Page images
PDF
EPUB

fear. God has vailed his throne in the heavens, he fpreads his cloud upon it, Job xxvi. 9. This is the common benefit of mankind upon this earth. But the faints have another ground of confolation in the text; and that is the death of Chrift, wherein we behold God incarnate, God made flesh, God in our nature. Can ye not look straight forward to divine majesty, then fetch a compass, and look through the vail of the flesh of Chrift, and for ye may fee God, and not die. "Often and willingly," faid Luther, "would I thus look at God."

2. Sin is another fountain of fear; finfulness confidered with the nature of God. Here the finner firft fees guilt in himself, and juftice in God, which two together make a very frightful fpectacle. It is the nature of guilt to bind over to punishment, and of juftice to inflict it; fo that guilt is a great fource of fears. But fear not, O Chriftian; Chrift was dead, and is alive for evermore; therefore the guilt that exposes to hell-fire is done away. Thou mayeft indeed be guilty, fo as to bring upon thee fatherly chaftisements for your amendment, but thou art not liable to eternal plagues. You may plead not guilty to the charges of the law as a covenant of works: "For if God be for us, who can be against us ?" Rom. viii. 31. Upon the cross there were two crucified, the Son of God, and the law of God. But the Son of God, by his becoming dead, bruised to death the law as a covenant of works, in refpect of believers. He took it out of the way, nailing it to his crofs, Coloff. ii. 14. Therefore the law, our first hufband, being dead, our relation to it is diffolved, and we are legally married to Chrift, who was raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Juftice is fatisfied. No flaming fword stands any more to guard the tree of life,

The

The storm hath exhausted itself upon Christ; fear not, but come forward. He died in our room. Justice exacted, and he answered. Fear not old accounts, for God fpared not his own Son. A thousand may fall at thy fide, and ten thoufand at thy right-hand, by the ftroke of juftice, but it fhall not come nigh thee. Do ye doubt the completenefs of the fatisfaction? 'Behold Christ in heaven, with the complete discharge in his hand. He is out of prison. He brought the keys with him, and is now on the throne. Everlafting righteoufnefs is brought in, and it is put on thee by him. He is made of God unto you righteousness. Your own is only filthy rags; but that which is imputed unto you will abide the judgement of God, and endure for ever.-But

3. The finner fees pollution in himself, and holinefs in God. When they behold the fpotlefs purity of God, and themfelves as an unclean thing, they are ready to fay, O will God look on vile me? will thefe pure eyes caft a favourable glance on such a dunghill-worm? Fear not, Chrift was dead, and is alive. He is made of God unto you fanctification. Thou haft fome grace amidft a heap of corruptions. Though thou feeft not what a luftre this cafts within thee, yet God fees it: "The king's daughter is all glorious within," Pfal. xlv. 13. But look to your outer garments, which are of wrought gold, they will hide all your deformities. Though you are, in refpect of inherent grace, but fair as the moon, yet your imputed righteousness is clear as the fun.-To this fome may object, "I am guilty of grofs fins, and that even fince the Lord began to deal with me." Fear not, Chrift died; and if fo, God died for your fins, If he was God who died, when he was pouring out his blood, he knew all the fins you would be

guilty of, even after your converfion. He did not fhed his blood in vain, and therefore in his death he had even these in his view; and will not the blood of God be able to expiate the groffeft fins? It cleanfeth from all fin. Remember alfo, he is alive evermore to intercede for you: "If any man fin, we have an Advocate with the Father," John ii. 1. If his blood was fufficient for expiation, his interceffion cannot but be prevalent." But I may fay, I fin evermore, and that breaks my foul." Fear not, Chrift lives evermore; and, if ye believe the apostle, it is to make interceffion for you. If Chrift lives evermore, ye fhall not fin evermore : For he will not thus live alone without you; where he is, there you shall be also, John xvii. 24.—" But the fin of my nature lies nearest my heart: I am just a lump of hell, and a mass of fin. Acts of fin are tranfient, but this is permanent, and I cannot be freed of it." Fear not: Chrift died, and therefore, though it may make your way to heaven difficult, yet ye fhall never be condemned for it. Nay, good news, O believer! with the death of Christ fin got a fatal wound: Your old man was crucified with him, that the body of fin might be destroyed, Rom. vi. 6. You wonder it is so troublefome; but why do ye do fo? The old man is mortally wounded; and can you think he will groan out his life in filence, and not move a tongue against Christ? But as furely as Chrift came not down from the cross till he breathed out his laft, fo furely fhall the body of death in you be deftroyed.

3. Defertions are a caufe of fears. The deferted foul is an affrighted foul.-Say fome," Chrift is withdrawn from me: My fun has gone down : Nothing now but darkness and confufion: I can fee no evidences of the Lord's love to me: I may fay as Job, ch. xxiii. 8. 9. " I go forward and back

ward,

ward, but I cannot perceive him." But fear not, Chriftian; it has been, and it will be, better with you: Good news to you in your low ftate, Chrift died, and in his death he was forfaken of God; and yet he now enjoys the bofom of the Father, and the light of his countenance. Who would

not be content to follow Chrift, even through the valley of the shadow of death? Ye pray, and it feems ye are not heard; fo it was with Chrift: "O my God," said he, " thou hearest not," Pfal. xxii. 2. But though your Hufband be far off, though you cannot fee him, yet he is not dead, he is alive; and if alive, he will come again, for he hateth putting away. Though ye seem to be out of fight, yet ye are not out of mind; he liveth evermore. Zion's account of Chrift under a fit of defertion, is not canonical, it is not orthodox, Ifa. xlix. 14.-16. "But Zion faid, The Lord hath forfaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her fucking child, that the should not have compaffion on the fon of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me.”

To this the objection may be proposed, "But how can I endure to want the joys I have fometimes had, and thefe bleffed confolations ?" Anfwer, Truft in God, and have refpect to the recompence of the reward of grace. Will you difquiet yourselves because there is not a fecond fummer in one year? Blefs God that helps you to the fight in any measure; wait patiently for his comforts, and be conftantly at your work.-Again, fay others, "Were there no more in my cafe, I might keep heart; but I am under dreadful apprehenfions of wrath, and there are positive outgoings of God's anger againft my foul, as Job vi. 4. "The VOL. I. C

arrows

arrows of the Almighty are within me." Here, I confefs, it is hard to ftand, and not to fall down at his feet as dead. Yet we must say, Fear not; for Christ was dead, and the wrath of God was poured out into his foul, which melted his heart like wax in the midst of his bowels: Yet he swam through this ocean. Now, that he is alive, is a pledge that ye fhall not drown: For, fays he, " because I live, ye fhall live alfo."

It was one of the ends of Christ's death, to deliver you and the like of you, Heb. ii. 15. "And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime fubject to bondage. You are mistaken, if you think the arrows are dipped in deadly poifon; for Christ was dead, and is alive, and the poison of these arrows entered into his foul in full measure, and he drank it up, Gal. iii. 13. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curfe of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Curfed is every one that hangeth on a tree." They will wound very fore, though there be no poifon, no curfe in them. Your cloud has a white fide, if ye could difcern it; only believe, and ye fhall be eftablished. This is the heat of the battle with you. Keep hold of the death of Chrift as your fhield that will defend you. Look not on God, but through the veil of the flesh of Jefus. Dry ftubble may be fafe, if there be a ftrong cryftalwall between it and the fire. Does God appear as a confuming fire? Chrift is the cryftal-wall: fet him betwixt you and an angry God. The light of that fire will thine through him to refresh you, but it will not burn through him. It has been often tried; he is ftill alive, and ye fhall live also.

4. Temptations are a fource of fears. Sometimes Satan gets leave to dog faints at their heels. With what horrid temptations poor fouls may be haraffed,

« PreviousContinue »