Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

By one offering, Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified....Heb. x. 14.

:

We have two remarkable instances of Paul's holy zeal for the glory of his Lord. 1st. Against a gross sin in the church of Corinth this brought a scandal upon the holy gospel of Christ. 2d. Against a legal, self-righteous spirit which obtained in the church of Galatia: this depreciated and dishonored the finished work of Christ, and perverted the faith of his members. It is hard to say, whether Paul's zeal exceeded most in the former or the latter; hence learn, profaneness and pride are equally contrary to the faith of the gospel : as a holy faith brings Christ and his salvation into the heart, it casts out the love of sin, as well as self-righteous hopes. Here is a glorious truth for precious faith to fix upon. O, that through the Spirit, it may bring joy and peace to our souls. Consider, who are said to be "sanctified" here? 1st. Those who are separated and set apart by God the Father, according to his electing love....Jude, 1. 2d. Separated, set apart and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, to possess a holy faith in Jesus and a holy life from him. 3d. In what sense has Christ perfected them for ever? My dear reader, it is for want of faith in this that we feel so much distress in our consciences, so little love to Christ in our hearts, and enjoy no more peace with God in our souls: sin causes all this: but Christ has perfected us for ever; that is, he hath taken away all our sins, fully and finally from before God; he has so perfectly freed us from all the charges of law and justice, that there is now not one condemnation against us, no more than if we had never sinned. 3d. How has Christ done this? "By ONE offering." O the love of Christ in this offering for sinners who deserved it not! O the willingness of Christ in it! "He GAVE himself for our sins."....Gal. i. 4. O the pains and agonies he endured for our salvation! O the glorious efficacy of his offering upon the cross! He made there (by his ONE oblation of himself ONCE offered) a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for our sins: thus he hath once for all and for ever satisfied the justice of God, appeased his wrath, and perfectly reconciled his holiness to us. But, 4th. How is the comfort of this enjoyed? By faith. Is this true? Yes, says Paul, we have the most infallible evidence for its veracity, "Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us."....Heb. x. 15. Then, as we value peace of conscience, hope of heart, and love of soul, we are bound to honor the spirit of truth, by FAITH UNFEIGNED.... 1 Tim. i. 5.

For ever perfected by Christ,

To see God's holy face:

This cheers with love, sin to resist,
And run the heav'nly race,

Thy off'ring once upon the cross,
Through faith doth sanctify;
All else is but as dung and dross,
Our souls to purify.

M.

By one offering, Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified....Heb. x. 14.

My soul is caught;

Heav'ns sovereign blessings clust'ring from the cross,
Rush on her, in a throng, and close her round,

The prisoner of amaze!

I beg this plea to be admitted, as excuse for a second meditation on this text. O sinner! if you believe in a crucified Saviour, you are born of God, know the love of God, are sanctified by God, and are for ever perfected before God. All this flows from the one offering of the Son of God; bore witness to in the word and in our hearts by the Spirit of God: this, like every other blessed truth of Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit's love and grace, is to have its use and influence upon our hearts and lives. Lord, grant it may. Consider, 1st. Hath Christ for ever perfected you before God, in taking away your sins and reconciling your person? O then, with what holy boldness and filial confidence may you draw nigh to God! Heaven is open to you: God rejoices over you, and he will eternally receive you. 3d. Hold the mystery of this faith in a pure conscience: answer every demand and every threatening of the law with this ONE OFFERING: plead your perfection by it to divine justice: thus you will honor both the offering, the law which is fulfilled by it, and justice, which is perfectly satisfied with it. 3d. Seek no other: look not to any other matter or thing within or without you for peace with God and reconciliation to God, than the one offering of Christ reject, with the utmost abhorrence, that proud, popish notion of more justifications than one: win that glorious one, perfected forever by the one offering of the Son of God; for any attempt towards it is an act of the greatest dishonor, highest unbelief, and vilest ingratitude to our dear Saviour. 4th. As you are for ever perfected before God, be ever perfecting holiness in the fear of God. While this faith is kept clear and lively in the heart, it works BY the most generous love of Christ, and works IN US the most fervent love to him; and love is the very life of holiness; love, and live as you will love, and go where you will love, and you will be dead to all that God forbids and alive to all that he commands. 5th. Let not the sight of your own imperfection and unprofitableness, as a miserable sinner, deject your mind or distress your soul, so as to cause you to let go the faith, that Christ hath forever perfected you before God. What thou hast attained, saith Christ, "hold fast till I come"....Rev. ii. 25.

Amazing mystery! O, for faith

To hold it in my conscience fast!

We are for ever perfected,

In Christ our head, from first to last. M.

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ....Rom. i. 16.

SAYS Mr. Bunyan, "Of all the men that I met with in my pilgrimage, SHAME, I think, bears the wrong name: this bold-faced shame would never have done; I could scarce shake him out of my company; he would be continually haunting me and whispering me in the ear; indeed this shame is a bold villain."....Pilgrim's Progress. Have not you found the same? Lord, pardon thy servant, that this shame still cleaves unto me. Lord, I am ashamed of myself, that I ever should be ashamed of thee and thy gospel. Lion of the tribe of Judah, drive away this shame from my heart. Consider, 1st. Its origin. It is begot by pride. We are proud of our good names, fair characters, our reason and understanding, among the men of the world. If we openly profess the gospel of Christ, and live and walk under the influence of it, we cannot do as the rest of the world does. Hence we shall soon get a nick-name; be called a Methodist, and deemed a fool, a madman, an enthusiast. Pride cannot bear this: it is ashamed of it. Then, 2d. It works by fear. Fear says, take heed to yourself: do not go too far: keep your gospel to yourself: you will surely suffer for it: you will lose your friends, character, and business: you will set all the world against you, and then, how will you live. Hence, 3d. You see that pride and fear are the cursed brats of atheism and unbelief: they banish the Providence of God and the promises of his grace out of our mind. Hence it is plain, that faith, a living faith in the gospel of Christ, will drive pride, fear and shame out of the heart, with, get ye to hell from whence ye sprang. O, consider the dishonor it is to precious Christ to be ashamed of his glorious gospel. Does that bring to our souls the glad tidings of the pardon of our sins, peace with God, justification before him, and eternal enjoyment of him through the salvation of Christ? Did he make himself of no reputation for us? Did he endure the cross and despise the shame of hanging naked upon it as a cursed malefactor to save us? And shall we be ashamed of him? Where then is our faith in him and love to him? It is one thing to be beset with shame and another to give way to it. A lively faith begets warm love. Then shame durst not shew his base head. Without thee, O Jesus, we can do nothing. Through thy strength we can do all things. Lord strengthen our souls in the faith and love of thee. O suffer us never, never to be ashamed of thee, and of thy cross. But let us ever glory in thee, and of thee. And, dear Lord help us, that we may never be a shame to thee and thy gospel, by an unchristian life, and unholy walk.

[blocks in formation]

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow....Psalm li. 7.

HERE is majesty in misery: a king in penitence: a monarch of the earth, at the footstool of mercy. David as a miserable sinner, polluted with the complicated crimes of adultery and murder, is here ascribing honor to the blood of the Lamb, by the pleading of faith. Had you now asked David, what he thought of the pleasures of sin? He would have read the most affecting lecture on its exceeding sinfulness, and the exceeding distress, terror and horror it brought upon his soul. Though invested with the government of a kingdom, yet he could not command away its terrors from his mind, its burden from his conscience, nor its pollution from his soul. He now found the words of his Son fully verified, "Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him."....Eccles. x. 8. He had broke through the hedge of God's law, and that old serpent who tempted him, now stings and torments him. But when Nathan had convinced David of his transgressions, so that he cried out, "I have sinned," did not the prophet add? "The Lord also hath put away thy sin."....2 Sam. xii. 13. Yes. Nevertheless, this penitential psalm was wrote after this. From whence we may infer, Ist. That though sin is put away by the Lord Jesus in the court of heaven, yet the poor sinner may not enjoy the comfort of this in his own conscience. 2d. There may be true faith in the blood of the Lamb, that it cleanses 'from all sin, and yet the soul left to cry out under the pollution of sin. 3d. A regenerate soul is as much concerned to be cleansed from the pollution of sin as to be comforted with pardon for sin. 4th. That true faith manifests itself in the heart, by its turning away from every thing, and turning to that blessed fountain ⚫opened for sin and uncleanness. Not my tears of repentance, but thy precious blood, O Lamb of God, can wash me. Precious word! "The blood of the Son of God cleanseth from ALL sin."....1 John 1.7. 5th. Faith ascribes the utmost efficacy to it, "Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." I shall be as free and as fair from the least stain of sin in God's sight, as if I had never sinned: "Without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing."....Eph. v. 27. Hence learn, 1st. As you value the sense of God's love and peace of conscience, beware of sin. 2d. If you sin, flee instantly to the blood of the Lamb to be cleansed and to no other remedy. 3d. Believe, wait and pray. No power can forgive sin, nor cleanse from it, but that Lord against whom it is committed. "If we confess our sins,

he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, all unrighteousness."....1 John i. 9.

and to cleanse us from

The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son: for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children....Hos. xiii. 13..

FOOLISHNESS is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him....Prov. xxii. 15. Though God's children are made wise unto salvation, yet folly is bound up in their nature: their conduct discovers it, and proves the necessity of the rod of correction to drive it from them. Here is a threaten-ing; a charge; the reason for it, and a most precious promise from the Lord. 1st. The threatening. God loves his children too well to spare the rod and spoil them; "for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth."....Prov.. iii. 12. Therefore, painful sorrows like those of a travailing woman, come upon them: nature's pains prove nature's remedies. The painful visitations of love, prove spiritual remedies to the soul: they bring forth abundant blessings. O ye children of God, beware of construing love-tokens of afflictions into black marks of hatred. 2d.. The charge. "He is an unwise son." My dear heavenly Father, what great reason hast thou for this charge against me? O, in how many ways have I displayed my folly! Though thy wisdom sees it, yet thy loving, gracious heart does not disinherit, but thou saith, son still.. "Faith works by this love," all hope and peace in the conscience, and holiness of life. 34. See the reason of the charge. "He should not stay long in the place of breaking forth of children:" this. was fulfilled in the conduct of the disciples.. Christ compared them to a woman in travail : told them they should "weep and lament, and be sorrowful," but adds, "Your sorrow. shall be turned into joy."....John xvi. 20. Yet they were unwise sons; they staid too "long in the place and breaking forth of chil-dren." Instead of being delivered of their pains and sorrows, by faith in their Lord's death, they indulged them. hence our Lord upbraids them: "O. fools, and slow of heart to believe.”........Luke xxiv. 25. Do not you fall under this reproof also?. Do you act as a wise or an unwise son? Where are you? Has faith in your Lord delivered you of your pains, and brought forth joy? Or, are you still staying in the chamber of labour, sighing and sorrowing under bondage to fear, instead of rejoicing, as. children of God?. This is really the case with many disciples now: they walk not in the glorious liberty of the children of God: they do not in their minds and consciences. stand fast, triumph and rejoice in Christ's finished salvation, but are poring upon what they are in themselves. 4th. Look at the precious promises of your. Lord, "I will ransom and redeem them," &C... Hos. xiii.. 14.

« ZurückWeiter »