THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. PART I. CHAPTER I. ON ENTRANCE INTO SPIRITUAL LIFE. WHEREWITH shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? How shall I, a sinner approach the eyes of that Majesty, which cannot look upon sin without abhorrence? My iniquities are more in number than the hairs. of my head, and my heart sinketh within me on their remembrance. My affections are naturally all inclined to the world and worldly things. My judgment is depraved; my will is perverse; my understanding is darkened; my knowledge vain; and I see nothing in me or about me but what by guilt is altogether defiled. I have sore proof of that scripture, that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually, and that from the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in my nature; but only the wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores of sin. How then can I please God? How shall such a worm, such a lump of perverse ungodliness, obtain his favor? Shall I seek to deserve it by my own good thoughts?-Alas! I am not sufficient of myself to think even one. Shall I by excellency of words approach my offended Maker?-He regardeth not words, but the spirit and the heart; and my spirit and heart are wholly defiled. Shall I then by good works attempt to render him propitious?-O my God, where shall I find them! How can I begin to act, before I have begun to think, what is right? How can the exercises of the body be pure and free, when the soul is unholy and enslaved by sin? And if, from this day, I could cease from evil, and do perfectly what is just and right, which the experience of all men tells me is impossible; yet, what will become of the long black catalogue of iniquities, both in heart and life, which are already written against me? How shall I wipe off the sins of my nature and my life, respecting the times that are past? O Lord, thou hast revealed thyself, as a holy God, and a just. Thou hast declared, that thou wilt not spare the guilty. And I have offended thy righteous law in every hour and every action of my life. How then can I be saved? How is it possible for me to escape the wrath to come? My anxieties, like my sins, might justly overwhelm me; and I ought to tremble at the righteous judgment, which I know I deserve. There are but a few days at the most for me to live upon the earth; and I am not sure of one. O how shall I flee from the wrath to come! how shall I avoid eternal burnings, in which no man can dwell but with misery, and of which no man can think strictly but with horror! Lord, can such a sinner as I escape! Canst thou have mercy upon me! Such are the breathings of the heart when it first begins to awake, and live, and feel that there is an evil and a curse in sin, and that sin, with all its evil, lieth at the door. CHAPTER II. THE METHOD OF MERCY. SUCH a flowing from the heart, as that just mentioned, gladdens all heaven. It is the motion of the divine Spirit upon the troubled deep, and will ere long produce both life and peace. Soul, dost thou feel the power of thy own corruption? Are these thy meek, yet bitter cries?-O hear, and may thy God enable thee to believe, the glad tidings of his own salvation! Thou art a sinner, it is true; and thy mercy it is to see, in due measure, how great a sinner thou art. It is the first line in the large book of humiliation, which thou must be reading all thy life long. But Christ died for sinners such as thee; for all sinners that come unto God by him; for the vilest of sinners that see the vileness of sin, and bemoan it, as thou dost. He saved Mary Magdalene the harlot, Matthew the publican, Paul the persecutor, Peter, the swearer, liar, and denier of his Master, the malefactor on the cross, who had been a thief and a murderer, and ten thousand more like these; and he hath just the same power, means, and mercy to save thy soul, even thine. He saves graciously, that is, freely; because no wisdom nor worth of man have contrived, or could have obtained his greatness of salvation. It was planned in grace, and performed by grace. It is all of grace, and bounty, and love, from beginning to end. For this purpose he came into the world and took our nature upon him. He took it in its meanest and humblest form; and was content to be born in a stable, to be brought up by a laboring man, to labor with him too, to suffer the worst evils of human life, and the sorest pains of human death, that so he might be an |