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                            Concerning the Gospel
            
            It is of importance to  be accurate in our language  on this
       subject; but  it is  still more  important to  be accurate in our
       ideas.  Much  confusion prevails, not  only among private  Chris-
       tians, whose mistakes can be accounted for from want of  instruc-
       tion or from  the neglect of  inquiry, but also  among those who,
       being appointed  teachers of  others in  faith and  verity, prove
       blind leaders of the  blind.  There are  not a few of  the latter
       class who are as ignorant of the true distinction between the Law
       and the Gospel  as any of  their hearers; who,  accordingly, con-
       found them  together, and  while they  profess to  preach Christ,
       teach a doctrine in which he holds only a subordinate place.   It
       is necessary that a minister should be able rightly to divide the
       word of truth, to distinguish things which in themselves are dif-
       ferent, to state them in their order and connexion, and to  apply
       them  to  the  purposes  which  they are respectively intended to
       serve.  Nothing is more  disgraceful to him, than to  mistake one
       thing for  another, and  by his  bungling manner  of handling the
       word of God, to render it of no effect.
            Men may preach the grace of God, but not preach the  Gospel.
       The phrase may occur often in their discourses and writings;  and
       thus the simple may be led  to believe that they are reading  and
       hearing evangelical doctrine, while those declaimers are in truth
       labouring to subvert the Gospel of Christ.  However loud and elo-
       quent may be his praise of Divine grace, if a person make it con-
       sist in giving us a milder  law, in lowering the terms of  accep-
       tance, and admitting our  sincere endeavours, instead of  perfect
       obedience, as the condition of future happiness; if he represents
       it as grace given to all indiscriminately, to enable them to work
       out their salvation; or a grace which it is left to ourselves  to
       receive or reject  at our pleasure,  which may be  lost, and will
       prove ineffectual unless  we lend our  aid to it;  it is evident,
       that he knows neither what he says, nor whereof he affirms.
            Again, A man may preach  salvation by faith, and not  preach
       the Gospel of Christ.  His doctrine is orthodox in sound, but  is
       erroneous in sense.  For what is the faith which he teaches?   Is
       it a humble dependance upon  the righteousness of Christ, to  the
       exclusion of our  own?  No;  it is what  he calls believing  obe-
       dience; not faith alone,  but faith and obedience  conjoined; the
       name of the cause being given not only to itself, but to its  ef-
       fect, out of  compliment to Scripture,  and to please  fastidious
       ears.  You will find that, in this manner, some teachers of faith
       explain their own meaning.  We are saved by faith, not solely  as
       it receives Christ, but as it  works by love; or, in other  words
       we are saved not simply by a living faith, which proves its genu-
       ineness by good  works, but by  faith which includes  good works,
       and derives its efficacy from them.  And thus, while sinners  are
       told that they  are justified by  faith, and so  far the doctrine
       seems to be Scriptural, they  are in reality led to  believe that
       they are justified by works.
            Farther, Ministers  may preach  the atonement,  and yet  not
       preach the Gospel of Christ.  They may admit that Christ died for
       our sins; that his sacrifice was acceptable to God; that, for his
       sake, he pardons  us; and that  to his mediation  we are indebted
       for all the blessings of  salvation; but, while they give  goodly
       words, they  may hold  sentiments which  render them  in a  great
       measure nugatory.  If they teach that our Redeemer died, not  ac-
       tually to reconcile  God to us,  but to render  him reconcilable;
       that he died to procure the making of a new covenant with us, the
       terms of which are to be fulfilled by ourselves; that he died  to
       give efficacy to our repentance, meaning that somehow it becomes,
       through his death,  a sort of  satisfaction for our  sins; in all
       these  cases,  they  misrepresent  the  nature, and extenuate the
       value, of the atonement  of the cross.   They take away with  the
       one hand what they had given with the other.  According to  their
       doctrine, it  is not  true that  the blood  of Christ cleanses us
       from all sin, that through it  we have redemption, that by it  he
       has made   peace:   because  there still  remains something to be
       done by  us, to  render his  blood effectual  for our deliverance
       from something to be  added to it as  the conjunct causes of  our
       pardon.
            In the  next place,  Men may  preach the  privileges of  be-
       lievers, and not preach the Gospel  of Christ.  They may talk  of
       justification,  without  referring  to  Scriptural faith by which
       alone it  is enjoyed;  of sanctification,  without assigning  the
       grace of the Divine Spirit  as its only efficient cause;  of pro-
       tection by the power  of God, and peace  and joy; while the  pro-
       tection depends  upon our  own dutiful  conduct, and  may be for-
       feited if  we are  not careful  to deserve  its continuance;  the
       peace arises, not from the application of the blood of Christ  to
       the conscience, but from our  own fidelity in the performance  of
       our duty; and the hope is not founded on the promises of God, and
       the righteousness of Christ, but  on the recollection of our  own
       meritorious deeds.   The  privileges enumerated  are conferred by
       the gospel, and are exhibited in its declarations; but as soon as
       you disjoin them from Christ,  and ascribe the enjoyment of  them
       to any other cause than his mediation, they cease to be gifts  of
       grace, and are  changed into the  rewards of the  law.  It  is in
       Christ, in a state of union to him, and solely for his sake, that
       God blesses us with all spiritual blessings.
            Lastly, Men may preach the happiness of heaven, and yet  not
       preach the Gospel of Christ.   They may be chargeable  with doing
       so on two accounts,  either because they misrepresent  the nature
       of that happiness, or because  they do not truly state  the means
       of obtaining it.  To  affirm that we are indeed  pardoned through
       the atonement of Christ, but  that we must ourselves establish  a
       right to eternal  life by our  obedience, is to  preach something
       very different  from the  Gospel; although  an attempt  should be
       made to qualify the doctrine, and to give it an evangelical form,
       by subjoining that  it is the  grace of God  which enables us  to
       obey.  This is plainly to set even grace in opposition to Christ,
       as if it were intended to help  us to preform a part of the  work
       of salvation, which he claims as exclusively his own.  Nor is the
       Gospel preached when heaven is  described as a place of  rest and
       enjoyment, without a reference to  the presence of Christ in  it,
       as constituting the  chief source of  its glory and  blessedness.
       We all  condemn the  grossness of  the Mahometans,  who expect  a
       sensual paradise; but even  professed Christians are by  no means
       united in their views of the world to come.  The notions of  many
       are altogether undefined; but, if it is not considered as a  holy
       as well as  a happy place,  and if its  happiness is contemplated
       under  any  view  which  excludes  the  love  and  service of the
       Saviour, or  allows to  these only  a subordinate  place, it is a
       heaven of imagination, and not  of the Scriptures.  As  Christ is
       the life and glory  of the Gospel, so  he is associated with  all
       just conceptions of future felicity.  He is the sum of the celes-
       tial world.
            It is of the utmost importance that private Christians,  and
       especially ministers of religion, should have accurate notions of
       the Gospel.   Truth  is one,  but error  is multifarious.   It is
       truth alone that  will promote the  salvation of the  soul; every
       modification of error is injurious  in a greater or less  degree.
       "If ye know the truth, the truth shall make you free" (John viii.
       32). 1

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             1 John Dick, _Lectures on Theology_  (Cincinnati:  J. A.  &
       U. P. James, 1850), pages 453-454.