THE

CHRISTIAN

REMEMBRANCER.

PART I.

CHAP. I.

ON THE ENTRANCE INTO SPIRITUAL LIFE.

WHEREWITH shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high GOD? How shall I, a sinner, approach the eyes of that Majesty, which cannot look upon sin without abhorrence? My iniquities are more in number than the hairs of my head; and my heart sinketh within me on their remembrance. My affections are naturally all inclined to the world and worldly things. My judgement is depraved; my will is perverse; my understanding is darkened; my knowledge vain; and I see nothing within me, or about me, but what by guilt is altogether defiled. I have sure proof of that scripture, that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually, and that from the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in my nature; but only the wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores of sin.

How then can I please God? How shall such a worm, such a lump of perverse ungodliness, obtain his favour? Shall I seek to deserve it by my own good thoughts?--Alas! I am not sufficient of myself to think even one. Shall I by excellency of words approach my offended Maker?-He regardeth not words, but the spirit and the heart: and my spirit and heart are wholly defiled. Shall I then by good works attempt to render him propitious? O my God, where shall I find them! How can I begin to act, before I have begun to think, what is right? How can the exercises of the body be pure and free, when the soul is unholy, and enslaved by sin?And if, from this day, I could cease from evil, and do perfectly what is just and right, which the experience of all men tells me to be impossible; yet what will become of the long black catalogue of iniquities, both in heart and life, which are already written against me? How shall I wipe off the sins of my nature and my life, respecting the times that are past?

O Lord, thou hast revealed thyself, as a holy God, and a just. Thou hast declared that thou wilt not spare the guilty. And I have offended thy righteous law in every hour and every action of my life. How then can I be saved? How is it possible for me to escape the wrath to come? My anxieties, like my sins, might justly overwhelm me; and I ought to tremble at the righteous

judgement, which I know I deserve. The days are but few at the most which remain for my life upon earth; and I am not sure of one. O how shall I flee from the wrath to come! how shall I avoid eternal burnings, in which no man can dwell but with misery, and of which no man can think strictly but with horror!- Lord, can such a sinner as I escape! Canst thou have merey upon me!

Such are the breathings of the heart, when it first begins to awake, and live, and feel, that there is an evil and a curse in sin, and that sin, with all its evil, lieth at the door.

CHAP. II.

THE METHOD OF MERCY,

SUCH a flowing from the heart, as that just mentioned, gladdens all heaven. It is the new-creative motion of the divine Spirit upon the troubled deep, and will, ere lòng, produce both life and peace.

Soul, dost thou feel the power of thy own corruption?-Are these thy meek, yet bitter cries?-O hear, and may thy God enable thee to believe, the glad tidings of his own salvation!

Thou art a sinner, it is true; and thy merey it is to see, in due measure, how great a sinner thou art. It is the first line in the large book of humiliation, which thou must be reading all thy life long. But Christ died

for sinners such as thou art; for all sinners that come unto God by him; for the vilest of sinners that see and feel the vileness of sin, and bemoan it, as thou dost. He saved Mary Magdalene the harfot, Matthew the publican, Paul the persecutor, Peter the swearer, liar, and denier of his Master, the malefactor on the cross, who had been a thief and a murderer, and ten thousand more like these; and he hath just the same power, and means, and mercy, to save thy soul, even thine.

He saveth graciously, that is, freely; be cause no wisdom nor worth of man have contrived, or could have obtained, this greatness of salvation. It was planned in grace, and performed by grace. It is all of grace, and bounty, and love, from beginning to

end.

For this purpose he came into the world, and took our nature upon him. He took it in its meanest and humblest form; and was content to be born in a stable, to be brought up by a labouring man, to labour with him too, to suffer the worst evils of human life, and the sorest pains of human death, that so he might be an oblation or sacrifice in the stead of his people, and render an atonement to the justice of God for them. These sufferthe law and holiness of God, without which, ings and this atonement are the debt due to consistently with his attributes, he could not spare the sinner, but by which he can be

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both just, and yet the Justifier of him who taketh refuge in Jesus. Yea, this dear Saviour having paid the penalty due to his transgressions, God is now faithful and just to forgive him his sins, or, rather, more faithful and just to forgive them, than he could be in laying on the punishment again, which Christ endured in that behalf.

Christ also lived upon earth to fulfil all righteousness; and he fulfilled it completely for his redeemed. He makes himself over to them; and all he hath is theirs, through faith in his mediation. Thus they have a right to call him, what he is, the Lord our righteousness. God is well-pleased for his righteousness' sake, and beholds every poor si nner who trusts in Christ, and lives in him, as one (O, astonishing mercy!) who is unblameable and unreproveable in his own most piercing sight, yea, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. This righteousness is that garment of salvation, which covers the ransomed of the Lord wholly, and fits them perfectly for the kingdom of heaven.

Contrite soul, believest thou this? Is this good news, the very gospel or good news of God? Search and see. Read and pray over thy bible, and thou wilt find, that it is the very voice and will of thy Lord. O that the fallow, the hard and barren ground of thy heart may be so broken up by his power, as to welcome this joyful news, like the thirsty soil receiving showers from the skies!