The Method of Grace
Jeremiah 6:14 — “They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.
As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing
than to give them faithful, sincere, and upright ministers, so the
greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this
world, is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal,
lukewarm, and unskilled guides. And yet, in all ages, we find that
there have been many wolves in sheep's clothing, many that
daubed with untempered mortar, that prophesied smoother things
than God did allow. As it was formerly, so it is now;
there are many that corrupt the Word of God and deal deceitfully
with it. It was so in a special manner in the prophet Jeremiah's
time; and he, faithful to his Lord, faithful to that God who
employed him, did not fail from time to time to open his mouth
against them, and to bear a noble testimony to the honor of that
God in whose name he from time to time spake. If you will
read this prophecy, you will find that none spake more against
such ministers than Jeremiah, and here especially in the
chapter out of which the text is taken, he speaks very severely
against them — he charges them with several crimes; particularly,
he charges them with covetousness: says he in the 13th verse,
‘from the least of them even to the greatest of them, every
one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the
priest, every one dealeth false.’ And then, in the words
of the text, in a more special manner, he exemplifies how they had
dealt falsely, how they had behaved treacherously to
poor souls: says he, ‘They have healed also the hurt of the
daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there
is no peace.’ The prophet, in the name of God, had been denouncing
war against the people, he had been telling them that their
house should be left desolate, and that the Lord would certainly
visit the land with war. ‘Therefore,’ says he, in the 11th
verse, ‘I am full of the fury of the Lord; I am weary with holding
in; I will pour it out upon the children
abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together; for even the
husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him
that is full of days. And their houses shall be turned unto
others, with their fields and wives together; for I will stretch
out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.’
The
prophet gives a thundering message, that they might be
terrified and have some convictions and inclinations to repent;
but it seems that the false prophets, the false priests, went
about stifling people's convictions, and when they were hurt or a
little terrified, they were for daubing over the wound,
telling them that Jeremiah was but an enthusiastic preacher, that
there could be no such thing as war among them, and saying
to people, Peace, peace, be still, when the prophet told them
there was no peace. The words, then, refer primarily unto outward
things, but I verily believe have also a further reference to the
soul, and are to be referred to those false teachers, who,
when people were under conviction of sin, when people were
beginning to look towards heaven, were for stifling their convictions
and telling them they were good enough before. And, indeed, people
generally love to have it so; our hearts are exceedingly
deceitful, and desperately wicked; none but the eternal God knows
how treacherous they are. How many of us cry, Peace, peace,
to our souls, when there is no peace! How many are there who are
now settled upon their lees, that now think they are
Christians, that now flatter themselves that they have an interest
in Jesus Christ; whereas if we come to examine their experiences,
we shall find that their peace is but a peace of the devil's
making — it is not a peace of God's giving — it is not a peace
that passeth human understanding. It is matter, therefore, of
great importance, my dear hearers, to know whether we may speak
peace to our hearts. We are all desirous of peace; peace is an
unspeakable blessing; how can we live without
peace? And, therefore, people from time to time must be taught how
far they must go, and what must be wrought in them, before
they can speak peace to their hearts. This is what I design at
present, that I may deliver my soul, that I may be free from
the blood of those to whom I preach — that I may not fail to
declare the whole counsel of God. I shall, from the words of
the text, endeavor to show you what you must undergo, and what
must be wrought in you before you can speak peace to your
hearts.
But before I come directly to this, give me leave to
premise a caution or two. And the first is, that I take it for granted
you believe religion to be an inward thing; you believe it to be a
work in the heart, a work wrought in the soul by the power
of the Spirit of God. If you do not believe this, you do not
believe your Bibles. If you do not believe this, though you have
got your Bibles in your hand, you hate the Lord Jesus Christ in
your heart; for religion is everywhere represented
in Scripture as the work of God in the heart. ‘The kingdom of God
is within us,’ says our Lord; and, ‘He is not a Christian
who is one outwardly; but he is a Christian who is one inwardly.’
If any of you place religion in outward things, I shall
not perhaps please you this morning; you will understand me no
more when I speak of the work of God upon a poor sinner's heart,
than if I were talking in an unknown tongue. I would further
premise a caution, that I would by no means confine God
to one way of acting. I would by no means say, that all persons,
before they come to have a settled peace in their hearts,
are obliged to undergo the same degrees of conviction. No; God has
various ways of bringing his children home; his sacred
Spirit bloweth when, and where, and how it listeth. But, however, I
will venture to affirm this, that before ever you can
speak peace to your heart, whether by shorter or longer
continuance of your convictions, whether in a more pungent or in a
more
gentle way, you must undergo what I shall hereafter lay down in
the following discourse.
First, then, before you can speak peace to your hearts,
you must be made to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to
bewail, your actual transgressions against the law of God.
According to the covenant of works, ‘The soul that sinneth it shall
die;’ cursed is that man, be he what he may, that continueth not
in all things that are written in the book of the law to
do them. We are not only to do some things, but we are to do all
things, and we are to continue so to do; so that
the least deviation from the moral law, according to the covenant
of works, whether in thought, word, or deed, deserves eternal
death at the hand of God. And if one evil thought, if one evil
word, if one evil action, deserves eternal damnation, how many
hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve, whose whole lives
have been one continued rebellion against God! Before ever,
therefore, you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be brought
to see, brought to believe, what a dreadful thing it
is to depart from the living God. And now, my dear friends,
examine your hearts, for I hope you came hither with a design
to have your souls made better. Give me leave to ask you, in the
presence of God, whether you know the time, and if you do
not know exactly the time, do you know there was a time, when God
wrote bitter things against you, when the arrows of the
Almighty were within you? Was ever the remembrance of your sins
grievous to you? Was the burden of your sins intolerable to
your
thoughts? Did you ever see that God's wrath might justly fall upon
you, on account of your actual transgressions against God?
Were you ever in all your life sorry for your sins? Could you ever
say, My sins are gone over my head as a burden too heavy
for me to bear? Did you ever experience any such thing as this?
Did ever any such thing as this pass between God and your
soul? If not, for Jesus Christ's sake, do not call yourselves
Christians; you may speak peace to your hearts, but there is
no
peace. May the Lord awaken you, may the Lord convert you, may the
Lord give you peace, if it be his will, before you go home!
But further: you may be convinced of your actual sins,
so as to be made to tremble, and yet you may be strangers to Jesus
Christ, you may have no true work of grace upon your hearts.
Before ever, therefore, you can speak peace to your hearts, conviction
must go deeper; you must not only be convinced of your actual
transgressions against the law of God, but likewise of the foundation
of all your transgressions. And what is that? I mean original sin,
that original corruption each of us
brings into the world with us, which renders us liable to God's
wrath and damnation. There are many poor souls that think
themselves fine reasoners, yet they pretend to say there is no
such thing as original sin; they will charge God with injustice
in imputing Adam's sin to us; although we have got the mark of the
beast and of the devil upon us, yet they tell us we are
not born in sin. Let them look abroad into the world and see the
disorders in it, and think, if they can, if this is the
paradise in which God did put man. No! everything in the world is
out of order. I have often thought, when I was abroad, that
if there were no other argument to prove original sin, the rising
of wolves and tigers against man, nay, the barking of a
dog against us, is a proof of original sin. Tigers and lions durst
not rise against us, if it were not for Adam's first sin;
for when the creatures rise up against us, it is as much as to
say, You have sinned against God, and we take up our Master's
quarrel. If we look inwardly, we shall see enough of lusts, and
man's temper contrary to the temper of God. There is pride,
malice, and revenge, in all our hearts; and this temper cannot
come from God; it comes from our first parent, Adam, who, after
he fell from God, fell out of God into the devil. However,
therefore, some people may deny this, yet when conviction comes,
all carnal reasonings are battered down immediately and the poor
soul begins to feel and see the fountain from which all the
polluted streams do flow. When the sinner is first awakened, he
begins to wonder — How came I to be so wicked? The Spirit
of God then strikes in, and shows that he has no good thing in him
by nature; then he sees that he is altogether gone out
of the way, that he is altogether become abominable, and the poor
creature is made to live down at the foot of the throne
of God, and to acknowledge that God would be just to damn him,
just to cut him off, though he never had committed one actual
sin in
his life. Did you ever feel and experience this, any of you — to
justify God in your damnation — to own that you are by nature
children of wrath, and that God may justly cut you off, though you
never actually had offended him in all your life? If you
were ever truly convicted, if your hearts were ever truly cut, if
self were truly taken out of you, you would be made to see
and feel this. And if you have never felt the weight of original
sin, do not call yourselves Christians. I am verily
persuaded original sin is the greatest burden of a true convert;
this ever grieves the regenerate soul, the sanctified soul.
The indwelling of sin in the heart is the burden of a converted
person; it is the burden of a true Christian. He continually
cries out, “O! who will deliver me from this body of death,' this
indwelling corruption in my heart? This is that which disturbs
a poor soul most. And, therefore, if you never felt this inward
corruption, if you never saw that God might justly
curse you for it, indeed, my dear friends, you may speak peace to
your hearts, but I fear, nay, I know, there is no true peace.
Further: before you can speak peace to your hearts, you
must not only be troubled for the sins of your life, the sin of your
nature, but likewise for the sins of your best duties and
performances. When a poor soul is somewhat awakened by the terrors
of the Lord, then the poor creature, being born under the covenant
of works, flies directly to a covenant of works again.
And as Adam and Eve hid themselves among the trees of the garden,
and sewed fig leaves together to cover their
nakedness, so the poor sinner, when awakened, flies to his duties
and to his performances, to hide himself from God, and goes
to patch up a righteousness of his own. Says he, I will be mighty
good now — I will reform — I will do all I can; and then
certainly Jesus Christ will have mercy on me. But before you can
speak peace to your heart, you must be brought to see that
God may damn you for the best prayer you ever put up; you must be
brought to see that all your duties — all your
righteousness — as the prophet elegantly expresses it — put them
all together, are so far from recommending you to God, are
so far from being any motive and inducement to God to have mercy
on your poor soul, that he will see them to be filthy rags,
a menstruous cloth — that God hates them, and cannot away with
them, if you bring them to him in order to recommend you to
his favor. My dear friends, what is there in our performances to
recommend us unto God? Our persons are in an unjustified
state by nature, we deserve to be damned ten thousand times over;
and what must our performances be? We can do no good thing
by nature: ‘They that are in the flesh cannot please God.’ You may
do many things materially good, but you cannot do a thing
formally and rightly good; because nature cannot act above itself.
It is impossible that a man who is unconverted can act
for the glory of God; he cannot do anything in faith, and
‘whatsoever is not of faith is sin.’ After we are renewed,
yet we are renewed but in part, indwelling sin continues in us,
there is a mixture of corruption in every one of our duties;
so that after we are converted, were Jesus Christ only to accept
us according to our works, our works would damn us, for we
cannot pt up a prayer but it is far from that perfection which the
moral law requireth. I do not know what you may think,
but I can say that I cannot pray but I sin — I cannot preach to
you or any others but I sin — I can do nothing without sin;
and, as one expresseth it, my repentance wants to be repented of,
and my tears to be washed in the precious blood of my dear
Redeemer. Our best duties are as so many splendid sins. Before you
can speak peace in your heart, you must not only be made
sick of your original and actual sin, but you must be made sick of
your righteousness, of all your duties and performances.
There must be a deep conviction before you can be brought out of
your self-righteousness; it is the last idol taken out of
our
heart. The pride of our heart will not let us submit to the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. But if you never felt that you
had o righteousness of your own, if you never felt the deficiency
of your own righteousness, you cannot come to Jesus Christ.
There are a great many now who may say, Well, we believe all this;
but there is a great difference betwixt talking and feeling.
Did you ever feel the want of a dear Redeemer? Did you ever feel
the want of Jesus Christ, upon the account of the
deficiency of your own righteousness? And can you now say from
your heart, Lord, thou mayst justly damn me for the best duties
that ever I did perform? If you are not thus brought out of self,
you may speak peace to yourselves, but yet there is no peace.
But then, before you can speak peace to your souls,
there is one particular sin you must be greatly troubled for, and yet
I fear there are few of you think what it is; it is the reigning,
the damning sin of the Christian world, and yet the Christian
world seldom or never think of it. And pray what is that? It is
what most of you think you are not guilty of — and that is,
the sin of unbelief. Before you can speak peace to your heart, you
must be troubled for the unbelief of you heart.
But, can it be supposed that any of you are unbelievers here in
this church-yard, that are born in Scotland, in a reformed
country, that go to church every Sabbath? Can any of you that
receive the sacrament once a year — O that it were administered
oftener! — can it be supposed that you who had tokens for the
sacrament, that you who keep up family prayer, that any of you
do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? I appeal to your own
hearts, if you would not think me uncharitable, if I
doubted whether any of you believed in Christ; and yet, I fear
upon examination, we should find that most of you have not
so much faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the devil himself. I am
persuaded the devil believes more of the Bible than most
of us do. He believes the divinity of Jesus Christ; that is more
than many who call themselves Christians do; nay, he believes
and trembles, and that is more than thousands amongst us do. My
friends, we mistake a historical faith for a true faith,
wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God. You fancy you believe,
because you believe there is such a book as we call the
Bible — because you go to church; all this you may do, and have no
true faith in Christ. Merely to believe there was such
a person as Christ, merely to believe there is a book called the
Bible, will do you no good, more than to believe there was
such a man a Caesar or Alexander the Great. The Bible is a sacred
depository. What thanks have we to give to God for these
lively
oracles! But yet we may have these, and not believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. My dear friends, there must be a principle wrought
in the heart by the Spirit of the living God. Did I ask you how
long it is since you believed in Jesus Christ, I suppose most
of you would tell me, you believed in Jesus Christ as long as ever
you remember — you never did misbelieve. Then, you could
not give me a better proof that you never yet believed in Jesus
Christ, unless you were sanctified early, as from the
womb; for, they that otherwise believer in Christ know there was a
time when they did not believe in Jesus Christ. You say
you love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. If I were to
ask you how long it is since you loved God, you would say,
As long as you can remember; you never hated God, you know no time
when there was enmity in your heart against God. Then,
unless you were sanctified very early, you never loved God in your
life. My dear friends, I am more particular in this, because
it is a most deceitful delusion, whereby so many people are
carried away, that they believe already. Therefore, it is remarked
of Mr. Marshall, giving account of his experiences, that he had
been working for life, and he had ranged all his sins under
the ten commandments, and then coming to a minister, asked him the
reason why he could not get peace. The minister looked
at his catalogue, Away, says he, I do not find one word of the sin
of unbelief in all your catalogue. It is the peculiar work
of the Spirit of God to convince us of our unbelief — that we have
got no faith. Says Jesus Christ, of the sin of unbelief;
‘of sin,’ says Christ, ‘because they believe not on me.’ Now, my
dear friends, did God ever show you that you had no faith?
Were you ever made to bewail a hard heart of unbelief? Was it ever
the language of your heart, Lord, give me faith; Lord,
enable me to lay hold on thee; Lord, enable me to call thee my Lord and my
God? Did Jesus Christ ever
convince you in this manner? Did he ever convince you of your
inability to close with Christ, and make you to cry out to God
to give you faith? If not, do not speak peace to your heart. May
the Lord awaken you, and give you true, solid peace before
you go hence and be no more!
Once more then: before you can speak peace to your
heart, you must not only be convinced of your actual and original sin,
the sins of your own righteousness, the sin of unbelief, but you
must be enabled to lay hold upon the perfect righteousness,
the all-sufficient righteousness, of the Lord Jesus Christ; you
must lay hold by faith on the righteousness of Jesus Christ,
and then you shall have peace. ‘Come,’ says Jesus, ‘unto me, all
ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will
give you rest.’ This speaks encouragement to all that are weary
and heavy laden; but the promise of rest is made to them only
upon their coming and believing, and taking him to be their God
and their all. Before we can ever have peace with God, we
must be justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ, we must
be enabled to apply Christ to our hearts, we must have Christ
brought home to our souls, so as his righteousness may be made our
righteousness, so as his merits may be imputed to our
souls. My dear friends, were you ever married to Jesus Christ? Did
Jesus Christ ever give himself to you? Did you ever close
with Christ by a lively faith, so as to feel Christ in your
hearts, so as to hear him speaking peace to your souls? Did peace
ever flow in upon your hearts like a river? Did you ever feel that
peace that Christ spoke to his disciples? I pray God he
may come and speak peace to you. These things you must experience.
I am not talking of the invisible realities of another
world, of inward religion, of the work of God upon a poor sinner's
heart. I am not talking of a matte of great importance,
my dear hearers; you are all concerned in it, your souls are
concerned in it, your eternal salvation is concerned in it. You
may be all at peace, but perhaps the devil has lulled you asleep
into a carnal lethargy and security, and will endeavor to
keep you there, till he get you to hell, and there you will be
awakened; but it will be dreadful to be awakened and find
yourselves so fearfully mistaken, when the great gulf is fixed,
when you will be calling to all eternity for a drop of water
to cool your tongue, and shall not obtain it.
Give me leave, then, to address myself to several sorts
of persons; and O may God, of his infinite mercy, bless the
application!
There are some of you perhaps can say, Through grace we can go
along with you. Blessed be God, we have been convinced of our
actual sins, we have been convinced of original sin, we have been
convinced of self-righteousness, we have felt the bitterness
of unbelief, and through grace we have closed with Jesus Christ;
we can speak peace to our hearts, because
God hath spoken peace to us. Can you say so? Then I will salute
you, as the angels did the women the first day of the week,
All hail! Fear not ye, my dear brethren, you are happy souls; you
may lie down and be at peace indeed, for God hath given
you peace; you may be content under all the dispensations of
providence, for nothing can happen to you now, but what shall
be the effect of God's love to your soul; you need not fear what
sightings may be without, seeing there is peace within. Have
you
closed with Christ? Is God your friend? Is Christ your friend?
Then, look up with comfort; all is yours, and you are Christ's,
and Christ is God's. Everything shall work together for your good;
the very hairs of your head are numbered; he that toucheth
you, toucheth the apple of God's eye. But then, my dear friends,
beware of resting on your first conversion. You that are
young believers in Christ, you should be looking out for fresh
discoveries of the Lord Jesus Christ every moment; you must
not build upon your past experiences, you must not build upon a
work within you, but always come out of yourselves to the
righteousness of Jesus Christ without you; you must be always
coming as poor sinners to draw water out of the wells of salvation;
you must be forgetting the things that are behind, and be
continually pressing forward to the things that are before. My dear
friends, you must keep up a tender, close walk with the Lord Jesus
Christ.
There are many of us who lose our peace by our
untender walk; something or other gets in betwixt Christ and us,
and we fall into darkness; something or other steals our
hearts from God, and this grieves the Holy Ghost, and the Holy
Ghost leaves us to ourselves. Let me, therefore, exhort you
that have got peace with God, to take care that you do not lose
this peace. It is true, if you are once in Christ, you cannot
finally fall from God: ‘There is no condemnation to them that are
in Christ Jesus;’ but if you cannot fall finally, you may
fall foully, and may go with broken bones all your days. Take care
of backslidings; for Jesus Christ's sake, do not grieve
the Holy Ghost you may never recover your comfort while you live. O
take care of going a gadding and wandering from God, after
you have closed with Jesus Christ. My dear friends, I have paid
dear for backsliding. Our hearts are so cursedly wicked, that
if you take not care, if you do not keep up a constant watch, your
wicked hearts will deceive you, and draw you aside. It
will be sad to be under the scourge of a correcting Father;
witness the visitation of Job, David, and other saints in Scripture.
Let me, therefore, exhort you that have got peace to keep a close
walk with Christ.
I am grieved with the loose walk of those
that are Christians, that have had discoveries of Jesus Christ;
there is so little difference betwixt them and other people,
that I scarce know which is the true Christian. Christians are
afraid to speak of God — they run down with the
stream; if they come into worldly company, they will talk of the
world as if they were in their element; this you would not
do when you had the first discoveries of Christ's love; you could
talk then of Christ's love for ever, when the candle of
the Lord shined upon your soul. That time has been when you had
something to say for your dear Lord; but now you can go into
company and hear others speaking about the world bold enough, and
you are afraid of being laughed at if you speak for Jesus
Christ. A great many people have grown conformists now in the
worst sense of the word; they will cry out against the ceremonies
of the church, as they may justly do; but then you are mighty fond
of ceremonies in your behavior; you will conform to the
world, which is a great deal worse. Many will stay till the devil
bring up new fashions. Take care, then, not to be conformed
to the world. What have Christians to do with the world?
Christians should be singularly good, bold for their Lord, that
all who are with you may take notice that you have been with
Jesus. I would exhort you to come to a settlement in Jesus Christ,
so as to have a continual abiding of God in your heart. We go
a-building on our faith of adherence, and lost our comfort;
but we should be growing up to a faith of assurance, to know that
we are God's, and so walk in the comfort of the Holy Ghost
and be edified. Jesus Christ is now much wounded in the house of
his friends. Excuse me in being particular; for, my
friends, it grieves me more that Jesus Christ should be wounded by
his friends than by his enemies. We cannot expect anything
else from Deists; but for such as have felt his power, to fall
away, for them not to walk agreeably to the vocation wherewith
they are called — by these means we bring our Lord's religion into
contempt, to be a byword among the heathen. For Christ's
sake, if you know Christ keep close by him; if God have spoken
peace, O keep that peace by looking up to Jesus Christ
every moment. Such as have got peace with God, if you are under
trials, fear not, all things shall work for your good; if
you are under temptations, fear not, if he has spoken peace to
your hearts, all these things shall be for your good.
But what shall I say to you that have got no peace with
God? — and these are, perhaps, the most of this congregation: it makes
me weep to think of it. Most of you, if you examine your hearts,
must confess that God never yet spoke peace to you; you are
children of the devil, if Christ is not in you, if God has not
spoken peace to your heart. Poor soul! What a cursed condition
are you in. I would not be in your case for ten thousand, thousand
worlds. Why? You are just hanging over hell.
What peace can you have when God is your enemy, when the wrath of
God is abiding upon your poor soul? Awake, then, you that
are sleeping in a false peace, awake, ye carnal professors, ye
hypocrites that go to church, receive the sacrament, read your
Bibles, and never felt the power of God upon your hearts; you that
are formal professors, you that are baptized heathens;
awake, awake, and do not rest on a false bottom. Blame me not for
addressing myself to you; indeed, it is out of love to your
souls. I see you are lingering in your Sodom, and wanting to stay
there; but I come to you as the angel did to Lot, to take
you by the hand. Come away, my dear brethren — fly, fly, fly for
your lives to Jesus Christ, fly to a bleeding God, fly to
a throne of grace; and beg of God to break your hearts, beg of God
to convince you of your actual sins, beg of God to convince
you of your original sin, beg of God to convince you of your
self-righteousness — beg of God to give you faith, and to
enable you to close with Jesus Christ.
O you that are secure, I
must be a son of thunder to you, and O that God may awaken
you, though it be with thunder; it is out of love, indeed, that I
speak to you. I know by sad experience what it is to be
lulled asleep with a false peace; long was I lulled asleep, long
did I think myself a Christian, when I knew nothing of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I went perhaps farther than many of you do; I
used to fast twice a-week, I used to pray sometimes none
times
a-day, I used to receive the sacrament constantly every
Lord's-day; and yet I knew nothing of Jesus Christ in my heart, I
knew not that I must be a new creature — I knew nothing of inward
religion in my soul. And perhaps, many of you may be deceived
as I, poor creature, was; and, therefore, it is out of love to you
indeed, that I speak to you. O if you do not take care,
a form of religion will destroy your soul; you will rest in it,
and will not come to Jesus Christ at all; whereas, these
things are only the means, and not the end of religion; Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to all that believe.
O, then, awake, you that are settled on your lees; awake you
Church professors; awake you that have got a name to live, that
are rich and think you want nothing, not considering that you are
poor, and blind, and naked; I counsel you to come and buy
of Jesus Christ gold, white raiment, and eye-salve. But I hope
there are some that are a little wounded; I hope God does not
intend to let me preach in vain; I hope God will reach some of
your precious souls, and awaken some of you out of your carnal
security; I hope there are some who are willing to come to Christ,
and beginning to think that they have been building upon
a false foundation. Perhaps the devil may strike in, and bid you
despair of mercy; but fear not, what I have been speaking
to you is only out of love to you — is only to awaken you, and let
you see your danger.
If any of you are willing to be
reconciled to God, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is willing
to be reconciled to you. O then, though you have no peace
as yet, come away to Jesus Christ; he is our peace, he is our
peace-maker — he has made peace betwixt God and offending man.
Would you have peace with God? Away, then, to God through Jesus
Christ, who has purchased peace; the Lord Jesus has shed his
heart's blood for this. He died for this; he rose again for this;
he ascended into the highest heaven, and is now
interceding at the right hand of God. Perhaps you think there will
be no peace for you. Why so? Because you are sinners? Because
you have crucified Christ — you have put him to open shame — you
have trampled under foot the blood of the Son of God? What
of all this? Yet there is peace for you. Pray, what did Jesus
Christ say of his disciples, when he came to them the first
day of the week? The first word he said was, he showed them his
hands and his side, and said, ‘Peace be unto you.’
It is as much as if he had said, Fear not, my disciples; see my
hands and my feet how they have been pierced for your sake;
therefore fear not. How did Chris speak to his disciples? ‘Go tell
my brethren, and tell broken-hearted Peter in particular,
that Christ is risen, that he is ascended unto his Father and your
Father, to his God and your God.’ And after Christ rose
from the dead, he came preaching peace, with an olive branch of
peace, like Noah's dove; ‘My peace I leave with you.’
Who were they? They were enemies of Christ as well as we, they
were deniers of Christ once as well as we. Perhaps some of
you have backslidden and lost your peace, and you think you
deserve no peace; and no more you do. But, then, God will heal
your backslidings, he will love you freely. As for you that are
wounded, if you are made willing to come to Christ, come away.
Perhaps some of you want to dress yourselves in your duties, that
are but rotten rags. No, you had better come naked as you
are, for you must throw aside your rags, and come in your blood.
Some of you may say, We would come, but we have got a hard
heart. But you will never get it made soft till ye come to Christ;
he will take away the heart of stone, and give you an heart
of flesh; he will speak peace to your souls; though ye have
betrayed him, yet he will be your peace. Shall I prevail upon
any of you this morning to come to Jesus Christ? There is a great
multitude of souls here; how shortly must you all die, and
go to judgment! Even before night, or to-morrow's night, some of
you may be laid out for this kirk-yard. And how will you
do if you be not at peace with God — if the Lord Jesus Christ has
not spoken peace to your heart? If God speak not peace to
you here, you will be damned for ever. I must not flatter you, my
dear friends; I will deal sincerely with your souls. Some
of you may think I carry things too far. But, indeed, when you
come to judgment, you will find what I say is true, either
to
your eternal damnation or comfort. May God influence your hearts
to come to him! I am not willing to go away without persuading
you. I cannot be persuaded but God may make use of me as a means
of persuading some of you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
O did you but feel the peace which they have that love the Lord
Jesus Christ! ‘Great peace have they,’ say the psalmist, ‘that
love they law; nothing shall offend them.’ But there is no peace
to the wicked.
I know what it is to live a
life of sin; I was obliged to sin in order to stifle conviction.
And I am sure this is the way many of you take; If you get
into company, you drive off conviction. But you had better go to
the bottom at once; it must be done — your wound must be
searched, or you must be damned. If it were a matter of
indifference, I would not speak one word about it. But you will be
damned without Christ. He is the way, he is the truth, and the
life. I cannot think you should go to hell without Christ.
How
can you dwell with everlasting burnings? How can you abide the
thought of living with the devil for ever? Is it not better
to have some soul-trouble here, than to be sent to hell by Jesus
Christ hereafter? What is hell, but to be absent from Christ?
If there were no other hell, that would be hell enough. It will be
hell to be tormented with the devil for ever. Get acquaintance
with God, then, and be at peace. I beseech you, as a poor
worthless ambassador of Jesus Christ, that you would be
reconciled to God. My business this morning, the first day of the
week, is to tell you that Christ is willing to be reconciled
to you. Will any of you be reconciled to Jesus Christ? Then, he
will forgive you all your sins, he will blot out all your
transgressions. But if you will go on and rebel against Christ,
and stab him daily — if you will go on and abuse Jesus Christ,
the wrath of God you must expect will fall upon you. God will not
be mocked; that which a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. And if you will not be at peace with God, God will not be at
peace with you. Who can stand before God when he is angry?
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.
When the people came to apprehend Christ, they fell to the
ground when Jesus said, ‘I am he.’ And if they could not bear the
sight of Christ when clothed with the rags of mortality,
how will they hear the sight of him when he is on his Father's
throne?
Methinks I see the poor wretches dragged out of their
graves by the devil; methinks I see them trembling, crying out to
the hills and rocks to cover them. But the devil will say,
Come, I will take you away; and then they shall stand trembling
before the judgment-seat of Christ. They shall appear before
him to see him once, and hear him pronounce that irrevocable
sentence, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed.’
Methinks I hear the poor
creatures saying, Lord, if we must be damned, let some angel
pronounce the sentence. No, the God of love, Jesus Christ,
will pronounce it. Will ye not believe this? Do not think I am
talking at random, but agreeably to the Scriptures of truth.
If you do not, then show yourselves men, and this morning go away
with full resolution, in the strength of God, to cleave
to Christ. And may you have no rest in your souls till you rest in
Jesus Christ! I could still go on, for it is sweet to talk
of Christ. Do you not long for the time when you shall have new
bodies — when they shall be immortal, and made like Christ's
glorious body? And then they will talk of Jesus Christ for
evermore. But it is time, perhaps, for you to go and prepare for
your respective worship, and I would not hinder any of you. My
design is, to bring poor sinners to Jesus Christ. O that God
may bring some of you to himself! May the Lord Jesus now dismiss
you with his blessing, and may the dear Redeemer convince
you that are unawakened, and turn the wicked from the evil of
their way! And may the love of God, that passeth all
understanding, fill your hearts. Grant this, O Father, for
Christ's sake; to whom, with thee and the blessed Spirit, be all
honor and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.
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