the enmity of the Jews.

The Socinians also deny the atonement, and quote the words, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, he shall save his soul alive (Ezek. xviii. 27), as a proof that repentance alone shall save a soul. But-what shall I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, Acts xvi. 31; neither is there salvation in any other, Acts iv. 12. Belief includes repentance on the orthodox system, but confesses its insufficiency of itself to work out salvation.

The Moravians admit the Trinity; but address their prayers and hymns principally to the second Person, on the strength of the text, at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, Phil. ii. 10; to which there is no objection, if it only be remembered that the words were taken from Isaiah xlv. 22, 23, where God the Father speaks-I am God: unto me every knee shall bow; every tongue shall swear. We are to worship God as an invisible Spirit, the Creator and Preserver: prayers and hymns addressed to the second Person are apt to forget the attributes of his spirituality, and to beget an unbecoming familiarity with the man Jesus.

The modern disciples of Swedenbourg have revived the Sabellian heresy, and unite the whole Godhead in the second Person; citing the very text which has been urged above against the Arians, believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? John xiv. 11. But here the distinct personality of the three in one is overlooked; as in the context of John xvii. 21, that thou hast sent me. How can this explain the baptism of Jesus, when all the three Persons were separately engaged?-the Divine Son being baptized; the Spirit of God hovering; and the voice coming from the Father. The Father

plans salvation; the Son executes; the Holy Ghost applies. No man hath seen God (the Father) at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath

declared (nynoaro, disclosed) him, John i. 18.

When the Com

forter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, he shall testify of me, John xv. 26.

CLASS II.-Atonement, extent of.

The Calvinists hold their five points: 1. Absolute predestination; 2. Partial redemption; 3. Total depravation; 4. Irresistible grace; 5. Indefectible grace.

As these are principally combined in the first, unconditional predestination, we shall rest on that chiefly. The grand stronghold of Calvinism is the text Rom. viii. 29, 30, for whom he did foreknow, he did also predestinate [to be] (this is not in the original, and прowρiσε ovμμóρpove is more accurately foreordained, BEING) conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

1. No one denies the foreknowledge of God; and if he foreknew those who should be conformed to the image of his Son, he may be said to have predetermined their salvation, without a fetter on their option to embrace or to reject his offer of salvation. 2. But in opposition to partial redemption (the second point), God invites all sinners, and opens salvation to them; he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, 2 Pet. iii. 9; he will have all men to be saved, 1 Tim. ii. 4. 3. Again, as to the third point, his invitations and warnings presuppose a mind not totally depraved, since it has the power of closing with grace; the Spirit worketh, wherefore work out your own salvation; and the Spirit witnesseth (not IN, but) WITH our spirits, that we are children of God, Phil. ii. 12, Rom. viii. 16. 4. In regard to the fourth point, as the mind has the correlative power of rejecting grace, it cannot be irresistible: men may receive the grace of God in vain; they may quench the Spirit, and grieve

it, 2 Cor. vi. 1, 1 Thess. v. 19, Ephes. iv. 30. 5. And in reply to the last point, as even St. Paul, chosen and called of God, feared lest he should be cast away (1 Cor. ix. 27), grace cannot be indefectible. But all this is a deep mystery.

Fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute;
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost.

MILTON, Par. Lost, b. ii. 1. 556.

Yet the same poet, though a reputed Calvinist, says, absolutely-

Hadst thou the same free-will and power to stand ?

Thou hadst.

B. iv. 1. 66.

And as this would only shew him to be not a supralapsarian Calvinist, he passes from Satan to Adam.

Happiness in his power left free to will.-B. v. 1. 235.

The Antinomians carry out the Calvinistic principle of indefectible grace to the utmost extravagance; but, indeed, there are Arminian Antinomians. They rest upon the text, or rather the half text, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, Rom. viii. 1; but they here close the book, and shut their eyes to the ending,-who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The Antinomians say, that as the elect cannot fall from grace, or lose the Divine favour, the wicked actions they commit are not really sinful, or violations of the Divine law; and consequently they have no occasion to confess their sins, or break them off by repentance. They hold that the imputed righteousness of Christ makes believers as righteous as he, since he has taken the whole of our sins, even the sin of our impenitence—that is, of the elect-upon himself, or expiated them by his sufferings. They quote Rom. iv. 6, setting forth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works; and ver. 5, with several other texts; where the works mentioned are evidently the works of the ceremonial law. The expressions in Rom. iii. 20, Gal. ii. 16, only shew that justification is not by moral works, but by faith; but the error consists in forgetting that faith without works is dead, being alone, James ii. 17.

According to the Universalists, punishment in the hands of

God is not vindictive, but corrective; and all men, when sufficiently purified by punishment, will finally be made happy in eternity.

They say that aiúvior, applied to punishment, signified only age-lasting, a limited time, Matt. xxv. 46; but the aivov in the former part of the verse, applied to happiness, they allow to be everlasting, and thus refute themselves; for whatever may be the meaning in the one case must be the same in the other.

Their leading texts are: as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, 1 Cor. xv. 22. And all shall verily be made alive, but the wicked unto eternal damnation, Mark iii. 29. They quote Coloss. i. 20, where Christ is said to reconcile all things unto himself: that is, we reply, to give all men an opportunity of recovering what they lost in Adam, and to save all but those who are determined of themselves to perish ; where the worm never dieth, and the fire is not quenched, Mark ix. 44.

CLASS III.-Church-government.

The Presbyterians maintain that church-government ought to be carried on by a rising scale of courts, from the kirk-session to the presbytery, the synod, and the general assembly. In these assemblies there is a president or moderator, with a higher chair pro tempore, as James the First said of Henderson's at Glasgow; but they allow of no permanent authority over churches vested ex officio in one man, who shall ordain, confirm, and rule; and deny such an office to have been appointed by Christ; holding that presbyter and bishop mean the same thing · the only order in the church, and no one having a rank above the others. Their deacons are accordingly laymen.

They support these sentiments by 1 Pet. v. 1, the elders (presbyters) I exhort, who am a fellow-presbyter; and various passages in the Acts. And as to ordination, and the conferring of any religious gifts, they refer to 1 Tim. iv. 14, the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. In 1 Tim. iii. mention only is made of bishops and deacons, shewing a bishop and presbyter to be the same.

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