Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the irregularities of his life, will ftare him in the face : they never appear fo hateful, as when brought into comparison with the divine holinefs; and if he "effay to jufti"fy himself, his own mouth will condemn him" as guilty from choice.

Once more, the fame view will effectually confute, and fhew the vanity of, those pretenfions which are derived from our own imperfect and defective obedience. When conviction first lays hold of a finner, however vain the attempt, he has ftill a ftrong inclination that righteousness "fhould come by the law." This is not wonderful; for in no other way can he himself have any title to glory, and a thorough renunciation of all felf-intereft, is too great a facrifice to be made at once. Hence he is ready

to look with fome measure of fatisfaction on thofe who have been greater finners than himfelf, and fecretly to found his expectation of pardon for those fins he hath committed, on the fuperior heinoufness of those from which he hath abstained. Hence alfo he is ready to hope he may make fufficient atonement for his past fins by future amendment: but a discovery of the holiness of God, and the obligation to love him "with all the heart, and foul, "and strength, and mind," foon destroys this fond imagi nation. It fhews him that he can at no time do more than his duty; that he never can have any abounding or foliciting merit: nay, that a whole eternity, fo to fpeak, of perfect obedience, would do juft nothing at all towards expiating the guilt of the leaft fin. But befides all this, the fame thing fhews him, that his best duties are stained with fuch fins and imperfections, that he is ftill but adding to the charge, instead of taking from the old score; for "we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righte "oufnesses are but as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a "leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have carried us away."* Thurs, one after another, he is ftript of every plea, however eagerly he may cleave to them, and fupport or bolfter up one, by the addition of another. He fees not only his danger, but his guilt; not only the fear

66

*Ifaiah lxiv. 6.

fulness of his flate, but the holiness and righteoufnefs of his judge. He lies down proftrate at the footstool of the Almighty, and makes unmerited mercy and fovereign grace the only foundation of his hope.

H

SECT. IV.

Of the degree of sorrow for sin in true penitents.

AVING thus confidered the proper fource of genuine conviction and forrow for fin, it was propofed next to enquire, to what degree it must be, in order to a faving change. The truth is, were not this a queftion often propofed, and the refolution of it defired by ferious perfons, the weakest of whom deserve all attention and regard from every minifter of Chrift, I fhould have left it altogether untouched. The reafon of this obfervation is, that I am perfuaded, and take the prefent opportunity of affirming it, that the chief distinction between convictions genuine or falutary, and fuch as are only tranfitory and fruitless, does not lie in their strength and violence, fo much as their principle and fource, which has been formerly explained.

There is often as great, or, perhaps, it may be safely faid there is often a greater degree of terror in persons brought under occafional convictions, which are afterwards fruitless, than in others, in whom they are the introduction to a faving change. It is probable that the horror of mind which poffeffed Cain after his brother's murder, was of the most terrible kind. It is probable that the humiliation of Ahab, after he had caufed Naboth to be destroyed by falfe evidence, and was threatened with a dreadful vifitation, was exceeding great. It is probable that the mere paffion of fear in either of these criminals was equal, if not fuperior, to the fear of any true penitent recorded in fcripture. It is the principle that distinguishes their nature. It is the differing principle that produces oppofite effects. The one is alarmed and trembles through fear of wrath from an irresistible and incenfed God; the other is truly fenfible of fin in all its malignity, and fears

the fanction of a righteous, but violated law. The one feels himself a miferable creature; the other confeffes himfelf a guilty finner. The one is terrified, and the other is humbled.

It is fome doubt with me, whether in fruitlefs convictions there is any fenfe at all of fin, as fuch; I mean, as truly meriting punishment from a juft and holy God. Such perfons ordinarily are difpleafed at the holiness of God's nature, and murmur at the ftrictness of his law; and therefore, however much they may dread fuffering here or hereafter, they cannot be faid to be convinced of fin. We have feen fome who, when afflictions brought their fins to remembrance, were but driven on, by defpair, to higher degrees of guilt, and, the more they feemed to fear the approaching judgment of God, only increased in the impatience of blafpheming rage.

However, as there is a great measure of deceit in the human heart, fome may be ready to flatter themselves, on the one hand, that they have seen the evil of fin in itself; and fome, on the other, to fear that they have not seen it as they ought, because their forrow has not risen to the requifite degree. Many have expreffed uneafinefs that they never mourned for fin in a manner correfponding to the strong scripture declarations of its odious and hateful nature, or to the following defcription of gofpel penitents: "And I will pour upon the houfe of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerufalem, the fpirit of grace and fupplication, and they fhall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they fhall mourn for him as one mourneth "for his only fon, and fhall be in bitterness for him, as "one that is in bitterness for his firft born."* For this reafon I fhall make an obfervation or two on the degree of forrow for fin in true penitents, which may enable us to judge in every queftion of the fame nature.

[ocr errors]

1. One thing, in general, must be carefully remembered, that we ought not to lay down one rule for all perfons. We are not to measure the forrow of any true penitent, and make a standard from it for the effects or expreffions

* Zech. xii. 10.

of forrow in any other. The ftrength of all the paffions, and their readinefs to exprefs themfelves, is greater natu rally in fome than in others. There is nothing of which men may be more fenfible from daily experience. Love and hatred, joy and grief, defire and averfion, fhew themfelves by much more violent emotions in fome than in others. It would be wrong, therefore, to reduce all to one rule, and none ought to look upon it as a just cause of difquiet, that they have not had the fame degree or depth of diftrefs and anguifh, which others have had, of whom they have read or heard. Another circumftance may alfo be the occafion of diverfity. In fome, convictions may have been more early and gradual, and, therefore, lefs violent and fenfible. It is not to be fuppofed that Samuel, whofe very conception was the answer of prayer, who was called from his mother's womb, and ferved in the temple from his being a child, fhould have experienced the fame depth of humiliation with fuch as Manafleh, for example, who had been guilty of many atrocious crimes, and continued long in a hardened and infenfible ftate. Therefore,

2. Suffer me to obferve, that the great and principal evidence of a proper degree of conviction and forrow for fin, is its permanency and practical influence. Genuine conviction is not a flash of fervor, however ftrong, but a deep, abiding, and governing principle, which will fhew its ftrength, by its habitual power over its oppofite. Every true penitent will join in thefe words of Elihu: "Surely "it is meet to be faid unto God, I have borne chaftifement, I will not offend any more; that which I fee "not, teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I will do "no more."* Nothing else will be a fufficient evidence of penitence, where this is wanting; and where this is the cafe, nothing can be wanting that is really necessary. This may, perhaps, as I obferved on another part of this difcourfe, be thought too general, but I am perfuaded it is the only fafe ground to build upon, according to the fcriptures. Every other claim of relation will be rejected at laft by our Saviour and Judge, as he hath plainly told

[blocks in formation]

us: "Not every one that faith unto me, Lord, lord, fhall "enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the "will of my father which is in heaven. Many will fay "to me in that day, Lord, lord, have we not prophefied "in thy name? and in thy name caft out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will "I profefs unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity."*

[ocr errors]

66

Would any know, therefore, whether their forrow for fin hath been to the requifite degree, let me intreat them to fuffer confcience to anfwer honeftly to the following interrogatories. Has your conviction of fin been fuch as to make you abhor and hate it in every form? Hath it been fuch as to make you refolve upon a thorough and perpetual feparation from your once beloved pleasures? Does it make you ready to examine the lawfulness of every purfuit, and to abftain even from every doubtful or fufpected practice? Is there no known fin that you are defi rous to excufe or palliate, ftudious to conceal, or willing to fpare? Remember this neceffary caution of our Saviour: "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and "caft it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one "of thy members fhould perifh, and not that thy whole "body fhould be cast into hell. And if thy right hand "offend thee, cut it off, and caft it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members fhould pe. rifh, and not that thy whole body fhould be caft into hell." Is there no fin, however long practifed, or however greatly delighted in; is there no fin, however gainful or honorable, but you defire liberty from its enflaving power, as well as deliverance from its condemn. ing guilt? Is there no part of the law of God, of the duty and character of a Chriftian, however ungrateful to a covetous heart, however despised by a fcorning world, but you acknowledge its obligation? Would you, indeed, rather be holy than great? Do you rather choose perfecution with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of fin for a feafon? See what terms Chrift makes with

[ocr errors]

* Matt. vii. 21, 22, 23. ↑ Matt. v. 29, 30.

« AnteriorContinuar »