Recollect only the famous words of St. James, which were lately explained to you in this pulpit with the greatest clearness, and pressed home with the utmost pathos. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." God giveth to all men liberally, to all without exception, and they who are deprived of this wisdom ought to blame none but themselves, not God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. True, to obtain it, we must ask it with a design to profit by it; we must ask it nothing wavering, that is, not divided between the hope and the fear of obtaining it; we must not be like those double-minded men, nho are unstable in all their ways, who seem by asking wisdom to esteem virtue, but who discover, by the abuse they make of what wisdom they have that virtue is supremely hateful to them. We must not resemble the waves of the sea which seem to offer the spectator on shore a treasure, but which presently drown him in gulfs from which he cannot possibly free himself. Doth God set this wisdom before us at a price too high? Ought we to find fault with him for refusing to bestow it, while we refuse to apply it to that moral use which justice requires? Can we desire God to bestow his grace on such as ask for it. only to insult him? O! That we were properly affected with the greatness of our depravity, and the shame of our slavery! But our condition, all scandalous and horrible as it is, seems to us all full of charms, When we are told that sin hath subverted nature, infected the air, confounded in a manner cold with heat, heat with cold, wet with dry, dry with wet, and disconcerted the beautiful order of creation, which constituted the happiness of creatures; when we cast our eyes on the maladies caused by sin, the vicissitudes occasioned by it, the dominion of death over all creatures, which it hath established; when we see ourselves stretched on a sick bed, cold, pale, dying amidst sorrows and tears, fears and pains, waiting to be torn from a world we idolize; then we detest sin, and groan under the weight of its chains. Should that spirit, who knocks to-day at the door of our hearts, say to us, open, sinner, I will restore nature to its beauty, the air shall be serene, and all the elements in harmony, I will confirm your health, re-animate your enfeebled frame, lengthen your life, and banish for ever from your houses death, that death which stains all your rooms with blood: Ah! every heart would burn with ardour to possess this assistance, and every one of my hearers would make these walls echo with, Come holy Spirit, come and dry up our tears by putting an end to our maladies. But when we are told, that sin hath degraded us from our natural dignity; that it hath loaded us with chains of depravity; that man, a creature formed on the model of the divine perfections, and required to receive no other laws than those of order, is become the sport of unworthy passions, which move him as they please, which say to him, go and he goeth, come and he cometh, which debase and villify him at pleasure, we are not affected with these mortifying truths, but we glory in our shame! Slaves of sin! Captives under a heavier yoke than that of Pharaoh, in a furnace more cruel than that of Egypt! Behold your deliverer! He comes to day to break your bonds and set you free. The assistance of grace is set before you. What am I saying? An abundant measure is already communicated to you. Already you know your misery. Already you are seeking relief from it. Avail yourself of this. Ask for this succour, and if it be refused you, ask again, and never cease asking till you have obtained it. Recollect, that the truths we have been preaching are the most mortifying of religion, and the most. proper to humble us. It was voluntarily, that we so often rebelled against God. Freely, alas! freely, and without compulsion we have some of us denied the truths of religion, and others given mortal wounds to the majesty of its laws. Ah! Are there any tears too bitter, is there any remorse too cutting, any cavern in the earth too deep to expiate the guilt of such a frightful character! Remember, the truths we have been teaching are full of consolation. This part of my text, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, is connected with the other part, but in me is thine help. God yet entreats us not to destroy ourselves. God hath not yet given us up. He doth not know, pardon this expression, he is a stranger to that point of honour, which often engages us to turn away for ever from those who have treated us with contempt. He, he himself, the great, the mighty God doth not think it beneath him, not unworthy of his glorious majesty yet to entreat us to return to him and be happy. O mercy, that reacheth to the heavens! O faithfulness reaching unto the clouds! What consolations flow from you to a soul afraid of having exhausted you! Above all, think, think, my brethren, that the truth we have been preaching will become one of the most cruel torments of the damned. Devouring flame, kindled by divine vengeance in hell, I have no need of your light; smoke ascending up for ever and ever, I have no need to be struck with your blackness; chains of darkness, that weigh down the damned, I have no need to know your weight, to enable me to forin lamentable ideas of the punishments of the reprobate, the truth in my text is sufficient to make me conceive your horror. Being lost, it will be remembered that there was a time when destruction might have been prevented. One of you will recollect the education God gave you, another the sermon he addressed to you, a third the sickness he sent to reform you: conscience will be obliged to do homage to an avenging God, it will be forced to allow, that the aid of the Spirit of God was mighty, the motives of the gospel powerful, and the duties of it practicable. It will be compelled to acquiesce in this terrible truth, thou hast destroyed thyself. A condemned soul will incessantly be its own tormentor, and will continually say, I am the author of my own punishment, I might have been saved, I opened and entered this horrible gulf of myself. |