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trary to the Improvement you ought to make of it.

I begin with the first of these, and fhall endea vour to convince you, that Man is indeed in fuch a loft and helpless State, that he lies at mere Mercy, and cannot bring himself into a Claim to the divine Favour, by any Power or Ability of his · own.-I fhall not run into the fcholaftic Contraverfies and tubtile Diftinctions, with which this Doctrine has been clouded by many of our wrangling Difputers; but shall endeavour to fet it in the moft plain, eafy, and practical Light, that I am able.

I think you must readily grant, that you cannot make an Atonement for your Sins, by any Performances within your Power.-You are, Sir, to confider yourself as a Sinner, as a Criminal and Delinquent in the Sight of God.-Your Nature is corrupt and defiled.-Your actual Tranfgreffions of the Law of God have been very numerous, and perhaps fome of them attended with fpecial Aggravations. All your Sins are directly repugnant to the Perfections of the divine Nature, and confequently offenfive to a pure and holy God. And what greatly increases the Difficulty and Danger of your Cafe is, that you are still continuing to act contrary to God in all you do, while your Nature is unrenewed; and while you are without a Principle of Love to God. (I am fure you will pardon this Freedom, for it is neceffary you should know the Disease, in order to the Cure.)-Judge then, yourself, whether it can be fuppofed, that an omnifcient, Heart-fearching God can be pleafed with any, even the most devout of your overt Actions, when he knows that your Heart is estranged from him, and your Nature has no Conformity to him, but your Affections are glewed to your several Idols.. -How then can you be reconciled to God, by virtue of your own Performances and Attain

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ments? Can you pay ten thousand Talents with lefs than nothing?- -Can you please God by offending him, as you do by the Obliquity of all your Duties, the Defects of your best Devotions, and the finful Affections from whence they all flow?

Or can you have thofe unworthy Thoughts of an infinite unchangeable God, as to hope you can make fuch Impreffions upon his Affections, by acknowledging your Offences, and imploring his Mercy, as to excite his Compaffion and Sympathy; and to make your impure and unholy Nature agree able to his infinite Purity and Holinefs?-Can your infincere and hypocritical Duties (for fuch they are all at beft, while they proceed from an unfanctified Heart) bring the glorious God to take Complacency in what is directly contrary to his own Nature?

You cannot but fee, that these Propofals are most unreasonable and abfurd. One of thefe® Things must certainly be true; either firft, that you have naturally, whilft in an unrenewed State, a Principle of Holiness and Love to God: Or fecondly, that Works flowing from an impure Fountain, and from a Principle of Oppofition and Alienation to God, are yet pleafing to God, will serve to appease him, and will intitle you to his Favour: Or thirdly, that you cannot, by any Thing you do, have a Claim to God's Favour, until your Nature is renewed, and you can act from a Principle of Holinefs and Love to God. I think every Man's Experience will confute the first of thefe, who gives any Attention at all to the natural Difpofitions of his own Soul: The Second is altogether inconfiftent both with the Nature of Things, and with the Nature of an infinitely pure and holy God: And therefore the third is neceffarily true. It won't at all help the Cafe to alledge, in Bar of what is here said, that Chrift Jefus has made an Atone

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ment for us. For what is that to you, while you Did Chrift remain without an Intereft in him?

purchase for you a Capacity to make an Atonement for yourself? Did he die, that God might be pleafed with what is contrary to his own Nature, and pacified with fuch Duties as can be no better than impure Streams from a corrupt Fountain ?

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Let Reafon fit Judge in the Cafe before us, and you must allow your Cafe to be as I have defcribed it. And it is equally evident, that you have no Power to change your own Heart, and to produce in yourself a new Principle of Love to God, and Conformity to him, by any Endeavours of your It is vifible, from what has been already faid, that our Hearts and Affections must be renewed and fanctified, before either our Perfons or Services can be acceptable in the Sight of God: And which Way can this be compaffed? If you take up Refolutions, thefe will no longer ftand you in Stead than the Principle of Fear, from which they proceed is kept in Act. If you execute thefe Refolutions in fome external Reformations, this is but lopping off the Branches, while the Stock and the Root of the Tree are (till alive, the Affections and Difpofitions of the Soul being ftili the fame.If by Fear, or other selfish Motives, you fomething reftrain the prefent more fenfible Exercife of your finful Appetites or Pasions, this is but damming up the Stream, and forcing it into another Channel; pull down the Dam, and it will Certain it is, that everun where it did before.ry Man naturally loves the World, and the Things of the World, the Objects of his fenfual Appetites; and loves his Lufts and Idols more than God: And it is equally certain, that whatever Reftraints he may fometimes put upon thefe Difpofitions, an om

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nifcient Eye beholds the fame Principle in him notwithstanding; and confequently he can never pleafe God, till there be in this Refpect a real and thorough Change wrought in all the Powers of his Soul: fuch a Change as the Scriptures defcribe by a Tranflation from Darkness unto Light, from Death to Life, and from the Power of Satan unto God.And to fuppofe, that any but he who first gave Bing to our Souls, can give them a new Being, in all spiritual or moral Kefpects, and make their Difpofitions, Appetites, Paffions, Contemplations, Defires and Delights, not only differing from, but directly and lastingly contrary to what they were, is to afcribe to the Creature what is the peculiar Property and Prerogative of the glorious God himself.

-Do you, Sir, but make the Trial, and you will find, after all your Endeavours, that the Violation of your Promises and Refolutions, the Deadnefs and Hypocrify of your Duties, the Prevalence of your Sins, and the continued Eftrangement of your Affections from God and Godliness, will give you more fenfible Conviction, than any Methods of Reasoning can do, that there is a greater Power needful than your own, to make you a new Creature.

It must therefore neceffarily follow, that there is nothing you are able to do can give you a Claim to the renewing Influences of the Holy Spirit.

If any Thing you can do can give you a Claim to the renewing and fanctifying Influences of the divine Grace, your Claim must be either from Merit, or Promife.--Not of Merit; when you cannot of yourself so much as leave off finning, and hereby running further into Debt to the Juffice of God; and this, even in and by the best of your Duties; your highest Attainments therefore can merit nothing but the divine Difplea fure.-Not of Promile;

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for where, I beseech you, has God promised to reward your Infincerity with his faving Mercy? And how vain are all Pretences to ferve God fincerely, where there is not one Grain of true Holinefs in the Heart? Whatever moral Honefty Men in a State of Nature may boast of, it is all but spiritual Hypocrify in the Sight of a Heart-fearching God, and can bring none under the Promife, which is made to Faith unfeigned, the only Simplicity and godly Sincerity in the Account of the Gospel.

But I return to confider your Objection more diftinctly." The Scriptures, you tell me, pro"mise, that he who feeks fhall find.”. -But, Sir, do not the Scriptures alfo inform us, that many Shall feek to enter in at the ftrait Gate, and fhall not be able; that fome ask and receive not, becaufe they ask amifs: And that he who does not ask in Faith, nothing wavering, must not think he shall receive any Thing of the Lord?There is indeed a Promise to him who feeks in Faith and Sincerity: But what Claim can he have to that Promife, who has neither true Faith nor Sincerity? -Will mocking God, and flattering him with your Lips, while your Heart is eftranged from him, intitle you to the Promife?

But you fay," All our Divines tell us, that the "moft finful and unworthy may have Access to "God through Chrift; and this is the Purport of "all my reasoning with you."-True, by Faith in Chrift they may: But God is a confuming Fire to Unbelievers. He that believeth not is condemned already.What Claim therefore can they have to the Favour of God upon Chrift's Account, who have never received him by Faith; and confequently have no Interest in him, nor in any of his

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