of the Apostles were of course more explicit. Their arrows of conviction were dipped in the blood of Christ; and the display of the cross was the ground of their successful pleadings of love.1 66 This, like every other class, must be treated according to character. The principle and power of unbelief needs to be laid open to them, as the source of all the proud reasonings against the fundamental truths of the Gospel, and of the awful contempt of its gracious offers; and issuing at length in hardness of heart, and stupidity under the means of grace. Close remonstrances also upon the inexpressible sinfulness and danger of their state, especially in the aggravated guilt of the rejection of the Saviour, cannot be inapplicable. The case should be dealt with, like that of men, asleep in the immediate neighbourhood of fire'saving them with fear, pulling them out of the fire.”2 A solemn statement has often been owned with an awakening blessing. The man also should be brought, if possible, to a point, and some appeal fastened upon his own declarations. He thinks but little of eternity; yet he hopes to go to heaven, because he wishes to go thither. Here is ground to work upon-the folly of making his sincere and indolent wishes the ground of his hopes. He would give every thing on a deathbed to be assured of his safety: why is he not in earnest now? He knows Christ as a Saviour, but has no personal interest in him-no sense of want, no spiritual exercises of faith. He needs instruction, like a babe or a heathen, upon the elementary truths of the Gospel. The hardened of this class must be treated with the greatest mildness ;3 as if we spoke with 1 Acts ii. iii. iv. xiii. with Zech. xii. 10. 2 Jude 23. 3 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. the most compassionate regard to their condition,1 and with the most " beseeching" entreaties" Be ye reconciled to God." 2 Let them not suppose, that by denouncing the judgments of God, we seal their condemnation; but rather, that we endeavour to awaken them to escape from it-that we shut them up under wrath, only as the means of bringing them to Christ.3 And thus every exposure of wilful infatuation must be connected with the invitations of the Gospel.* Many, who are repelled by remonstrance, and proof against reasoning, have been overpowered by love. The cross of Calvary has arrested the attention of the most ignorant; 5 wrought irresistibly upon the most stubborn; and exhibited the vanity and wretchedness of the world to the conviction of its most determined votaries. The exhibition of the Saviour in his allsufficiency, suitableness, faithfulness, and love, affords ample warrant for enlivening hope in the most desperate cases. SECTION III. THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS. THE young ruler exemplifies our Lord's treatment of this case. Conviction was wanted, and the law was the medium employed. Ignorance of the law is the root of self-deception. An acquaintance with its spirituality unveils the hidden world of guilt and defilement, brings down self-complacency, and lays the sinner prostrate before the cross. 9 In another case, he made the 1 Comp. Jer. iv. 19. Mic. i. 7, 8. 2 2 Cor. v. 20. 3 See Gal. iii. 23, 24. 4 1 Sam. xii. 20-22. Ezra x. 2. Isa. lv. Acts ii. 23. with 37-39. 6 Acts ix. 4-6. 7 Gal. vi. 14. 9 Rom. vii. 9. 5 Matt. xxvii. 54. 8 Matt. xix. 16-21. necessity of an entire change of heart the instrument of conviction. He denounced the enmity or hypocrisy of this spirit as the wilful rejection of his gospel, and as making a "stumbling-stone and rock of offence" of the foundation laid for the trust, glory, and salvation of his people. The Epistles to the Romans and Galatians exhibit this principle, entrenched in a system of external religion, without faith, love, contrition, separation from the world, or spiritual desires; or in a dependence on the mercy of God, even in the rejection of the ordained means of its communication of which the man has no other notion, than as a help to supply deficiencies, upon the condition of future amendment. What makes the case of the self-justiciary so affecting, is, that we have no gospel message to deliver to him. Our Master "came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 3 The righteous need him not, seek him not, and have no interest in him. Our commission is to sinners; and judging from this man's own account of himself; of the goodness of his heart; the correctness of his conduct; and the multitude and excellency of his meritorious actions—we should conceive him not to belong to that "lost" race, whom the Son of man came expressly and exclusively "to save." 4 Indeed his spiritual ignorance presents a difficulty, at the outset, in dealing with him. We have with all simplicity and plainness laid before him the fallacy of his expectations. We have "judged him out of his own mouth "-nay, we have even compelled him to judge and to condemn himself. Yet the next conversation brings with it the mortification of finding him as far as ever removed even from the 1 John iii. 3 Matt. ix. 12, 13. 2 Matt. xxi. 42-44. 4 Luke xix. 10. with xviii. 9-13. comprehension of the gospel. The same dependence upon his own performances is expressed, as if no attempt had been made to undeceive him, and no confession extorted of the weakness of his foundation. To pursue the self-justiciary into all his "refuges of lies," and to sweep them away before his face, is a most laborious task. When disturbed in his first refuge of his own righteousness, he flies to repentance. Half-distrusting this security, he strengthens it by the merits of his Saviour, by the delusive substitution of sincerity for perfection, or by the recollection of his best endeavours, as a warrant for his hope in the mercy of God. But place him on his death-bed : is he sure that his works are not deficient in weight? that he has attained the precise measure, commensurate with the full and equitable demands of his holy and inflexible Judge ? What if "the hand-writing should then be seen 66 upon the wall," " against him and contrary to him?" Let sin, the law, and the Saviour, be exhibited before him, fully, constantly, and connectedly; let the pride, guilt, ingratitude, and ruin of unbelief, be faithfully and affectionately applied to his conscience; let him know that the substitution of any form of doctrine, or course of duties, in the place of a simple reliance on Christ, turns life itself into death, and hinders not only the law, but even the Gospel, from saving him. 1 Who knoweth, but thus he may be humbled, enlightened and accepted, in the renunciation of his own hopes, and the reception of the Gospel of Christ? 1 Matt. xxi. 33-46. Comp. Acts xiii. 38-41. SECTION IV. THE FALSE PROFESSOR. OUR Lord sifted this character by applying to his conscience the spirituality of his doctrines,1 the extent of his requirements, the connexion between the heart and conduct, and the remembrance of the different standards of God and the world. The Apostle, in dealing with him, determines, that the renewal of the heart, and not outward attainments or privileges, evidenced the real Christian.5 The Epistle of St. John reduces these chief marks and trials of the heart to love, as the presiding and animating principle of Christian experience and conduct. It is however difficult to apply these lines of the Scriptural model. The false professor is a very Proteus, evading our grasp by a constant change of form. Yet if he speaks of his comforts, how unlike the awakening and serious consolations of the Christian! There is no dread of self-deception, no acquaintance with his own sinfulness, no assault from Satan, because there is no real exercise of grace, or incentive to Christian diligence. If he speaks of his state before God, can he abide the Scriptural test of the holiness of God, of the "exceeding breadth" of his law, with its fearful disclosure of his utter depravity and defilement? Can he bear to have the detailed evidences of a radical change, the indispensable importance of an interest in Christ, and the solemn alternative, of "having the Spirit of Christ," or "being none 1 John vi. 60-66. 2 Luke xiv. 25-33. 4 Luke xvi. 15. 3 Matt. vii. 15-23. xii. 33-35. |