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? 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 thou art; for all sinners that come unto God by him; for the vilest of sinners that see and feel 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 Mas ter, 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, and 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, this greatness of salvation. For this It was planned in grace, and performed by grace. It is all of grace, and bounty, and love, from beginning to end. 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 labouring man, to labour with him too, to suffer the worst evils of human life, and the sorest pains of human death, that so he might be an oblation or sacrifice in the stead of his people, and render an atonement to the justice of God for them. These sufferings and this atonement are the debt due to the law and holiness of God, without which, consistently with his attributes, he could not spare the sinner, but by which he can be both just, and yet the Justifier of him who taketh refuge in Jesus. Yea, this dear Saviour having paid the penalty due to his trangressions, God is now faithful and just to forgive him his sins, or rather, more faithful and just to forgive them, than he could be in laying on the punishment again, which Christ endured in their behalf. Christ also lived upon earth to fulfil all righteousness; and he fulfilled it completely for his redeemed. He makes himself over to them; and all he hath is theirs, through faith in him. Thus they have a right to call him, what he is, "The Lord our Righteousness." God is well pleased for his righteousness' sake, and beholds every poor sinner who trusts in Christ, and lives in him, as unblamable and unreprovable in his own most piercing sight, yea, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. This righteousness is that garment of salvation, which covers them wholly, and fits them perfectly for the kingdom of heaven. Contrite soul, believest thou this? Is this good news, the very gospel or good news of God? Search and see. Read and pray over thy Bible, and thou wilt find, that it is the very voice and will of thy Lord. O that the fallow, the hard and barren ground of thy heart may be so broken up by his power, as to welcome this joyful news, like the thirsty soil receiving showers from the skies! CHAPTER III. The Soul's Difficulty in Embracing Mercy. "THESE are glad tidings indeed (the soul may say) to one weary and heavy laden with sin as I am, could they be apprehended rightly, and maintained constantly, in the strivings of sin, and the doubtings of nature. I am, therefore, earnest to know these two things:-1st, How shall I embrace this mercy of Christ proposed in the gospel? And, 2d, How shall I keep up the spirit and intentions of it in my heart and life, so as to endure to the end and be saved? "I know not how it is with others, but I find myself very unable, nay most unable, when I have the greatest occasion, to lay hold upon this mighty mercy of God, and to rest upon it, and to make it my own, and to use it for my consolation and support. I long for this with the full purpose of my heart; and my groans and tears in secret are well known unto God. But I have also an evil heart of unbelief, which suggests a thousand doubts and fears, sometimes of God's willingness to save me particularly, who am so very vile and faithless; and sometimes of my own reality of desire towards him, which is often dreadfully mixed with the care for other things, and overwhelmed with anxieties and sorrows, difficulties and temptations. O what great troubles and adversities hath God shown me! How shall I be delivered from the body of this death! How shall I lay hold on eternal life! How shall I know that I have fast hold, or be assured that none shall be able to pluck me from it! O Lord, to be assured of this thy favour, is, both in life and death, of more worth to me than a thousand times ten thousand worlds. For I might have these, and be wretched; but, with thee, I can have nothing but life and peace for evermore." - CHAPTER IV. The Nature and Exercise of Faith. FAITH is the gift and the operation of God. It comes by the Holy Spirit's power, moving and strengthening the sublimest faculties of the soul, and is really a regeneration, a re-begetting, a revival of life from the dead. Thus the believer is said to be born of the Spirit;" because it is the Spirit's office in the covenant of grace to regenerate; and because it is the promise concerning the Spirit to "all, even as many as God shall call." And thus also, the Christian is said to be "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." When this principle of divine life and light is given to the soul, it enables the soul to feel its own loss and misery, and to see its own sin and darkness. A man can have no true sight of the nature of sin but by this grace. He is, therefore, in some sense, a believer before he knows himself to be one. Faith acts in him, before he can be sensible of the reflex act of faith. He first lives; and then he feels his misery; and then he cries for mercy. He cries for mercy, and then is enlightened to see the way of mercy in the word of mercy. He is next enlightened to behold the free welcome and rich bounty of this mercy to all returning sinners. He is enabled to contemplate upon himself, and to view the fitness of God's |