Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

less. How many persons presume to entertain doubts of the sublimest truths of religion, for no better reason than that they are required to "walk by faith, and not by sight," and encourage scruples, only because they want humility to rely on God's word, in preference to the vain suggestions of their own minds. Let such, however, remember the words of an inspired teacher. "If the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

Presumption again is a grand encourager of disbelief. It is apt to persuade us, that we can discover where the scheme of divine Providence has been defective; and that, if its dispensations had been directed according to the notions which a vain-glorious reason suggests to our minds, the government of the universe would be more intelligible, and the condition of man improved. It encourages us to imagine, that creatures of our capacity and intelligence are more worthy of God's confidence than he has judged fit to consider us; that he has revealed to us less than we deserve to know; and that, as he can so readily resolve all our doubts, he has no right to expect our belief in matters which he has not thought it expedient to render intelligible to our senses.

Such feelings cannot direct the soul to God: on

the contrary, they must finally provoke that unbelief which relaxes the rigours of self-denial, and sanctions those pleasures which are so frequently the bane of our peace here, and of our hopes hereafter. Well, therefore, might David pray, "Lord, keep thy servant also from presumptuous sins, lest they get dominion over me, so shall I be undefiled and innocent from the great offence." Is it then to be wondered at, that pride and presumption render us unbelievers? If we would trust to God to enlighten us, instead of groping on in the mere twilight of reason, is it not to be presumed that we should be far wiser, than when we are only "wise in our own conceits"? The fact is, that, where we are anxious to believe, where we do not propose any doubts but from a sincere wish to be instructed, the Holy Spirit will so cause his light to shine into our hearts, that our faith will be made perfect. But let us honestly examine ourselves, and investigate dispassionately the motives of those conclusions, which we frequently draw, so much at variance with the written word of God. Where we entertain doubts relative to any divine truth, let us inquire if we take the trouble to arrive at a fair conviction; nay, let us appeal to our consciences, whether we are as anxious to believe as to disbelieve; for we are to remember, that unbelief is sometimes favourable to our failings, and, therefore, the sensualist, for instance, will consider it his interest to encourage

it; for "they refuse to hearken, and pull away the shoulder, and stop their ears that they should not hear."

Lastly, our vanity is no less an impediment to our faith, than our presumption or our pride; because true faith excludes vanity, as incompatible with that humility, which is at once the infallible indication and support of a devout faith. Where vanity then exists to any extent, our belief is likely to be weak and insecure, because an overweening opinion of our own importance, while it absorbs our thoughts, must necessarily detach them from Him, to whom they are so infinitely due; for it is certain, that the more we think of ourselves, the less we can think of God. "Wo unto them," says the Psalmist, "that draw iniquity with cords of vanity,-that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! As the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as dust, because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel."

If, as the text evidently suggests to us, they, who are not seriously disposed to believe, find the difficulties of belief greater, the more they withhold their convictions from the truth; so will it also follow, that we, who are seriously disposed to believe, the more anxiously we devote our minds to this holy purpose, the fewer impediments shall we find to oppose our faith. Our belief will

improve in proportion as we encourage it; and where we raise no obstacles to retard its influence upon our minds, they will soon cease to be perplexed with difficulties or doubts. To reject any portion of that revelation, which the Saviour of mankind came down from Heaven to deliver to us, is not to be a true disciple of his. And this is really the case with numberless Christians, who are content not to believe all that he has revealed to them, for no wiser reason, than because they imagine they believe enough: but to such, I would repeat the warning of the Apostle, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap." A partial faith cannot be a perfect faith, and a perfect faith only will justify the Christian, who has had full opportunities of rendering it perfect, at the solemn inquisition of quick and dead. This is not much for God to demand of us, when he has supplied us with such powerful motives, and furnished us with such abundant means to acquire it. Let the doubting Christian only seek after it with humility; let him earnestly and unceasingly endeavour to possess it; let him constantly offer up his devotions to God, in the fervour of awakened penitence for past transgression: all his doubts will then subside; and he will have no higher wish than to be constantly guided by the glorious gospel of his Saviour and Redeemer.

SERMON XIII.

ON THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.

ST. LUKE, IV. 32.

"And they were astonished at his doctrine; for his word was with power."

WHAT an imposing spectacle must it have been to the long-deluded inhabitants of Judea, when the Saviour, emerging from the sanctified waters of Jordan, announced the tidings of a new religion! Fifteen centuries had now completed their term, since the promulgation of the law. The Almighty had long since ceased to constitute man a medium of communication betwixt himself and his rebellious creatures. The gift of prophecy had not now been bestowed for above three hundred years, but upon the Saviour's forerunner. The degenerate descendants of the righteous Abraham were become the dupes of their ignorant or interested teachers, and, far from endeavouring to free themselves from the trammels of a very imperfect

« AnteriorContinuar »