The Course of Faith

The substance of the following little treatise was given to my congregation some few years since, in a course of week-day sermons. It occurred to me at the time that peradventure what had instructed my own flock might be of some small service to others; but for some reason or other the matter was laid aside. The intention then coneeived is now fulfilled, though amidst innumerable occupations, and some painful circumstances in my relative circle.

My mind was led to this subject, and has been sometimes helped in passing through it, by a similar course of sermons, contained in the works of Dr. Manton, that very celebrated homiletical divine among our great ancestors, the Nonconformist ministers ejected from the Hstablished Church in 1662. No one will dispute the title I have justly applied to zm, who is informed that he published five bulky folio volumes of pulpit discourses; one of which contained a series of sermons on the hundred and nineteenth Psalm. One is ready to ask, where did the writers of those days find readers of their ponderous tomes of theology? We answer, among all the professors of spiritual religion, who had both more love for the subject, and il PREFACE.

more leisure to study it, than we of this age, and who had scarcely any other books to read. ts With a deep conviction and a due sense of the extreme prolixity, scholasticism, bad taste, and verbosity — not to speak of occasional mysticism, distorted evangelism, and somewhat spurious theopathy — of most of the writers of — that celebrated school, I confess to a strong partiality for them. We have no occasion, I am convinced, to be ashamed of our ancestors. In surveying their works, we feel something like the descendants of some noble families, when they bring out from their wardrobes and museums the rich dresses and antique furniture of their forefathers, who may smile at many things that now appear grotesque, but which still are valuable in themselves, and proofs of affluence, and exhibitions of former wealth and grandeur. The sound, rich theology of the first Nonconformists, when modified by the aids of modern exegesis — their deep devotion — their extensive knowledge of the great text book of all preachers — their constant aim to improve the heart, to guide the conscience, and to sanctify the life — in short, their thorough understanding of what is the true object of the Christian preacher, and their undiverted endeavour to accomplish it, render their works worthy to be held in everlasting remembrance: and which when read and studied with all the corrective advantages of modern criticism, cannot fail to benefit those who will hold converse with them. Who in a right frame of mind can read Owen, notwithstanding his antiquated style, his obscure scholasticism, and extreme wordiness; or the fervent Baxter; or the sublime Howe; or, passing from the Nonconformists to Episcopal writers, the copious Barrow, the meditative Hall, and above the rest, the sweet and unctuous Leighton, whose every page is redolent with the odour of that Name which is above every name — without profit? No; we cannot spare the works of these men. Nor ought they to be retained upon our shelves for show, but not for use, like pieces of old armour on the walls of a museum, which have had their use, and are only retained as memorials of the past. If the light and accuracy of modern criticism and philosophy shall do nothing more than rub off the rust that time has deposited upon these sacred weapons, and adapt them more perfectly to the tactics of modern warfare, it will perform a valuable service; but to abandon them altogether for other instruments, of entirely new construction, and even of new material, will be to exchange the theology of the Bible for a dubious philosophy, and to throw away ‘‘the armour of God,” for a human invented panoply. Men that studied their Bibles, either by the light of the martyr’s taper, or amidst the gloom of a dungeon, might be supposed, if the secret of the Lord be with them that fear him, to have known much of the mind of the Spirit.

The following treatise is a humble effort to follow, with unequal steps, I admit, the example of these great men in the selection of their topics, and their mode of treating them. But between my book and Manton’s there is as much difference in value as there is in bulk. Yet some will read mine who will never see his.

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The design of this work is to aid the Christian in the practice of theology, rather than the divine in the study of it. I write for the disciple, not for the teacher. To awaken the sinner, guide the inquirer, and aid the believer in the path of life — rather than to lead the student through the intricate labyrinths of controversy or into the depths of profound Biblical knowledge — is the highest object which my literary ambition has ever led me to seek, or my own consciousness will ever lead me to hope that I can obtain.

In this work I have selected what none will deny is the great principle of the spiritual life, of the Christian character, and of holy conduct. There zs such a thing as the spiritual LIFE. Religion is nothing apart from it. Without this, however correct may be its outward form and expression, it is a picture or a statue; it may bea beautiful one, but it is dead. Faith is the expression of this life, or rather it is the principle of life itself which developes in all other expressions of it. The spiritual life is subject of course to all the varieties which mark the course of our physical vitality; and hence the reality of what is called experimental religion or religious experience. There is perhaps no subject less understood or more abused than this. Man is a being possessed of the various faculties of intellect, will, passions, and conscience. Religion is designed to influence all these, for it takes the whole soul under its guidance, influence, and impulsion. It gives light to the intellect, determination to the will, emotion to the heart, tenderness to the conscience, and purity to the imagination; and brings out the effect of this joint operation of the soul in all the beauties of a holy life. It falls from heaven upon the whole soul like the solar ray upon the prism, which divides and distributes the distinct and separate colours over the whole glassy substance. But men are apt to distort this beautiful consummation, and represent religion too much as consisting only, or in the predominance, of one colour.,

There have been, so to speak, different schools, distinguished by the predominance they give in their representations of the influence of religion over one or other of the faculties of the soul. Some, like Sandeman, or Walker of Dublin, have resolved it into the intellect, and made true personal piety to consist of correct knowledge, almost to the exclusion of the affections; and have presented religion in the form of an icicle — clear, but cold. Others, like Mr. Finney, have made it to consist almost exclusively of the determination of the will: this is to render it like a sceptre of iron — stern, inflexible, and powerful; but still hard. cold, and unfeeling. Others, like Madame Guion, Thomas a Kempis, and perhaps some of the modern Methodists, give too great a prominence in experimental religion to the emotions: this is to exhibit religion as the morbid excitement and variations produced by stimulants, rather than the sober feelings and steady continuous action of health. Others again, such as Papists, Puseyites, and many of a better school, resolve nearly the whole of experimental religion into the imaginaal PREFACE.

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