Rules for Obtaining Forgiveness
That which remains, according to the plan of this treatise, is to persuade souls, more or less entangled in the depths of sin, to close with this forgiveness by believing unto their peace and consolation. And because such persons are full of pleas and objections against themselves, I shall chiefly, in what I have to say, endeavor to obviate these objections, and thus to encourage both distressed and doubting souls to believe, and bring them to the establishment and consolation which our subject affords. And I shall.
First, lay down such general rules as are necessary to be observed by all who intend to come to gospel-peace and comfort. And,
Secondly, consider some such objections as seem to be most comprehensive of those special reasonings wherewith distressed persons usually entangle themselves.
I shall begin with general rules, which, through the grace of Christ and supplies of his Spirit, may be of use to unbelievers in the conditian under consideration.
Rule L Be not judges of your ewn condition hut let Christ judge.
You are invited to take the camfort of this gospel-truth, that there is forgiveness with God. You say it is not for you: so said Jacob, “My way is hid from the Lord,” Isa. 40: 27 j and Zion said so too, chap. 4.9: 14, “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.” But did they make a right judgment of themselves 1 We find in those places that God was otherwise minded. This false judgment made by souls in their entanglements, of their own condition, is often a most unconquerable hinderance to the bettering of it: they fill themselves with thoughts of their own about it and on them they dwell, instead of looking out for a remedy. Misgiving thoughts of their diseases are a great part of some men’s sickness. Many diseases cloud the thoughts, and cause misapprehensions concerning their own nature and danger; and those delusions are a real part of the person’s sickness. Nature is no less impaired and weakened by them, the efficacy of remedies no less obstructed than by any other real disease. In such cases, we persuade men to acquiesce in the judgment of their skilful physician, not always to be wasting themselves by their own imaginations, and so despond upon their own mistakes; but to rest in the testimony of Him who is acquainted with the causes and tendency of their indisposition better than themselves
It is often one part of the soul’s depths to have false apprehensions of its condition. Sin is a madness. Eccles. 9: 3. Madness does not sooner nor more effectually discover itself in any way than in possessing men with strange conceits and apprehensions of themselves. So does this madness of sin, according to its degrees and prevalence. Hence some cry, Peace, peace, when sudden destruction is at hand. 1 Thess. 5:3. It is that madness, under the power of which they are, which gives them such groundless imaginations of themselves and their own condition. And some say they are lost for ever, when God is with them.
Do then your duty, and let Christ judge of your state. Your interest is too great to be committed to any other. When eternal welfare or wo are at stake, for a man to give up himself implicitly to the judgment of men fallible like himself, is stupidity; but there is no danger of being deceived by the sentence of Christ. The truth is, whether we will or not, he will judge j and according as he determines, so shall things be found at the last day. John, 5: 22. “The Father judgeth no man,” that is, immediately, and in his own person, “but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” All judgment that respects eternity, whether it be to be passed in this world or in that to come, is committed to him. Accordingly in this chapter he judgeth both of things and persons: of things, ver. 24>, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” Let men say what they please, this sentence shall stand; faith and eternal life are inseparably conjoined. And so of persons, ver. 38, “You have not,” saith he to the Pharisees, who were full of unbelief, “the word of God abiding in you.”
Take not, then, the office and prerogative of Christ out of his hand, by making a judgment from your own reasonings and conclusions as to your state. You will find that he often determines quite contrary to what men judge of themselves, and to what others judge of them. Some he judges to be in an evil condition, who are very confident that it is well with them, and who please themselves in the thought that others also think they are safe; and he judges the state of some to be good, who are diffident of themselves, and, it may be, despised by others. We may single out an example or two in each kind.
Laodicea’s judgment of her spiritual state we have, Rev. 3: 17, ‘’ I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” A fair state it seems, a blessed condition! She wants nothing that may contribute to her rest, peace, and reputation j she is orthodox, and numerous, and flourishing; makes a fair profession, and all is well within. So she believes, so she reports of herself; wherein there is a secret reflection also upon others whom she despises. Let them shift as they list, I am as I say. But was it so with her indeed ] was that her true condition, of which she was so confident as to profess it unto all 1 Let Jesus Christ be heard in this cause, let him come and judge: “Thus saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness.” Coming to give sentence in a case of this importance, he gives himself this title, that we may know his word is to be acquiesced in. Every man, saith he, is a liar; their
testimony is of no value, let them pronounce what they will of themselves or of one another: ‘’ I am the Amen; and I will see whose word shall stand, mine or theirs.” What then saith he of Laodicea 1 “Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Oh woful and sad disappointment! Oh dreadful surprisal! Ah! how many Laodicean churches have we in the world! How many professors are members of these churches! not to mention the generality of men that live under the means of grace, who all have good hopes of their eternal condition, while they are despised and abhorred by the only Judge. Among professors themselves, it is dreadful to think how many will be found light when they come to be weighed in this balance. Again, he judges some to be in a good condition, be they themselves ever so diffident: saith he to the church of Smyrna “I know thy poverty.” Rev. 2: 9. Smyrna was complaining that she was a poor contemptible people, not fit for him to take any notice of. Well, saith he, fear not; I know thy poverty whereof thou complainest: “but thou art rich;” that is my judgment, testimony and sentence concerning thee and thy condition. Such will be his judgment at the last day, when both those on the one hand and the other shall be surprised with his sentence: the one with joy at the riches of his grace, the other with terror at the severity of his justice. Matt. 25: 37-39, and 44, 45. In Isaiah, 49: 14, “Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me:” that is her judgment of herself, and of her state; a sad report and conclusion. But doth Christ agree with her in this sentence? The next verse gives us his resolution of this matter: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her wombl yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” The state of things in truth, is as much otherwise as can possibly be thought or imagined
To what purpose is it for men to be passing a judgment on themselves, when there is no manner of certainty in their determinations, and when their proceedings will probably lead them to further entanglements, if not to eternal ruin. The judging of souls, as to their spiritual state, is the work of Jesus Christ j especially as to the end now under inquiry. Men may, men do take many ways to make a judgment of themselves. Some do it on slight and trivial conjectures; some on bold and wicked presumptions; some on desperate atheistical notions, as Deut. 29: 19; some, with more sobriety and sense of eternity, lay down principles, it may be, good and true in themselves; and from them they draw conclusions, arguing from one thing to another, and in the end either deceive themselves, or sit down no less in the dark than they were at first. A man’s judgment from his own reasonings is seldom true, more seldom permanent. I speak not of self-examination with a due discussion of graces and actions, but of the final sentence as to state and condition in which the soul is to acquiesce. This belongs to Christ.
Now, there are two ways whereby the Lord Jesus Christ gives forth his sentence in this matter.
1. By his word. He determines, in the word of the Gospel, the state of all men. Each individual coming to that word, receives his own sentence and doom: he told the Jews that Moses accused them, John, 5: 45, his law accused and condemned the transoressors of it.
And so does he acquit every one that is discharged by the word of the Gospel. What we have to do is to receive by faith his sentence in the word. His process herein we have recorded: “His soul,” that is, of the sinner, ■’ draweth near to the grave, and his life to the destroyers.” This seems to be his state j it is so indeed: he is at the very brink of the grave and hell. What then 1 why, if there be with him (or stand over him, in the Hebrew) the angel interpreting, or the angel of the covenant, who alone is the One of a thousand, what shall he do 1 He shall show to him his uprightness. Job, 33: 22, 23. He shall give him a right determination of his interest in God, and of the state of his heart towards God: whereupon God shall speak peace to his soul, and deliver him from his entanglements, ver. 24. Jesus Christ has, in the word of the Gospel, stated the condition of every man. He tells us that sinners, of what sort soever they are, who believe, are accepted with him, and shall receive forgiveness from God, and that none shall be refused or cast off that come to God by him. The soul of whom we are treating is now upon the work of coming to God for forgiveness by Jesus Christ. Many and weighty objections it hath in and against itself why it should not come, why it shall not be accepted. Our Lord Jesus, the Wisdom of God, foresaw all these objections; he knew what could be said in the case. In general, men’s arguings against themselves arise from sin and the law. Christ knows what is in both. He tried them to the uttermost, as to their penalties: and yet he hath so determined as we have showed. Particular objections also arise from the consideration of particular sinsj their greatness, their number, their
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aggravations: Christ knows all these also; and declares that he that believes shall be forgiven j and it is meet his word should stand. I know, when a soul brings itself to be judged by the word of the Gospel, it does not always equally receive and rest in the sentence given. But when Christ is pleased to speak the word with power to men, they shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and be comforted by it. Let the soul, then, that is rising out of depths, and pressing towards a sense of forgiveness, lay itself down before the word of Christ in the Gospel. Let him attend to what Christ speaks; and if, for a while, it has not power to quiet his heart, let him wait a season, and light shall arise to him out of darkness. Christ will give his sentence into his conscience with such power and efficacy that he shall find rest and peace in it.
2. Christ also judgeth by his Spirit: not only in making this sentence of the Gospel to be received effectually in the soul, but by his peculiar actings upon the heart and soul of a believer. “We have received the Spirit of God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God.” 1 Cor. 2: 12. The Spirit of Christ acquaints the soul that this and that grace is from him, that this or that duty was performed in his strength. He brings to mind what at such and such times was wrought in men by himself, to give them support and relief in depths and darkness. And when it has been clearly discovered to the soul by the Holy Ghost, that any thing wrought in it or done by it has been truly saving, the comfort of it will abide in the midst of many shakings and temptations.’
3. He also, by his Spirit, bears witness with our spirits as to our state; of which I have spoken largely elsewhere.
This, then, is our first general rule and direction. Self-determinations concerning our spiritual condition are seldom right j and mistakes in such determinations are exceedingly prejudicial to a soul seeking a sense of forgiveness. Let Christ, then, be the judge in. this case by his word and Spirit.
Rule II. Self-condemnation and abhorrence for sin are consistent with gospel-justification and peace.
Some men, strange as it may seem, have no peace, because they have that without which it is impossible they should have peace. Because they cannot but condemn themselves, they cannot entertain a sense that God acquits them. But this is the mystery of the Gospel to which unbelief is a stranger. Nothing but faith can give a real subsistence to these things in the same soul at the same time. It is easy to learn the notion of it, but it is not easy to experience the power of it. For a man to have a sight of that within him which would condemn him, and for which he is troubled; and at the same time to have a discovery of that without him which will justify him, and to rejoice therein, is what he is not led unto but by faith in the mystery of the Gospel. We are under a law for justification which excludes all boasting. Rom. 3: 27. So that, though we have joy enough in Another, yet we may have, we always have, sufficient cause of humiliation in ourselves. The Gospel will teach a man to feel sin and believe righteousness at the same time. Faith will carry heaven in one hand and hell in the other; showing the one deserved, the other purchased. A man may see enough of his own sin and folly to bring a hell of wrath out of heaven, and yet see Christ bring a heaven of blessedness out of a hell of punishment; and these must needs produce very divers, yea, contrary effects and operations in the soul. And he who knows not how to assign them their proper duties and seasons must needs be perplexed. The work of self-condemnation, then, which men in these depths cannot but abound with, is, in the disposition of the covenant of grace, no way inconsistent with nor unsuited to justification, and the enjoyment, through it, of peace with God. There may be a deep sense of sin where there is no fear of hell. David was never more humbled for sin than when Nathan told him it was forgiven; and there may be a view of hell as deserved, which yet the soul may know itself to be freed from.
In pursuing my design, I shall briefly consider what we intend by gospel-assurance of forgiveness that the soul may not be solicitous and perplexed about the utter want of that of which perhaps it is already in some enjoyment.
Some men seem to place gospel-assurance in a high confidence of acceptance with God. They think it is in none but such as, if you ask them, Are you certain you shall be saved 1 have boldness, and confidence, and ostentation to answer presently, Yea, I shall be saved. But as the blessed truth of assurance has been reproached in the world, under such a notion of it j so such expressions become not those who know what it is to have to do with the holy God, who is a consuming fire. Hence some conclude that there are very few believers
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who have any assurance, because they have not this confidence, or are more free to mention the opposition they meet with than the support they enjoy. And thus assurance is thought to be a grace not earnestly to be sought after, because it is so rarely to be obtained, most of the saints going to heaven well enough without it. But the fact is otherwise. The importance of it, not only as it is our life of comfort and joy, but also as it is the principal means of the flourishing of our life of holiness, has been already shown. Yea, in times of trial, which are the proper seasons for the effectual working and manifestation of assurance, it appears that many, yea, that most of the saints of God are made partakers of this grace and privilege.
I shall then, 1. Show what things are not only consistent with assurance, but are even necessary concomitants of it, which yet, if not duly weighed and considered, may seem to prevent a man’s comfortable persuasion of his condition before God; and, 2. Speak of its nature especially as manifesting itself by its effects.
1. A deep sense of the evil of sin, and of the guilt of one’s own sin, is no way inconsistent with gospel-assurance of acceptance with God through Christ, and of forgiveness in him. By a sense of the guilt of sin I understand two things: 1. A clear conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost, saying to the soul, Thou art the man j and 2. A sense of the displeasure of God, or the wrath due to sin, according to the sentence of the law. Both these David expresses in that complaint, ‘’ My life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; ny strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. Psalm 31: 10. His iniquity was before him, and a sense of it pressed him sore. But yet, notwithstanding all this, he had a comfortable persuasion that God was his God in covenant, “I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God.” verse H. And the tenor of the covenant wherein alone God is the God of any person is, that he will be merciful to his iniquity. To whom he is a God, he is so according to the tenor of that covenant; so that here these two are conjoined. Saith he. Lord, I am pressed with the sense of the guilt of mine iniquities; and thou art my God, who forgivest them. The ground of this is, that God, by the Gospel, hath divided the work of the law, and taken part of it out of its hand. Its whole work is to condemn the sin and the sinner. The sinner is freed by the Gospel; but the law still condemns the sin, and that justly. Now, though the sinner himself be freed, yet finding his sin condemned, it fills him with a deep sense of its guilt, and of the displeasure of God against it; while yet at the same time he may have such an insight as faith gives into his personal interest in a gospel-acquittance. A man then may have a deep sense of sin all his days, walk under the sense of it continually, abhor himself for his ingratitude, unbelief, and rebellion against God, without any impeachment of his assurance.
2. Deep sorrow for sin is consistent with assurance of forgiveness; yea, it is a great means of preserving it. Godly sorrow, mourning, humiliation, contriteness of spirit are no less gospel-graces and fruits of the Holy Ghost than faith itself; and so are consistent with the highest flourishing of faith. It is heaven itself, and not the assurance of it, that will wipe all tears from our eyes.
Yea, these graces have the most eminent promises annexed to them J as Isa. 57: 15 j 66: 2s Matt. 5:4; Zech. 12: 10; so that they are assuredly consistent with any other grace or privilege that we may be made partakers of, or which are promised to us. Some feeling the weight and burden of their sin, and being called to mourning and humiliation on account of it, are so taken up with it as to lose the sense of forgiveness which, rightly improved, would increase their sorrow for sin, as their sorrow seems directly to sweeten their sense of forgiveness. Sorrow, absolutely exclusive of the faith of forgiveness, is legal, and tends to death; assurance, absolutely exclusive of godly sorrow, is pres’umption, and not a persuasion from Him that calleth us. But gospel sorrow and gospel assurance may well dwell -^ the Slime breast at the same time. Indeed, as in worldly joys there is a secret wound, so in all godly sorrow and mourning, considered in itself, there is a secret joy and refreshment; hence it doth not wither and dry up, but rather enlarge, open, and refresh the heart. I am persuaded that generally they mourn most who have most assurance. And all true gospel mourners will be found to have the root of assurance so grafted in them that in its proper season it will undoubtedly flourish.
3. A deep sense of the indwelling power of sin is consistent with gospel-assurance. Sense of indwelling sin will cause manifold perplexities in the soul. Trouble, disquiet, sorrow and anguish of heart, expressing themselves in sighs, mourning, groaning for deliverance, always attend it. To what purpose do you speak to a soul highly sensible of the power of indwelling sin, concerning assurance 1 “Alas,” saith he, ‘’ I am ready to perish every moment; my sins are strong, active, restless, yea, outrageous; they give me no rest, no liberty, and but little success do I gain in resisting them. Assurance is for conquerors, for them that live at rest and peace. I lie grovelling on the ground all my days, and must needs be uncertain what will be the issue.” But* when such an one hath said all he can, he will not be able to make more woful complaints of this than Paul has done before him, Rom. 7; and yet he closes the discburse of it with as high an expression of assurance as any person need seek after, ver. 25, and chap. 8: 1. But if men will think they can have no assurance, because they have that without which it is impossible they should have any, it is hard to give them relief. A little cruse of salt of the Gospel cast into the bitter waters will make them sweet and wholesome. Sense of the guilt of sin may consist with faith of its pardon and forgiveness in the blood of Christ. Godly sorrow may dwell in the heart at the same time with joy in the Holy Ghost, and groaning after deliverance from the power of sin, at the same time with a gracious persuasion that sin shall not “have dominion over us, because we are not under the law, but grace.”
4f. DoubtingSj fears temptations if not ordinarily prevailing, are consistent with gospel-assurance. Though the devil’s power be limited in reference to the saints, yet his hands are not tied; though he cannot prevail against them, yet he can assault them: and although there be not an evil heart of unbelief in believers, yet there will still be unbelief in their hearts. Such an evidence and persuasion of acceptance with God as exclude all contrary reasonings, as suffer the soul to hear nothing of objections, and free and quiet it from all assaults, are neither mentioned in Scripture, nor are they consistent with that state wherein we walk before God, nor possible, on account of Satan’s will and ability to tempt, or of our own remaining unbelief. Assurance encourages us in our combat, it delivers us not from it. We may have peace with God when we have none from the assaults of Satan.
Now, unless a man duly consider the tenor of the covenant wherein we walk with God, and the nature of that gospel-obedience which he requires at our hands, and our state whilst we live in this world; the daily sense of these things may keep him in the dark unto himself, and hinder him from that establishment in believing to which otherwise he might attain. On this account, some as holy persons as any in this world, being wholly taken up with the consideration of these home-bred perplexities, and not clearly acquainted with the way and tenor of assuring their souls before God, according to the rule of the covenant of grace, have passed their days in bondage of spirit, and without that strong consolation which God is abundantly willing that all the heirs of promise should receive.
Again, evangelical assurance is not a thing incapable of variation. It may be higher or lower, greater or less, obscure or attended with more evidence. It is not quite lost when not at its height. God sometimes marvellously raises the souls of his saints by some near approaches to them; gives them a sense of his eternal love, a taste of the embraces of his Son, and the indwelling of the Spirit, without the least intervening dis-RtJLES FOK OBTAINING FORGIVENESS. 285
turbance j then this is their assurance. But this life is not a season to be always taking wages in; our work is not yet done, we are not always to abide in this mount; we must down again into the battle, fight again, cry again, complain again. Shall the soul be thought now to have lost its assurance 1 Not at all: it had before assurance with joy, triumph, and exultation; it has it now with wrestling, cries, tears, and supplications: and a man’s assurance may be as good, as true, when he lies on the earth with a sense of sin, as when he is carried up to the third heaven with a sense of love and foretaste of glory. In brief, this assurance of salvation is such a gracious evangelical persuasion of acceptance with God in Christ, and of an interest in the promises of preservation unto the end, wrought in believers by the Holy Ghost, in and through the exercise of faith, as, for the most part, produces these effects following.
1. It gives delight in obedience, and draws out love in the duties that we perform to God. So much assurance of a blessed end of their labors and duties, and pressing after universal renovation of mind and life, as may make them cheerful and give love and delight in the pursuit of what they are engaged in, is needful for the saints, and they are not often left without it; and where this is, there is gospel-assurance. To run as men uncertain, to fight as those that beat the air, to travel as not any way persuaded of a comfortable entertainment at the journey’s end, is a state in which God does not frequently leave his people. And when he does, it is a season wherein he receives very little glory from them, and they very little increase of grace in themselves.
Many things interpose, many doubts and entangling perplexities arise, but still a comfortable persuasion is kept alive that there is a rest provided, which makes them cheerful in their most difficult duties. This prevails in them, that their labor in the Lord, their watching, praying, suffering, alms, fighting against temptation, crucifying the flesh with its lusts, shall not be in vain. This gives them such a delight in their most difficult duties, as men have in a hard journey towards a desirable home or a place of rest.
2. It casts ovt tormenting fear such as fills the soul with perplexing uncertainties, hard thoughts of God, and dreadful apprehensions of wrath to come. There are three things in that fear which are inconsistent with the assurance of forgiveness: 1. It proceeds from a spirit of bondage: “We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.” Rom. 8: 15. It is not such a fear as makes an occasional incursion upon the mind, such as is occasioned by incidental darkness and temptation, such as the best and most assured persons are liable to; but it is such a fear as has a complete abiding principle in the soul, even a spirit of bondage, a prevailing frame constantly inclining it to fear, or dreadful apprehensions of God and its own condition. 2. It tends to bondage, it brings the soul into bondage. Heb. 2: 14*, 15. Christ died to deliver them, who, by fear of death, were in bondage ail their days. Fear of death as penal, as it lies in the curse, which is that fear that proceeds from a spirit of bondage, brings the soul into bondage; that is, it adds to fear weariness, trouble, and anxiety of mind, and puts men upon all ways and means imaginable to seek for a remedy or relief. 3. It hath torment j “fear hath torment.” 1 John, 4: 18. It gives no rest, no quietness to the mind. Now, this is so cast out by gospel-assurance of forgiveness, that though it may assault the soul, it shall not possess it; though it make incursions upon it, it shall not abide and prevail in it.
3. It gives the soul a hope and expectation of the glory that shall be revealed, and supports it in sufferings and temptations. This is the hope which makes not ashamed, Rom. 5: 5, and that because it will never expose the soul to disappointment. Wherever there is the root of assurance there will be this fruit of hope. The proper object of it is things absent, invisible, eternal; the promised reward, in all its fulness. This hope it cherishes in distresses, temptations, failings, and under a sense of the guilt and power of sin. Hence arises a spring of secret relief in the soul, something that claims the heart and quiets the spirit in the midst of many a storm. Now, as wherever assurance is, there will be this hope; so wherever this secret relieving hope is, it grows on no other root but a living persuasion of a union with Christ and a personal interest in the things hoped for.
4. As it will do many other things, so, that I may give one comprehensive instance, it will enable men even to die for Christ. Death to men who see not one step beyond it, has been esteemed of all things most terrible: but this is little, compared with looking through it as a passage into eternity. For a man to choose death, in the most terrible manner of its approach, rather than life, expecting an eternity to ensue, argues a comfortable persuasion of a good state after death. Now, I am persuaded that there are hundreds who, upon gospelsaving- accounts, would embrace the stake for the testimony of Jesus, who still are unconscious that they hava the assurance we speak of, and yet nothing else would enable them thereunto.
Rule III. Continuance in waiting on God necessary io peace and consolation.
Whatever be your condition, and your apprehension of it, yet continue waiting on God, and give not over through weariness or impatience. This rule contains the sum of the great example given us in this psalm. Forgiveness in God being discovered, though no sense of a particular interest therein is yet obtained, what the soul next applies itself to is diligent, careful, constant waiting on God, which is variously expressed in the 5th and 6th verses of the psalm on which our discourse is founded. The Holy Ghost tells us that “light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.” Psalm 92: 11. Light and gladness are the things now inquired after: deliverance from darkness, misapprehensions of God, and misgiving thoughts of one’s own condition. Now, saith the Holy Ghost, all this is sown for the righteous. Does the husbandman, after he casts his seed into the earth, immediately think that the next day, the next week, it will be harvest? Does he think to reap as soon as he has sown 1 Or does he immediately say, I have labored in vain, here is no return, I will pull up the hedge of this field and lay it waste; or, I see a little grass in the blade, but no corn, I will give it to the beasts to devour itl No, his God, as the prophet speaks, instructs him to discretion, and teaches him what he must do, and how he must look for things in their season: and shall not we be instructed by him ] “Behold the husbandman,” saith James,” waitelh for
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the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the earlier and the latter rain.’* James, 5: 7. And is light sown for them that are in darkness, and shall they stifle the seed under the clods, or spoil the tender blade that is springing up, or refuse to wait for the watering and dews of the Spirit that may bring it forth to perfection Waiting on God is the only way to establishment and assurance. We cannot speed by our haste j yea, nothing puts the end so far away as making too much haste in our journey.
The ground is, that a sense of a special interest in forgiveness and acceptance is given to the soul by an act of sovereign grace. It is not secured by any rational conclusions or deductions that we can make. The peace and rest sought for come from mere prerogative. “When he giveth quietness, who can make trouble 1 and when he hideth his face, who can behold him ]” Job, 34t: 29. Does not the nature of the thing require humble waiting on God] If, then, either impatience cast the soul into frowardness, or weariness make it slothful, which are the two ways whereby waiting is ruined, let not such an one expect any comfortable issue of his contending for deliverance out of his depths. Men may indulge their own reasonings, may lay dowTi propositions apparently ever so conclusive, and yet be far enough from that sweet consolation, joy and assurance which God alone can give. Yea, a man may sometimes gather up consolation to himself upon such terms, but it will not abide. David, Psalm 30: 6, 7, argued that his mountain was made strong, and he should never be moved. But in the midst of these pleasing thoughts God hides his face, and he is troubled,
Forgivencsse. 13 he cannot any longer draw out the sweetness of the conclusion mentioned. It was in him before from the shining of God’s countenance, and not from any arguings of his own.
No disappointment, then, no tediousness or weariness should make the soul leave off waiting on God, if it intend to attain consolation and establishment. So it was with the church: “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” Lam. 3:21. What is it that she calls to mind 1 This, “that it is of the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” verse 22. I will yet hope, I will yet continue in my expectation, on account of never-failing compassion, of endless mercies in him, whatever my present condition be. And thence she makes a blessed conclusion, “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” verse 26. This is our third rule. It is good to hope and wait, whatever our present condition be, and not to give over, if we would not be sure to fail a duty on which the close of this psalm insists, and which will be further considered.
Rule IV. Remove the hinderances of believing by a searching out of sin.
Let the soul that would attain to establishment and consolation in believing and obedience, make thorough work in the search of sin, even to the sins of youth, that all scores on that account may clearly be wiped out. If there be much rubbish left in the foundation o{ the building, no wonder if it always shake and totter. Men’s leaving any sin unsearched to the bottom, will poison all their consolation. David knew this, when, in dealing with God in his distresses, he prays that he would not remember the sins and transgressions of his youth. Psalm 25: 7. Youth is often a time of great T-^nity and unmindfulness of God; many stains and spots are therein usually brought upon the consciences of men. “Childhood and youth are vanity,” Eccl. 11: 10, not merely because they soon pass away, but because they are usually spent in vanity: so the advice in the next verse to remember God in those days indicates, chap. 12: 1. The way of many is to put such things out of mind, not to walk in a sense of their folly and madness, and never to make a thorough work with God about them. I speak of the saints themselves j for with others that live under the means of grace, whom God intends any way to make useful in their generation, this is the usual course: by convictions, restraining grace, afflictions, love of employment and repute, God gives them another heart than they had for a season; another heart, but not a new heart. Hence another course of life, another profession, other actions than formerly do flow; with this change they content themselves; they look on what is past perhaps with delight, or as those things fit enough for those days, but not for those they have attained to. Here they rest, and therefore never come to rest.
But I speak of the saints themselves, who make not such thorough, full, close work in this respect as they ought. An after-reckoning may come in to their own disturbance, and an unconquerable hinderance of their peace. So was it with Job, chap. 13: 26. “He makes me to possess the iniquities of my youth.” God filled his heart, his thoughts, his mind with these sins j made them abide with him, so that he possessed them j they were always present with him: he made the sins of hia youth the sufferings of his age. And it is a sad thing, as one speaks, when young sins and old bones meet together; as Zophar, “His bones are full of the sin of his youth.” Job, 20: 11. The joyous frame of some men’s youth makes way for sad work in their age. Take heed, ye who are young: you are doing that which will abide with you to age, if not to eternity. This possession of the sins of youth Job calls the writing of bitter things against him j as indeed it is impossible but that sin should be bitter one time or other. God calls it a ‘’ root that beareth gall and wormwood.” Deut. 29:18. “A root of bitterness, springing up unto defilement.” Heb. 12: 15. This, then, is to be searched out to the bottom. Israel will not have success nor peace whilst there is an Achan in the camp; neither success in temptation nor consolation in believing is to be expected whilst any sin unrepented lies in the conscience.
Let them who would seriously accomplish a diligent search in this matter, which is of such importance to them, take these two directions. 1. Let them go over the consideration of those sins, and others of the like nature, which may be reduced to the general heads which we have laid down as the sins which generally cast men into depths and entanglements. And if they find they have contracted the guilt of any of them, let them not think it strange that they are yet bewildered in their condition, and come short of a refreshinor sense of peace with God, or an interest in forgiveness; rather let them admire the riches of his grace and forbearance
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that they are not cast utterly out of all hope of a recovery. And, 2. Let them review the course of their lives under such heads and seasons as may give them clear and distinct apprehension of what has occurred between God and their souls, that may have been provoking to him. As,
1. For the state of their inward man, let them consider the unregenerate part of their lives, that which was confessedly so before they had any real work of God upon their hearts, and therein inquire, 1. If there v>’ere then any great and signal eruptions of sins against God; for of such God requires that a deep sense be kept on our souls all our days. How often do we find Paul calling over the sins of his life and ways before his conversion! “I was,” saith he, ‘’ injurious, and a blasphemer.” Such reflections ought persons to have on any great provoking occasions of sin, that may keep them humble, and necessitate them constantly to look for a fresh sense of pardon, through the blood of Christ. If such sins lie neglected, and are not duly regarded and repented of, they will weaken the soul in its comfort whilst it lives in this world. 2. If there were any signal manifestations of the love of God to the soul, while it broke off from the power of its corruption and temptation, they require a due humbling consideration all our days.
In that part of our lives which, upon the call of God, we have given up to him there are two sorts of sins that do effectually hinder our future peace and comfort, which ought to be frequently reviewed and issued in the blood of Christ. 1. Such as, by reason of any aggravating circumstances, have been accompanied with some special unklndness towards God. Such are sins after warnings and communications of a sense of love, after particular engagements against them, relapses and omissions of great opportunities and advantages for the furtherance of the glory of God in the world. These kinds of sins have much unkindness attending them, and will be searched out, if we cover them. 2. Sins attended with scandal towards any one or morer persons, who may be concerned with us. The aggravation of these kinds of sins is usually allowed.
2. The various outward states which we have passed through, as of prosperity and affliction, should, in like manner, come under this search and consideration. It is hut seldom that we fill up our duty, or answer the mind of God in any dispensation of providence j and if our neglect herein be not properly considered, it will undoubtedly hinder and interrupt our peace.