unless they fictitiously adopt the language they hear, they are painfully conscious that they know nothing of them as yet. They hear of a depression for sin which they certainly have never experienced-a joy in God, making His service and His house the gate of heaven; and they know that it is excessively irksome to them-a confidence, trust, and assurance, of which they know nothing-till they take for granted what has been told them, that they are not God's children. Taught that they are as yet of the world, they live as the world-they carry out their education, which has dealt with them as children of the devil, to be converted and children of the devil they become. : Of these two views, the last is by far the most certain to undermine Christianity in every Protestant country. The first at least assumes God's badge, an universal one; and in education is so far right, practically only wrong in the decision of the question how the child was created a child of God. But the second assumes a false, partial, party-badge-election, views, feelings. No wonder that the children of such religionists proverbially turn out ill. III. We pass to the doctrine of the Bible and (I believe) of the Church. 66 He abolished Christ came to reveal a Name-the Father. the exclusive "my," and He taught us to pray our Father." He proclaimed God the Father-man the Son: revealed that the Son of Man is also the Son of God. Man-as man, God's child. He came to redeem the world from that ignorance of the relationship which had left them in heart aliens and unregenerate. Human nature, therefore, became, viewed in Christ, a holy thing and divine. The Revelation is a common humanity, sanctified in God. The appearance of the Son of God is the sanctification of the human race. The development of this startled men. Sons of God! Yes; ye Jews have monopolized it too long. Is that Samaritan, heretic and alien, a child of God? Yes. The Samaritan: but not these outcasts of society? Yes; these outcasts of society. He went into the publican's house, and VOL. II, B THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH A FAMILY (JAN. 11, 1852) THE SHADOW AND THE SUBSTANCE OF THE SABBATH MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY (JANUARY 11, 1852) THE NEW COMMANDMENT OF LOVE TO ONE ANOTHER (OCTOBER 29, 1850) PAGE 209 221 233 244 REALIZING THE SECOND ADVENT (DECEMBER 2, 1849) THIRD ADVENT LECTURE: THE BARBARIAN (DECEMBER 254 263 275 283 292 VICTORY OVER DEATH (MAY 15, 1852). 324 SALVATION OUT OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH (APRIL 1849) 339 The following is a list of the works of F. W. Robertson :Address delivered at Opening of Working Men's Institute, Brighton, 1849; Two Lectures on the Influence of Poetry on the Working Classes, 1852; Lectures and Addresses on Literary and Social Topics, 1858; Translation of Lessing's "Education of the Human Race," 1858; Expository Lectures on St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, 1859; Analysis of In Memoriam," 1862; Sermons preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, 4 series, 1855-63; 5th series, 1890; Letters (with Life), ed. S. A. Brooke, 1865; A Few Extracts from the Early Poetical Works of F. W. R., 1870 (?), privately printed; Literary Remains (including Lectures, Addresses, and other Writings), 1876. 66 SERMONS ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE BAPTISM GALATIANS iii. 26-29.—“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." WHEREVER Opposite views are held with warmth by religious-minded men, we may take for granted that there is some higher truth which embraces both. All high truth is the union of two contradictories. Thus predestination and freewill are opposites: and the truth does not lie between these two, but in a higher reconciling truth which leaves both true. So with the opposing views of baptism. Men of equal spirituality are ready to sacrifice all to assert, or to deny, the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. And the truth, I believe, will be found, not in some middle, moderate, timid doctrine, which skilfully avoids extremes, but in a truth larger than either of these opposite views, which is the basis of both, and which really is that for which each party tenaciously clings to its own view, as to a matter of life and death. The present occasion1 only requires us to examine three views. 1 The decision of the Privy Council on the Gorham case, I. That of Rome. II. That of modern Calvinism. III. That of (as I believe) Scripture and the Church of England. I. The doctrine of Rome respecting baptism. We will take her own authorities. I. "If any one say that the sin of Adam is taken away, either by the powers of human nature or by any other remedy than the merit of the One Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ. or denies that the merit of Jesus Christ, duly conferred by the sacrament of baptism in the church form, is applied to adults as well as to children -let him be accursed." Sess. v. 4. "If any one deny that the imputation of original sin is remitted by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism, or even asserts that the whole of that which has the true and proper character of sin, is not taken away, but only not imputed-let him be accursed." Sess. v. 5. "If any one say that grace is not given by sacraments of this kind always and to all, so far as God's part is concerned, but only at times, and to some, although they be duly received-let him be accursed." "If any one say that by the sacraments of the New Covenant themselves, grace is not conferred by the efficacy of the rite (opus operatum), but that faith alone is sufficient for obtaining grace-let him be accursed." "If any one say that in three sacraments, i. e. baptism, confirmation, and orders, a character is not impressed upon the soul, i. e. a certain spiritual and indelible mark (for which reason they cannot be repeated)—let him be accursed." Sess. vii. cap. 7-9. "By baptism, putting on Christ, we are made a new creation in Him, obtaining plenary and entire remission of all sins." lt is scarcely possible to misrepresent the doctrine so plainly propounded. Christ's merits are instrumentally applied by baptism: original sin is removed by a change of nature: a new character is imparted to the soul: a germinal principle or seed of life is miraculously given; and all this, in virtue not of any condition in the recipient, nor of any condition at all except that of the due performance of the rite. This view is held with varieties and modifications of many kinds, by an increasingly large number of the members of the church of England; but we do not concern ourselves with these timid modifications, which painfully attempt to draw some subtle hair's-breadth distinction between themselves and the above doctrine. The true, honest, and only honest representation of this view is that put forward undisguisedly by Rome. When it is objected to the Romanist that there is no evidence in the life of the baptized child different from that given by the unbaptized, sufficient to make credible a change so enormous, he replies, as in the case of the other sacrament-The miracle is invisible. You cannot see the bread and wine become flesh and blood: but the flesh and blood are there, whether you see them or not. You cannot see the effects of regeneration: but they are there, hidden, whether visible to you or not. In other words, Christ has declared that it is with every one born of the Spirit as with the wind: "Thou hearest the sound thereof." But the Romanist distinctly holds that you cannot hear the sound: that the wind hath blown, but there is no sound: that the Spirit hath descended, and there are no fruits whereby the tree is known. In examining this view, at the outset we deprecate those vituperative and ferocious expressions which are used so commonly against the church of Rome-unbecoming in private conversation, disgraceful on the platform, they are still more unpardonable in the pulpit. I am not advocating that feeble softness of mind which cannot speak strongly because it cannot feel strongly. I know the value, and in their place, the need of strong words. I know that the Redeemer used them: stronger and keener never fell from |