Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Now, although all these reasons may be resolved into the glorious holiness of God, as their original fountain, or moral cause, it is certainly not as such, that she sees the matter, who is less influenced by the love of Christ, than by the law of duty. ANGELS only are able to be holy, "because God is holy." She is, therefore, both heedless and heartless in religion, who satisfies herself with this single motive. Alas, all the motives and reasons furnished by all the wonders of Redeeming Love, produce but too little holiness, even in those who admire them most; that morality, therefore, which can subsist without them, must be very meagre indeed.

It is, however, a very solemn and startling fact, that, in some things, the character and spirit of females, who act only from a strong sense of propriety, or upon a vague principle of duty, surpass those of some women who

profess "godliness," upon evangelical principles. "This is a sore evil under the sun!" It proves that there is a way of believing "in vain," or of "holding the truth" without the love of it a state of mind and conscience, of all others the most ruinous! For, if the glorious Gospel is believed, without being obeyed, one of two things is certain: either that the person is verging towards a reprobate mind, or that she was never renewed at all in the spirit of her mind. The latter is, indeed, the more likely supposition: for "a reprobate mind," or abandonment to judicial hardness of the heart, is a curse but rarely incurred by "women professing godliness." Those of them who are very inconsistent, may be safely regarded as unconverted. Still, it is a very awful thing, when a woman can give herself credit for being converted to God by the Holy Spirit, whilst all her religion consists in talking about religion.

Unregeneracy is dreadful, even in a woman who is utterly ignorant of the great truths of the Gospel of Salvation: but it is absolutely horrible, when found in connexion with the knowledge and acknowledgment of these supreme truths. The very devils tremble at what they believe. The man or woman, therefore, who can believe all that is peculiar, inspiring, and solemn in the Gospel, and yet not obey that Gospel, is less affected by it than even Satan and his angels. They, indeed, hate it with perfect hatred; but still they stand in awe of it, and yield to it the homage of fear. How infatuated then must she be, whose religion begins and ends with hearing and talking of " the truth as it is in Jesus!" That truth is intended to rule both the tongue and the temper; to subdue the love of the world, and the love of ease; to turn sloth into activity, and selfishness into cheerful benevolence; and thus to

66

make all whom it blesses, a blessing" to others, to the full extent of their ability.

I want, by these hints, to make you as much afraid of not following the Lord fully, as you are of denying the Lord who bought you: as much shocked at partial obedience and heartless devotion, as at open infidelity. Now, you would not for worlds be sceptics nor scorners. Rather than apostatize from the truth as it is in Jesus, or than hold it in unrighteousness, you would do, give, and pray more than ever you have tried hitherto. Yes; were you quite sure, or even very suspicious, that the degree in which you are now following God in duty and devotion, was no security against final apostacy, and no conclusive proof of saving piety, you would bestir yourself at once, and make a new effort to act up to your avowed principles.

Are you, then, quite sure that you have gone further in the narrow way, than "those who

draw back unto perdition?" Is it beyond all doubt that you are following the Lord far enough, to prove that you have been "drawn by the cords of Love," and "led by the Spirit?" I do not at all question your sincerity, nor the correctness of your principles, so far as you do follow the Lord. My inquiry is, are you fully persuaded in your own mind, that you are diligent enough to "make your calling and election sure?" Does your own conscience bear you witness, that you are doing all those things, of which God saith, if ye do them, "you shall never fall?" Do read again the list of these essential things. 2 Peter i. 5—11. What; is it enough for you, that you remember the outline of the passage I have thus noted? Do, then, remember that clause of it, (changing the pronoun,) she "that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that she was purged from her old sins." If you

R

« AnteriorContinuar »