Page images
PDF
EPUB

time. It is general, we may say universal, with those who profess to believe the Bible, to quiet their conscience by resolving to repent hereafter. We say this is a delusion. The determination to live in

sin and enjoy its pleasures for the present, is so utterly inconsistent with the determination to repent in future, that they cannot exist in the mind at the same time. It is impossible that these two purposes can exist in the mind at the same time; for they are destructive of each other, as light is of darkness. Light necessarily excludes darkness, and darkness is the absence of light. It is impossible for this room to be full of light, and full of darkness, at the same time; because the one necessarily implies the absence of the other. So the determination to live in sin, and enjoy its pleasures for the present, is utterly inconsistent with a determination to repent of it in future. The motive which leads to the purpose of living in sin is, the pleasure expected from it. This implies that the knowledge of this pleasure must be in the mind when the purpose is formed; for if the mind is totally ignorant of this pleasure no motive can be derived from it; and without a motive, neither this nor any other purpose can be formed. So the purpose of future repentance implies that the knowledge of this repentance is in the mind, when the purpose is formed. Now, repen. tance is a sorrow, a godly sorrow for sin. The purpose of living in sin, and of future repentance are supposed to exist in the mind at the same moment; of course the knowledge of this pleasure and of this sorrow is in the mind at the same moment. This knowledge will, in some degree, be the anticipation, the foretaste, respectively of this pleasure and this sorrow; that is, the mind derives from the same source, and at the same moment, both pleasure and pain, both joy and sorrow. This is plainly impossible; and the mind cannot accom plish impossibilities. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? or a vine figs? So can no fountain yield both salt water and fresh. It is admitted that both joy and sorrow may be in the mind at the same time, but then they are always derived from different sources, and never from the same. But in this case, they both spring from the same source, and are unmingled. The sinner, who postpones his reformation, does not intend that the pleasures of sin shall be mingled and embittered with anticipations of penitential sorrow. This sorrow, according to his supposed intention, is not to commence till some future, and generally distant period. When this sorrow commences, he does not intend that it shall be mingled and assuaged with the recollections of sinful pleasures. It is, therefore, not more absurd to suppose that a thing is, and is not, at the same moment, than to suppose these two purposes can exist in the mind, at the same time.

Besides; although the sinner may have felt sorrow, arising from different sources, yet he has never felt the sorrow of true repentance. This sorrow has something peculiar, by which it differs from all other sorrows. It is the gift, the free unmerited favor of the exalted Prince and Savior. It is an essential part of regeneration, which is

the work of the Holy Spirit. Now the sinner intends to accomplish his supposed repentance himself, by his own unaided power, as he intends to live in the practice of sin. The repentance which he intends to accomplish is to be his own work, not that of the Holy Spirit; to be the result of his own efforts, not the gift of the Savior. Hence, if he should accomplish all that he intends, it would not be evangelical repentance, which is the work of the Spirit and the gift of God. Repentance is produced, through the Spirit, by a deep sense of the vil ness and hatefulness of sin, connected with an "apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ." Now altho' the sinner may have some idea of the guilt and danger of sin, he has not the faintest idea of its vileness and hatefulness, nor of the mercy of God. He is not vile in his own eyes; and if vileness was charged upon him by others, he would, no doubt, resent it with indignant warmth. He does not even profess to be a christian, that is, to have asked and obtained of God the pardon of his sins; and by his own profession he is ignorant of that mercy, which is exercised in granting this pardon. It is impossible, therefore, to derive a motive from that knowledge which does not, and cannot exist in his mind; and it is equally impossible to form the supposed resolution without a motive.

Again; repentance is inseparably connected with other features of the christian character; with faith in Christ, love to God, gratitude, humility, peace of conscience, joy in the Lord, the hope of heaven, &c. The intention to repent in future is the intention to exercise all these devout and spiritual affections and dispositions, with which repentance is connected, and without which even true repentance itself is impossible. This repentance is not, and cannot be understood except in connection with these other affections; and these affections, love to God, for instance, and joy in the Lord, can be known only from experience; and the sinner declares by profession and practice that this is not his experience. True, he may, like a parrot, repeat the words; but like the parrot, too, he will be ignorant of their meaning. This knowledge, with that of the vileness of sin and the mercy of God, are things of the Spirit of God, which the natural man receiveth not; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. To discern and to know these things, he must become a spiritual man; he must be born of the Spirit, put on the new man, put on Christ; that is, he must cease to be an impenitent sinner, and become a real christian, a true penitent. Now he understands all these things, and now his intention to repent is real, because it goes into immediate operation; for now he abhors himself, and repents in dust and ashes. And now, too, his intention to live in sin is crucified and dies; proving most conclusively that the intention to repent in future, is not real, but a most fatal delusion, one of the most destructive instances of the deceitfulness of a desperately wicked heart.

Has there ever been an instance of repentance according to this supposed intention? Not one; we verily believe, not one. The lost spirits of Adam's race, now in the bottomless pit, can furnish no such in

stance: they have perished because they did not repent; though, doubtless, as they supposed, this was their intention. We may, and we do appeal to those christians here present; you have all, in the days of your thoughtless wickedness, had such intention; did you repent and embrace the Gospel according to this intention, and in consequence of it? and was the repentance which you have felt, and daily feel, the same thing, the same state and exercise of the mind, with that which your intention contemplated! We confidently affirm that you did not; and that your repentance is entirely different from what you intended. When your heart melted with godly sorrow it was a new feeling, the knowledge of which has not before entered the mind. Not an instance, therefore, can be found of repentance taking place according to this intention.

It is a truth, then, established on testimony the most ample and satisfactory, that there is not an impenitent sinner on earth who has, or can have an intention to repent in future. Such an intention would be the commencement of repentance, and he would, from that moment, cease to be impenitent. His intention to continue in sin is the com mencement, or rather, is a part of that sin. His determination is, never to repent, never to forsake sin, never to submit to God, never to ask for mercy, never to love God, never to be holy; but to remain the active enemy of God, of Christ, and of his salvation! He may think otherwise; he may, to quiet his conscience, persuade himself that he is sincere; but he is deceiving himself. The more successful he is in quieting his conscience, the stronger proof does he furnish that his heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Multitudes who profess the religion of Christ and are members of the church, are deceived. They mistake the mere workings of ima gination for the exercise of faith. The Savior is supposed to be seen hanging, suffering, bleeding, dying on the cross, speaking comfort to them, pronouncing their sins forgiven: all this is mistaken for the knowledge and belief of the gospel, in which alone Christ is offered for acceptance; of that atonement, on account of which God can be just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. Intense feelings, though nothing but mere animal passions, will be excited, which, re ceiving a tinge, a slight coloring from religion, and bearing some re semblance to these which are the work of the Spirit, are mistaken for genuine spiritual affections. Thus deception is stamped on the soul, to be removed in too many instances, only by the light of eternity, and the voice of the Judge, bidding them to depart as workers of iniquity.

Christians, even real christians, are not free from these deep and subtle delusions. We believe that we are much better than we really are; that there is far less wickedness in our hearts than there really is. Hence, apprehensive of little or no danger, we cease to watch and pray; and when the shock of temptation comes, calculated to rouse into fearful activity, the latent, the unsuspected wickedness of the heart, we are vanquished and fall, and thus bring a reproach on the

cause of Christ, and pierce our own souls through with many sorrows. Such lessons of bitter experience ought to teach us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We have, as we profess and believe, a zeal for the glory of God and the cause of Christ, which is the bitter zeal and strife mentioned by the apostle James, We give censure to others, not because they have sinned against God, but because they differ from us in our peculiar views and measures. We administer reproof more to gratify a censorious spirit than to promote the true interests of the church. This zeal is often nothing but party spirit, perhaps intolerant bigotry which condemns others for the same things which we readily excuse in one of our own party. We profess bortherly love, and christian affections; but it is confined chiefly to those of our own denomination, who are supposed to love us. This love may please ourselves, and those who are the objects of it; but sinners love each other for the same reason. We are the warm friends and zealous advocates for peace; and so little are we acquainted with our own hearts, that, under this profession, we are soon involved in contention, discord and strife; manifesting a fierceness of spirit which pierces like the point of a sword. But it is for peace we are so fiercely contending; yet it must be on our own terms. It is peace for which we thus bite and devour; and the end will justify the means. We believe that if we possessed the wealth which some oth ers do, we would be much more liberal than they are in the support of all benevolent institutions; while we are not as liberal as we might, and of course, ought to be with the means we now have. If we are not as liberal, now, as we might; and if we are not as liberal as others are, with means no greater, perhaps less, than our own, it is certain tha*, if our wealth was increased, we would not be more liberal in proportion. That we are not more liberal now, is not for the want of means, but of a willing mind. In this case there is a two-fold deception: we cast the blame of our stinted contributions really, though not professedly, on God. He has not given us the wealth which he has to some others; therefore we will not return to him his due portion of what he has entrusted to our stewardship. We profess to be clothed with humility; yet the exhibitions of this humility are little short of direct solicitations for nutriment to pride and vanity.

But time will not permit us to pursue this subject in all its details. We can all remember the time when we have supposed that sinful passions should never again pollute our hearts; and yet one hour has scarcely elapsed till some trivial occurrence excited within us a host of unhallowed feelings, which so disturbed our peace as to unfit us for any thing like devotion. We can all remember the hour of calm and spiritual reflection, when we determined, that, if God should spare us, we would, before this time, have made greater attainments in the divine life, and have done more for the cause of Christ, than we have done. All that was wanting, as we then believed, was the opportu nity; and yet when the opportunity has fairly come, our resolution has melted away, and the greatest effort made was, to invent an excuse for being less engaged, and for doing less than we had intended.

Sin, in the heart of christians, is as malignant, and as deceitful, as it is in the most impenitent: it differs only in degree, not in nature.

Beloved christians, professed disciples of Christ; you see from this subject the great importance of self-examination. Multitudes who oc cupy a place in the church on earth, perhaps an office, perhaps the ministerial office, will, at the last day, be publicly and solemnly denied by the Savior They may esteem themselves, and be esteemed by others, as christians; they may now be zealous, active and useful, but will then be driven from him as workers of iniquity. Are you not ready to say, Lord is it I? Are my hopes to be thus blasted by the crush of despair? If you should now be deceiving yourselves with a name that you live, and are dead, how much better to make the discovery now, while an honest and good heart may be obtained, than when mercy will be clean gone forever? If your hopes are founded on scriptural reasons, these reasons, instead of suffering loss, will brighten and strengthen under the most impartial examination; if they are not thus founded, this inquiry will be the best means, through the Spirit, of discovering the delusion. Your danger may be inferred from the frequency and earnestness with which you are cautioned against self-deception? Be not deceived: let no man deceive himself: take heed that ye be not deceived. By frequent examination and earnest prayer to God, you may discover what is genuine and what is spurious in your religious exercise; and thus you will learn both your strength and your weakness. Pride is the native and vigorous growth of a depraved and wicked heart; and under its influence you are far more likely to be deceived by thinking yourselves to be something, when you are nothing, than by thinking less favorably of yourselves than truth requires; by believing that you are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, than by judging that you are more wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, than you really are. Therefore, examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Examine, not only whether you have what you suppose to be faith, and love, and repentance, but whether this faith is the work and gift of God, whether this love is shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost, whether this repentance is working out reformation to salvation. Invoke, with the Psalmist, the aid of God: Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart! Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Impenitent sinners! this subject presents to you the most powerful motives to come to Christ, to come now, this day, this hour, this moment! These motives are derived, in part, from the clear and forcible exhibitions of your guilt and danger: from the proof that your hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. This wickedness, as the work of the devil, must be destroyed; as the old man,

« PreviousContinue »