are under a moral government; that God bestows his blessings upon the waiting soul; that nothing can be done hastily or mechanically, but that we must act as reasonable and accountable beings, and humbly expect the blessings promised in the way prescribed. You are now prepared for this. Prayer is " waiting upon God, the attending daily at his gates, the watching at the posts of his doors." Probably the idea you once formed of religious experience, was that of something violent, sudden, distinguishable at once from the operations of your own mind; something involving an irrational and unaccountable excitement; such is the notion which "the disputer of this world"" forms of the experience of religion. You find it very different: you find the influences of grace are gradual, soft, imperceptible at the time, congruous with the rational nature of man, and chiefly to be traced in their effects; and yet mighty and efficacious; for as the wind "bloweth where it listeth, and we hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." "21 In these means of grace-that is, in prayer, in reading God's word, in attending the public preaching of the gospel, in the conversation and advice of the pious-you must wait for further light; and you shall not wait in vain. In the expectations thus raised there is a pledge of their fulfilment. In the meanwhile, delay not the time to do what you know to be your duty, and to avoid what you know to be sin. "To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God,"22 is the Almighty's promise. In doing the divine will, a thousand things will become more plain, and a thousand difficulties will sink before you. In attempting obedience, you will perceive more sensibly the truths already believed; especially that of your own corrup19 Prov. viii, 34. 21 John iii. 8. 20 1 Cor. i. 20. tion and inability. In this way you will meet God, and testify the sincerity of your desire to experience his grace. In this way you will discover your need of that peculiar revelation of mercy to which I would now call your attention. V. Let me counsel you to keep your eye fixed ON THE GREAT OBJECT WHICH CHRISTIANITY REVEALS, as the only source of relief and consolation. All I have at present said, is introductory. The person and glory of Jesus Christ our Saviour is the centre-point, the main characteristic, the distinguishing fact of the whole of Revelation. You are surely now prepared to behold the mysterious cross on which he expired, as a sacrifice for sin. You are eager to receive the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, for which all your previous inquiries have been disposing you. You want pardon; you want peace with God; you want something as a ground of merit in approaching the throne of grace-you find nothing in yourself but infirmity, sin, guilt. Behold, then, the person of Christ, the substitute for man, "bearing sin in his own body on the cross dying, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God." Read in his death, pardon, peace, and salvation. "Look unto him whom you have pierced," and, while you mourn for sin, rejoice in the forgiveness which his sacrifice promises. All blessings flow from that great event. God is reconciled-the law is satisfied-the moral government of the Almighty is vindicated-and the Holy Spirit is procured and diffused; and in the gift of that divine agent (for redemption, as we have frequently noticed, reveals the triune source of mercy to man-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost) all blessings of grace, regeneration, power to believe, fortitude, joy, resignation, hope, obedience, are virtually included. You will doubtless find a thousand difficulties start up in your mind, and oppose the simple act of faith, by which you are to receive those benefits. Though you exercise faith in human things every day of your life, yet when you attempt to apply this principle to divine, a difficulty arises. But the Holy Spirit is the author of faith. Pray to him for the grace to believe. Say, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." 23 Silence your imaginations, your reasonings, your objections. God reveals the infinite gift of his Son; God declares it to be the effect of his love to man; God points out the grand ends for which the gift is made, and the practical uses for which it is to be employed. But God does not ask your opinion of the redemption itself: you are no judge of God's incomprehensible reasons. If you wish for a real acquaintance with the effect of his religion upon the heart, you must take the method he prescribes. You must believe, obey, trust in his "well-beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased."24 You do so. See-the struggle is over. Your sense of pressing exigency, the anguish of an alarmed conscience, the conviction that "God's thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways his ways, but that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than your ways, and his thoughts than your thoughts," 25 carry every thing with it. You cast yourself at the feet of the Saviour, and endeavour to rely upon his word for all the blessings of salvation. You implore the Holy Spirit to enable you to see his glory more distinctly, and rejoice in his cross with more delight, and foliow his footsteps in the obedience of your life. All this is done with weakness and trembling of heart; but it is done with simplicity; and increasing vigour will follow. VI. Let me direct you now to compare all the parts of Christianity as you have gone over them, and 23 Mark ix. 24. 24 Matt. iii. 17. 25 Isaiah Iv. 8, 9. OBSERVE HOW THEY CONSTITUTE A WHOLE, AND MEET ALL THE NECESSITIES OF YOUR CASE. Study still the Bible in which these truths and the uses of them are contained. There you began, there you must continue your search. You have caught its general impression and main design upon man-you have verified in your own heart its statements about the guilt and ruin of sin--you have adopted the prayers which it taught you to offer you have persevered in the means of instruction it presented to you --you have been brought up to its main discovery, the person and sacrifice of the Son of God-you have perceived the divine agent, who applies all its truths to the heart, the Holy Spirit. Reflect now upon the bearing of all these things. Observe how they meet all the case of man, (as we observed in a previous Lecture,26) how they supply his wANT OF MERIT, by the sacrifice of Christ, and his WANT OF STRENGTH, by the operations of the blessed Spirit. Mark how they bring him to the knowledge of the most important truths relating to himself, his duty, his fall, his guilt, his end. Consider how they exactly fill up the void which natural religion could not supply; the gaping void, created by the want of sanction, the want of a distinct knowledge of the supreme Being, the want of a revealed and intelligible moral law, the want of a way of pardon, the want of motives and strength for obedience, the want of peace and consolation of conscience, and the want of an express assurance of the immortality of the soul and an eternal judgment.” Yes, Christianity is the natural and essential religion for which God first created man, republished, supplied, restored, enlarged, purified, ennobled with an additional remedial dispensation by the Son and Spirit of God. How grand, how efficacious, how complete is the scheme of Revelation! How it meets all your 26 Lect. XIV. 27 Lect. II. desires; responds to your thirst after happiness; answers to all the capacities of your rational being; unites the glory of the Creator with the welfare of the creature! Nothing is so reasonable, so elevating, so consolatory, so adapted for man, as the Christian religion. You feel this in some degree. You feel that all you need now, is a larger measure of its grace and a more entire submission to its commands-that what is wanting, is not in Christianity, but in yourself; not in its provisions, but in your obedience; not in the promises and supplies which it offers, but in your acceptance and adherence. Feeble as your attainments are, you are persuaded fully-you are convinced, that, in proportion as you advance in them, you shall advance in happiness, advance in holiness, advance in peace and consolation and joy. And now, after offering these directions, let me request you to look back on the course which you have passed, and to observe the RESULT. Let me ask you, whether the Christian religion has not fulfilled in you all its promises, and whether you are not an instance of one who has made a trial of its proffered blessings, and has obtained an inward experience and witness of their reality? This may not have struck you. At an early stage of your inquiries, it could not. Even now it may not at times be very apparent. It is rather upon reflection and at intervals, that you will be able to trace out the accomplishment of the blessings of Christianity in your own case. But after a period, perhaps a considerable period-for the minuter differences in each inquirer's case are multiplied and various -you may be led to reflect thus: Surely I am myself a witness of the truth of Christianity. I feel that its nant with blessings to man. own case is most accurate. general character is preg- |