NEWS OF SALVATION BY CHRIST BROUGHT TO THE CONVINCED AND CONDEMNED SINNER.
1. The awful things which have hitherto been said, intended not to grieve, but to help.--2. After some reflection on the pleasure with which a minister of the Gospel may deliver at message with which he is charged.--3.And some reasons for the repetition of what is in speculation so generally known.--4. 6. The author proceeds briefly to declare the substance of these glad tidings: viz. that God having in his infinite compassion sent his Son to die for sinners, is now reconcilable through him.--7.8. So that the most heinous transgressions shall be entirely pardoned to believers, and they made completely and eternally happy. The sinner's reflection on this good news.
1. My dear reader, it is the great design of the Gospel, and wherever it is
cordially received, it is the glorious effect of it, to fill the heart with
sentiments of love; to teach us to abhor all unnecessary rigor and severity,
and to delight not in the grief but in the happiness of our fellow-creatures. I
can hardly apprehend how he can be a Christian who takes pleasure in the
distress which appears even in a brute, much less in that of a human mind; and
especially in such distress as the thoughts I have been proposing must give, if
there be any due attention to their weight and energy. I have often felt a
tender regret while I have been representing these things; and I could have
wished from my heart that it had not been necessary to have placed them in so
severe and so painful a light. But now I am addressing myself to a part of my
work which I undertake with unutterable pleasure, and to that which indeed I
had in view in all those awful things which I have already been laying before
you. I have been showing you, that, if you hitherto have lived in a state of
impenitence and sin, you are condemned by God's righteous judgment, and have in
yourself no spring or hope and no possibility of deliverance. But I mean not to
leave you under this sad apprehension, to lie down and die in despair,
complaining of that cruel zeal which has "tormented you before your time."
(Matt. 8:29)
2. Arise, O thou dejected soul, that art
prostrate in the dust before God, and trembling under the terror of his
righteous sentence; for I am commissioned to tell thee, that, though "thou hast
destroyed thyself, in God is thine help." (Hos. 13:9) I bring thee "good
tidings of great joy," (Luke 2:10) which delight mine own heart while I
proclaim them, and will, I hope, reach and revive thine--even the tidings of
salvation by the blood and righteousness of the Redeemer. And I give it thee
for thy greater security, in the words of a gracious and forgiving God, that
"he is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and not imputing to them
their trespasses." (2 Cor. 5:19)
3. This in the best news that ever was heard, the
most important message which God ever sent to his creatures; and though I doubt
not that, living as you have done in a Christian country, you have heard it
often, perhaps a thousand and a thousand times; I will, with all simplicity and
plainness, repeat it to you again, and repeat it as if you bad never heard it
before. If thou, O sinner, shouldst now for the first time feel it, then will
it be as a new Gospel unto thee, though so familiar to thine ear; nor shall it
be "grievous to me" to speak what is so common, "since to you it is safe" and
necessary. (Phil. 3:1) They who are most deeply and intimately acquainted with
it, instead of being cloyed and satiated, wilt hear it with distinguished
pleasure; and as for those who have hitherto slighted it, I am sure they had
need to hear it again. Nor is it absolutely impossible that some one soul at
least may read these lines who hath never been clearly and fully instructed in
this important doctrine, though his everlasting all depends on knowing and
receiving it. I will therefore take care that such a one shall not have it to
plead at the bar of God, that, though he lived in a Christian country, he was
never plainly and faithfully taught the doctrine of salvation by Jesus Christ,
"the way, the truth, and the life, by whom alone we come unto the Father."
(John 14:6)
4. I do therefore testify unto you this day, that
the holy and gracious Majesty of heaven and earth, foreseeing the fatal
apostacy into which the whole human race would fall, did not determine to deal
in a way of strict and rigorous severity with us, so as to consign us over to
universal ruin and inevitable damnation; but, on the contrary, he determined to
enter into a treaty of peace and reconciliation, and to publish to all whom the
Gospel should reach, the express offers of life and glory, in a certain method
which his infinite wisdom judged suitable to the purity of his nature and the
honor of his government. This method was indeed a most astonishing one, which,
familiar as it is to our thoughts and our tongues, I cannot recollect and
mention without great amazement. He determined to send his own Son into the
world, "the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person," (Heb.
1:3) partaker of his own divine perfections and honors, to be, not merely a
teacher of righteousness and a messenger of grace, but also a sacrifice for the
sins of men; and would consent to his saving them on no other condition but
this, that he should not only labor, but die in the cause.
5. Accordingly, at such a period of time as
infinite wisdom saw most convenient, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in human
flesh; and after he had gone through incessant and long-continued fatigue, and
borne all the preceding injuries which the ingratitude and malice of men could
inflict, he voluntarily "submitted himself to death, even the death of the
cross;" (Phil. 2:8) and having been "delivered for our offences, was raised
again for our justification." (Rom. 4:25) After his resurrection he continued
long enough on earth to give his followers most convincing evidences of it, and
then "ascended into heaven in their sight;" (Acts 1:9-11) and sent down his
Spirit from thence unto his apostles, to enable them, in the most persuasive
and authoritative manner, "to preach the Gospel;" and he has given it in charge
to them, and to those who in every age succeed them in this part of their
office, that it should be published "to every creature," (Mark 16:15) that all
who believe in it may be saved by virtue of its abiding energy, and the
immutable power and grace of its divine Author, who is "the same yesterday.
today, and for ever." (Heb. 13:8)
6. This Gospel do I therefore now preach and
proclaim unto thee, O reader, with the sincerest desire that, through divine
grace, it may "this very day be salvation to thy soul." (Luke 19:9) Know
therefore and consider it, whosoever thou art, that as surely as these words
are now before thine eyes, so sure it is that the incarnate Son of God was
"made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men;" (1 Car. 4:9) his
back torn with scourges, his head with thorns, his limbs stretched out as on a
rack, and nailed to the accursed tree; and in this miserable condition he was
hung by his hands and feet, as an object of public infamy and contempt. Thus
did he die in the midst of all the taunts and insults of his cruel enemies, who
thirsted for his blood; and, which was the saddest circumstance of all, in the
midst of those agonies with which he closed the most innocent, perfect, and
useful life that ever was spent on earth, he had not those supports of the
divine presence which sinful men have often experienced when they have been
suffering for the testimony of their conscience. They have often burst out into
transports of joy and songs of praise, while their executioners have been
glutting their hellish malice, and more than savage barbarity, by making their
torments artificially grievous; but the crucified Jesus cried out, in the
distress of his spotless and holy soul, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?" (Matt. 27:46)
7. Look upon your dear Redeemer! look up to this
mournful, dreadful, yet, in one view, delightful spectacle! and then ask thine
own heart, Do I believe that Jesus suffered and died thus? And why did he
suffer and die? Let me answer in God's own words, "He was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our
peace was upon him, that by his stripes we might he healed: it pleased the Lord
to bruise him, and put him to grief, when he made his soul an offering for sin;
for the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isa. 53:5,6,10) So that I
may address you in the words of the apostle, "Be it known unto you therefore,
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins;" (Acts
13:38) as it was his command, just after he arose from the dead, "that
repentance and remission of sins should be, preached in his name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem," (Luke 24:47) the very place, where his blood
had so lately been shed in such a cruel manner. I do thereby testify to you, in
the words of another inspired writer, that Christ was made sin, that is, a sin
offering, "for; though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him:" (2 Cor. 5:21) that is, that through the righteousness he has
fulfilled, and the atonement he has made, we might be accepted by God as
righteous, and be not only pardoned, but received into his favor. "To you is
the word of this salvation sent," (Acts 13:26) and to you, O reader, are the
blessings of it even now offered by God, sincerely rely offered; so that, after
all that I have said under the former heads, it is not your having broken the
law of God that shall prove your ruin, if you do not also reject his Gospel. It
is not all those legions of sins which rise up in battle array against you that
shall be able to destroy you, if unbelief do not lead them on, and final
impenitency do not bring up the rear I know that guilt is a timorous thing; I
wilt therefore speak in the words of God himself nor can any be more
comfortable: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life," (John 3:36)
"and he shall never come into condemnation." (John 5:24) "There is therefore
now no condemnation," no kind or degree of it, "to them," to any one of them,
"who are in Jesus Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit."
(Rom. 8:1) You have indeed been a very great sinner, and your offences have
truly been attended with most heinous aggravations; nevertheless you may
rejoice in the assurance, that "where sin hath abounded, there shall grace much
more abound; "that where sin bath reigned unto death," where it has had its
most unlimited sway and most unresisted triumph, there "shall righteousness
reign to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 5:21) That
righteousness, to which on believing on him thou wilt be entitled, shall not
only break those chains by which sin is, as it were, dragging thee at its
chariot-wheels with a furious pace to eternal ruin, but it shall clothe thee
with the robes of salvation, shall fix thee on a throne of glory, where thou
shalt live and reign for ever among the princes uf heaven, shalt reign in
immortal beauty and joy. without one remaining scar of divine displeasure upon
thee, without any single mark by which it could be known that thou hadst even
been obnoxious to wrath and a curse, except it be an anthem of praise to "the
Lamb that was slain, and has washed thee from thy sins in his own blood." (Rev.
1:5)
8. Nor is it necessary, in order to thy being
released from guilt, and entitled to this high and complete felicity, that thou
shouldst, before thou wilt venture to apply to Jesus, bring any good works of
thine own to recommend thee to his acceptance. It is indeed true, that, if thy
faith be sincere, it will certainly produce them; but I have the authority of
the word of God to tell thee that if thou this day sincerely believest in the
name of the Son of God, thou shalt this day be taken under his care, and be
numbered among those of his sheep to whom he hath graciously declared that "he
will give eternal life, and that they shall never perish." (John 10:28) Thou
hast no need therefore to say, "Who shall go up into heaven, or who shall
descend into the deep for me? For the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in
thy heart." (Rom. 10:6,7,8) With this joyful message I leave thee; with this
faithful saying, indeed "worthy of all acceptation;" (1 Tim. l:15) with this
Gospel, O sinner, which is my life; and which, if thou dost not reject, will be
thine too.
The Sinner's Reflection on this Good News.