صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

on the other, that no person should defpair of finding grace, but believe, that whilft the lamp of life continues to burn, the vileft finner may returnmay feek for grace, and look unto him for falvation. Was not Saul of Tarfus, who was afterwards denominated Paul, a finner above thousands of others? He was a perfecutor of the brethren, a blasphemer of Chrift, one that confented to the death of Stephen and yet this wretch obtained mercy. Hear his own words, 1 Tim. i. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16: I thank Chrift Jefus our Lord, who hath enabled me ; for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the miniftry, who was before a blafphemer, and a perfecutor, and injurious. But I obtained mercy, becaufe I did it in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Chrift Jefus. This is a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Chrift Jefus came into the world to fave finners, of whom I am chief. Yes, fo free is the grace of Christ, that the very Jews who had polluted their hands with the fhedding of the innocent blood of the Prince of life, and who had crucified the Lord of glory, were made the monuments of mercy. For when the apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost, charged them with these dreadful crimes, many of them were pricked in their hearts, and cried, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Confiderably more inftances of this kind might be educed from the Scriptures: but a fufficient number has been mentioned to fhow that the greateft finner may hope for grace in Chrift.

See thus, beloved,-a Jefus in whom all fulness dwells-a Jefus who is all-fufficient-a Jefus who CAN, and alfo WILL freely grant falvation to all who come to him, and by him go to the Father.

And now, CONVINCED and ALARMED finners, who by divine grace have your hearts affected with a view of your misery, and who indeed are fweetly inclined to enter into covenant with God, but are afraid to engage in a tranfaction fo folemn, so great, -come, behold this great Mediator of the covenant. Surely nothing can now keep you from approaching unto God, and from enjoying his favour, if it be your earnest and fincere defire to make application to the compaflionate Jefus. Therefore,

1. Be not too much alarmed, nor defpond, by reason of a view of the number, the aggravated nature of your fins, or your long continuance in them, neither let the JUSTICE and holiness of God, nor your having BROKEN that law, under the curfe of which by nature you are lying, terrify your fouls.

A. I fay, Be not too exceffively caft down at the view of the NUMBER, the AGGRAVATED nature of your fins, or your having fo long CONTINUED in them. Let us not be understood to intimate, that you have no reafon both for forrow and diftrefs: we declare the contrary; for when fin is difcovered in its awful nature, and its dreadful effects are seen and felt in any degree, you will think you cannot be fufficiently humbled on account of it; and if God did not fometimes moderate the impreflions which a view of having finned against his divine majefty produces; and were he not, at thofe times, to dart a ray of grace divine into your fouls;-we can readily conceive, that you muft fink beneath your accumulated load of guilt. But, though this be really fo, ftill you ought not to entertain the fentiment, that they are unpardonable, or that you cannot be made the fubjects of falvation; for fuch fentiments have their origin in hell, where terror and

despair always reign-They are fuggeftions of the adversary of your fouls, who, when any are led over to Christ, in an EVANGELICAL, calm, and gentle way, feldom fails to fuggeft to fuch," that they have not had as great views of fin as were neceffary, nor have been enough diftreffed, broken and contrite in heart, on account of their having departed from the living God, and violated his holy law." This fame adversary appears in quite a different form, when God, in order to alarm the finner's confcience, exhibits himself in all the terrors of his majefty, and prefents to view the holiness of his nature, and makes himself known to be a confuming fire to the workers of iniquity. Then he is busy to excite alarm; then, in order to keep Jefus out of fight as long as he poffibly can, he is bold, contrary to the plaineft declarations of the word, to difcourage, and to induce a belief, that the fins of fuch perfons are too great to be forgiven, and that it is the extreme of prefumption even to think of approaching unto God, of foliciting pardon at his hands, or of fondly cherishing the hope that he will remove out of his fight tranfgreffions which are of fuch a fcarlet colour, and of fuch a crimfon dye. O finners, whose fouls are difquieted within you, who are terrified at the fight of the malignity and magnitude of your guilt,-cease to fear: behold, there is a great Mediator-He hath made atonement for all fins; the efficacy of his blood is infinite. Let your fouls, then, take refuge beneath the fhadow of his wings. He will not reject you because you come with hearts oppreffed by fears, and with eyes melted into tears, or because you approach him with a trembling hand. His fceptre of mercy is extended to you-touch it;--and let fentiments like thefe obtain: "We will not any longer reflect difhonour

66

upon Jefus by keeping at a distance from him; "but will place the crown upon his head, and fub"mit to him as one who is mighty to redeem the "chief of finners."

B. Let not the HOLINESS and JUSTICE of God fill your fouls with terror and difmay in too high a degree: for now it must be evident to you, from what has been faid, that the flames of divine wrath can be extinguished by Jefus, the glorious Mediator of the new covenant, and in virtue of his active and paffive obedience. Juftice having fheathed its avenging fword, God can address you, saying, Wrath is not in me: lay hold of my ftrength: I will make

peace with you. And you, in the delightful ftrains

of the poet, may reciprocate,

Should fevenfold florms of vengeance roll,
And shake this globe from pole to pole,
No thunder-bolt shall daunt my face,
While Jefus is my hiding-place.

C. Suffer yourselves not to be the fubject of defpair at the view of the CURSE of that law which you are fenfible you have broken, and with the requifitions of which you acknowledge you have not complied; for, behold the Mediator has brought in a complete righteousness, and hath removed the curfe when he was made a curfe for us.

2. Diftreffed fouls, let this alfo adminifter comfort to you, that it is that God whom the Scriptures declare to be a righteous and a holy God, and an angry Judge, who hath himself conftituted this Mediator to be the only way to life and falvation. In the counsels of Eternity, Jehovah fet apart for this work his glorious, only, and beloved Son. In time he revealed him to

his church by promises, shadows and types; and, in the fulness of time, he fent him into the world made of a zwoman, in all things like unto his brethren, fin only excepted. He being in the world, the Father, that divine justice might be satisfied, laid upon him the iniquity of us all; and demanded that Jefus, as the furety of the guilty, fhould fuffer, bleed, die: but at the fame time made it evident to all, that he was well pleased in him for, by a voice from heaven, he declared, "This is my beloved fon, in whom I am well pleafed," Matt 3. 17. i. e. his perfon is the object of my delight, and his righteousness is, in every respect, fatisfactory to my righteousness.--Of this we cannot but be convinced, when we confider that God raised him, and exalted him to a feat at his right hand. Now, afflicted and fearful fouls, are you sensible of being finners? Is it revealed to you in the gospel, that that God whom you have offended by your fins, hath, from a principle of free and fovereign love, grace and compaffion, appointed a Mediator to reconcile finners to himself; offers this perfect Saviour to all who feel compunction and anguish on account of fin; and calls from heaven, saying, Behold my fon, the mighty Redeemer; I have found a ransom; with his obedience I am fully fatisfied. O, do you approve of him too; take hold of him; embrace him by faith, and you shall be reconciled to me.

your

Surely, if diftreffed fouls were duly to contemplate these things, nothing could keep them from God; every obftacle would be removed out of the way, which at prefent deters them from going to him with boldness to feek for grace.

But it is time to apply the fubject more particu larly to those compofing this auditory, who have convened to-day in this facred temple, profeffedly

« السابقةمتابعة »