enemies! "Ye beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life." "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

SERMON XVII. *

THE SPIRIT OF JUDGMENT.

ISA. xxviii. 5, 6.

"IN THAT DAY SHALL THE LORD OF HOSTS BE FOR A SPIRIT OF JUDGMENT TO HIM THAT SITTETH IN JUDGMENT."

NEXT to the enactment of just and wholesome laws, the due administration of them is of the highest importance to a community. This has accordingly engaged the particular attention of every people who have attained to any considerable degree of civilisation. The most enlightened nations have separated the judicial from the legislative authority, rendered judges, in the discharge of their functions, independent of the supreme executive magistrate in the state, and adopted other precautions, with the view of keeping the channels by which justice is dispensed through all the departments of society pure and uncorrupted. Nor is the jealousy which they manifested on this head to be censured as excessive. By the wise and impartial administration of justice a people have been reconciled to the rule of a usurper, and tyranny itself has become tolerable; whereas the neglect or perversion of justice has made them unhappy and discontented under the best form of political government. The salutary effects of righteous judgment are not confined to the securing of individual rights, the repressing of the bad, and the protecting of the good and peaceable. Under its fostering shade every useful art and every liberal science flourish; the honour of the laws being preserved unsullied, a cheerful obedience is yielded to their authority; morality is promoted by an exhibition of the connexion which subsists be

* Delivered at the opening of the Synod of Original Seceders, Edinburgh, September, 1829.

tween its essential principles and the temporal welfare of men ; and piety is indirectly, but powerfully, strengthened by the thoughts being irresistibly raised to the fountain of all justice, and by the representation, faint indeed, but not scenic, which is given of the great assize before which all must at last appear.

If the distribution of justice in secular kingdoms, and in relation to the affairs of this life, is of so great moment, it must be of still greater importance in that society which is styled "the kingdom of heaven," and in relation to things connected with the eternal interests of men. "The habitation of justice" is one of the appellations given to the church in scripture; her exalted Head hath made ample provision for her enjoyment of this blessing under his wise and beneficent government; and it holds a distinguished place among the promises which secure her spiritual restoration and prosperity. "Thus saith the Lord, I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy sin; and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning; afterwards thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with righteousness, and her converts with judgment." This is secured by the residence of God in his church, and constitutes one of the most brilliant jewels in that crown which is formed by his glory shining upon her, according to the words before us: "In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, and for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment.”

I propose, in the first place, to make some remarks on the warrants and nature of ecclesiastical judicature; and, secondly, to consider the spirit in which it ought to be exercised, and which God has promised to confer.

I. In entering on the first head, I remark generally, that religious society has its foundation in the very nature of man considered as a social being. Men are bound to unite for the worship of their Creator, as well as for their mutual defence and external comfort; and this view of religious society is antecedent in idea, or in the order of nature, to any

U

particular form which it may receive from supernatural constitution or positive ordinances. The church is a society

called out of the world by grace, and organized for promoting the glory of God in the salvation and sanctification of fallen men. Viewed strictly in this specific character, its polity and order are entirely of supernatural institution; but there are many things which belong to it under the general notion of a society, and are common to it with other societies, or which belong to it as a society having religion for its object. For these things the light of nature furnishes important directions, and is a sufficient warrant. Divine revelation takes the dictates of sound reason for granted, and refers to them in such terms of approbation as impose it upon us as a duty to be guided by them in those cases as to which the scriptures are silent, or have merely laid down general rules.* The rites of Christian worship are of divine institution, but there are various external circumstances connected with their observance which are left to the regulation of human prudence exercised with a proper regard to decency and edification; such as the times of assembling, the order in which the several parts of worship shall be celebrated, and the length of the services. The range of this class of objects is still more extensive in relation to the government and discipline of the church, as to which Divine wisdom saw it fit to be less minute and precise in its prescriptions. Every society, and consequently the church of Christ, the most perfect of societies, must have external bonds of union, rules of management, and, in short, all those means which are necessary to her preservation, or conducive to the ends of her erection. The essential principles of jurisprudence, which are founded on natural laws, are common to civil and ecclesiastical society; and they dictate the observance of certain forms of process as safeguards to justice, and means of eliciting truth in dubious or controverted cases.

With these explanations, I proceed to observe, that Christ, as king of his church, hath appointed a government in her, and

*

Luke, xiv. 5.; x. 7. 1 Tim. v. 18. Acts, xiv. 17. Rom. i. 19, 20. 1 Cor, v. 1.; xi. 13-15,

committed to office-bearers, under him, a power to execute his laws, and pronounce judgment according to them, for the preservation of order and peace, and the promoting of the interests of truth and holiness to his glory. "As my Father hath sent me, so have I sent you.—I appoint unto you a kingdom, that you may sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world.— God hath set in the church, governments.-Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.-Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls.—God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. At the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. And an oath for confirmation is

the end of all strife."

The overlooking of the important ends to be served by the church as a visible society, is a capital error, or at least has been the source of many hurtful mistakes in our own, as well as in former times. Many seem to confine their views entirely to what is necessary for training up a number of individuals for eternal life; the only wise God hath combined this with the maintenance of a public cause, to the advancement of his glory on earth; and for this purpose has erected and maintains an organized and permanent association, which he has constituted the depositary of his truths, laws, and ordinances. Those institutions which tend directly to promote personal salvation and holiness, such as the word, sacraments, and prayer, could not be preserved in purity, or practised to edification, without the external administration of laws. Church members are not all true saints; and such of them as are so, being renewed but in part, stand in need of counsel, restraint, and correction. But there is a higher reason than even this for ecclesiastical judicature; it belongs to the administration of that kingdom which was given to Christ as Mediator, and constitutes an essential part of his glory as the lawgiver, judge, and king of the church. The divine government of the universe is conducted by laws adapted to the various orders of created beings. Though sin