Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

vitals, and will prove mortal, if the blood of Christ be not applied as the only remedy in that case; nothing else will do. Slight thoughts of sin is the cause of all that neglect and contempt of Christ that is in the world: The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." (Matt. ix. 12.) It is a fatal symptom when the brain is affected, and the senses taken away; when the malignity of sin has quite stupified the conscience, and wrought a numbness and mortification, there is little hope of such an one. And thus it is with too, too many hardened, seared, senseless sinners, who think 'themselves safe, though they are at the brink of destruction; they bless themselves, and cry, Peace, peace," when the curse of God lies upon them. (Deut. xxix. 19, 20; Jer. vi. 14.)

66

3. Those who have never been tempted to unbelief, are destitute of saving faith:

But those who count it an easy matter to believe, were never sensible of any temptation to unbelief:

Ergo.

No man ever got over temptations to unbelief without difficulty. Unbelief has much to say for itself; and it will be sure to say all it can to hinder the soul from closing-in with Christ. When we come to set our faith against all the strong reasons that flesh and blood urge to the contrary, then tell me whether it be an easy matter to believe. Here comes-in all the trouble the saints meet with in their way to heaven. The sinking of their faith discourages them, and lets-in the strength of the enemy upon them: they overcome the world by faith; but if that fail, every thing is too hard for them; they stumble at every straw, who before could remove mountains, and make nothing of them. "All things are possible to him who believes ;" and every thing is next to impossible to him who believes not, is clouded and darkened in the apprehensions of his faith, is not under the clear evidence of things not seen; he must have good eyes who discerns things that are not seen.

4. He who is not much in prayer, much in the use of all means to increase and strengthen his faith, is destitute of saving faith :

But he who counts it an easy matter to believe, takes no pains this way, he can believe at any time: Then thou canst do that that flesh and blood never did, that no mortal man ever did in his own strength.

5. He who does not look upon a life of faith to be a careful, studious, laborious life, is destitute, &c. Faith hath new rules, counsels, and methods of living, that a man was never acquainted with before he meets with many scruples, doubts, and intricate cases, that put him to it, to find out the right way of pleasing God; for that is the great design of faith, to walk before God unto all wellpleasing. Faith lives in a continual fear of offending God, is very circumspect and watchful, lest it should take a wrong step. The saints are busied much in building-up themselves on their most holy faith; (Jude 20;) they know, all will run to ruin, if the spiritual building be neglected. It must be often viewed; we must see what is lacking in our faith, what repairs are necessary; care must be

taken that we fall not from our own steadfastness; when we begin to yield to a temptation, to move never so little from any point of truth formerly received, we may be quickly beside the foundation. Therefore be unmovable from the hope of the gospel. When once you begin to move from Christ, you know not whither you may be carried, as the Galatians were. (Gal. i. 6.) All this shows what a careful, laborious life a life of faith is.

QUESTION. "These may be convincing reasons to others, that those who count it an easy matter to believe, are destitute of saving faith; but how shall we fasten a conviction of unbelief upon the persons themselves, who count it an easy matter?"

ANSWER. Though we may not convince them, yet we may lay convincing arguments before them, that some time or other an awakened conscience may take notice of, and urge upon them, especially when they are not under any present urgent temptation to unbelief. A man may be convinced of a sin before the temptation, and yet castoff all his convictions under a temptation; because conscience is more disposed to judge impartially of the matter, when it is not biassed by any present temptation to the contrary. As Hazael: "What, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?' (2 Kings viii. 13.) Do you count me such a villain, such a wretch ?" And yet in an hour of temptation he acted-over all that wickedness. Though men may throw off all, and turn away from the light of their own consciences; yet it is good to furnish conscience with arguments beforehand, that may be produced in a fit season, if not to the conviction, yet to the silencing, of those who talked so fast before against all they were charged with. Though you cannot convince a man of this or that sin that you know he is guilty of, yet it is good to charge him home, and to lay convincing arguments before him, that may be of great use when conscience is at leisure to consider them; as it may be, and will be, when the temptation is ended. And let me add this: I do conceive it possible even by reason to convince a man of his unbelief, though not of the sin of unbelief; that is a further work, a special work of the Spirit. But you may by reason convince a man of unbelief; whether he do well or ill in not believing, that is another case; but that so it is, that he does not believe; such convincing evidences of this may be laid before him, that he cannot but own himself to be an unbeliever. I do not speak now of negative infidelity among Pagans, who never heard of the light of the gospel; this needs no proof; Heathens do own their infidelity, they openly profess it but I speak of positive, wilful unbelief, in those who live under gospel-light, and under an outward profession of faith too, yet really do not believe. They say they have faith, but have it not. How to find out such men, and to convince them of their unbelief; how to dig up this fox that is so deeply earthed under a specious profession of faith; this requires some skill; we shall find it difficult work: yet I conceive it may be done; they may be so narrowed up, that, unless they deny their sense and their reason, they must own their unbelief.

Though we cannot by reason bring men to believe, yet we may by

reason convince them of their unbelief. Here we offer nothing new or surprising to them; we only state the matter as it is in their own hearts, which they know to be so; we do but bring them to reason, to their own reason; we make them judges of themselves in a matter of fact, of their own doing: though they say they have faith, yet, being closely put to it, they must needs unsay that again; the evidence of the thing itself overthrows all they can say against it.

I would argue thus with them,

1. Let them, if they can, produce any of those fruits and effects of faith that are inseparable from it." What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." (James ii. 14-17.) To pretend to such an active principle as faith is, and yet do nothing by it, is very unreasonable. They say they have faith; they may as well say they have wings and can fly, though they cannot bear up themselves one inch from the ground, unless some part of the body rest upon it. Indeed, if a man's feet be upon the ground, all the other parts of the body may be erect; but for the whole body to carry all its weight upwards through the air, this is flying. It is equally absurd for men to say they have faith, are risen with Christ, are in an ascending posture, when they visibly rest upon the earth; nay, when they lie flat upon it, are sunk into it, covered all over with it, are, as it were, buried alive in their carnal affections. Men may say what they will, it is apparently otherwise: upwards and downwards cannot be so confounded, that one should be taken for the other; it is against common sense. Men may and must be convinced of this, that what is contrary to faith is not faith: "Faith without works is dead: (James ii. 26 :) were there any thing of the true nature, life, and spirit of faith in them, they could not carry it as they do.

[ocr errors]

They make faith an easy thing who make just nothing of it, and do nothing by it; nay, they do that which they might with far more colour of reason do, if they did not at all pretend to faith; but to say they believe in Christ, and yet act in a direct opposition to him, and to their own faith also, is that which no man in his wits would give credit to.

2. Let them try their skill in those indispensable acts of faith that Christ requires in all his followers." Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matt. xvi. 24, 25.) The reading of those words is enough to convince any considering man, that it is no easy matter to believe. That which is not easy to do, is not so easily believed.

3. Let them consider the mysterious points of faith, that are above our reason and do transcend our human capacities.—As the doctrine of

the Trinity, of the incarnation of Christ, of the resurrection, of justification by imputed righteousness. How have men stumbled at these things; could never come to any satisfaction in [them], by their own reason! And shall we say it is an easy matter to believe these things? They are stupidly ignorant of the mysteries of faith who say So. If this be easy, there is nothing hard or difficult in the world. OBJECTION. "How comes it to pass that any do believe?"

ANSWER. Because God puts forth his power in some, and not in others. There is not a greater instance of the power of God in the whole world than this, in bringing over the heart of sinner to believe in Christ. O"the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe!" (Eph. i. 19.) This is the undoubted experience of every true believer. You who know not how you came by your faith, but slid into it by custom, education, and long continuance under the means of grace, and have always counted it an easy thing to believe; let me tell you, you know not what it is to believe to this day. It is true, God makes it easy to believe; but so that we still see it impossible to believe without his help. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Phil. iv. 12.) "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal. ii. 20.) We may soar aloft when upon eagles' wings; we may move anywhere as we are carried; but all this while we know we are not the cause of our own motion; the spring of it is not in ourselves; acti agimus, "we act as we are acted; " the root bears us, not we the root; we feel Christ living in us; we live, because he lives in us. What we receive from another is ours when we receive it; but it is not from ourselves, because we receive it from another. God makes us so to work, in such a dependence upon him, that we see it is He that "worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Phil. ii. 13.) To ascribe the free acts of [our] own will to another, requires a humble mind, sensible of its own weakness, and of the secret ways of God's divine communications to his creature man, exactly suited to the rational nature of so free an agent as man is; the freedom of whose will is preserved under a constant dependence upon God in every thing he does. God that gave him this freedom, can cause him freely to act it as he pleases; otherwise man would not be a governable creature, if the natural freedom of his will did exempt him from a due subjection to God that made him; in which subjection he is as free, as he could be supposed to be, if left to himself to do what he list. A believer lists and wills what he does; and yet he does not do what he lists, but freely subjects his own will to the will of God, "whose service is perfect freedom." A saint keeps up the liberty of his will, by a voluntary obedience to the will of God; and this is his grace. Till our stubborn hearts are brought to this, they are, and will be, rebellious against God.

What I have said may be convincing to these easy believers, that they are void of true saving faith, unless they resolve not to be convinced; and though they do so resolve, yet they must be convinced, whether they will or no. Truth and reason, plainly proposed, never want a witness in the conscience of man, that will speak, some time or other, as the thing is.

SERMON IX.

BY THE REV. EDWARD VEAL, B.D.

OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD; AFTERWARDS SENIOR FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN.

WHAT IS THE DANGER OF A DEATH-BED REPENTANCE?

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.-Luke xxiii. 42.

We have, in this little history of the two thieves crucified with our Lord Jesus, a great instance both of man's wickedness, and of divine grace.

1. Of man's wickedness in both these thieves, who had spent all their time in sin, even to the last hour of their lives; but especially in the impenitent thief, whom neither bonds, nor trial, nor condemnation, had humbled or mollified, or brought to repentance; but, being still under the power of a hardened heart, we find him, at the last gasp, railing on a Saviour, instead of believing in him, and belching out his blasphemies in the very mouth of hell: "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us." (Verse 39.)

2. Of divine grace in the penitent thief.

First. Converting grace.—And that,

(1.) In the power and efficacy of it for how powerful must that grace needs be which had wrought so great a change; had suppled that heart in an instant which had been hardening in sin for so many years; overcome so many stubborn, inveterate lusts at once; and made the man all on a sudden commence one of the most eminent saints the world had ever yet had, and act faith to such a height, as might not only have become the chiefest of the apostles, but did really exceed any they had hitherto shown! The disciples of Christ, who had sat so long at their Master's feet, yet were hardly induced to believe his resurrection, even after he was risen; (Luke xxiv. 25;) when this thief, who hitherto had been a stranger to him, and now saw him hanging on a cross and dying, yet by faith sees him in his kingdom, triumphing over his cross and death too.

(2.) In the freeness of it; for,

(i.) God's grace did not wait for his preparations, good moods, good dispositions; (these were all over, if ever he had any;) but it takes hold of him when at the height of sin, and not only was void of grace, but seemed past grace, that is, never likely to come to it by any ordinary methods.

(ii.) It seized on him, and passed-by the other, though no worse (that we know of) than himself. Grace makes a difference where none was before of these two, in the like case, it takes one and leaves the other.

:

« ForrigeFortsæt »