Confidence in Good Estate

It is easy for a hypocrite to deceive himself with “false hopes and carnal presumptions.” You may be strongly persuaded that you are a Christian; but this persuasion does not make you so. You may cherish the most unwavering confidence of your personal interest in the great salvation; while you have no part nor lot in this matter.

The confidence of a man’s own good estate is attained in different ways. Both the confidence itself and the mode of attaining it are often scriptural. A man may be persuaded that he is a Christian, because he has reason to believe, that he possesses the Spirit of Christ. Hereby know we, that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit, A man may be persuaded that he is a child of God, because he discerns in himself those graces that are peculiar to the childlike character. He may have received the spirit of adoption, nhereby he cries Abba, Father. The spirit itself sailh the apostle, beareth 7i itness with our sjniit, that jve are the children of God, A persuasion arising from such evidence, is well grounded. Such a persuasion cannot be too confident. It not only may, but ought to rise to the full assurance of hope. It did in Job. know, saith he, that my Redeemer liveth; and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my Jiesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. It did in David. As Jot me, Irvill behold thy face in righteousness J I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness. It did in Asaph. Thou shall guide me, saith he, with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. It did in the Apostle. I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, The comfortable assurance of believers enables them both to glorify and enjoy the Ever-Blessed God. It is as honourable to God to trust in his grace, as to submit to his authority. When the hopes of believers are low and languishing, they know not how deep the shade they cast on the lustre of divine foro’iveness; how much they detract from the glory of the cross. The want of a cheerful hope, an humble reliance on the mercy of God, cannot fail to unman the most unwavering firmness, and unnerve the most vigorous exertion. For those who have the witness of their good estate within them, to sink down into a state of darkness, that ends in the gloom of solitude and inactivity, is sin. Many a good man, by having unhappily imbibed mistaken views of this subject, has rendered himself a mere cypher in the church, and a stumbling-block to those who are out of it. Real Christians need not be afraid to cherish the full assurance of hope. There is something wrong in the state of that soul that refuses to he comforted. It is the duty of believers to make their calling and election sure. Assurance ought always to exist, and to be supported by corresponding testimony.

But this is not the vain confidence to which I allude in this essay. It bears no alliance to the presumption of the hypocrite and the self-deceived. There is a confidence which is obtained without the aid of God’s Spirit, and cherished without the evidence of his Word.

Some rest this i)resumption on an unwarrantable notion which they entertain of the mercy of God, They are in the habit of viewing it as a general, indefinite, undistinguishing attribute. They imagine, that because God is declared to be no respecter of persons. He exercises His mercy indiscriminately. They view Him as a being so fondly attached to the interest of His creatures, as to pardon them without reference to the terms of the Gospel, and save them without regard either to their own moral character, to the honour of His law, or to the well-being of His kingdom. They rely on no promise; they rest on no covenant. They are satisfied with the thought, that God is merciful! They rest on the phantom, “iincovenantcd mercy ‘^ Tell them that they are sinners; and they tell you, that God is not strict to mark iniquity. Tell them that they have incurred the penalty of a righteous law, and deserve to die; and they tell you, that they have never “done any harm;” and if they have, a merciful God will forgive them. God is too good to send them to hell! It cannot be that He will cast them off* for ever!

This is the subterfuge of thousands; the miserable hiding place that must be overiiown, when the billows of divine wrath beat upon this falling

50 Conjidenee in good Estate

world. It is the fatal rock on which thousands have split. How many impenitent, Christless sinners have rested here for eternity! How many have I seen on a dying bed, who had not a spark of vital religion, who still indulged the hope that God was too merciful to damn them! My heart bleeds when I think of it. Why do men forget, ihat God is as just and as holy as He is gracious? All His perfections must be glorified. We cantiot be saved at the expense of one of them. God regards His own glory and the interests of His kingdom more then every thing else. To these every thing must bow. If He were not too holy; too just; nay, too good; to admit a totally depraved being into His kingdom, that kingdoin would fall. Unholy men must be excluded from heaven, because they are not fit for it. To exclude them is a part of that benevolent design, which is to make, on the whole, the most happy universe. God has the same benevolent motive for excluding the unholy from the heavenly state, that He has for admitting the holy. Yes, we hesitate not to say, that the benevolent God is too good to admit one unsanctified soul into the pure regions of the blessed. He has too great a regard for the honour of His character, and for the excellence of His law; He loves the angelic host too well;

He loves his people, He loves His Son too well; ever to permit the song of the redeemed to feel the jar of one iinlial lowed tongue. The very thought is reproachful to his glory. No sin is there. The light of heaven shall never be darkened even by the shadow of death. The designs of infinite benevolence, shall never be frustrated by the introduction of one unholy being into the kingdom of God. Where, O where, is the delusion of the miserable self-deceiver, when justice exacts the uttermost farthing!

Others attain this persuasion, in a manner still different. Th(ly have been taught that mere reformation and morality will not save them; and they are equally convinced that the form of religion will not save them. They see the necessity of possessing the real spirit of religion; and they begin to seek after it till they are weary of the search. They become awakened to a sense of their danger, convinced of their ill desert, and are thrown into some distress. But at length, through the influence of their own imaginations, or the artful devices of the Old Serpent, they are inspired with hope, and filled with joy. Some enrapturing vision has discovered to their view the Saviour extended un the ci oss. Soint fancied messenger has announced, that their sini are forgiven, and that God is their reconciled Father. Some text of scriptme, unsought, unexpected, and fatally misapplied, has whispered peace to the troubled conscience, and their souls are filled with raptures of joy. They imagine themselves almost ravished with a view of Christ’s unutterable love, and with a view of it to them in particidar. They begin to mourn and lament over their sins, though not after a godlij sort. They feel a kind of spurious sorrow, that they have ever hated so gracious and merciful a being as God. They have been abandoned to the delusion, that their opposition to so kind and gracious being, has been owing to some misapprehension of His character. Once they viewed Him as an “absolute God;” as a God who Wasangri, with the wicked, and angry with them. They viewed Him as their enemy, and dreaded the tokens of his displeasure. But now they view His character in altogether a different light. They see that God is love. They are persuaded that He loves them. They are persuaded, that He has pardoned their sins, and that it his good pleasure to give them the kingdom. Now all their enmity is slain. They feel reconciled to God, because they believe God is reconciled to them. Under the influence of this pleasinii; deception, they now befijin to be happy. Religion absorbs all their attention; and the relisjion of the heart is what they think they admire and love. They are full of gratitude; full of peace and joy in believing that Christ died for them in particular. This persuasion of Christ’s love to them, now constraineth them, and they imagine that they glori, in nothing, save the cross of Christ, They think they are ready to do any thing, and to suffer any thing for Christ’s sake. The spirit of delusion runs high. They manifest for a while the greatest apparent zeal and engagedness. They cannot but glory ill him, who has died/or them, and who will finally advance them to endless blessedness in the kingdom of his Father.

All this is “rotten at the core.” However closely it may resemble the holy gratitude of God’s people, it is but the counterfeit of that heavenly grace. It is purely selfish. It is mere mercenary religion. The Spirit of God has nothing to do with the root of it, nor the law of God with its fruits. There is not perhaps any error more common and more fatal amons: the serious part of mankind than this. This is the yvy religion that is agreeable to the feelings of

54 Confidence in good Kstatt*

the carnal heart. This was the religion of the impenitent Israelites. At the thne of their deliverance from the house of bondage, and in view of the miracles both of mercy and judgment which had been wrought in their behalf, they sang the meiiorable “song of Moses,” on the banks of the Red Sea. But how soon do you find them murmuring at the waters of Marah, and in the wilderness of Sin! The same scene, only in more awful colours, was again exhibited at the foot of Sinai. God appeared in all the greatness of his majesty. And nhen the people saw the thunderingSy and the lightnings, and the noise of the trmnpet, and the mountain smoking; they removed and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we will hear; hut let not God speak with us, lest we die. Sad reverse! Scarcely forty days had elapsed, than the very land that just beheld .Tehovah descending in the cloud, and that trembled at the voice of his thunder, saw the golden calf an idol, and heard the heathenish acclamation — lliese be thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt! The same scene, though in more awful colours still, was exhibited in the streets of Jerusalem. No sooner did the Jews behold the miracles, and share in the favour of the promised Messiah, than

Confluence in good Esfie. 55

iliey overlooked all the humbling circumstances of his birth, and were anxious to make him their king. They followed him with Hosannahs; were impatient to see him enrobed whh the badges of royalty, and seated upon the throne of David his father. But their attachment was soon put to a test which discovered its selfishness. ‘They early found that the kingdom of the Messiah was a spiritual, and not a temporal kingdom. They soon learned, that he was not a Jew, who was one outwardly; and that if they would be the subjects of his kingdom, they must become new creatures; must relinquish their attachment to the world; must deny thewsclves and take up the cross; irust become holy in heart and in life; not too proud lo relish the humbling religion of a crucified Saviour, nor too righteous to submit to the righteousness of God. Their hopes of individual grandeur and national glory, therefore, withered in the bloom. The promised Messiah became the oliject of neglect and malignity. Ko longer did they follow him with acclamations of praise; but with the hiss of derision and the finger of scorn. No longer did their zeal prompt the cry, Hosannah to the Son of David! but their disappointed md infuriate selfishness, instigated the malignant -hout, Crucify, Crucify! Such is the religion of

56 Confidenctin good Estate.

sinners. Sinners, saith the Saviour, love those who love them. Ye seek me, said Christ, 7iot because ye saw the miracles, hut because ye did eat of the loaves, and werejilled.

Far be it from me to say, or to believe, that all those who inculcate this kind of religion, are to be ranked among the hypocrite and the self-deceived. We believe many of them to be Christians. The religion which they possess is better than that which they teach. Still, we do not hesitate to say, that those who have no other religion, have none at all that will stand the ordeal of the Last Day. A deceived heart hath turned them aside.

On what is such religion founded? There is nc supreme attachment to the excellency of the divine character, to the holiness of the divine law, or to the perfection of the divine government. There is no supreme delight in the glory of the Gospel, for its own inherent excellence. On w hat then is such religion founded? Simply on the assumption, alike dishonourable to God, and destructive to the souls of men, that there is, and there can be no loveliness in the divine nature, no glory in the divine perfections, but what results from God’s particular love to them, and His

Conjidcncc in good Eslate. 57

designs to save them, A principle so reproachful to the character of the Deity; so reproachful to the cross of Christ; and so destructive to the souls of men; has made many a man an enthusiast, and a hypocrite; but never yet made one an humble follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. After all the glosses that can be put upon it, the amount of this principle is just this. Assure me of my salvation, AND THE God of heaven is amiable and glorious: DEPRIVE ME OF MY SALVATION, AND HE IS iJTRIPPED OF HIS LOVELINESS, AND DISROBED OF HIS

GLORY! Reader, does this look like taking your place in the dust, and exalting God on the throne? Is this being reconciled to the character of God, or being supremely in love with yourself?

Though sellish piety is naturally blind to its own nature, yet the efiect of this mercenary scheme is unequivocal. The grand sentiment of the system is, that it is a mark of genuine holiness to be very anxious about your own welfare, but to care very little for the honour and glory of God. It is therefore a system that is perfectly compatible with supreme seltishness; and therefore, perfectly compatible with total depravity. There is nothing in all this, with which the carnal mind is at enmity. If vital godliness consist in such a system of views and feelings, there is no need of a radical change of heart. Let the veriest sinner on earth be persuaded that God loved him with an everlasting love, and from eternity designed to make him an heir of the heavenly inheritance; and his enmity will subside without any change of nature, any alteration in the moral disposition of the soul.

The presumption on which we have been animadverting, is one which any unrenewed man may cherish, who is under the delusion of Satan and his own wicked heart. It is easy to say, “Par- “don is mine; grace is mine; Christ and all his” blessings are mine; — God has freely loved me; “Christ has graciously died for me; and the Holy” Ghost will assuredly sanctify me in the belief, the “appropriaiing belief, of these precious truths.” It is no He-rculean task, for a heated imagination and an unsanctified heart to make these discoveries. This is a kind of confidence which the subtle Deceiver is interested to flatter and strengthen, till the unhappy subject has lost his hold, and the Roaring Lion is sure of his prey. And the joys and sorrows, the zeal and engagedness, which spring from this delusion,ybrm a kind of religion, which the blindness and deceit, the self-flattery, and the pride of the carnal heart, very easily substitute for vital godliness.

Others attain the confidence of their own good estate in a manner still diflerent. This mode of attainment is purely mechanical. According to the views of those who maintain this confidence, it seems to be “a strange kind of assurance, far “different from other ordinary kinds; we are” constrained to believe other things on the clear “evidence that they are true, and would remain” true, whether we believe them or no : — but here “our assurance is not impressed on our thoughts” by any evidence of the thing; but we must work “it out in ourselves, by the assistance of the Spirit” of God.” The very existence of this persuasion seems to be evidence of the truth of it. The proposition to be believed, viz: “that God freely “giveth Christ and his salvation to us in particular,” is not true before we believe it; but becometh “a certain truth when we believe it.”

The amount of this is, that a persuasion of your own personal interest in the blessings of the great salvation, constitutes the essence of evangelical

“^ Marshall on Sanctification, p. 157, N. Y. edition.

faith. If you can only believe that you will be saved, you are a believer, in the Gospel sense of the word: Should you find any difficulty in doing this, you must ‘^ work it out in yourselves by the “assistance of the Spirit of God; and eiccording to” 7/our faith so shall it be iintoyour The persuasion, therefore, that you are a Christian, makes you so; and the confidence that you will be saved, renders your calling and election sure.

It is hardly necessary to guard the mind against the influence of this delusion. Reflecting men will not rest the hope of immortality on so treacherous a foundation, unless they deliberately prefer the dreams of the self-deceived, to the sober expectations of the real Christian. If there were ho difference between being actually interested in the covenant of grace, and the persuasion of our own minds that we are thus interested; this scheme might be plausible. Men must be Christians, before they can be rationally persuaded that they are Christians. They must be the children of God, before they can rationally cherish the confidence that they are so. It is not impossible, nor is it an unusual thing, for a man io be a Christian,

* INIarshall, p. 157, N. Y. ccUiion.

and yet not to believe that he is a Christian. Nor is it less impossible, and unusual, for a man to believe that he is a Christian, and yet 7iot be a Christian. It is to be feaied, that there will be many at the Last Day, who will say, Lord, Lord! unto whom the Bridegroom will say, I never knew yoUy depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There will be many in that day, who have confidently believed, that “God freely gave Christ” and his salvation to them in particular,” who will not find, that “it became a certain truth “when they believed it.” The error is too palpable to be ensnaring*.

Let not the import of these remarks be misunderstood. Far be it from me to discourage the followers of the Lord Jesus from placing the most implicit reliance on the Atdhor and Finisher of their faith. Every attribute of His character demands confidence the most prompt and unreserv-

* “When we alTirm,’* says the eloquent Saurin,” thai “there is such a blessing as assurance of salvation, we do” not mean that assurance is a duty imposed on all mankind, “so that every one, in what state soever he may be, ought” to be fully persuaded of his salvation, and by this persua- “sion, to bein his chriatianity.’” — Saurin’s Sermons, vol. 3. Sermon lOlh.

62 Confidence in good Estalt,

ed. But, reader, real confidence in God is a thing widely different from a firm persuasion of your personal interest in His mercy. The former is your duty at all times. The latter is your duty, in the same proportion in which you have evidence that the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost, You have just as much evidence that you are interested in His pardoning mercy, as you have that you are the subject of His sanctifying grace. Sanctification is the only evidence of conversion. The assurance of our acceptance with God, depends on the assurance of our possessing the character of those who are accepted. The scriptmal mode of obtaining assurance is that pointed out by the Apostle. Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness j and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charily. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor wfruilful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. “The infallible assurance of faith,” says our excellent Confession,” is founded upon

Coiifidcncc in good Estate. 63

the divine truth of the promises of salvation, Ihe inward evidence of those graces unto which “these promises are made, the testhnony of the” Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits, “that we are the children of God; which Spirit” is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we “are sealed to the day of redemption*.” To cherish the confidence of your own good estate when your graces are low and languishing, and while you live in the habits of sin, savours more of presumption than of humility. No man ought to live without some doubts of his own good estate, who does not cherish such an abiding sense of divine truth, and live in such prevailing exercise of divine grace, as to have the witness within him that he is born of God. It is in the exercise of grace alone, that any one ought to expect, or even desire to find evidence of his being accepted in the beloved. The evidence of our good estate rises in proportion to our love, to our repentance, to our humility, to our faith, to our self-denial, to our delight in duty. Other evidence than this, the Bible knows not; God has not given.

* Confession of faith of the Presbyterian Church, chap. 18. p. 85, 86. Vide also Larger Catechisnij p. 2 11, 2 12.

64 Conjidence in good Estate.

Let the reader beware of these vain confidences! When men rest satisfied with these presumptions, they usually rest satisfied until it is too late to be dissatisfied. They see nothing either within or without, to shake their hopes, or alarm their fears. Notwithstanding there is a wide and essential difference between these unscriptural confidences, and the faith of the Gospel; notwithstanding they have all the necessary means to know their true character, and could not mistake it if they would examine impartially; yet tlieij sport themselves with their own deceivings, and know not what manner of’ persons they are. You may easily imagine that you are safe; and while the deception lasts, it may quiet your consciences, and administer a short-lived consolation. But, when the veil is drawn aside; when the dreams of time give way to the realities of eternity; these pleasing deceptions will vanish. There is less of this vain presumption in the hour of death, than in the season of health and cheerfulness. There will be none of it at the left hand of the Judge; there will be none of it in hell.

The reader has now before him, what the author designed to say in the first ile essays. How solemnly do these things call upon every one to see whether his hceirt is rigid with God! [f vital religion does not consist invisible morality; if it does not consist in the form of religion; nor in speculative knowledge; nor in mere conviction for sin; nor in the confidence of your own good estate; nor in the whole routine of enthusiastic experiences which that confidence inspires; nor in all these things combined: is it not time to look about you? In all that has hitherto been brought into view, there is not one holy exercise of heart; not one feeling that is in the least at war with supreme selfishness. There is not one fact, therefore, upon which I dare tell you, that you may rely for eternity, as conclusive evidence of Christian Character,

How many are there who are almost Chris-Hans! As then you review the preceding pages, look with ingenuousness into your own heart. Men may think they are Christians, and yet be in the gall of bitterness, and the bonds of iniquity. You may be almost saved, and yet — perish. You may get very near to heaven, and yet — go to hell. You may advance to the very verge of the better world, and from the threshold of glory, fall into the regions of mourning.

6Q Confidence in good Estate,

It may be, that remarks like these, will wound some of the dear children of God, while they leave the stupid hypocrite wrapt up in false security, and impenetrable by nothing but the arrows of the Eternal. If the humble child of Jesus is hereby involved in darkness for a moment; his light shall soon break forth as the morning. If for a moment, his strength and courage languish; they shall spring forth speedily; his righteousness shall go before him, and the glory of the Lord shall be his rereward. The hypocrite will in all probability, still cherish his deception; he will rest in carnal security, till the awful moment when he lies gasping in the arms of death, and is just about to take his flight to the judgment-seat of Christ. Then his refuges of lies shall be swept away, and his fancied security will only serve to render him the fairer mark of divine vengeance. Then he will discover his fatal mistake. Then his heart will tremble. Then his hopes will die within him. That which has been hidden, shall be made know n. The mask will be torn off; the secrets of the heart shall be unfolded; nothing shall remain unveiled. There will be no darkness nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. The sinners in Zion

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shall he a/raid; fearfidness slmll surprise the hypocrites: Who among us shall dwell with devouring fire! Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?