MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

SCRIPTURAL ESSAYS. (No. XVI.)

THE SUBMISSION OF OURSELVES TO GOD.

(For the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

"Submit yourselves therefore to God."-James iv. 7.

THE circumstances of man in reference to the knowledge of God, when his lot is cast in a Christian country, should never be, even in the slightest degree, overlooked, when any inquiry is made into his obligations and duties. We say nothing of relations in the abstract, or when only one of the two terms of the question is known, though even then very serious reflections might be suggested; but man's relation to a known God, indisputably, is an element which cannot be omitted in any moral calculation, without producing the most fearful mischief in the result. Man, his own master, man, the subject of God, his Owner and Sovereign Lord,-occupy positions as widely as possible different from each other, both in individual and social aspects. And these are subjects on which there is a perpetual necessity of coming to a decision; so that, in point of fact, man's whole active life inevitably bears the character given to it by the practical oversight, or the practical recognition, of the divine existence and government. This is the unavoidable condition of his present state of being.

What, then, is the true state of the case? Whenever man is thoughtful, this is the grand question of which he anxiously requires the solution. When to one of the heathen Monarchs of a portion of the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy, the introduction of Christianity into his kingdom was offered, and he had consulted his "wise men" as to the reply which he should give, one of them made these truly affecting observations: "The present life of man seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in the winter, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms prevail abroad: the sparrow, flying in at one door, and out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather he vanishes into the dark winter whence he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space; but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed." And in later ages, a poor but reflecting Greenlander, sitting on an out-jutting rock, and looking at his boat and fishing utensils, said, "I made them all with my own hands; but who made all things else? If there be any that know, I wish they would come and tell me." The vessel conveying the Moravian Missionaries was then on the way, and the desired information ere long was given, and gladly received. We live not in times of uncertainty. "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, hath declared Him unto us." Life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel. We have a clear, well-attested revelation, in which God himself speaks to us. His being, character, and government are made known. The principles, rules, and objects of the divine administration are clearly before us, and our own relations to it are most distinctly unfolded. This is our actual position: we know the living and true God; know him, not as

an abstract principle, not as mere operating force, but personally, in his intelligence and universal dominion. And especially do we know that he is the righteous Sovereign of mankind, considered as moral agents; that we are under his constant inspection; that books of remembrance are kept before him; and that when the throne of judgment, the great white throne is set, and the dead, small and great, are brought to stand before it, then shall these books be opened, and the dead judged out of the things written in the books, according to their works. We know, though we may forget, that life is thus the seed-time for eternity, and that whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap. The future is not a mere continuation of the present, under circumstances more favourable for human improvement, but the momentous result of human conduct in the allotted period of probation. Between these two conditions of human life comes the dread judgment of God; and in that judgment, from which there is no appeal, whose decisions admit of no reversal, the everlasting state of every man shall be, once and for ever, fixed, and perfect happiness or misery be his unalterable doom.

Such is the actual condition of man, if the Gospel be true; and who has ever yet been able to disturb any one of those pillars on which its truth rests? Thus does man stand in relation to the Lord God Omnipotent. Can we, without plunging into the very depths of folly, overlook this, and neglect to ask, "What does the Lord my God require of me?" Our entire moral nature, individual and social, establishes the law of prudence as one of the main laws of our being; and of imprudence it is the very height not to inquire what is the will of God concerning us: especially for this reason, that revelation anticipates the question, and furnishes the reply. He hath showed unto man what is good. We are not left to our own uncertain investigations. It is not said in effect, "Discover what you can make as few mistakes as you can do the best you can: and all shall be well at the last." O, let us heedfully mark our real circumstances, remembering that eternity as to us will receive its character from our decision! A way is before us, a highway, even the way of holiness; it is distinctly marked out; and unless we wilfully stop our ears, they hear the solemn voice declaring, "This is the way: walk ye in it!"

It is one part of the happiness of our circumstances, that while the details of duty are often minutely described, sometimes the whole is placed compendiously before us by some comprehensive and significant expression. Let us for a moment only seriously reflect on our own relation to God, and then on God's omnipotence, the impossibility of escaping from his justice, or resisting his power. Even supposing that we could wish it to be otherwise, yet thus it is, and otherwise it cannot be. We must take things as we find them. When we properly understand them, we shall not wish them to be otherwise. We shall see them to be replete with goodness and wisdom, deserving our love, as well as requiring our obedience. But even were it not so, what can we do? It is every way a case in which, though our heart might at first revolt, common prudence counsels submission. And this counsel is but the echo of the positive requirement of revelation, which asserts its claim to the very entireness of obedience, by saying,"Submit yourselves to God."

We must guard against losing any part of the meaning of this injunction through the changes which in process of years words sometimes undergo. In ordinary conversation, the term "submission" seems almost to be limited to the expression of the idea of yielding where resistance is vain, and

because resistance is vain; thus denoting what is more passive than active. Originally, even our own English word included, at least, more of action. As, for instance, when a case in law is said to be submitted to Counsel for an opinion upon it, the particulars are drawn up in writing, and the paper is placed under the notice of him whose judgment upon it is required. The word used by St. James in the text we have quoted as suggesting the present observations, bears this more extended signification, as would appear from a collation of the passages in the New Testament, in which it occurs, and in which it often expresses an active subjection. There is one paragraph, however, in which it is several times repeated, and in this particular sense,—in 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28, “For he hath put all things under his feet," &c. In our translation, we have these expressions, "put under," "subdued unto," and "subject unto;" but St. Paul employs the same word throughout, and that, the one used by St. James.* To submit to God is not merely to yield to him, to cease to resist him, but to place ourselves under his authority; so to acknowledge him as our Lord and Master, as to order our whole behaviour according to the established discipline of his kingdom, a sort of military subjection; active where doing is required; passive where yielding and suffering are necessary; a submission entire, by being willing and unreserved.

We propose to attempt to illustrate this important subject, by applying the scriptural injunction in a few particular instances. By thus noticing permanency of principle in the midst of variety of application, we may obtain a just view of the duty itself.

I. The first instance selected is one in reference to which we find St. Paul employing the very term. And we mention it first, partly for this reason, but chiefly because, in point of fact, such are the circumstances of man, that where this exercise of submission is not, properly speaking, neither can there be any others. Of the Jews of his day the Apostle says, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." Submission to God, then, implies submission to the righteousness of God.

The term "righteousness,” in its primary signification, denotes the condition of a moral agent, who, being placed under some law, or covenant, or both, obeys the command of the one, and fulfils the terms prescribed by the other. Its proper opposite, therefore, is guilt, condemnation. Created upright, man was placed under a law and covenant; and thus, originally, the righteousness of man would have been the result of his obedience and fidelity.

A moment's reflection will show that this, once lost, is lost irrecoverably. Man can never be righteous according to the law which he has broken, according to the covenant to which he has been unfaithful. From the moment of violation, righteousness, thus considered, is for ever lost. Viewed merely in reference to this original law and covenant, man, as a sinner, is hopelessly undone. If God interpose not, salvation is impossible. But God has interposed, and "devised means that his banished should not be expelled from him." Man's offended Sovereign has, in infinite wisdom and love, become man's most gracious, his all-sufficient Redeemer. A new way of attaining to righteousness is thus opened before him. And this is the foundation of the whole. The Son of the Father, for us men, and for our salvation, became man,-"the Word was made flesh." And this

* Υποτασσω,

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was, "that he might put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." "On him was laid the iniquity of us all." In dying for us, he shed the blood of propitiation and atonement, that through him God might be "a just God and a Saviour." The glory of God would be obscured, were his justice and holiness exposed to impeachment; and therefore was this propitiatory sacrifice provided and offered, that the righteousness of God, his holy rectoral justice, might be demonstrated and exhibited. It is mercy that saves man; but it is mercy in visible connexion with justice, holiness, and truth. The result of this is, that God can be consistently "the Justifier of the ungodly," who, penitently acknowledging their ungodliness, desire deliverance from its guilt and dominion, and are willing to accept it in the appointed way, that is, through faith in the great Atonement. thus enter a state in which he shall be, to all intents and purposes, though unrighteous according to law, treated, dealt with, as though he were righteous.

Man may

Now, this state of righteousness, inasmuch as it is of God's devising, procuring, and appointing, is emphatically styled, "the righteousness of God;" and as it is in virtue, not of human fidelity, but of divine appointment, "the righteousness of God without law." Also, as it is not what may be termed natural righteousness,-righteousness according to the original dispensation of rule with respect to man,-it is said to be "righteousness imputed,”— reckoned or accounted. According to the original law, even the penitent believer is unrighteous; for that law only "worketh wrath" to transgressors. But there is a dispensation of mercy; the believer accepts it, and God pardons his sin; that is, deals with him as though he had not sinned; treats him as though he were, what according to mere law he is not, a righteous person. Dealing with him according to law, God would hold him guilty; dealing with him according to grace, God accepts him as righteous. And as this freedom from guilt is as real as if guilt had never been contracted, as this state of acceptance is as full of blessedness as if its contrary had never existed,—the act which confers it is most appropriately termed "justification;" putting its object into that state of acceptance with God in which he would have stood had he not sinned, and thus making him righteous, not by annihilating the actual guilt, which is impossible, but by cancelling it; and doing so in virtue of a full satisfaction made to violated law, by the presentation of an offering for sin, of perfect purity, and of infinite value.

And thus may unrighteous man become righteous; thus may he come to the inheritance of blessings by law for ever forfeited. But this he can only do by a full consent to this divine method of salvation; a consent, the refusal of which by the Jews, St. Paul most significantly describes by saying, that "they did not submit to the righteousness of God." In what, then, does that submission consist?

It might be described, in a word, as placing ourselves under the influence and rule of God's dispensation of mercy in our Lord Jesus; thus seeking salvation, and consenting thus to be saved. To bring us to this, several agencies and instruments are employed, though all may be reduced to two. There is the truth which God has revealed, by which our minds ought to be moved according to its own nature; and there is the Holy Spirit, given to work with the truth, to convince men of sin, and to enable them to receive Christ as their Saviour. And, favoured of God, man is called to choose the life that is set before him. Some refuse altogether; they harden their hearts, and will not hear the voice that both commands and entreats

them. The truth is presented, the Spirit strives; but all is resisted. Others are partially awakened. Their mind is enlightened, their conscience is affected. They are uneasy. They have some wish to be saved. But they choose a way of their own. They will not renounce themselves. On something which they have done, or suffered, or that they think they can do or suffer, they ground their expectation of obtaining mercy. And some may for a time look so intently on their guilt and sinfulness, and their entire destitution and helplessness, that they give way to desponding doubts, and, because they "have no money," refuse for the time to "come and buy wine and milk without money and without price." A resolute and persevering resistance to these several temptations is implied in submitting ourselves to the righteousness of God. It is allowing three truths, especially, to act on the mind, and seeking earnestly to render their action more energetic and decisive. We must see and feel that the law of God condemns us, and that all hope must utterly fail us, except that which rests on the divine goodness and mercy. We must see and feel that we can only be saved through Christ's atonement and intercession; that, owing, as we do, an immense debt, and having absolutely nothing to pay, free forgiveness through the blood of sprinkling is the sole way of deliverance. We must see and feel, that as Christ is able and willing to save all, that as his blood can cleanse from all sin because of its infinite value and efficacy, that as he promises, in every way that can give stability and force to promise, that if we come to him, renouncing alike false hope and doubting fears, he will receive us and give us rest, it is therefore our duty and our privilege to come to him. By the first, we open our hearts to the law, become conscious of its curse, and resolve to flee from the wrath to come. By the second, we renounce every form of self-confidence, and are willing to be saved in the only way in which we can be saved, as ungodly sinners, asking for pardon because we need pardon, and asking for it because we cannot purchase it, and must either live and die without it, or receive it as an unmerited gift. And by the third, we actually do trust in Christ. We cease to look at either our righteousness or sin, that we may look to Christ, and to Christ alone.

Closely connected with this, and in some sort growing out of it, so as to require to be associated in the same statement, is the necessity of submission to God in his inward and saving influence. We can no more cleanse away the corruption of our nature, and make ourselves holy, by our own strength, than we can remove, by fancied deservings of our own, the guilt that cleaves to us as sinners. We may put royal robes on the Ethiop, and the sheep's clothing on the leopard; but we cannot change either the spots or the skin. Mere human morals, however respectable, and even valuable, socially considered, fall far short of that holiness without which no man can see the Lord. They are, in fact, essentially different from it. Of human morals, man is the object. Of holiness, the love of God is the source, the glory of God the object. And this man can exercise only by the intervention of pardon through faith in Christ, and the Spirit of adoption consequently given to him, and shedding abroad in his heart a sense of the love of God as reconciled to him. He is then numbered among the regenerate, who can say, "We love him because he first loved us." Mr. Wesley's first object was the attainment of holiness through the rules of the old mystic school, especially as laid down by Kempis and Jeremy Taylor. But all was disappointment till he submitted to the righteousness of God, and thus learned, and then announced, what to him was like the discovery of the true law of Christian morals, that "holiness cometh by faith;" that