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CHARNOCK'S CHEERING WORDS FOR THE CHIEF OF SINNERS.

"CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD
TO SAVE SINNERS."

ON these words Stephen Charnock preached a most glorious sermon about two-hundred years since. It was useful then —it has been a blessing to many a poor sinner since—and we wish to give a few of its choicest sentences, in the hope that many a poor desponding soul may be helped to look again towards that Holy Temple where a Holy God reveals himself in mercy to pardon, and to welcome thousands of the fallen sons of Adam. The following sentences form but a small portion of Charnock's Gospel Sermon. So much has this discourse been blessed to us, and so confident are we that, in the hands of the Holy Ghost, it will be the means of helping many a poor sin-condemned, and law-smitten wretch unto Jesus Christ, that we have purposed to print and publish a very cheap and striking edition of this deeply excellent dis

course.

But to return to the sermon itself. Charnock having set out THE GREAT FACT that GOD IN CHRIST is most merciful to poor sinners, ne comes to the Instruction, and the Consolation to be drawn from this great, this heaven-born theme.

He says:

The use of this subject is,

1st. - Instruction. The doctrine manifests the power of the gospel. Nothing shews more the heavenly authority of the Christian religion, and the divine efficacy of the word, than the sudden conversions of notorious sinners. That a man should enter into a church a tiger, and return a lamb. It is this little stone which is instrumental to lay lusts more giant-like than Goliah, grovelling in the dust. That Paul, mad with rage against the Christians, should after an arrest in his journey embrace a religion he hated. A Pharisee changed into a preacher. A persecutor commence a

martyr. That one of eminent parts, in favour with the Sanhedrim, should fly from a preferment expected, and patronise a doctrine contemned in the world, and attended with poverty, misery, cruel scourgings, and death. Whenever you see such effects, take them as credentials from heaven, to maintain the credit of the word, and to assert the authority of that conculsion Paul lays down, that it is "the power of God unto salvation," Rom. i. 16. God gains a reputation to the Gospel, and the power of Christianity, that can in a moment change persons from beasts to men, from serpents to saints.

2. Groundlessness of despair. Despair not of others, when thou dost reflect upon thy own crimes, and considerest that God never dealt with a baser heart in the world than thine is. Was not Paul as unlike to prove a convert as any relation of thine that wallows in his blood? Who would have thought that Onesimus should run from his master, and be catched in Christ's arms? Neither despair of thyself. Shall any soul in anguish, and covered with penitential blushes, think itself cast out of the riches of God's affectionate grace? Shall any man so much blaspheme the merciful heart of Jesus Christ, as to fly to a knife, a halter, or a deep well for succour? Though thou wert in hell, David tells thee God, is with thee, even there in his essential presence; yea, though thou wert hell itself; for where the devil dwells that is hell; yet if the soul throbs, sighs, groans under it, his infinite grace will break down the door, and come in upon thee. And we know, that neither she that had seven devils, nor he that had a legion, were strong enough to keep out Christ.

2nd.-Comfort of this subject. If God has made thee, a great sinner, the object of his mercy, thou mayest be assured of 1, Continuance of his love. He pardoned thee when thou wert an enemy, will he leave thee now thou art his friend? He loved thee when thou hadst erased out in a great measure his image and picture, which he had set in thy soul; will he hate thee now, since he has restored that image, and drawn it with fresh colors? He justified thee when thou wert ungodly, and will he cast thee off, since he hath been at such pains about thee, and written in thee a counterpart of his own divine nature in the work of grace? Were his compassions first moved when thou hadst no grace? and will they not sound louder since thou hast grace? Would the father embrace

his son when his garments smelled of draff and swine? and will he cast him off after he hath put upon him a royal robe? Will Pharaoh's daughter pity Moses when he was in the ark? and will she scorn him when he is dressed?

2. Supplies of his grace. Thou hadst a rich present of his grace sent thee when thou couldst not pray for it; and will he not much more give thee whatsoever is needful when thou callest upon him? He was found of thee when thou didst not seek him, and will he hide himself from thee when thou art enquiring after him? A wise builder does not begin a work when he is not able to finish it. God considered before he began with thee, what charge thou wouldst stand him in, both of merit in Christ and grace in thee: so that the grace he hath given thee, is not only a mercy to thee, but an obligation on himself, since his credit is engaged to complete it. Thou hast more unanswerable arguments to plead before him than thou hadst, viz, his Son, his truth, his promise, his grace, his name, wherein thou hast not the least interest. To what purpose has God called thee, and marked thee, if he doth not intend to supply thee with as much grace as shall bring thee to glory? To what purpose should a creditor forgive part of a debt, and lay the debtor in prison for the other part? Has God given thee Christ? and will he detain any thing else? Supplies of wants, grants of any thing thou desirest, are but as a few grains of pepper that the grocer puts in as an overplus to many pounds.

3. Strength against corruptions. Can mole-hills stand against him who has levelled mountains? Can a few clouds withstand the melting fource of the sun, which has dissolved those black mists that overspread the face of the heavens? No more can the remainders of thy corruption bear head against his power, which has thrown down the great hills of the sins of thy natural condition, and has dissolved the thick fogs of thy unregeneracy. Thou canst neither doubt his strength nor his love; he has done the greatest, and wil he withdraw his hand from doing the least? When Moses slew the Egyptian, it is said that he "supposed his brethren would have understood how that God intended by his hand to deliver them ;" Acts vii. 25. Moses was a type of Christ: has Christ overthrown a whole arm of Egyptians, that did not only pursue thee, but kept thee in slavery? Has he overturned them all in the Red Sea ? and wilt thou not take notice thereby that he intends to be thy deliverer from the scattered troops of them?

Bible Lames and Bible Places.—Lo. 7.

congre

BEZALEEL, was the Son of Uri, of the tribe of Judah, Exod. xxxi. 2. The interpretation of the name is in the shadow of God. And it was his distinguishing mercy to realize this in his own soul, for we read that when the Lord spake to Moses, of the building of the Tabernacle, showing him the pattern thereof, and what should be the furniture thereof, that he said concerning this man, 66 see, I have called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship," &c. And this Bezaleel was the first and most honorable of the three, who were first called and instructed in the work, to work the curious, or the more beautiful and ornamental works of the tabernacle of the gation. Truly honorable was his occupation and his position, for he was working for the service of God, and instructed by the Spirit of God, and the Lord was with him and kept him, so that with a willing mind, and a wise and understanding heart, he began and finished all the work which the Lord, by the mouth of Moses, commanded him to do. And I have thought how glad must his heart have been as the work progressed and prospered in his hand, both in the liberality of the people, and in the skill and diligence of the workmen that were with him; for it is said that, "the people brought more than enough, and that the workmen made all according to the pattern which the Lord gave unto Moses;" so that when Moses looked upon the Tabernacle as it stood complete, with its altar raised, the anointing oil, and sweet incense, with all its holy furniture and its curtains stretched forth that He blessed the people. Ye ministers of the Lord Jesus, have ye not in your measure, experienced something of the holy joy which fired the heart of Moses, and the heart of Bezaleel, when the tabernacle of the congregation stood before them finished and complete, ready for the service of the Lord to be performed therein? Oh! surely some of ye can remember the time, when with hope and expectation, and perchance not without some misgivings ye laid the foundation stone of some of your houses of prayer, and when too the first song of praise and thanksgiving rose above the finished pile, cleft the nether and the upper skies, made its way to the throne of God, into whose nostrils it was as a sweet smelling savour, having been perfumed by the rich merits of Jesus, and wafted there on the wings of divine faith in His dear and precious name. And has there been nothing since to encourage you to persevere in your work and

labour of love? Nothing to make up for the falling away of friends which then crowded around you? Nothing to strengthen up the heart to push through the difficulties and oppositions which rise continually in your path? Has there been no seal set to your ministry? No soul gathered in as a reward for your toil? I appeal to your consciences, has there been no circumstance transpire to bring again to your remembrance, the holy and willing surrender of yourselves which ye made unto God in that auspicious day? Has there been no prayer answered which ye then put up? Do ye remember what ye then prayed for? have ye watched for the answer, and has not so much as one answer been vouchsafed? Let that one answer be taken as the earnest, that God will perfect all which concerneth you; that God hath hidden you in his shadow, that he hath instructed you by his Spirit.

But what is implied by a creature being hidden in the shadow of God? It implies that there are enemies and dangers to be encountered, and that that creature is weak, helpless, and insufficient in itself to combat with them, and on that account it needs a shadow, shelter, or defence against them; It implies also that God doth greatly love that creature, or he would not hide it, or shadow it, in himself.

Reader, art thou hidden in the shadow of God? dost thou feel thine own weakness and insufficiency, and art thou crying out, "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not?" Oh! it is fleeing to the Lord, that he might overshadow thee, and depend upon it he will cover thine head in the day of battle. Yes Christian thy God will cover thee, will overshadow thee all the time thou art engaged in the fight of faith, and the further thou advancest in the steep and often rugged path which leads to mount Zion, the more thou wilt find the need of him as thy perpetual shadow, and if thou hast travelled far in that road thou needest not that the writer should ransack her own experience, to show thee that the christian has enemies to stand against, and that in himself he hath no strength to stand; no, thine own heart will answer for thee, and say, I am the man that is easily beguiled and led astray, that have no strength to stand against so much as one foe, no power to resist so much as one temptation, no shelter in myself to hide in, in the burthen and heat of the day, no nook to shelter in when the war troops of my grand adversary, are marshalled, and sent forth by their malignant prince, in hue and cry after my soul. Up then, Oh! Christian, and flee to thy mountain; yes, daily, hourly flee thee, for depend upon it that Satan hath more poisonous and fiercer darts to hurl at thee, more deadly floods to cast out of his mouth after thee. Go then, and hide thee in the pavillion of God, that rich pavillion Jesus Christ the Lord. Oh! holy and

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