Charity and Its Fruits
of Israel out of Egypt. But the holy living of his people was the end God had in view in that redemption, as he often signified to Pharaoh, when from time to time he said to him by Moses and Aaron, "Let my people go, that they may serve me." And we have a like expression concerning Christ's redemption in the New Testament, where it is said, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,…. to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life" (Luke 1:68-75 ). All these things make it very plain that the end of redemption is, that we might be holy. Still further it is true,
3. That effectual calling, or that saving conversion in which grace is commenced in the soul, is to the same end. — God, by his Spirit, and through his truth, calls, awakens, convicts, converts, and leads to the exercise of grace, all those who are made willing in the day of his power, to the end that they might exercise themselves in holy practice. "We are his workmanship," says the apostle, "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10 ). And the apostle tells the Christian Thessalonians, that God had not called them unto uncleanness, but unto holiness (1 Thes. 4:7 ). And again it is written, "As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation" (1 Pet. 1:15 ). It is also true,
4. That spiritual knowledge and understanding which are the inward attendants of all true grace in the heart, tend to holy practice. — A true knowledge of God and divine things is a practical knowledge. As to a mere speculative knowledge of the things of religion, many wicked men have attained to great measures of it. Men may possess vast learning, and their learning may consist very much of their knowledge in divinity, and of the Bible, and of the things pertaining to religion, and they may be able to reason very strongly about the attributes of God and the doctrines of Christianity, and yet herein