Christian Hope

Having already sent forth a treatise on both Faith and Charity, which have met with much acceptance from the public, I felt a natural and not an unworthy desire to complete the consideration of the apostolic trio of christian graces, by issuing another on Hope. To this I was also impelled by two facts. First. — There is not, as far as my knowledge of theological literature extends, an English work devoted exclusively to this subject. Gurnall, Howe, and Bates have discussed it in parts of their valuable writings, and it will be found incorporated in the numerous sermons and essays of other authors. Secondly. — The importance of the subject justifies this attempt to bring it somewhat more fully before the lovers of practical religious literature. It is in fact the substance of the New Testament; the end of redemption; the glory of Christianity; and the antidote of nature’s supreme evil. It goes with us where all other subjects leave us ; — to the entrance of the dark valley of the shadow of death, and when every other light is extinguished, furnishes us with the only lamp that can guide us through the domain

A a of death, to the realms of glory, honour, and immortality. Thus it accomplishes what the human understanding never could achieve, by solving the sublimely awful problem of man’s existence beyond the grave.

Unaided reason never did, and never could, arrive at a satisfactory conclusion regarding the immortality of the soul and a future state of happiness. It could not be sure that the spirit survives the wreck of its material frame; for some appearances are against it, which the presumptive arguments in favour of it, are too feeble to refute. If it cotUd prove this fact, of the soul’s existence beyond the grave, still it could not demonstrate, nor scarcely hope, that it would be immortal; for eternity seems to be an attribute too vast for any one but God himself. If by any means it could persuade itself of this, it would be unable to prove that the soul would enter upon its felicity immediately after death. Equally uncertain would it be, of what that future felicity consists; still more would it be at a loss to know by what means celestial happiness was to be obtained, and how the sinful, earthly spirit of man was to be meetened for its enjoyment. All these questions being satisfactorily solved, there would yet remain the unrelieved, unrelievable doubt, whether this immortal existence and felicity were intended for all that wear the form of man, for the swarming millions of the human race, the countless multitudes descending to the lowest grade of humanity, or only for the flower and chivalry of mankind. Thus, at every step of the inquiry reason is bewildered, and sees shadows, clouds, and darkness resting upon her horizon. To all these questions, her oracle is dumb, or gives out only vague responses, doubtful and delusive. To settle these points, it was necessary that Qod himself should speak. He has spoken, and it is the glory of divine Revelation, that it does not hold out mere dim and obscure disclosures, but throws a flood of noon-tide radiance upon all these solemn and momentous inquiries. With what glowing raptures should we bless Qod for that gospel which brings life and inmiortality to light, and meets the deepest cravings of the soul. A poet has sung, in the charms of verse, “The Ileasures of Hope.” It is for the christian with his bible opening a vista into heaven, to realize and enjoy them.

To the subject of this volume I have also been in some measure led by my own circumstances. In the seventy-third year of my life, and the fifty-third of my ministry, I have no need of a special revelation to assure me that ‘’I must shortly put off this my tabernacle:” by the course of nature, this cannot be far off. The shadows of evening are gathering fast and thick around me, and I find it most consoling, on the border country of the world unseen, to go forward into what would be otherwise a dark unknown, guided and cheered by a hope full of immortality. I am induced to believe that what has comforted me in the preparation of the work, may by perusal be a source of consolation to others.

Many things are most accurately seen, in their relative importance, when viewed in the decline of life. It is in

Xll PREFACE.

the calm of the eveniDg, and not during the heat, and bustle, and burden of the day, that men in trade best judge of the objects which have engaged their attention in the hours of business. So it is with the christian, in reflecting upon his religious life, and especially with the * Christian minister, in looking back upon the pursuits of his official career. I am not even now indifferent to many lesser matters of christian truth; the subject of ecclesiastical polity still interests me; for surely the framework of Christ’s church, and the order of his house, must be of some consequence: and I am therefore no latitudinarian in reference to this matter. The system of Congregationalism which for more than half a century I have maintained, I believe comes nearer the general principles laid down in the New Testament than any other. This is all I claim for it. A closer approximation than others, to the model of the apostolic churches, is all that any of us can boast of: perhaps no modern system is, or can be a perfect copy of what, from its peculiar cicumstances, must of necessity have been unique. If ever I held my views of church government with the prejudice of a bigot, or propagated them with the zeal of a fanatic, though I am not conscious of either, that time is for ever gone by. Compared with Faithy Hope, and Love these things now appear to me only as the skeleton to the living body of Christianity. No man will be either saved or lost by the principles of church government, but by his possession or his destitution of these graces. There are many ways to perdition, but ecclesiastical polity is not one of them.

PBEFACE. Xiii

There is only one way of salvation, and that is, not Episcopacy, Presbyterianism, Methodism, nor Congregationalism; but repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesas Christ. Along the bye paths of each of these systems many are continually coming into the King’s high-road to eternal life. This should make us charitable to each other, and convince us upon what objects our attention and our zeal should be chiefly concentrated; for is it not pitiable to see men spending so much of their time and energy upon the unprescribed formalities of a ceremonial extemalism, to the comparative neglect oi Faith, Hope, and Love?

Most sad is it, that in the middle of the nineteenth century of the Christian era, so many of its professors should have, if not to learn, yet to remember, that “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink,” nor creed and ceremony, but “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’* Our holy religion, as exhibited on the page of ecclesiastical history, and of theological controversy, has to its own disparagement, been too often made to appear more like a fury, than a seraph; a demon of destruction, rather than a ministering angel; and brandishing a sword, instead of holding out the olive branch of peace. O that some voice, loud enough to be heard throughout Christendom, and powerful enough to be universally obeyed, would summon us all round the fount of inspired truth, first to purify our much abused vision from the scales of error and prejudice, and then to learn that real Christianity consists of the three apostolic graces; while all else is but her earthly attire, which may vary in fashion and colour, without aifecting her substance and life, or destroying her symmetry. Had this been understood, believed, remembered, and practised from the beginning, what monstrous systems of error; what iron yokes of spiritual tyranny; what bloody persecutions; what sacerdotal arrogance and assumption; what disfigurements of the simple and spiritual religion of the meek and lowly Jesus, by Pagan rites and puerile ceremonies; what foul blots upon the fair form of Christianity, would the world have been spared! Amidst the decrees of councils; the edicts of monarchs; the acts of senates; and the controversies of polemics, how has the still small voice of the apostle been stifled, which saith, “Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity.” How forward have men been to admire this sacred trio, but how slow to imitate them. Poets have sung their charms; painters have delineated their beauty; music chanted their praises; and eloquence emblazoned their worth — what remains but for preachers to make them the prevailing themes of their ministry, and for professing christians to exhibit them in the practice of their lives. When this shall every where be done, and they shall universally come in place of a heartless orthodoxy and a childish ritualism, then the world will see Christianity as she is, and will covet to be like her; but, till then, multitudes will look upon her with suspicion, and not a few turn from her with disgust.

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