Sinners Entreated to Be Reconciled to God 2
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I do not mean by this utterly to exclude self-love out of genuine religion; it must have its place in the most excellent and best beings—but then it must be kept in a proper subordination, and not advance the creature above the Creator, and dethrone the supreme King of the universe! His love must be uppermost in the heart, and when that has the highest place, the indulgence of self-love in pursuing our own happiness is both a lawful and an important duty.
Now, do you not find from this view of the case, that you are not reconciled to God—-even in your most devout and zealous hours, much less in the languid, inactive tenor of your lives? If so, place yourselves among those that I have to do with today; that is, the enemies of God!
So also, when you perform good offices to mankind; when you are harmless, obliging neighbours; when you are charitable to the poor, or strictly just in trade—is the love of God, and a regard to his authority, the reason and principle of your actions? That is, do you do these things because God commands them, and because you delight to do what he commands? Or rather, do you not do them merely because it is your nature to perform humane and honourable actions in such instances; or because you may acquire honour, or some selfish advantage by them? Alas! that God should be neglected, forgotten, and left out of the question, as of no importance even in those actions that are materially good! that even what he commands should be done, not because he commands it—but for some other sordid, selfish reason!
Oh! if you did really love God—would you thus disregard him, and do nothing for his sake, not only when you are doing what he forbids—but even when you are performing what he has made your duty! Would he be such a cipher, a mere nothing in your practical esteem—if your hearts were reconciled to him as your God? No! such of you must look upon yourselves as the very people whom I am to beseech, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God.
I might thus, from obvious facts, lay before you many more evidences of your disaffection to the great God; but I must leave some room for the other part of my address to you, in which I am to persuade you to accept of the proposal of reconciliation; and therefore I shall add only one more test of your pretended friendship; a test which is established by the great Founder of our religion, as infallibly decisive in this case; and that is, OBEDIENCE, or the keeping of the commandments of God. This, I say, is established in the strongest terms by Jesus Christ himself, as a decisive test of love, "If you love me—keep my commandments!" John 14:15. "You are my friends—if you do whatever I command you." John 15:14. "If anyone loves me—he will obey my teaching. He who does not love me—will not obey my teaching." John 14:23, 24. "This is the love of God," says John, "that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3. That is, they are not grievous—when love is the principle of obedience. The service of love is always willing and pleasing.
Now, my brethren bring your hearts and lives to this standard, and let conscience declare: Are there not some demands and restraints of the divine law so disagreeable to you, that you labour to keep yourselves ignorant of them, and turn every way to avoid the painful light of conviction? Are there not several duties which you know in your consciences to be such, which you do not so much as honestly endeavour to perform—but knowingly and wilfully neglect? And are there not some favourite sins which your consciences tell you God has forbidden; which yet are so pleasing to you, that you knowingly and allowedly indulge and practice them? If this is your case—you need not pretend to plead anything in your own defence, or hesitate any longer; the case is plain, you are, beyond all doubt, enemies to God! You are undeniably convicted of it this day by irresistible evidence.
You perhaps glory in your Christian profession—but you are, notwithstanding, enemies to God! You attend on public worship, you pray, you read, you communicate, you are perhaps a zealous churchman or dissenter—but you are enemies of God! You have perhaps had many fits of religious affection, and serious concern about your everlasting happiness—but notwithstanding you are enemies of God! You may have reformed in many things—but you are still enemies of God! Men may esteem you Christians—but the God of heaven accounts you his enemies! In vain do you insist upon it, that you have never hated your Maker all your life—but even tremble at the thought, for undeniable facts are against you; and the reason why you have not seen your enmity was, because you were blind, and judged upon wrong principles; but if you this day feel the force of conviction from the law, and have your eyes opened, you will see and be shocked at your horrid enmity against God, before yonder sun sets.
And now, when I have singled out from the rest those I am now to beseech to reconciliation with God, have I not got the majorityof you to treat with? Where are the sincere lovers of God? Alas! how few are they! and how imperfect even in their love, so that they hardly dare call themselves lovers of God—but tremble lest they should still belong to the wretched crowd that are still unreconciled to him!
You rebels against the King of heaven! You enemies against my Lord and Master Jesus Christ! (I cannot flatter you with a softer name!) Hear me; attend to the proposal I make to you, not in my own name—but in the name and stead of your rightful Sovereign; and that is, that you will this day be reconciled to God. "We implore you on Christ's behalf (that is all I can do): Be reconciled to God!" That you may know what I mean, I will more particularly explain this overture to you.
If you would be reconciled to God you must be deeply sensible of the guilt, the wickedness, the baseness, the inexpressible malignity of your enmity and rebellion against him. You must return to your rightful Sovereign as: convicted, self-condemned, penitent, broken-hearted rebels, confounded and ashamed of your conduct, loathing yourselves because you have loathed the supreme Excellence, mourning over your unnatural disaffection, your base ingratitude, your horrid rebellion against so good a King!
And what do you say to this article of the treaty of peace? Is it a hard thing for such dreadful enemies to fall upon the knee, and to mourn and weep as prostrate penitents at the feet of their injured Maker? Is it a hard thing for one that has all his life been guilty of the blackest crimes upon earth, or even in hell, I mean enmity against God—to confess "I have sinned," and to feel his own confession? To feel it, I say; for if he does not feel it, his confession is but an empty compliment, that only increases his guilt!
Again, if you would be reconciled to God, you must heartily consent to be reconciled to him in Christ; that is, you must come in upon the footing of that act of grace which is published in the gospel through Christ, and expecting no favour at all upon the footing of your own goodness. The merit of what you call your good actions, of your repentance, your prayers, your acts of charity and justice—must all pass for nothing in this respect! You must depend only and entirely upon the merit of Christ's obedience and sufferings, as the ground of your acceptance with God; and hope for forgiveness and favour from his mere mercy bestowed upon you, only for the sake of Christ, or on account of what he has done and suffered in the stead of sinners.
The context informs you, that it is only in Christ that God is reconciling the world to himself; and consequently it is only in Christ that the world must accept of reconciliation and pardon. It does not consist with the dignity and perfections of the King of heaven, to receive rebels into favour upon any other footing.
I would have you consent to every article of the overture as I go along; and therefore here again I make a pause to ask you: what do you think of this article? Are you willing to comply with it, willing to come into favour with God, as convicted self-condemned rebels, upon an act of grace procured by the righteousness of Christ alone?
It is a mortification to creatures, that they have never have done one truly good action in all their lives, because they have never loved God in one moment of their lives; they have always, even in what they accounted their best dispositions, and best actions—been hateful to God, because even in their best dispositions, and best actions they were utterly destitute of his love! It is a mortification to such creatures, to renounce all their own merit, and consent to be saved only through grace, on account of the righteousness of another, even of Jesus Christ the great Peacemaker! It must be a mortification to you, to renounce all your own goodness, and to own yourselves guilty, and utterly unworthy! Oh! may I not expect your compliance with this term of reconciliation?
Again, If you would be reconciled to God, you must engage yourselves in his service for the future, and devote yourselves to do his will. His law must be the rule of your temper and practice: whatever he commands—you must honestly endeavour to perform, without exception of any one duty as disagreeable and laborious. And whatever he forbids—you must for that reason, abstain from, however pleasing, advantageous, or fashionable. You must no longer look upon yourself as your own—but as bought with a price, and therefore bound to glorify God with your souls and your bodies, which are his.
And can you make any difficulty of complying with this term; of obeying Him, whom the happy angels in heaven obey; of observing that law which always unites your duty and your happiness, and forbids nothing but what is itself injurious to you in the nature of things; of doing the will of the wisest and best of beings—rather than your own, who are ignorant and depraved creatures? Oh! can you make any difficulty of this? If not, you will return home this day reconciled to God; a happiness you have never yet enjoyed for one moment.
Finally, if you would be reconciled to God, you must break off all friendship with his enemies; your friendship with the world, I mean your attachment to its wicked fashions and customs, and your fondness for its rebellious inhabitants, who continue enemies to God; your love of guilty pleasures, and every form of sin, however pleasing or gainful you might imagine it to be; your old habits and practices, while enemies to God. All these you must break off forever; for your friendship with these is utterly inconsistent with the love of God. As long as you are resolved to love the world, to keep up your society with your old companions in sin, to retain your old pleasures and evil practices; as long, I say, as you are resolved upon this course—farewell all hope of your reconciliation to God—it is absolutely impossible!
And do any of you hesitate at this requirement? Is sin so noble a thing in itself, and so happy in its consequences, as that you should be so reluctant to part with it? Is it so sweet a thing to you to sin against God, that you will not turn from it? Alas! Will you rather be an implacable enemy to the God that made you—than break your league with his enemies, and your own! Do you love your sins so well, and are you so obliged to them—that you give your soul, and your eternal happiness, for their sakes!
I might multiply particulars—but these are the principal articles of that treaty of peace, I am negotiating with you; and a consent to these includes a compliance with all the rest. And are you determined to comply? Does the heaven-born purpose now rise in your minds, "I am determined I will no longer be an enemy of God; but this very day I will be reconciled to God upon his own terms!" Is this your fixed purpose? or is there any occasion to beseech and persuade you? I well know, and it is fit that you should know, that you are not able of yourselves to consent to these terms—but that it is the work of the power of God alone, to reconcile you to himself; and that all my persuasions and entreaties will never make you either able or willing.
You will then ask me, perhaps, "Why do I propose the terms to you, or use any persuasive or entreaties with you?" I answer, because you never will be sensible of your inability—until you make an honest trial, and because you never will look and pray for the aid of the blessed Spirit—until you are deeply sensible of your own insufficiency. And further, because, if the blessed Spirit should ever effectually work upon you, it will be by enlightening your understandings to see the reasonableness of the terms, and the force of the persuasive; and in this way, agreeably to your reasonable natures, sweetly con-straining your obstinate wills to yield yourselves to God. Therefore the terms must be proposed to you, and persuasive used, if I would be subservient to this divine agent, and furnish him with materials with which to work. And I have some little hope that he will, as it were, catch my feeble words from my lips before they vanish into air, and bear them home to your hearts with a power which you will not be able to resist!
Finally, a conviction of the true state of your case, may constrain you from self-love and the base principles of nature, to use the means of reconciliation with zeal and earnestness. This you are capable of, even with the mere strength of degenerate nature; and it is only in this way of earnest endeavours that you have any encouragement to hope for divine aid! Therefore, notwithstanding your utter spiritual impotence, I must beg, entreat, and persuade you to be reconciled to God! I beseech you, in the name of the great God your heavenly Father, and of Jesus Christ your Redeemer. If God would once more renew the thunder and lightning, and darkness and tempest of Sinai, and speak to you as he once did to the trembling Israelites; or if he would appear to you in all the amiable and alluring glories of a sin-pardoning reconcilable God, and implore you to be reconciled to him—would you not then regard the proposal? Or if Jesus, who once prayed for you from the cross, should now beseech you from his throne in heaven, and beg you with his own gracious voice to be reconciled, oh! could you disregard the entreaty? Surely not!
Now, the overture of peace is as really made to you by the blessed God and his Son Jesus Christ—as if it were expressly proposed to you by an immediate voice from heaven! For I beseech you, as though God did beseech you by me, and it is in Christ's stead, that I implore you be reconciled to God. Therefore, however lightly you may make of a mere proposal of mine—can you disregard an overture from the God who made you, and the Saviour who bought you with his blood! in which I am but the faint echo of their voice from heaven.
In the name of God I implore you; the name of the greatest and best of beings; that name which angels love and adore, and which strikes terror through the hardiest devil in the infernal regions; the name of your Father; the Author of your mortal frames; the name of your Preserver and Benefactor, in whom you live, and move, and have your being; and who gives you life, and breath, and all things; the name of your rightful Sovereign and Lawgiver, who has a right to demand your love and obedience; the name of your supreme Judge, who will ascend the tribunal, and acquit or condemn you, as he finds you friends or foes; the name of that God, rich in goodness, who has replenished heaven with an infinite plenitude of happiness in which he will allow you to share, even after all your hostility and rebellion—if you consent to overtures of reconciliation; in the name of that God of solemn majesty and justice, who has prepared the dungeon of hell as a prison for his enemies, where he holds in chains the mighty powers of darkness, and thousands of your own race, who persisted in that enmity to him of which you are now guilty, and with whom you must have your everlasting portion, if, like them, you continue hardened and incorrigible in your rebellion; in the name of that compassionate God, who sent his dear Son (oh the transporting thought!) to satisfy divine justice for you by his death, and the precepts of the law by his life, and thus to remove all obstructions out of the way of your reconciliation on the part of God; in this great, this endearing and tremendous name, I implore you to be reconciled to God!
I beseech you for his sake; and has his name no weight with you? Will you do nothing for his sake? what, not so reasonable and advantageous a thing as dropping your wicked rebellion, and being reconciled to him? Is your contempt of God risen to that pitch—that you will not do the most reasonable and profitable thing in the world, if he entreats you to do it? Be astonished, O you heavens! at this!
I implore you both in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, the true friend of publicans and sinners, in his name and for his sake, who assumed your degraded nature, that he might dignify and save it; who lived a life of labour, poverty, and persecution on earth—that you might enjoy a life of everlasting happiness and glory in heaven; who died upon a torturing cross—that you might sit upon heavenly thrones; who was imprisoned in the gloomy grave—that you might enjoy a glorious resurrection; who fell a victim to divine justice—that you might be set free from its dreadful penalty; who felt anguish and agony of soul—that you might enjoy the smiles, the pleasures of divine love; who, in short, has revealed more ardent and extensive love for you—than all the friends in the world can do! In his name, and for his sake, I implore you to be reconciled to God!
And is his dear name a trifle in your esteem? Will you not do anything so reasonable and so necessary, and conducive to your happiness, for his sake; for his sake who has done and suffered so much for you? Alas! has the name of Jesus no more influence among the creatures he bought with his blood! It is hard, indeed, if I beg in vain, when I beg for the sake of Christ—the Friend, the Saviour of perishing souls!
But if you have no regard for him, you certainly have for yourselves; therefore, for your OWN sakes, for the sake of your precious immortals souls, for the sake of your own everlasting happiness, I implore you to be reconciled to God. If you refuse, you degrade the honor of your nature, and are incarnate devils! For what is the grand constituent of a devil—but enmity against God? You become the refuse of the creation, fit for no place in the universe, but the prison of hell!
While you are unreconciled to God, you can do nothing at all to please him. He who searches the heart knows that even your good actions do not proceed from love to him—and therefore he abhors them. Ten thousand prayers and acts of devotion and morality, as you have no principles of real holiness—are only so many provocations to a righteous God! While you refuse to be reconciled, you are accessory to, and patronize all the rebellion of men and devils; for if you have a right to continue in your rebellion, why may not others? why may not every man upon earth? why may not every miserable being in the infernal regions? And are you for raising a universal mutiny and rebellion against the throne of the Most High God! Oh the inexpressible horror of the thought!
If you refuse to be reconciled, you will soon weary out the mercy and patience of God towards you, and he will come forth against you in all the terrors of an almighty enemy! He will give death a commission to seize you, and drag you to his flaming tribunal. He will break off the treaty, and never more make you one offer of reconciliation! He will strip you of all the enjoyments he was pleased to lend you, while you were under a reprieve, and the treaty was not come to a final outcome; and will leave you nothing but an extensive capacity of misery, which will be filled up to the uttermost from the vials of his indignation! He will treat you as his implacable enemy, and you shall be to him as Amalek, Exod. 17:16, with whom he will make war forever and ever! He will reprove you, and set your sins in order before you, and tear you in pieces, and there shall be none to deliver! "So I will come upon them like a lion, like a leopard I will lurk by the path. Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open! Like alion I will devour them; a wild animal will tear them apart! You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against me, against your helper!" Hosea 13:7-9.
He has for a long time held back his wrath, and endured your rebellion; but before long he will go forth as the omnipotent Judge; he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war; he shall cry, yes, roar! He shall prevail against his enemies. Ah! he will rid himself of his adversaries, and avenge himself of his enemies. He will give orders to the executioners of his justice: "Bring here these enemies of mine, who did not want me to rule over them, and slaughter them in my presence!" Luke 19:27.
And now, if you will not submit to peace—prepare to meet your God! Oh sinners! gird up your loins like men; put on all the terror of your rage, and go forth to meet your almighty adversary, who will soon meet you in the battlefield, and try your strength. Call the legions of hell to your aid, and strengthen the confederacy with all your fellow-sinners upon earth; put briers and thorns around you to enclose from his reach. Prepare the dry stubble to oppose devouring flame. Arm yourselves as best you can—but you shall be broken in pieces! Gird yourselves as best you can; but alas! you shall be broken to pieces!
But oh! I must drop this pungent challenge, and seriously implore you to make peace with him whom you cannot resist! Then all your past rebellion will be forgiven; you shall be the favourites of your almighty sovereign, and happy forever; and earth and heaven will rejoice at the conclusion of this blessed peace; and my now sad heart will share in the joy. Therefore, for your own sakes I implore you to be reconciled to God!
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