# A Beacon to the Society of Friends/Sermon III

SERMON III.
EXTRACT I.
On man in his natural state.
"He has never made any distinction in the manifestation of his love to his rational creatures. He has placed every son and daughter of Adam on the same ground, and in the same condition that our first parents were in. For every child must come clean out of the hands of God." "The same principle, the same divine life which God breathed into our first parents, he has breathed into every rational soul under heaven." p. 54.
What saith the Holy Spirit by the Scripture?
* Marginal reading—"in whom."
EXTRACT II.
Way to reconciliation.—Works, grace, and faith.
"It is only by gathering to this light that we can gain a place in his favour, and by endeavouring that all our actions should proceed from the movings of this life in the immortal soul—and as this comes to be our case we gain reconciliation with the Father. Now we see that all the holy men of old, have signified this to us in plain terms.—'Cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed.' All these are required, for till we do every thing in our power, by every means put in our hands, we shall not find support from God.—Then, not till then:—'Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.'—What bounty! what encouragement, my friends! every thing in me bows before it.—"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." p. 55.
"We gain reconciliation with the Father."—The Apostle testified of the Jews, "They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." And to attempt to "gain reconciliation," in the way pointed out in the preceding extract, is it not to go about to establish our own righteousness? Where is the necessity left for the righteousness of faith? or the doctrine of Christ crucified? which is the very ground of the sinner's hope. This system, therefore, is wholly foreign to Christianity.
What saith the Scripture?
* How opposite to this doctrine is that which teaches that the light within is the mediator.
again.
See also under Ser. I. Ex. 2;—Ser. IV. Ex. 2.
"Till we do every thing in our power."—Must we then first make the fruit good, that the tree may be good?
What saith the Scripture?
EXTRACT III.
Resurrection of the Body.
"The body returns to the dust,—to the bosom of its mother earth, and there it lies in eternal quiet—and it is not accountable to God; for it is not in bones to think, or flesh to reason." p. 57.
What saith the Holy Spirit by the Scripture?
EXTRACT IV.
State of the Heathen.
"One greater than Moses is come, and has introduced a new covenant, or rather has called the people back to the first dispensation and covenant which God made with his creature man in the beginning, and which is written upon the tables of the heart by the finger of God, and not upon tables of stone, but upon the very tablets of our souls."—"I will make a new covenant with them. Now this could only have been with Israel, because he had never given such a covenant to any except the Israelites, and all others were reckoned under the law of the first covenant, the covenant of love and life." pp. 60, 61.
reconcile this theory, with the declarations of the Holy Spirit, of the dark state of the Heathen, their ignorance of the laws of God, and liability to his judgments. If such sentiments are correct, missionary labours are useless.
But what saith the Scripture?
That the condition of the Gentiles, who had not received the Gospel, was not altered when the Holy Ghost was poured on the believers, at the day of Pentecost, we may reasonably infer,—
1st,—From the wonder of some of the strangers present, and the mockery of others,—proving that they were not partakers of the gift.
2nd,—From Acts, viii. 14-16:
3rd,—From the words of our Lord's commission to the Apostle Paul, Acts, xxvi. 16-18:—
And lastly,—From the affecting description, which he frequently gives of the state of the Gentile converts, before they received the word of the Gospel.—
What an exact description have we here of many of the Heathen nations of the present day, except it be that, if possible, some of them exceed in ignorance those referred to by the Apostle!
EXTRACT V.
Christ the Saviour of all who believe.
"But what is this Jesus Christ? He came to be a Saviour to that nation, [the Jews.] He came to gather up, and look up, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But as he was a Saviour in the outward sense; so he was an outward shadow of good things to come; and so the work of the man Jesus Christ was a figure.'—'What was it that was a Saviour? Not that which was outward; it was not flesh and blood: for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven.—It was that life that was in him, and which lighteth every man, and consequently every woman, that cometh into the world.'" pp. 68, 69.
Does E. H. obtain the information, that Jesus Christ "came to gather up the lost sheep of the house of Israel," from the revelation in the Scripture, or from his own pretended revelation? If from the former, does not the same authority declare, that Jesus Christ came to save the Gentiles, as well as the Jews?
* ↑ This declaration of the Spirit through the Apostle is truly a compendium of Christian doctrine.
* ↑ Written upon the tables of the heart,—see under Ser. IV. Ex. 5.
* ↑ What was it that was a Saviour? Not that which was outward," &c.—See under Ser. II. Ex. 1.