THE DOUBTING SOUL MORE PARTICULARLY ASSISTED IN ITS INQUIRIES AS TO THE SINCERITY OF ITS FAITH AND REPENTANCE.
1. Transient impressions liable to be mistaken for conversion, which would be a fatal error.--2. General scheme for self-examination.--3. Particular inquiries--what views there have been of sin?--4. What views there have been of Christ?--5. As to the need the soul has of him;--6. And its willingness to receive him with a due surrender of heart to his service.--7. Nothing short of this sufficient. The soul submitting to Divine examination the sincerity of its faith and repentance.
1. IN consequence of all the serious things which have been said in the
former chapters, I hope it will be no false presumption to imagine that some
religious impressions may be made on hearts which had never felt them before;
or may be revived where they have formerly grown cold and languid. Yet I am
very sensible, and I desire that you may be so, how great danger there is of
self-flattery on this important head, and how necessary it is to caution men
against too hasty a conclusion that they are really converted, because they
have felt some warm emotions on their minds, and have reformed the gross
irregularities of their former conduct. A mistake here may be infinitely fatal;
it may prove the occasion of that false peace which shall lead a man to bless
himself in his own heart, and to conclude himself secure, while "all the
threatenings and curses of God's law" are sounding in his ears, and lie indeed
directly against him: (Deut. 19:19,20) while in the mean time he applies to
himself a thousand promises in which he has no share; which may prove therefore
like generous wines to a man in a high fever, or strong opiates to one in a
lethargy. "The stony ground hearers received the word with joy," and a
promising harvest seemed to be springing up; yet "it soon withered away,"
(Matt. 13:5,6) and no reaper filled his arms with it. Now, that this may not he
the case with you, that all my labors and yours hitherto may not be lost, and
that a vain dream of security and happiness may not plunge you deeper into
misery and ruin, give me leave to lead you into a serious inquiry into your own
heart, that so you may be better able to judge of your ease, and to distinguish
between what is at most being only near the kingdom of heaven, and becoming
indeed a member of it.
2. Now this depends upon the sincerity of
your faith in Christ, when faith is taken in the largest extent, as explained
above: that is, as comprehending repentance, and that steady purpose of new and
universal obedience, of which, wherever it is real, faith will assuredly be the
vital principle. Therefore, to assist you in judging of your state, give me
leave to ask you, or rather to entreat you to ask yourself, what views you have
had, and now have, of sin and of Christ? and what your future purposes are with
regard to your conduct in the remainder of life that may lie before you? I
shall not reason largely upon the several particulars I suggest under these
heads, but rather refer you to your own reading and observation, to judge how
agreeable they are to the word of God, the great rule by which our characters
must quickly be tried, and out eternal state unalterably determined.
3. Inquire seriously, in the first place, "what
views you have had of sin, and what sentiments you have felt in your soul with
regard to it?" There was a time when it wore a flattering aspect, and made a
fair, enchanting appearance, so that all your heart was charmed with it, and it
was the very business of your life to practice it. But you have since been
undeceived. You have felt it "bite like a serpent, and sting like an adder."
(Prov. 23:32) You have beheld it with an abhorrence far greater than the
delight which it ever gave you. So far it is well it is thus with every true
penitent, and with some, I fear, who are not of that number. Let me therefore
inquire farther, whence arose this abhorrence? Was it merely from a principle
of self-love? Was it merely because you had been wounded by it? Was it merely
because you had thereby brought condemnation and ruin upon your own soul? Was
there no sense of its deformity, of its baseness, of its malignity, as
committed against the blessed God, considered as a glorious, a bountiful, and a
merciful Being? Were you never pierced by the apprehension of its vile
ingratitude? And as for those purposes which have arisen in your heart against
it, let me beseech you to reflect how they have been formed, and how they have
hitherto been executed. Have they been universal? Have they been resolute?
And yet, amidst all that resolution, have they been humble? When you have
declared war with sin, was it with every sin? And is it an irreconcilable war
which you determine, by divine grace, to push on till you have entirely
conquered it, or die in the attempt? And are you accordingly active in your
endeavors to subdue and destroy it? If so, what are "the fruits worthy of
repentance which you bring forth?" (Luke 3:8) It does not, I hope, all flow
away in floods of grief. Have you "ceased to do evil?" Are you "learning to do
well?" (Isa. 1:16,17) Doth your reformation show that you repent of your sins?
or do your renewed relapses into sin prove that you repent even of what you
call your repentance? Have you an inward abhorrence of all sin, and an
unfeigned zeal against it? And doth that produce a care to guard against the
occasions of it, and temptations to it? Do you watch against the circumstances
that have ensnared you? and do you particularly double your guard against "that
sin which does most easily beset you?" (Heb. 12:1) Is that laid aside, that the
Christian race may be run: laid aside with firm determination that you will
return to it no more, that you hold no more parley with it, that you will never
take another step toward it?
4. Permit me also farther to inquire, "what your
views of Christ have been? What think you of him, and your concern with him?"
Have you been fully convinced that there must be a correspondence settled
between him and your soul? And do you see and feel, that you are not only to
pay him a kind of distant homage, and transient compliment, as a very wise,
benevolent, and excellent person, for whose name and memory you have a
reverence; but that, as he lives and reigns, as he is ever near you, and always
observing you, so you must look to him, must approach him, must humbly transact
business with him, and that business of the highest importance, on which your
salvation depends?
5. Yon have been brought to inquire, "Wherewith
shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the most high God? (Mic.
6:6) And once perhaps you were thinking of sacrifices which your own stores
might have been sufficient to furnish out. Are you now convinced they will not
suffice; and that you must have recourse to the Lamb which God has provided?
Have you had a view of "Jesus as taking away the sin of the world?" (John 1:29)
"as made a sin-offering for us, though he knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him?" (2 Cor. 5:21) Have you viewed him as
perfectly righteous in himself; and, despairing of being justified by any
righteousness of your own, have you "submitted to the righteousness of God?"
(Rom. 10:3) Has your heart ever been brought to a deep conviction of this
important truth, that if ever you are saved at all, it must be through Christ;
that if ever God extends mercy to you at all, it must be for his sake; that if
ever you are fixed in the temple of God above, you must stand there as an
everlasting trophy of that victory which Christ has gained over the powers of
hell, who would otherwise have triumphed over you?
6. Our Lord says, "Look unto me, and be ye
saved." (Isai. 45:22) He says, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me."
(John 12:32) Have you looked to him as the only Savior, have you been drawn
unto him by that sacred magnet, the attracting influence of his dying love? Do
you know what it is to come to Christ, as a poor "weary and heavy laden sinner,
that you may find rest?" (Matt. 11:28) Do you know what it is, in a spiritual
sense, "to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man;" (John 6:53)
that is, to look upon Christ crucified as the great support or your soul, and
to feel a desire after bitterness as the appetite of nature after its necessary
food? Have you known what it is cordially to surrender yourself to Christ, as a
poor creature whom love has made his property? Have you committed your immortal
soul to him, that he may purify and save it; that he may govern it by the
dictates of his word and the influences of his Spirit; that be may use it for
his glory; that he may appoint it to what exercises and discipline he pleases,
while it dwells wells here in flesh; and that he may receive it at death, and
fix it among those spirits, who with perpetual songs of praise surround his
throne, and are his servants forever? Have you heartily consented to this? And
do you, on this account of the matter, renew your content! Do you renew it
deliberately and determinately, and feel your whole soul, as it were, saying
Amen, while you read this? If this be the case, then I can, with great
pleasure, give you, as it were, the right hand of fellowship, and salute and
embrace you as a sincere disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ; as One who is
delivered from the powers of darkness, and is "translated into the kingdom of
the Son of God." (Col. 1:13) I can then salute you in the Lord, as one to whom,
as a minister of Jesus, I am commissioned and charged to speak comfortably, and
tell you not that I absolve you from your sins, for it is a small mall matter
to be judged of man's judgment, but that the blessed God himself absolveth you:
that you are one to whom he hath said in his Gospel, and is continually saying,
"Your sins are forgiven you;" (Luke 7:48) therefore go in peace, and take the
comfort of it.
7. But if you are a stranger to these
experiences, and to this temper which I have now described, the great work is
yet undone: you are an impenitent and unbelieving sinner, and "the wrath of God
abideth on you." (John 3:36) However you may have been awakened- and alarmed,
whatever resolutions you may have formed for amending your life, how right
soever your notions may be, how pure soever your forms of worship, how ardent
soever your zeal, how severe soever your mortification, how humane soever your
temper, how inoffensive soever your life may be, I can speak no comfort to you.
Vain are all your religious hopes, if there has not been a cordial humiliation
before the presence of God for all your sins; if there has not been this avowed
war declared against every thing displeasing to God; if there has not been this
sense of your need of Christ, and of your ruin without him; if there has not
been this earnest application to him, this surrender of your soul into his
hands by faith, this renunciation of yourself, that you might fix on Him the
anchor of your hope: if there has not been this unreserved deification of
yourself, to be at all times, and in an respects, the faithful servant of God
through him; and if you do not with all this acknowledge, that you are an
unprofitable servant, who have no other expectations of acceptance or of pardon
but only through his righteousness and blood, and through the riches of divine
grace in Him; I repeat it to you again, that all your hopes are vain, and you
are "building on the sand." (Matt. 7:26) The house you have already raised must
ho thrown down to the ground, and the foundation be removed and laid anew, or
you, and all your hopes, will shortly be swept away with it, and buried under
it in everlasting ruin.
The soul submitting to Divine Examination the Sincerity of its Repentance and Faith.
