AN ADDRESS TO A SOUL SO OVERWHELMED WITH A SENSE OF THE GREATNESS OF ITS SINS, THAT IT DARES NOT APPLY ITSELF TO CHRIST WITH ANY HOPE OF SALVATION.
1--4. The case described at large.--5. As it frequently occurs.--6. Granting all that the dejected soul charges on itself.--7. The invitations and promises of Christ give hope.--8 The reader urged, under all his burdens and fears, to an humble application to him. Which is accordingly exemplified in the concluding Reflection and Prayer.
1. I have now done with those unhappy creatures who despise the Gospel, and
with those who neglect it. With pleasure do I now turn myself to those who will
hear me with more regard. Among the various cases which now present themselves
to my thoughts, and demand my tender, affectionate, respectful care, there is
none more worthy of compassion than that which I have mentioned in the title of
this chapter, none which requires a more immediate attempt of relief.
2. It is very possible some afflicted
creature may be ready to cry out, "It is enough: aggravate my grief and my
distress no more. The sentence you have been so awfully describing, as what
shall he passed and executed on the impenitent and unbelieving, is my sentence;
and the terrors of it are my terrors. `For mine iniquities have gone up into
the heavens,' and my transgressions have reached unto the clouds. (Rev. 18:5)
My case is quite singular. Surely there never was so great a sinner as I. I
have received so many mercies, have enjoyed so many advantages, I have heard so
many invitations or Gospel grace; and yet my heart has been so hard, and my
nature is so exceeding sinful, and the number and aggravating circumstances of
my provocations have been such, that I dare not hope. It is enough that God
hath supported me thus long; it is enough, that, after so many years of
wickedness, I am yet out of hell. Every day's reprieve is a mercy at which I am
astonished. I lie down, and wonder that death and damnation have not seized me
in my walks the day past. I arise, and wonder that my bed has not been my
grave; wonder that my soul is not separated from my flesh, and surrounded with
devils and damned spirits."
3. "I have indeed heard the message of salvation;
but, alas! it seems no message of salvation to me. There are happy souls that
have hope; and their hope is indeed in Christ and the grace of God manifest in
him. But they feel in their hearts an encouragement to apply to him, whereas I
dare not do it. Christ and grace are things in which I fear I have no part, and
must expect none. There are exceeding rich and precious promises in the word of
God; but they are to me as a sealed book, and are hid from me as to any
personal use. I know Christ is able to save: I know he is willing to save some.
But that he should be willing to save me--such a polluted, such a provoking
creature, as God knows, and as conscience knows, I have been, and to this day
am--this I know not how to believe; and the utmost that I can do towards
believing it, is to acknowledge that it is not absolutely impossible, and that
I do not lie down in complete despair; though, alas! I seem upon the borders of
it, and expect every day and hour to call into it."
4. I should not, perhaps, have entered so fully
into this case, if I had not seen many in it; and I will add, reader, for your
encouragement, if it be your case, several, who now are in the number of the
most established, cheerful, and useful Christians. And I hope divine grace will
add you to the rest, if "out of these depths you he enabled to cry unto God;"
(Psa. 130:1) and though, like Jonah, you may seem to be cast out from his
presence, yet still, with Jonah, you "look towards his holy temple." (Jonah
2:4)
5. Let it not be imagined, that it is in any
neglect of that blessed Spirit, whose office it is to be the great Comforter,
that I now attempt to reason you out of this disconsolate frame; for it is as
the great source or reason, that he deals with rational creatures; and it is in
the use of rational means and considerations that he may most justly be
expected to operate. Give me leave, therefore, to address myself calmly to you,
and to ask you, what reason you have for all these passionate complaints and
accusations against yourself? What reason have you to suggest that your case
is singular, when so many have told you they have felt the same? What reason
have you to conclude so hardly against yourself, when the Gospel speaks in such
favorable terms? Or, what reason to imagine, that the gracious things it says
are not intended for you? You know, indeed, more of the corruption of your own
heart, than you know of the hearts or others; and you make a thousand
charitable excuses for their visible failings and infirmities, which you make
not for your own. And it may be, some of those whom you admire as eminent
saints when compared with you, are on their part humbling themselves in the
dust, as unworthy to be numbered among the least of God's people, and wishing
themselves like you; in whom they think they see much more good, and much less
of evil, than in themselves.
6. But to suppose the worst, what if you were
really the vilest sinner that ever lived upon the face of the earth? What if
"your iniquities had gone up into the heavens" every day, and "your
transgressions had reached unto the clouds," (Rev. 18:5) reached thither with
such horrid aggravations, that earth and heaven should have had reason to
detest you as a monster of impiety? Admitting all this, "is any thing too hard
for the Lord?" (Gen. 18:14) Are any sins, of which a sinner can repent, of so
deep a dye, that the blood of Christ cannot wash them away! Nay, though it
would be daring wickedness and monstrous folly, for any "to sin that grace may
abound," (Rom. 6:1) yet had you indeed raised your account beyond all that
divine grace has ever yet pardoned, who should "limit the holy One of Israel?"
(Psa. 78:41) or who shall pretend to say, that it is impossible that God may,
for your very wretchedness, choose you out from others, to make you a monument
of mercy, and a trophy of hitherto unparalleled grace? The apostle Paul
strongly intimates this to have been the case with regard to himself; and why
might not you likewise, if indeed "the chief of sinners," obtain mercy, that in
you, as the chief, "Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a
pattern to them who shall hereafter believe?" (1 Tim. 1:15,16)
7. Gloomy as your apprehensions are, I would ask
you plainly, do you in your conscience think that Christ is not able to save
you? What! is he not "able to save, even to the uttermost, them that come unto
God by him?" (Heb. 7:25) Yes, you will say, abundantly able to do it; but I
dare not imagine that he will do it. And how do you know that he will not? He
has helped the very greatest sinners or all that have yet applied themselves to
him; and he has made thee offers of grace and salvation in the most engaging
and encouraging terms. "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink:"
(John 7:37) "let him that is a-thirst come; and whosoever will, let him take of
the water of life freely." (Rev. 22:17) "Come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28) And once more, "Him
that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." (John, 4:37) "True," will you
say, "none that are given him by the Father: could I know I were of that
number, I could then apply cheerfully to him." But, dear reader, let me entreat
you to look into the text itself, and see whether that limitation he expressly
added there. Do you there read, none of them whom the Father hath given me
shall be cast out? The words are in a much more encouraging form; and why
should you frustrate his wisdom and goodness by such an addition of your own?
"Add not to his words, lest he reprove thee;" (Prov. 30:6) take them as they
stand, and drink in the consolation of them. Our Lord knew into what perplexity
some serious minds might possibly be thrown by what he had before been saying,
"All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me;" and therefore, as it
were on purpose to balance it, he adds those gracious words, "him that cometh
unto me I will in no wise," by no means, on no consideration whatsoever, "cast
out."
8. If, therefore, you are already discouraged and
terrified at the greatness of your sins, do not add to their weight and number
that one greater, and worse than all the rest, a distrust of the faithfulness
and grace of the blessed Redeemer. Do not, so far as in you lies, oppose all
the purposes of his love to you. O distressed soul! whom dost thou dread? To
whom dost thou tremble to approach? Is there any thing so terrible in a
crucified Redeemer, in the Lamb that was slain? If thou carriest thy soul,
almost sinking under the burden of its guilt, to lay it down at his feet, what
dost thou offer him, but the spoil which he bled and died to recover and
possess? And did he purchase it so dearly, that he might reject it with
disdain? Go to him directly, and fall down in his presence, and plead that
misery of thine, which thou hast now been pleading in a contrary view, as an
engagement to your own soul to make the application, and as an argument with
the compassionate Savior to receive you. Go, and be assured, that "where sin
hath abounded, there grace shall much more abound." (Rom. 5:20) Be assured,
that, if one sinner can promise himself a more certain welcome than another, it
is not he that is least guilty and miserable, but he that is most deeply
humbled before God tinder a sense of that misery and guilt, and lies the lowest
in the apprehension of it.
Reflections on these Encouragements, ending in an humble and earnest Application to Christ for Mercy.
