ページの画像
PDF
ePub

yet a sinful people, laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters that have forsaken the Lord provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger and are gone away backward.

Now this is the uniform character, and these are the universal features, of the Lord's family, in their natural, unawakened, and unregenerated state. And hence the Apostle says, God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine delivered unto you.

To this, I am very confident, you whose hearts are bowed down, with the sense of sin, will bear ample testimony, and that this corresponds to the state you were born in. And do not forget this one precious consideration, while subscribing to this doctrine, that as by virtue of this, you prove your relationship to the first Adam, it was to his fallen race, the promises of redemption, through the second Adam, was made. And as you manifest by nature, the stock from whence you sprung in generation, so by grace, you are equally enabled to prove your relationship by grace in regeneration.

Let us now examine the evidences under this feature of character also.

That

[ocr errors]

That you were once afar off, and enemies to God by wicked works, is a truth you will not be disposed to question. But that you are now. brought nigh, by the blood of Christ, is the point you fear to assume the confidence of believing. But only attend to those marks, and characters, by which the work of grace in the heart is known, and you will discover, that there are as plain traces to infer the one, as there were to be convinced of the other. The Lord himself indeed, gives the confirmation of it, by his servant the Prophet, and refers the gracious change, both to its source, and to its security. When I passed by and looked upon thee, behold this time was the time of love: yea I sware unto thee, and entered into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine. And what that covenant was, another Prophet was commissioned to shew: that God would not turn from his people to do them good but he would put his fear in their heart that they should not depart from him.

These Covenant impressions therefore, which you carry about with you, do as fully prove, the spots of God's children, as the former transgressions of your unregeneracy, manifest that you were once the servants of sin. Brother, examine them, one, by one, and you will find a coincidence in them to your own experience.

Do my

The

The Lord thy God (saith Moses) hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people: and thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God.

See then, whether you do not accept of God, in this covenant way of redemption, and expect mercy, and peace in no other. Is not God's salvation your desire; his covenant pardon, your most earnest pursuit to attain: the blood, merits, and righteousness, of the Lord Jesus your security; and the sweet influence of the Holy Ghost, your daily support? Are you not continually coming, as a poor, polluted creature to be cleansed; as a hungry thirsty, creature to be filled: and as a naked creature, to be clothed, with the robe of Jesus's righteousness? Is not David's language, yours; that altho' according to your wish it doth not grow; yet this everlasting covenant is all your salvation, and all your desire? you renounce every other, and cleave wholly to this?

The very method God hath appointed for redemption is the way you desire to be found in. God's choice, your choice: and his method,

yours.

These are precious evidences, my Brother, if you find them in your experience. For by these things men live and in all these things is the life of

the

the Spirit. And however small and inconsiderable they may appear to you; yet depend upon it, there is enough in the life of the humblest believer, in the review of grace in the heart, to cry out with the astonishment of one of old what hath God wrought!

Learn to live upon God's faithfulness, and his Covenant promises. Consider what hath been already done for you, in the everlasting love of the Father; the Redeemer's purchase and the blessed Spirit's quickening operations! Nay, the very evidences you possess this day, in preserving, influencing, reviving grace, is enough to make a man blush, in the consciousness of unbelief.

Yet a little while, and that blessed promise will be fulfilled. The rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord hath spoken it. Both the rebuke of sin, and sorrow: of temptation from without, and unbelief from within. God hath taken away the burthen of sin from his People, when he laid it on the Lord Jesus. And he will take away all the effects of it, when the process which it is intended to answer, shall be fully accomplished. But you will enter in the mean time, into a sweet, and gracious explanation, of a thousand trials, commissioned by infinite wisdom for your good; if you thus look, and

thus

thus learn, what the unbelieving and unawakened world, know nothing of. And the very fears with which you now cloud your own evidences, of divine favor, the Lord will graciously overrule, so as to make them minister, to the accomplishment of that comprehensive promise; that all things work together for good to them that love God; to them who are the called according to his purpose.

May the Lord, graciously dispose every heart present, to profit by our review of this subject. And while you, and I, are receiving such unanswerable evidences, that the Shiloh is còme may God add, that only remaining testimony, to crown the whole; by making it personal, to every one's experience; in bringing assurance to the Mind, that we are truly gathered unto him, as his people. That when he shall come again, to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe; we may hail his return, in the animated language of the Prophet; and say in that day, Lo! this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us this is the Lord we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

P

« 前へ次へ »