Page images
PDF
EPUB

•》་》ར་་ར་་

which configns me over to thefe doleful regions of everlasting mifery, where the worm dieth not, where the fire which confumes me is never to be quenched! Thofe happy fouls, whofe lives of penitence, piety and devotion on earth I counted madness, are now numbered with the faints, and enjoy the blifs of heaven, while I am for ever excluded! I now find to my coft that the wages of fin is death. I am loft, loft for ever. Destruction is come upon me from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."

[ocr errors]

Perhaps fome into whofe hands these papers may fall, may be conscious within themselves that they have been hitherto indifferent about the favour of God. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we would gladly perfuade such to take this fubject into ferious confideration. It is not a vain thing, a concern of little moment; it is for your life; as it is only in the divine favour that life is to be enjoyed. How fhall ye escape eternal death, if ye neglect the messages of falvation! Perhaps your language, your behaviour, your whole converfation, and even your confcience bear witnefs against you, that you are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.

Permit me to ask you, Are your cares, your hopes, your fears, your exercises of mind employed about peace and friendship with God, through Jefus

Chrift?

Chrift? Do you seriously examine yourself whether you be in the faith? Can you, like the Pfalmist, address your Maker with fincerity, and fay, "I entreated thy favour with my whole heart; be merciful unto me according to thy word." Are your waking thoughts much employed about this greatest of all concerns? What the Almighty once faid concerning the Jews, deferves particular notice. “ My people would not hearken to my voice, and Ifrael would none of me." They valued not my friendfhip or favour. " So I gave them up unto their own hearts luft; and they walked in their own counfels." It is a dreadful judgment, when finners are left to themselves, to fill up the measure of their iniquity, and to perish in their own deceivings. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone."-It will be feen what his end will be; what efforts he can use to secure his heart from terror, and his foul from torment, in the day of awful vifitation.Where will he then flee for help, and where will he leave his glory? I will laugh at his calamity, and mock when his fear cometh. Then shall he call upon me, but I will not anfwer; for that he hated knowledge, and did not chuse the fear of the Lord; he would none of my counfel, he defpifed all my reproof.

66

I

[ocr errors]

I might, in the last place, address myself to those, who not only difregard the favour of God themfelves, but diflike and even perfecute the men who profess their humble hope of intereft in it. But I know there is little profpect of gaining the attention of such persons, or of convincing them of the evil of their doings. They, who are in the flesh, have, in all ages, been disposed, more or lefs, to persecute those who are in the fpirit. They hate a man for his love to God, and ridicule him for his piety and devotion. When Stephen the martyr said, I fee the heavens opened, and Jefus ftanding at the right hand of God, the frantic Jews, with fatanic rage, exclaimed against him, ftopped their ears, ran upon him like madmen, and ftoned him to death.

Those who make it the business of their lives to feek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, to pursue with becoming ardour the one thing needful, and to give diligence to make their calling and election fure, are often branded with the name of hypocrites or enthufiafts. What Jefus faid to his difciples is found to be true, "Ye fhall be hated of all men for my name's fake. Men fhall revile you, and perfecute you, and say all manner of evil against you; but rejoice ye in that day, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven;

for

.....ཆུང་བ་

for fo perfecuted they the prophets which were before you."

Men of a perfecuting spirit fhould beware left they be found fighting against God. It is awful, not only to be regardless of the divine favour themfelves, but to take up arms against all those who are feeking to know their own perfonal intereft in it. Let fuch confider what the gracious Redeemer faid to Saul of Tarfus, Saul, Saul, why perfecuteft thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads." Our divine Master will take the part of his fervants, and vindicate their cause against all their opposers.

66

Lord, my wild paffions rage within,
Nor thy commands obey;

And flesh and sense, enflav'd by fin,
Draw my best thoughts away.

Do thou create my foul anew,

Conform my heart to thine,
Melt down my will, and let it flow,
And take the mould divine.

Seize my whole frame by thine own hand,

My pow'rs to thee I bring;

Manage the wheels by thy command,

And govern ev'ry spring.

CHAP.

རྒྱ་ཐོར་རས

CHAP X.

The Subject improved by Way of Conviction to the real Children of God.

HAVING, in the preceding chapter, addressed those who are in a ftate of unregeneracy, I fhall now turn myself to fuch as have been called by divine grace, out of darkness into the marvellous light of the gofpel. Thefe are in a flate of reconciliation and friendship with God; they have tafted that the Lord is gracious, and can bear witnefs, by their own experience, that a fenfe of the favour of God is a privilege which may be enjoyed. Yet, as they have within them the depravity of nature, and are prone to go aftray from the path of rectitude, it may be neceffary to attempt fome improvement of the fubject by way of conviction to them. The word of God is profitable, not only for doctrine, but for reproof, for correction, and for inftruction in righteoufnefs.

It is poffible for you, my dear friends, to undervalue the privilege of friendship with your Maker. His favour certainly ought to be esteemed by you, at all times, above every thing else that can be thought of. You should have fuch a lively sense of N

No. VIII. 2.

its

« PreviousContinue »