SERMON XI. PAUL'S METHOD OF PREACHING. ORDINATION OF REV. STEPHEN CHAPIN, TO THE PASTORAL CARE Of the CHURCH AND PEOPLE IN HILLSBOROUGH, JUNE 19, 1805. TESTIFYING both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. ACTS, XX. 21. AS THE apostle Paul was returning from Macedonia to Jerusalem, he came to Miletus, from whence he sent and called the elders of the church of Ephesus. When they had come together he delivered a discourse, which was directly calculated to assist and animate them in the work of the gospel ministry. And among other things he called their attention to his manner of preaching, while he formerly resided among them. "Ye know," says he, "how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shown you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." As these words were originally designed to administer instruction to the ministers of Christ, they naturally lead us, on the present occasion, to consider how the apostle Paul preached the gospel, and the propriety of his mode of preaching. I. Let us consider how the apostle Paul preached the gospel. Though he sometimes preached to the Jews and sometimes to the Gentiles, and though he sometimes preached on one subject and sometimes on another, yet amidst all this variety, there was a certain uniformity in his preaching which deserves particular notice. 1. He always made a point of explaining the gospel. To preach is to instruct; and to instruct on any subject, it is generally, if not always, necessary to explain it. Much of the force and perspicuity of preaching consists in explaining the gospel, and making men see the real design of God in the method he has taken to save sinful and perishing creatures. Here Jews and Gentiles, all men of all descriptions, stand in peculiar need of instruction. The apostle, therefore, determined to know nothing in his preaching save Jesus Christ and him crucified. He knew that it would be preposterous to call upon men to embrace the gospel, before he had explained it to them in a clear and intelligible manner. And it appears from the whole history of his ministerial labors, that he excelled all the other apostles, in unfolding the meaning, the harmony, and the connection of the first principles of Christianity. Just as he was about to take his final leave of those whom he addressed in the text, he called upon them to bear testimony to his fidelity in explaining to them the gaspel of divine grace. "And now behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." To declare all the counsel of God is to explain the great plan of redemption, which was concerted before the foundation of the world, and which comprises all the designs and operations of the Deity. Hence the apostle viewed it a privilege, as well as a duty, to explain the gospel to all his hearers. In the third chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians he says, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see, what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to his eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." By this declaration it appears that the apostle meant to explain the gospel so plainly and fully, that all his hearers might see God, and Christ, and angels, and saints, and sinners, and all created objects, in that relation and connection which they bear to each other in the work of redemption. Whether he preached to the Jews or to the Gentiles, to the learned or to the unlearned, he made it a primary object in his public discourses, to unfold the nature, design, and final consequences of the gospel, without the least ambiguity or reserve. 2. After he had explained the gospel to his hearers, he next taught them what it was to embrace it. "He testified, both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Repentance and faith both flow from pure, disinterested love, but are exercised towards different objects. In repentance, the sinner fixes his eye and his heart upon God, whose character he has hated, whose law he has broken, and whose displeasure he has incurred. He loathes and abhors himself for all his transgressions, accepts the punishment of his iniquity, and cordially approves of that justice which condemns him. In faith, the sinner fixes his eye and his heart upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and loves him for loving righteousness and hating iniquity; for condemning sin in the flesh; and for doing that, which renders it consistent with all the perfections of God, to pardon and save the penitent. This saving faith naturally follows repentance, but can never go before it; because love to Christ necessarily pre-supposes self abasement and self abhorrence for sin. Accordingly the apostle, after the example of Christ, plaçes repentance before faith. This is the natural order of these two gracious affections, and they are always exercised in this order, by all who cordially embrace the gospel. And since he knew that none could derive any saving benefit from the gospel without complying with the terms of life, he did for this reason describe those gracious exercises of heart which are the essence of repentance and faith, and which are absolutely necessary to obtain pardon and acceptance with God, through the atonement of Christ. 3. The apostle made it his universal practice in preaching, not only to explain the gospel to his hearers, and teach them what it was to comply with it, but urged them to repent and believe immediately. He says in the text, that he testified "both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." As soon as he had taught sinners the nature, design, and terms of the gospel, he exhorted them to embrace it without the least delay. He concluded his discourse to the stupid and ignorant Athenians, with a solemn exhortation to repentance. He told them that God had winked at their former ignorance, but now commanded them to repent immediately. To the Corinthians he said, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God." He held the same imperative language to the Ephesians. In addressing the sinner he said, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." The apostle Paul not only instructed, but exhorted his hearers. He addressed not only the understandings, but the consciences of sinners. He always meant to fasten upon their minds a sense of their immediate obligation to renounce their enmity to God, and become reconciled to him upon the terms of the gospel. Though he very well knew the moral weakness and impotence of sinners, arising from the native depravity of their hearts, yet he solemnly testified that it was their immediate and indispensable duty to exercise repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. This was his constant, uniform practice in preaching the gospel to those who were dead in trespasses and sins. Let us now consider, II. The propriety of the apostle's urging sinners to embrace the gospel immediately. He undoubtedly saw the propriety of this mode of preaching, and perhaps we shall all see the propriety of it, if we candidly and impartially attend to what may be offered in favor of his exhorting the impenitent and unbelieving to an immediate compliance with the gospel. 1. There was a propriety in the apostle's mode of preaching, because sinners are capable of embracing the gospel as soon as they understand it. They possess all the powers and faculties which are necessary to constitute them free, moral agents. They are capable of knowing God and hating him, and of knowing Christ and hating him. Hence says our Saviour to the unbelieving Jews, "Ye have both seen and hated both me and my Father." Though the moral depravity of sinners has weakened their intellectual powers, yet it has by no means destroyed them. All their moral corruption lies in the heart, and consists in loving themselves supremely; and though this selfishness disposes them to say unto God, "Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways," yet when their attention is awakened, they are capable of seeing the perfections of God displayed in his works, and of understanding his will revealed in his word. They have, therefore, precisely the same natural capacity to embrace the gospel as to understand it. And upon this ground the apostle did, with great propriety, testify "both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Though Jews and Gentiles were all under sin, yet they were all capable of loving God and believing in Christ, as soon as the apostle had explained the gospel, and plainly taught them the terms of salvation. At the same moment that he conveyed the true knowledge of the gospel to their understanding, they felt a conviction in their own minds of the propriety of his exhorting them to believe it immediately. This warranted him to say, that by manifestation of the truth, he had commended himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. The bare knowledge of truth always creates an immediate obligation to feel and act agreeably to it. "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." All men act upon this principle in their common conduct. The legislator first instructs, and then commands the subject. The officer first instructs, and then commands the soldier. The parent first instructs, and then commands the child. The master first instructs, and then commands the servant. After any person has instructed another in duty, there is a propriety in his exhorting him to an immediate compliance. This holds in regard to religious instruction, as well as to any other. There was, therefore, a plain propriety in the apostle's calling upon all to whom he preached the truth, to receive it in love immediately. 2. Paul preached agreeably to the directions which Christ had, from time to time, given to his ministers. Mark tells us that when Christ called the twelve apostles, and sent them forth by two and two to preach the gospel, he said unto them, "In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence shake off the dust under your feet, for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. And they went out, and preached that men should repent." By this commission Christ authorized the twelve apostles to call upon sinners to repent and believe the gospel the very first time they heard it, upon pain of their future and aggravated destruction. Soon after this, Christ gave a commission, of precisely the same import, to seventy more, whom he sent forth to preach the gospel in his name. And just before his ascension to heaven, he gave a general commission to his apostles and to all their successors in the gospel ministry to the end of time, in these memorable words: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." These repeated directions of the great Head of the church laid the apostle under indispensable obligation to testify both to the Jews and Gentiles, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. It was a part of his ministerial duty, to urge sinners to give an immediate and cordial reception to the gospel, which he preached by divine authority. He would have been unfaithful to Christ and to the souls of men, if he had neglected to warn sinners to flee immediately from the wrath to come, and lay hold on eternal life. He had no warrant from Christ to preach the gospel, without inculcating the immediate duty of repentance and faith. There is no more room, therefore, to call in question the propriety of his mode of |