Too many, LETTER VI. Believe and live shock'd at what should charm them most, Despise the plain direction and are lost: Heaven on such terms! they cry with proud disdain, COWPER. THE fears suggested in your last, in reference to pardon, evince a suspicion that the love of God cannot be extended to any objects except those who are, in some way or other, more deserving than yourself. You are ready to say, 'Had I a heart to love God like David, had I talents to glorify God as Paul; were I like Nathanael, an Israelite without guile; then might I hope, with them, to have my imperfections pardoned, my person accepted, and my services rewarded. But this heart, with which I should love God, is carnal and not spiritual; my talents and abilities with which he should be glorified, are few, if any. My sincerity, which should be conspicuous in every duty, is strongly tinctured with hypocrisy and selfishness. With what confidence then can such a wretch draw near to Christ, or ever expect a welcome reception?' But this reasoning is fallacious: it proceeds, not on the ground of justification being an act of grace to the absolutely unworthy; but a reward conferred in consequence of pious dispositions or devotional duties, than which nothing can be more erroneous nor more dangerous. The supposition is repugnant to the very genius of the gospel, which signifies glad tidingsgood news. But would either of the epithets accord with the wonderful intelligence, if, in order to share the invaluable blessings it reveals, the man to whom this gospel comes must previously possess inherent righteousness, or evince by exteriour conduct that he really deserves it? 'Can he be clean before God, that is born of a woman?-Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?-Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.' Circumstanced as we now are, the tidings, so far from being good, would be quite the reverse. I say quite the reverse; because, to be interested in the good they contain, I must be the subject of qualifications which I never had, which I am unable to acquire, and which no human efforts can produce. A consideration, therefore, of my own deficiency, respecting these prerequisites, and of my utter inability to remedy the defect, would have a natural tendency, not to excite hope, but to generate despair. What qualifications did Saul of Tarsus possess when the glory of Christ shone into his heart on the road to Damascus? He says himself, in reference to this astonishing transaction, I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy. These, says a celebrated foreigner, are the preparatory deserts the apostle produces; for nothing intervenes between his having been all this, and his obtaining mercy, as the cause, or as fitting him for it: and had he been guilty of adultery, of drunkenness, and of perjury, he could, and no doubt would have said, I Paul, the adulterer-the drunkard-the perjured wretch-obtained mercy. What moral qualifications did the Saviour of sinners find in the unchaste Samaritan with whom he graciously entered into familiar conversation at Jacob's well; to whom he revealed himself as the Messias, who asked, and received of him that living water which she found to be as a well springing up into everlasting life? What evidence, either of compassion or compunction, did the jailor at Philippi manifest to Paul and Silas, previous to the earthquake that shook both his prison and his conscience; and to whom, in the distraction of inquiry, they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved? What previous qualifications had those Ephesian converts who were quickened when dead in trespasses and sins?—or those highly favoured Romans, who, when enemies, were reconciled to God by the death of his Son? What moral worth was beheld in Zaccheus-in Matthew But why do I select Saul of Tarsus, Zaccheus, or Matthew, the woman of Samaria, the jailor at Philippi, Ephesian or Roman converts, as instances of unparalleled unworthiness? All the world is become guilty before God-there is none righteous-there is none that doeth good, no not one. Is it not a lamentable fact evinced by the testimony of scripture, and the sad experience of the saints, that in our flesh dwelleth no good thing? That when we would do good, evil is present with us, so that we cannot do the things that we would? We are carnal, sold under sin-we are not sufficient to do any thing as of ourselves, but are absolutely without strength.' So far are we from having naturally any real love to God, that the 'carnal mind is enmity against him:' we do not love to retain him in our thonghts. R |