The
Precepts of the Word of God
by J. C. Philpot
The place of the
precept in the WORD
After our long and labored explanation of the nature
of the precept, this point need not detain us long. But as the place of
the precept in the word admits of two meanings—
(1) Its place in the written word.
(2) Its place in the preached word.
We shall address ourselves to the consideration of both
of these significations.
1. The place of the precept in the WRITTEN word.
One main point with us has been to show that the precept,
as it stands in the written word, is an integral, that is, a real and
constituent part of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and is as much a gracious
revelation of the mind and will of God for our instruction and guidance as
the doctrines themselves of our most holy faith are, for a knowledge of the
way of salvation. We do not mean that a knowledge of the precept is saving
in the same way as a knowledge of the truth is; but as a means, in the hands
of the blessed Spirit, of influencing the heart and life, it is sanctifying.
It is necessary to make and keep this distinction clear, lest in our zeal
for the precept we should strain it beyond the place which God has assigned
to it in the word of truth. We are saved by grace through faith; (Eph. 2:8;)
are justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus; (Romans 3:24;) are reconciled to God by the death of his Son; (Romans
5:10;) are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace. (Eph. 1:3, 7.) These are the
grand foundation truths of the everlasting gospel, are salvation matters,
and as such stand apart from all works performed in us or by us.
We cannot, therefore, elevate the precept into a level
with them, for we may be saved and sanctified too, as was the dying thief,
without knowing or performing one gospel precept except that of love—love to
the Lord for his manifested mercy. But as it is the purpose of God that his
redeemed, justified, and saved people should glorify him here below, he has
most graciously revealed to them how they shall learn to know his will and
do it. This is the end and object of the precept. How beautifully does the
Apostle pray to this effect for his Colossian brethren—"For this reason,
since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and
asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual
wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life
worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every
good work, growing in the knowledge of God." (Col. 1:9, 10.) How blessed to
be filled with a knowledge of the will of God in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding, so as to walk worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.
We are also bidden "not to be conformed to this world,
but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove," (that
is, learn, ascertain, and approve of,) what is that good, and acceptable,
and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2.) To know the will of God and do it,
is the desire and delight of every regenerate soul. The Apostle, therefore,
says—"therefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord
is." (Eph. 5:17.) So he speaks of "doing the will of God from the heart."
(Eph. 6:6.) Our Lord also said—"For whoever shall do the will of God, the
same is my brother, and my sister, and mother." (Mark 3:35.) The Apostle
also prays that the God of peace would "make you perfect in every good work
to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight,
through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for over and ever. Amen;" (Heb.
13:21;) and John's testimony is, "He who does the will of God abides
forever." (1 John 2:17.)
How any one who calls himself a believer in Christ Jesus
can think lightly of knowing and doing the will of God, is indeed a mystery.
But this all must do who ignore the precept, think lightly of it, and
neglect it. It is almost become a tradition in some churches, professing the
doctrines of grace, to disregard the precepts and pass them by in a kind of
general silence; and thus in a sense they "have made the commandments of God
of no effect by their tradition." But when we are brought to see and feel
the blessedness of knowing the will of God and doing it; when we can enter
experimentally into the meaning of such words as, "For Christ's love compels
us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for
themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." (2 Cor.
5:14, 15). And again—"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your
own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." (1
Cor. 6:19, 20;) when such gracious precepts fall, we say, with weight upon
the heart, we see what a blessed place the precept occupies in the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
When, too, we read and can enter a little into the spirit
which breathes through such prayers of the Apostle as, "And the Lord make
you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men,
even as we do toward you—to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable
in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ with all his saints;" (1 Thess. 3:12, 13;) and again, "And the very
God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;"
(1 Thess. 5:23;) we see from these prayers what are or should be the desires
of our own soul. To despise, then, the precept, to call it legal and
burdensome, is to despise not man, but God, who has given unto us his holy
Spirit in the inspired Scriptures for our faith and obedience.
But we have rather wandered from our point, which was to
show the place which the precept occupies in the written word. This is best
seen by examining the epistles of the New Testament. The three which we
would select for that purpose, as being most systematically written, would
be that to the Romans, that to the Ephesians, and that to the Hebrews. It
would take up too much time to give even a short analysis of these blessed
epistles, or even of one of them, but we may observe generally that
doctrine occupies in them the first place, experience the second,
and precept the third; and yet all these three are blended so
beautifully together that they sometimes run into one another, or, if not,
always harmonize with the sweetest accord.
Take, for instance, the Epistle to the Romans,
chapters 1, 2, and part of 3 are taken up with proving the sinfulness of the
Gentile and Jewish world, and the universal depravity, ruin, and
condemnation of man. The Apostle then, (3:21-31,) in a few but most
significant words, opens the grand remedy—justification freely by grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This grand point of
justification by faith (3:28) is proved chapter 4 by the case of Abraham, of
whom the Scripture testified that "he believed God, and it was counted unto
him for righteousness." In chapter 5 commences experience in our having
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, as being justified by faith;
and this strain of living experience, ranging from the deepest conflict (7)
to the highest assurance, continues, blended with doctrine and precept, to
the end of chapter 8. Chapters 9, 10, and 11 are chiefly doctrinal, as
opening the case of the present rejection and future restoration of Israel
after the flesh. In chapter 12 commences the precept, and runs on in the
most beautiful strain to 15:14, the rest of the epistle being chiefly
occupied with Paul's personal matters, greetings, etc.
In the Epistle to the Ephesians, doctrine occupies
the first place. Election, predestination, redemption, the death,
resurrection, and glorification of Christ, occupy the first chapter. In
chapter 2 begins experience in the quickening of the soul from its death in
trespasses and sins, its spiritual resurrection with Christ and sitting
together in heavenly places in him, blended with the sweetest doctrinal
truth, (2:11-22,) and accompanied with the earnest prayers of the Apostle
(3:14-19) that the saints to whom he wrote might know the love of Christ
which passes knowledge, so as to be filled with all the fullness of God. In
chapter 4 commences the preceptive part of the word sweetly blended with
both doctrine (4-13) and experience, (20-24,) and occupying the rest of the
epistle, with the exception of that beautiful, experimental description of
the whole armor of God, (6:11-18,) and even that urged with all the
earnestness of practical exhortation.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is constructed on the
same pattern; first, doctrine in chapters 1-9; then experience, 10, 11; then
precept, 12, 13. This brief sketch of the plan of these three epistles must
suffice; but a longer and more detailed analysis would only more plainly
show that though there is a systematic arrangement in them all, yet there
is such a blending together of doctrine, experience, and precept, that the
three form but parts of one harmonious whole, and, like a compact and
beautiful building, mutually strengthen and adorn each other.
2. The place of the precept in the PREACHED word.
But our view of the place which the precept occupies in the written word
would be incomplete unless we added the place which it should occupy in the
preached word. This is, we know, a difficult and delicate point, and
yet we shall not shun to declare our views on it, whether they meet with the
approval or disapproval of those whom they may concern. As the ministers of
Christ profess to preach the same gospel that the Apostles preached, there
must be some uniformity with the pattern which we have just laid out of
apostolic teaching; for though preaching a sermon is not the same thing as
writing an epistle, yet we may gather from the account which Paul gives us
of his own ministry (Acts 20:21-27, 35; 2 Cor. 4:1-6; 1 Thess. 1:5, 6;
2:7-12) that there was a considerable resemblance between what he spoke by
tongue and what he wrote by pen. Doctrine, then—pure, sound doctrine, must
be the basis of the Christian ministry—"In doctrine showing integrity and
seriousness;" (Titus 2:7;) "Hold fast the form of sound words, which you
have heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus;" (2 Tim.
1:13;) "Take heed unto yourself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them;
for in doing this you shall both save yourself, and them that hear you." (1
Tim. 4:16.)
Let us endeavor to keep every part of divine truth in its
right place, and no more sacrifice doctrine to experience than experience to
precept. He is the ablest minister who is soundest in doctrine, deepest in
experience, and most godly in practice; for he preaches with heart, tongue,
and feet. The servant of God, therefore, must "contend earnestly for the
faith once delivered unto the saints," (Jude 3,) and "hold fast the faithful
word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to
exhort and to convince the gainsayers." (Titus 1:9.) He must have also a
gracious experience in his own soul of the truths which he preaches, in
their savour, sweetness, and power; or how can the unction of the Holy
Spirit rest on his ministry?
All this will be readily granted; but now as to the
precept. Is he to preach that also, as well as doctrine and
experience? If he does not, there would seem to be something lacking, if we
take apostolic teaching as our model. Assume, then, that he ought to preach
the precept. Now comes a more delicate and difficult point. How is he
to preach it? For as to preaching the precept, this is done by hundreds of
ministers who know no more what the precept really is as a part of the
gospel of Jesus Christ than they know what is a gracious experience of truth
by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Anybody may preach the letter of
the precept. But that is not what we want. It is the spirit of the
precept which is needed, and which must be preached if preached at all.
There is dry precept as well as dry doctrine; and as the latter is often
concealed Antinomianism, so the former is open and often barefaced legality;
for looseness, like Tamar, covers her face (Gen. 38:15) when Pharisaism
stalks abroad in open day, for she loves to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets to be seen of men. What was true of old is
true now. "For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times
and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath." (Acts 15:21.) The preachers
of Moses are to be found in every city and every church.
How, then, should the precept be preached? We answer, In
the same way as doctrine and experience should be preached—from a gracious
knowledge of its spirit and power, and its sensible influence on the heart
and life. To preach the precept in any other way is either legality or
presumption. If a man knows nothing in his own soul of the spirit of the
precept, and is not under its gracious influence, he cannot handle it with
the fingers of a workman, and must either legalize it, or handle it
deceitfully. If he binds burdens upon the people of God inconsistent with
the liberty of the gospel, he legalizes it; and if he bids others do what he
himself never does or attempts to do, what is this but hypocrisy? And may
God not justly say to him, "What have you to do to declare my statutes, or
that you should take my covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction
and cast my words behind you?" (Psalm 50:16, 17.) We see, then, what a
narrow line it is—the very line of which Mr. Hart says, "The space between
Pharisaic zeal and Antinomian security is much narrower and harder to find
than most men imagine. It is a path which the vulture's eye has not seen,
and none can show it to us but the Holy Spirit."
But you will, perhaps, say, "Then you make the preaching
of the precept depend on the feelings of the minister." That is an invidious
way of putting the point, and it is neither our mind nor our language. What
we say is this, that no man can preach the precept as a part of the gospel
of Jesus Christ who has not a gracious experience of the power and spirit of
the precept in his own soul. Is not the same thing true of preaching the
doctrines of the gospel? Can any man preach the doctrines of the gospel as
they should be preached, who has had no gracious experience of the doctrines
of the gospel? And is not this all the difference between letter preaching
and letter preachers—and those who preach the gospel with the Holy Spirit
sent down from heaven? Is not this the main, the real distinction between
the two classes of ministers, that the one have no gracious experience of
what they preach, and the others have?
Now, we carry this same distinction between letter
preaching and spiritual preaching into the precept as well as into the
doctrines. Can they be separated? Have we not labored again and again to
show that the precept is as much a part of the gospel as the doctrines and
experience of the gospel? If this be so, then the preaching of the precept
must stand on precisely the same footing as the preaching of gospel doctrine
and gospel experience; and to preach the letter of the precept without a
gracious experience of the spirit of the precept is no more preaching the
precept as it should be preached than to preach doctrines of which you never
felt the power, or experience of which you know only the theory, is to show
yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15.)
Besides which, look at the inconsistency of a man
preaching the precept who himself does not practice it, nor even know under
what power and influence it should be performed. Consider the contradiction
of a covetous man preaching up liberality; of a worldly professor
inculcating "Love not the world;" of an unforgiving persecutor admonishing
to forgiveness; of a light, trifling preacher, full of jests and jokes and
foolish anecdotes, exhorting "young men (much more grey-haired ministers) to
be sober-minded," for all "to put away foolish talking and jesting," and
that their "speech should be always seasoned with salt, that it may
administer grace unto the hearers." Such men instinctively feel that their
hearers would despise, and that justly, such preaching and such preachers.
They, therefore, quietly drop, not only the precept itself, as condemning
their own conduct, but all allusion to it, and ignore it just as much as if
it had neither part nor place in the word of truth! And as many, if not
most, of such men's hearers are in precisely the same state, as unwilling to
hear the precept enforced and as unable to bear it as their ministers, need
we wonder that there should be a silent compact between the pulpit and the
pew that the subject should never be introduced at all—and that all mention
of it or allusion to it should be considered legal and inconsistent with the
doctrines of grace? The consequences of this silent compact may be easily
read in the state of many churches professing doctrinal truth—that they are
flooded with carnal professors, who think no more of the precepts of the
gospel than of an old almanac, and that even among those who are partakers
of the grace of life, vital godliness is, for the most part, at a very low
ebb. This sad state of things some writers and preachers have seen and
sought to remedy. But how? By rushing into the opposite extreme, and urging
the precepts as legal duties, separating them, if not avowedly, yet tacitly,
from the spirit and grace of the gospel.
After all this fault-finding and harsh censure, as some
will doubtless consider it, may we be allowed simply to declare our
view of the right way of preaching the precept as a part of the ministry of
the gospel of the grace of God? It is this—that no man can do so, or ought
to do so, without a gracious experience of the power of the precept in his
own heart. And we will go further still—that we firmly believe no man can
preach the precept with any power, savour, life, or unction, unless he be
at the time under a divine and gracious influence. Why does the
preaching of the precept fall from some men's lips, even good men—hard, dry,
and repulsive? Why does it produce bondage and death instead of life and
feeling in the soul of the hearer? Principally, for the best of hearers may
be much bound, very cold and dead under the warmest and most savory
preaching, but principally because the preacher himself is not under a
heavenly influence when he handles it, and does it more as a duty at the
tail-end of his sermon than as a part of his gracious message.
But assume that his soul is warmed and melted with the
life and power of the blessed Spirit, and is full of tenderness, love, and
affection to the Lord and his people, how freely and fully can he exhort,
admonish, entreat, and even reprove to love and good works. The people of
God who sit under his ministry, for it is chiefly the pastor's office to
preach effectually the precept, know the man and his communication. They
esteem and love him for his work's sake. He has a place in their hearts and
affections, and they look up to him with a mixture of reverence and love.
Such a man can speak with authority, and enforce the precept without
legality or presumption, as a part of his message from God. His exhortations
will not be legal, nor will they fall upon the people's ears and hearts as
dry, harsh, or bondaging. They will see and feel that the man speaks under a
gracious power and influence; that he is not binding upon their shoulders
heavy burdens which he himself will not touch with one of his fingers; that
if he exhorts to love and unity, he does so because love is in his heart; if
he calls for separation from the world, he is separate himself in spirit
from it; if he admonishes to every good word and every good work, it is
because he is himself desirous to speak and perform them.
The grace of God in a man cannot be hidden. If Asher
be blessed with children, and is acceptable to his brethren, it is because
he dips his foot in oil. (Deut. 33:24.) As anointed with fresh oil, his very
countenance will sometimes shine; (Psalm 92:10; 104:15;) the sweet savour of
the knowledge of Christ, like ointment poured forth, will be made manifest
in him; (2 Cor. 2:14; Solomon's Song 1:3;) and his heart being melted and
softened with the love of God, there will not be a tinge of legality or
harshness in his enforcing obedience to the revealed will and word of God.
The Lord's tender-hearted people will receive this ministry of the precept,
will fall under it, and feel the benefit and blessing of it.
Antinomians, evil-doers, open or secret sinners, those at
ease in Zion and settled on their lees, the quarrelsome and the contentious,
will all make an outcry against this ministry as legal, bondaging, and
burdensome. But those whose conscience is tender in the fear of God will, if
not at once, yet sooner or later receive it, even though, at times, it cuts
them very deeply, and reproves their inconsistencies and backslidings. They
will feel at times very much searched by it, for a power attends it. This
ministry of the precept will often find out hidden idols, lay bare indulged
inconsistencies, and detect secret snares in which they have been long held,
or allowed practices in business or in the family, which have weakened their
strength and sadly marred the spirituality of their heart and life. They
would resist it if they could, for it so crucifies their flesh; but they
must fall under the power of the word when brought home to their conscience.
Nothing more detects hypocrites, purges out loose
professors, and fans away that chaff and dust which now so thickly covers
our barn floors than an experimental handling of the precept! A dry
doctrinal ministry disturbs no consciences. The loosest professors may sit
under it, no, be highly delighted with it, for it gives them a hope, if, not
a dead confidence, that salvation being wholly of grace they shall be saved
whatever be their walk or life. But the experimental handling of the precut
cuts down all this, and exposes their hypocrisy and deception. It thus takes
forth the precious from the vile, and becomes as God's truth. (Jer. 15:19.)
To do all this, indeed, as it should be done, demands
wisdom and grace, such as the Lord only can give. Nor can it be done at all
times and seasons. Here the Lord the Spirit can alone help and teach the
servants of God. But we can say for ourselves that we have at times,
especially of late years, felt such a holy influence resting upon our spirit
that we could preach the precept as freely as the promise; and while we
never had a deeper sense of our own sinfulness and helplessness and of the
freeness and fullness of superabounding grace, yet we could urge upon our
own conscience and upon all who loved the Lord the obligation laid upon us
by that grace to live and act in all things according to the revealed will
of God. We are, then, well convinced, both from the word of God and our own
experience in the ministry, that there is a way of preaching the precept in
the fullest harmony with every truth of the gospel, and every gracious,
tender, and affectionate feeling of the heart; and that the right thing,
spoken in the right way, will fall into its right place.
But you will say, "If this be the right way of preaching
the precept, how you are limiting the men who should preach it!" With this
we have nothing to do. It is not for us to say how many or how few real
servants of God there are at all; for your objection equally applies to all
preaching and to all preachers. Should any preach the doctrines of
the gospel who has not felt their power and influence in his own heart?
Should any preach the experience of the gospel who has not felt it in
his own heart? Similarly, should any preach the precepts of the
gospel who has not felt their power in his heart, and does not manifest
their practical influence in his life? The difference between us and you,
supposing there is a difference, is this, that we put preaching the precept
precisely on the same footing with preaching the doctrines and experience of
the gospel. Now if you deny this, what will be the consequence? That you put
asunder what God has joined together. You allow that a man should not preach
the doctrines of the gospel or the experience of the gospel without knowing
them for himself; and yet you think that he may preach the precept without a
gracious experience of its power, or without living under its practical
influence; or else you would strike out of his hand that part of the
ministry altogether as legal or unnecessary. The Lord knows that it is
neither one nor the other—not legal, but full of precious gospel; not
unnecessary, for we see all around us in divided churches, loose profession,
worldly conformity, and the low ebb to which practical godliness has almost
everywhere sunk, the urgent necessity of its being more attended to.
But we must wait patiently for the Lord's time and way of
bringing it about. A great step would be gained towards it if it were laid
upon the heart and conscience of the servants of God to enforce it in the
spirit of the gospel. We say "the spirit of the gospel," for there is no use
flogging and spurring, scolding and censuring, setting tasks and impositions
like an angry schoolmaster with school-boys, or giving extra drills, bread
and water, and putting into the black hole, as an officer deals with
obstinate soldiers. The precept needs the most cautious handling, or in your
zeal for it you may soon turn it into the greatest legality, or drift
yourself into the general preaching of the day, and getting far, far away
from the experience of the Lord's tried and tempted family, may become a
nurse for Pharisees. You may take the precept into the pulpit and preach it
in such a hard, dry, legal, universal way that a casual hearer might well
suppose he had strayed into the wrong chapel, or that you were one of the
general dissenters. This will never do, and is as great, of not worse, a
fault than not preaching it at all, for to pervert any part of God's truth
is worse than to pass it by.
Well, then, may we say, "Who is sufficient for these
things?" Certainly not the writer of these lines; for bear in mind that it
is one thing to see what is spiritual and right, and in some measure strive
after it, and another thing to be able to do it. The best of men and
ministers must ever see and feel their miserable deficiencies and
shortcomings even in the things which they see to be according to the will
of God, and which they desire with all their heart to be ever found doing.
But we must not lower the standard of divine truth because we ourselves
cannot reach it, or handle the word of God deceitfully to please the
vitiated palate of ministers or hearers, preachers or professors.
It will be seen from these remarks what are our views of
preaching the precept; and as the Apostle said of the law, "We know that the
law is good if a man use it lawfully," (1 Tim. 1:8,) so we may say of the
precept—the preaching of the precept is good if a man preach it spiritually.
But surely there is a vast difference between a man's getting into the
pulpit and preaching the precept in a hard, legal, bondaging way as a kind
of moral duty, whipping up the poor, distressed, exercised family of God to
a fleshly holiness and to a rigid line of strict practice which he himself
never performs—and a man of God setting forth the precept in a spiritual,
experimental manner, from a sweet sense of the goodness and mercy of God
tasted, felt, and handled in his own soul. The former kind of preaching
repels, irritates, provokes, burdens, and distresses the real family of God;
the latter as applied to their hearts and commended to their consciences by
the Holy Spirit, softens and melts them, is received in love and affection,
and even if it smites them it is in kindness, or if it reproves them it is
an excellent oil which does not break their head.
A servant of God has to "reprove, rebuke, exhort," but
then it must be "with all patience and doctrine;" that is, patient,
experimental, gracious teaching. (2 Tim. 4:2.) He is bidden "to exhort and
rebuke with all authority," (Titus 2:15.) But, to do this, he must have a
strong place in the esteem and affection of the people, and his ministry
must be commended to their conscience as attended with unction and power
from above. His life and conduct, too, must be consistent with his
profession, and he must practice what he preaches, or the people may well
say, "Physician, heal yourself." The true pattern of exhortation is given us
by the blessed Apostle—"For the appeal we make does not spring from error or
impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as
men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to
please men but God, who tests our hearts." (1 Thess. 2:3, 4.) And again—"but
we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We
loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the
gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us."
(1 Thess. 2:7, 8,) And again—"You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy,
righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we
dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging,
comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into
his kingdom and glory." (1 Thess. 2:10-12,)
Backed and recommended by such faithfulness, such a walk
and conduct, such a tender, fatherly affection, we should feel no more
bondage under the preaching of the precept than we should under the
preaching of the doctrines and experience of the gospel. But to sit and hear
every and any whipper-snapper who has just jumped from the counter into the
pulpit, after being ground in the academical mill, exhorting and exhorting
as if he were a Paul, or some poor legal, blind Pharisee whipping and
spurring, or some loose liver reproving and rebuking, or some graceless
preacher admonishing to every good word and work, in whom a microscope would
not detect one good word or one good work from one year's end to another—who
that knows anything of doctrine, experience, or precept, in their vital
influence and power, would not turn away with disgust from such preaching
and such preachers? Who ever commissioned them to preach God's word? If God
had sent them they would preach it faithfully; and then, like a fire, it
would burn up the chaff which gathers round them, and, like a hammer, would
break into repentance and contrition rocky hearts now hardened under them.
(Jer. 22:28, 29.)
We would close up our views on this part of our subject
with one question to the dear family of God. Do you feel any bondage in
reading the precepts as they stand in the epistles of the New Testament? We
can say for ourselves that we have felt as much sweetness in the precepts as
in any other part of those blessed epistles. If, then, the precept is
preached as we find it in the epistles, and by men of God under the power
and influence of the same blessed Spirit, it will meet with the same
acceptance, and be received as a part of the same gospel. If it be
otherwise, there is a fault somewhere.
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