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ANXIOUS INQUIRER 



SALVATION 



BY REV. JOHN ANGELL JAMES, 

OF BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND! * 



" W&at must I do to "be saved 

•'Believe on the Lord Jesus Cnrist, and thou shalt be saved." 

Aots 16 : 30, SL 



REVISED U1TDER THE SANCTION OF THE AUTHOR. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 N-ASSAU-STREET, NEW-YORK. 



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The Library 

OF CoNGi' 
. WASHING'^ 



9 

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CONTENTS. 
S 

Introduction. — Directions for the profitable reading 
of the following Treatise, 5 

Chap. I. — Deep solicitude about salvation reason- 
able and necessary, • . 13 

Chap. II. — Religious Impressions, and the Unspeak- 
able importance of Retaining and 
Deepening them, . . ; . 22 

Chap. III. — On the Importance of gaining scriptural 
Knowledge, and clear views of Divine 
Truth, 44 

Chap. IV. — On Repentance, . . . , .73 

Chap V.— On Faith, ...... 87 

Chap. VI. — Mistakes into which Inquirers are apt 

to Fall, . . . . . .106 

Chap. VII. — Perplexities which are often felt by In- 
quirers, ... . . . . 134 

Chap. VIII. — Discouragements which present them- 
selves at the commencement of a Reli- 
gious Course, 152 

Chap. IX.— Cautions, 170 

Chap. X. — Encouragements, . 183 



INTRODUCTION. 



DIRECTIONS FOR THE PROFITABLE READING OF THE 
FOLLOWING TREATISE. 

It may seem strange to some persons, that 
I should give directions for the performance 
of an act so well understood as the perusal 
of a book ; and especially the perusal of a 
book of so simple and elementary a kind as 
this. But the fact is, that multitudes either 
do not know, or do not remember at the time, 
how to read to advantage; and therefore profit 
but little by what they read. Besides, simple 
and elementary as is this treatise, it is on a 
subject of infinite and eternal importance, and 
is perused in the most critical season of a 
man's everlasting history; when, in a very 
peculiar sense, every means of grace, and 
this among the rest, will be either a savor of 
death unto death, or of life unto life, to the 
reader. Tremendous idea ! But strictly true. 
Reader, whosoever thou art, it is no presump- 
tuous thought of the Author, to believe that 



INTRODUCTION. 



thou wilt remember the contents of this small 
treatise in eternity, either with pleasure and 
gratitude in heaven, or with remorse and de- 
spair in hell. Can it then be an impertinently 
officious act, to remind thee how to read witli 
advantage what I have written? 

1. Take it with you into your closet, I mean 
your place of retirement for prayer ; for of 
course you have such a place. Prayer is the 
very soul of all religion, and privacy is the 
very life of prayer itself. This is a book to 
be read when you are alone; when none is 
near but God and your conscience ; when you 
are not hindered by the presence of a fellow- 
creature from the utmost freedom of manner, 
thought and feeling ; when, unobserved by 
any human eye, you could lay down the book, 
and meditate, or weep, or fall upon your knees 
to pray, or give vent to your feelings in short 
and sudden petitions to God. I charge you 
then to reserve the volume for your private 
seasons of devotion and thoughtfulness ; look 
not into it in company, except it be the com- 
pany of a poor, trembling, and anxious inquir 
er like yourself. 

2. Read it with deep seriousness. Remember, 
it speaks to you of God, of eternity, of sal- 
vation, of heaven, and of hell. Take it up 



INTRODUCTION. 



with something of the awe " that warns you 
how you touch a holy thing." It meets you in 
your solicitude about your soul's welfare, it 
meets you fleeing from destruction, escaping 
for your life, crying out, "What shall I do to 
be saved V 9 and proffers its assistance to 
guide you for refuge to the hope set before 
you in the Gospel. It is itself serious ; its 
Author is serious; it is on a serious subject, 
and demands to be read in a most devout and 
serious mood. Take it not up lightly nor read 
it lightly. Command away every other sub- 
ject, and endeavor to realize the idea that God, 
salvation and eternity, are before you, and 
that you are actually collecting the ingredients 
of the cup of salvation, or the wormwood and 
gall to embitter the cup of damnation. 

3. Read it with earnest prayer. It can do 
you no good, without God's blessing; nothing 
short of Divine grace can render it the means 
of instructing your mind, or impressing your 
heart. It will convey no experimental know- 
ledge, relieve no anxiety, dissipate no doubts, 
afford neither peace nor sanctification, if God 
do not give his Holy Spirit. And if you 
w r ould have the Spirit, you must ask for it. If, 
therefore, you wish it to benefit you, do not 
read another page till you have most fervent- 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

iy, as well as sincerely, prayed to God for his 
blessing to accompany the perusal. I have 
earnestly prayed to God to enable me to write 
it, and if you as earnestly pray to him to en- 
able you to read it, there is thanksgiving in 
store for us both ; for usually what is begun 
in prayer, ends in praise. 

4. Do not read too much at once. Books that 
are intended to instruct and impress, should 
be read slowly. Most persons read too much 
at a time. Your object is not merely to read 
this treatise through, but so to read it as to 
profit by it. Food cannot be digested well if 
too much be taken at a time, so neither can 
knowledge. 

5. Meditate on what you read. Meditation 
bears the same office in the mental constitu- 
tion, as digestion does in our corporeal sys- 
tem. The first mental exercise is attention, 
the next is reflection. If we would gain a 
correct notion of an object, we must not only 
see it, but look at it ; and so also if we would 
gain knowledge from books, we must not only 
see the matters treated of, but look steadily at 
them. Nothing but meditation can enable us 
to understand or feel. In reading the Scrip- 
tures and religious books, we are, or should 
be, reading for eternity. Salvation depends 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

on knowledge, and knowledge on meditation. 
At almost every step of our progress through 
a book which is intended to guide us to salva- 
tion, we should pause and ask, " Do I under- 
stand this ?" Our profiting depends not on 
the quantity read, but what we understand and 
practice. One verse in Scripture, if under- 
stood and duly regarded, will do us more 
good than a chapter or even a book, read 
through in haste, and without reflection. 

6. Read regularly through in order. Do not 
wander about from one part to another, and in 
your eagerness to gain relief, pick and cull 
particular portions, on account of their sup- 
posed suitableness to your case. It is all suit- 
able, and will be found most so by being taken 
together and as a whole. A rambling method 
of reading, whether it be the Scriptures or 
other books, is not to edification : it often 
arises from levity of mind, and sometimes 
from impatience, both of which are states 
very unfriendly to improvement. Remember, 
it is salvation you are in quest of, an object 
of such transcendant importance as to be a 
check upon all volatility, and of such value 
as to encourage the most exemplary patience. 

7. Read calmly. You are anxious to ob- 
tain eternal life; you are eagerly asking, 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

"What shall I do to be saved?" But still 
you must not allow your solicitude so far to 
agitate your mind as to prevent you from lis- 
tening attentively to the answer. In circum- 
stances of great anxiety, men are sometimes 
so much under the power of excited feelings 
that the judgment is bewildered, and thus 
they are not only prevented from finding out 
what is best to be done, but from seeing it 
when it is laid down by another. This anx- 
ious and hurried state of mind sometimes 
appears in those who are just awakened to a 
concern about salvation ; they are restless 
and eager to gain relief, but are defeated in 
their object by their very solicitude to obtain 
it ; the Scriptures are read, sermons are 
heard, advice of friends is received, in a con- 
fused state of mind. Guard against this, and 
endeavor so far to control your thoughts as 
to attend to the counsels and cautions which 
are here suggested. 

8. / very earnestly recommend the perusal of 
all those passages of Scripture and chapters to 
which for the sake of brevity I have referred, 
ivithout quoting the words. I lay great stress 
upon this. Read this book with your Bible 
at your side, and do not think much of the 
trouble of turning to the passages referred to. 



INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

[f unhappily you should consider me, or my 
little volume, as a substitute for the Bible, in- 
stead of a guide to it, I have done you an 
injury, or rather you will have done yourself 
an injury by thus employing it. "As new- 
born babes/ 1 says the apostle, "desire the 
sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow 
thereby.' 7 1 Peter, 2 : 2. And as those in- 
fants thrive best who are fed from the breast 
of their mother, so those converts grow most 
in grace who are most devoted to a spiritual 
perusal of the Scriptures. If therefore I stand 
between you and the Word of God, I do you 
great disservice ; but if I persuade you to 
read the Scriptures, I greatly help your in- 
quiries after salvation. Perhaps, in the pre- 
sent state of your mind, it is not desirable to 
begin and read regularly the Word of God, 
but to go through those passages which I 
have selected and recommended. 

And now may God, of his great goodness 
and sovereign grace, deign to bless the peru- 
sal of this book to many immortal souls, by 
making it, however humble the production, 
the means of conducting them into the path 
of life. 



THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER 



CHAPTER I. 

DEEP SOLICITUDE ABOUT SALVATION REASONABLE 
AND NECESSARY. 

Reader, you have lately been awakened by the 
mercy of God, to ask, with some degree of anxiety, 
that momentous question, " What shall I do to be 
saved ?" No wonder you should be anxious \ the 
wonder is, that you were not concerned about this 
matter before, that you are not more deeply solici- 
tous now, and that all who possess the Word of 
God do not sympathize with you in this anxiety. 
Every thing justifies solicitude and condemns in- 
difference. Unconcern about the soul, indifference 
to salvation, is a most irrational as well as a most 
guilty state of mind. The wildest enthusiasm on 
the subject of religion is less surprising and un- 
reasonable than absolute carelessness, as will ap- 
pear from the following considerations : 



14< THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

1. You are an immortal creature, a being born 
for eternity, a creature that will never go out of 
existence. Millions of ages, as numerous as the 
sands upon the shore, and the drops of the ocean, 
and the leaves of all the forests on the globe, will 
not shorten the duration of your being \ eternity, 
vast eternity, incomprehensible eternity, is before 
you. Every day brings you nearer to everlasting 
torments or felicity. You may die any moment, 
and you are as near to heaven or hell as you 
are to death. No wonder you are asking, " What 
shall I do to be saved ?" 

2. But the reasonableness of this anxiety ap- 
pears, if you add to this consideration that you are 
a sinner. You have broken God's law ; you have 
rebelled against his authority ; you have acted 
as an enemy to him, and made him your enemy. 
If you had committed only one single act of 
transgression, your situation would be alarming. 
One sin would have subjected you to the sentence 
of his law, and exposed you to his displeasure : 
but you have committed sins more in number and 
greater in magnitude than you know or can con- 
ceive of. Your whole life has been one continued 
course of sin, you have, as relates to God, done 
lothing but sin. Your transgressions have sent 



ANXIETY REASONABLE 15 

up to heaven a cry for vengeance. You are ac- 
tually under the curse of the Almighty* 

3. Consider what the loss of the soul includes. 
The loss of the soul is the loss of every thing dear 
to man as an immortal creature ; it is the loss of 
heaven, with all its honors, felicities, and glories ) 
it is the loss of God's favor, which is the life of 
all rational creatures ; it is the loss of everything 
that can contribute to our happiness ; and it is the 
loss of hope, the last refuge of the wretched. The 
loss of the soul includes in it all that is contained 
in that dreadful word, Hell : — it is the eternal en- 
durance of the wrath of God ; it is the lighting 
down of the curse of the Almighty upon the human 
spirit ; or rather it is the falling of the human spirit 
into that curse, as into a lake that burnetii with 
fire and brimstone. How true as well as solemn, 
are the words of Christ, " What shall it profit a 
man if he gain the whole world, and lose his 
own soul ; or what shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul ?" All the tears that ever have been 
or ever will be shed on the face of the earth ; all 
the groans that ever have been or ever will be ut- 
tered ; all the anguish that ever has been or ever 
will be endured by all the inhabitants of the world, 
through all the ages of time, do not make up an 



16 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

equal amount of misery to that which is included 
in the loss of one human soul. Justly, therefore, do 
you say, who are exposed to this misery, " What 
shall I do to be saved ?" 

4. This solicitude is reasonable, if we consider 
that the eternal loss of the soul is not a rare, but a 
very common occurrence. It is so tremendous a 
catastrophe, that if it happened only once in a 
year, or once in a century, so as to render it bare- 
ly possible that it should happen to you, it would 
be unpardonable carelessness not to feel some 
solicitude about the matter : how much more then, 
when, alas ! it is every day occurring*. So far from 
its being a rare thing for men to go to hell, it is 
a much rarer thing for them to go to heaven. Our 
Lord tells us that the road to destruction is throng- 
ed, while the way to life is travelled by few. Hell 
opens its mouth wide, and swallows up multitudes 
in perdition. How alarming is the idea, and how 
probable the fact, that you may be among this 
number. Some that read these pages will very 
likely spend their eternity with lost souls : it is 
therefore your wisdom, as well as your duty, to 
cherish the anxiety which says, " What shall I do 
to be saved ?" 

5. Salvation is possible : if it were not it would 



ANXIETY REASONABLE. 17 

be useless to be anxious about it. It would be 
cruel, and only tormenting you before your time, 
to encourage an anxiety which could never be 
relieved by the possession of the object which 
excites it. Who, if such a thing were possible, 
would say any thing to " lost souls in prison," by 
way of encouraging in them a solicitude to be 
saved 1 But your case is not hopeless ; you may 
be saved ; you are invited to be saved. Christ has 
died for your salvation, and God waits to save 
you j all the opportunities, and advantages, and 
helps, and encouragements to salvation are around 
you ; the blessing is within your reach ; it is 
brought near to you ; and it will be your own 
fault if you do not possess it. Your solicitude is 
not therefore directed to an unattainable object. 

6. Salvation has been obtained by multitudes, 
and why may it not be obtained by you ? Millions 
in heaven are already saved ; myriads more are 
on the road to salvation. God is still as willing, 
and Christ is still as able to save you, as he was 
them ; why then should not you be saved % 

7. And then what a blessing — Salvation ! A 
blessing that includes all the riches of grace, and 
all the greater riches of glory , deliverance from 
sin, death and hell ; the possession of pardon, 

A. Iaquirer. *» 



18 TKEJINX10US INQUIRER. 

peace, holiness and heaven ; a blessing, in short, 
immense, infinite, everlasting: which occupied 
the mind of Deity from eternity, was procured 
by the Son of God upon the cross, and which 
will fill eternity with its happiness. O, how little ; 
how insignificant, how contemptible is the high- 
est object of human ambition, to say nothing of 
the lower matters of men's desires, compared with 
salvation. Eiches, rank, fame, honors, are but as 
the small dust of the balance when compared with 
the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal 
glory. Who that pretends to the least regard to 
his own happiness would not say, " What shall I 
do to be saved 1" 

8. The circumstances in which you are placed 
for obtaining this blessing are partly favorable and 
partly unfavorable. The love of God is infinite , 
the merit of Christ is infinite ; the power of the 
Holy Spirit is infinite ; Jehovah is willing and 
waiting to save you ; Christ invites ; all things 
are ready, and the grace of God offered for your 
conversion. On the other hand, you have a cor 
rupt heart, and are placed in a world where every 
thing seems to combine to draw off your atten- 
tion from salvation, and to cause you to neglect 
it. Satan is busy to blind your mind ; the world 



ANXIETY REASONABLE. 19 

to fill your imagination and heart with other ob- 
jects, so that even the " righteous are scarcely 
saved." You cannot quit the world and go into 
monasteries and convents, but must seek the 
salvation of your soul amidst the engrossing 
cares of this busy and troublesome world, where 
anxiety about the body is so liable to put away 
anxiety about the soul, and things seen and tem- 
poral are likely to withdraw the attention from 
things that are unseen and eternal. O, how diffi- 
cult is it to pay just enough regard to present 
things, and yet not too much ! How difficult to 
attend properly to the affairs both of earth and 
heaven ; to be busy for two worlds at once ! These 
circumstances may well excite your solicitude. 

Anxiety, then, deep anxiety about salvation, is 
the most reasonable thing in the world : and we 
feel almost ready to ask, Can that man have a soul, 
or know that he has one, who is careless about 
its eternal happiness 1 Is he a man, or a brute % 
Is he in the exercise of his reason, or is he a ma- 
niac 1 Ever walking on the edge of the precipice 
that hangs over the bottomless pit, and not anxious 
about salvation ! fatal, awful, destructive in- 
difference ! Cherish then your solicitude. You 
must be anxious, you ought to be so, you cannot 



20 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

be saved without it, for no man ever was, or ever 
will be. The salvation of a lost soul is such a stu- 
pendous deliverance, such an infinitely momen- 
tous concern, that it is impossible, in the very na- 
ture of things, it should be bestowed on any one 
who is not in earnest to obtain it. This is the very 
end of your existence, the purpose for which God 
created you. Apart from this, you are an enigma 
in creation \ a mystery in nature. Why has God 
given you faculties which seem to point to eter- 
nity, and desires which go forward to it, if he has 
not destined you for it 1 Eternal salvation is 

THE GREAT END OF LIFE : GET WHAT YOU WILL, IF 
YOU LOSE THIS YOU HAVE LOST THE PURPOSE OF EX- 
ISTENCE. Could you obtain all the wealth of the 
globe ; could you rise to the possession of univer 
sal empire; could you by the most splendid dis- 
coveries in science, or the most useful inventions 
in art, or the most magnificent achievements in 
literature, (ill the earth with the fame of your ex- 
ploits, and send down your name with honor to 
the latest ages of time, still if you lost the salva 
tion of your soul, you would have lived in vain. 
Whatever you may gain, life will be a lost adven- 
ture, if you do not gain salvation. Tne condition 
of the poorest creature that ever yet obtained, 



ANXIETY REASONABLE. 21 

though he had but a mere glimmering of intel- 
lect, just enough of understanding to apprehend 
the nature of repentance ) although he lived out 
his days amidst the squalid poverty and repulsive 
scenes of a hovel or a work-house \ although he 
was unknown even among the poor 5 and although 
when he died he was buried in the pauper's grave 
on which no tear was ever shed, — the condition of 
even this poor outcast of society is infinitely to 
be preferred to that of the most successful mer- 
chant, the greatest conqueror, the profoundest 
philosopher, or the sublimest poet, that ever ex- 
isted, if he lived and died without salvation. The 
lowest place in heaven is infinitely to be prefer- 
red to the highest place on earth. Go on then to 
urge the question, u What shall I do to be saved V 
Let no one turn off your attention from this mat- 
ter. As long as you covet this, your eye, and heart, 
and hope are fixed on the sublimest object in the 
universe ; and when officious, but ignorant friends, 
would persuade you that you are too anxious, 
point them to the bottomless pit, and ask them if 
any one can be too anxious to escape its tor- 
ments \ Point them to heaven, and ask them if 
any one can be too anxious to obtain its glories 1 
Point them to eternity, and ask them if any one 



22 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

can be too anxious to secure immortal life 1 Point 
them to the cross of Christ, and ask them if any- 
one can be too anxious to secure the object for 
which he died 1 



CHAPTER II. 



IMPORTANCE OF RETAINING AND DEEPENING 
THEM. 

Awakened and anxious sinner, your present 
situation is a most momentous one. You are 
in the crisis of your religious history, and of your 
eternal destiny. No tongue can tell, no pen de- 
scribe, the importance of your present circum- 
stances. You are just arousing from your long 
slumber of sin and spiritual death, and will now 
either rise up and run the race that is set before 
you, or will soon sink back again, as those are 
likely to do who are a little disturbed, in a deep- 
er sleep than ever. The Spirit of God is striving 
with you, and you will yield to his suggestions, 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 23 

and give yourself up to be led by his gracious in- 
fluence, or you will grieve him by resistance and 
neglect, and compel him to depart. God is draw- 
ing you with the cords of love ] Christ is saying, 
" Behold, I stand at the door and knock." The 
Spirit is striving with you. Yield to these silken 
bands; open to that gracious Savior 3 grieve 
not, quench not the motions of that Divine Spirit, 
Salvation is come near, and heaven is open to 
your soul. Remember you may quench the Spi- 
rit not only by direct resistance, but by careless 
neglect. Do not, I beseech you, be insensible to 
your situation. A single conviction ought not to 
be treated with indifference, nor a single impres 
sion to be overlooked. You cannot long remain 
as you now are ; your convictions will soon end 
either in conversion, or in greater indifference : 
like the blossoms of spring, they will soon set in 
fruit, or fall to the ground. Should your present 
solicitude diminish, it will soon subside altoge- 
ther ; and if it subside, it may probably never be 
revived. Oh that you would now yield your 
heart to God by repentance for sin and saving 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Each of these 
cardinal christian graces will be distinctly treat- 
ed hereafter. I am now to speak of the danger 



24 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

of trifling with convictions of sin, and religious 
impressions. If you would not lose your pre 
sent feelings, take the following advice: 

1. Admit the possibility of losing them. Do 
not presume that it is impossible for you to re- 
lapse into indifference. Let there be no approach 
to the vain-glorious, self-confident temper of the 
apostle Peter, who said, though all should for- 
sake thee, yet will not I. Nothing is more com- 
mon than mere transient alarm. The character 
of Pliable, in the Pilgrim's Progress, is one of 
every day's occurrence. There are very few 
that hear the Gospel who are not at one time or 
other the subject of religious impressions. Mul- 
titudes w T ho are lifting up their eyes in torment, 
are looking back upon lost impressions. Do not 
conclude that because you are now concerned 
about salvation, you will be saved. O no. Many 
that will read these pages under the deepest 
solicitude, will add to the number of those who 
perish. Self-confidence will be sure to end in 
confusion 3 while self-diffidence is the way to 
stand. 

2. Dread the idea of relapsing into indifference 
Let the bare apprehension make you tremble. 
Exclaim in an almost agony of spirit, " Oh, if I 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 25 

should prove treacherous to my own soul ; if my 
interest in religion should be as the morning 
cloud or early dew ; if this heart of mine should 
become indifferent ; if my soul should go back 
from the very gates of the kingdom of God \ if 
my friends or minister should meet me in a re- 
treating course. Dreadful change ! May God in 
mercy prevent it." My dear reader, let these be 
your reflections. Let death seem to you rather 
to be coveted than returning to the follies and 
sins of the world ; let it be your feeling that you 
would rather go forward in the pursuit of salva- 
tion, though you were to die the moment your 
sins were pardoned, than gain long life and the 
whole world, by going back to indifference. Next 
to the loss of the soul, there is nothing so dread- 
ful in itself, nor so much to be dreaded, as the 
loss of religious impressions \ and the latter leads 
on to the former. 

3. Make it a subject of devout and earnest prayer, 
that God would render your impressions permanent 
by the effectual aid of his Holy Spirit. Reader, 
here learn these two lessons, that God alone can 
seal these emotions upon your heart ; and that he 
can be expected to do it only in answer to prayer. 
It is of infinite consequence that you should deep- 



26 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

ly ponder this great truth, that all true piety m 
the heart of man is the work of God's Spirit. Do 
not read another line till you have well weighed 
that sentiment, and have so wrought it into your 
heart as to make it become a principle of action, 
a rule of conduct. Every conviction will be ex- 
tinguished, every impression will be effaced, un- 
less God himself, by his own sovereign and effi- 
cacious grace, render them permanent. If God 
do not put forth his power your state is hopeless. 
You may as rationally expect light without the 
sun, as piety without God. Not a single really 
holy feeling will ever come into the mind, or be 
kept there, but by God. Hence, the object and 
the use of prayer are to obtain this gracious in- 
fluence. Prayer is the first step in the divine life, 
prayer the second, prayer the third, and indeed 
it is necessary through the whole christian course. 
Awakened sinner, you .must pray. You must find 
opportunity to be alone ) you must cry mightily 
unto God ; you must implore his aid 5 you must 
give up a portion of your sleep if you can com- 
mand no time in the day for prayer. In one sense 
you should pray always. The spirit of prayer 
should dwell in you and never depart, and be 
continually leading you to ejaculatory petitions, 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 27 

in the house and by the way, upon your bed, and 
in your occupations ; and this should be the sub 
ject of your petitions : that your heart may be 
renewed ; your eyes spiritually enlightened; that 
you may renounce your own righteousness, and 
trust alone in the atoning blood of a crucified 
Redeemer. You may read books, consult friends, 
hear sermons, make resolutions; but books, 
friends, sermons, resolutions, will all fail, if God 
do not give his Holy Spirit. It is very common 
to trust too much to means, and too little to God. 
If you will not, or even if you suppose you can- 
not, find time for private prayer, you may as well 
give up the pursuit of salvation, for you cannot 
be saved without it. 

4. If you would retain your impressions, and 
persevere in the pursuit of salvation, you must at 
once determine to give up whatever you know to be 
sinful in your conduct, and you must also be very 
watchful against sin. Thus runs the direction 
of the word of God: "Seek the Lord while he 
may be found, call upon him while he is near; 
Id the wicked forsake his way and the unright- 
eous man his thoughts ; and let him return unto 
the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and 
to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." 



28 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

Isaiah, 55 : 6, 7. To the same effect is the lan- 
guage of one of Job's friends. " If thou prepare 
thine heart and stretch out thine hands towards 
him, if iniquity be in thy hand put it away." 
Job, II : 13, 14. It is right for you at once to 
know, that the salvation which is in Christ is a 
deliverance from sin. " Thou shalt call his name 
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their 
sins," said the angel to Joseph, when he announc- 
ed the approaching nativity of Christ. M Who 
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us 
from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a pe- 
culiar people, zealous of good works." Titus 2: 14. 
It is of immense consequence that you should 
at once have a distinct idea that the salvation 
you would seek is a holy calling. Whatever is 
sinful in your temper, such as malice, revenge, 
violent passions ; or whatever is sinful in your 
words, in the way of falsehood, railing, back- 
biting; or whatever is sinful in your practice, in 
the way of Sabbath-breaking, injustice, unkind- 
ness, undutifulness to parents or masters, must im- 
mediately be given up without hesitation, reluc- 
tance or reserve. The retaining of one single 
sin, which you know to be such, will soon stifle 
your convictions, and efface all your impressions. 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 29 

If you are not willing to give up your sins, it is 
not salvation you are seeking. You may suppose 
you wish to become a Christian, and read the 
Bible, and offer up prayers, and regularly hear 
sermons, and wonder that you do not get reli- 
gion ; but perhaps the reason is you are not wil- 
ling to give up your sins, your wordly-minded- 
ness, your carnal pleasures, or some practice that 
you find to be gainful or agreeable, although you 
know it to be sinful. Well then, you cannot get 
on in this state of mind. Do, do, therefore, look 
carefully within, examine faithfully your con- 
duct, and see whether there be in you any thing 
which you know to be wrong, but which you are 
nevertheless unwilling to abandon; — if there is, 
it is vain for you to think of retaining your im- 
pressions and becoming a Christian. And let 
me also remind you, that this willingness to give 
up your sins must be immediate 5 you must de- 
sire and purpose an instant abandonment of sin. 
Augustine confesses that he used to pray to God 
to convert him, but with this reservation, " Lord, 
not yet." He wished to live a little longer in the 
gratification of his sinful lusts, before he was 
completely turned to the Lord from his evil 
ways. Thus there are some who are, or profess 



30 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

to be, desirous to be converted at some time or 
other, and who are purposing to give up their sins, 
but " not yet." There is a mixture of feeling, o 
concern to be saved, but a lingering love of some 
sin, and the matter is settled by a resolution to 
sacrifice the sin at some future time. Awful de- 
lusion ; God says now ; and you must reply, Yes> 
Lord, now. I would now be converted from this 
and every sin. 

And not only must you be willing to give up 
sin, but you must watch most carefully against it. 
You are in a most critical state of mind ; and a 
very small indulgence of sin may put away all 
your serious impressions. Even the giving way 
to a bad temper may do irreparable mischief to 
your soul, and hinder your pursuit of eternal life. 
You ought especially to watch against your be- 
setting sin, whatever it be, according to the 
exhortation of the apostle, Heb. 12: 1. At the 
same time I would caution you against being dis- 
couraged by occasional failures $ you are not to 
throw all up in despair because you are occasional- 
ly overcome by temptation. Instances of this kind 
should make you more watchful, but not despair- 
ing I shall say more on this subject hereafter. 

5. It is of great consequence for you to separate 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 31 

yourself from irreligious or worldly companions. 
It will require some courage, and call for some 
painful self-denial, to retire from the society of 
those with whom you have been in the habit of 
associating; but if they are ungodly persons, it 
must be done. Read what God and good men 
have said on this subject. — Psalm 119 : 63 ; Prov 
1; 11-16 ; 2:12-19; 29:6; 13:20. 1 Cor. 15 : 
33 ; 2 Cor. 6 : 14, 18. Comply with these ad- 
monitions, and quit the society of all who think 
lightly of religion. Their company and conversa- 
tion will soon draw you aside from the ways of 
piety. Their levity, their indifference, their ne- 
glect of salvation, will be destruction to all your 
religious feelings. Even christians of long stand- 
ing, and of deeply rooted piety, find such society 
very unfriendly to their religion, and avoid it as 
much as possible ; how much more dangerous 
will it be to you. Even if such companions do 
not attempt to laugh or reason you out of your 
concern for your soul, which, however they will 
be almost sure to do, and never cease till they 
have succeeded, their very conversation and ge- 
neral disposition will blast every tender emotion, 
as an east wind does the blossoms of spring. 
Ycu must then give up either your sinful asso- 



32 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

dates, or your salvation ; for if you cannot, or ra- 
ther will not break off from such companions as 
are opposed to religion, you may as well relin- 
quish all hope of eternal life ) since true piety and 
communion with the ungodly are utterly incom- 
patible with each other. Is there any companion 
on earth whose friendship you prefer to salva- 
tion ; and whose loss you dread more than dam- 
nation ^ 

6. It is transcendantly important that you should 
use all those scriptural means which are calculated 
and intended to keep up a due sense of religion in 
the mind. These you must immediately and most 
earnestly employ: no time is to be lost, no labor 
is to be spared, no sacrifice is to be grudged. 
Your soul and all her eternal interests are at 
stake. Hell is to be escaped, heaven is to be 
sought, Satan is to be conquered, salvation is to 
be obtained. Your enemies are numerous and 
mighty ; your difficulties are immense, though 
not insurmountable. Every energy must be rous- 
ed, every exertion must be made, every help 
called in, every lawful' means employed. Read 
the following passages of God's Word, and see if 
religion be a light and easy work : " Seek first 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness." 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 33 

Matt. 6 : 33. " Strive to enter in at the strait 
gate, for many I say will seek to enter in and 
shall not be able." Luke, 13:24. "Labor for 
the meat that endureth to eternal life." John, 6 : 
27. " Fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold 
of eternal life." 1 Tim. 6 : 12. " Whosoever will 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up 
his cross, and follow me." Mark, 8 : 34. What 
metaphors ! What language ! We might almost 
feel prompted to ask, " Who then can be saved, 
if such anxiety, such effort, be necessary T" Even 
the righteous are scarcely saved. If you do not, 
like David, seek the favor of God with your whole 
heart, you will never have it. You may more ra- 
tionally think to reach the top of the highest 
mountain on earth without labor, than imagine 
you can reach heaven without effort. If you sup- 
pose a few wishes or vague endeavors, will do while 
you withhold your heart from God, you mistake, 
and the sooner you are undeceived the better. 
But I will now specify some of the means you 
should use. 

Immediately commence the devout and diligent 
perusal of the Scriptures. rc As new born babes, 
desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may 
grow thereby." 1 Peter, 2: 1. The Bible is the 

A. Inquirer. g 



34 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

food of the soul, even as the mother's milk is for 
the nourishment of the child; and you may as 
easily believe that the infant will grow without 
food, as that you will grow in knowledge or 
grace without the Scriptures. Read both for 
instruction, and for impression : read attentively 
and with meditation : pause and ponder as you 
go along. Neglect not the Book of God for the 
books of men ; the latter may be read as the 
interpreters, but not as the substitutes of the for- 
mer. If you do not find the Bible so interesting 
to you at first as you expected and wished, stilJ 
go on, it will grow upon acquaintance. Nothing 
is so likely to keep up and to deepen religious 
impressions as the serious perusal of the Scrip- 
tures ; they are the very element of devotion. 
Of two inquirers after salvation, he will be most 
likely to persevere and gain the crown who is 
most diligent in reading the Word of God. Do 
not be disheartened by finding much that you 
cannot at present understand ; there is much 
that you can understand. Read in course, and in- 
stead of beginning the Bible, and going regularly 
through it, select perhaps the Psalms, the Gos- 
pels, or the Epistles, and make these the first 
portion you attend to. 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 35 

Attend with regularity and seriousness upon 
the preaching of the Gospel. Sermons are invalu- 
able helps to the anxious inquirer. Hear the word 
preached with a deep conviction that it will do 
you no good but as God blesses it, and therefore 
look above the minister to God. Pray before you 
go to hear sermons 5 pray while you hear 5 and 
pray after you have heard. Go from the closet of 
private prayer to the place of public worship, and 
from the place of public worship back again to 
prayer. Apply the word as you hear it to your- 
self; hear with attention, hear as for your life, hear 
as for salvation. Avoid a light and careless way 
of attending upon the means of grace. Grow not 
sinfully familiar with sacred things. Avoid gene- 
ral conversation after sermons ; and gratify not 
those evil spirits who desire to steal away the 
good seed of the word from the hearts in which 
it is sown. 

Attend meetings/or social prayer. The prayers 
of good men not only bring down blessings from 
God, but breathe the spirit of true piety. The 
prayer-meeting is an atmosphere of devotion. 
Inquirers, frequent prayer-meetings, then ; it is 
there the solemn impressions of sacred things 
are strengthened. You are there prayed with, and 



36 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

prayed for : you there hear what more advanced 
christians feel and desire, and their prayers are 
some of the best instructions you can receive: 
there you may find your own heart knit together 
in love with the people of God. 

You should seek the instructions and counsels 
of some pious friend, with whom you should be 
free and full in laying open the state of your mind. 
Frequent the company of the righteous, and at 
once identify yourself with them. You must not 
be ashamed to be seen with the people of God, 
but be willing to let your attachment to his cause, 
and your adherence to his people, be openly 
known. Many persons wish to come and make 
secret peace with God, because fear, or pride, or 
interest, remonstrates against an open admission 
of his claims. They keep their convictions to 
themselves, and hence they sometimes soon die 
away for want of support. 

But it is especially -desirable that you should 
make know?t, your mind to your minister. Go 
without delay to him. Perhaps he has meetings 
for inquirers, and even if he has not, he will be 
glad to hear your account of yourself, and ten- 
derly sympathize with you under your anxieties. 
Be not afraid to go to him ; if you are timid and 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 37 

unable to say much, he will understand your 
broken hints, kindly elicit your sentiments and 
feelings, and give you suitable instructions and 
encouragement. One half hour's conversation 
with a skilful physician of souls will often do 
more to assist you in gaining the light you par- 
ticularly need, than the reading of many books 
and the hearing of many sermons. 

Remember, however, after all there is a danger 
of too much depending upon means, as well as 
of too much neglecting them. Forget not what 1 
have said concerning the work of the Spirit of 
God, He is your helper ; neither friends nor minis- 
ter ; neither reading nor hearing ; no, nor the 
Bible itself, must lead you away from your de- 
pendance on the Holy Ghost. Many inquirers 
seem to have no hope or expectation of good but 
in connection with certain means : if they are cut 
off from sermons even occasionally, or have not 
precisely the same number and kind of ordinances 
they have been accustomed to, they are gloomy 
and desponding, and hence not only get no good 
but much harm, by their unbelief. We must de- 
pend upon God, and upon nothing but God, who 
could bless his people in the darkness of a dun 
geon, where the Bible could not be read, or in 



38 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

the solitude of a wilderness, where no Gospel 
sermon could be heard. 

It is of consequence that you should here dis- 
tinctly understand, that the grace of God in your 
salvation is rich and free. Your exertions to ob- 
tain salvation do not merit or deserve it; and if 
you receive it, you will not have it granted to 
you as the reward of your own unworthy efforts. 

To imagine that you can claim the grace that 
is necessary to your conversion, because you pro- 
fess to seek it, is to follow the wretched example 
of those, who in ancient times " went about to 
establish their own righteousness, and did not 
submit themselves unto the righteousness of God. 5 ' 
Your deep convictions, impressions, and solici- 
tude ; your many tears $ your earnest prayers $ 
your diligent attendance upon sermons $ and your 
partial reformations, as they rise from no higher 
or more sacred motive than self-love, and are not 
originated by love to God, can claim nothing in 
the way of reward from Him ) nor is he bound to 
save you for that which has no reference to his 
glory : till you believe God's promise, he is un- 
der no obligation even to himself, to save you. 
Notwithstanding all your concern, you lie at his 
mercy, and if you are saved, it is of pure favoi. 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 39 

Do not allow yourself to conclude, that your 
present concern is sure to end in the conversion 
of your soul to God. Nothing is more likely to 
deaden, and even to destroy religious impressions, 
than to infer, that you are sure of being convert- 
ed, because you are anxious about it : facts are 
against such an inference. " I have read of a gen- 
tleman who felt in a dangerous sickness great 
horror at the review of his past life, and was ad- 
vised to send for a minister, who might be able 
to set his mind at rest. The minister came. The 
gentleman told him that if God would be pleased 
to preserve him from death, his life should be the 
reverse of what it had been. He would regularly 
attend church , he would catechize his servants ; 
he would regularly worship God in his family 
and in his closet $ he would, in short, do every 
thing a Christian should do. His wishes were ac- 
complished ; he was thankful for his deliverance, 
and did not forget his promises. For many months 
he continued, as far as his conduct could be judged 
of by the world, to perform his vows. At length, 
however, he thought so much religion superflu- 
ous, He first left off the duties of the closet and 
family $ public duties at last became likewise too 
wearisome, and he became again the same man 



40 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

that he formerly was. After some time he was 
again seized with a dangerous disease, and was 
advised by his friends to send again for the minis 
ter, that he might afford fresh consolation to his 
wounded spirit. No, said he, after breaking all 
the promises that I made to God, I cannot expect 
mercy from him. Death found him in this un- 
happy state of mind, and carried him to that world 
where there are no changes." This story, with 
some variations of no consequence, may be told 
of myriads. Impressions are made upon the minds 
of sinners, which are attended with visible con- 
sequences that give rise to favorable hopes in 
the breasts of friends and ministers ; but their 
hopes often prove illusions. When the Lord slew 
the children of Israel, rr then they sought him, 
and they returned and inquired early after God ; 
and they remembered that the Lord had been 
their rock, and the High God their redeemer ; 
nevertheless they did flatter him w r ith their 
mouth and they lied unto him with their 
tongues." Psalm 78 : 34-36. They seem fre 
quently to have been sincere at the time in their 
promises, not indeed with a godly sincerity ) " yet 
their hearts were not right with God y neither were 
they steadfast in his covenant ;" and the reason 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 41 

why they were not steadfast in the covenant was, 
because, though they were impressed, their hearts 
were not right with God. 

Perhaps there is no minister of the Gospel 
who could not furnish some most affecting illus- 
trations of the sentiment, that impressions and 
convictions do not always end in conversion. I 
began my own religious course with three com- 
panions, one of whom was materially serviceable 
in some particulars to myself ; but he soon proved 
that his religion was nothing more than mere 
transient emotion ; a second returned to his sin 
H like a dog to his vomit, and a sow that is wash- 
ed to her wallowing in the mire." The third, 
who was for some time my intimate friend, im- 
bibed the principles of infidelity ,• and so great 
was his zeal for his new creed, that he sat up at 
night to copy out Paine's Age of Eeason. After 
a while he was seized with a dangerous disease ; 
his conscience awoke ; the convictions of his 
mind were agonizing ; his remorse was horrible. 
He ordered all his infidel extracts, that it had cost 
him so many nights to copy out, to be burnt be 
fore his face ; and if not in words, yet in spirit,— 

" Burn burn, he cried, in sacred rage, 
•' Hell is the due of ev'ry page." 



4?2 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

His infidel companions and his infidel princi- 
ples forsook him at once, and in the hearing of a 
pious friend who visited him, and to whom he 
confessed with tears and lamentations his down- 
ward course, he uttered his confessions of sin, 
and his vows of repentance. He recovered ; but 
painful to relate, it was only to relapse again, if 
not into infidelity, yet at any rate into an utter 
disregard to religion. 

These are awful instances, and prove by facts, 
which are unanswerable arguments, that it is but 
too certain that many seek to enter in at the 
strait gate, but do not accomplish their object. 
And why ? Not because God is unwilling to save 
them, but because they rest in impressions with- 
out actual conversion. It is dangerous then, 
reader, as w r ell as unwarranted, to conclude that 
you are sure to be saved, because you now feel 
anxious to be saved. It is very true, that where 
God has begun a good work he will carry it on 
to the day of Christ Jesus ; but do not conclude 
too certainly that he has begun it. You may 
take encouragement from your present state of 
mind to hope that you will be saved ; but that 
encouragement should rather come from what 
God has promised, and what God is, than from 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 43 

what you feel. To regard your present state of 
mind, therefore, with complacency 5 to conceive 
of it as preferring any claim upon God to convert 
you ; to look upon it as affording a certainty that 
you will be ultimately converted, a kind of pledge 
and earnest of salvation, instead of considering 
it only as struggles after salvation which may or 
may not be successful, according as they are 
continued in a right manner, is the way to lose 
the impressions themselves, and to turn back 
again to sin or the world. The true light in 
which to consider your present solicitude, is that 
of a state of mind which, if it terminate in genu- 
ine faith, will end in your salvation ) consequent- 
\y the object of your ceaseless care should be, to 
give your heart to God, and seek his grace to 
lead you to true repentance and faith in our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 



44 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 



CHAPTER III. 

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF GAINING SCRIPTURAL KNOW- 
LEDGE, AND CLEAR VIEWS OF DIVINE TKUTH. 

There is scarcely any one point to which the 
attention of anxious inquirers should be more 
earnestly and carefully directed, than to the ne- 
cessity of an accurate understanding of the 
scheme of salvation, and the doctrines of the 
Scriptures. You must endeavor to have clear 
ideas, correct views, precise and intelligent no- 
tions. The concern of many persons is nothing 
more than an ignorant anxiety to be religious : 
they have scarcely one definite idea of what reli 
gion is. Others are a little better informed than 
this, but still have no notion of piety, but as 
either a state of excited feeling, or a course of 
outward observances. Now it is important that 
you should perceive that the whole superstruc- 
ture of personal godliness rests on knowledge. 
True conversion is emphatically called, "coming 
to the knowledge of the truth." Your impres- 
sions will be easily effaced, and your concern 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 45 

will soon subside, if you do not give yourself 
time, and use the means to become acquainted 
with the truth. There is much to be learnt and 
known, as well as to be felt and done, and you 
cannot either feel or act aright unless you do 
learn. 

The reason why so many falter, or turn back, 
is, that they do not study to make themselves ac- 
quainted with divine truth. Suppose a man were 
travelling through a strange country, could he 
get on without consulting his map 1 Would it 
be of any service to wish he could travel faster 
and get on better, if he never looked at his book 
of roads 1 How can you get on in the way to 
heaven without studying the Bible, which is the 
map of the road] Or, changing the illustration, 
suppose you were in pecuniary difficulties, and 
some friend had told you not only how to extri- 
cate yourself from your perplexities, but also 
how to acquire great wealth, and in order to 
guard you from error, had given you long writ- 
ten directions. What would you do 1 Sit down 
and wish and long for success, and immediately 
set out in a great bustle to realize the promised 
advantages 1 No. You would say, " My success 
depends upon knowledge, upon making myself 



46 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

accurately acquainted with the particulars of my 
friend's written directions. I will read them, 
therefore, with the greatest care till I have every 
one of his ideas in my mind, for it is quite use- 
less to exert myself if I do not know how my 
exertions are to be directed. " This you confess 
is quite rational, and is it not quite as necessary 
for you to be acquainted with the subject of reli- 
gion, in order to be truly pious] Knowledge, 
knowledge, my friend, is indispensable. 

Religion is repentance towards God ; but can 
you repent if you do not know the character of 
the God whom you have offended, the law you 
have broken, and the sin you have committed % 
Religion is faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ; but 
can you really believe, if you do not know whom 
and what you are to believe % Religion is the 
love of God ; but can you love a Being whom 
you do not know ? You must give yourself, there- 
fore, time and opportunity for reflection ; you 
must bring your understanding to the subject ; 
you must study religion as inspired truth to be 
known, as well as a passion to be felt, or a rule 
to be observed. It is of great consequence that 
at this stage of your progress you should clear-' 
ly understand that it is an obvious law of the 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 47 

human mind, that neither faith nor feeling of any- 
kind can be produced by any other means than 
that of knowledge. Suppose you want to believe 
a person, or love him, or rejoice in him, could 
you work up your mind to this faith in a direct 
way 1 No, you must know some grounds on 
which you can credit him, and some excellences 
which render him worthy of your affection, and 
some facts which are a just cause of joy. No 
passion or affection can be called into exercise 
but by the knowledge of something that is calcu- 
lated to excite that affection. You may try as 
long as you please to work upon the mind direct- 
ly, but the thing is manifestly impossible. Hence 
the importance of growing in knowledge of divine 
things. The way to have our faith increased, is 
to increase in the knowledge of what is to be be- 
lieved ) and if we would be rooted and grounded 
in love, we must first be rooted and grounded in 
the knowledge of what we are to love. The order 
of nature is first to know, then to feel, then to 
act ; and grace follows the order of nature. I 
deduce, therefore, this inference, that in the 
whole business of religion, the eye of the inquirer 
must be much fixed on subjects out of himself on 
those that are presented in the word of God, If 



48 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

you ask what are the subjects which you should 
endeavor to understand, I place before you the 
following : 

1. The moral character of God. — The knowledge 
i{ God is the basis of all religion. God is a 
Spirit, as to his nature ; almighty, all-knowing, 
and every where present, searching the hearts and 
trying the reins of the children of men. As to 
his moral attributes, it is said, w God is love," 
and " God is light ;" by which we are to under- 
stand, that he is both benevolent and holy. Yes, 
so holy that the very heavens are unclean before 
him. He is also so perfectly righteous, so inflexi- 
bly just, as to be compelled by the infinite per- 
fection of his nature to reveal his wrath against 
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men ; and 
at the same time a God that cannot lie, but who 
will fulfil every word of promise or threatening. 
O my reader, dwell upon this view of the Divine 
character : an infinite hatred and opposition to 
sin ; an infinite purity, an immutable justice, an 
inviolable truth. Pause and ponder ; but canst 
thou lift up thine eyes and bear the sight ? Why, 
the cherubim veil their faces with their wings, as 
they stand before the great white throne, and say 
one to another, " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 49 

Hosts ;" while the prophet, filled with terror, 
falls prostrate, exclaiming, " Wo is me, for I am 
undone, because I am a man of unclean lips." 
Isaiah, 6. the deep depravity, the utter sinful- 
ness of man before this holy God ! 

2. You must understand the law, I mean the 
law of the ten commandments ; the moral law. 
You must know the spirituality of the law, by 
which we mean that it demands the obedience 
of the mind and heart ; it is made for the soul's 
innermost recess, as well as for the actions of 
the life. God sees and searches the mind, and 
therefore demands the perfect obedience of the 
heart, and forbids its evil dispositions. By the 
law of God, as interpreted by Christ, even sinful 
anger is murder, and unchaste thoughts are adul- 
tery. The law demands from every human being 
sinless perfect obedience from the beginning to the 
end of life, in thought, word, and deed 5 it abates 
nothing of its demands, and makes no allowances 
for human weakness. Matt. 5 : 17-48. James, 
2 : 10, 11. The perfection of the law is a tremen- 
dous subject, it is an awful mirror for a sinful 
creature to look into. You must also understand 
the design of the law ; it is not given to save us, 
but to govern us and condemn us 3 to show us 

A. Inquirer. 4 



50 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

what sin is, and to condemn us for committing 
it. Eom. 3 : 20. Gal. 3 : 10. You can know no- 
thing, if you do not know the law. " Sin is the 
transgression of the law j" but how can you 
know sin, if you do not know the law 1 O in- 
quirer, how many, how great are thy transgress- 
ions, if every departure from this law, in feeling 
as well as in action, is a sin ! Nor is this all ; 
for to fall short of the law is sin, no less than to 
oppose it. Read what our Lord has said, Mat- 
thew, 22 : 37 : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart and with all thy soul 
and with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself." Alarming representation ! 
Hast thou thus loved God, and thy neighbor 1 
Confounding and overwhelming question ! What 
a state of sin have you been living in ! Your 
whole life has been sin, for you have not loved 
God, and not to love God is all sins in one. Who 
can think of greater sin than not loving God 1 
To love the world, to love trifles, to love even 
sin, and not love God ! 

3. But this leads me to remark that it is neces- 
sary you should understand the evil of sin. Men 
think little of sin : but does God ! What turned 
Adam and Eve out of Paradise 1 Sin. What 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 51 

drowned the old world in the flood 1 Sin. What 
destroyed God's own city, and scattered his cho- 
sen people as vagrants over the face of the earth 1 
Sin. What brought disease, accidents, toil, care, 
war, pestilence and famine into the world 1 Sin. 
What has converted the world into one great 
burying-place of its inhabitants 1 Sin. What 
lighted the flames of hell 1 Sin. What crucified 
the Lord of life and glory 1 Sin. What then must 
sin be 1 Who but God, and what but his infinite 
mind, can conceive of its evil nature 1 Did you 
ever consider that it was only one sin that brought 
death and all our wo into the world 1 Do you 
not tremble at the thought that this evil is in 
you 1 Some will attempt to persuade you that 
sin is a trifle ) that God does not take much ac- 
count of it \ that you need not give yourself 
much concern about it. But what says God him- 
self, in his word, in his providence, in the tor- 
ments of the damned, in the crucifixion of his 
Sonl You have not only sin enough in yourself 
to deserve the bottomless pit, and to sink you to 
it, unless it be pardoned ; but sin enough, if it 
could be divided and distributed to others, to 
doom multitudes to perdition. 

4. But it is not enough to know your actual 



52 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

sins, you must also clearly understand your on- 
ginal and inherent depravity of heart. There is 
the sin of your nature, as well as the sin of your 
conduct. Our Lord has told us, u that those 
things which proceed out of the mouth come 
forth from the heart ; for out of the heart proceed 
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, 
thefts, false-witness, blasphemies." Matthew, 15 : 
18, 19. The heart is the polluted fountain from 
whence all the muddy streams of evil conduct 
flow. The heart is the great storehouse of iniqui- 
ty. Men sometimes make excuse for their evil 
deeds by saying that they have good hearts at 
bottom : this, however, is an awful mistake, for 
every man's heart, not excepting the most wick- 
ed, is really worse than his conduct. Why do not 
men seek, serve and love God 1 Because the 
carnal mind is enmity against him. Why do sin- 
ners go on in sin 1 Because they love it in their 
hearts. This was not the original condition of 
man, for God created Adam in his own image, 
that is, in righteousness and true holiness ; but 
by disobeying God in eating the forbidden fruit, 
our first parent fell into a state of sin, and we 
having descended from him, since the fall, inherit 
corruption. Kom. 5 : 12-21. It is of vast con- 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 53 

sequence for you to know that you are thus to- 
tally corrupt, for without this knowledge you 
will be taking up with a mere outward reforma- 
tion, to the neglect of an entire inward renova- 
tion. If you saw a man who had a bad and loath- 
some disease of the skin, merely applying outward 
lotions and fomentations, you would remind him 
that the seat of the disorder was in the blood, and 
admonish him to purify that by medicine. You 
must first make the tree good, said our Lord, for 
good fruit cannot be borne by a bad tree. So your 
heart must be renewed, or you can never perform 
good works. You not only need the pardon of ac- 
tual sin, but you need also the sanctification of 
your heart by the Holy Spirit. You must have 
a new heart and a right spirit, or you cannot be 
saved. Eead Psalm 51 ; Psalm 53 ; John, 3 : 1-8 ; 
Gal. 5 : 19-25 ; Eph. 4 : 17-24. 

5. You must endeavor at once to gain clear 
and distinct notions of the precise design of 
Christ* s mediatorial office and work. All will be 
confusion in your ideas, and unrelieved distress 
in your soul, if you do not understand this sub- 
ject. It is not enough to know in a general way 
that Christ died to save sinners: did it ever oc- 
cur to you to ask the question, " Why did God 



54? THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

save sinners in thu way 1" Why was it neces- 
sary for his Son to become incarnate suffer 
and die upon the cross for their salvation ] Why 
was it not enough that they should repent and 
reform, in order to their being pardoned 1 What 
precise end was to be accomplished by the death 
of Christ 1 I will show you this design. 

First, as it relates to God. Is not God holy, and 
does he not abhor sin 1 Yes, with a perfect ha- 
tred. Is he not the righteous Governor of the 
universe, and has he not given a law, to which he 
demands perfect obedience ; and has he not 
threatened death upon all who break this lawl 
Certainly. Have not all men broken this law and 
incurred its penalty ? Yes. Suppose, then, that 
upon the sinner's repentance, even admitting 
that he were disposed to repent and reform, 
God were to receive him back to his favor 5 and 
suppose he was to do this in every case, where 
would be his truth in threatening to follow sin 
with punishment 1 and how would his holiness or 
hatred of sin appear, or his justice in punishing 
sin? Would it not seem a light thing to sin 
against God 1 Would not the law be destroyed, 
and God's moral government be set aside 1 
Could any government, human cr divine, exist 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 53 

tvith an indiscriminate dispensation of pardon to 
ill offenders, upon their repentance ^ 

But you say, perhaps, What is to be done 1 Is 
not repentance all that the sinner has to offer % 
1 reply, Is repentance all that God is bound to re- 
quire \ Besides, it is not all that the sinner has to 
give, for he can also suffer the penalty. Convinced 
and anxious sinner, I put it to your own con- 
science and feelings, do you not begin to see the 
holiness of God and the evil of sin ; and do you 
think you could ever be at rest if you had nothing 
but repentance to offer % You have left off many 
sins, and begun many neglected duties ; you have 
read, and prayed, and wept, and watched, but 
are you at peace 1 No, say you ; as far from it as 
ever. Why 1 Because you know that God is true, 
and holy, and just, and yet you cannot see how 
he can be holy, and true, and just, if your sins are 
forgiven merely upon your reformation. True, 
and your conscience will ever be as the sword of 
the cherubim, frightening and driving you back 
from God as long as you have nothing but tears, 
and prayers, and doings of your own to bring. 
Yes, there is a testimony to God's holiness and 
justice in your conscience. But now, " Behold 
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of 



56 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

the world." Him hath God set forth to be a pro- 
pitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his 
righteousness in the remission of sins that are 
past, through the forbearance of God : to declare, 
I say, at this time, his righteousness, that he 
might be just, and the justifier of him that be- 
lieveth in Jesus. Rom. 3 : 25. Read also other lan- 
guage of the same apostle : " He hath made him 
[Christ] to be sin [a sin-offering] for us, who 
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteous- 
ness of God in him." 2 Cor. 5 : 21. The prophet 
Isaiah tells us, " The Lord laid upon him the ini- 
quity of us all." Isaiah, 53 : 6. And the apostle 
Peter says, " He died the just for [in place of] 
the unjust, that he might bring us to God." 1 
Peter, 3: 18. 

So far as God is concerned then, this is the 
precise design of Christ's death, not to render him 
merciful, for the gift of Christ is the fruit of Di- 
vine love 5 but that he might appear what he is 
a holy God in hating sin, a righteous God ir 
punishing it, and a merciful God at the same time 
in forgiving it. The death of Christ is intended 
to be a display of holy love : the union of abhor- 
rence to the sin, and compassion to the sinner j 
the union of a just regard to his own character, 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 57 

law and government, and a merciful regard to 
the sinful and miserable children of men. 

Take an illustration : Zaleucus, king of the 
Locrians, had promulgated a law to his subjects, 
threatening any one who should be guilty of the 
crime of adultery, with the loss of his eyes. His 
own son was the first convicted under the law. 
The kingly and parental character seemed to 
struggle for predominance ; if the prince be par- 
doned, what becomes of the law ; if he be punish- 
ed, how great a calamity will the father endure 
in the affliction of the son ^ What is to be done 1 
The father determines that he will lose one of his 
eyes, and the son one of his. It was done. Here 
was punishment and pardon united. Atonement 
was made to the offended law, as effectually as if 
the son had been reduced to total blindness. 
The letter of the law was not complied with, but 
the spirit of it was exceeded. 

The case, of course, is hot adduced as a perfect 
parallel to the atonement of Christ, but simply as 
an illustration of its principles, as tending to 
show that atonement may be as effectually made 
by substitution, as by the suffering of the real of- 
fender. Anxious sinner, dwell upon the atone- 
ment of Christ 5 there is thy hope, thy joy, thy 



58 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

life. Behold the Lamb of God bearing the sin of 
the world, and thine among the rest. Think of 
the dignity of the sufferer, the extremity of his 
sufferings, and the consequences of his media- 
tion. Could the law ever be more honored than 
by the obedience of such a person ? Could justice 
be more displayed even by the everlasting punish- 
ment of all the human race % Tremble not to ap- 
proach to God through Christ. He has made pro- 
vision for the manifestation of his own glory, as 
well as for the salvation of thy soul. God is upon 
a throne of grace : the blood of atonement has 
been shed and sprinkled ; the hand of mercy holds 
forth the blessing of salvation : fix thine eye upon 
Jesus the Mediator 5 rest all thy hope upon his 
sacrifice 5 plead his atonement, and then life eter- 
nal is thine. 

But secondly, you must also be instructed in 
the design of Christ's death in reference to your- 
self. This is immensely important, it is often but 
partially understood by the inquirer, amid the 
throbbing solicitude of his spirit, and the first 
alarms of conscious guilt. With the avenger of 
blood pursuing him, he is apt to think of little 
else than safety from vengeance. But there is 
another enemy he has to fear besides hell, and 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 59 

that is — sin ; and could he be delivered from hell, 
without being delivered from sin, he would find 
no heaven. When man was created, he was cre- 
ated holy, and consequently happy. He was not 
only placed in a paradise that was without sin, but 
he was blessed with a paradise within him. His 
perfect holiness was as much the Eden of his soul, 
as the garden which he tilled was the Eden of his 
bodily senses : it was in the inward paradise of 
a holy mind that he walked in communion with 
God. The fall cast him out of this heaven upon 
earth ; his understanding became darkened, his 
heart corrupted, his will perverted, and his dispo- 
sition earthly, sensual, and devilish. Not only was 
his conscience laden with guilt, but, as a neces- 
sary consequence, his imagination was full of ter- 
ror and dread of that Holy God whose voice and 
presence formerly imparted nothing but transport 
to his soul. He was afraid of God, and unfit for 
him. His whole soul became the seat of fleshly 
appetites and irregular passions. In his innocence 
he loved God supremely, and his companion as 
himself. He was united by a feeling of depend- 
ence and devotedness to God, and to the crea- 
ture by a principle of hallowed sympathy. But 
now he was cut off from both, and came under 



60 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

the domination of an absorbing and engrossing 
selfishness. Such is the character he has trans- 
mitted by the channel of ordinary generation to 
all his posterity ; they are not only guilty, but de- 
praved 5 not only under the wrath of God, but 
despoiled of his image ; not only condemned by 
God, but alienated from him. Hence, then, the 
design of the death of Christ is not only to de- 
liver us from the penal, but also from the pollut- 
ing consequences of sin. True it is, that hell will 
be some place set apart for the wicked, where 
the justice of God will consign them to the mi- 
sery which their sins have deserved: but what is 
that misery % an eternal abandonment of them to 
themselves, with all their crimes in full maturity \ 
so that hell is not only the wrath of God suffered, 
but that wrath coupled with, as its effects, an eter- 
nal endurance of all the tyranny of sin. 

The death of Christ is intended as a deliver- 
ance from the power of sin. " His name is 
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their 
sins," not in them. He " gave himself for us, 
that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works." " Christ loved the church and gave him- 
self for it 5 that he might sanctify and cleanse 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 61 

it with the washing of water by the word, that 
he might present it to himself a glorious church, 
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ,• 
but that it should be holy and without blemish. " 
Ephes. 5 : 25-27. And hence it is said to be the 
profession of believers in their baptism, to be un- 
der obligation to a conformity to the ends and 
designs of Christ's death. Eom. 6 : 1-7. 

Do then, my dear friend, take up at once right 
views of the design of the work of Christ. You 
are to look to him for salvation : but what is 
salvation 1 Not pardon only ; not mere absolution 
from punishment ; not merely deliverance from 
the bottomless pit. These blessings are, I admit, 
a part of it, but they are only a part : salvation 
means the crucifixion of your flesh with its af- 
fections and lusts ; the mortification of your cor- 
rupt nature. The salvation which the Gospel 
offers is not only a future deliverance from hell, 
but a present deliverance from sin ; not only a 
rescue from punishment, but a restoration to 
favor; and not only a restoration to the favor 
of God> but also to his image. Christ died to 
raise you to the state of Adam before his fall ; 
to a holy state. The end of all God's dealings in 
a way of mercy to the sinner, is to restore to 



62 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

his soul the dominion of holy principles : the 
whole manifestation of holy love in the Gospel 
is designed to change the stubborn, selfish, 
worldly, wicked heart of the fallen creature 
into its own likeness 5 and thus by making him 
a partaker of the divine nature, to fit him for 
divine communion. 

Now let every anxious inquirer consider this : 
let him ask what it is he wants as a fallen, sinful 
creature ; is it not the deliverance of his soul 
from the power as well as the punishment of sin % 
Is he not painfully conscious to himself not only 
of wrath coming down upon him from God for 
his sins, but of a spring of misery in himself 
in the existence of those very sins 1 And is it 
not for this he should look to Christ 1 Could he 
be saved at all, if not saved from his body of flesh, 
his corrupt nature 1 And can any one save him 
from this but Christ 1 Poor troubled, tormented 
sinner, Jook to Christ; in him is all you want: 
" the Son of God will be made unto you wisdom, 
and righteousness, and sanctification, and re- 
demption." 1 Cor. 1 : 30. 

6. Connected with this is the momentous subject 
of the Justification of a sinner in the sight of God. 
You must soon be at the bar of God for judg- 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 63 

ment, and if you are not justified, you must 
be condemned. Yea, if you are not yet jus- 
tified, which it is to be presumed you are not, 
you are now in a state of condemnation : " for he 
that believeth not is condemned already ; the 
wrath of God abideth on him." John, 3 : 18, 36. 
Every one who has not yet received Christ is 
under the curse of the law ; he is a dead man in 
law, a sinner doomed to die , condemned by God, 
condemned to death eternal. Well may you 
tremble at your situation, and like the man who 
after condemnation at the bar of his country's 
justice, has been removed to await in his cell the 
execution of his sentence, ask the question, 
"How shall I escape." At this stage of your ex- 
perience, then, it is infinitely desirable you should 
be clearly instructed in the nature of justifica- 
tion. It is a subject of immense consequence to 
the sinner, and is therefore frequently mention- 
ed, and treated at great length in the epistles to 
the Komans and Galatians. 

Attend to the meaning of the word. Justified* 
Hon is the opposite of condemnation, as is evident 
from the following passages: "He that jus tifieth 
the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even 
they both are abomination to the Lord." Prov 



64 TIIE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

17 : 15. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of 
God's elect 1 it is God that justijieth, who is he 
that condemneth ?" Rom. 8 : 33. Fix this simple 
idea in your mind, that justification is the oppo- 
site of condemnation, for things are sometimes 
easily and impressively learnt by their contraries. 
The justification of an innocent person is pro- 
nouncing him just, on the ground of his own 
conduct ; but how can a sinner who is confessed- 
ly guilty of innumerable transgressions be justi- 
fied 1 Now you will see at once that the term, 
in reference to Am, is a little different, and sig- 
nifies not that he is righteous in himself, but is 
treated as if he had been, through the righteous- 
ness of Christ imputed to him. " Justification," 
says the Assembly's Catechism, " is an act of 
God's free grace unto sinners, in which he par- 
doneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth 
their persons righteous in his sight, not for any 
thing wrought in them, or done by them, but 
only for the perfect obedience and full satisfac- 
tion of Christ, by God, imputed to them, and re- 
ceived by faith alone." In justification, God acts 
as a Judge, in absolving the sinner from punish- 
ment, and restoring him to all the privileges of a 
citizen of the heavenly community. 



6CRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE, 65 

Justification means not merely pardon, but 
something more. Pardon would only restore the 
sinner to the state of Adam before he fell, when 
he was not yet entitled to the reward of obedi- 
ence, and which indeed he never obtained. Jus- 
tification is pardon connected with a title to eter- 
nal life. Justification takes place but once ; par- 
don may be frequently repeated: justification is 
that great change which is made in the sinner's 
relation to God, when he is delivered from con- 
demnation, and is brought from being an enemy 
to be a child. If a king were to save a condemn- 
ed criminal, and immediately adopt him as a 
child, this would resemble our justification ; and 
his frequent forgiveness of his subsequent offen- 
ces, when standing in the relation of a son, would 
resemble God's fatherly love in forgiving the 
sins of his children. Justification, then, is God's 
act in taking off the sentence of a sinner's con- 
demnation by the law, restoring him to his favor, 
and granting him a title to eternal life in heaven. 
Bat how can a righteous God, who has respect 
for his holy law, justify a sinner 1 I answer, on 
the ground of Christ's righteousness. Thus the 
law is honored, because justification proceeds 
on the ground of a righteousness which meets 

A. Inquirer. g 



66 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

and satisfies its demands. This is what is meant 
by the imputed righteousness of Christ, that the 
sinner is accepted* to the Divine favor out of re- 
gard to what Christ did and suffered on his be- 
half. This judicial act of God in justifying the 
sinner takes place when, and as soon as, he be- 
lieves in Christ, because by that act of faith he 
is brought into union with the Saviour, and be- 
comes legally one with him, so as to receive the 
benefit of his mediatorial undertaking. 

In connection with this, it may be well to show 
the nature of sanctification, and how these two 
blessings are related to each other. Sanctifica- 
tion signifies our being set apart from the love 
and service of sin and the world, to the love and 
service of God ; it is our being made holy ; and 
a saint, or sanctified one, means a holy one. 
Justification is the result of Christ's work for 
us ; sanctification is the Holy Spirit's work in us. 
Conceive of a criminal in jail under sentence 
of death, and at the same time infected with a 
dangerous disease 5 in order to his being saved, 
he must be both pardoned and cured 5 for if he 
be only pardoned, he will soon die of his disease ; 
or if he be only cured, he will soon be executed. 
Such is the emblem of the sinner's case ; by ac- 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 67 

tual sin he is condemned to die, by inherent de- 
pravity he is infected with a spiritual disease : 
in justification he is pardoned ; in sanctification 
he is cured ; and the two blessings, although 
distinct, are always united, and are both neces- 
sary to salvation. Thus you see justification 
changes our relation to God, but sanctification 
changes our spiritual condition ; and regenera- 
tion, or the new birth, means our first entrance 
upon a sanctified state. 

Diligently attend to these things, reader $ fix 
your mind upon them 5 labor to understand them : 
a knowledge of these two blessings, justification 
and sanctification, is a key to the whole Bible. 
blessed, infinitely blessed state, to be delivered 
from the condemnation of our sins, and from their 
domineering and defiling power : this is a present 
salvation. 

7. You should also be well instructed in the 
nature and necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit 
in renewing and sanctifying the sinner's heart. 
It is an important lesson, and one that should be 
learnt at the very beginning of your religious 
course, that the work of the Holy Spirit in the 
sinner is as necessary to his salvation as the work 
of Christ for him. As we are all corrupt by na- 



OS THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER 

tare, in consequence of our descent from Aaam, 
so we universally grow up and remain without 
any true religion, till it is implanted in the heart 
ty Divine grace : true holiness is something 
foreign from our corrupt nature, and the whole 
business of religion from first to last is carried 
on in the heart by the Spirit of God. There is 
not, as I before remarked and now repeat, a truly 
pious thought, feeling, purpose, word or action, 
but what is the result of Divine influence upon 
the human mind. Our regeneration, or new birth, 
is ascribed to the Spirit ; hence it is said, " Ex- 
cept a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he 
cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John, 
3 : 5. Our right knowledge of God's word is 
traced up to the Spirit ; hence David prayed, 
" Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold won- 
drous things out of thy law." Psalm 119: 18. 
Paul also prayed for the illumination of the Spirit, 
on behalf of the Ephesians. Ch. 1 : 17, 18. Sanc- 
tification is entirely the work of the Spirit ; see 
2 Thes. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1 : 2. Believers are said to 
u live in the Spirit ;" " to walk in the Spirit;" " to 
walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit j" " to 
be led by the Spirit ;" " to mortify the deeds of 
the body by the Spirit ;" " to be sealed by the 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 69 

Spirit ;" " to have the Spirit bearing witness with 
their spirit that they are the children of God 5" 
to enjoy " the earnest of the Spirit ;" and " to bring 
forth the fruits of the Spirit." Gal. 5 : 22-25. 
Rom. 8 : 1-16. Ephes. 1 : 13, 14. Now from all 
these passages, and many more that might be 
quoted, it is evident that the work of genuine 
religion is, from first to last, carried on in the 
soul by the Holy Ghost. This is His department, 
so to speak, in the economy of our redemption. 
The Father is represented as originating the 
scheme j the Son as executing it; the Spirit as 
applying it. But in order that your mind may 
not be perplexed, as is sometimes the case, by 
this doctrine, I will make one or two remarks on 
the subject of Divine influence. 

The design of the Spirit's influence ts not to 
give new mental faculties, but a proper exercise of 
those we already possess. His great work is to 
create a new heart in the sinner, which means a 
new and holy disposition. Man by nature is so 
depraved that he cannot love God ; that is, he is 
so desperately wicked that he is not in a mind 
to love him, and never will be till God changes 
his mind. 

The work of the Holy Spirit upon the mind i 



70 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

very mysterious, and we ought not to spend time 
in endeavoring to comprehend it, nor to indulge 
in any speculations about it. Our Lord declares 
it to be a great mystery, where he says to Nico- 
demus, " the wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not 
tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth : so 
is every one that is born of the Spirit." John, 
3 : 8. We see the effects of the wind, but we 
cannot account for the changes in the atmos- 
phere: so it is in the conversion of a sinner. It 
would greatly arrest the progress of the inquirer 
to engage in any speculations about this, or any 
other mystery of divine truth. 

The work of the Spirit is not intended to super- 
sede the use of our faculties, but to direct them 
aright. He does not work without us, but by us: 
he does not change, and convert, and sanctify 
us, by leaving us idle spectators of the work, but 
by engaging us in it. Hence the admonition 
of the apostle to the Philippians, (2 : 12, 13,) 
" Work out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both 
to will and to do, of his own good pleasure." 
The exhortation, you perceive, does not say, 
"Since it is God that worketh, there is nothing 



SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 71 

for you to do, and you may therefore sit still." 
No, on the contrary, it is, "Do you work, for 
God works in you." God's working in us, is a 
motive for our working. It is the breeze that 
wafts the ship along, but then the mariner must 
hoist his sail to catch it ; it is the rain and sun* 
shine that cause the seed to germinate and grow, 
but the husbandman must plough and sow 5 for 
though the seed cannot grow without the influ- 
ence of the heavens, so neither can it grow 
without the sowing of the husbandman. 

We cannot usually distinguish between the in- 
fluence of the Spirit, and the operations of our 
own minds, nor is it necessary we should. We 
cannot tell where man ends and God begins, 
nor ought we to trouble or perplex ourselves 
about the matter. Hence, instead of waiting for 
any sensible or ascertainable impulse of the Spi- 
rit, either before we begin religion at all, or be- 
fore we engage in any particular exercise of it, 
we are immediately to engage all our faculties, 
and at the same time engage them in a spirit of 
entire dependence upon God. We are to fix our 
attention, to deliberate, to purpose, to resolve, to 
choose, just as we should in worldly matters; 
but we are to do all this with a feeling of reli- 



72 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

ance, and in the very spirit of prayer. It is our 
obvious duty to repent and to believe, and also 
to do this at once, and not merely to desire to do 
it or attempt to do it ; but such is the depravity 
of our nature, that we never shall do it till God 
influences us. What we have to do, therefore, 
is immediately to obey the command to repent 
and believe ; but to obey in the very language 
and feeling of that prayer, \\ Lord, help mine un- 
belief." We must obey, not only believing that 
it is our duty to obey, but believing also that we 
shall be assisted. Hence the very essence of re- 
ligion seems to be a spirit of vigorous exertion, 
blended with a spirit of unlimited dependance 
and earnest prayer. An illustration may be bor- 
rowed, as recorded Matthew, 12 : 10, from the 
case of the man with the withered arm. Our 
Lord commanded him to stretch forth his hand, 
and he did not say, Lord, I cannot, it is dead ; 
but relying on his power who gave the injunction, 
and believing that the command implied a pro- 
mise of help if he were willing to receive it, he 
stretched it forth ; that is, he willed to do it, and 
he was able. So it must be with the sinner ; he 
is commanded to repent and believe, and he is 
not to say I cannot, for I am dead in sin ) but he 



REPENTANCE. 73 

is to believe in the promised aid of grace, and to 
obey in a dependence upon Him who worketh in 
men to will and to do. 



CHAPTER IV. 



ON REPENTANCE. 



11 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." 
Such was the awful and tremendous denunciation 
of our Lord to those Jews who were at that 
time listening to his discourse. And except you 
repent, my reader, you will perish, perish body 
and soul in the bottomless pit, and perish ever- 
lastingly. There is a world of misery in that 
word perish ; it is deep as hell, broad as infinity, 
and long as eternity. None can comprehend its 
meaning but lost souls, and they are ever disco- 
vering in it some new mystery of wo. This 
misery will be yours unless you repent. Tremble 
at the thought, and pray to Him who was exalted 
" to give repentance " as well as " remission of 
sins," that he would confer this grace upon you. 



74 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

But what is it to repent] It is more, much 
more, than mere sorrow for sin: this is evident 
from what the apostle has remarked : " Godly- 
sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to 
be repented of." 2 Cor. 7 : 10. True sorrow for 
sin is a part of repentance, and only a part \ for 
the scripture just quoted evidently makes a dis- 
tinction between them. Many, very many grieve 
for their sins, who never repent of them. Men 
may grieve for the consequences of their sins, 
without mourning for the sins themselves. The 
meaning of the word repent, generally used in 
the Greek Scriptures, is a change of mind. Re- 
pentance, therefore, signifies an entire change of 
man's views, disposition, and conduct, with respect 
to sin. It is equivalent in meaning to regenera- 
tion. The new birth means a change of heart, 
and repentance is that same change viewed in 
reference to sin. The author of repentance is 
the Holy Ghost ; it is the effect of Divine grace 
working in the heart of man. The following 
things are included in true repentance. 

1. Conviction of sin. " When he (the Spirit) 
is come, said Christ, he shall reprove (i. e. con- 
vince) the world of sin." John, 16 : 8. The true 
penitent has a clear view of his state before God 



REPENTANCE. 75 

as a guilty and depraved creature. All men say 
they are sinners, the penitent knows it; they talk 
of it, he feels it 5 they have heard it from others, 
and taken it up as an opinion, he has learnt it by 
the teaching of God, who has shown him the 
purity of the law, and the wickedness of his own 
conduct and heart, as opposed to the law. He 
has looked into the bright and faithful mirror, 
and has seen his exceeding sinfulness. He per- 
ceives that he has lived without God, for he has 
not loved, and served, and glorified him. This 
in his view is sin : his not loving and serving 
God. He may not have been profligate, but 
he has lived without God; and even if he had 
been openly vicious, this is the parent vice, his 
want of love to God. He sees that all his world- 
ly-mindedness, folly and wickedness have sprung 
from a depraved heart ; a heart alienated fro.m 
God. He formerly thought he was not quite as 
he ought to be, but now he perceives that he has 
been altogether what he ought not to be ) for- 
merly he knew all was not right, but he now 
Bees that all was wrong ; then he was of opinion 
he had no very strong claim upon God's justice 
or even mercy, but now he perceives clearly that 
he has been so great a sinner that God would 



76 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

have been just had he cast him into hell. This is 
now his confession : 

" Should sudden vengeance seize my breath, 
" I must pronounce thee just in death ; 
u And if my soul were sent to hell, 
" Thy righteous law approves it well." 

Can you subscribe to this, Reader 1 if not, you 
are not yet convinced of sin as you must be. 
No man knows what sin is, and how sinful he 
himself is, who does not clearly see that he has 
deserved to be cast into "the lake that burneth 
with fire." 

2. Self -condemnation is implied in true repent- 
ance. As long as a person indulges a self-justi- 
fying spirit, and is disposed, if not to defend his 
sins, yet to excuse them, he is not truly penitent, 
he is not indeed convinced of sin. To frame 
excuses for sin, and to take refuge from the 
voice of accusation and the stings of conscience, 
in circumstances of palliation, is the besetting 
infirmity of human nature, which first showed 
itself in our fallen parents, when the man threw 
the blame upon the woman, and the woman upon 
the serpent ; and it has since continued to show 
itself in all their descendants. We very common- 
ly hear those who have been recently led to see 



REPENTANCE. 77 

their sins, mitigating their guilt : one by pleading 
the peculiarity of his situation ; another his con- 
stitution ; a third the strength of the temptation ; 
a fourth imputes his actual sins to his original 
sin, and endeavors, on this ground, to lessen his 
sense of guilt. But there is no true repentance 
while this frame of mind lasts. No, never till the 
sinner has cast aside all excuses, rejected all 
pleas of extenuation, and abandoned all desire of 
self-justification \ never till he is brought to take 
the whole blame upon himself; never till he pro- 
nounces his own sentence of condemnation ; 
never till his mouth is stopped as to excuse, and 
he is brought unfeignedly and contritely to ex- 
claim, guilty, guilty! is he truly penitent. Some 
such as this is now his sincere confession : 

" O God, thou injured Sovereign, thou all 
holy God, and all righteous Judge, I can attempt 
to excuse myself no longer. I stand before thee 
a convicted, self-condemned sinner. What has 
my life been but a course of rebellion against 
thee \ It is not this or that action alone I have 
to lament. My whole soul has been disordered 
and depraved. All my thoughts, my affections, 
my desires, my pursuits, have been alienated 
from thee. I have not loved thee, thou God of 



78 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

holy love. what a heart have I carried in my 
bosom, that could love the world, love my friends, 
love trifles, yea, love sin, but could not love thee. 
Particular sins do not so much oppress me as 
this awful horrid state of my carnal mind, at en« 
mity against thee. O what patience was it that 
thou didst not crush the poor feeble creature 
that had no virtue to love thee, and no power to 
resist thee. My whole life has been one continu- 
ed state of sin , what seemed good was done 
from no good motive, for it was done not out of 
obedience or love to thee, and with no intention 
to please or to glorify thee. Once I thought as 
little of my sin as I thought of that gracious and 
righteous God against whom it was committed : 
and even when the knowledge of sin began to 
glimmer on the dark horizon of my guilty soul, 
how perversely did I resist the light, and how 
deceitfully, and wickedly, and presumptuously 
did I attempt to stand up in judgment with 
thee, and in proud self-confidence plead my own 
cause. O with what lying excuses, with what 
false extenuations, did I make my wickedness 
more wicked, and tempt thy vengeance, and seek 
to draw thy thunderbolts upon my devoted head. 
Eternal thanks for thy marvellous long-suffering, 



REPENTANCE. 79 

and thy matchless grace, in not only bearing 
with my provocations, but convincing me of my 
folly. Stripped of all my pleas, silent as to every 
excuse, I cast myself before thee, uttering only 
that one confession, guilty, guilty ; and urging 
only that one plea, mercy, mercy." 

3. Repentance includes sorrow for sin. If a 
man does not mourn for sin, he cannot repent of 
it. The apostle speaks of " godly sorrow," and 
the Psalmist exemplifies it in the fifty-first Psalm. 
Awakened and anxious sinner, I commend to 
thine especial attention that affecting and pre- 
cious effusion of David's contrition. Read it 
often ; read it upon thy knees in thy closet \ read 
it as thy own prayer \ read it till thy heart re- 
sponds a sigh to every groan with which each 
verse seems still vocal. With those melting 
strains of a broken heart sounding in thy ears, 
review the history of thy life, and the dark and 
winding course of thy rebellion against God. 
Pause and ponder as thou tracest back thy steps, 
in each scene of thy transgression and God's pa- 
tience. Dwell upon the length of thy term of sin, 
and all the aggravations of that sin derived from 
religious advantages, pious friends, and a repro- 
ving conscience. Assail thy hard heart with 



80 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

motives to contrition, drawn from every view of 
God's mercy and thy own ingratitude, nor cease 
to smite the rock till the waters of penitence 
gush forth. Nor let thy sorrow be selfish ; mourn 
more for thy sins as committed against God, than 
against thyself. Turn again to the fifty-first 
Psalm, and see how David felt : — Against thee, 
thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy 
sight." Wonderful language ! What views of 
sin were then in his mind ; and what views of 
God. He had seduced Bathsheba into the great- 
est sin a wife can commit : he had murdered 
her husband ; and had thus committed two of 
the most enormous evils against the well-being 
of society, and yet so impressed was he with a 
sense of his sin as committed against God, that 
he exclaims, " A gainst thee, thee only, thou holy, 
holy, holy Lord God, have I sinned. Against 
thee, my benefactor, who didst raise me from the 
sheepfold to be the governor of thy people. Oh, 
this is the crimson hue of my offence, this is the 
sting of my remorse ; this is the wormwood and 
the gall of the cup of bitterness I now drink. 
Thou art willing to forgive me, and the thought 
of thy mercy blackens my crime, and deepens 
my self-abhorrence." This is godly sorrow ; a 



REPENTANCE. 81 

grief for sin as sin, and as committed against so 
holy and gracious a God, and not merely a grief 
for the mischief we have done to ourselves. 
Godly sorrow grieves for those sins which God 
only knows ; for those sins which it knows he 
will forgive, yea, which it is assured he has for- 
given ; and this is the test of genuine contrition : 
do we mourn for sin as sin, or only for fear of 
punishment % 

4j. Repentance includes hatred of sin, forsaking 
it, and a determination not to repeat it. No man 
can truly repent of an act without a feeling of 
dislike to that act ; these two cannot be separated, 
yea, they are the same thing. Eeformation pro- 
duced by penitence is repentance. A person that 
has been stung by a serpent, will not caress the 
reptile while he bathes the wounds he has in- 
flicted with the tears of sorrow: no, he will de- 
stroy the viper, or flee from him, and will ever 
after be inspired with fresh terror and dislike of 
the whole serpent race. The penitent regards sin 
as the viper that has stung him, and will ever af- 
ter hate it, dread it, and watch against it. Prac- 
tices that before were delighted in, will be ab- 
horred and shunned ; and instead of trying how 
near he may come to them without committing 

A. Inquirer. ^ 



82 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

them, or how many things he may do that are 
like them, without doing the very things, he will 
try how far he can retire from them, and how en- 
tirely he may avoid the very appearance of evil. 
Will the serpent-bitten man try how near he can 
approach the rattlesnake without being stung 
again, or will he fondle reptiles as like the spe- 
cies as they can be, though they are without 
venom] No. Observe how repentance wrought 
in the members of the Corinthian church : " For 
behold, this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after 
a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you ; 
yea, what clearing of yourselves ; yea, what in- 
dignation ; yea, what fear ; yea, what vehement 
desire ; yea, what zeal 5 yea, what revenge." 
2 Cor. 7: 11. 

Such is repentance. 

But it is important to guard the inquirer against 
some perplexities with which many are very apt 
to trouble themselves on this subject. 

You are not to suppose that you do not repent, 
because you have never been the subject of over - 
whelming terror and excessive grief. Persons in the 
first stages of religious impression are very apt 
to be cast down and discouraged, because they do 
not feel those agonizing and terrifying convictions 



REPENTANCE. 83 

that some of whom they have heard or read have 
experienced. Others, again, are greatly troubled 
because they do not and cannot shed tears and 
utter groans under a sense of sin, as some do. If 
they could either be wrought up to terror or 
melted into weeping, they would then take some 
comfort and have some hope that their convic- 
tions were genuine. Now it is very probable that 
you, reader, have these fears, and are laboring 
under some mistakes as the ground of them. 

It may be that this longing after greater terror 
or deeper grief may spring from a wrong motive. 
If you possessed these feelings you would be com- 
forted and have hope, you think , yes, and thus, 
by looking to your own feelings for comfort, 
make a Savior of your experience instead of 
Christ, as I fear many do. w Oh !" say some, or 
if they do not say it, they feel it, " now I have 
had such deep convictions, and such meltings of 
heart, I think I may hope. But is not this putting 
their feelings in the place of the work of Christ ? 
If you could endure for a while the torments of 
hell in your conscience, and shed all the tears of 
all the penitents in the world, these would not 
save you ; and to take comfort and hope from 
these things, would be resting on a sandy founda- 



84 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

i 

tion. But perhaps you think this deep experience 
would be a stronger ground of confidence to go 
to Christ. Is not his own word, then, a sufficient 
warrant % Do you want any other warrant, or can 
you have any other 1 Is not his invitation and 
promise enough ] What can your feelings add to 
this 1 In some cases there is pride at the bottom 
of this longing after terror and distress : the per- 
son who covets it, wishes to be distinguished 
among christians for his deep experience and 
great attainments ; or he may wish to have some- 
thing of his own to dwell upon with pleasure, a 
something that shall embolden him in his ap- 
proach to God : it is in fact a subtle species of 
self-righteousness, a looking to inward feelings if 
not to good works, as something to depend upon, 
and to glory in before God. 

This anxiety may arise also from a partial and 
incorrect view of the nature of real religion. 
True religion is not a matter of mere feeling and 
strong emotion, but a matter of judgment, and 
conscience, and practical principle. You must 
recollect that the minds of men are variously 
constituted as regards susceptibility of emotion. 
Some persons are possessed of far livelier feelings 
than others, and are far more easily moved ; we 



REPENTANCE. 81) 

see this in the common subjects of life as well as 
in religion. One man feels as truly the affection 
of love for his wife and children as another whose 
love is more vehement, though he may not fondle,! 
caress, and talk of them so much ) he may not ! 
even suffer those paroxysms of alarm when any 
thing ails them, nor of frantic grief when they 
are taken from him ; but he loves them so as to 
prefer them to all others, to labor for them, to 
make sacrifices for their comfort, and really to 
grieve when they are removed. His love and 
grief are as sincere and practical, though they 
are not boisterous, passionate, and noisy : his 
principle of attachment is as strong, if his pas- 
sion be not so ardent. Passion depends on con- 
stitutional temperament, but principle does not. 
Mere emotion therefore, whether in religion or 
other matters, is not a test of the genuineness of 
affection. Do not then, my reader, be troubled 
on this matter, your religion is not to be tried by 
the number of the tears you shed, or the degree 
of terror you feel, or the measure of excitement 
to which you are wrought up j there may be 
much of all this where there is not true repent- 
ance, and there may be little of it where there is. 
Are you clearly instructed in the knowledge of 



86 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

God's holy nature and perfect law, so as distinct- 
ly to perceive, and really to feel, and frankly to 
confess, your numberless sins of conduct, and 
deep depravity of heart! Do you truly admit 
your just desert of that curse which your sins 
have brought upon you! Do you cast away all 
excuses, and take the whole blame of your sins 
upon yourself! Do you really mourn for your 
sins, although you may shed few tears or utter 
few broken groans! Do you confess your sins to 
God without reserve, as well as without excuse ! 
Do you truly hate sin and abhor yourself on ac- 
count of sin! Do you feel a repugnance to sin, a 
watchfulness against it, a dread of it in the least 
offences ! Have you a new and growing tender- 
ness of conscience with respect to sin ! Then 
you are a partaker of true repentance, although 
you may not be the subject of those violent emo- 
tions either of terror or of grief which some have 
experienced. 

I do not for a moment mean to throw suspicion 
over the experience of those who have been called 
to pass through a state of conviction, which, on 
account of its terrific alarms and unutterable an- 
guish, may be called the valley of the shadow of 
death. By no means. God has led some of his 



ON FAITH. 87 

people not only hard by the clouds, and black- 
ness, and thunders, and earthquakes, and trum- 
pet, and awful words of Sinai, but, as it were, by 
the very brink of the burning pit, within sight of 
its flames, and within sound of its wailings ; but 
let no man covet such a road to glory ; let no 
man conclude that he has mistaken the road, be- 
cause he has not witnessed all these dreadful 
scenes in his way. All must pass by both Mount 
Sinai and Calvary in their way to heaven, 
but the view is neither so clear nor so impressive 
of either of them, to some as to others. 



CHAPTER V. 

ON FAITH. 

Suppose a number of the subjects of a wise 
and good king were, without any just cause, 
to rebel against him and take up arms to de- 
throne him; they would, by that act, forfeit 
their lives. Still the sovereign, in his great 
clemency, is disposed to pardon them, and for 
that purpose sends out a proclamation, declaring 



88 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

that all those who, before a fixed time, would 
come to him, lay down their arms, confess their 
offence, and sue for mercy, should be spared and 
restored to their privileges as citizens ; but that 
all found under arms and who did not come and 
cast themselves upon the mercy of their sove- 
reign, should be put to death. What, in this 
case, is the state of mind and act required in 
those who would be saved 1 Faith. They must be- 
lieve the proclamation to have been issued by the 
monarch, and that he will really fulfil his word ; 
they must not only believe the edict itself, but 
they must confide in the monarch ; this is faith 
in him. What is their warrant or encouragement 
to go to him! His proclamation of mercy, and 
that alone ; and not any convictions or desires of 
their own. If any one of the rebels were desirous 
of returning, he would not say, " I am greatly en- 
couraged and truly warranted to go and expect 
forgiveness, because I am very anxious to be for- 
given ;" for his desire of pardon of itself, is no 
warrant to expect it 5 but he would say, " My 
sovereign has bid me return and promised me 
pardon : I have his word, and I can trust him ; 
I will go, therefore, and confidently expect mer 
cy." He goes, and although he knows that he 



ON FAITH. 89 

has forfeited his life, and deserved death, and 
brought himself under condemnation, yet he is 
assured he shall be spared, because the king 
has promised it, and he trusts in his veracity 
Ihis is faith. 

Does his faith merit forgiveness ? No, but it en- 
sures it. Can the man boast that his works have 
saved him 1 No ; he is saved by grace, through 
faith. But suppose, when he heard the procla- 
mation of mercy, he was merely convinced of 
his sin, and in some measure sorry for it, and 
desired forgiveness, but did not go to his sove- 
reign : suppose he were to say to himself, " I 
am afraid to go, the prince is powerful, being 
surrounded by his guards who could destroy me 
in a moment, and I have been such a ringleader 
in the rebellion that I cannot hope for mercy, 
although I long for it and would do any thing to 
obtain it." The time of mercy expires ; the man 
is taken with arms in his hands; and he is put to 
death. Does he deserve to die'? Yes, twice over, 
first for his rebellion, and secondly for his un* 
belief. His want of faith, not his rebellion, was 
the actual cause of his death. His sin would 
have been pardoned, had he believed. His con 
victions, his sorrow, his tears, his desire after 



90 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

pardon, could not save him 5 — he had insulted 
his sovereign afresh, by doubting his veracity 
and disobeying his command. 

Awakened sinner, take heed that this is not 
your case. It is the case of many. They are re- 
bels against God, they are guilty of innumera- 
ble sins. 55 God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life." John, 3:16. "It is a faithful saying, and 
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. 1 : 15. 
Thus runs the proclamation of mercy : — " Repent 
of sin, believe in Christ, expect salvation." Many 
do believe and are saved : but others, and there 
are multitudes, get no further than conviction; 
they know they are sinners, they desire pardon, 
and even think they are willing to forsake their 
sins — but they do not believe in Christ, they do 
not return to God by faith in his Son, indulging 
a confident hope of forgiveness ; they are afraid 
to go, saying their sins are too great to be for- 
given, or they are contented to remain in a state 
of conviction ; or, before they have trusted in 
Christ and experienced the joys of his salvation 
through faith, some worldly object draws off their 



ON FAITH. 91 

attention from the Savior, and they sink into 
a state of carelessness, and gradually go back 
again to the world. 

You are never safe, reader, till you have 
faith. Whatever may have been your tears, 
your convictions, prayers, or exercises of mind, 
you are under the sentence of the law, and ex- 
posed to the wrath of God till you believe. If 
death come upon you before you have faith, 
you will as certainly and as deservedly perish, 
as the rebel, who, though he had expressed his 
sorrow for his treason, had not come in and cast 
down his arms, and accepted the royal mercy. 
You are within the flood-mark of Divine ven- 
geance till you have confided your soul to Christ. 
Can we be saved if we are not justified ! No. 
But we are "justified by faith, and have peace 
with God." Eom. 5 : 1. Can we be saved unless 
we are the children of Godl No. But ?' we are 
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." 
Gal. 3 : 26. Can we be saved without sanctifica- 
tion 1 No. Then w our hearts are purified by 
faith" When the jailer at Philippi asked with 
fear and trembling the question, - What shall I 
do to be saved V J Paul replied, " Believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" Acts, 



■92 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

16 : 30, 31. When our Lord sent out his disci- 
ples, he said unto them, ?.-* Go ye into all the 
world and preach the Gospel to every creature; 
he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved i 
but he that believeth not shall be damned" Mark, 
16 : 15,16. It is also said in another place, " He 
that believeth on him is not condemned, but he 
that believeth not is condemned already, because he 
hath not believed on the name of the only begot- 
ten Son of God. He that believeth on the Son 
hath everlasting life ; he that believeth not the 
Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God 
abideth on him." John, 3: 18, 36. "He that be- 
lieveth on the Son of God hath the witness in 
himself; he that believeth not God, hath made him 
a liar ; because he believeth not the record that God 
gave of his Son" 1 John, 5 : 10. See then the 
importance, the tremendous importance, of faith 
in Christ. It is the hinge on which salvation 
turns; it is that, without which all knowledge, 
and all impressions, and all convictions, and al 
duties, will leave us short of heaven at last. Fix 
it deeply in your mind, therefore, that faith is 
the saving grace, or in other words, it is that 
state of mind with which salvation is connected ; 
being brought into this state, you would be saved 



ON FAITH. 93 

though you died the next hour, and without 
this you would not be saved, even had you 
been for years under the deepest concern. 

But you will probably wish to know a little 
more about this transcendantly important state 
of mind ; and I shall therefore set before you, 

1. What you are to believe. Faith in general, 
means a belief of whatever God has testified in 
his word ; but faith in Christ means the belief 
of what the Scripture saith of him ; of his person, 
offices and work. You are to believe that he is 
" the Son of God f " God manifest in the flesh f 
God-man — Mediator : for how can a mere crea- 
ture be your Savior % In faith, you commit your 
soul to the Lord Jesus. What ! into the hands 
of a mere creature 1 The divinity of Christ is 
thus not merely an article of faith, but enters 
also into the foundation of hope. You are requir- 
ed to believe in the doctrine of atonement 5 that 
Christ satisfied divine justice for human guilt, 
having been made a propitiation for our sins 5 
and that now his sacrifice and righteousness are 
the only ground or foundation on which a sinner 
can be accepted and acquitted before God. You 
are to believe, that all, however previously guilty 
and unworthy, are welcome to God for salvation, 



94- THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

without any exception, or any difficulty whatever. 
You are to believe that God really loves the 
world, and is truly willing and waiting to save 
the chief of sinners, and that he therefore loves 
you ; and thus, instead of dwelling in the idea of 
a mere general or universal love, you are to 
bring the matter home to yourself, and to believe 
that God has good will towards you, has given 
Christ to die for you. You are a part of the world 
which God loved, and for which Christ died, and 
you are not to lose yourself in the crowd. You 
are not to consider the scheme of redemption as 
for any body, or for every body, besides your- 
self; but you are to give the whole an individu- 
al bearing upon yourself. You are to say, cf God 
is well disposed towards me ; Christ is given for 
me ; died for me as well as for others \ I am invi- 
ted $ / shall be saved if I trust in Christ ; and / am 
as welcome as any one to Christ." Faith is not a 
belief in your own personal religion, this is the as- 
surance of hope ; but it is a belief that God loves 
sinners, and that Christ died for sinners, and for 
you amongst the rest , it is not a belief that you 
are a real Christian, but that Christ is willing to 
give you all the blessings included in that term. 
It is the belief of something out of yourself, but 



ON FAITH. 95 

still of something concerning yourself. The ob- 
ject of faith is the work of Christ for you not the 
work of the Spirit in you. It is of great conse- 
quence you should attend to this, because many 
are apt to confound these things. If I promise a 
man alms, and he really believes what I say, and 
expects relief, I, in the act of promising him, am 
the object of his faith, and not the state of his own 
mind in the act of believing. If therefore you 
would have faith, or possessing it, would have it 
strengthened, you must fix and keep your eye 
on the testimony of Christ which you find in 
the Gospel. 

2. I will now show you how you are to be- 
lieve. But is this necessary] There is no mys- 
tery in faith, when we speak of believing a fellow- 
creature. When the rebel is required to believe 
in the proclamation of mercy sent out by his so- 
vereign, and to come and sue for pardon 5 or 
when the beggar is required to believe in the 
promise of a benefactor who has tendered him 
relief, does it enter into his mind to ask how he 
is to believe % What in each of these cases does 
faith mean 1 A belief that the promise has been 
made, and a confidence in the person who made 
it that he will fulfil his word. Behold then the 



96 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

whole mystery there is in faith! It is a belief 
that Christ really died for sinners, that all who 
depend upon him alone shall be saved ; and a 
trust in him for salvation. Yes, it is, if we may 
substitute another word as explanatory of faith, 
it is trust in Christ, Faith, and confidence in 
Christ, are the same thing. " I know whom I 
have believed," says the apostle, M and am per- 
suaded he is able to keep that which I have 
committed to him." 2 Tim. 1 : 12. Believing*, 
being persuaded, and the act of committing, are 
the same act 5 they all mean faith. It is to rest 
upon the word and work of Christ for salvation ) 
to depend upon his atonement and righteousness, 
and upon nothing else, for acceptance with God 5 
and really to eocjpect salvation^ because he has 
promised it. If there be no expectation, there is 
no faith ; for faith in a man's promise necessari- 
ly implies expectation of its fulfilment. This, 
then, is faith : looking for or expecting salvation 
for the sake of Christ's work alone, and because 
God has promised it. 

If you want another illustration, take the case 
of the serpent-bitten Israelites. Num. 21 : 4-9; 
John, 3 : 14. The people who were stung were 
commanded to look on the brazen serpent. Those 



ON FAITH. 97 

who really believed the promise that such an act 
would be followed with healing, went out and 
looked at the appointed means of relief: their 
looking was their believing ; and what did that 
look imply 1 Expectation. They who did not look 
did not expect healing, and they who did look ex- 
pected relief. If therefore you are not brought to 
expect salvation, you do not believe, for as soon 
as you really believed you would indulge the ex- 
pectation of salvation. " Faith is the substance 
(or confident expectation) of things hoped for." 
Heb. 11:1. Expectation of salvation for Christ's 
sake alone, and because he has promised it, being 
faith, faith may be said to be weak or strong in 
proportion as our expectation is more or less 
confident, and free from doubts and fears. 

3. But when is a sinner to believe 1 Strange 
question ! And yet one that it is necessary to an- 
swer, because it is sometimes asked. Suppose if 
when you promised alms to a poor starving beg- 
gar, or forgiveness to a person that had injured 
you, either of these persons were to ask, " When 
am I to believe your promise V would you not 
feel some surprise at the question 1 The very 
nature of the case suggests the propriety and ne- 
cessity of immediate faith. Your veracity is as 

A. Inquirer. ' 



98 THE ANXIOUS IJMQUIKEK. 

great at that moment as it ever will be, and there- 
fore demands instant confidence. Suppose the 
beggar were to say, " I do not yet sufficiently 
feel my poverty to believe you now, but when 1 
am more pinched with hunger I will take you at 
your word and come." Would not this be ex- 
ceedingly preposterous 1 And yet this is the very 
conduct of many persons in reference to Christ 
and faith in him for salvation. They know that 
trust in him alone is necessary to salvation ; that 
they must at length come $ but they seem to re- 
gard it rather as an exercise or state of mind to 
which they are to be brought at some future time, 
and by some means, they know not how, than as 
a duty to be immediately performed. Their in- 
ward feeling is a hope that they shall have faith 
some time or other, without ever once imagining 
that they are required at once, and without delay, 
to commit their soul to Christ. 

Do, reader, reflect upon this matter, this neces- 
sity of instantly believing. Are you now a sin- 
ner 1 You know you are. Can you do any thing 
now or hereafter, without Divine aid, to save 
yourself] You know you cannot. Is Christ now 
a Savior, able and willing to save you now ? You 
know he is. Will he be more able or willing to 



ON FAITH. 99 

save you a month or a year hence, than he is 
at this moment 1 Certainly not. Does he say, 
u Come unto me, not now, but at some future time; 
believe me, but not yet \ trust in me after a 
while V y You know he does not. Every invita- 
tion, every promise, every encouragement, re- 
lates to the present moment. The words of Scrip- 
ture are, ft To-day, if ye will hear his voice harden 
not your hearts. Now is the accepted time, now 
is the day of salvation. Come, for all things are 
ready. He is waiting to be gracious." What pre- 
vents, but that you now, as you read this, believe 
in Christ ? What hinders you, except your own 
unwillingness, from this moment trusting in the 
Lord Jesus for salvation 1 What now, you say, 
still startled at the idea of instantly taking to 
your anxious bosom the sweet and cheering hope 
of salvation. " Why not now ?" I ask. " Would 
God," you are ready to say, " I could, for I have 
no peace of mind : I feel that I am a sinner, and 
yet am distressed at times that I do not feel this 
enough. I am agitated and perplexed, for I have 
no reason to hope my sins are forgiven. I cannot 
approach God as a reconciled Father ; on the con- 
trary I am afraid of him, and fear if I were *>o 
die I should not meet him in peace." 



100 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

Permit me here to remind you, that you never 
can be at peace till you have faith ; peace is the 
fruit of faith. Observe what the apostle has said : 
u In whom though now ye see him not, yet he* 
lieving, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and ful. 
of glory." 1 Pet. 1 : 8. It is said of the Philippian 
jailer, " he rejoiced, believing in God." Acts, 16 : 
34. You never can have settled peace of mind, ex- 
cept it be a false peace, till you believe in Christ : 
you are seeking it in various ways, and occasion- 
ally obtain a short pause to your solicitude, by 
prayer, by hearing sermons, by dwelling on what 
you suppose are evidences of your conversion, 
by fully purposing to leave off your sins and to 
serve God more entirely. But notwithstanding all 
this, you are not in possession of settled comfort 
Your joy is more like an occasional flash from a 
taper in a dark night than steady sunshine : so 
that sometimes you are ready to give up religion 
altogether, and turn back again to the world 5 for 
you seem to be as far from comfort as ever. But 
stop, and ask this question, " Am I seeking peace 
in the right way % Have I ever yet really, fully, 
and entirely believed in Christ 1 Have I truly 
committed my soul to him, and expected salva- 
tion according to his promise IV What is to give 



ON FAITH. 101 

peace to a sinner feeling the burden of guilt upon 
his conscience 1 What is to relieve his distress 1 
Nothing but faith in Christ ; not the faith itself, 
but the object which faith looks at, which is 
Christ. Many are saying, " If I did but know 
that I had faith ; or if I could feel my faith 
stronger, I could then rejoice." But this is seek- 
ing peace in faith itself, instead of seeking it by 
faith in Christ. Faith is not our Savior, but only 
the eye that looks to him, the foot that goes to 
him, the hand that receives him. 

Take an illustration : — Imagine that you were 
afflicted with some dangerous disease, and anx- 
ious for recovery ; in the midst of your solici- 
tude, and after trying all kinds of remedies with- 
out effect, a physician comes in, and says, " I 
have brought you an infallible cure for your 
complaint ; it has cured thousands, and will most 
certainly cure you" What would be the effect 
of this communication upon you % Just accord- 
ing to the state of your mind in reference to the 
report which the physician gives of his medicine. 
If your anxiety about recovery, and your fear of 
not obtaining a cure, were greater than your faithj 
you would gain no peace \ the want of confidence 
in the medicine would keep you in deep solici- 



102 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

tude. But suppose you were to believe the state- 
ment of your medical friend, and had full confi- 
dence in the remedy, what then would be the ef- 
fect of the report 'J You would immediately re- 
joice; you would not wait till you had taken the 
medicine, and till you felt yourself cured, before 
your solicitude was relieved ; no, but as soon as 
you believed in the efficacy of the remedy you 
would say, " Joyful news, I am to be healed, and 
restored to health." Now what in this case re- 
lieves you from your solicitude, and gives you 
comfort % The statement of your friend, or in 
other words, faith in that statement. The good 
news of a coming cure, believed by you, makes 
you glad. It is not the act of believing that 
you rejoice in, but the statement believed. You 
would, immediately take the medicine : and then 
when you experienced its healing influence you 
would rejoice still more. Your joy in this case 
would be of two kinds : the first is the joy of 
faith, in the assurance that you would be cured ; 
the second is the joy of experience, in finding that 
you are cured. 

Apply this to the case of a sinner who feels his 
miserable condition under the power and guilt of 
sin. In his anxiety he tries various methods to 



ON FAITH. 103 

obtain relief: he leaves off sin, and tries to be 
good ; but a sense of unpardoned sin still lies 
upon his heart, and he is far off from settled 
comfort. In this situation, Christ, the physician 
of souls, comes to him in the message of the 
Gospel, and says, M My blood cleanseth from all 
sin, and my Spirit can renew and sanctify the 
hardest and most polluted heart ; look to me, 
and thou shalt be saved." What is the duty of 
the sinner in this case ! Immediately and fully 
to believe, and at once, as the evidence and ne- 
cessary fruit of his faith, to rejoice. If he really 
does believe, he will rejoice, and if he do not 
rejoice, it is because he does not believe. He is 
not to wait till he is saved, before he takes com- 
fort, but he is to take comfort in the first place, 
in believing that there is a Savior, and that he 
may be saved. He is not to wait for his comfort 
till he feels that he is justified, renewed and 
sanctified ; for how can he come to this state 
unless he believes'? His first comfort must be 
the joy of faith 5 and this he must take to himself 
at once ; the joy of experience comes afterward. 
He must first rejoice in the promise of spiritual 
healing, and then afterwards he will rejoice in 
the sense of healing. When the Jews, who were 



104 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

pricked to the heart by Peter's sermon, cried out 
in agony, " What shall we do V J he replied, 
" Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in 
the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
sins : then they that gladly received the word 
were baptized." Acts, 2:37-41. They gladly 
received the word, that is, they believed the pro- 
mise, and were made glad. Here was immediate 
faith, producing instant joy : they did not wait 
till they felt they were saved, but rejoiced at 
once. Now observe another case : Paul, in one 
of his epistles, says, " Our rejoicing is this, that 
in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with flesh- 
ly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have 
had our conversation in the world." 2 Cor. 1 : 
12. Here is the joy of experience. It is the 
peace of believing that the inquirer has to do 
with ; and is it not cause enough of delight that 
God has so loved the world, and you, as a part 
of the world, as to give his Son for your salva- 
tion ; that you are invited $ that Christ is able 
and willing to save you ? But still you cling to 
the idea, that if you could be sure you believed, 
you would be comforted ; if you had evidence 
of faith, you would take peace. Then it would 
be these evidences that would comfort you, and 
not the work of Christ. 



ON FAITH. 105 

It is also of importance that you should clear- 
ly understand that you are never in a state of 
faith if you are not brought to some degree of 
comfort; if you still feel the load of guilt upon 
your conscience, and all its tormenting fears 
in your mind ; if you are still anxiously asking 
the question, " What shall I do to be saved V 9 if 
you are still afraid of God 5 if you still are with- 
out any hope of forgiveness, you do not believe ; 
for genuine faith, even though it were not a full 
assurance, would in some measure relieve you 
from this anxiety. It is very common for per- 
sons to say they believe., and yet have no com- 
fort ) and then they are asking, " Why am I not 
at peace V Because you really do not believe 
in Christ ; you are deceiving yourself, It is faith, 
genuine faith, you want , you do not yet really 
trust in Christ \ you do not yet truly believe the 
glad tidings of salvation; for can any man be- 
lieve glad tidings concerning himself, and yet 
not be made glad by them % Believe then, be- 
lieve truly, believe now, and enter into peace. 



106 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 



CHAPTER VI. 



MISTAKES INTO WHICH INQUIRERS ARE APT TO FALL- 

In an affair of such tremendous consequence 
as the salvation of the soul, it is important that 
every error of any moment into which inquirers 
are in danger of falling should be clearly pointed 
out to them. Satan is called the father of lies, 
and when his delusive influence is added to the 
natural deceitfulness of the human heart, the 
danger of mistake is great indeed. Our caution 
against errors should, of course, be in proportion 
to the importance of the consequences they draw 
after them. Oh how awful is the idea of com- 
mitting a fundamental error in religious matters, 
and persevering in that error till death ; we shall 
then have eternity to deplore it, but never a mo- 
ment to correct it. Oh how dreadful to die and 
find ourselves mistaken as to our character and 
destiny. But even where the error is not of so 
serious a nature, it may still be the source of 
much disquietude. 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 107 

1. The first error, and it is both a very com- 
mon and a very dreadful one, which inquirers are 
in danger of committing-, is to mistake knowledge, 
impression, and partial reformation, for genuine 
conversion. In this day of prevailing evangelical 
preaching and religious instruction, where there 
is no persecution to try men's sincerity, and even 
much credit attaching to a profession of religion, 
there is most imminent danger of self-delusion. 
The preaching of the present day is of an excit- 
ing and impressive character, which, added to 
the tendency of a religious education to give 
knowledge, is very likely to produce a state of 
feeling that may be mistaken for conversion. 
Ignorant friends, anxious parents, and even inju- 
dicious ministers, who are too eager to swell the 
number of their communicants, upon perceiving a 
little impression of mind and a little alteration of 
conduct in young people, or in others, may ex- 
press a favorable opinion of their conversion, 
flatter them into a belief that they are safe, en- 
gage them too hastily to make a public profes- 
sion of religion, and receive the Lord's supper, 
while at the same time, perhaps, the great change 
has never been wrought ) and thus the soul is in 
all probability sealed up in delusion to eternal 



108 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

perdition. Nothing can now awaken them ; for 
although their impressions die away, and they 
become almost as careless and as worldly as 
ever, and live under the dominion of sin; yet 
they have made a profession of religion, have 
been led to believe they are christians, and there- 
fore repress every rising fear, and stifle every 
incipient alarm. Fatal case, and it is the case of 
multitudes. 

It may be worth while to set before you how 
far persons may go, and not be really converted 
They may have many and deep impressions, 
many and strong convictions ; they may have 
much knowledge of their sinful state, and a heavy 
and burdensome sense of their guilt ; they may 
look back upon their past life and conduct with 
much remorse ; they may be sorry for their sins, 
and may desire to be saved from the consequences 
of them, being much alarmed at the prospect of 
the torments of hell. Was not Judas convinced 
of sin, and did he not weep bitterly and confess 
his sin, and was he not iilled with remorse 1 
Was not Cain convinced of sin 1 I have known 
many persons, who, at one time, appeared to be 
more deeply impressed with a sense of sin, and 
to have stronger convictions and remorse than 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 109 

those who were truly converted, and yet they 
went back again to the world and sin. 

Nor is a detestation of sin always a true sign 
of conversion. Hazael, before he was King of 
Syria, detested those very crimes which he after- 
wards perpetrated in the fulness of his pride and 
power. Unconverted persons may even wish to 
be delivered from the fetters of those corrupt 
lusts which have long held them fast. There are 
few notorious sinners who do not frequently 
hate their sins, and wish and purpose to reform. 
Yea, persons may sometimes desire to be deliver- 
ed from all sin ; at least they may desire it in a 
certain way, because they think that it is neces- 
sary in order to be saved from hell. 

And as conviction of sin may exist without 
conversion, so may religious joy. The stony 
ground hearers heard the word, and with joy re- 
ceived it, and yet they had no root in them- 
selves, and endured only for a while. Matt. 13 : 
20, 21. The Galatians had great blessedness at 
one time, which the apostle was afraid had come 
to nothing. Gal. 4 : 15. Multitudes rejoiced in 
Christ when he made his entrance into Jerusalem, 
who afterwards became his enemies. A person 
may admire the people of God, and covet to be 



110 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

of their number, as Balaam did, and yet not re- 
ally belong to them. Many take great pleasure 
in hearing sermons, and going to prayer-meet- 
ings, and singing hymns, and frequenting mission- 
ary and other public meetings, who are not truly 
born of the Spirit. 

So also do many persons leave off sinful ac- 
tions, and give up many wicked practices, and 
seem to be quite altered for a time, who yet, by 
their subsequent history, show that they are not 
converted. There may be considerable zeal for 
the outward concerns of religion, as we see in 
Jehu, without any right state of mind towards 
God. Many have had great confidence of the 
reality of their conversion 5 they have had dreams, 
impressions, and an inward witness, as they sup 
pose, who too plainly proved by their after con 
duct that they were under an awful delusion. 
But it would be almost endless to point out the 
various ways in which men deceive themselves 
as to their state. Millions who have been some- 
what, yea, much concerned about religion, have 
never been born again of the Spirit. Perhaps 
more are lost by self-deception than by any other 
means. Hell resounds with the groans and lamen- 
tations of souls that perished through the power 
01 a deceived heart. 



MISTAKES OF 1NQUIKEKS. Ill 

Do, do examine yourself. Exercise godly jea- 
lousy over your own state. Never forget that 
nothing short of the new birth will save you. 
M Except a man be born of water and of the Spi- 
rit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
John, 3 : 5» " If any man be in Christ he is a 
new creature ; old things are passed away ; behold, 
all things are become newP 2 Cor. 5 : 17. The 
heart must be changed, entirely changed. We 
must be renewed in the spirit of our mind. 
There must be a superhuman, a divine, a total 
alteration of disposition. Our views and tastes, 
our pains and pleasures, hopes and fears, desires 
ana pursuits, must be changed. We must be 
brought to love God supremely for his holiness 
and justice, as well as for his mercy and love in 
Christ \ to delight in him for his transcendant 
glory, as well as for his rich grace : we must 
have a perception of the beauties of holiness, and 
love divine things for their own excellence : we 
must mourn for sin, and hate it for its own evil 
nature, as well as its dreadful punishment : we 
must feel delight in the salvation of Christ, not 
only because it delivers us from hell, but makes 
us like God, and all this in a way that honors 
and glorifies Jehovah : we must be made partakers 



112 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

of true humility and universal love, and feel our- 
selves brought to be of one mind with God in 
willing and delighting in the happiness of others : 
we must be brought to feel an identity of heart 
with God's cause, and to regard it as our honor 
and happiness to do any thing to promote the 
glory of Christ in the salvation of sinners : we 
must feel a longing desire, a hungering and thirst- 
ing after holiness, as well as a disposition to put 
away all sin, however gainful or pleasant : we 
must have a tender conscience that shrinks from, 
and watches against little sins, secret faults, and 
sins of neglect and omission, as well as great and 
scandalous offences : we must love the people of 
God, for God's sake, because they belong to him 
and are like him ; we must practise the self-deny- 
ing duty of mortification of sin, as well as engage 
in the pleasing exercises of religion. This is to 
be born again 5 it is no mere transient impression 
upon the imagination, but it is a permanent re- 
newal of the disposition 5 it is not an occasional 
impulse, but an abiding character; the subject 
of it may not be violently agitated, but he is last- 
ingly altered ; his passions may not be powerfully 
moved, but his principles, tastes and pursuits 
are engaged on the side of true holiness. He is 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 113 

now a spiritual man, whereas he was a carnal 
one, and all things are by him spiritually dis- 
cerned. Nothing short of this entire change of 
heart, this complete renovation, must satisfy you ; 
for nothing less than such a view of Christ in his 
glorious mediatorial character, and such a de- 
pendence by faith upon his blood and righteous- 
ness for salvation, as changes the whole heart, 
and temper, and conduct, and throws the world, 
as it were, into the back ground, and makes glory 
hereafter, and holiness now, the supreme con- 
cern — is religion. 

2. Inquirers are often in error on the subject 
of their immediate obligation to believe, and go to 
Christ j and are waiting, as they say, for a day 
of power at the pool of ordinances* They are 
seeking and praying, but they have no idea that 
it is their present duty, without waiting another 
hour, to give themselves to Christ. They are ex- 
pecting some sensible impression, or impulse 
upon their mind, to make known to them when 
it is their duty to believe, and also enable them 

* There is in this chapter a repetition of some of the ideas 
and even expressions contained in a former section, but it 
is on a subject of so much importance that I do not choose 
to suppress them. 

A. Inquirer. 3 



1 14* THE ANXIOUS 1NQUIKER. 

to believe. They suppose it will be made clear 
to them as it was to the cripples by the troubling 
of the waters, that they are no longer to wait, 
but then to descend into the pool of salvation. 

Now this is a most grievous and injurious error, 
and keeps many minds for a long period in great, 
distress, and actually prevents some from coming 
to Christ at all. I must first tell you that it is an 
unwarrantable use of Scripture, to consider the 
pool of Bethesda as an emblem of the healing of 
sinners by the work of Christ 5 and the situation 
of the diseased persons waiting for the healing 
visit of the angel, as descriptive of the duty of 
sinners to wait for some impulse or power from 
above, before they believe. The fact was related 
to show the power and glory of Christ in work- 
ing a miraculous cure. Where in all the New 
Testament are sinners told to wait till some fu- 
ture time before they believe % Where is it said, 
" Believe, but not now :" hope, but not now : wait 
for some power or impulse to enable you to be- 
lieve 1 On the contrary, is it not said, n To-day, 
if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 
Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salva- 
tion V Is not God willing to pardon you this mo- 
ment ) Christ willing to save you this moment ; the 



MISTAKES OF INQUIREKS. 115 

Spirit waiting to renew and sanctify you this mo- 
ment 1 Are not all the promises true now, all the 
blessings of salvation ready and waiting for your 
acceptance now 1 What then are you waiting for, 
or why should you wait at all % Could a voice from 
heaven, or any impulse in your own heart, make 
it more certain than the word of God makes it, 
that Christ is willing to save you 1 Look steadily 
at this promise, " Come unto me, all ye that labor, 
and I will give you rest." Is that the language 
of Christ 1 Yes. Is it true 1 Yes. Does it say any 
thing about waiting for impulse 1 No. What then 
are you hesitating about 1 It is as true this mo- 
ment as it ever will or can be, and if you wait for 
any thing else but the word of Christ, you will 
spend all your time in waiting, and die deceived 
at last. True, you need the influence of the Spi 
rit to assist you to believe, but the Spirit is as 
ready to sanctify as Christ to receive you. 

But, say others, " we are waiting to be more 
deeply convinced of sin" Are you convinced 
that you are under the condemnation of the law ; 
such a sinner as to be totally depraved in your 
nature, as well as guilty of innumerable actual 
sins, and deserving of hell ] Is this clear to your 
judgment, and really felt by your conscience $ 



116 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

then what are you waiting for 1 If you say, for 
more sorrow of heart, more pungent convictions, 
I would ask again, how deep do you suppose 
your convictions must be before you believe in 
Christ and hope for mercy ? Can you fix on any 
standard on this subject'? Besides, do you sup- 
pose that, if your convictions were ten times as 
deep as they now are, these feelings of yours 
would be your warrant to go to Christ, or ren- 
der you more welcome to him, or be in any 
measure your ground of hope 1 Are you not 
wishing for deep convictions, to take comfort in 
them, instead of Christ \ Has Christ any where 
said, he will not receive you till your convic 
tions have attained to a certain depth 1 The 
question is, are you really convinced 1 not how 
deeply are you convinced. And then, as to godly 
sorrow, this will be promoted by faith. x \ They 
shall look on me whom they have pierced, and 
mourn," says the Lord Jesus concerning the 
Jews. Zech. 12: 10, The belief of God's love to 
us in Christ, the sweet hope of his mercy, will 
melt the heart to tenderness. I wish you to 
dwell upon this. It is the hope, the sense of 
God's love, that warms and thaws the cold and 
frozen heart of man. As you gaze upon a cruci- 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 117 

fied Redeemer by faith ; as you hear God say, 
tr I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy sins by 
the blood of my Son, I will forgive thee all, not- 
withstanding thy rebellion and thy too great 
lukewarmness," your soul will dissolve in inge- 
nuous grief and love. In keeping back from 
Christ ; in waiting for deeper emotions before 
you come to him, you are defeating your own 
purpose. The more and sooner you trust in 
Christ, the more and the sooner will you mourn 
for sin. Every fresh view you take of his cross, 
trusting in his mercy, will deepen your emo- 
tions of sorrow, and your convictions of the evil 
of sin. All the sensibilities of your heart will 
be moved by the amazing spectacle ; and that 
very scene which conveys to your soul the sense 
of pardon, will convey also a sense of the bitter- 
ness of transgression. Wait no longer then $ be- 
lieve, believe now ; commit your soul at once to 
the Savior, and rejoice in hope of salvation. 

Others are waiting for more holiness, for some 
preparatory process, before they rest upon Christ 
for eternal life. A preparatory process indeed 
there is, and must be, carried on in the heart be- 
fore the sinner will go to Christ. But. what is 
that process 1 Nothing which is to prevent his 



118 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

soul for a moment, when he is anxious about sal- 
vation, from depending upon Christ. It is the 
work of the Holy Spirit giving him a sense of his 
sin, and a desire to flee from the wrath to come. 
With such a sense of sin and coming wrath, what 
further preparatory work is necessary in order 
to believe in Christ 1 

But what is meant by those who talk thus, is, 
that there must be a long course of conviction ; 
a production and growth of holy affections ; a se- 
ries of holy actions ; an expansion of religious 
knowledge ; and that then, and not till then, sin- 
ners are encouraged to trust in Christ, and hope 
for salvation. Now it is very true that every sin- 
ner, in coming to Christ by faith, must be prepared 
and ready to give up every sin ; he must be will- 
ing to sacrifice sins that may be pleasant as a 
right eye, and dear as a right hand ; he must be 
willing to take up his cross and follow Christ to 
bonds, imprisonment, and death ; he must consi- 
der himself as " called unto holiness :" and what 
more in the way of preparation for pardon does 
he need 1 Is not a man prepared to trust in Christ 
as soon as he is convinced of his transgression 1 
If a father promise pardon to an offending child 
as soon as he confesses his fault, has that child 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 119 

any need to say, " I will prepare myself for par- 
don by a long course of future good conduct V 
His father is ready to forgive him, and he of 
course is ready to be forgiven, upon the very first 
moment of true penitence. If God had said he 
would not pardon us till months or years of good 
conduct had taken place, it would have been on- 
ly mocking us ; for what good conduct can we 
perform till he has received us into his favor, 
and bestowed upon us his Spirit ! The first con- 
cern of a sinner should be to receive Christ as 
his righteousness by faith. It is a radical error to 
suppose that sanctijicaiion goes before justification. 
We must be justified, or we never can be sancti- 
fied. Mark this well. I repeat it, that you may 
notice and weigh its import : we must be justi- 
fied, or we cannot be sanctified. We are justi- 
fied by faith ; and without faith we cannot please 
God 5 consequently, till we believe, we can per- 
form no good works ; and when we believe, we 
are accepted of God. Faith, then, is immediately 
our duty, without waiting for any preparatory 
process. But, perhaps, this will be made still more 
plain by a reference to examples. Take then the 
conversions, or at least some of them, recorded 
in Scripture. 



120 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

Take the case of the penitent thief. Luke, 23 : 
40-43. What preparatory process went on in this 
man's mind, and heart, and conduct, beyond the 
work of the Spirit, in convincing him of sin 1 He 
appears to have thought of his sin, and repented 
for the first time, when he was crucified ; and al- 
most the same moment believed in Christ, and 
entertained a hope of mercy. 

Read the account of the three thousand con 
verted on the day of Pentecost. Acts, 2. Up to 
the time when they heard Peter's sermon they 
were the murderers of Christ ; by that sermon 
they were convinced of sin, and they were imme- 
diately found rejoicing in the assurance of par- 
don. Now what preparatory process was carried 
on in their hearts, beyond the work of the Spirit, 
in convincing them of sin 1 

Consider the conversion of the apostle Paul, 
(Acts, 9,) who was a bloody persecutor ; and a 
day or two after, not only a pardoned sinner, a 
baptized believer, a rejoicing christian, but a con- 
secrated apostle. What preparatory process in 
the way of long-cherished convictions, or holy 
actions, was there in kirn 1 

Consult the narrative of the Philippian jailer. 
Acts, 16 : 25-34. In the same night he was con- 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 121 

vinced of sin ; he believed in Christ ; he was 
filled with peace, and was baptized. When in 
agony of soul he cried out, " What shall I do to 
be saved 1" his heaven-inspired teacher replied, 
M Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
be saved." The apostle did not speak to him of 
any preparatory process, any long course of pre- 
scribed duties, any training for his reception by 
Christ, but simply said, " Believe ;" and he meant, 
of course, believe now ; and so the trembling 
penitent understood him, for he believed at once, 
and entered into peace. 

I bring forward these instances, (and almost all 
the other cases of conversion spoken of in the 
New Testament are of a similar nature,) not to 
prove that all conversions are equally striking 
and remarkable, but to prove this one point — that 
no other preparation in the sinner's mind is ne- 
cessary in order that he should believe and be 
justified, but a real conviction of sin. As soon as 
a man knows he is a lost sinner, that is, is truly 
convinced of his state of condemnation, he is to 
believe in Christ, and to hope for pardon ; he is 
then in a state, a Jit state to receive it ; and more- 
over, he would not be, and could not be, more lit 
by waiting ten years in the most agonizing con- 



122 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

victions, or the most sacred performance of duty. 
The sinner is condemned, and is any moment af- 
ter conviction in a state to be reprieved , and he 
can never begin to perform the acts of a good 
citizen till he is justified. The acceptance of 
Christ by faith, accompanied by the renunciation 
of all righteousness of our own in true repent- 
ance for sin, is the very beginning of all evangeli- 
cal obedience which any one can render to God. 
We never can be holy till we believe in Christ ; 
and therefore all ideas of preparation for coming 
to Christ by making ourselves better are errone- 
ous, arise from mistaken views of the way of a 
sinner's acceptance with God, and are generally 
to be traced to a principle of self-righteousness. 
This, perhaps, is the case with many who will 
read these pages : they want to be more prepared, 
either by convictions or by holiness, for coming 
to Christ ; that is, they want something of their 
own in which to glory ; something to give them 
courage and confidence in approaching the Sa- 
vior ; something to render them less dependent 
on free, sovereign grace ; sometning to entitle 
them, if not to salvation, at least to the righteous- 
ness of Christ as the meritorious cause of it Anx- 
ious inquirer, you know not the secret workings 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS 123 

of pride and self-righteousness in your soul ; you 
are not yet acquainted with the deceitfulness of 
the human heart , you are ignorant of the artifices 
of Satan, or you would detect in those longings 
after some preparatory process, a scheme of the 
enemy of souls to keep you from Christ — yes, it 
is a veil to hide from your view the glory of his 
cross, and a stumbling-block to hinder you from 
approaching the fountain of life. Wait no longer ; 

" If you tarry till you're better, 
" You will never come at all." 

It is of infinite consequence for you to remember 
that you are received, not as worthy, but as un- 
worthy ; not as favorites, but as those who have 
been enemies ] not as deserving life by your con- 
victions, but as sentenced to death for your trans- 
gressions. " To him that worketh not, but be- 
lieveth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his 
faith is counted for righteousness." Eom. 4 : 5. 
Mark that expression, there is a vast comprehen- 
sion of subject in it ] it is the key to a correct 
knowledge of justification ; " believeth in him 
that justifieth the ungodly." We are justified, so 
far as we are concerned, under the character of 
11 ungodly" If then we seek to make ourselves 
godly before we come to Christ, and wish to 



124< THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

come under that character, we are shutting our- 
selves out from the blessing of justification 5 for 
this is granted only to them who consider them 
selves ungodly. 

3. Another mistake into which inquirers fall, 
is to indulge a misplaced solicitude about the evi- 
dences of personal religion. I know that the sa- 
cred writers speak much and often on the subject 
of evidences of personal religion. But a person 
must have religion before he can possess the evi- 
dences of it ; and at present your solicitude should 
be rather to be a christian, than to know you are 
such. It is, however, a very common case for 
persons, as soon as they begin to be anxious 
about religion, to begin also to be anxious to find 
out the marks of salvation in themselves. Hence 
they are ever microscopically analyzing all their 
feelings, watching their motives, reviewing their 
conduct 1 sometimes hoping when they see, or 
think they see, a good mark ; but more gene- 
rally desponding, as the result of seeing so much 
that is positively wrong, or really defective in 
the state of their hearts. I wish you to attend 
to this remark, " That inquirers after salvation 
should be much more occupied in looking to Christ, 
than in looking into their own hearts ; and that 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 125 

when they do look into themselves, it should be 
for conviction, and not for consolation." Con- 
sider the case of the Israelites when bitten by 
the fiery serpents in the wilderness. Num. 21 : 
7-9. Moses, you know, was ordered to make a 
brazen serpent and elevate it upon a pole, and 
whosoever looked upon the brazen figure lived. 
V Look and live," was the mandate and promise. 
Now cannot you fancy you see the poor poisoned 
creatures straining their very eyes in gazing 
upon the object appointed for their healing \ 
Do you think they spent all their time, or much 
of their time, or any of it, in examining the 
wounds to see if they were healing ! Were they 
so foolish as to look off from the means of cure, 
to ascertain their progress in recovery \ No. 
They would not have taken their eye from the 
brazen serpent to look at a second sun, if it had 
been at that time kindled in the firmament. 
Their eye was fixed \ and as they looked, they 
felt their pain assuaged ; their fever cooled ; their 
health returning : if they looked off, they felt in 
danger of relapse ; and in this way they recover- 
ed. Thus should it be with the sinner ; he 
should look to Jesus : healing, is there ; and is 
obtained, not by looking to see if it is come, 



126 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

or is coming. The more the mind is fixed on 
Christ, the more clear its views are of his medi- 
atorial work 5 the more steady and fixed the eye 
of faith is on the cross of him who was " lifted 
up, that whosoever believeth should not perish 
but have eternal life," the firmer will be the con- 
sciousness of the soul that it does believe, and 
the more abundant will be all the fruits and evi- 
dences of faith. The Israelite had no doubt of 
his healing as long as he looked to the brazen 
serpent, for he felt it going on ; nor will the soul 
doubt of its acceptance with God so long as it 
looks to Christ. " He that believeth hath the wit- 
ness in himself," not only of the truth of Christi- 
anity, but of his own personal religion. The 
way to have evidences increased, is to have faith 
increased ; and the way to have faith increased, 
is not by looking into ourselves, who are the 
subjects of faith, but out of ourselves to Christ, 
who is the object of faith. Faith is the main- 
spring and regulator of all the graces : our joy, 
our love, our hope will all be in proportion to our 
faith ; and our faith can never be strengthened by 
an anxious and constant poring over the feelings 
of our hearts. Nor can our faith be strengthened 
merely by determining to be strong in faith, but 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 127 

by an intelligent and increasingly clear view of 
the person and work of Christ. "How long," 
said David, " shall I take counsel in my soul, 
having sorrow in my heart daily." He tells us 
almost immediately after how he got rid of his 
grief, even by looking away from himself to God : 
" I have trusted in thy mercy, my heart shall 
rejoice in thy salvation." Psalm 13 : 2, 5. The 
peace of mind that true faith brings into the soul, 
the relief which it affords from the burden of sin, 
and the fruits of holiness in a godly life, are evi- 
dences that faith is genuine ; but there can be 
neither peace nor holiness without faith. Many, 
I apprehend, are greatly deceived in their sup- 
posed object in seeking for marks of conversion : 
it is not evidences of faith they are seeking after, 
but matter of faith ; not evidences that they have 
received the righteousness of Christ, but eviden- 
ces out of which they make a righteousness of 
their own \ they want comfort, and instead of 
looking for it in Christ, they are looking for it 
in themselves. Hence, when they have found, 
or think they have found, a good mark in them 
selves, they rejoice in it, as those that have found 
great spoil. 

Doubting, dejected, and anxious sinner, thou 



128 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER 

hast been reading, thinking, hearing, praying, 
striving, examining, consulting books of eviden- 
ces and lists of marks of salvation, inquiring of 
others how they feel and what they conclude to 
be evidence of a work of grace, and yet thou art 
as far from any satisfactory conclusion, as to thy 
state, as ever ; like the beast in the mire, all thy 
striving serves but to sink thee deeper and deep- 
er. Now then take another plan, since thine own 
has failed, and instead of a constant search for 
evidences, look to Christ ; keep thine eye fixed 
on him , meditate upon the divinity of his per- 
son ) the sufficiency of his atonement ; the per- 
fection of his righteousness ; the riches of his 
grace 5 the universality of his invitations. Look 
at the object of faith, the grounds of faith, the 
warrant of faith : the more thou doest this, the 
stronger thy faith will become 5 and the stronger 
thy faith is, the greater thy peace will be. In- 
stead of laboring to love Christ, and becoming 
dejected that thou dost not love him more, take 
another course, and dwell upon the love of Christ 
to thee. Meditate on his amazing grace, his most 
wonderful compassion, not only to the world in 
general, but to thee, as part of the world ; labor 
and pray to be able to comprehend, with all saints, 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 129 

" what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and 
height, and to know the love of Christ, which 
passeth knowledge." This, this is the way to 
grow in love to him ; for if we love him, it is be- 
cause he first loved us. 1 John, 4 : 19. It is a 
great principle, which I am anxious to impress 
upon you, that subjective religion, or in other 
words, religion in us, is produced and sustained 
by fixing the mind on objective religion, or the 
facts and doctrines of the word of God. Neither 
evidences nor comfort should be sought direct- 
ly, or on their own account, or as separate things, 
but as the result of faith. Take this as an impor- 
tant sentiment, that the subject of evidences be- 
longs more to the believer than to the inquirer ; 
to the Christian who professes to be already in 
the way, and not to the anxious seeker after 
the way. 

4. But there is another mistake which inquir- 
ers are apt to make, which, though nearly allied 
to what I have already stated, is sufficiently dis- 
tinct to justify a separate consideration, and that 
is confounding faith and assurance. Faith is such 
a cordial belief that Christ died for sinners, as 
leads to a dependence upon him for salvation ; 
assurance, as the word is usually understood 

A. Inquirer. 9 



130 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER 

in religious discourse, means a persuasion that 
I do so believe, and am in a state of salvation: 
faith means a belief that Christ is willing to re- 
ceive me ; assurance means conviction that he 
has received me ; that, in short, I am a Chris- 
tian. Now it is manifest that these two are 
different from each other ; one of them, that is 
faith, signifying the performance of an action or 
coming into a certain state ; and the other the 
consciousness that / have come into that state. 
It is also equally evident that faith must precede 
assurance. We must first believe that Christ 
died for sinners, and trust in him, before we can 
know that we have believed. The first simple 
act of faith is a belief that Christ died for all sin- 
ners, for the whole world ; the next as arising 
out of it, if it be not indeed included in it, is that 
he died for us as a part of the world. I believe, 
says the sinner, who is coming with confidence 
to Christ, that " God so loved the world as to 
give his only begotten Son, that whosoever bc- 
lieveth on him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life :" then as I am a part of the world, I 
believe he loved me, and is willing to save me ; 
I trust in Him as my atoning sacrifice and my 
all: this is faith. The soul then feels joy and 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 131 

peace in believing", love to God, gratitude to 
Christ, hatred of sin, subjugation of the world, 
fellowship with the righteous , now, says the per- 
son, u I know I believe, I am conscious both of 
the act of believing and also of its gracious 
effects :" this is assurance. 

I may illustrate this by referring again to the 
rebellious subjects and their gracious sovereign. 
A ringleader of the revolt can scarcely persuade 
himself that he can be included in the act of am- 
nesty ; he reads the proclamation again, which 
runs thus: — "The king, pitying his deluded sub- 
jects, and filled with clemency, will grant a gra- 
cious pardon to all, whosoever they be, who will 
lay down their arms by such a day." Having 
examined the proofs of the authenticity of the 
act, and being satisfied on that point, he says, 
ft It is really true, and I believe that the king 
is willing to pardon all that submit ; and as he 
has made no exception against any, but says, 
whosoever will lay down his arms shall be for- 
given, I believe that there is mercy for me." 
Thus far faith goes; and even before he reaches 
the scene of pardon, or takes a step towards it, 
his mind is at rest, the proclamation itself, as 
soon as it is understood and believed, gives him 



132 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

comfort; he has no doubt of his being accepted. 
He goes and lays down his arms, and now he is 
assured he is safe ; he is conscious he has done 
what the monarch required, and he feels he has 
what the monarch promised. In his case, how- 
ever, you perceive that there would not be much 
solicitude about assurance. Faith and compli- 
ance with the monarch's demand would be all 
that he would concern himself about. Assurance 
would follow upon faith and action. So should it 
be with anxious inquirers after salvation : their 
business is to believe — what 1 — that they are 
christians % No ; for a belief that / am a chris- 
tian, is not faith, but assurance— but to believe 
the Gospel, which is God's proclamation of mer- 
cy and pardon to his rebel subjects. They are to 
feel persuaded that God has loved them in com- 
mon with other sinners; has invited, them; has 
promised to receive them ; and availing them- 
selves of this revelation of mercy, to commit them- 
selves and their eternal all to Him. Then, from 
the peace-giving effect of this upon their con- 
science, and the purifying effect of it upon their 
hearts, they may be assured they have believed, 
and have passed from death unto life. Faith 
then is not assurance, but the cause of it. 



MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 133 

Now, inquirer, are you not aware you have 
confounded these two ; and have been conse 
quently walking in great perplexity 1 You are 
dejected, and find no peace. Why 'I " Oh," you 
say, " my faith is so weak ; indeed I am afraid I 
have no faith." Now, what do you mean by hav- 
ing no faith 1 " I am afraid I am not a chris- 
tian. I fear I do not believe. I am full of unbe- 
lief." And let me tell you that you never can be 
delivered from distress in this way ; for you are 
wanting to know you are a christian before you 
are one ; you are striving to know you are a be- 
liever before you believe ; you wish to be assur- 
ed you are accepted of Christ, in order that you 
may go to him for acceptance. Faith is not be- 
lieving that you are a christian, but believing 
that Christ died for sinners, and trusting in him ; 
and unbelief is not doubting that you are a chris- 
tian, but doubting Christ's willingness to save 
you, and thus rejecting him. My advice to you 
then is, to leave assurance, as a first matter, out 
of consideration. Your business at present is 
with faith; you are to believe; you are to com- 
mit your soul to the atonement of Christ ; you 
are to be persuaded that he died for sinners, 
died for you, and is willing to save you. This is 



134 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

the assurance you are to seek; and this is what 
the apostle means by the full assurance of faith: 
an unhesitating confidence that the Lord Jesus is 
able and willing to save to the uttermost ; and 
therefore able and willing to save you. Get your 
mind full of conviction of the truth of this ; let 
your soul be thrown, as it were, wide open to ad- 
mit this delightful persuasion, that Christ is migh- 
ty to save i delighted to save ; waiting to save all 
— you among the rest, you as willingly as any of 
the rest ; and cast your soul upon him— then will 
this truth give you such peace, and exert such a 
power over your heart, as to prove to you the 
existence and reality of your faith, and you shall 
have the blessed assurance, at once, of God's 
love in Christ, and of your acceptance in him. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PERPLEXITIES WHICH ARE OFTEN FELT BY INQUIRERS. 

1. Many are exceedingly perplexed and dis- 
tressed on the subject of their personal election to 
eternal life. 



PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 135 

1 have nothing to do now with those careless 
or profane persons who make this awful doc- 
trine an excuse, or rather profess to make it an 
excuse, for the entire neglect of religion ; and 
who with a wicked indifference exclaim, " If I am 
elected to be saved, I shall be saved without any 
concern of mine ; but if I am not elected, no ef- 
fort of mine will or can save me." The fact is, 
that such persons do not believe in the doctrine 
of election at all \ nor, indeed, care any thing 
about salvation ,• but are utterly ignorant and 
careless, and refer to this solemn truth either to 
quiet their own conscience, or to silence and turn 
away the voice of faithful admonition. But there 
are others who do feel, especially in the early 
stages of religious inquiry, no small degree ot 
perplexity on this subject. Now here let me at 
once inform you, that you who are inquiring 
after salvation have nothing to do with the doc- 
trine of election, as a rule of conduct. The sub- 
lime truth of God's sovereignty in the salvation 
of his people, is introduced in Scripture, not to 
discourage the approach of the sinner to Christ 
for salvation, but to remind those who have come 
to him, that their salvation is all of grace ; to take 
away from them all ground of boasting ; to con- 



135 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

firm their faith in the accomplishment of the 
Divine promises ; to promote their comfort ; to 
inculcate the necessity of personal holiness ; and 
to encourage christians amidst the afflictions of 
life. Rom. chap. 8, 9 5 Eph. 1 1 *, 5, 9, 11 5 1 Pet. 
1 : 2. But it was never designed to be a source 
of discouragement to penitents. The rule of your 
conduct is the invitation and promise of Christ, 
not the secret purposes of God : " The secret 
things belong unto the Lord our God ; but those 
things that are revealed belong unto us and to our 
children for ever, that we may do all the words of 
this law." Deut. 29 : 29. The mercy of God is 
infinite ; the merit of Christ's atonement is infinite 5 
tl^ power of the Spirit is infinite ) and the invita- 
tions of the Gospel are universal. " Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden." And 
thus saith the Lord, M I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked." w The Lord is long-suffer- 
ing to us ward, not willing that any should perish, 
but that all should come to repentance." "Him 
that cometh I will in no wise cast out." w Who- 
soever will, let him take of the water of life 
freely." Now these are the words of Scripture, 
and must, therefore, be true ; and here is the rule 
of your conduct. You can understand this, but 



PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 137 

you know little of the secret purposes of God 
Besides, if you knew you were t lected, you would 
not be received and saved because of this know- 
ledge, but by believing in Christ, who invites men, 
not as elected to life, but as lost sinners con- 
demned to death. If you had been permitted to 
read the decrees of heaven, and had seen your 
name in the Lamb's book of life, you would not 
be one whit more welcome to Christ than you 
are now that you know nothing about the matter. 
You are invited ; and if you neglect the invita- 
tion which you do know, because of a decree 
which you do not know, the blame of perishing 
will lie at your own door ; and you will find at 
last that you were lost, not in consequence of any 
purpose of God determining you to be lost, but 
in consequence of your own unbelief. 

Why should the purpose of God in reference 
to salvation be the only view of the Divine pur- 
poses which perplexes youl Do you not believe 
there is also a purpose which refers to the events 
of your natural life and death 1 But do you on 
this account hesitate in sickness to take the me- 
dicine prescribed for you by a skilful physician, 
lest you should not be ordained to life 1 No. You 
p»y ? and with reason, " I know not the Divine pur- 



138 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

pose ; my business is with plain rales of duty, 
and instituted means ; for if I am to live, I can 
expect recovery only by these means." Act thus 
in reference to your soul. You are invited to use 
the means of life ', if you are to be saved, yo-u 
must be saved in the use, not the neglect of these 
means, and if you use them aright you certainly 
will be saved. If any use at all is to be made by 
an inquirer, of the doctrine of election, it is a use 
in his own favor. You know not that you are not 
elected, and the very solicitude of your mind 
about salvation makes it probable that you are, 
since that solicitude is usually employed by God 
as one of the methods through which he fulfils 
his purposes of mercy to ruined man. Besides, if 
you get away from the invitation, and instead of 
making that the rule of your conduct, trouble your 
head with other views and subjects, you will find 
as much perplexity in God's foreknowledge as 
you do in his decree. Even those who deny the 
purposes of God have just as much reason to 
perplex themselves with Divine prescience, and 
say, " Whatever God foresees, and nothing but 
what he foresees, will take place ; now he fore- 
sees either that I shall be saved or lost ; and as 
I do not know that he foresees that I shall be sav- 



PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 139 

ed, I am greatly discouraged." Abandon at once 
therefore all solicitude about the unrevealed 
purposes of God, and fix your attention on the 
invitation. Christ bids you come to him for sal- 
vation ; and every bar and obstacle which lies in 
the way of your coming, is placed there by you, 
and not by him. He does not say, Come when 
you have ascertained your election, but come and 
ascertain it. He does not say, you are welcome 
if you have read the decree ; but, you are welcome 
if you believe the promise. He does not say, come 
under the presumption that you are predestinated • 
but, come with the assurance that you are bidden. 
Your business is to make your calling sure, and 
then you will no longer doubt of your election. 

2. Another source of perplexity with some, is 
a fear that they have committed the unpardonable 
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. 

This is by no means an uncommon ground of 
painful solicitude 5 and even when it does not 
amount to a deep and terrifying conviction, yet 
the subject haunts the imagination with many 
distressing fears, keeps the peace unsettled, and 
prevents that calm and tranquillizing reliance to 
which the penitent is invited. Now I wish you 
to know that in whatever awful and terrific ob- 



140 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

scurity this subject is enveloped, no one that is 
really anxious about his salvation need fear that 
he has passed the line of hope and entered the 
region where mercy never dispenses pardon \ the 
very fear of having committed this sin, when such 
fear is connected with a tender concern for sal- 
vation, is a proof that it has ?iot been committed. 
It may be taken for granted that in every case 
where this mysterious crime has been committed, 
the transgressor is given up either to a deadly 
stupor, or a raging frenzy of the conscience. 

But, perhaps the best way of removing the ap- 
prehension, is to explain the subject which occa- 
sions it. What is the nature of this sin 1 Read the 
account of it : — " Wherefore I say unto you, all 
manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven 
unto men ; but the blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And 
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of 
man, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever 
speakeih against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be 
forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in 
the world to come." Matthew, 12 : 31, 32. The 
occasion of these awful words, was the conduct 
of the Pharisees in ascribing the miracles of 
Christ, the reality of which they could not deny 



PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 14-1 

or doubt, to the power of the devil. It is proba- 
ble, however, that the words had a special refer- 
ence to the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was to 
follow our Lord's crucifixion. The day of Pente- 
cost, properly speaking, commenced the dispen- 
sation of the Spirit ; when his Divine gifts, con- 
ferred upon the apostles, completed the evidence 
of the Christian economy,- and the language of 
Christ seemed to direct the Pharisees forward, 
in the way of impressive warning, to that event ; 
and to remind them, though they understood him 
not, that the malicious contempt cast upon Ms 
miracles, if repeated after the Holy Ghost should 
be poured out, would fill the measure of their 
iniquities; seal them up in unbelief; and place 
them beyond the reach of mercy. There would 
remain no farther evidence of the Divine mission 
of Christ ; the last and the fullest attestation to 
his Messiahship would be rejected and reviled 
with malice of heart. If, in addition to this, you 
will recollect the meaning of the term blasphemy, 
which signifies to speak reproachfully, opprobri- 
ously, or impiously, you will then have the nature 
of this crime before you. It is knowledge in the 
mind that miracles were wrought ; malice in the 
heart against Christ, in attestation of whom they 



142 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

were given ; contempt of the Holy Ghost their 
author ; and the language of spite upon the tongue, 
reviling the miracles themselves, by ascribing 
them to the agency of devils. It is not simple un- 
belief under the dispensation of the Spirit ; it is 
not mere infidelity, even under very aggravated 
circumstances ; but it is the union of conviction, 
malice, and impiety. It is therefore evident that 
if this sin is now ever committed, no serious in- 
quirer after salvation needs entertain the appre- 
hension that it has been committed by him. He 
has not passed the boundary of mercy ; nor is 
there a sin he has ever been guilty of, however 
enormous in magnitude, or however painful in 
remembrance, but the blood of Jesus Christ can 
cleanse it away. 

3. But this leads to another perplexity which 
is felt by others ; who, though they do not fear 
that they have been guilty of this unpardonable 
crime, are distressed by the apprehension that their 
sins are too great, too numerous, or too peculiar to 
be forgiven. 

Sometimes convinced sinners are enabled by 
Divine grace to indulge the hope of pardon al- 
most as soon as they feel the conviction of sin. 
Yea, some are led to see the evil of sin at first, 



PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 143 

more by the mercy of the Gospel than the stem 
justice which appears in the law, but others are 
long and sorely harassed by fears of rejection, 
before they are brought to a comfortable expec- 
tation of forgiveness. This is more commonly 
the case with those who have gone to great 
lengths in sin, and have resisted the clearest and 
loudest warnings of conscience ; it is not unusual 
for such persons, when truly awakened to a sense 
of their sin and danger, to plunge into the very 
depths of despondency. In some cases I think 
it possible that this desponding frame of mind is 
really cherished, as if it were an evidence of sin- 
cere and deep penitence : there are those who look 
upon doubts and fears as the marks of a work of 
grace, and proofs of genuine piety. Such doubts 
and fears, however, are never to be sought, since 
true godly sorrow is both accompanied and pro- 
moted by faith and hope. Despair tends to harden 
the heart, and to freeze up the feelings of peni- 
tence. God cannot be glorified, nor Christ ho- 
nored, by doubting of his ability or willingness to 
save. I am persuaded that many persons say 
more about their sii s being too great to be par- 
doned, than they e her believe or feel, from a 
supposition that it if a token of humility to talk 



1-14 THE ANXIOUS liXQUlREK. 

thus. Watch against this, for it is an act of guilty- 
insincerity 5 it is trifling with sacred things, and 
should be avoided. 

But there are many who are really distressed 
with the most painful solicitude, and the most 
gloomy apprehensions about the pardon of their 
sins. Now here let me put a plain question to 
you : is your concern merely to be pardoned, or to 
be sanctified as well as pardoned % Are you afraid 
only of being left under the punishment of sin, 
or do you also fear being left under its power % 
If you are so selfish as to be anxious for nothing 
but your own safety, without caring for holiness, 
no wonder you are left by God to despondency. 
You do not yet understand the design of Christ's 
work, which is not merely to deliver from hell, 
but also from sin. Change then, or rather enlarge 
the object of your hope, so as to include sanctifi- 
cation as well as justification, and in all proba- 
bility your unbelief and distress will soon give 
way ; for it will be* found easier, perhaps, to 
some to believe that God is willing to make 
them holy, than to forgive them. Desponding 
sinner, think of this ; the salvation of Christ is 
designed to make you a new creature, and to 
restore the image of God to your soul \ and do 



PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 145 

you not believe that God must be infinitely 
willing to do this 1 

After all, however, there are some who, even 
with this view of the design of Christ's death, 
still cherish the idea that their sins cannot be 
forgiven : none have sinned, they think, like 
them ] there are aggravations in their sins, not 
to be found in the conduct of any other. Now I 
refer such burdened and desponding minds, 

To the promises of God?s word. Eead atten- 
tively such declarations as are found in the fol- 
lowing passages: Isaiah, 44: 22 ] Isaiah, 55: 6, 7; 
Micah, 7 : 18, 19 ; Matthew, 12 : 31, 32. Dwell 
especially upon this last passage, because it most 
explicitly declares that the blasphemy against 
the Holy Ghost is the only sin excepted from for- 
giveness. If then you are led to see that you have 
not committed the only sin for which there is no 
forgiveness, it must I think appear plain to you 
that your transgressions are not unpardonable. 

Dwell much upon the perfection of Christ 1 s 
work in making atonement for sin. The apostle 
declares, that "the blood of Jesus Christ his 
Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John, 1 : 7. 
It would seem as if this declaration were writ- 
ten on purpose to meet such cases as yours, 

A. Inquirer. 10 



146 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

This scripture says positively, the blood of 
Christ cleanseth from all sin* " No," you say, 
in flat and perverse contradiction, " it cannot 
cleanse from mine." Did Christ die to save sin- 
ners, and yet are there some sinners to be found, 
according to your view, whom he cannot save 1 
Then his work of salvation is unfinished, and his 
character as a Savior is incomplete. Has he 
not saved millions already by the merit of his 
death ? — Well, suppose all the sins of those mil- 
lions had been in you alone, could he not as 
easily have saved you in that case, as he has 
saved them 1 Certainly he could. Can you really 
make up your mind to go and say to Christ, 
" Lord, thou canst not, wilt not save me ; there is 
neither love enough in thy heart, nor power 
enough in thy Spirit, nor merit enough in thy 
great sacrifice to save me. Look upon me and 
behold a sinner, whom even thou canst not save : 
behold in me a sinner, to whom thy uttermost 
ability cannot reach." No, you cannot say this ; 
and yet you may say it, and innocently say it, if 
what you affirm is true, that your sins are too 
great to be forgiven. Let it be admitted, for the 
sake of argument, that you are the chief of sin- 
ners, still Christ can save you ; so at least the 



PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 147 

npostle thought, when he said, " This is a faith- 
ful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, 
oj whom I am chief." And now read what fol- 
lows : fr Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy 3 
that in me first (or as it signifies, in me the chief 
sinner) Jesus Christ might show forth all long- 
suffering, for a pattern to them which should 
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." 
1 Tim. 1 : 15, 16. Think what Saul of Tarsus 
was 1 a bloody persecutor, and even murderer 
of the disciples of Christ ; yet Christ not only 
pardoned him, but raised him to the dignity 
of the chief of the apostles. For what purpose 1 
To be a pattern of God's mercy to the end 
of time. Yes, there he stands upon the pedes- 
tal of his own immortal writings, a monument 
of the riches, power, and sovereignty of divine 
grace, bearing this inscription : I, who was a 

BLASPHEMER, A PERSECUTOR AND INJURIOUS, OBTAIN- 
ED mercy. Let no man ever despair : for if 
there arise a greater sinner than I was, let him 
look on me, and hope for pardon through the 
blood of Christ, I was forgiven, to encourage the 
wickedest of men to repent, to believe in Jesus, 
and expect salvation. 



148 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

Consider well the other instances recorded in 
the word of God, of pardon granted to some of 
the greatest sinners. There is scarcely one class 
of sinners, or one kind of crime, which- is not 
specifically mentioned in Scripture as having 
been pardoned. Think of Manasseh, an apostate, 
an idolater, a wholesale murderer, a man whose 
example and authority as a king were employed 
to fill a nation with iniquity ; of the dying male- 
factor who was saved upon his cross ; of the 
Jews who were converted on the day of Pente- 
cost, and who, though they had been the murder- 
ers of Christ, were forgiven ; of the once pollut- 
ed members of the Corinthian church. 1 Cor. 6: 
9-11. What proofs are these that no sins will 
keep a man from salvation, that do not keep him 
from Christ. The fact is, that greatness and lit- 
tleness, few and many, have nothing to do with 
this matter, in the way of making it more dif- 
ficult, or more easy, to obtain mercy. No man is 
pardoned because his sins are fewer than others ; 
and none is rejected because his sins are more. 
Great sinners are welcome 5 for as the skill 
of the physician is the more displayed in dan- 
gerous and difficult cases than in slight ones, so 
is the grace of Christ the more illustriously ma- 



PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 149 

nifested in the pardon and sanctification of noto- 
rious sinners than in the salvation of those who 
have not gone so far astray. If God's mercy be 
infinite, it must be as easy for him to pardon a? 
million sins as one. Desponding sinner, doubt 
no longer. The greatest sin you can commit, is 
to disbelieve God's promise to forgive your 
other sins. Unbelief is the most heinous of all 
sins. " He that believeth not God, hath made him 
a liar." 1 John, 5 : 10. Yes, you are giving God 
the lie to his face, as often as you say your sins 
are too great to be forgiven. Do you not trem- 
ble at this % Is there not abominable pride in un- 
belief % Who and what are you, that you should 
suppose God has any object or interest in de- 
ceiving you by a false promise % Are you so 
considerable a person, that he should falsify 
his word in order to draw you into false con- 
fidence % Believe then from this hour, that God 
is more willing to forgive you the greatest of 
your sins, than you imagine he is to blot out the 
least of them. 

4. Some are perplexed with the notion, that as 
u the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to 
God ;" and as none of the works of unregenerate 
'persons are acceptable to God, it is not right for 



150 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

them to pray, since they are not yet believers in 
Christ. With regard to the expression above 
alluded to, which speaks of the sacrifice of the 
wicked, it means the hypocritical religious ser- 
vices of men who are still living in the commis- 
sion of known sin, and impiously designing to 
make some atonement for their iniquities by 
their sacrifices. This is evident from the pas- 
sage itself, where it is also said, the way of the 
wicked is abomination, that is, his conduct ; and 
because his conduct is abominable, therefore his 
prayer is also abominable. This passage is best 
expounded by a reference to Isaiah, 1 : 10-18. 
It applies to a totally different case from yours. 
Your prayers, indeed, do not merit the divine 
blessing which you are anxious to obtain, how- 
ever frequently or fervently they may be pre- 
sented. You ought not to pray with the idea that 
there is any worth in your prayers to make any 
atonement for your sins ; nor ought you to look 
for peace and comfort from your prayers. I go 
a step farther, and remind you that unless you 
pray in faith, your prayers are not such as 
God has engaged to answer. You should believe 
that God is willing and waiting^ to bestow all 
spiritual blessings, for he has promised to do so. 



PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 151 

To doubt, at the time you pray, whether God 
will grant what he has promised, is sin ; and to 
doubt whether it is your duty to pray because 
you do not yet know that you are accepted of 
God, is unquestionably wrong. You may as well 
question whether it is your duty to read the 
Bible, or to go to public worship. Did not Peter 
tell Simon Magus to pray 1 " Repent, therefore," 
said he, " of this thy wickedness, and pray God, 
if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be for- 
given thee 5 for I perceive that thou art in the 
gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity." Acts, 8 : 
22, 23. Still, I would remind you, that as long as 
you pray in an unconverted state, your pray- 
ers are only the operations of self-love $ they 
are but the cries of misery after relief, the desire 
of the soul after happiness ; and, however fre- 
quently or fervently repeated, prefer no claim on 
God for his blessing. The sin lies not in praying 
— for if sincere, there is no sin in crying to God 
for help — but in not believing. Instead there- 
fore of leaving off prayer, or harassing your 
mind with doubts concerning it, continue instant 
in prayer, mourning for your sins, and believing 
at the same time the promise of mercy in Christ 
Jesus. You are to add to your prayer, faith; 



152 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

and it is your duty at once to believe ; but should 
it not be that your soul loses immediately its 
guilty fears, still you are to pray for mercy, 
and for faith to receive it. It cannot be wrong 
for a soul to cry for mercy. With such light as 
you have, lift up your desire to God. Pray 
for more knowledge, stronger faith, and firmer 
hope. Prayer is your duty, and it is your pri- 
vilege; and let no speculative difficulties have a 
moment's influence to induce you to suspend it. 
Cry for mercy as a sinner ; but do not remain in 
unbelief, supposing that prayer can be a substi- 
tute for faith ; for as I said before, so I repeat, 
God does not bind himself to answer any prayers 
but those of faith 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DISCOURAGEMENTS WHICH PRESENT THEMSELVES AT 
THE COMMENCEMENT OF A RELIGIONS COURSE. 

The word of God teaches us to expect these 
What means the strait gate but an entrance 
attended with difficulty ! What means counting 
the cost, but contemplating obstacles and prepar- 



DISCOURAGEMENTS. 153 

ing to meet them 1 Bunyan knew the course to 
heaven when he placed the slough of despond 
in the first stage of the journey. You are mis- 
taken if you expectj by one easy stride, to reach 
the firm and solid ground beyond the dismal 
swamp. Sincerity will diminish difficulties, and 
finally overcome them, but it will not prevent 
them. Prepare then for discouragement, for you 
will be sure to meet with it, and it is both wise 
and merciful to forewarn you of it, lest you should 
conclude that some strange thing has happened 
to you. But observe, no part of this discourage- 
ment comes from God. He interposes no obsta- 
cle, raises no difficulties, presents no objection. 
A doubt of his willingness to save, a distrust of 
his mercy, would be fatal to your hopes. But all 
is clear ground, so far as he is concerned. Dwell 
on this thought, it is a blissful one ) ponder here, 
before you go another step 5 arm yourself to 
meet every discouragement, come from what 
quarter it may, with this conviction, that God 
waits to be gracious ; yes, like the father in the 
parable of the prodigal son, he is out looking for 
you, his infinite mercy is in motion towards you, 
he runs towards you faster than you go to him. 
What then is your discouragement % 



154* THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

1. The cold indifference, the repulsive shyness 
of some professing christians. You thought that 
the very look of anxiety ; the very countenance 
that seemed to say to their eyes, if not to their 
ears, " What shall I do to be saved 1" would 
draw the sympathies of many upon you ; instead 
of which, you perhaps feel that you are left with- 
out a friend to commiserate or guide you, and 
are compelled in the agony of your soul to say, 
even to the multitude that go up to Zion, " Is it 
nothing to you, all ye that pass by, come see if 
there be any sorrow like unto mine. Will no 
man care for my soul V Ah, my friend, let me 
tell you in the beginning of your career, that you 
cannot expect too little from man, nor too much 
from God. It is the scandal of the church of 
Christ, and in measure also of its ministers, that, 
in many cases, serious inquirers after salvation 
are shamefully neglected. But shall this discou- 
rage you % What, when all heaven is interested on 
your behalf] When Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 
are concerned for you 1 When the blessed angels 
are rejoicing over you, and flying on wings of 
love to minister to you, as an heir of salvation] 
Look to God, and if the neglect of christians 
should lead you to a more simple dependence 



DISCOURAGEMENTS. 155 

upon Christ, you will be a gainer in the end. 
Too many friends and too much attention might 
do you injury, by leading you to depend too much 
upon an arm of flesh. 

2. Many are discouraged by witnessing the lew 
state of religion among professors* They see no 
counterpart to their anxiety in some who have 
long borne the christian name. While they them- 
selves are crying, " What shall I do to be saved 1* 
they hear little from the lips of many christian 
professors, but what shall we eat or drink ; where- 
withal shall we be clothed ; what is the news of 
the day, or what is the state of trade ? They see 
so much worldly-mindedness, so much imperfec- 
tion of temper, so many things unworthy of the 
christian character, that they can scarcely be- 
lieve there is a reality in religion, and are some- 
times ready to give all up as a mere name. Nay, 
from some of these very professors they receive 
plain hints that they are too anxious, too precise, 
too earnest and urgent. O ye wicked professors, 
ye child murderers, for by what softer name can 
I call you, in thus attempting to strangle the chil- 
dren of God in the birth 1 I beseech you to con- 
sider the mischief you are doing, and abandon 
this effort to extinguish the solicitude of souls 



156 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

who may be beginning to feel the energies of 
spiritual life. And ye inquirers after salvation, be 
not diverted from Christ and eternal glory. If 
these men are living below their profession, this 
is their business, not yours. Salvation is neces- 
sary for you, whether they are sincere and earnest 
in seeking it or not. It will be no compensation 
for the loss of your soul, to think that they lost 
theirs. If there were not yet one real christian, 
this would be no excuse for your neglecting to 
become one. Look into the Bible, rather than to 
the professors of religion. Instead of giving up 
the matter, you should gather this inference from 
what you see, that it is no easy thing to be a 
christian. Should the unworthy conduct of some 
professors induce you to relinquish the pursuit 
of salvation, it will be poor consolation in the 
bottomless pit, to look back upon the cause of 
your ruin. 

3. You are perhaps discouraged by the pros- 
pect of opposition from your nearest friends. You 
see them all worldly, and plainly perceive that 
your real conversion to God will place you in 
direct opposition to them : that your becoming a 
christian, and acting as such, will bring into your 
house the scene described by our Lord, Matt. 



DISCOURAGEMENTS. 157 

10 : 34-38. ". O," say you, " how fearful is the 
prospect before me ! my profession of religion 
would sound a note of discord in a family where 
all has been peace till now, although a peace 
founded on a common disregard of religion, and 
would introduce confusion and strife where all 
has been union and harmony." " I must brave 
the anger of my husband," says the wife, " and 
perhaps alienate that heart on which my spirit 
has hitherto reposed with such delight." Or says 
the child, " I must seem to be disobedient to a 
parent whom I have hitherto found it to be my 
duty and bliss to obey. O, can I do it % Is there 
no other way to heaven'? Are there no milder 
terms of submission to the authority of Christ 1" 
None, none whatever. I do not conceal that it is 
an awful alternative. I should be destitute of all 
sympathy, my friend, if I did not feel for you. 
But I dare not withdraw the cross. My soul 
would perish with yours, if I successfully at- 
tempted to persuade you that, in your circum- 
stances, repentance, faith, the love of God, and 
all the other graces and virtues included in de- 
cided spiritual religion, could be dispensed with. 
God will not, cannot relax his demands, and I 
dare not, Husband and wife, parent and child, 



158 THE ANXIOUS IiNQlTIliER. 

houses and lands, worldly reputation, and the ap- 
plause of men, must all give place to Him. He 
demands the heart, and he has infinitely gracious 
rewards to bestow for all your sacrifice for him. 
He will make the crown infinitely more valuable 
than the cross is terrible. You may be, you ought 
to be, discreet in your profession ; you must avoid 
all unnecessary opposition to the wishes of un- 
converted relatives 5 you should, if possible, be 
ten times more obliging, more devoted, more 
sweetly kind in all other matters; you should 
return good for evil ; you should exhibit the most 
undisturbed meekness; you should try to con- 
quer violence by patience, but you must not, you 
dare not, give up concern for your soul ; you must 
be willing to die of a broken heart, and by the 
wrongs of persecution, rather than give up the 
pursuit of salvation. Trust in God, He will sup- 
port you. If he call you to be a martyr in this 
way, he will first give you a martyr's faith, and 
then a martyr's crown. Let the following im- 
pressive fact be read by you with solemn awe. 
" An accomplished and amiable young woman 

in the town of , had been deeply affected by 

a sense of her spiritual danger. She was the only 
child of a fond and affectionate parent. The deep 



DISCOURAGEMENTS. 159 

impressions which accompanied her discovery of 
guilt and depravity awakened all the jealousies 
of the father. He dreaded the loss of that spright- 
liness and vivacity which constituted the life of 
his domestic circle. He was startled by the an- 
swers which his questions elicited 3 while he 
foresaw, or thought he foresaw, an encroachment 
on the hitherto unbroken tranquillity of a deceived 
heart. Efforts were made to remove the cause 
of her disquietude ; but they were such efforts as 
unsanctified wisdom directed. The Bible at last — 
how little may a parent know the far reaching of 
the deed, when he snatches the word of life from 
the hand of a child ! — the Bible and other books 
of religion were removed from her possession, and 
their place was supplied by works of fiction. An 
excursion of pleasure was proposed and declined ; 
on offer of gayer amusement shared the same fate; 
promises, remonstrances, and threatenings fol- 
lowed. But the father's infatuated perseverance 
at last brought compliance. Alas, how little may 
a parent be aware that he is adorning his offspring 
with the fillets of death, and leading to the sacri- 
fice like a follower of Moloch. The end was ac- 
complished j thoughts of piety and concern for 
the immortal future vanished together. But, O 



160 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

how, in less than a year, was the gaudy deception 
exploded! The fascinating and gay L — M — 
was prostrated by a fever that bade defiance to 
medical skill. The approach of death was unequi- 
vocal, and the countenance of every attendant 
fell, as if they had heard the flight of his arrow. 
I see, even now, that look directed to the father 
by the dying martyr of folly. The glazed eye was 
dim in hopelessness ; and yet there seemed a 
something in its expiring rays that told reproof, 
and tenderness, and terror in the same glance. 
And that voice — its tone was decided, but sepul- 
chral still — ' My father ! last year I would have 
sought the Redeemer. Fath — er — your child is ' 
. Eternity heard the remainder of the sen- 
tence ; for it was not uttered in time."* In con- 
nection with this striking fact, read the following 
portions of Scripture. Matt. 5 : 10- 12 ; 10:21-39; 
1 Cor. 4 : 9-13 ; 2 Tim. 2 : 10-13 ; Heb. 10 : 23-39 ; 
Heb. 11 ; 1 Pet. 1:6-9; 4 : 12-19 ; 2 Pet. 2 : 20- 
22 ; Rev. 7 : 9-17. 

4. The discouragements of others lie nearer 
home stilly they find them all in their own hearts, 
The feeling with many is, that they make no pro- 
gress ; their views gain nothing in clearness, their 
* Letters to a Friend. 



DISCOURAGEMENTS. 161 

convictions in depth, nor their heart in peace. 
They are neither more spiritual nor more decided 
than they were ; and they sometimes, in almost 
hopeless despondency, are ready to give up the 
whole matter. Such a state of mind is a very com- 
mon and a very perilous one, and affords ground 
for real alarm. Your duty and safety lie in con- 
sidering that the fault is in yourself and not in 
God ; you, you are to blame $ you are perhaps 
halting between two opinions; you are still pro- 
bably endeavoring to compromise between reli- 
gion and the world : you are not giving that fixed 
devoted attention to the subject which it demands. 
You must therefore go afresh to the work. You 
must feel just like a man who has been swimming 
in a tide that is bearing him further from the 
shore, and who feels that it is necessary to make 
more vigorous efforts, or he is inevitably lost. 
Give up ! ! No, any thing but that. To perish 
now, with your increased light and responsibility, 
would be to perish terribly. While you are car- 
rying on these heartless efforts, you may die, and 
in what a state ! 

But perhaps your complaints are the result of 
deep anxiety, from the consideration that there is 
no advance till you are really established in the full 

A. Inquirer. ] \ 



162 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

knowledge of faith and hope of the Gospel. To this 
established state you ought to come, and to come 
without delay 5 and nothing Jnnders you from 
coming to it but an evil heart of unbelief, and to 
this point I press you to come. But should your 
knowledge not grow as rapidly, nor your peace 
increase as solidly as you expected or desired; 
should you feel yourself slow of growth in all 
that appertains to christian and happy experi- 
ence, do not sink into a heartless and despairing 
frame — a kind of desponding pursuit of salvation, 
as of an object you are never to obtain. What 
you should do is immediately to repent, and be- 
lieve the Gospel ; you cannot come to enlarged 
views and to settled peace without this. Going 
back, or giving up, is just the last thing you 
should think of. To turn back now, would be to 
turn back when near the cross. Look up, sinner, 
the stupendous object is before you, close by 
you ; look up to the Crucified One, It is further 
back to your former state of indifference than to 
the place of refuge. Just as you are, with no more 
knowledge, no more religious feeling, no more 
comfort, believe. Look up, I say again, to the 
cross ; it is distinctly visible to the eye of faith 
from every point of the road along which you 



DISCOURAGEMENTS, 163 

are journeying, and may be viewed any moment 
by him who will look that way. It is the sight of 
that dear object that will present every other in 
a right light, and kindle every grace that belongs 
to true religion. 

But may it not be that your obstructions to a 
more rapid growth arise from some specific 
cause 1 Is not some sin indulged, some corruption 
cherished ^ Is there not some sacrifice which 
you are unwilling to make, something which you 
are unwilling to surrender, although your judg- 
ment tells you the surrender ought to be made, 
and your conscience demands it 1 You must give 
up the forbidden thing, or your salvation is im- 
possible: that one sin will, like a concealed worm 
at the root of a flower, eat out the very life of 
your religion, and cause it to droop, wither, and 
die. Is it a companion from whom you are un* 
willing to separate, but whose society is hinder- 
ing your progress'? And will you sacrifice your 
soul's salvation, heaven, and eternal glory, all 
that is dear to you as an immortal creature, and 
deliberately choose everlasting perdition, for that 
sin, or that friend % Take your choice between 
heaven and sacrifice, hell and present gratifica- 
tion. Immortal man ! pause and ponder : canst 



1(34 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

thou hesitate 1 There is both awful guilt and im- 
minent peril in every moment's delay. What if 
God should, as he justly may, send forth the 
command, " He is joined to idols ; let him alone." 
Decide then, decide at once. The moment in 
which thou readest this page may decide it ; for 
if thou art unwilling to give up thy sinful prac- 
tice, or sinful companion, God may from this 
moment give up thee. 

But perhaps the slowness of your progress 
may arise from another cause, I mean your ne- 
glect of the promised influence and help of the 
Holy Spirit. You have been too self-confident, 
and are now feeling the consequence of it. At 
one time, perhaps, your impressions were deep, 
your convictions strong, your frame lively, and 
your feelings much excited ; but you have suf- 
fered yourself to be seduced by Satan, who took 
advantage of these things, into a spirit of self- 
confidence and self-dependence. You have for- 
gotten that in you there is no good thing ; and 
have forsaken the Fountain of living waters. You 
have never doubted the necessity of the Spirit's 
influence, but you have neglected it. You have 
grieved the Holy Ghost, and he has suspended 
that gracious aid which you so little valued. 



DISCOURAGEMENTS. 165 

You have striven, but it has been in your own 
strength : and now you find that strength to be 
weakness itself. Now then profit by your error, 
and commit your soul, not only into the hands of 
Christ for pardon, but into the hands of the Spirit 
for sanctification. Now lean upon that Divine 
power which worketh in us both to will and to 
do. Live in the Spirit ; walk in the Spirit ; pray 
in the Spirit 5 strive in the Spirit. Open your 
heart to his gracious influence ; and let it be a 
feeling, as well as a conviction, that your spi- 
ritual life has no existence separate from his 
indwelling and inworking in you. 

It may be, however, that this discouragement 
and complaint of a slow growth in religion are 
founded in error, and the result of disappoint- 
ment operating upon an humble or a sanguine 
mind. You may have expected at once to emerge 
from the thick darkness of an unconverted state, 
into the very noontide brightness of a full esta- 
blishment in faith, hope, and love. You expect- 
ed, perhaps, by one stride, or rather bound, to 
reach the position of experienced christians. 
But remember, that, both in nature and in grace, 
the works of God come gradually to maturity. 
There is first the babe ; then the young man j 



166 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

then the adult : and what a feeble glimmering 
spark of life is there sometimes in a new-born 
child ; it is difficult to determine whether it is 
alive or dead ; and even when unequivocal signs 
of life appear, what vigilant care is necessary 
to preserve the spark from being extinguished. 
Such has been the unpromising condition in 
which many a strong and long-lived man has 
commenced his existence. How analogous to this 
is the work of grace in the soul. So again with 
the growth of corn; there is first the blade, then 
the stalk ; then the ear : and as it is in the field 
of nature, so is often the growth of religion in 
the heart of man. We must not " despise the 
day of small things," either in ourselves or 
others, for God does not. It is said of our Di- 
vine Redeemer, ■* he shall feed his flock like a 
shepherd 5" and in his flock there are lambs which 
can neither travel fast nor far; and what will he 
do with them! " He shall gather them with his 
arms, and carry them in his bosom ;" not on his 
shoulder, the emblem of strength, but in his bo- 
som, the image of tender love; "and shall gent- 
ly lead those that are with young " — burdened 
with many fears and painful apprehensions. How 
kindly did he bear with the dulness, and infirmi- 
ties, and mistakes of his disciples; how gently 



DISCOURAGEMENTS. 167 

did he correct the errors and sustain the minds 
of the two friends on their sad and gloomy walk 
to Emmaus, and keep alive the last glimmering 
spark of hope just when it was ready to expire in 
their bosom. How graciously in his addresses to 
the seven churches in Asia, did he mention all 
the good he could find among them, not over- 
looking even the '• little strength" that was left in 
that of Philadelphia. Think of this, disheartened 
inquirer. Trust wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and the dawn of true piety in thy heart shall shine 
brighter and brighter unto the perfect day, thy 
infantine strength will grow to manly power ) thy 
tender blade shall become the full corn in the ear. 
Thou art looking to a Savior who " will not 
break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking 
flax." Weak grace is real grace, and is in con- 
nection with an infinite source, in His fulness, 
who is !! the God of all grace," and who "giveth 
more grace." It is well to be humble, and to 
think meanly of your attainments, but remember, 
trees are not dead because they are not laden at 
once with fruit. I say not these things to para- 
lyze your exertions after high attainments, for he 
who is satisfied with the grace he has, has in 
reality none 5 but to check despondency, and 
prevent that disheartening sense of deficiency, 



168 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

which benumbs exertion by extinguishing hope. 

5. Great discouragement has been experienced 
by others, on account of relapses and backslidings 
into actual sins. 

It is, I admit, a grievous aggravation of sin to 
fall into it after men have been awakened and 
convinced ; and as there is much danger of this, 
the word of God contains many awful warnings 
against it, which have been already referred to. 
We ought, therefore, to use the greatest watch- 
fulness, and to present the most fervent prayer to 
be kept from these sins ; and our vigilance should 
be doubled, in regard to those temptations to 
which we are most exposed from the peculiari- 
ty of our constitution, situation, or any other cir- 
cumstances. Yet sometimes even they who have 
sincerely and earnestly engaged in the pursuit of 
salvation, have been, through a want of watch- 
fulness, betrayed again into those sins from 
which they had been delivered. In such cases the 
backslider, under the united influence of remorse 
and despondency, is apt to give up all for lost, 
and, under the idea that he shall never obtain 
salvation, renounce the further pursuit of it. Now 
I would say to you, that while you cannot be too 
deeply humbled for such relapses, you ought not 



DISCOURAGEMENTS. 169 

to think that your case is desperate. If such sins 
could not be pardoned, and such sinners could 
not be restored, who then could be saved 1 "But 
it is not so much a doubt of pardon for the past," 
you say, " that discourages me, as a fear of fal- 
ling into sin in future." You find your heart so 
treacherous, your purposes so frail, your corrup- 
tions so strong, and your temptations so great ; 
you have been so often victorious, and then again 
have been so often conquered, that you quite des- 
pair of success. What mean those desponding 
expressions 1 They seem to say, either that there 
is no help for you but in yourself, or that God, 
who must be your helper, is not able to deliver 
you. Both are false. There is no help at all in 
you, but there is all-sufficient help in God. Cou- 
rage, trembling sinner, God is almighty. Humble 
yourself under his mighty hand for the past, and 
then rise up and lean upon his mighty arm for 
the future. The blood of Christ can cleanse the 
conscience from the guilt of past sin, and the 
grace of the Holy Spirit can preserve you from 
the commission of future sin ; the backsliding can 
be forgiven, and the backslider himself restored, 
strengthened, confirmed, and made more than 
conqueror, as thousands already have been. 



170 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 



CHAPTER IX. 



CAUTIONS. 



1. Do not seek to relieve your solicitude , or settle 
your religious peace, by making a profession of 
religion. 

This is done by many persons, who, after having 
remained for a long time in unrelieved solicitude, 
and after having tried all methods but the right 
one for gaining peace, determine to enter into 
church-fellowship, and to receive the Lord's 
supper, with the hope of obtaining that comfort 
which they have hitherto sought in vain. But 
does not this look like a self-righteous depend- 
ence upon duties 1 In what way can the Lord's 
supper give relief to a burdened conscience % Is 
there any thing more meritorious in that ordi- 
nance than in any other 1 Perhaps you say that 
the emblems of the body and blood of our Lord 
will more deeply and powerfully impress the 
mind through the medium of the senses. So they 
will i but then the mind must be in a state of 
knowledge and faith to receive the impression ; 



CAUTIONS. 171 

but I am now supposing that you are not yet in 
that state, that you have never yet committed 
your soul into the hands of Christ for a full and 
free salvation , and in such a state of mind to go 
to the table of the Lord or the church for peace, 
is to expect that they can do that for you which 
the work of Christ cannot do. Is not the blood 
of Christ able to take away your sins 1 Is any 
thing necessary to be added to the righteousness 
of the Savior for your justification 1 What can 
ordinances do for you, if this be insufficient to 
save you % 

The sinner that seeks to lose his burden of 
guilt any where, whether it be in the prayer- 
meeting or the sacramental table, besides the 
cross of Christ, is in delusion. It is possible, nay 
probable, that by going to the Lord's supper you 
may feel for the time an abatement of your soli- 
citude j your imagination may be excited ; your 
feelings moved ; and mistaking this for faith, you 
may have peace ) but it will be a false or a tran- 
sient one. Either you will fall asleep in self- 
deception, or your anxiety will soon return, in- 
creased by an apprehension that you have added 
sin to sin by receiving the Lord's supper in an 
unprepared state of mind. This institution is in- 



172 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

tended, not to give peace to sinners, but conso- 
lation and edification to believers ; not to bring 
us into a state of faith, but to be received in 
faith ; not to remove the burden of sin from the 
conscience, but to keep in remembrance that 
great sacrifice by which the burden is removed. 
True it is that God may reveal himself to the 
sinner in the breaking of bread ] but the question 
is not what he may do, but what he may be ex- 
pected to do ; and even in this case what is it 
that relieves the conscience of its burden and 
gives peace to the mind 1 Surely not the ordi- 
nance itself, but the great truth of Christ's sacri- 
fice for sin, as set forth by it. I do not intend by 
these remarks to insist on the necessity of a full 
assurance of hope, as a necessary qualification for 
aright reception of the Lord's supper; but cer- 
tainly there ought to be real, even if it be but 
weak, faith ; for how else can we " discern the 
Lord's body V 1 Nothing, no, nothing, can give 
the guilty conscience peace, or take away our 
sins, but the atoning blood of Christ ; and to pass 
by the cross of the Redeemer without peace of 
mind, in the hope of finding it in ordinances, is 
unquestionably to depend for acceptance with 
God upon our own religious duties instead of the 



CAUTIONS. 173 

work of the Savior. The frame of mind in which 
we should receive the memorials of redeeming* 
love, is that of a humble, thankful and peaceful 
reliance upon the mediation of our Divine Lord 
for pardon and eternal life. 

2. It is of great consequence, that, in the early 
stages of your course, you should abstain as much 
as possible from a spirit of controversy. 

Your great concern is to find out the path of 
eternal happiness, and enter upon it. Salvation is 
your great object, or rather the way of obtaining 
it. Your cry is, " Life, eternal life ;" and your 
course should be direct to the cross of the Re- 
deemer. Nothing but what relates immediately 
to your reconciliation with God should be allowed 
to engage your attention. Suffer not your mind, 
then, to be diverted from such subjects as the 
"new birth," or the justification of your soul be- 
fore God, to the thorny controversies which 
often unhappily exist even in the church of God. 
Take up nothing controversially. The subjects of 
disputation are strong meat for adults, which will 
choke and destroy the babe in Christ ; and even 
the former cannot feed much upon them without 
having their spiritual health impaired, and their 
eoul filled with rank and unhealthy humors. Or, 



174 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

to change the metaphor, the man locked up in the 
condemned cell, under sentence of death, but 
who has hope of pardon and is taking steps to 
obtain it, suffers not his mind to be drawn aside 
from his condition, by the questions which may 
be very properly discussed by the citizen and the 
patriot. If any one were to carry him a newspa- 
per, and endeavor to engage him as a partizan in 
some political strife, he would reply, with a look 
of astonishment that such topics should be ob- 
truded on his notice, y What are these matters 
to a man condemned to die ? Assist me in gain- 
ing a pardon, and you will do me some service ; 
but do not engage for such matters a moment of 
that time which should be devoted to save me 
from death. When I am restored to liberty I can 
think of politics, but not now." So let the inquirer 
act and say, in reference to those proselyting 
but injudicious persons, who by controversy 
would meet and turn away the solicitude which 
is seeking the way of salvation. You can study 
these topics hereafter, but at present " stand ye 
in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, 
where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye 
shall find rest for your souls." Jer. 6 : 16. Read 
your Bible and plain practical books, rather than 



CAUTIONS. 175 

controversial ones ; be much in prayer and silent 
meditation ; preserve a tranquil and unruffled 
mind, for it is in the stillness of devotional feel- 
ing, and the peace of devout meditation, and the 
quiet of untroubled thoughts, that /the true light 
shineth into the soul, and the still small voice of 
the Spirit of Peace is heard. Many, adopting a 
different course, have plunged into the depths of 
controversy as soon as they became concerned 
about religion, and have lost charity in the pro- 
fessed pursuit after truth ; and instead of becom- 
ing humble, holy, peaceful christians, have turned 
out conceited, stormy, and restless polemics. In 
an early stage of their career the penitent was 
lost in the zealot ; in their subsequent progress 
they took up with a religion of opinions, instead 
of sanctified affections ; and finished their course, 
it may be feared, not amidst the light and love of 
heaven, but in that world of unsanctified know- 
ledge where " the devils believe and tremble." 

3. It is necessary to caution you against a spirit 
of curiosity as well as controversy. 

You ought to seek after knowledge, as I have 
already stated. The Scripture abounds in admo- 
nitions on this head, and in reproofs to those who 
repose in indolence upon the lap of ignorance. 



176 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

Diligence in endeavors to grow in knowledge 
has the promise of success : " Then shall ye know 
if ye follow on to know the Lord." Hosea, 6 : 3. 
But this is altogether distinct from a spirit of un- 
hallowed curiosity. The temper which I am anx- 
ious to guard you against, shows itself m various 
ways ; sometimes in rambling about from place 
to place of public worship. In some cases this 
arises from a restlessness and uneasiness of mind, 
which should be repressed rather than cherished. 
Like Noah's raven, they wander about seeking 
rest, but find none ; or rather, like a person in a 
fever, forgetting that the cause of disquietude is 
in themselves, they continually change their place 
in the vain hope of obtaining that rest which can 
never come till their condition is altered. Finding 
no comfort under one preacher, they impute the 
blame to his sermons, and ramble off to another, 
under whose ministry they gain a little ease for 
a while ; but merely by having their attention 
drawn away for a season from its usual track of 
thought. The novelty soon ceases, and he is 
forsaken for another, till they have gone the 
whole round of places within their reach, and 
they leave the last as far from peace as they were 
when they left the first. Guard against this error 



CAUTIONS. 177 

and learn that it is in Christ, and Christ alone, and 
not in any particular place of worship, or under 
any particular ministry, that you can find rest 
and peace. It is the glorious doctrine of a free, 
full, and present salvation in Christ, that must be 
the pillow of your poor aching and restless head, 
and not any particular manner or method of re- 
presenting that doctrine. 

But this rambling spirit is sometimes merely the 
eagerness of curiosity. Some persons are ever to 
be seen in any place where any thing out of the 
ordinary course is going on 5 they are to be seen 
at all times, all places, and all occasions, when 
and where a popular preacher is to be heard, or 
any of the stimulating varieties which abound in 
the religious world are to be found. This habit, 
however, is not friendly to the growth of piety, 
or the progress of a work of grace in the soul. 
Even the public meetings of our religious institu- 
tions are not always the best atmosphere for the 
anxious inquirer to breathe. There is a tender- 
ness, a delicacy, and a pensiveness in the feel- 
ings of a mind recently awakened to the concerns 
of the soul, which finds little that is congenial in 
the comparatively secular aspect of some of those 
assemblies. Eloquence and anecdote, as they are 

A. Inquirer 12 



178 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

frequently employed on such occasions, have but 
little that is calculated to deepen conviction or 
relieve anxiety, but often much to diminish the 
one and divert the other. If, indeed, our anni- 
versaries were always conducted with that solem- 
nity and seriousness which their object seems 
to require, then might inquirers after salvation 
attend them as one of the means of grace; but 
in many cases it may be safer to court retirement, 
to seek to grow in deeper seriousness, and to sur- 
render one's self to the dominion of conscience, 
and the teaching of God the Holy Spirit. 

But curiosity may be indulged another way: 
I mean a disposition to pry into the deep mysteries, 
the hidden things, the unrevealed secrets of God. 
Even the most established Christians, yea, the 
profoundest and most philosophic divines may 
and do sometimes push their inquiries too far, 
and presumptuously put forth their hand to draw 
aside the veil of the holy of holies. But you espe- 
cially should abstain from this ; such questions 
as the origin of moral evil ; the reconcileableness 
of God's foreknowledge with the freedom of man ; 
the Divine purposes ; the symbolical and unful- 
filled prophecies, with other subjects of equal 
difficulty, are most unsuitable for you in your 






CAUTIONS. 179 

present state of mind. What you have to do 
with is the simplest and plainest truths of the 
Gospel. Your concern is to obtain pardon and 
peace, and fulfil the responsibilities resting on 
your own soul , and to do this you must not raise 
mists and clouds of metaphysics around the cross, 
but look at it as it is presented in the word of God } 
and as it there appears, clearly, simply, and alone. 
It has been said, that in the Scripture there are 
depths in which an elephant may swim, and shal- 
lows which a lamb may ford ; your business is at 
present with the shallows, and to venture into the 
depths is a perilous attempt, which I would not 
advise you to make. 

4. You should beware of setting up other stand- 
ards of personal religion than the word of God, 
and making the religious exwience of other chris- 
tians a test of the trutn ana reality of your own. 

The Bible, and the Bible alone, is the true 
standard of godliness y and provided your views, 
feelings, and conduct are conformed to this, it is 
of no consequence that they do not harmonize 
exactly with what others experience. Not that 
there is any radical disagreement in the real 
piety of genuine christians ; but with substantial 
agreement there may be circumstantial differ* 



180 THE AISXIOUS IJNQUIRER. 

cnces ) there may be unity of genus, yet variety 
of species. All true christians love God, hate 
sin, feel Christ to be precious, addict them- 
selves to prayer, live holily ; but they may not 
have been brought to this state by the same me- 
thods, nor carry it forward to the same degree 
of perfection. In reading religious biography, 
you will see great dissimilarity in the experience 
of God's people, and will be sometimes in dan- 
ger of sinking into great distress, because you 
do not feel in all points as the saints did whose 
lives are before you. When you meet with in- 
stances of more than usual elevation of personal 
religion, of nearer approaches than common to 
perfection, do not conclude that you have no 
piety because you do not equal them, but rather 
see what you may become ; be humbled that you 
are no more like them, and let their example 
stimulate your energies, but not extinguish your 
hopes, nor paralyse your efforts. 

5. I caution you not to allow yonr convictions 
to be shaken, nor your mind to be staggered by 
those instances of backsliding or apostacy which 
sometimes occur among professors of religion, and 
even such as were once accounted eminent pro- 
fessors. 



CAUTIONS. 181 

It does indeed often give an awful shock to 
the feelings and the steadfastness of inquirers, 
to witness the fall of those who once stood high 
in the affection of the church and the esteem of 1 
the world. Not a few, it is to be feared, have 
from that time gone back, and walked the ways 
of God no more. But how irrational, how guilty 
is such conduct ! Did not Christ forewarn us to 
expect such instances, when he said, Wo to the 
world because of offences ; it must needs be that 
offences come, but wo to that man by whom the 
offence cometh." Matthew, 18 : 7. Such cases, 
therefore, are but the accomplishment of a pro- 
phecy, and prove, like other fulfilled predictions, 
the inspiration of Him by whom they were de- 
livered. And they prove in another way, also, the 
divine origin of the christian religion ) for if it 
had not been of God, it must have been destroy- 
ed long since by the misconduct of its professed 
friends, from which it has stood in far greater 
danger than from the enmity of its avowed ene- 
mies. Counterfeits are a presumptive proof of 
the excellence of that which they profess to imi 
tate, for who is at the trouble of imitating what 
is worthless 1 Do not, then, permit your mind 
to be affected by the conduct of false professors, 



182 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

at least in any other way than that of deep grief 
that such things should occur to them ; and of 
anxious prayerful care that they may never be 
repeated in you. Be this your supplication, 

" Lord, let not all my hopes be vain, 
" Create my heart entirely new, 
" Which hypocrites could ne'er attain, 
" Which false apostates never knew." 






CHAPTER X. 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 



Among all the objects of human desire and pur- 
suit, there is not one which we have so much en- 
couragement to seek, or to hope for — there is not 
one, in reference to which despondency is so 
much out of place — there is not one to which in- 
dubitable certainty so surely belongs — as the sal- 
vation of the soul, if it be sincerely desired and 
scripturally sought. The whole Bible is one vast 
encouragement to seek for eternal life — the death 
of Christ is another — and the existence and his- 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 183 

tory of the church of God upon earth is a third. 
Men may despond of gaining wealth, or fame, or 
rank, or health — but no man out of hell need de- 
spond of gaining salvation. It is nearer to us, and 
more within our reach, than any other blessing 
that we can name or think of. Our feelings in 
regard to earthly possessions can never rise 
higher than hope ) but in regard to salvation, they 
may take the character of certainty, provided we 
comply with the terms of the Gospel. 

1. It is one great source of encouragement, 
that whatever difficulties lie in our way, all centre 
in ourselves. 

God will not, and Satan and the world cannot 
hinder our salvation. There is no obstacle which 
is in itself insurmountable ; no enemy invincible \ 
no objection unanswerable. If a man had any 
other object in view, for the attainment of which 
there existed no difficulty out of himself, he would 
feel greatly encouraged, and be ready to congra- 
tulate himself as tolerably certain of success. 
Reader, the only difficulty in the way of thy sal- 
vation is in thyself. True it is, there are many 
and great ones there, the least of which thine own 
strength is too weak to surmount; but the Lord 
God Omnipotent has engaged to thee his power,, 



184 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

if thou art willing to be helped ; and therefore, in 
this view of the case, even thine own weakness 
is no insurmountable obstacle. The only question 
is, "Art thou sincerely willing and anxious to be 
saved ?" Once made truly willing, what is to hin- 
der thy salvation 1 Dwell again and again on this 
simple idea, for it is full of encouragement : " The 
only difficulty in my way to heaven is that which 
exists in my own heart, and God is willing to re- 
move that." 

2. It is a great encouragement that God's mind 
is so full of good will towards us, and that his 
heart is so set upon our salvation. 

If we had reason to suppose that he was reluc 
tant to save us \ that his mind was upon the 
balance between friendship and hostility ; that 
it needed much importunity to entreat him to 
be merciful, and that he granted us salvation 
unwillingly and grudgingly — this would indeed 
be discouraging, and might induce a fear that 
we should not succeed. But the contrary is the 
fact. "God is love." "He is gracious and full 
of compassion," " is rich in mercy," and " plen- 
teous in mercy." He even " delighteth in mercy." 
"He is not willing that any should perish, but 
that all should come to repentance." "He de- 



ENCOUliAGEMEx\TS. 185 

lighteth not in the death of a sinner, but would 
rather that he should turn from his wickedness 
and live." Yea, he confirms it by an oath \ " As I 
live," saith the Lord, " I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked." Ezek. 33: 11. Yea, it is 
said that the salvation of sinners is so much his 
delight, that he has engaged it shall be carried 
on : " The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in 
his hands." Now by the pleasure of the Lord we 
are to understand the salvation of sinners. Nor 
is this all, for it is affirmed that " the Lord 
taketh pleasure in them that hope in his mercy." 
Psalm 147:11. We cannot please him better 
than by asking him to save us, and by expecting 
salvation at his hands. 

Now, inquirer, take this delightful view of 
God's disposition towards you ; for this is the 
right one. He is love , he has an infinite delight 
in making his creatures happy. It is true his 
love is a holy love, and therefore the more to be 
depended upon. Having made provision in the 
gift and mediation of Christ for saving you in a 
way consistent with his truth, and holiness, and 
justice, and thus removed every obstacle out of 
the way of the flowing forth of his love towards 
you, he is infinitely intent on saving and blessing 



186 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

you. All your dark desponding thoughts of him 
are unjust and injurious to his mercy. To con- 
ceive of him as unwilling to save you, is a slan- 
der upon his love, a false and foul calumny upon 
his grace. If he were with difficulty persuaded 
to save you, why did he give his Son to die for 
you ] The salvation of your soul, the salvation 
of millions of souls, the salvation of the whole 
world, is not so great an act of love as the gift 
of Jesus Christ. After this you need not won- 
der at any thing, nor doubt any thing. " He that 
spared not his own Son, but gave him up for us 
all, how shall he not with him also freely give us 
all things 1" Rom. 8 : 32. You have God's mind, 
and heart, and purpose, and attributes, all on the 
side of your salvation, and is no( this encourage- 
ment enough] 

3. Consider the mind, character ^ and work of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

He came on purpose to save sinners ; he has 
done every thing necessary for their salvation , 
he is able to save to the uttermost ; he has invited 
all to him for salvation ; he has promised to save 
them : and will he now fail 1 Think of the glory 
of his person, God manifest in the flesh; think 
of the design of his incarnation, sufferings and 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 187 

death ; think of the perfection of his work in sa- 
tisfying divine justice, magnifying the law, sus- 
taining the moral government of God in all its 
purity, dignity and effectiveness ; think of the 
love of his heart, the power of his arm, and the 
connection between his mediatorial renown and 
the salvation of sinners ; think of his universal 
dominion over angels, devils, men, nature, provi- 
dence; think of his continued and prevailing in- 
tercession at the right hand of God ; think of 
his universal invitations, and his absolute pro- 
mises : what topics these, what sources of encou- 
ragement ! How much is his heart fixed upon 
the salvation of sinners : this was " the joy set 
before him," and for which *' he endured the 
cross, despising the shame ;" this is ,f the travail 
of his soul," and by which its ineffable longings 
will be satisfied. Your salvation is his business, 
and the accomplishment of it will be his reward. 
If he could be conceived to be indifferent to your 
salvation, will he be indifferent to his own glory 1 
Will he belie his own name, and destroy his own 
work, and falsify his own promises, and throw 
away his own reward, and terminate his own re- 
nown as a Savior, by refusing, when you trust in 
him, to save you ? Is it probable 1 Is it possible ? 



188 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

4*. Dwell upon the infinite and all-sufficient 
resources of the Holy Ghost. 

This Divine Agent is as omnipotent to sanctify 
as the power of God was in the beginning to 
create the heavens and the earth. If you were 
cast upon your own resources, you might well 
exclaim, "Who is sufficient for these things 1" 
and abandon the hope of salvation for fixed and 
impervious despair. But the economy of re- 
demption provides no less for the effectual appli- 
cation of its benefits by the work of the Holy 
Ghost, than for the procurement of them by the 
mediation of Christ ; and the claims of the God- 
head were not more completely foreseen and 
provided for by the latter, than all the weakness, 
and wants, and wickedness of the human heart 
were foreseen and provided for also by the 
former. There is a glorious completeness in 
the scheme of redemption ; even the suspicious 
eye of unbelief and the searching look of a 
troubled and anxious conscience can find out no 
defect. The blindness of your judgment; the 
hardness and deceitfulness of your heart ; the 
perversity of your will ; the deadness of your con- 
science ; the wildness of your imagination ; the 
disorder of your passions ; your backwardness to 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 189 

good ; your proneness to evil ; your reluctance to 
determine 5 your irresoluteness ; your timidity; 
your fickleness — all, all have been foreseen and 
provided for in the inexhaustible riches of grace 
m the blessed Spirit of God On those riches 
you are encouraged to rely and to draw, without 
measure and without end. You are not required 
to act, to speak, to will, to feel, to think, but in 
dependence on that Divine Agent. You are 
commanded to look to him for every variety of 
operation, and for every degree of influence, and 
for every timely putting forth of his power and 
wisdom that the exigency of your circumstances 
may require. Read especially the following pas- 
sages of Scripture, and ask if there be not encou- 
ragement enough here 1 — Luke, 11 : 9-13 ; Rom. 
8 : 10-17 ; James, 5 : 5, 6 ; Gal. 5 : 22 ; John, 16 : 
7-15; 2 Cor. 12:9, 10. 

5. Dwell upon the general complexion of the 
word of God as so largely made up of commands 
to seek salvation, invitations to accept of it, pro- 
mises to ensure it, and descriptions, setting forth 
its blessings in their vastness, variety, suitable- 
ness, and certainty. 

If the whole Bible were to be summed up in 
one short, comprehensive sentence, it would be 



190 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

this, " This is a faithful saying and worthy of 

ALL ACCEPTATION, THAT JESUS CHRIST CAME INTO THE 
WORLD TO SAVE SINNERS, EVEN THE CHIEF." Or 3 

reducing it still more, it would all be contained 
in that one word, of immense, infinite, and eter- 
nal import, salvation. Every thing in the Bible 
tends to this as its centre ; here all the lines of 
history and prophecy, the Old Testament and the 
New, the law and Gospel, meet. Salvation glim- 
mers amidst the clouds and shadows of the Le- 
vitical economy, and shines forth in all its glo- 
ry from the facts of the christian dispensation. 
It was the subject that dropped in sweet but 
mystic accents from the lips of mercy on the 
despairing minds of our first parents ; it was the 
subject which came in the softer tones of the ce- 
remonial law, when the thunders of the deca- 
logue had ceased to terrify the affrighted Israelites 
at Sinai ; it was the subject to which the prophet 
struck his harp, and came forth in the Psalms of 
David and the rapt ecstasies of Isaiah 5 it was 
the subject which angels chose as the theme of 
their song on the night of Christ's nativity; it 
was the subject which evangelists recorded in 
their histories, and apostles described in their 
epistles 5 and which even the awful visions of the 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 191 

apocalypse seemed designed to magnify and 
illustrate, by representing it as the point of har- 
mony between heaven and earth, and the link 
that connects the events of time with the glories 
of eternity. The Bible, then, Inquirer, presents 
salvation to your attention, and employs all its 
fulness to attract, all its authority to command, 
all its graciousness to invite you to the pursuit of 
this vast possession — and even uses its threaten- 
ings and its thunders for the merciful purpose of 
driving you for refuge to the hope set before you 
in the Gospel. Is not this encouragement 1 

6. The u?ichangeableness of God's nature and 
covenant are a source of boundless hope. 

He has invited, he has commanded, he has pro- 
mised ; and he is not " a man that he should lie, 
nor the son of man that he should repent 5" but 
he is the Father of lights, with whom there is no 
variableness nor shadow of change. Immutable 
in his nature, he is equally so in his purpose and 
in his promise. Whom he loveth, he loveth to 
the end. Could you examine the secret lists of 
his friends, you would find neither blots nor era- 
sures there. " All things work together for good 
to them that love God, who are the called accord- 
ing to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, 



192 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

he also did predestinate to be conformed to the 
image of his Son. Moreover, whom he did pre- 
destinate, them he also called : and whom he 
called, them he also justified: and whom he jus- 
tified, them he also glorified. What shall we then 
say to these things 1 If God be for us, who can 
be against us 1 Who shall separate us from the 
love of Christ 1 shall tribulation, or distress, or 
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or 
sword 1 Nay, in all these things we are more 
than conquerors, through Him that loved us. For 
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans, 8 : 28-39. 
Sublime language ! Triumphant boast ! Inspired 
and inspiring exultation! Heaven heard it and 
approved ; hell heard it and trembled ; and let 
saints on earth hear it and rejoice. Inquirer, 
trust in this glorious salvation : when begun in 
the heart, it shall be carried on until the day of 
Jesus Christ. Phil. 1 : 6. The Spirit, who builds, 
for himself a temple in the soul of man, will not 
leave it unfinished, nor sufTer it to sink to ruins 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 193 

after he has finished it. Though enemies without 
may oppose and ridicule ; and though enemies 
within may stir up occasional insurrection and 
interruption, the work shall go on till the top 
stone shall be brought forth amidst the shouts of 

Grace, Grace." The purpose of God must 
stand, in spite of all the force or fraud, the power 
and malice of earth and hell combined. Is not 
this encouragement ? 

7. Consider the sympathies and prayers of tlis, 
people of God. 

Discouraged as you may have been by the in- 
difference and lukewarmness of some, let it com- 
fort you to know that all are not thus. There 
are myriads of holy ministers of Christ, and mil- 
lions of pious men and women, from age to age 
pouring out their fervent supplications to God 
for those who are inquiring the way to Zion with 
their faces thitherward. Have you not heard 
your case borne, with tenderness, and minuteness, 
and earnestness, upon the hearts of your friends 
at the meetings of social prayer, and by your mi- 
nisters when leading the devotions of the great 
congregation 1 Have you not thus found the feel- 
ings of the assembly poured in a full tide of 
sympathy into your heart 1 Yes, and not only do 

A. Inquirer. lo 



194 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

the " Spirit and the Bride say come," in this 
public manner ; not only does the voice of united 
prayer commend you to God, but in thousands 
of closets of praying men you are commended 
to God, and divine grace is implored on your 
soul. In those sad and solemn moments, when 
you are disheartened and ready to faint ; when, 
instead of prayer, you can send forth nothing but 
groanings which cannot be uttered, think of the 
many intercessors who are praying for you, and 
"thank God and take courage." 

8. Take encouragement from the consideration 
of the ministry of angels — for M are they not all 
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto 
the heirs of salvation 1" What offices they per- 
form we know not, perhaps because it is not safe 
for us to know ; why they are employed we know 
not ; or what is the extent of our obligation we 
know not \ but the bare fact that such instru- 
ments are employed about you, that such attend- 
ants are engaged upon your interests, such spec- 
tators are witnessing you, such friends are sym- 
pathising with you, is a sweetly pleasing and 
encouraging idea. They have already rejoiced 
over your conversion, if indeed you are convert- 
ed ; and have had you consigned to their care, 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 195 

to minister to your welfare. You may be des- 
pised by men, but you are regarded by angels ; 
you may be neglected by men, but you are at- 
tended by angels ; you may be dismissed by men, 
but you are associated with angels ; you may be 
opposed and persecuted by men, but angels tf are 
ministering spirits sent forth to minister unto 
your salvation. " Is not this encouragement 1 

9. Consider how many, who were once tried, 
disheartened, weak as you now are, have been car- 
ried in safety through all their difficulties, and are 
now before the throne of God in glory everlasting. 

The apostle John seems to have set all the 
doors of the heavenly temple ajar, and the win- 
dows a little open, that the sights within may 
just beam upon our eyes, and the sounds just 
undulate on our ears. " After this I beheld, and 
lo ! a great multitude, which no man could num- 
ber, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and 
tongues, stood before the throne, and before the 
Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in 
their hands ; and cried with a loud voice, saying, 
Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb." Rev. 7 : 9, 10. 
And who are they that send forth such strains 1 
They that had come "out of great tribulation, 



]96 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

and washed their robes and made them white 
and clean in the blood of the Lamb." They were 
once upon earth; once men of like passions with 
yourself; once beginning their religious course 
as you now are ; 

" Once they were mourning here below, 

" And wet their couch with tears ; 
u They wrestled hard, as we do now, 

" With sins, and doubts, and fears." 

There is not a burden that oppresses your 
heart, but what oppressed theirs ; there is not a 
fear that agitates your mind, but what agitated 
theirs ; there is not a temptation that assails you, 
but what assailed them ; there is not an obstacle 
that terrifies you, but what terrified them ; they 
were once as ignorant, as weak, as sinful, as tim- 
id, as discouraged, as you ; there is not a sor- 
row, a perplexity, or a danger with which you 
are painfully familiar, but they passed through 
before you. But there they are in heaven, M more 
than conquerors" over all these things, through 
Him that loved them. He that saved them has 
engaged to save you; nor is his ear heavy, or 
his arm shortened. " Wherefore seeing we also 
are compassed about with so great a cloud of 
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 197 

sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run 
with patience the race that is set before us, look- 
ing unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our 
frith-.* Heb. 12 : 1, 2. 

10. Let the magnitude of the blessing you are 
seeking, and the prospect of its consummation in 
eternal glory, encourage you. 

You are seeking salvation, a word which none 
but the mind of God can comprehend, for it in- 
cludes, as I have already said, what is infinite and 
eternal. It will bless you for both worlds, this 
and the next. In the present life, it will bestow 
upon you the pardon of all your sins; the justifi- 
cation of your person ; the renewal and sanctifi- 
cation of your nature ; adoption into the family 
of God ; the spirit of adoption 5 a guardian of 
your reputation ; a protector of your property ; 
an auxiliary to your health ; a spring of comfort 
in the dreariest situation ; a light in the darkest 
scene of distress ; a companion in the deepest 
solitude ; a counsellor in every perplexity ; a help 
in weakness ; a check in temptation ; it will as- 
sociate you with the redeemed and holy people 
of God ; conduct you in honor through the 
changing scenes of life 5 attend you to the verge 
of eternity; soften your dying pillow; assuage 



198 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 

the grief of separation ; arid cheer you, amidst the 
agonies of death, with the hopes of immortality. 
And all this is but the prelude, the earnest and 
the foretaste of what awaits you beyond the 
grave. What that is, should be told only in the 
words of the Spirit of God ) for " eye hath not 
seen, nor has ear heard, neither have entered 
into the heart of man the things which God hath 
prepared for them that love him." " Father,'* 
said our Lord, " I will that they whom thou hast 
given me, be with me where I am, that they may 
behold my glory." " So shall we ever be with 
the Lord." lt He that believeth on the Son hath 
everlasting life." M To them who, by patient con- 
tinuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honor, 
and immortality, eternal life." " Our light afflic- 
tion, which is but for a moment, worketh for us 
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; 
for the things which are not seen are eternal." 
w Who hath begotten us to an inheritance incor- 
ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, re- 
served in heaven for you, who are kept by the 
power of God, through faith, unto salvation, rea- 
dy to be revealed in the last time." " It doth not 
yet appear what we shall be, but we know that 
when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 199 

we shall see him as he is." ff After this, I be- 
held, and lo, a great multitude which no man 
could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and 
people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and 
before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and 
palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, 
saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon 
the throne, and unto the Lamb. Therefore are 
they before the throne of God, and serve him day 
and night in his temple ; and he that sitteth on 
the throne shall dwell among them. They shall 
hunger no more, neither thirst any more \ neither 
shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For 
the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall 
feed them, and shall lead them to living fountains 
of waters ; and God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes." 

Anxious Inquirer after salvation, commit your 
soul and all your interests to Jesus Christ ; "live 
not unto yourself, but unto Him who died for you 
and rose again 5" look upward to heaven, and in 
His strength press onward ; and you, yes you, un- 
worthy as you are, and see yourself to be, shall in- 
herit that " exceeding and eternal weight of glory ' 
which He has prepared for all that love him. 

END. 



PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICAN TRACT SOClETf 



I) Aubigne's Hist, of the 
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fidelity. 

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Com m a n d men ts . 

Memoir of Mrs. Graham. 

Complete Duty of Man. 

Owen on Forgiveness of 
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Volume on Infidelity. 

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Progress. 

Life of Martyn. 

Baxter's Saints' Rest. 

Edwards' History of Re- 
demption. 

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ly Piety. 

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KS FOR THE YOU 

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ance. 

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Fuller's Backslider. 

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Mem. of Norm'nd Smith. 

Self- Deception. 

Appeal to Mothers. 

Social Hymns. 

Hymns to Sacred Songs. 

NG. 

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Leather cohered Pible. 

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Script. Animals, 16 cuts. 

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Watts' Divine and Moral 
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With numerous similar 
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