Distinguishing Traits of Christian Character by Dr. Gardner Spring Visible Morality In what consists those fruits of the Spirit we show plainly to ourselves and others that we are born of God. This inquiry is of the most practical kind as it brings every man to sit in judgment on his character. Know thyself is an injunction which comes to us under the combined sanction both of reason and revelation, and which, though not without difficulty in its impartial fulfillment, may and must be fulfilled if we would discharge our duty or enjoy the full measure of comfort which the religion of Jesus imparts. It must be conceded that men have no right to mistake their own moral character. There is a wide and essential difference between holy and unholy affections. God has given them all proper and necessary means to assist them in an acquaintance with their own hearts. He has expressly forbidden them to mistake the nature of their religious affections and to deceive themselves in respect to their spiritual state. and it is impossible they should make the mistake unless they are under the influence of some selfish and sinful motive with which they have no right to comply. The Holy Spirit would not so often have urged the sentiment, Be not deceived. Let no man deceive himself. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own self, if there were any necessity for self-deception? There are some things which neither prove nor disprove the existence of grace in the soul. There are others that prove the existence of it, and that may be safely relied on as furnishing conclusive testimony that we have passed from death unto life. It is no less important to examine the inconclusive than the conclusive testimony. And it is to the former that we solicit your attention for several of the earlier essays in this little volume. There is no certain evidence that a man is a friend of God resulting from his visible morality. There is much apparent religion in the world which consists in mere visible morality. Man looketh on the outward appearance. When you see a person of unblemished moral character, you involuntarily adjudge him worthy of your esteem and confidence. There are such multitudes in this apostate world who are dishonest, idle, faithless, intemperate, unfriendly, and unkind, that when you meet a man who is honest, industrious, faithful to his promises, and punctual in his engagements, and who to these laudable qualities adds a friendly, humane, generous, and amiable spirit and urbane demeanor, you are tempted to believe that such a man is a pattern of rectitude, and that there is no higher standard of excellence. It is quite natural that such a man should not only secure the esteem and confidence of his fellow men, but command his own. Though he may confess he is not so good as he ought to be, yet he is very apt to imagine himself much better than he really is. He cherishes a high degree of satisfaction in the contemplation of his own excellencies, if not exultation. in the comparison of his own with those of the multitude around him. Can it be necessary to say there are thousands who rest their hope for eternity on this sandy foundation? Melancholy view. Melancholy proves that the heart is deceitful above all things, as well as desperately wicked. Yet thousands who on no other foundation than this are persuaded that their mountain stands strong, and who, because they see nothing to shake their hopes or alarm their fears, are environed by all the impenetrability of an unyielding self-righteousness, and allured by a confidence that is as a spider's web. We would not be understood as vindicating the claims of immoral men, Nothing is more preposterous than to yield the honors of the Christian character to vice and immorality. Vital religion is in its very nature operative. The spirit of piety lives in the heart and lives in the life. Whatever may be the pretensions of the immoral and vicious, God forbid that they should be invested with the sacred name of Christian. Nor would we, on the other hand, deny to a reproachless morality the merit to which it is legitimately entitled. A man who possesseth these excellencies must not be denounced as a various monster of human depravity. In his kind and as far as it goes, his character is in a high degree praiseworthy. To the eye of one who sees not, as God sees, there is much that is comparatively illustrious in the character and conduct of such men. But while we cheerfully make these concessions, we may not substitute a mere visible morality, however exemplary, however vivid and useful, for true holiness. It is easy to conceive all the virtues of an unexceptional moral deportment concentrated in men who are at heart strangers to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. A person of the character to which we refer may, for example, be a professed disbeliever in the truths and doctrines of the gospel. There are not lacking even infidels who rarely disregard the laws of good neighborhood and civil society. David Hume would have blushed at the imputation of moral dishonesty, and yet could boldly deny his God and Savior. Seneca and Socrates, inculcated by their writings and sustained by their conduct, a morality which, though not faultless, did honor to the pagan world, but they were pagan still. There are also men in these Christian lands who, from the peculiarity of their condition, from the restraints of education and habit, from high notions of honor, from a keen sense of propriety and gentlemanly deportment, or from motives of mere ambition and personal aggrandizement, would seldom be detected in an immoral action who, at the same time, disclaim every principle of the Holy Scriptures. The morality of which we speak, with all its excellencies, is subjected to a lamentable defect. It regards only a part of the divine law. A merrily moral man may be very scrupulous of duties he owes to his fellow men, while the infinitely important duties he owes to God are kept entirely out of sight. Of loving and serving God, he knows nothing. Whatever he does or whatever he leaves undone, he does nothing for God. He is honest in his dealings with all except God. He robs none but God. He is thankless and faithless to none but But God, he feels contemptuously and speaks reproachfully of none but God. A just perception of the relations he sustains to God constitutes no part of his principles, and the duties which result from those relations constitute no part of his piety. He may not only disbelieve the Scriptures, but may never read them, may not only disregard the divine authority, but every form of divine worship, and live and die as though he had no concern with God, and God had no concern with him. The character of the young man in the Gospel presents a painful and affecting view of the deficiencies of external morality, Matthew 19, verses 16 to 22. He was not dishonest, nor untrue, he was not impure nor malignant, and not a few of the divine commands he had externally observed. Nay, he says, all these have I kept. Nor was his a mere sporadic goodness, but steady and uniform, he had performed these Nor was this all, he professed a willingness to become acquainted with his whole duty. What lack I yet? And yet, when brought to the test, this poor youth saw that, with all his boasted morality, he could not deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Christ. I said that mere morality regarded only a part of the divine law, but to speak more correctly, it disregards the whole of it. The sum and sole of obedience to the divine law consists in love to God. But the persons whom we describe, though they many have some knowledge of God, and may confess His worthiness to be loved, love almost everything else more than He. They have no supreme delight in complacency in His excellence, It is no source of gratulation to them that He is what He is, and that He sways the empire of the universe, and if they ever fix their thoughts upon God, their contemplation of His holiness, justice, and sovereignty are rather the sources of suspicion, alarm, and uneasiness than of tranquility, confidence, and holy pleasure. Men of this description, therefore, are wholly destitute of the radical and essential the law of God. However they may have the appearance of rectitude, they fail in all the essential parts of holy obedience. Nor is there in such a character any conformity to the requisitions of the gospel. Repentance, faith, humility, submission, hope, and joy are acts of a mind that delights in God. There is a wide distinction between Christian graces spring from holy love and have their origin in holy motives. They regard chiefly the glory of God and the interests of His kingdom, and then govern the relationships of men with their fellow men as God has required. Moral virtues spring from supreme selfishness. They have their origin in motives that are never recognized by the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have no regard for the glory of God and the interests of His kingdom, and go just so far as a well-regulated self-interest leads the way, and there they stop. We may also remark that all mere morality is perfectly consistent with the heart of unsubdued and unyielding enmity to God. He that is not with me, says our blessed Lord, is against me. who possessed a fair character, or were held in higher estimation in our own view and in the view of the world than the scribes and Pharisees, and who were more bitter or unrelenting enemies to Christ. You may soothe the self-righteousness, flatter the pride, and inflate the expectations of moral men, and their enmity to God will repose in indifference and stupidity. But let them think enough of God to excite any sensibility towards His character. Let them become acquainted with the great design which God is carrying on in all the world. men. Let them feel how certainly every other interest is subjugated to the advancement of God's glory and kingdom, and they will see that it is impossible for them to act a neutral part, and that if they are not at heart the friends of God, they must be His enemies. There is, then, no true holiness in mere morality. Much as there is in such a character that is highly esteemed among men, there is nothing that is right in the sight of God. The principle and motive of such a character is at a great distance from all that God requires and loves. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The moral quality of actions lies in the disposition of heart with which they are performed. A man may be very moral, but if the disposition of heart with which the acts of morality are performed be not such as God requires and approves, though he may believe he is going to heaven, he is in the broad way to hell. Mere morality never aims at the heart, and would never touch it if it should. It may lop off the luxuriances of human depravity, but never strikes at the root. It may not sink into the baseness of degeneracy, but it never soars to the purity of holiness. It is a fascinating picture, but it is cold and spiritless, as the canvas on which it is delineated. It is like the twinkling glow-worm, which borrows all its light from the putrescent and earthly substances of which it is composed, but sustains no relation to the luminary, which imparts light and heat to the universe. However fair this exterior, and however accordant with the expectations of the world, it falls far short of what a man must be to become either holy or happy. If men were not accountable, if they were creatures of time merrily, and not directing their course to the judgment seat of Christ, and destined to the retributions of an ulterior existence, there would be some apology for subsisting visible morality for heart religion. Tell me, will such a morality be of any avail in the hour that tries the spirits of men? Does not every page of the word of God flash conviction on the conscience that such a spurious morality is of no account in the sight of God? Speculative Knowledge Nor is it conclusive evidence of true religion that a man is well instructed in the doctrines of the gospel. No man is warranted to believe himself a Christian who is profoundly ignorant of the truths revealed in the sacred scriptures. There can be no spiritual knowledge where there is no speculative knowledge. God cannot be loved where he is not known. Sin cannot be detested where its nature is not discerned. Christ cannot be confided in where his character and sacrifice are not perceived. Duty cannot be performed where the mind does not apprehend its nature and obligations. Truth is both the instrument of gracious affections when produced in the soul, and the nourishment of them in all their subsequent growth and enlargement. But while there is no spiritual knowledge where there is no speculative knowledge, there may be much speculative knowledge where there is no spiritual. Speculative knowledge has its seat in the head. Spiritual knowledge has its seat in the heart. It is obvious there is no moral goodness in the simple assent of the understanding to truth. We receive, compound, and compare ideas whether we wish to or not. When we see the evidence of religious doctrine to be clear and convincing, we cannot withhold our assent from it, while at the same time we may hate what we believe and love what we reject. Besides, who does not see that there is nothing in the nature of speculative knowledge to produce gracious affectations? The twilight of reason and conscience and the clear sunshine of the gospel are of themselves alike unadapted to the causation of holiness. Should all the light of the last day break in upon the understanding of the natural man, it could not originate one holy emotion. Follow the enemies of God through every possible degree of instruction, and though their heads will be better, their hearts will be worse. The more they see, the more they will hate. The more they understand, the more will they complain and object. The more they are convinced, will they the more murmur and rebel. It is not impossible, therefore, for the understanding to be illuminated where the heart is not sanctified. But theory apart, what is the language of experience and observation? Need we but open our eyes to discern the fact that the minds of wicked men are often richly furnished with doctrinal knowledge, and that they are not infrequently very orthodox in their sentiments? Jesus told the unbelieving Jews that they had both seen and hated both him and his father, John 15 verse 24. The Apostle tells us of some who, when they knew God, glorified Him not as God, Romans 1.21. He also addresses this pointed reproof to the Pharisee, Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest His will, and approvest the things that are more excellent. being instructed out of the law, and are confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes which has the form of knowledge and truth and the law. Romans 2 verses 17 and 20 And yet of these very men our Lord says that they are serpents, a generation of vipers, and cannot escape the damnation of hell. Matthew 23 verse 33 And what does the holy apostle say of the vilest reprobates in perdition? Thou believest there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. James 2 verse 19 That foul spirit was himself once an angel of light. There is no more studious observer of the character, designs, and truth of God than that malicious fiend. There is no greater proficient in theological truth than the father of lies. There is no lack of orthodoxy even in hell. And why should it be not so? Bad men, as well as good, are endued with perception, reason, and conscience, and are as capable of applying these faculties and reflecting upon moral objects as upon natural objects. There is indeed something in the doctrines of the gospel which the wicked do not perceive, and this is their beauty and loveliness. But this is a perception of the heart, not of the understanding, and of this the wicked are destitute. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14. But because he does not love the truth, it is no evidence that he does not understand it. It is said of Voltaire that he was better acquainted with the Bible than any other man in France, and he confessed that the reason why he made himself familiar with it was that he might write against it the more successfully. How many persons have you seen who were thoroughly versed in the sacred volume, who comprehended the symmetry and connection of the entire system of revealed truth, and who themselves were distinguished champions of the faith, but who, lamentable to confess, were strangers to the religion of the heart? Something besides the illumination of the natural understanding, therefore, is indispensable to the possession of Christian character. How many have gone loaded with knowledge down to hell? Form of religion. Nor can the mere form of religion be relied on as conclusive testimony that man is born of God. The religion of the Bible possesses a body and a soul. It has an appearance and a reality. It is endued with a form and a power. The body, the appearance, the form is a very different thing from the soul, the reality and the power. Now a moment's reflection will convince any man that while the power of religion cannot exist without the form, it is very possible for the form to exist without the power. The scriptures speak expressly of those having a form of godliness. Deny the power thereof. 2 Timothy 3 verse 5. They present very many painful instances of this character incriminating condemned them. The foolish virgins put on the form of religion. They took their lamps and thus made a profession of religion before the world. They had oil in their lamps also, though the event proved that it was not such as would burn a great while. They went with the wise virgins. Their profession was not an idle profession. They frequented the worship of God in the ordinances of the temple, and performed many of the duties which befitted their standing in the visible church. And when the cry was heard, behold, the bridegroom cometh. They arose, trimmed their lamps, and went forth to meet him. But a bitter result. Their lamps had gone out. The door of the kingdom was shut. Matthew 25 verses 1 to 12. There was a period when the great body of the Israelites possessed only the form of religion. God says of them, They seek me daily. They delight to know thy ways as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinances of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching to God. Isaiah 58 verse 2. They were also much engaged in the mere extraordinary duties of devotion. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?" Isaiah 58 verse 3. And yet God reproves and condemns all this as the merest hypocrisy. Our Savior said of the Pharisees that they outwardly appeared righteous unto men, but within were full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe to God, my brethren! This evil were confined to other days. No doubt there are those who are rigid in their observance of all the external duties of piety. private and public, who profess to be on the Lord's side, who give up their children to God in baptism, who come to the sacramental table and engage habitually in the public commemorations of the death and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, who, notwithstanding this, are at heart as ignorant of true religion as a prayerless and profane Nor is it difficult to account for this from the considerations which fall far short of the operation of grace on the heart. Multitudes are formless from the force of education. They have been brought up in a regular performance of the external services of piety, and are as much attached to them as the worshipers of dumb idols are to their deities of wood and stone. Multitudes are formless from the force of example. They have no wish to be singular in anything and consent to float along with the current, though the tide issues from the waters of the sanctuary. Multitudes are formless from the force of public opinion. A due regard to the institutions of piety is too creditable a thing to secure the esteem and confidence of a virtuous society without it. Multitudes are formless from the influence of erroneous teachers. There have been, from the beginning, and still are, false teachers who lie in wait to deceive, and there is reason to believe that they are too frequently successful in their soul-destroying purpose. Those who are deceived themselves take the most pains to deceive others, and are more likely to succeed in spreading their pernicious and false sentiments. And there is no point of instruction on which the world is more willing to place implicit confidence in its teachers, and more willing to be deceived, than when it is taught that the form of religion supersedes the necessity of the power. in the Church of England, in the Church of Scotland, in the Church of Holland, and in very many of the Churches of the United States, the sentiment is taught that it is the duty of all men to put on the form of religion, though they may be entirely destitute of every holy exercise of heart Multitudes put on the form of godliness from the force of natural conscience. When the mind is awake to the perception of its obligations, there can be no semblance of compromise with the conscience short of external godliness. Multitudes put on the form of godliness from the force of fear. They cannot bear to abandon their hopes, and yet they know they must abandon them if once they are made to feel there is no religion in their external services. and there are not lacking those who substitute the shadow of the substance from the love of error. It is a common and just maxim that men easily believe that to be right which they wish to be right. That true religion consists in mere external forms is a very agreeable sentiment to a wicked heart, and it is not strange that multitudes should mistake error for truth and the way of death for the way of life. There are very many who, from some of these causes or all of them combined, carry the form of godliness to every possible extent, and are nothing more than the sounding brass or a tingling cymbal. It is an easy thing to make clean the outside of the cup and the platter. But to what purpose is it done? God cannot be mocked. To what purpose is the multitude of such sacrifices? No, God cannot be mocked. Bring no more vain oblations. Thy corrupt heart corrupts all the fair forms of thy devotion, and thou art still in the gull of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. Beware of an assurance that you are saved that will at last bite like a serpent and sting like an adder. imminent gifts. It is by no means conclusive evidence that men are born of God because they are endued with imminent gifts. Some persons are very retired in their habits and very diffident in their powers, and especially in the public expression of religion, who at the same time possess at heart the true grace of the gospel. while others of a less embarrassed and more obtrusive turn of mind poses peculiar facilities both of thought and expression, and seldom engage in the public acts of devotion without profit to those around them. These at the same time may be deceivers or deceived. Gifts are one thing, and true grace is another. The gift of prayer is one thing, and the grace of prayer is another. The gift of spiritual conversation is one thing, and the grace of spiritual conversation is another. Balaam and Saul were among the prophets, but they were both the enemies of all righteousness. Judas was a public preacher, And yet he was an accursed traitor. Many at the last day shall say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, to whom the king shall answer, I know ye not. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7, verses 22 and 23. The eminent gifts and distinguished youthfulness of many professing Christians are no doubt imparted to them for the benefit of the Church of God, while they themselves are reserved to be cast away. A man may converse on the subject of religion as though his lips were touched with a coal from off the altar, and yet be at heart ignorant of those things which he is the instructor of others. Oh, it is a lamentable thought, but it is nevertheless true that a man may preach like an apostle, pray like an angel, and yet have the heart of a fiend. Conviction for Sin It is no certain evidence that a person has been born of God because he has been the subject of deep convictions for sin. Some degree of conviction for sin is absolutely necessary to the existence of religion in the soul. If I were to describe the lowest degree of conviction that is consistent with the possessions of gracious affections, I should be willing to affirm that no man can be a child of God who has not seen his heart to be so sinful as to need regenerating grace, his sins so great as to deserve everlasting condemnation, and his helplessness so complete as to need an almighty Savior. And yet many a man has this view of himself who is not a true penitent. It is difficult for persons who hear the gospel always to remain unaffected and thoughtless, and their solemn impressions often continue for considerable time. They are frequently made to see their own sinfulness, and to feel that they are under the dominion of a carnal mind that is enmity against God. Romans 8 verse 7. The law of God, and all the reasonableness of its precept and equity of its sanctions, and all its extent in spirituality, comes home to their consciences, and brings with it the knowledge of sin and the impression of guilt. They see that in them there dwelleth no good thing, that it is in vain that they search for the least holiness in anything they have done, that all they have ever thought, felt, or performed is in direct opposition to the law of God. Sometimes it is the burden of some particular sin which lies heavy on their consciences, and sometimes it is a life of sin which fills them with distress and trembling. Not infrequently, if they are awfully miserable, they feel wretched and forlorn, exiled from the favor of God, bound over to the execution of the final sentence, abandoned to despair, and already beginning to sink into the eternal pit. To aggravate their misery, persons in this state of mind very frequently also have lively impressions of their eel dessert. They deeply feel that they deserve to suffer the weight of God's holy and everlasting indignation. They are stripped of all their excuses and know that it would be just that the penalty of the law should fall upon them to the uttermost. Impressions like these also frequently lead men to make very humble confessions of their sins. Nor is this all. They frequently lead them to forsake external sins and commence the work of actual reformation. They are for a time afraid of sinning, and are restrained and deterred from it by the severity of their apprehensions. Now there is not necessarily any religion in all this. A man may be sensible that he is a sinner, and a great sinner, and never become a penitent. The consciousness of sin is a very different thing from repentance for sin. I have seen living men and dying men, deeply impressed with the view of their sinfulness, who at the same time had no heart to turn to God, as self-abased and humble penitents, no doubt the reprobate at the bar of judgment, as well as the damned in hell, possess a keen conviction of their personal sinfulness. We are informed that when the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, that he will convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, Jude 14 and 15, so that the mere conviction of ungodliness cannot be evidence of godliness. Equal certain is it that no apprehension of the coming wrath constitutes vital piety. There can be no holiness in being afraid of hell. Felix trembled under the preaching of Paul and yet remained wedded to his idols. The devils also tremble and remain devil still, so a man may be sensible of his ill-desert and yet continue in his sins. The man without the wedding garment was speechless. At the last day the whole world will feel guilty before God, and through interminable ages the victims of the final curse will be made to acknowledge that their condemnation is righteous. nor is there necessarily any religion in confessing our sins. It is right to confess them when that confession proceeds from a right heart, but there is many a confession that is extorted by fear. Saul confessed, Behold, I have played the fool and avert exceedingly. 1 Samuel 26 verse 21, Semen distress will confess of the sins of their whole life and promise amendment. But as soon as the storm is over and health and mercy return, they forget their vows and become tenfold more the children of hell than before. Nor is it less obvious that men may partially forsake their sins, and yet hold fast to love of sinning. They may abandon their open sins, and yet practice their secret sins. They may abandon disreputable sins, and yet cleave to those that are reputable. They may abandon sins that are hurtful, and yet practice those that are apparently harmless. They may abandon one course of sinning for the sake of entering upon another, and they may abandon all outward sins and yet retain all their inward sinfulness. And the very love of sinning in the mind of a convinced sinner may be restrained and suppressed, and yet never altered nor changed to holiness. No degree of conviction for sin, therefore, is conclusive evidence of having been born of God. If you impartially examine the character of a convinced sinner, you will find no evidence of genuine holiness. no evidence of one Christian grace, nothing more than multitudes of felt who have gone to the pit in their blood. If a man never has been convinced of sin, he may be confident that he has never been turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God. Still it does not, of course, follow because he has been convinced that he has experienced this saving change. Impressions of sin and danger do not slay the enmity of the heart. Purposes of amendment do not slay the enmity of the heart. The conscience may be convinced while the heart is not renewed. It is infinitely dangerous, therefore, to rest in conviction of sin as a substitute for sound conversion. Strong Assurance No man may certainly conclude that he is born of God merely because he indulges If to be strongly persuaded that we are Christians would make us Christians, there would be no such thing as being deceived by false hopes and delusive presumption. A man may be persuaded that he is a child of God because he discerns in himself the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and in such a persuasion he has reason to place confidence. But there is a persuasion of our acceptance with God that does not differ from the hope of the hypocrite and the self-deceived. Some men are confident that they are saved because they think they do not deserve to be damned. They believe God is too merciful to damn them. Others presume themselves to be saved because they have never done any harm. Others hope to be saved because they have done a great deal of good. Others have assurance because they believe they possess the spirit of true godliness. And others hope to be saved for no other reason than they believe they will be saved. Now most of these are, and all of them may be, mere delusion. There is no man saved except by grace in Jesus Christ, and therefore there is no man who does not deserve to be damned. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God. Neither is God too merciful to damn men who deserve to be damned. For while He saves thousands who deserve to perish, He demands, How can ye escape? Who neglects so great salvation? Hebrews 2 verse 3. As to those who feel that they have never done any harm or have done a great deal of good, the scriptures declare that they are vile enough to make it necessary for the Son of God to die for their salvation, and for the Spirit of God to effectuate an entire change in their character without which it is impossible for them to enter into the kingdom of heaven. John 3 verses 3 and 5. Men, too, may believe they possess the true spirit of godliness, and yet not possess it. They may suppose that godliness consists of something which falls far short of true godliness, and even if they suppose it to consist in that which the Scriptures represent it to consist, they may not possess it. There is a love, a repentance, a faith, a hope, a joy, a self-denial, which are of mere human origin and spurious. The religious affections of many men are founded in supreme selfishness. They are willing to love and serve God just so far as they believe He is willing to love and serve them, and no further. and this is making him to serve with their sins, Isaiah 43, 24. The religion of such men consists in being very anxious about their own welfare, but very little concerned for the honor and glory of God. It is easy to say, Pardon is mine, grace is mine, Christ and all his blessings are mine, God has freely loved me, Christ has graciously died for me, and the Holy Spirit will assuredly sanctify me in the belief of these precious truths. It is no Herculean task for an ardent mind and an unsanctified, enthusiastic heart to make these discoveries. This is the kind of confidence which the subtle deceiver is interested to cherish. and the joys and sorrows, the zeal and devotion which spring from this delusion constitute a sort of religion which the blindness and deceit, the self-flattery and pride of the carnal heart very easily substitute for true godliness. And what if a man firmly believes he will be saved? What if he imagined he has the assistance of the Spirit of God in working out this faith in himself? The faith of the gospel does not consist in believing that one shall be saved. There is a difference between faith in Jesus Christ and believing that we shall be saved, between being actually a partaker in His salvation and the persuasion of our minds that we are partakers. Men may have strong persuasions of their spiritual safety, who spoil themselves with their own deceivings, and might well say, Is there not a lie within my right hand? A man may have strong hopes, who has no religion. What is the assurance of the hypocrite, though he hath gain, when God taketh away his soul? This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. Swrb makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N, Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.