"They profess to believe, but by their works they deny him." I do not understand you, Mamma. Suppose, my child, you were to see paradise, and God in paradise, surrounded by glorious angels, where infinite beauty and majestic grandeur feast the eye; where one cloudless day reigns in eternal light; where neither night nor darkness intervenes; where neither pain, sense of heat nor cold, neither sorrow, fear, or alarm ; where there is neither desire, hope, nor care; where there is neither hatred, malice, anger, lust, jealously, or revenge; where are love, joy, and peace unspeakable; where is no limit to a heaven of everlasting happiness in the bosom of God; where are the harp, the timbrel, and the soft, delicious sounds of heavenly music; and where the Son of God reigns, our Lord of Hosts and glorious king. On the other hand, suppose, my love, you saw men committing murder, others full of malice, stabbing your reputation and your peace; in the midst of plenty, an awful visitation of distress; in the height of health, an attack of sallow, lingering sickness; in the midst of tender ties of friends, love, and affection of children and of parents, the gasp, the convulsive gasp of death breaking that union in a moment and for ever; in the hour of purity, dispair; in hope, horror; in fortune, poverty; in youth, death; in age, penury, faithless intimates, undutiful children, decrepitude, and heart-pining sorrow; labour without fruit, and fruit without appetite; wealth without health, and health without wealth; health and wealth with an evil disposition, discarded and shunned. Now let me imagine, my child, that you saw these two places; seeing them you would believe. O, yes, Mamma. And if God said, There is heaven, and there is the world, which will you receive? Heaven, Mamma. Then, my love, when you answer heaven, you have faith, and that faith is your sight.. But, Mamma, who has seen God and these things.? No one, my child, on earth. Then how am I to have faith to see ? By coming to the fountain, my child, and receiving the Holy Spirit. This works upon the heart: that you believe from your own feelings that there must be a God, and you believe from a conviction impressed by God, when you retire into your room from an understanding to know him, and then you begin to read the holy Scriptures, and with an immediate comprehension of the truth therein set forth, the Spirit worketh in you repentance, and works meet for repentance; and you read of all the things I have described to you with a humble and a contrite spirit, and see by faith, (which to our worldly eyes are invisible,) all the things of God; and seeing them, you believe, and earnestly seek them; you abhor sin; your works are pure and holy, and you do not live under the dominion of sin: but these are not your works, my love, since it was God that impressed you with this belief, and furnished you with a disposition to do good: for of ourselves we can do nothing but sin, because we were born in sin; therefore it is said, not by works are we justified, but by faith, which is the righteousness of God. So it is the power of God in us, my love, or the Spirit working in us, which causes us to produce the fruits of the Spirit, as I have already mentioned; and we are then said to be the temple of God, because God is in us, and we in Him: and this is spiritual Zion, my child, which I have before described. And what is the third office of God, Mamma? Having risen from the dead, my child, he is now sitting on the right hand of God in the form of man: and as Aaron on earth was the high priest to whom the children of Israel, you will remember, my child, were in the habit of taking their offerings, through whom they were presented to God, who pleaded with God, earnestly beseeching Him to ac cept the sin offerings to atone for their sins, and to pardon them. So is the Son of God become an high priest, to whom we take our offerings in our prayers, and he implores God for us, and earnestly mediates with him for our forgiveness. Thus Aaron was a type of our glorious Mediator. And, Mamma, do all men now apply? O no, my child, there are people who live in the world, as they say,honestly and upright, and who neither swear nor blaspheme; who attend church, and the external forms of worship; who are called moral men: these people do not consider the pride of their hearts, their furious passions, their covetuousness, their envy and malice, and therefore do not feel need of application. Others again are mild and gentle, who have not committed any gross sins; but at the same time, have sins of the heart. These people, I regret to say, are often in more danger than gross sinners; for they live in self-confident security that they have done no evil, and have no occassion for God's redeeming blood; and therefore do not apply; whereas desperate sinners often cry for mercy, and are saved; consequently the Scriptures say, "Moreover, the law entered that the of fence might abound," because the holy law taught us our unholiness; "and where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." "In whom was the greatest, there was more of the Holy Spirit." What, Mamma! "may we continue and increase in sin, that grace may abound?" "God fordid," says the Scriptures, my love: it meahs, that the greater the sinner, the greater appears to him the necessity of coming to God, prostrate and trembling, for forgiveness. Now the fountain is open to all; so surely grace must abound, when it is given to such wicked sinners; for God has said in the Scripture, "Him who cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out :" and it is more likely that a wicked sinner will run to the fountain, and receive this inestimable grace, than one who thinks he is holy in himself. But he who sins that grace may abound, will never receive grace, but will share the same fate as the self-righteous, by going to eternal destruction. And you said, dear Mamma, that the Jews believed that the Messiah would come, when the prophets said he was coming? O yes, my love; for they believed he would come in such greatness, that it quite suited their proud, vain hearts. What did the prophet say of him Mamma? |