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THE 
 
 ANXIOUS INQUIRER 
 
 SALVATION. 
 
 BYEEV JOHN ANGELL JAMES, 
 
 OF BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND. 
 
 What must I do to be saved ' 
 
 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. 
 
 Acts 1(5:30, 31. 
 
 J7 yy^ OF THE ^ \ 
 
 RED UNDER THE SANCTION OF THE AUTH 
 
 rUKIVERSITyl 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 AMERICAN TILACT SOCIETY, 
 
 150 N A S S A U - S T R E E T , NEW YORK. 
 
^33 
 
 i<r ^''<^ 
 
i 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTUODUCTION 
 
 Directions for the profitable reading of the following* trea- 
 tise, 5 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Beep solicitude about salvation reasonable and necessar}!-, 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Religious impressions, and the unspeakable impoi-tance of 
 retaining and deepening them, 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 On the importance of gaining scriptural knowledge, and 
 clear views of divine truth, 4G 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 On repentance, 77 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 On faith, . 92 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Mistakes into which inquirers are apt to fall, . . . .112 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Perplexities which are often felt by inquirers, . . . 143 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Discouragements which present themselves at the commence 
 ment of a religious course, 162 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Cautions, 181 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Encouragements, 194 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOU THE PROFITABLE READINa 
 OF THE FOLLOWINa 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 advantagCj and therefore profit but little by 
 what they read. Besides, simple and elemen- 
 tary as is this treatise, it is on a subject of in- 
 finite and eternal importance, and is perused 
 in the most critical season of a man's everlast- 
 ing 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. 
 
 Keader, whosoever thou art, it is no presump- 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tuous thought of the author, to believe that 
 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 with 
 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 company of a 
 poor trembling and anxious inquirer like your- 
 self. ' 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 2. Read it with deep seriousness. Remember 
 it speaks to you of God, of eternity, of salvation, 
 of heaven, and of hell. Take it up with some- 
 thing of the awe " that warns you how you touch 
 a holy thing." It meets you in your solicitude 
 about your souFs welfare, it meets you fleeing 
 from destruction, escaping for your life, crying 
 out, " What shall I do to be saved ?" and prof- 
 fers 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 subject, 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 imbitter 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 knowledge, re- 
 lieve no anxiety, dissipate no doubts, afford 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 neither peace nor sanctification, if God do not 
 giye his Holy Spirit. And if you would 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 fervently, as well as 
 sincerely, prayed to God for his blessing to 
 i ^company the perusal. I have earnestly pray- 
 ed to God to enable me to write it, and if you 
 as earnestly pray to him to enable you to read 
 it, there is thanksgiving in store for us both; 
 for usually what is begun in prayer ends in 
 ptaise. 
 
 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 
 niuch be taken at a time, so neither can know- 
 ledge. 
 
 5. Meditate on what you read. Meditation 
 bears the same office in the mental constitu- 
 tion, as digestion does in our corporeal system. 
 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 bok 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 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 Scriptures and religious 
 books, we are, or should be, reading for eter- 
 nity. Salvation depends on knowledge, and 
 knowledge on meditation. At almost every 
 step of our progress through a book which is 
 intended to guide us to salvation, we should 
 pause and ask, "Do I understand this?^' Our 
 profiting depends not on the quantity read, but 
 what we understand and practise. One verse 
 in Scripture, if understood 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 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from levity of mind, and sometimes from impa- 
 tience, both of which are states very unfriendly 
 to improvement. Remember, it is salvation 
 you are in quest of, an object of such transcen- 
 dent importance as to be a check upon all vola- 
 tility, and of such value as to encourage the 
 most exemplary patience. 
 
 7. Read calmly. You are anxious to obtain 
 eternal life; you are eagerly asking, "What 
 shall I do to be saved 1" But still you must 
 not allow your solicitude so far to agitate your 
 mind as to prevent you from listening atten- 
 tively to the answer. In circumstances 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 pre- 
 vented from finding out what is best to be 
 done, but from seeing it when it is laid down 
 by another. This anxious 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 
 confused state of mind. Guard against this, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 and endeavor so far to control your thoughts 
 as to attend to the counsels and cautions which 
 are here suggested. 
 
 8. I very earnestly recommend the perusal of all 
 those passages of Scripture and chapters to which, 
 for the sake of brevity, I have referred without 
 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. If unhappily you 
 should consider me, or my little volume, as a 
 substitute for the Bible, instead of a guide to 
 it, I have done you an injury, or rather, you 
 will have done yourself an injury by thus em- 
 ploying _, it. "As new-born babes,'' says the 
 apostle, " desire the sincere milk of the word, 
 that ye may grow thereby.'' 1 Peter, 2 : 2. 
 And as those infants thrive best who are fed 
 from the breast of their mother, so those con- 
 verts 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 per- 
 suade you to read the Scriptures, I greatly 
 help your inquiries after salvation. Perhaps, 
 in the present state of your mind, it is not de- 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sirable 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 perusal 
 of this book to many immortal souls, by mak- 
 ing it, however humble the production, the 
 means of conducting them into the path of 
 life. 
 
or TBE ' 
 
 fuNIVEHSITY; 
 ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DEEP SOLICITUDE ABOUT SALVATION REA- 
 SONABLE 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 he saved T^ No wonder you should be 
 anxious ; the wonder is, that you were not con- 
 cerned about this matter before, that you are 
 not more deeply solicitous now, and that all 
 who possess the word of God do not sympa- 
 thize with you in this anxiety. Every thing 
 justifies solicitude and condemns indifference. 
 Unconcern about the soul, indifference to sal- 
 vation, 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 
 
14 THE ANXIOUS INQUlftER. 
 
 unreasonable than absolute carelessness, as will 
 appear from the following considerations : 
 
 1. You are an immortal creature, a being born 
 for eternity J a creature that wiU 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 ; 
 <3ternity, vast eternity, incomprehensible eter- 
 nity, 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 won- 
 der 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 
 
ANXIETY REASONABLE.' 15 
 
 you know or can conceive of. Your whole life 
 has been one continued course of sin ; you have, 
 as relates to God, done nothing but sin. Your 
 transgressions have sent up to heaven a cry for 
 vengeance. You are actually under the curse 
 of the Almighty. 
 
 3. Consider what the loss of tJie 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 every thing 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 dread- 
 ful word. Hell : it is the eternal endurance 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 burn- 
 eth 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 
 
16 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRED. 
 
 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 uttered ; 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 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 he saved T^ 
 
 4. This solicitude is reasonable, if we consider 
 that the eternal loss of the soul is not a rare, hut 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 
 barely 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 occur- 
 ring? 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 thronged, 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 
 
ANXIETY REASONABLE. 17 
 
 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 he saved ?" 
 
 5. Salvation is possible : if it were not, it would 
 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 ob- 
 ject 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 ? But your case is not 
 hopeless : you may be saved ; you are invited 
 to be saved. Christ has died for your salva- 
 tion, and God waits to save you; all the op- 
 portunities and advantages and helps and en- 
 couragements 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 j 
 and why may it not be obtained by you? Millions 
 
 Inquirer. 2 
 
18 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 in heaven aro 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 hkssing is 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, 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. 0, 
 how little, how insignificant, how contemptible 
 is the highest object of human ambition, to say 
 nothing of the lower matters of men's desires, 
 compared with salvation. Riches, 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 happi- 
 ness would not say, " What shall I do to be 
 saved?" 
 
 8. The circumstances in which you are placed 
 for obtaining this blessing, are partly favorable and 
 
ANXIETY REASONABLE. 19 
 
 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 corrupt heart, and are placed in a world 
 where every thing seems to combine to draw 
 off your attention from salvation, and to cause 
 you to neglect it. Satan is busy to blind your 
 mind, the world to fill your imagination and 
 heart with other objects, so that even the " right- 
 eous 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 trouble- 
 some world, where anxiety about the body is so 
 liable to put away anxiety about the soul, and 
 things seen and temporal are likely to with- 
 draw the attention from things that are unseen 
 and eternal. 0, how difficult 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 circum- 
 stances may well excite your solicitude. 
 
20 THE ANXIOUS INQUIREH. 
 
 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 care- 
 less about its eternal happiness ? Is he a man 
 or a brute? Is he in the exercise of his reason, 
 or is he a maniac? Ever walking on the edge 
 of the precipice that hangs over the bottomless 
 pit, and not anxious about salvation! fatal, 
 awful, destructive indifference 1 Cherish then 
 your solicitude. You must be anxious, you 
 ought to be so, you cannot he saved without ity 
 for no man ever was, or ever will be. The 
 salvation of a lost soul is such a stupendous 
 deliverance, such an inj&nitely momentous con- 
 cern, that it is impossible, in the very nature 
 of things, it should be bestowed on any one 
 who is not in earnest to obtain it. This iy 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 eternity, and desires which go for- 
 ward to it, if he has not destined you for it? 
 Eternal salvation is the great end of life : 
 get what you will, if you lose this you have 
 
ANXIETT REASONABLE. 21 
 
 LOST THE PURPOSE OP EXISTENCE. Could yOU 
 
 obtain all the wealth of the globe ; could you 
 rise to the possession of universal empire; 
 could you by the most splendid discoveries in 
 science, or the most useful inventions in art, or 
 the most magnificent achievements in litera- 
 ture, fill the earth with the fame of your ex 
 ploits, and send down your name with honoi 
 to the latest ages of time, still, if you lost the 
 salvation of your soul, you would have lived in 
 vain. Whatever you may gain, life will be a 
 lost adventure, if you do not gain salvation. 
 The condition of the poorest creature that ever 
 yet obtained, though he had but a mere glim- 
 mering of intellect, just enough of understand- 
 ing to apprehend the nature of repentance ; 
 although he lived out his days amidst the 
 squalid poverty and repulsive scenes of a hovel 
 or a workhouse; although he was unknown 
 even among the poor ; and although when he 
 died he was buried in the pauperis 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 
 merchant, the greatest conqueror, the profound- 
 est philosopher, or the sublimest poet that ever 
 
?2 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 existed, if he lived and died without salvation. 
 The lowest place in heaven is infinitely to be 
 preferred to the highest place on earth. Go 
 on then to urge the question, "What shall I do 
 to be saved ?^' Let no one turn off your atten- 
 tion from this matter. 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 torments. 
 Point them to heaven, and ask them if any one 
 can be too anxious to obtain its glories. Point 
 them to eternity, and ask them if any one can 
 be too anxious to secure immortal life. 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. 
 
RELIG-IOUS IMPRESSIONS. 23 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 KELiaiOUS IMPRESSIONS —THE UNSPEAK- 
 ABLE IMPORTANCE OF RETAINING AND 
 * DEEPENINa 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 describe the importance of your present 
 circumstances. 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 deeper sleep than ever. The 
 Spirit of God is striving with you, and you will 
 yield to his suggestions, and give yourself up 
 to be led by his gracious influence, or you will 
 grieve him by resistance and neglect, and com- 
 pel him to depart. God is drawing you with 
 the cords of love ; Christ is saying, " Behold, I 
 stand at the door and knock." The Spirit ia 
 
24 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 striying with you. Yield to these silken bands ; 
 open to that gracious Saviour; 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 
 Spirit not only by direct resistance, but by 
 careless neglect. Do not, I beseech you, bei 
 insensible to your situation. A single convic- 
 tion ought not to be treated with indifference, 
 nor a single impression to be overlooked. You 
 cannot long remain as you now are ; your con- 
 victions 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 altogether ; 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 treated here- 
 after. I am now to speak of the danger of 
 trifling with convictions of sin, and religious 
 impressions. If you would not lose your present 
 feelings, take the following advice : 
 
 1. Admit the possibility of losing them. Do 
 
RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 25 
 
 not presume that it is impossible for you to 
 relapse into indifference. Let there be no ap- 
 proach to the vain-glorious, self-confident tem- 
 per of the apostle Peter, who said. Though all 
 should forsake thee, yet will not I. Nothing 
 is more common than mere transient alarm. 
 The character of Pliable, in the Pilgrim^s Prog- 
 ress, is one of every day occurrence. There 
 are very few that hear the gospel who are not 
 at one time or other the subject of religious 
 impressions. Multitudes who are lifting up 
 their eyes in torment, are looking back upon 
 lost impressions. Do not conclude that be- 
 cause you are now concerned about salvation 
 you will be saved. 0, 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; 
 while self-diffidence is the way to stand. 
 
 2. Dread the idea of relapsing into indiffer- 
 ence. Let the bare apprehension make you 
 tremble. Exclaim in an almost agony of spirit, 
 " Oh, if I 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 
 
26 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 should go back from the very gates of the 
 kingdom of God; if my friends or minister 
 should meet me in a retreating course. Dread- 
 ful 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 salvation, 
 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 dreadful 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 deeply ponder this 
 great truth, that all true piety in the heart of 
 man is the work of God's Spirit. Do not read 
 
RELiaiOUS IMPRESSIONS. 27 
 
 anotlier 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 
 extinguished, every impression will be effaced, 
 unless God himself, by his own sovereign and 
 efficacious 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 influence. 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 ; you must give up a por- 
 tion of your sleep, if you can command 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, in the house 
 and by the way, upon your bed, and in your 
 
28 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 occupations ; and this should be tlie subject of 
 your petitions : that your heart may be renew- 
 ed, your eyes spiritually enlightened ; that you 
 may renounce your own righteousness, and trust 
 alone in the atoning blood of a crucified Re- 
 deemer. 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 cannot, find time for private prayer, 
 you may as well give up the pursuit of salva- 
 tion, 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 he sinful in your conduct, and you must also 
 he very watchful against sin. Thus runs the di- 
 rection of the word of God : " Seek the Lord 
 while he may be found, call upon him while he 
 is near : let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
 unrighteous man* his thoughts ; and let him re- 
 turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy 
 upon him, and to our God, for he will abun- 
 dantly pardon." Isaiah 55 : 6, 7. To the sam? 
 
RELiaiOUS IMPRESSIONS. 29 
 
 effect is the language of one of' Job^s friends : 
 "If thou prepare thy heart and stretch out 
 thy hands towards him, if iniquity be in thy 
 hand, put it away." Job 11 : 13, 14. It is 
 right for you at once to know, that the salva- 
 tion 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 announced the ap- 
 proaching nativity of Christ. "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, un- 
 kindness, undutifulness to parents or masters, 
 must immediately be given up without hesita- 
 tion, reluctance, or reserve. The retaining of 
 one single sin which you know to be such, will 
 
30 THE ANXIOUS INQUIUER. 
 
 soon stifle your convictions, and efface all your 
 impressions. 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 Chris- 
 tian, and read the Bible, and offer up prayers, 
 and regularly hear sermons, and wonder that 
 you do not get religion ; but perhaps the reason 
 is, you are not willing to give up your sins, your 
 worldly-mindedness, 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 conduct, and see wheth- 
 er there be in you any thing which you know to 
 be wrong, but which you are nevertheless un- 
 willing to abandon ; if there is, it is vain for 
 you to think of retaining your impressions and 
 becoming a Christian. And let me also remind 
 you, that this willingness to give up your sins 
 must be immediate ; you must desire and pur- 
 pose an instant abandonment of sin. Augus- 
 tine 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 
 
RELiaiOUS IMPRESSIONS. 31 
 
 was completely turned to the Lord from his evil 
 ways. Thus there are some who are, or profess 
 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 feel- 
 ing, a concern to be saved, but a lingering love 
 of some sin, and the matter is settled by a reso- 
 lution to sacrifice the sin at some future time. 
 Awful delusion ! God says, JVow ; and you must 
 reply. Yes, Lord, now. I would now be con- 
 verted 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 mis- 
 chief to your soul, and hinder your pursuit of 
 eternal life. You ought especially to watch 
 against your besetting sin, whatever it be, 
 according to the exhortation of the apostle, 
 Heb. 12:1. At the same time I would caution 
 you against being discouraged by occasional 
 failures ; you are not to throw all up in despair 
 because you are occasionally overcome by temp- 
 tation. Instances of this kind should make 
 
32 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 you more watchful, but not despairing. I shall 
 say more on this subject hereafter. 
 
 5. It is of great consequence for you to sep- 
 arate yourself from irreligious or worldly covi- 
 panions. 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. Com- 
 ply with these admonitions, and quit the society 
 of all who think lightly of religion. Their com- 
 pany and conversation will soon draw you aside 
 from the ways of piety. Their levity, their 
 indifference, their neglect of salvation, will be 
 destruction to all your religious feelings. Even 
 Christians of long standing and 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 
 
RELiaiOUS IMPRESSIONS. 33 
 
 very conyersation and general disposition will 
 blast every tender emotion, as an east wind 
 does the blossoms of spring. You must then- 
 give up either your sinful associates, or your 
 salvation ; for if you cannot, or rather will not, 
 break off from such companions as are opposed 
 to religion, you may as well relinquish all hope 
 of eternal life, since true piety and communion 
 with the ungodly are utterly incompatible with 
 each other. Is there any companion on earth 
 whose friendship you prefer to salvation, and 
 whose loss you dread more than damnation? 
 
 6. It is transcendently important that you 
 should use all those scriptural rrieans which are 
 calculated and intended to keep up a due sense 
 of religion in the mind. These you must im- 
 mediately and most earnestly employ : no time 
 is to be lost, no labor is to be spared, no sacri- 
 fice 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 diffi- 
 culties are immense, though not insurmountable. 
 Every energy must be roused, every exertion 
 must be made, every help called in, every law- 
 inquirer. 3 
 
34 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 ful means employed. Read the following pas- 
 sages of God^s word, and see if religion be a 
 light and easy work : " Seek first the kingdom 
 of God and his righteousness." Matt. 6 : 83. 
 " 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 1 What language ! We might 
 almost feel prompted to ask. Who then can be 
 saved, if such anxiety, such effort, be necessary?" 
 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 rationally think to reach the top of 
 the highest mountain on earth without labor, 
 than imagine you can reach heaven without 
 effort. If you suppose 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. 
 
RELiaiOUS IMPRESSIONS. 35 
 
 Immediately commence the devout and dili- 
 gent perusal of the Scriptures. " As new-born 
 babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that 
 ye may grow thereby." 1 Peter, 2:1. The 
 Bible is the food of the soul, even as the moth- 
 er'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 former. If you do not find 
 the Bible so interesting to you at first as you 
 expected and wished, still 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 Scriptures ; they are 
 the very element of devotion. Of two inquir- 
 ers after salvation, he will be most likely to 
 persevere and gain the crown who is most dili- 
 gent in reading the word of God. Do not be 
 disheartened by finding much that you cannot 
 at present understand ; there is much that you 
 
36 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 can understand. Read in course, ancL instead 
 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. 
 
 Attend with regularity and seriousness upon 
 the preaching of the gospel. Sermons are inval- 
 uable helps to the anxious inquirer. Hear the 
 word preached with a deep conviction that it 
 v^ill do you no good but as God blesses it, 
 and therefore look above the minister to God. 
 Pray before you go to hear sermons; pray, 
 while you hear; 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 yourself; hear with 
 attention, hear as for your life, hear as for sal- 
 vation. Avoid a light and careless way of 
 attending upon the means of grace. Grow not 
 sinfully familiar with sacred things. Avoid 
 general 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 for social prayer. The pray- 
 
RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIOJNS. 37 
 
 ers of good men not only bring down blessings 
 from God, but breathe the spirit of true piety. 
 The prayer-meeting is an atmosphere of devo- 
 tion. Inquirer, frequent prayer-meetings, then ; 
 it is there the solemn impressions of sacred 
 things are strengthened. You are there pray- 
 ed with, and prayed for ; you there learn 
 what 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 coun- 
 sels 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 peo- 
 ple of God, but be willing to let your attach- 
 ment 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 these 
 sometimes soon die away for want of support. 
 
38 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 But it is especially desirable that you should 
 make known your mind to your minister. Go 
 without delay to him. Perhaps he has meet- 
 ings for inquirers, and even if he has not, he 
 will be glad to hear your account of yourself, 
 and tenderly sympathize with you under your 
 anxieties. Be not afraid to go to him ; if you 
 are timid and unable to say much, he will under- 
 stand your broken hints, kindly elicit your sen- 
 timents and feelings, and give you suitable in- 
 structions 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 particularly need, than the reading 
 of many books, and the hearing of many ser- 
 mons. 
 
 Remember, however, after all there is a dan- 
 ger of too much depending upon means, as 
 well as of too much neglecting them. Forget 
 not what I have said concerning the work of 
 the Spirit of God. He is your helper ; neither 
 friends nor minister, neither reading nor hear- 
 ing, no, nor the Bible itself, must lead you. 
 away from your dependence on the Holy Ghost. 
 Many inquirers seem to have no hope or expec- 
 tation of good but in connection with certain 
 
RELiaiOUS IMPRESSIONS. 39 
 
 means : if they are cut off from sermons even 
 occasionally, or have not precisely tie same 
 number and kind of ordinances they have been 
 accustomed to, they are gloomy and despond- 
 ing, and hence not only get no good but much • 
 harm by their unbelief. We must depend 
 upon God, and upon nothing but God, who 
 could bless his people in the. darkness of a 
 dungeon, where the Bible could not be read, 
 or in the solitude of a wilderness, where no 
 gospel sermon could be heard. 
 
 It is of consequence that you should heve 
 distinctly understand, that the grace of God in 
 your salvation is rich and free. Your exer- 
 tions to obtain salvation do not merit or de- 
 serve 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 
 profess 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 righteous- 
 ness of God." Your deep convictions, impres- 
 sions, and solicitudes; your many tears; your 
 
40 THE ANXIOUS INQU]£ER. 
 
 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 under no obliga- 
 tion, even to himself, to save you. Notwith- 
 standing all your concern you lie at his mercy, 
 and if you are saved, it is of pure favor. 
 
 Do not allow yourself to conclude that your 
 present concern is sure to end in the conver- 
 sion 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 converted because you are anxious about 
 it: facts are against such an inference. "I 
 have read of a gentleman who felt in a danger- 
 ous sickness great horror at the review of his 
 past life, and was advised to send for a minis- 
 ter, 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 bo the reverse of 
 what it had been. He would regularly attend 
 
llELiaiOUS IMPRESSIONS. 41 
 
 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 
 accomplished ; he was thankful for his deliver- 
 ance, and did not forget his promises. For 
 many months he continued, as far as his con- 
 duct could be judged of by the world, to per- 
 form his vows. At length, however, he thought 
 so much religion superfluous. 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 that he 
 formerly was. After some time he was again 
 seized with a dangerous disease, and was ad- 
 vised by his friends to send again for the min- 
 ister, that he might afford fresh consolation to 
 his wounded spirit. * No,' said he, * after break- 
 ing all the promises that I made to God, I can- 
 not expect mercy from him.' Death found him 
 in this unhappy state of mind, and carried him 
 to that world where there are no changes.'' 
 This story, with some variations of no conse- 
 quence, may be told of myriads. Impressions 
 are made upon the minds of sinners, which are 
 attended with visible consequences that give 
 
42 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 rise to favorable hopes in tlie breasts of friends 
 and ministers ; but their hopes often prove illu- 
 sions. When the Lord slew the children of 
 Israel, "then they sought him, and they re- 
 turned and inquired early after God ; and they 
 remembered that the Lord had been their rock, 
 and the high God their Redeemer; neverthe- 
 less they did flatter him with their mouth, and 
 they lied unto him with their tongues." Psalm 
 78 : 34-36. They seem frequently to have been 
 sincere at the time in their promises, not indeed 
 with a godly sincerity ; ** yet their hearts were 
 not right with God, neither were they stead- 
 fast in his covenant ;" and the reason 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 ajQfecting illus- 
 trations of the sentiment, that impressions and 
 convictions do not always end in conversion. 
 I began my own religious course with three 
 companions, one of whom was materially ser- 
 viceable in some particulars to myself; but he 
 soon proved that his religion was nothing more 
 than mere transient emotion ; a second returned 
 
EELIGIOUS IMPUESSIONS. 43 
 
 to his sin " like a dog to his Yomit, and a sow 
 that is washed to her wallowing in the mire." 
 The third, who was for some time my intimate 
 friend, imbibed 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 
 Reason. After a while he was seized with a dan- 
 gerous disease ; his conscience awoke ; the con- 
 victions of his mind were agonizing ; his remorse 
 was horrible. He ordered all his infidel ex- 
 tracts, that it had cost him so many nights to 
 copy out, to be burnt before his face; and if 
 not in words, yet in spirit, 
 
 "Burn, burn," he cried, in sacred rage, 
 "Hell is the due of every page." 
 
 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 
 downward 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 
 
44 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 un- 
 willing to save them, but because they rest in 
 impressions without actual conversion. It is 
 dangerous then, reader, as well as unwarranted, 
 to conclude that you are sure to be saved, be- 
 cause 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 encourage- 
 ment from your present state of mind to hope 
 that you will be saved; but that encourage- 
 ment should rather come from what God has 
 promised, and what God is, than from what 
 you feel. To regard your present state of mind, 
 therefore, with complacency — 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 
 
RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 45 
 
 turn back again to sin or the world. The true 
 light in which to consider your present solici- 
 tude, is that of a state of mind which, if it ter- 
 minate in genuine faith, will end in your salva- 
 tion ; consequently 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. 
 
46 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE IMPORTANCE OF GAINING- SCRIPTU- 
 RAL KNOWLEDGE. AND CLEAR VIEWS OF 
 DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 There is scarcely any one point to which the 
 attention of anxious inquirers should be more 
 earnestly and carefully directed, than to the 
 necessity 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 
 notions. The concern of many persons is noth- 
 ing more than an ignorant anxiety to be relig- 
 ious : they have scarcely one definite idea of 
 what religion 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 superstructure of personal godliness rests 
 on knowledge. True conversion is emphati- 
 cally called, " coming to the knowledge of the 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDaE. 47 
 
 truth." Your impressions will be easily effaced, 
 and your concern 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 learn. 
 
 The reason why so many falter, or turn back, 
 is, that they do not study to make themselves 
 acquainted with divine truth. Suppose a man 
 were travelling through a strange country, 
 could he get on without consulting his map ? 
 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 ? How can you get on in the 
 way to heaven without studying the Bible, which 
 is the map of the road ? Or, changing the illus- 
 tration, suppose you were in pecuniary difficul- 
 ties, and some friend had told you not only how 
 to extricate yourself from your perplexities, but 
 also how to acquire great wealth, and in order 
 to guard you from error, had given you long 
 written directions ; what would you do ? Sit 
 down and wish and long for success, and imme- 
 diately set out in a great bustle to realize the 
 promised advantages ? No. You would say, 
 
48 THE ANXIOUS INQUIREa. 
 
 "My success depends upon knowledge, upon 
 making myself 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 useless to exert myself if I 
 do not know how my exertions are to be direct- 
 ed." This you confess is quite rational ; and 
 is it not quite as necessary for you to be ac- 
 quainted with the subject of religion, in order 
 to be truly pious? Knowledge, knowledge, 
 my friend, is indispensable. 
 
 Eeligion is repentance towards God ; but 
 can you repent if you do not know the charac- 
 ter 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, therefore, time and opportunity 
 for reflection ; you must bring your understand- 
 ing 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 
 
SCRlPTUaAL KNOWLEDaE. 49 
 
 great consequence tliat at this stage of your 
 progress you should clearly understand that it 
 is an obvious law of the human mind, that nei- 
 ther faith nor feeling of any kind can be pro- 
 duced by any other means than that of know- 
 ledge. 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? 
 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 calculated 
 to excite that affection. You may try as long 
 as you please to work upon the mind directly, 
 but the thing is manifestly impossible. Hence 
 the importance of growing in knowledge of 
 divine things. The way to have our faith in- 
 creased, is to increase in the knowledge of what 
 is to be believed ; 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. 1 deduce, therefore, this in- 
 
 luquirer. 4 
 
50 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER 
 
 ference, that in the whole business of religion, 
 tlie eye of the inquirer must be much fixed on 
 subjects out of himself, on those that are pre- 
 sented in the word of God. If you ask wha^ 
 are the subjects which you should endeavor 
 to understand, I place before you the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 1. The moral character of God, The know- 
 ledge of God is the basis of all religion. God 
 is a Spirit, as to his nature almighty, all-know- 
 ing, and everywhere present, searching the 
 hearts and trying the reins of the children of 
 men. As to his moral attributes, it is said, " God 
 is love," and *' God is light ;" T^y which we are 
 to understand, 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 inflexibly just, as to be compelled 
 by the infinite perfection of his nature to reveal 
 liis wrath against all ungodliness and unright- 
 eousness of men ; and at the same time a G6d 
 that cannot lie, but who will fulfil every word 
 of promise or threatening. my reader, dwell 
 upon this view of the divine character : an in- 
 finite hatred and opposition to sin ; an infinite 
 purity, an immutable justice, an inviolable truth. 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 51 
 
 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 hosts f 
 while the prophet, filled with terror, falls pros- 
 trate, exclaiming, " Woe is me, for I am undone, 
 because I am a man of unclean lips." Isaiah 6. 
 the deep depravity, the utter sinfulness 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 sin- 
 ful anger is murder, and unchaste thoughts are 
 adultery. The law demands from every human 
 being sinless, perfect obedience, from the begin- 
 ning to the end of life, in thought, word, and 
 deed ; it abates nothing of its demands, and 
 makes no allowances for human weakness. 
 
b2 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 Matt. 5 : 17-48 ; Jas. 2 : 10, 11. The perfection 
 of the law is a tremendous subject, it is an aw- 
 ful 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, to show us what sin is, and to con- 
 demn us for committing it. Eom. 3 : 20 ; Gal. 
 3 : 10. You can know nothing, if you do not 
 know the law. "Sin is the transgression of 
 the law f but how can you know sin, if you 
 do not know the law ? inquirer, how many, 
 how great are thy transgressions, if every de- 
 parture 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, Matt. 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? Confound- 
 ing 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 ? 
 
iSCRlPTUUAL KNOWLEBaE.' 53 
 
 To love the world, to love trifles, to love even 
 Bin, and not love God ! 
 
 3. But this^leads me to remark, that -it is 
 necessary you should understand the evil of sin. 
 Men think little of sin ; but does God ? What 
 turned Adam and Eve out of paradise ? Sin. 
 What drowned the old world in the flood? 
 Sin. What destroyed God^s own city, and 
 scattered his chosen people as vagrants over 
 the face of the earth? Sin. What brought 
 disease, accidents, toil, care, war, pestilence, 
 and famine into the world ? Sin. What has 
 converted the world into one great burying- 
 place of its inhabitants ? Sin. What lighted 
 the flames of hell ? Sin. What crucified the 
 Lord of life and glory ? Sin. What then must 
 sin be ? Who but God, and what but his in- 
 finite mind, can conceive of its evil nature? 
 Did you ever consider that it was only one sin 
 that brought death and all our woe into the 
 world? Do you not tremble at the thought 
 that this evil is in you ? Some will attempt to 
 persuade you that sin is a trifle ; that God does 
 not take much account of it ; that you need not 
 give yourself much concern about it. But what 
 says God himself, in his word, in his providence, 
 
54 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER 
 
 in the torments of the damned, in the crucifix- 
 ion of his Son ? 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 distrib- 
 uted to others, to doom multitudes to perdi- 
 tion. 
 
 4. But it is not enough to know your actual 
 sins, you must also clearly understand your 
 original 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, that " those 
 things which proceed out of the mouth come 
 forth from the heart ; for out of the heart pro- 
 ceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, forni- 
 cations, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." 
 Matt. 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 iniquity. 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 wicked, is really worse than 
 his conduct. Why do not men seek, serve, and 
 love God ? Because the carnal mind is enmity 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDaE. 55 
 
 •ttgainst him. Why do sinners go on in sin? 
 Because they love it in their hearts. This was 
 not the original condition of man, for God creat- 
 ed Adam in his own image, that is, in right- ' 
 eousness and true holiness ; but by disobeying 
 God in eating the forbidden fruit, our first par- 
 ent fell into a state of sin, and we having de- 
 scended from him since the fall, inherit cor- 
 ruption. Rom. 5 : 12-21. It is of vast conse- 
 quence for you to know that you are thus to- 
 tally corrupt, for without this knowledge you 
 will be taking up with a mere outward refor- 
 mation, to the neglect of an entire inward ren- 
 ovation. If you saw a man who had a bad 
 and loathsome disease of the skin, merely ap- 
 plying 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 
 
56 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 be saved. Read Psalms 51, 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 
 subject. It is not enough to know in a general 
 way that Christ died to save sinners. Did it 
 ever occur to you to ask the question, Why 
 did God save sinners in this way ? Why was 
 it necessary 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 ? 
 What precise end was to be accomplished by 
 the death of Christ? I will show you this 
 design. 
 
 First, as it relates to God. Is not God holy, 
 and does he not abhor sin ? Yes, with a per- 
 fect hatred. 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 law ? Certainly. Have not all men broken 
 this law and incurred its penalty? Yes. Sup- 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDaE. 51 
 
 pose, 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; and suppose he was to do this in 
 every case, where would be his truth in threat- 
 ening to follow sin with punishment? 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? Would 
 not the law be destroyed, and God's moral 
 government be set aside? Could any govern- 
 ment, human or divine, exist with an indiscrim- 
 inate dispensation of pardon to all offenders, 
 upon their repentance ? 
 
 But you say, perhaps. What is to be done ? 
 Is not repentance all that the sinner has to 
 offer ? I reply, Is repentance all that God is 
 bound to require ? 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 conscience 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, 
 
58 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 and prayed, and wept, and watched, but are 
 you at peace ? No, say you ; as far from it as 
 ever. Why? 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 driviug 
 you back from God as long as you have noth- 
 ing 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 the world." Him hath 
 God set forth to be a propitiation 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 believeth in 
 Jesus. Rom. 3 : 25. Read also other language 
 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 right- 
 eousness of God in him." 2 Cor. 5 : 21. The 
 prophet Isaiah tells us, " The Lord laid upon 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDaE. 59 
 
 him the iniquity of us all." Isa. 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 divine love, but that he might appear what 
 he is, a holy God in hating sin, a righteous 
 God in 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 abhorrence to the sin and com- 
 passion to the sinner, the union of a just regard 
 to his own character, law, and government, 
 and a merciful regard to the sinful and miser- 
 able 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 seem- 
 ed to struggle for predominance : if the prince 
 be pardoned, what becomes of the law ; if he 
 be punished, how great a calamity will the 
 
60 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 father endure in the afiSiction of the son? 
 What is to be done? The father determines 
 that he will lose one of his eyes, and the son 
 one of his. It was done. Here was punish- 
 ment 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 not adduced as a per- 
 fect 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 suf- 
 fering of the real offender. Anxious sinner, 
 dwell upon the atonement of Christ ; there is 
 thy hope, thy joy, thy 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 mediation. Could the 
 law ever be more honored, than by the obe- 
 dience of such a person ? Could justice be more 
 displayed, even by the everlasting punishment 
 of all the human race? Tremble not to ap- 
 proach to God through Christ. He has made 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 61 
 
 provision 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 sal- 
 vation : fix thine eye upon Jesus the Mediator ; 
 rest all thy hope upon his sacrifice ; plead his 
 atonement, and then life eternal 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 aven- 
 ger 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 that is, sin ; and could he be deliver- 
 ed from hell without being delivered from sin, 
 he would find no heaven. When man was 
 created, he was created 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 gar- 
 den which he tilled was the Eden of his bodily 
 
62 THE ANXIOUS IKQUIRER. 
 
 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 disposi- 
 tion earthly, sensual, and devilish. Not only 
 was his conscience laden with guilt, but, as a 
 necessary consequence, his imagination was full 
 of terror 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 pas- 
 sions. In his innocence he loved God supreme- 
 ly, and his companion as himself. He was 
 united by a feeling of dependence and devoted- 
 ness to God, and to the creature by a principle 
 of hallowed sympathy. But now he was cut 
 off from both, and came under the domination 
 of an absorbing and engrossing selfishness. 
 Such is the character he has transmitted by the 
 channel of ordinary generation to all his pos- 
 terity ; they are not only guilty, but depraved — 
 not bnly under the wrath of God, but despoiled 
 of his image — not only condemned by God, but 
 alienated from him. Hence, then, the design 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 63 
 
 of the death of Christ is not only to deliver us 
 from the penal, but also from the polluting con- 
 sequences 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 misery 
 which their sins have deserved : but what is 
 that misery ? an eternal abandonment of them 
 to themselves, with all their crimes in full ma- 
 turity ; so that hell is not only the wrath of 
 God suffered, but that wrath coupled with, as 
 its effects, an eternal 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 himself for it ; that he might sanctify and 
 cleanse 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.'' Eph. 5:25-27. And 
 hence it is said to be the profession of believers 
 
64 THE ANXIOUS^ INQUIRER. 
 
 in their baptism, to be under obligation to a 
 conformity to the ends and designs of Christ's 
 death. Rom. 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? 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 affections and lusts, the 
 mortification of your corrupt nature. The sal- 
 vation 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 his soul 
 the dominion of holy priilciples: the whole 
 manifestation of holy love in the gospel is de- 
 signed to change the stubborn, selfish, worldly, 
 wicked heart of the fallen creature into its own 
 
SCEIPTURAL KNOWLEDaE. 65 
 
 likeness ; and thus by making him a partaker 
 of the divine nature, to fit him for divine com- 
 munion. 
 
 Now let every anxious inquirer consider 
 this : let him ask what it is he wants as a fall- 
 en, sinful creature ; is it not the deliverance of 
 his soul from the power, as well as the punish- 
 ment 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 ? And is it not for this he should look to 
 Christ ? Could he be saved at all, if not saved 
 from his body of flesh, his corrupt nature ? And 
 can any one save him from this but Christ? 
 Poor troubled, tormented sinner, look to Christ; 
 in him is all you want : the Son of God will 
 be made unto *' you wisdom, and righteousness, 
 and sanctification, and redemption." 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 judgment, and if you are not justified, you 
 must be condemned. Yea, if you are not yet 
 justified, which it is to be presumed you are 
 
 Inqiiirer. 9 
 
66 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 not, you are now in a state of condemnation: 
 for '' he that believeth not, is condemned al- 
 ready; 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 situa- 
 tion, 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 experience, 
 then, it is infinitely desirable you should be 
 clearly instructed in the nature of justification. 
 It is a subject of immense consequence to the 
 sinner, and is therefore frequently mentioned, 
 and treated at great length in the epistles to 
 the Romans and Galatians. 
 
 Attend to the meaning of the word. Justi- 
 fication is the opposite '^f condemnation, as is 
 evident from the following passages : " He that 
 justifieth the wicked, and he that condemnetli 
 the just, even they both are abomination to the 
 Lord." Prov. 17 : 15. " Who shall lay any thing 
 to the charge of God^s elect? it is God that 
 
SCHIPTURAL KNOWLEDaE. 67 
 
 jiistifieth, who is he that condemneth ?" Rom. 
 8 : 33. Fix this simple idea in your mind, that 
 justification is the opposite of condemnation, 
 for things are sometimes easily and impres- 
 sively learnt by their contraries. The justifi- 
 cation of an innocent person is pronouncing 
 him just, on the ground of his own conduct; 
 but how can a sinner who is confessedly guilty 
 of innumerable transgressions, be justified? 
 Now you will see at once that the term, in ref 
 erence to him, is a little different, and signifies 
 not that he is righteous in himself, but is treat- 
 ed as if he had been, through the righteousness 
 of Christ imputed to him. " Justification," says 
 the Assembly's Catechism, "is an act of God's 
 free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth 
 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 satisfaction 
 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 
 punishment, and restoring him to all the privi- 
 leges of a citizen of the heavenly community. 
 Justification means not merely pardon, but 
 
68 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 
 obedience, and which indeed he never obtained. 
 Justification is pardon connected with a title 
 to eternal life. Justification takes place but 
 once ; pardon may be frequently repeated : jus- 
 tification is that great change which is made 
 in the sinner's relation to God, when he is de- 
 livered from condemnation, and is brought from 
 being an enemy to be a child. If a king were 
 to save a condemned criminal, and immediately 
 adopt him as a child, this would resemble our 
 justification ; and his frequent forgiveness of 
 his subsequent offences, when standing in the 
 relation of a son, would resemble God's fatherly 
 love in forgiving the sins of his children. Jus- 
 tification, then, is God's act in taking off the 
 jsentence of a sinner's condemnation by the 
 law, restoring him to his favor, and granting 
 him a title to eternal life in heaven. But how 
 can a righteous God, who has respect for his 
 holy law, justify a sinner? 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 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDaE. 69 
 
 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 
 regard to what Christ did and suffered on his 
 behalf. This judicial act of God in justifying 
 the sinner takes place when, and as soon as he 
 believes in Christ, because by that act of faith 
 he is brought into union with the Saviour, and 
 becomes 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. 
 Sanctification 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 crim- 
 inal in jail under sentence of death, and at the 
 same time infected with a dangerous disease: 
 in order to his being saved, he must be both 
 pardoned and cured ; for if he be only par- 
 doned, he will soon die of his disease ; or if he 
 be only cured, he will soon be executed. Such 
 
70 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 is the emblem of the pinner's case : by actual 
 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; labor to understand 
 them : a knowledge of these two blessings, jus- 
 tification 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 sal- 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDOE. 71 
 
 vation as the work of Christ ybr him. As we 
 are all corrupt by nature, in consequence of 
 our descent from Adam, so we universally grow 
 up and remain without any true religion, till it 
 is implanted in the heart by 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 re- 
 marked 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 as- 
 cribed to the Spirit ; hence it is said, " E-xcept 
 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." Psa. 119 : 18. 
 Paul also prayed for the illumination of the 
 Spirit, on behalf of the Ephesians. Eph. 1 : lY, 
 18. Sanctification is entirely the work of the 
 Spirit; see 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2. Be- 
 lievers are said to "live in the Spirit;" "to. 
 walk in the Spirit ;" " to walk not after the 
 
72 THE ANXIOUS INQUIREU. 
 
 flesli, but after the Spirit;'' "to be led by the 
 Spirit ;" " to mortify the deeds of the body by 
 the Spirit ;" " to be sealed by the Spirit ;" " to 
 have the Spirit bearing witness with their spirit 
 that they are the children of God f to enjoy 
 '' the earnest of the Spirit ;" and " to bring 
 forth the fruits of the Spirit." Gal. 5 : 22-25 ; 
 Rom. 8 : 1-16 ; Eph. 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 depart- 
 ment, so to speak, in the economy of our re- 
 demption. The Father is represented as orig- 
 inating the scheme, 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 is not to 
 give new mental faculties, but a proper exer- 
 cise 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 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDaE. 73 
 
 lij is not in a mind to love him, and never will 
 be till God change his mind. 
 
 The work of the Holy Spirit upon the mind 
 is 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 Nicodemus, " 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 atmosphere; so it is in the conversion 
 of a sinner. It would greatly arrest the prog- 
 ress of the inquirer, to engage in any specula- 
 tions abojcit this, or any other mystery of divine 
 truth. 
 
 The work of the Spirit is not intended to 
 supersede the use of our faculties, but to di- 
 rect 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 Philip- 
 pians, " Work out your own salvation with fear 
 
74 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 and trembling ; for it is God that worketli in 
 you both to will and to do of his own good 
 pleasure/' Phil. 2 : 12, 13. The exhortation, 
 you perceive, does not say, "Since it is God 
 that worketh, there is nothing 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 sunshine that 
 cause the seed to germinate and grow, but the 
 husbandman must plough and sow ; for though 
 the seed cannot grow without the influence of 
 the heavens, so neither can it grow without 
 the sowing of the husbandman. 
 
 We cannot usually distinguish between the 
 influence of the Spirit, and the operations of 
 our own minds, nor is it necessary we should. 
 We cannot tell where man ends and God be- 
 gins, nor ought we to trouble or perplex our- 
 selves about the matter. Hence, instead of 
 waiting for any sensible or ascertainable im- 
 pulse of the Spirit, either before we begin relig- 
 ion at all, or before we engage in any partic- 
 ular exercise of it, we are immediately to engage 
 
SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE. 75 
 
 all our faculties, and at the same time engage 
 tliem 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 reliance, 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 imme- 
 diately to obey the command to repent and 
 believe ; but to obey in the very language and 
 feeling of that prayer, " Lord, help mine unbe- 
 lief.^' 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 religion seems to be a spirit of vigorous 
 exertion, blended with a spirit of unlimited 
 dependence and earnest prayer. An illustra- 
 tion may be borrowed, as recorded Matthew 
 12 : 10, from the case of the man with the with- 
 ered arm. Our Lord commanded him to stretch 
 forth his hand, and he did not say. Lord, 1 
 cannot, it is dead ; but relying on his power 
 
76 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 who gave the injunction, and believing that 
 the command implied a promise 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 command- 
 ed to repent and believe, and he is not to say, 
 I cannot, for I am dead in sin ; but he is to be- 
 lieve in the promised aid of grace, and to obey 
 in a dependence upon Him who worketh in mer 
 to will and to do. 
 
ON REPENTANCE. ' 77 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON REPENTANCE. 
 
 ** Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise per- 
 ish." Such was the awful and tremendous de- 
 nunciation 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 everlastingly. There is a world of mis- 
 ery 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 discovering in it some new mys- 
 tery of woe. 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. 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 
 
73 • THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 distinction be- 
 tween them. Many, very many grieve for their 
 sins, who never repent of them. Men may 
 grieve for the consequences of their sins, with- 
 out mourning for the sins themselves. The 
 meaning of the word repent, generally used in 
 the Greek Scriptures, is, a change of mind. 
 Repentance therefore signifies an entire change 
 of man's views, disposition, and conduct, with 
 respect to sin. It is equivalent in meaning to 
 regeneration. The new birth means a change 
 of heart, and repentance is that same change 
 viewed in reference to sin. The author of re- 
 pentance is the Holy Ghost ; it is the eflect of 
 divine grace working in the heart of man. The 
 following things are included in true repent- 
 ance. 
 
 1. Conviction of sin, ''When he," the Spirit, 
 "is come,'' said Christ, "he shall reprove," that 
 is, convince, "the world of sin." John 16:8. 
 The true penitent has a clear view of his state 
 before God as a guilty and depraved creature. 
 All men say they are sinners, the penitent 
 
ON REPENTANgjTi^X ^^ ^^ 
 
 knows it; they talk of it, fCflffll Tif ®]ftjS I ' 
 have heard it from others, an^1|Ckeii itrw^ as ^ ^ 
 an opinion, he has learnt it by^^^aGlijn^ .gfiS ' 
 God, who has shown him the purity oFffielaw; 
 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 perceives 
 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 
 worldly-mindedness, folly, and wickedness have 
 sprung from a depraved heart, a heart alien- 
 ated from God. He formerly thought he was 
 not quite as he ought to be, but now he per- 
 ceives that he has been altogether what he 
 ought not to be ; formerly he knew all was not 
 right, but he now sees 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 have been just 
 
80 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 had lie cast Mm into liell. This is now his 
 confession : 
 
 ^'Should sudden vengeance seize my breath, 
 I must pronounce thee just in death ; 
 And if my soul were sent to hell, 
 Thy righteous law approves it well." 
 
 Can you subscribe to this, reader ? 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-jus- 
 tifying spirit, and is disposed, if not to defend 
 his sins, yet to excuse them, he is not truly pen- 
 itent, 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 con- 
 science 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 con- 
 tinued to show itself in all their descendants. 
 We very commonly hear those who have beeu 
 
ON EEPENTANCE. 81 
 
 recently led to see their sins, mitigating their 
 guilt: one by pleading the peculiarity of his 
 situation ; another his constitution ; a third the 
 strength of the temptation ; a fourth imputes 
 his actual sins to his original sin, and endeav- 
 ors 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 ex- 
 tenuation, and abandoned all desire of self-jus- 
 tification — ^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 exclaim. Guilty, guilty, is he truly penitent. 
 Some such as this is now his sincere confession : 
 "0 God, thou injured Sovereign, thou all- 
 holy God, and all-righteous Judge, I can at- 
 tempt to excuse myself no longer. I stand be- 
 fore thee a convicted, self-condemned sinner. 
 What has my life been but a course of rebel- 
 lion 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 
 
 Inquirer. 
 
82 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 alienated from thee. I have not loved thee, 
 thou God of 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 enmity against thee. 
 
 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 continued 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 right- 
 eous God against whom it was committed ; and 
 even when the knowledge of sin began to glim- 
 mer on the dark horizon of my guilty soul, how 
 perversely did I resist the light, and how de- 
 ceitfully and wickedly and presumptuously did 
 
 1 attempt to stand up in judgment with thee, 
 and in proud self-confidence plead my own 
 cause. with what lying excuses, with what 
 false extenuations, did I make my wickedness 
 more wicked, and tempt thy vengeance, and 
 
ON RETENTANCE. 83 
 
 seek to draw thj thunderbolts upon my devoted 
 head. Eternal thanks for thy marvellous long- 
 suffering, 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 com- 
 mend to thine especial attention that affecting 
 and precious 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 responds 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 patience. Dwell upon the length of thy 
 term of sin, and all the aggravations of that 
 
84 THE ANXIOUS INQUjREE. 
 
 sin derived from religious advantages, pious 
 friends, and a reproving conscience. Assail 
 thy hard heart with 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." Won- 
 derful language I What views of sin were then 
 in his mind ; and what views of God. He 
 had seduced Bathsheba into the greatest sin a 
 wife can commit; he had murdered her hus- 
 band ; 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, 
 "Against thee, thee only^ thou lioly, holy, holy 
 Lord God, have I sinned. Against thee, my 
 Benefactor, who didst raise me from the sheep- 
 fold 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. 
 
ON REPENTANCE. 65 
 
 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 
 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 contri- 
 tion. Do we mourn for sin as sin, or only for 
 fear of punishment ? 
 
 Repentance includes hatred of sin, forsak- 
 ing it, and a determination not to repeat it. No 
 man can truly repent of an act without a feel- 
 ing of dislike to that act ; these two cannot be 
 separated, yea, they are the same thing. Ref- 
 ormation produced 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 inflicted with the tears of sor- 
 row ; no, he will destroy 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 after hate it, dread 
 
86 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 it, and watch against it. Practices that be- 
 fore were delighted in, will be abhorred and 
 shunned; and instead of trying how near he 
 may come to them without committing 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 
 entirely 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 species as they can be, though they 
 are without venom? No. Observe how re- 
 pentance wrought in the members of the Corin- 
 thian church : " For behold this self-same thing, 
 that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what 
 carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clear- 
 ing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, 
 what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, 
 what zeal, yea, what revenge." 2 Cor. 7:11. 
 
 Such is repentance. 
 
 5ut 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 
 
ON REPENTANCE. 87 
 
 repent, because you have never been the sub- 
 ject of overwhelming terror and excessive 
 grief. Persons in the first stages of religious 
 impressions, are very apt to be cast down and 
 discouraged because they do not feel those ago- 
 nizing and terrifying convictions that some of 
 whom they have heard or read have experi- 
 enced. 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 
 convictions were genuine. Now it is very prob- 
 able that youj 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 comforted and have hope, you think ; 
 yes, and thus, by looking to your own feelings 
 for comfort, make a Saviour of your experience 
 instead of Christ, as I fear many do. " Oh,'' 
 say some, or if they do not say it, they feel it, 
 "now I have had such deep convictions, and 
 
88 THE ANXIOUS INQlTlRER. 
 
 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 saye 
 you ; and to take comfort and hope from these 
 things, would be resting on a sandy foundation. 
 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? Is not 
 his invitation and promise enough? What can 
 your feelings add to this ? In some cases there 
 is pride at the bottom of this longing after 
 terror and ^distress: the person who covets it 
 wishes to be distinguished among Christians 
 for his deep experience and great attainments, 
 or he may wish to have something of his own 
 to dwell upon with pleasure, a something that 
 shall embolden him in his approach 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. 
 
ON REPENTANCE. 89 
 
 This anxiety may arise also from a partial 
 and incorrect view of the nature of real relig- 
 ion. True religion is not a matter of mere 
 feeling and strong emotion, but a matter of 
 judgment and conscience and practical princi- 
 ple. You must recollect that the minds of 
 men are variously constituted as regards sus- 
 ceptibility of emotion. Some persons are pos- 
 sessed of far livelier feelings than others, and 
 are far more easily moved ; we 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 a^ 
 to prefer them to all others, to labor for them, 
 to make sacrifices for their comfort, and really 
 to grieve when they are removed. Sis 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 
 passion be not so ardent. Passion depends on 
 constitutional temperament, but principle does 
 
90 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 not. Mere emotion, therefore, whether in relig- 
 ion or other matters, is not a test of the genu- 
 ineness of affection. Do not then, my reader, 
 be troubled on this matter; your religion is 
 not to be tried by the number of tears you shed, 
 or the degree of terror you feel, or the measure 
 of excitement to which you are wrought up; 
 there may be much of all this where there is 
 Qot true repentance, and there may be little of 
 it where there is. Are you clearly instructed 
 in the knowledge of God^s holy nature and 
 perfect law, so as distinctly to perceive and 
 really to feel and frankly to confess your num- 
 berless 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 your- 
 self ? Do you really mourn for your sins, al- 
 though 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 
 account 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 grow- 
 
ON REPENTAjTCE. 91 
 
 ing tenderness of conscience with respect to 
 sin ? Then you are a partaker of true repent- 
 ance, although you may not be the subject of 
 those violent emotions either of terror or of 
 grief, which some have experienced. 
 
 I do not for a moment mean to throw sus- 
 picion over the experience of those who have 
 been called to pass through a state of convic- 
 tion which, on account of its terrific alarms 
 and unutterable anguish, may be called the 
 valley of the shadow of death. By no means. 
 God has led some of his people not only hard 
 by the clouds and blackness and thunders and 
 earthquakes and trumpet 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 con- 
 clude that he has mistaken the road, because 
 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 to 
 either of them to some, as to others. 
 
92 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON FAITH. 
 
 Suppose a number of the subjects of a wise 
 and good king were, without auy just cause, to 
 rebel against him and take up arms to dethrone 
 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 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 re- 
 stored to their privileges as citizens ; but that 
 all found under arms, and who did not come 
 and cast themselves upon the mercy of their 
 sovereign, should be put to death. What, in 
 this case, is the state of mind and act required 
 in those who would be saved ? Faith. They 
 must believe 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 mon 
 
ON FAITH. 93 
 
 arch ; this is faith in him. What is their war- 
 rant or encouragement to go to him? His 
 proclamation of mercj, and that alone; and 
 not any convictions or desires of their own. 
 If any one of the rebels were desirous of return- 
 ing, he would not ^ay, " I am greatly encour- 
 aged and truly warranted to go, and expect 
 forgiveness because I am very anxious to be 
 forgiven," for his desire of pardon of itself is 
 no warrant to expect it; but he would say, 
 " My sovereign has bid me return, and prom- 
 ised me pardon: I have his word, and I can 
 trust him ; I will go, therefore, and confidently 
 expect mercy." He goes, and although he 
 knows that he has forfeited his life and de- 
 served death, and brought himself under con- 
 demnation, yet he is assured he shall be spared 
 because the king has promised it, and he trusts 
 in his veracity. This is faith. 
 
 Does his faith merit forgiveness? No, but 
 it insures it. • Can the man boast that his 
 works have saved him? No; he is saved by 
 grace, through faith. But suppose, when he 
 heard the proclamation of mercy, he was merely 
 convinced of his sin, and in some measure sorry 
 for it, and desired forgiveness, but did not go 
 
94 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 to his sovereign : suppose he were to say to 
 himself, '' I am afraid to go ; the prince is power- 
 ful, 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 unbelief. His want of 
 faith, not his rebellion, was the actual cause of 
 his death. His sin would have been pardoned 
 had he believed. His convictions, his sorrow, 
 his tears, his desire after pardon, could not 
 save him ; 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 
 rebels against God, they are guilty of innumer- 
 able sins. " 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 faith- 
 ful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
 
ON FAITH. 95 
 
 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- 
 ners." 1 Tim. 1 : 15. Thus runs the procla- 
 mation of mercy : " Repent of sin, believe in 
 Christ, expect salvation." Many do believe, 
 and are saved ; but others, and there are mul- 
 titudes, 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, indulg- 
 ing a confident hope of forgiveness ; they are 
 afraid to go, saying their sins are too great to 
 be forgiven, 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 attention from the Saviour, and 
 they sink into a state of carelessness, and grad 
 ually go back again to the world. 
 
 You are never safe, reader, till vou have 
 faith. Whatever may have been your tears, 
 your convictions, prayers, or exercises of mind, 
 you are under the sentence of the law and ox- 
 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 
 
96 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 floodmark of 
 divine vengeance 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." Rom. 5 : 1'. 
 Can we be saved unless we are the children of 
 God ? No. But " we are all the children of 
 God, by faith in Christ Jesus." Gal. 3 : 26. 
 Can we be saved without sanctification ? No, 
 Then." our hearts are purified by faith." When 
 the jailer at Philippi asked with fear and trem- 
 bling the question, "What shall I do to be 
 saved?" Paul replied, "Believe in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Acts 
 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 ; 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 . be- 
 
ON FAITH. 97 
 
 lieved on the name of the only begotten Son of 
 God. He that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
 lasting 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 believeth 
 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 impor- 
 tance, 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 all duties, will leave us short 
 of heaven at last. Fix it deeply in your mind, 
 therefore, that faith is the saving geace, or 
 in other words, it is that state of mind with 
 which salvation is connected; being brought 
 into this state, you would be saved 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 transcendently important state 
 of mind ; and I shall therefore set before you, 
 
 1. What you are to believe. Faith in gen- 
 
 Inqolrer. / 
 
98 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 eral means, a belief of whatever God has testi- 
 fied in his word ; but faith in Christ nleans, the 
 belief of what the Scripture saith of him, ol 
 his person, offices, and work. You are to be- 
 lieve that he is " the Son of God," " God manifest 
 in the flesh," God-man, Mediator ; for how can 
 a mere creature be your Saviour? In faith, 
 you commit your soul to the Lord Jesus. What 
 into the hands of a mere creature ? The divin 
 ity of Christ is thus not merely an article ol 
 faith, but enters also into the foundation of 
 hope. You are required to believe in the doc- 
 trine of atonement ; that Christ satisfied divine 
 justice for human guilt, having been made a 
 propitiation for our sins; and that now his 
 sacrifice and righteousness are the only ground 
 or foundation on which a sinner can be accept- 
 ed and acquitted before God. You are to be- 
 lieve that all, however previously guilty and 
 unworthy, are welcome to God for salvation, 
 without any exception or any difficulty what- 
 ever. 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 
 
ON TAITH. 99 
 
 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 con- 
 sider the scheme of redemption as for any body 
 or for every body besides yourself; but you 
 are to give the whole an individual bearing 
 upon yourself. You are to say, *' God is well 
 disposed towards me ; Christ is given for me, 
 died for me as well as for others ; I am invited ; 
 I shall be saved if I trust in Christ ; and I am 
 as welcome as any one to Christ." Faith is 
 not a belief in your own personal religion — 
 this is the assurance of hope — ^but it is a belief 
 that God loves sinners, and that Christ died 
 for sinners, and for you among the rest ; it is 
 not a belief that you are a real Christian, but 
 that Christ is willing to give you all the bless- 
 ings included in that term; it is the belief of 
 something out of yourself, but still of something 
 concerning yourself. The object of faith is the 
 work of Christ for you, not the work of the 
 Spirit in you. It is of great consequence that 
 you should attend to this, because many are 
 
100 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 whic4 
 you find in the gospel. 
 
 2. I will now show you how you are to be- 
 lieve. But is this necessary? There is no 
 mystery 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 sovereign, and to come and sue for 
 pardon; 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 hmjo he is to believe ? What in each of 
 these cases does faith mean ? 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 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, 
 
ON FAITH. 101 
 
 it is, if we may substitute another word as ex- 
 planatory 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, 
 "and am persuaded he is able to keep that 
 which I have committed to him.'' 2 Tim. 1 :12. 
 Believing, being persuaded, and the act of com- 
 mitting, are the same act ; 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 ; and really to expect sal- 
 vation because he has promised it. If there be 
 no expectation, there is no faith ; for faith in a 
 man's promise necessarily 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 prom- 
 ised 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 who really believed the promise that 
 such an act would be followed with healing, 
 went out and looked at the appointed mean3 of 
 
102 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 relief: their looking was their believing ; and 
 what did that look imply ? Expectation. They 
 who did not look, did not expect healing ; and 
 they who did look, expected relief. If there- 
 fore you are not brought to expect salvation, 
 you do not believe, for as soon as you really 
 believed you would indulge the expectation of 
 salvation. "Faith is the substance," or confi- 
 dent 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 ? Strange 
 question ! and yet one that it is necessary to 
 answer, because it is sometimes asked. Sup- 
 pose, if when you promised alms to a poor starv- 
 ing beggar, or forgiveness to a person that had 
 injured you, either of these persons were to ask, 
 '• When am I to believe your promise ?" would 
 you not feel some surprise at the question? 
 The very nature of the case suggests the pro- 
 priety and necessity of immediate faith. Your 
 veracity is as great at that moment as it ever 
 
ON FAITH. 103 
 
 will be, and therefore demands instant con- 
 fidence. Suppose the beggar were to say, "I 
 do not yet sufficiently feel my poverty to be- 
 lieve you now ; but when I am more pinched 
 with hunger, I will take you at your word and 
 come." Would not this be exceedingly pre- 
 posterous? 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 
 regard 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 inward 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 ne- 
 cessity of instantly believing. Are you now a 
 sinner ? 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 Saviour, able and willing to save 
 
104 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 you now ? You know he is. Will lie be more 
 able or willing to save you a month or a year 
 hence, than he is at this moment? Certainly 
 not. Does he say, " Come unto me, not now, 
 but at some future time ; believe me, but not 
 yet ; trust in me after a while V^ You know 
 he does not. Every invitation, every promise, 
 every encouragement, relates to the present 
 moment. The words of Scripture are, " 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 prevents, 
 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 ? 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 rec- 
 
ON FAITH. 105 
 
 onciled Father; on the contrary I am afraid 
 of him, and fear if I were to die I should not 
 meet him in peace." 
 
 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:*'' In whom, though now ye see him not, 
 yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable 
 and full 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, except it be a false peace, till 
 you believe in Christ: you are seeking it in 
 various ways, and occasionally 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 purpos- 
 ing 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 re- 
 ligion altogether, and turn back again to the 
 world ; for you seem to be as far from comfort 
 as ever. But stop and ask this question, "Am 
 
106 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER/ 
 
 I seeking peace in the right way? Have I 
 ever jet really, fully, and entirely believed in 
 Christ? Have I truly committed my soul to 
 him, and expected salvation according to his 
 promise ?" What is to give peace to a sinner 
 feeling the burden of guilt upon his conscience ? 
 What is to relieve his distress ? Nothing but 
 faith in Christ ; not the faith itself, but the ob- 
 ject 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 seeking peace in faith 
 itself, instead of seeking it by faith in Christ. 
 Faith is not our Saviour, 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 
 without 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 
 
ON FAITH. 107 
 
 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 faith, you would gain no peace ; the 
 want of confidence in the medicine would keep 
 you in deep solicitude. But suppose you were 
 to believe the statement of your medical friend, 
 and had full confidence in the remedy, what 
 then would be the eJGfect of the report ? You 
 would immediately rejoice ; 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, "Joy- 
 ful news; I am to be healed, and restored to 
 health." Now, what in this case relieves 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 
 
108 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 the assurance that you would be cured; tte 
 second is tlie 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 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 mes- 
 sage of the gospel, and says, "My blood cleans- 
 eth 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 ? Imme- 
 diately and fully to believe, and at once, as 
 the evidence and necessary fruit of his faith, 
 to rejoice. If he really does believe ; he will 
 rejoice ; and if he do not rejoice, it is because 
 he dojes not believe. He is not to wait till he 
 is saved, before he takes comfort; but he is to 
 take comfort in the first place, in believing 
 that there is a Saviour, and that he may be 
 saved. He is not to wait for his comfort till 
 he feels that he is justified, renewed, and sane- 
 
OK FAITH. 109 
 
 tilled ; for how can lie come to this state unless 
 he believes? His first comfort must be the 
 joy of faith, and this he must take to himself 
 at once ; the joy of experience comes afterwards. 
 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 pricked to the heart by Peter's sermon, 
 cried out in agony, " What shall we do V^ he 
 replied, " Repent, and be baptized every one of 
 you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remis- 
 sion of sin : then they that gladly received the 
 word were baptized." Acts 2 : 37-41. They 
 gladly received the word, that is, they believed 
 the promise, 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 rejoic- 
 ing is this, that in simplicity and godly sin- 
 cerity, not with fleshly 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 
 
110 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 the world, and you as a part of the world, as 
 to give his Son for your salvation; 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 Clirist. 
 
 It is also of importance that you should 
 clearly 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 torment- 
 ing fears in your mind — if you are still anx- 
 iously asking the question, " What shall I do 
 to be saved ?" If you are still afraid of God, 
 if you still are without 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 persons to say they be- 
 lieve, and yet have no comfort ; and then they 
 are asking, "Why am I not at peace?" Be- 
 cause you really do not believe in Christ ; yon 
 are deceiving yourself. It is faith, genuine 
 
ON FAITH. Ill 
 
 faith, you want ; you do not yet really trust in 
 Christ ; you do not yet truly believQ the glad 
 tidings of salvation ; for can any man believe 
 glad tidings concerning himself, and yet not 
 be made glad by them ? Believe then, believe 
 truly, believe now, and enter into peace. 
 
11^ THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MISTAKES INTO WHICH INQUIRERS ARE APT 
 TO FALL. 
 
 In an affair of siicli tremendous consequence 
 as the salvation of the soul, it is important that 
 every error of any moment into which inquir- 
 ers 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 -conse- 
 quences they draw after them. Oh how awful 
 is the idea of committing a fundamental error 
 in religious matters, and persevering in that 
 error till death; we shall then have eternity 
 to deplore it, but never a moment 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 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 113 
 
 nature, it may still be the source of mucli dis- 
 quietude. 
 
 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 instruc- 
 tion, 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 exciting 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 injudicious ministers, 
 who are too eager to swell the number of their 
 communicants, upon perceiving a little impres- 
 sion of mind and a little alteration of conduct 
 in young people, or in others, may express a 
 favorable opinion of their conversion, flatter 
 them into a belief that they are safe, engage 
 them too hastily to make a public profession 
 of religion, and receive the Lord^s supper, while 
 
114 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 eter- 
 nal 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 therefore 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 con- 
 verted. They may have many and deep im- 
 pressions, 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 filled with remorse? Was 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIREUS. 115 
 
 not Cain convinced of sin? 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 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 
 afterwards perpetrated in the fulness of hl^ 
 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 some- 
 times desire to be delivered from all sin; at 
 least, they may desire it in a certain way, be- 
 cause they think that it is necessary 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 
 received it ; and yet they had no root in them- 
 selves, and endured only for a. while. Matt. 
 13:20, 21. The Galatians had great blessed- 
 
116 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 ness 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 of their number, as Ba- 
 laam did, and yet not really belong to them. 
 Many take great pleasure in hearing sermons, 
 and going to prayer-meetings, and singing 
 hymns, and frequenting missionary and other 
 public meetings, who are not truly born of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 So also do many persons leave off sinful actions, 
 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 con- 
 verted. 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 — they have had dreams, im- 
 pressions, 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 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 117 
 
 as to their state. Millions who ha.ve 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 
 lamentations of souls that perished through the 
 power of a deceived heart. 
 
 Do, do examine yourself. Exercise godly 
 jealousy over your own state. Never forget 
 that nothing short of the new birth will save 
 you. ^'Except a man be born of water and of 
 the Spirit, 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 new.'' 
 2 Cor. 5 :17. The heart must be changed, en- 
 tirely changed. We must be renewed in the 
 spirit of our mind. There must be a super- 
 human, a divine, a total alteration of disposition. 
 Our views and tastes, our pains and pleasures, 
 hopes and fears, desires and pursuits, must be 
 changed. We must be brought to love God su- 
 premely for his holiness and justice, as well as 
 for his mercy and love in Christ — to delight in 
 him for his transcendent glory, as well as for 
 his rich grace ; we must have a perception of 
 
118 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 de- 
 light in the salvation of Christ, not only be- 
 cause 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 
 of true humility and universal love, and feel 
 ourselves brought to be of one mind with God 
 in willing and delighting in the happiness ot 
 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 hun- 
 gering and thirsting after holiness, as well as 
 a disposition to put away all sin, however gain- 
 ful or pleasant ; we must have a tender con- 
 science 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-denying 
 duty of mortification of sin, as well as engage 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUlliEES. 119 
 
 in the pleasing exercises of religion. This is 
 to be born again ; it is no mere transient im- 
 pression upon the imagination, but it is a per- 
 manent renewal of the disposition ; it is not an 
 occasional impulse, but an abiding character : 
 the subject of it may not be violently agitated, 
 but he is lastingly altered ; his passions may 
 not be powerfully moved, but his principles, 
 tastes, and pursuits are engaged on the side of 
 true holiness. He is now a spiritual man, 
 whereas he was a carnal one, and all things 
 are by him spiritually discerned. Nothing 
 short of this entire change of heart, this com 
 plete renovation, must satisfy you; for nothing 
 less than such a view of Christ in his glorious 
 mediatorial character, and such a dependence by 
 faith upon his blood and righteousness for sal- 
 vation, as changes the whole heart and temper 
 and conduct, and throws the world as it were 
 into the background, and makes glory here- 
 after, and holiness now, the supreme concern, 
 is religion. 
 
 2. Inquirers are often in error on the sub- 
 ject of their immediate obligation to believe, 
 and go to Christ; and are waitings as they, 
 say, for a day of power at the pool of ordinan- 
 
12a THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 ces,* Tliey are seeking and praying, but they 
 have no idea that it is their present duty, with- 
 out waiting another hour, to give themselves 
 to Christ. They are expecting some sensible 
 impression or impulse upon their mind to make 
 known to them when it is their duty to believe, 
 and also enable them to believe. They sup- 
 pose 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 Scrip- 
 ture to consider the pool of Bethesda as an 
 emblem of the healing of sinners by the work 
 of Christ, 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, 
 
 * There is in this chapter a repetition of some of the 
 ideas and even expressions contained in a former sec- 
 tion, but it is on a subject of so much importance that 
 I do not choose to suppress them. 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 12] 
 
 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 
 future time before they believe? Where is 
 it said, Believe, but not now; hope, but not 
 now ; wait for some power or impulse to en- 
 able you to believe ? On the contrary, is it 
 not said, "To-day if ye will hear his voice, 
 harden not your hearts: now is the accepted 
 time, now is the day of salvation?^' Is not 
 God willing to pardon you this moment ; Christ 
 willing to save you this moipent; the Spirit 
 waiting to renew and sanctify you this mo- 
 ment ? Are not all the promises true now, all 
 the blessings of salvation ready and waiting 
 for your acceptance now ? 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? Look steadily at this promise, 
 " Come unto me, all ye that labor, and I will 
 give you rest." Is that the language of Christ? 
 Yes. Is it true ? Yes. Does it say any thing 
 about waiting for impulse ? No. What then 
 
122 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 are you hesitating about? It is as true this 
 moment 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 influ- 
 ence of the Spirit to assist you to believe ; but 
 the Spirit is as ready to sanctify, as Christ is 
 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 innumer- 
 able actual sins, and deserving of hell? Is 
 this clear to your judgment, and really felt by 
 your conscience; then what are you waiting 
 for? 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 suppose 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 render you 
 more welcome to him, or be in any measure 
 
MISTAKES OF mQUIRERS. 123 
 
 your ground of hope? Are you not wishing 
 for deep conyictions, to take comfort in tliem 
 instead of Christ? Has Christ anywhere 
 said he will not receive you till your convic- 
 tions have attained to a certain depth ? The 
 question is, are you really convinced ? not how 
 deeply are you convinced. And then, as to 
 godly sorrow, this will be promoted by faith. 
 "They shall look on me whom they have 
 pierced, and mourn,'' says the Lord Jesus con- 
 cerning 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 crucified Redeemer by faith ; as 
 you hear God say, " I, even I, am he that blot- 
 teth out thy sins by the blood of my Son ; I 
 will forgive thee all, notwithstanding thy rebel- 
 lion and thy too great lukewarmness," your 
 soul will dissolve in ingenuous 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 
 arid sooner you trust in Christ, the more and 
 
124 THE ANXIOUS INQUIREIk.. 
 
 the sooner will you mourn for sin. Every 
 fresh view you take of his cross, trusting in 
 his mercy, will deepen your emotions 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 par- 
 don, will convey also a sense of the bitterness 
 of transgression. Wait no longer then; be- 
 lieve, believe now; commit your soul at once 
 to the Saviour, and rejoice in hope of sal- 
 vation. 
 
 Others are waiting for more holiness, for 
 soTne preparatory process^ before they rest upon 
 Christ for eternal life. A preparatory pro- 
 cess indeed there is, and must be carried 
 on in the heart, before the sinner will go to 
 Christ. But what is that process? Nothing 
 which is to prevent his soul for a moment, 
 when he is anxious about salvation, from de- 
 pending 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? 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 125 
 
 But what is meant by those who talk thus 
 is, that there must be a long course of convic- 
 tion, a production and growth of holy affec- 
 tions, a series of holy actions, an expansion 
 of religious knowledge ; and that then, and not 
 till then, sinners are encouraged to trust in 
 Christ and hope for salvation. Now it is very 
 true that every sinner, in coming to Christ by 
 faith, must be prepared and ready to give up 
 every sin ; he must be willing 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, imprison- 
 ment, and death ; he must consider himself as 
 " called unto holiness :" and what more in the 
 way of preparation for pardon does he need ? 
 Is not a man prepared to trust in Christ as 
 soon as he is convinced of his trangression ? 
 If a father promise pardon to an offending 
 child as soon as he confesses his fault, has that 
 child any need to say, ^' I will prepare myself 
 for pardon by a long course of future good 
 conduct ?'' 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 
 
126 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 months or years of good conduct had taken 
 place, it would have been only 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 concern of a sin- 
 ner should be to receive Christ as his right- 
 eousness by faith. It is ^ radical error to sup- 
 pose that sanctification goes before justification. 
 We must be justified, or we never can be sanc- 
 tified. Mark this well. I repeat it, that you 
 may notice and weigh its import : we must be 
 
 JUSTIFIED, OR WE CANNOT BE SANCTIFIED. We 
 
 are justified by faith, and without faith we 
 cannot please God; consequently, till we be- 
 lieve, we can perform 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 per- 
 haps this will be made still more plain by a 
 reference to examples. Take then the con- 
 versions, or at least some of them, recorded in 
 Scripture. 
 
 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 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 127 
 
 him of sin? He appears to have thought of 
 his sin, and repented for the first time, when 
 he was crucified ; and almost 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 immediately found rejoicing in the assur- 
 ance of pardon. Now what preparatory pro- 
 cess was carried on in their hearts, beyond 
 the work of the Spirit in convincing them of 
 sin? 
 
 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 consecrated apostle. What preparatory pro- 
 cess in the way of long cherished convictions, 
 or holy actions, was there in him ? 
 
 Consult the narrative of the Philippian jailer. 
 Acts 16 : 25-34. In the^ same night he was 
 convinced of sin; he believed in Christ; he 
 was filled with peace, and was baptized. When 
 
128 THE AKXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 in agony of soul he cried out, *' What shall I 
 do to be saved ?" his heaven-inspired teacher 
 replied, "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 prescribed duties, any train- 
 ing 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 necessary, in order that he should be- 
 lieve and be justified, but a real conviction of 
 sin. As soon as a man knows he is a lost sin- 
 ner, 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 fit 
 state to receive it; and moreover, he would 
 not be, and could not be, more fit by waiting 
 ten years in the most agonizing convictions, or 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 129 
 
 the most sacred performance of duty. The 
 sinner is condemned, and is any moment after 
 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 renuncia- 
 tion of all righteousness of our own in true re- 
 pentance for sin, is the very beginning of all 
 evangelical obedience which any one can ren- 
 der to God. We never can be holy till we be- 
 lieve in Christ ; and therefore all ideas of prep- 
 aration for coming to Christ by making our- 
 selves better are erroneous, arise from mistaken 
 views of the way of a sinner^s acceptance with 
 God, and are generally to be traced to a prin- 
 ciple of self-righteousness. This, perhaps, is 
 the case with many who will read these pages : 
 they want to be more prepared, either by con- 
 victions or by holiness, for coming to Christ ; 
 that is, they -^ant something of their own in 
 which to glory ; something to give them cour- 
 age and confidence in approaching the Saviour ; 
 something to render them less dependent on 
 free, sovereign grace; something to entitle 
 them, if not to salvation, at least to the right- 
 eousness of Christ as the meritorious cause of 
 
 Inquirer. , 9 
 
130 THE ANXIOUS INQUJUER. 
 
 it. Anxious inquirer, you know not the secret 
 workings of pride and self-righteousness in your 
 soul ; you are not yet acquainted with the de- 
 ceitfulness of the human heart ; you are ignor- 
 ant of the artifices of Satan, or you would de- 
 tect 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 glary of his cross, and a stum- 
 bling-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 remem- 
 ber that you are received, not as worthy, but 
 as unworthy; not as favorites, but as those 
 who have been enemies ; not as deserving life 
 by your convictions, but as sentenced to death 
 for your transgressions. "To him that work- 
 eth not, but believeth on Him that justifieth tho 
 ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." 
 Rom. 4:5. Mark that expression, there is a 
 vast comprehension of subject in it ; it is the 
 key to a correct knowledge of justification — 
 "believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly." 
 We are justified, so far as we are concerned, 
 
MISTAKES OF IN(iuItl^ 
 
 under the character of ''ungodly/' Tf^the^^ >' ' 
 we seek to make ourselves godly before we 
 come to Christ, and wish to come under that 
 character, we are shutting ourselves out from 
 the blessing of justification ; for this is grant- 
 ed only to them who consider themselves un* 
 godly. 
 
 3. Another mistake into which inquirers fall, 
 is to indulge a misplaced solicitude about the evi- 
 dences of personal religion. I know that the 
 sacred writers speak much and often on the 
 subject of evidences of personal religion. But 
 a person must have religion before he can pos- 
 sess the evidences 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 sal- 
 vation in themselves. Hence they are ever 
 microscopically analyzing all their feelings, 
 watching their motives, reviewing their con- 
 duct ; sometimes hoping when they see, or think 
 they see, a good mark; but more generally 
 desponding, as the result of seeing so much 
 that is positively wrong, or really defective in 
 
132 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 tte 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 when they do look into themselves, it 
 should be for conviction, and not for consola- 
 tion." Consider 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. "Look and live," was the man- 
 date 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 prog- 
 ress 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 re- 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 133 
 
 turning : if they looked off, they felt in danger 
 of relapse; and in this way they recovered. 
 Thus should it be with the sinner ; he should 
 look to Jesus : healing is there ; and is obtain- 
 ed, not by looking to see if it is come, or is 
 coming. 
 
 The more the mind is fixed on Christ, the 
 more clear its views are of his mediatorial 
 work; 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 
 consciousness of the soul that it does believe, 
 and the more abundant will be all the fruits 
 and evidences 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 be- 
 lieveth hath the witness in himself," not only 
 of the truth of Christianity, but of his own per- 
 sonal 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 
 
134 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 of faith. Faith is the main-spring and regu- 
 lator 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 strength- 
 ened merely by determining to be strong in 
 faith, but 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." Psa. 
 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 holi- 
 ness in a godly life, are evidences that faith is 
 genuine ; but there can be neither peace nor 
 holiness without faith. Many, I apprehend, 
 are greatly deceived in their supposed 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 
 leceived the righteousness of Christ, but evi- 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 135 
 
 dences out of which they make a righteous- 
 ness 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 themselves, they rejoice in it as 
 those that have found great spoil. 
 
 Doubting, dejected, and anxious sinner, thou 
 hast been reading, thinking, hearing, praying, 
 striving, examining, consulting books of evi- 
 dences and lists of marks of salvation, inquir- 
 ing of others how they feel and what they con- 
 clude to be evidence of a work of grace, and 
 yet thou art as far from any satisfactory con- 
 clusion as to thy state as ever ; like the beast 
 in the mire, all thy striving serves but to sink 
 thee deeper and deeper. Now then take an- 
 other 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 person, the suf- 
 ficiency of his atonement, the perfection of his 
 righteousness, the riches of his grace, the uni- 
 versality of his invitations. Look at the object 
 of faith, the grounds of faith, the warrant of 
 faith: the more thou doest this, the stronger 
 
136 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER, 
 
 thy faith will become; and the stronger thy 
 faith is, the greater thy peace will be. Instead 
 of laboring to love Christ, and becoming de- 
 jected 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 compre- 
 hend, with all saints, " 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 because he first loved 
 us. 1 John, 4:19. It is a great principle, which 
 I am anxious to impress upon you, that subjec- 
 tive 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 directly, or on their 
 own account, or as separate things, but as the 
 result of faith. Take this as an important 
 sentiment, that the subject of evidences belongs 
 more to the believer than to the inquirer — to 
 the Christian who professes to be already in 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 137 
 
 the way, and not to the anxious seeker after 
 the way. 
 
 4. But there is another mistake which in- 
 quirers are apt to make, which, though nearly 
 allied to what I have already stated, is suffi- 
 ciently distinct to justify a separate considera- 
 tion, 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 in religious discourse, means a per- 
 suasion that I do so believe and am in a state 
 of salvation : faith means a belief that Christ 
 is willing to receive me ; assurance means con- 
 viction that he has received me, that, in short, 
 I am a Christian. Now it is manifest that 
 these two are different from each other ; one of 
 them, that is, faith, signifying the performance 
 of au action or coming into a certain state ; and 
 the other the consciousness that I 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 be- 
 lieved. The first simple act of faith is a belief 
 that Christ died for all sinners, for the whole 
 
138 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 belieye, says the sinner 
 who is coining with confidence to Christ, that 
 " God so loved the world as to give his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting 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 peace in 
 believing, love to God, gratitude to Christ, 
 hatred of sin, subjugation of the world, fellow- 
 ship with the righteous ; now says the person, 
 " 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 sove- 
 reign. A ringleader of the revolt can scarcely 
 persuade himself that he can be included in 
 the act of amnesty ; he reads the proclamation 
 again, which runs thus : " The king, pitying his 
 deluded subjects, and filled with clemency, will 
 grant a gracious pardon to all, whosoever they 
 be, who will lay down their arms by such a 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 139 
 
 day.'^ Having examined the proofs of the au- 
 thenticity of the act, and being satisfied on that 
 point, he says, " It is really true, and I believe 
 that the king is willing to pardon all that sub- 
 mit ; and as he has made no exception against 
 any, but says, whosoever will lay down his arms 
 shall be forgiven, I believe that there is mercy 
 for me." Thus far faith goes ; and even be- 
 fore he reaches the scene of pardon, or takes 
 a step towards it, his mind is at rest ; the proc- 
 lamation itself, as soon as it is understood and 
 believed, gives him 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 re- 
 quired, and he feels he has what the monarch 
 promised. In his case, however, you perceive 
 that there would not be much solicitude about 
 assurance. Faith and compliance with the 
 monarch's demand would be all that he would 
 concern himself about. Assurance would fol- 
 low upon faith and action. So should it be 
 with anxious inquirers after salvation : their 
 business is to believe — what? that they are 
 Christians ? no ; for a belief that I am a 
 Christian, is not faith, but assurance — ^but to 
 
140 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 believe the gospel, whicli is God's proclama- 
 tion of mercy and pardon to his rebel subjects. 
 They are to feel persuaded that God has loved 
 them in common with other sinners, has in- 
 vited them, has promised to receive them ; and 
 availing themselves of this revelation of mercy, 
 to commit themselves and their eternal all to 
 Him. Then, from the peace-giving effect of this 
 upon their conscience, 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. 
 
 Now, inquirer, are you not aware you have 
 confounded these two ; and have been conse- 
 quently walking in great perplexity ? You are 
 dejected, and find no peace. Why ? " Oh," 
 you say, " my faith is so weak ; indeed I am 
 afraid I have no faith." Now, what do you 
 mean by having no faith ? "I am afraid I am 
 not a Christian. I fear I do not believe. I 
 am full of unbelief." 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 believer before you believe ; 
 
MISTAKES OF INQUIRERS. 141 
 
 you wish to be assured you are accepted of 
 Christ, in order that you may go to him for 
 acceptance. Faith is not believing 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 Christian, 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 con- 
 sideration. Your business at present is with 
 faith : you are to believe ; you are to commit 
 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 
 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 admit this delight- 
 ful persuasion, that Christ is mighty to save, 
 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 
 
142 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 ac 
 ceptance in him. 
 
PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 143 
 
 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, 
 
 I have nothing to do now with those care- 
 less or profane persons who make this awful 
 doctrine 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 effort 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 in- 
 
•144 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 quiry, no small degree of 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 doctrine of election, as 
 a rule of conduct. The sublime 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 boastiug ; to confirm 
 their faith in the accomplishment of the divine 
 promises; to promote their comfort; to incul- 
 cate the necessity of personal holiness ; and to 
 encourage Christians amidst the afflictions of 
 life. Rom. ch. 8, 9 ; Eph. 1 : 4, 5, 9, 11 ; 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 ; the power of 
 
PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 145 
 
 the Spirit is infinite ; and the invitations of the 
 gospel are universal. " Come unto me, all ye 
 that labor and are heavy laden/' And thus 
 saith the Lord, "I have no pleasure in the death 
 of the wicked." " The Lord is long-suffering 
 to us-ward ; not willing that any should per- 
 ish, but that all should come to repentance. '^ 
 *' Him that cometh I will in no wise cast out." 
 " Whosoever will, let him take of the water of 
 life freely." Now these are the words of Scrip- 
 ture, and must therefore be true ; and here is 
 the rule of your conduct. You can understand 
 this, but you know little of the secret purposes 
 of God. Besides, if you knew you were elected, 
 you would not be received and saved because of 
 this knowledge, but by believing in Christ, who 
 invites men not as elected to life, but as lost 
 sinners condemned 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 invitation which you do know, 
 because of a decree which you do not know, the 
 blame of perishing will lie at your own door ; 
 
 luquirer. 3 
 
146 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 and you will find at last that yon are lost, not 
 in consequence of any purpose of God determin- 
 ing 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 you? Do you not be- 
 lieve there is also a purpose which refers to the 
 events of your natural life and death ? But do 
 you on this account hesitate in sickness to take 
 the medicine prescribed for you by a skilful 
 physician, lest you should not be ordained to 
 life ? No. You say, and with reason, " I know 
 not the divine purpose ; my business is with 
 plain rules of duty, and instituted means ; for 
 if I am to live, I can expect recovery only by 
 those means." Act thus in reference to your 
 soul. You are invited to use the means of 
 life ; if you are to be saved, you must be saved 
 in the use, not in 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 
 
PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 147 
 
 you are^ since that solicitude is usually em- 
 ployed 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 invi- 
 tation, and instead of making that the rule of 
 your conduct, trouble your head with other 
 views and subjects, you will find as much per- 
 plexity 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 saved, I am greatly discouraged." Aban- 
 don at once therefore all solicitude about the 
 unrevealed purposes of God, and fix your atten- 
 tion on the invitation. Christ bids you come 
 to him for salvation ; and every bar and obsta- 
 cle 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 
 
148 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER/ 
 
 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 unpardon- 
 able blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, 
 
 This is by no means an uncommon ground of 
 painful solicitude ; 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 ter- 
 rific obscurity this subject is enveloped, no one 
 that is really anxious about his salvation need 
 fear that he has passed the line of hope and en- 
 tered 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 salvation, is a proof that it has not 
 been committed. It may be taken for granted 
 that in every case where this mysterious crime 
 has been committed, the transgressor is given 
 
PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 149 
 
 up either to a deadly stupor, or a raging frenzy 
 of the conscience. 
 
 But perhaps the best way of removing the 
 apprehension, is to explain the subject which 
 occasions it. What is the nature of this sin ? 
 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 who- 
 soever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall 
 not be forgiven him, neither in this world, 
 neither in the world to come.^' Matt. 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 or doubt, to the power of the 
 devil. It is probable, however, that the words 
 had a special reference to the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit, which was to follow our Lord's crucifix- 
 ion. The day of Pentecost, properly speaking, 
 commenced the dispensation of the Spirit — • 
 wlien his divine gifts conferred upon the apos- 
 tles, completed the eviderxe of the Christian 
 economy ; and the language of Christ seemed 
 
160 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 to direct the Pharisees forward, in the way of 
 impressive warning, to that event, and remind 
 them, though they understood him not, that the 
 malicious contempt cast upon his 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 be- 
 yond the reach of mercy. There would remain 
 no further 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 blas- 
 phemy, which signifies to speak reproachfully, 
 opprobriously, or impiously, you will then have 
 the nature of this crime before you. It is 
 knowledge in the mind that miracles were 
 wrought ; malice ii; the heart against Christ, 
 in attestation of whom they were given ; con- 
 tempt 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 unbelief 
 under the dispensation of the Spirit ; it is not 
 mere infidelity, even under very aggravated cir- 
 cumstances ; but it is the union of conviction, 
 
PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 151 
 
 malice, and impiety. It is therefore evident, 
 that if this sin is now ever committed, no serious 
 inquirer after salvation need entertain the ap- 
 prehension 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, how- 
 ever enormous in magnitude, or however pain- 
 ful 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 greats too numerous^ or too pe- 
 culiar to he forgiven. 
 
 Sometimes convinced sinners are enabled by 
 divine grace to indulge the hope of pardon 
 almost as soon as they feel the conviction of 
 sin. Yea, some are led to see the evil of sin 
 at first, more by the mercy of the gospel than 
 the stern justice which appears in the law ; but 
 others are long and sorely harassed by fears 
 of rejection, before they are brought to a com- 
 fortable expectation of forgiveness. This is 
 more commonly the case with those who have 
 gone to great lengths in sin, and have resisted 
 
152 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 de- 
 sponding frame of mind is really cherished, as 
 'if it were an evidence of sincere 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 
 promoted by faith and hope. Despair tends 
 to harden the heart, and to freeze up the feel- 
 ings of penitence. God cannot be glorified, 
 nor Christ honored, by doubting of his ability 
 or willingness to save. I am persuaded that 
 many persons say more about theit sins being 
 too great to be pardoned, than they either be- 
 lieve or feel, from a supposition that it is a 
 token of humility to talk thus. Watch against 
 this, for it is an act of guilty insincerity ; 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 
 
PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 153 
 
 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 sanctification as well as justifi- 
 cation, and in all probability 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 you not believe that God 
 must be infinitely willing to do this ? 
 
 After all, however, there are some who, even 
 wi.th this view of the design of Christ's death, 
 still cherish the idea that their sins cannot be 
 
154 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 forgiven: none have sinned, tliey 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. Read atten- 
 tively such declarations as are found in the 
 following passages : Isa. 44:22; 55:6, 7; Mi- 
 cah 7 : 18, 19 ; Matt. 12 : 31, 32. Dwell espe- 
 cially upon this last passage, because it most 
 explicitly declares that the blasphemy against 
 the Holy Ghost is the only sin excepted from 
 forgiveness. 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's 
 work in making atonement for sin. The apos- 
 tle 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 written on purpose to meet such cases as 
 yours. This scripture says positively, the 
 blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. " No," 
 you say, in flat and perverse contradiction, " it 
 
PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 155 
 
 cannot cleanse iro'm mine/' Did Christ die to 
 save sinners, and yet are there some sinners to 
 be found, according to your view, whom he 
 cannot save? Then his work of salvation is 
 unfinished, and his character as a Saviour is 
 incomplete. Has he not saved millions already 
 by the merit of his death ? Well, suppose all 
 the sins of those millions had been in you 
 alone, could he not as easily have saved you in 
 that case, as he has saved them? 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 sin- 
 ner 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 sinners, 
 still Christ can save you ; so at least the apos- 
 tle thought when he said, " This is a faithful 
 saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
 
156 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 Christ Jesus came into tiie world to save sin- 
 ners, of whom I am chief.'' And now read 
 what follows : " Howbeit, for this cause I ob- 
 tained mercy ; that in me first," or as it signi- 
 fies, in me the chief sinner, "Jesus Christ 
 might show forth all long-sufi'ering, for a pat- 
 tern to them which should hereafter believe 
 on him to life everlasting." 1 Tim. 1 : 15, 16. 
 Think what Saul of Tarsus was, a bloody per- 
 secutor, 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? To be a pat- 
 tern of God's mercy to the end of time. Yes, 
 there he stands upon the pedestal of his own 
 immortal writings, a monument of the riches, 
 power, and sovereignty of divine grace, bear- 
 ing this inscription : I, who was a blasphemer, 
 a persecutor and injurious, obtained 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 wick- 
 edest of men to repent, to believe in Jesus, and 
 expect salvation. 
 
 Consider well the other instances recorded 
 
PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 157 
 
 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 hav- 
 ing 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 malefactor who was saved upon 
 his cross ; of the Jews who were converted on 
 the day of Pentecost, and who, though they 
 had been the murderers of Christ, were for- 
 given; of the once polluted 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 little- 
 ness, few and many, have nothing to do with 
 this matter, in the way of making it more diffi- 
 cult, 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 ; for as the 
 skill of the physician is the more displayed in 
 dangerous and difficult cases than in slight ones, 
 BO is the grace of Christ the more illustriously 
 
158 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 manifested in the pardon and sanctification of 
 notorious 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 sin- 
 ner, 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 tremble at this? Is 
 there not abominable pride in unbelief? Who 
 and what are you, that you should suppose God 
 has any object or interest in deceiving you by 
 a false promise ? Are you so considerable a 
 person, that he should falsify his word in order 
 to draw you into false confidence? 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 oi 
 them. 
 
 4. Some are perplexed with the notion, that 
 as " the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomina- 
 tion to God," and as none of the works of un- 
 
PEEPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 159 
 
 regenerate persons are acceptable to God, if is 
 not right for 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 hypo- 
 critical religious services of men who are still 
 living in the commission of known sin, and im- 
 piously designing to make some atonement for 
 their iniquities by their sacrifices. This is 
 evident from the passage 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 bless- 
 ing which you are anxious to obtain, however 
 frequently or fervently they may be presented. 
 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 further, and remind you that unless 
 you pray in faith, your prayers are not such as 
 God has engaged to answer. You should be- 
 
160 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 lieve that God is willing and waiting to bestovr 
 all spiritual blessings, for lie lias promised to 
 do so. 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? ** Repent, therefore," said he, "of this 
 thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the 
 thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee; 
 for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bit- 
 terness and bond of iniquity." Acts 8 : 22, 23. 
 Still, I would remind you, that as long as you 
 pray in an unconverted state, your prayers 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 cry- 
 ing to God for help — but in not believing. 
 Instead therefore of leaving off prayer, or har- 
 assing your mind with doubts concerning it, 
 
PERPLEXITIES OF INQUIRERS. 161 
 
 continue instant in prayer, mourning for your 
 sins, and believing at the same time the prom- 
 ise of mercy in Christ Jesus. You are to add 
 to your prayer faith, 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 privilege ; and let no 
 speculative difficulties have a moment's influ- 
 ence to induce you to suspend it. Cry for 
 mercy as a sinner ; but do not remain in unbe- 
 lief, supposing that prayer can be a substitute 
 for faith ; for as 1 said before, so I repeat, God 
 does not bind himself to answer any prayers 
 but those of faith. 
 
 la^iUiMr .1* 
 
162 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DISCOURAaEMENTS WHICH PRESENT THEl^" 
 SELVES AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF A RE- 
 LiaiOUS COURSE. 
 
 The word of God teaches us to expect these. 
 What means the strait gate, but an entrance 
 attended with difficulty? "What means count- 
 ing the cost, but contemplating obstacles and 
 preparing to meet them? Bunyan knew the 
 course to heaven when he placed the slough of 
 despond in the first stage of the journey. You 
 are mistaken if you expect, by one easy stride, 
 to reach the firm and solid ground beyond the 
 dismal swamp.^ Sincerity will diminish diffi- 
 culties, and finally overcome them, but it will 
 not prevent them. Prepare then for discour- 
 agement, 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 ob- 
 serve, no part of this discouragement comes 
 from God. He interposes no obstacle, raises 
 
JDISCOURAaEMENTS. 16S 
 
 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 ; 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 dis- 
 couragement ? tiaiidO lo iooi^a oM U ban 
 1. The cold indifferericejih&TepnlsiYe shyness 
 of some professing Christians. You thought 
 that the very look of anxiety, the very counte- 
 nance that seemed to say to their eyes, if not to 
 their ears, "What shall I do to be saved?" 
 would draw the sympathies of many upon you ; 
 instead of which, you perhaps feel that you are 
 left without a friend to commiserate or guide 
 you, and are compelled in the agony of youi* 
 soul to say, even to the multitij.de 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. 
 
164 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 discourage you? What, when all 
 heaven is interested on your behalf; when 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are concerned for 
 you ; 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 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 
 low state of religion among professors. They 
 see no counterpart to their anxiety in some who 
 have long borne the Christian name. While 
 they themselves are crying, *'What shall I do 
 to be saved ?" they hear little from the lips of 
 many Christian professors, but, What shall we 
 
DISCOURAaEMENTS. 165 
 
 eat or drink ; wherewithal 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 imperfection of temper, so 
 many things unworthy of the Christian charac- 
 ter, that they can scarcely believe there is a 
 reality in religion, and are sometimes 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 ear- 
 nest and urgent. ye wicked professors, ye 
 child-murderers — for by what softer name can 
 I call you, in thus attempting to strangle the 
 children of God in the birth ? — I beseech you to 
 consider the mischief you are doing, and aban- 
 don this effort to extinguish the solicitude of 
 souls who may be beginning to feel the ener- 
 gies 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 necessary 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 
 
166 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 would be no excuse for your neglecting to be- 
 come 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 tlie 
 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 discoui'aged by the pros- 
 ped 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. 10 : 34-38. "0," say you, "how fearful 
 is the prospect before me ! my profession of re- 
 ligion 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 relig- 
 ion, 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 
 
DISCOURAaEMENTS. ^ 167 
 
 my spirit has hitherto reposed with such de- 
 light.'^ 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. 0, 
 can I do it ? Is there no other way to heaven ? 
 Are there no milder terms of submission to the 
 authority of Christ ?" 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 with- 
 draw the cross. My soul would perish with 
 yours, if I successfully attempted to persuade 
 you that, in your circumstances, repentance, 
 faith, the love of God, and all the other graces 
 and virtues included in decided spiritual relig- 
 ion, could be dispensed with. God will not, 
 cannot relax his demands, and I dare not. Hus- 
 band and wife, parent and child, houses and 
 lands, worldly reputation, and the applause of 
 men, must all give place to Him. He demands 
 the heart, and he has infinitely gracious re- 
 wards to bestow for all your sacrifices for him. 
 He will make the crown infinitely more valua- 
 ble than the cross is terrible. You may be, 
 you ought to be, discreet in your profession ; . 
 you must avoid all unnecessary opposition to 
 
168 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER 
 
 the wishes of unconverted relatives ; you should, 
 if possible, be ten times more obliging, more 
 devoted, more sweetly kind in all other mat- 
 ters; you should return good for evil; you 
 should exhibit the most undisturbed meekness ; 
 you should try to conquer 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 pui'suit of salvation. 
 Trust in God, He will support 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 impressive 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 impressions which accompanied her 
 discovery of guilt and depravity awakened all 
 the jealousies of the father. He dreaded the 
 loss of that sprightliness and vivacity which 
 constituted the life of his domestic circle. He 
 was startled by the answers which his questions 
 elicited ; while he foresaw, or thought he fore- 
 
DISCOURAaEMENTS. 169 
 
 saw, an encroachnieiit 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 wis- 
 dom 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 relig- 
 ion were removed from her possession, and 
 their place was supplied by works of fiction. 
 An excursion of pleasure was proposed and de- 
 clined ; an offer of gayer amusement shared the 
 same fate ; promises, remonstrances, and threat- 
 enings followed. 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 sacrifice like a follower of 
 Moloch. The end was accomplished ; thoughts 
 of piety and concern for the immortal future 
 vanished together. But 0, 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 unequivocal, and the 
 countenance of every attendant fell, as if they 
 
i70 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 some- 
 thing in its expiring rays that told of 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. Fa — ther — your child 
 
 is^ . Eternity heard the remainder of the 
 
 sentence, for it was not uttered in time."* In 
 connection with this striking fact, read the fol- 
 lowing portions of Scripture. Matt. 5 : 10-12 
 10 : 21-39 ; 1 Cor. 4 : 9-13 ; 2 Tim. 2 : 10-13 
 Heb. 10 : 23-39 ; ch. 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 still, they find them all in tlieir own hearts. 
 The feeling with many is, that they make no 
 progress; their views gain nothing in clear- 
 ness, their convictions in depth, nor their heart 
 in peace. They are neither more spiritual nor 
 more decided than they were ; and they some- 
 times, in almost hopeless despondency, are 
 ready to give up the whole matter. Such a 
 * Letters to a Friend. 
 
DISCOURAaEMENTS. 171 
 
 state of mind is a very common and a very 
 perilous one, and affords ground for real alarm. 
 Your duty and safety lie in considering that 
 the fault is in yourself, and not in God ; you, 
 you are to blame : you are perhaps halting be- 
 tween two opinions ; you are still probably en- 
 deavoring to compromise between religion and 
 the world ; you are not giving that fixed, de- 
 voted attention to the object 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 neces- 
 sary 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 carrying on these heartless 
 efforts, you may die ; and in what a state I 
 
 But perhaps your complaints are the result 
 of deep anxiety, from the consideration that 
 there is no advance till you are really estab- 
 lished in the full knowledge of faith and hope 
 of the gospel. To this established state you 
 ought to come, and to come without delay; 
 and nothing hinders you from coming to it but 
 
172 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 an evil heart of unbelief, and to this point I 
 press you to come. But should your know- 
 ledge not grow as rapidly, nor your peace in- 
 crease 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 despair- 
 ing frame, a kind of desponding pursuit of 
 salvation, as of an object you are never to ob- 
 tain. What you should do is immediately to 
 repent, and believe 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 
 are journeying, and may be viewed any moment 
 by him who will look that way. It is the sight 
 
BISCOUHAaEMENTS. 173 
 
 of that dear object tliat 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? Is not some sin indulged, some cor- 
 ruption cherished ? Is there not some sacrifice 
 which you are unwilling to make, something 
 which you are unwilling to surrender, although 
 your judgment tells you the surrender ought 
 to be made, and your conscience demands it ? 
 You must give up the forbidden thing, or your 
 salvation is impossible : 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 unwilling to separate, but 
 whose society is hindering your progress? 
 And will you sacrifice your souFs 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 gratification. Im- 
 mortal man, pause and ponder : canst thou hesi- 
 tate ? There is both awful guilt and imminent 
 
174 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 peril in every moment^s delay. What if God 
 should, as he justly may, send forth the com- 
 mand, " He is joined to idols ; let him alone.^^ 
 Decide then, decide at once. The moment in 
 which thou readest this page may decide it ; foi 
 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 
 neglect of the promised influence and help ol 
 the Holy Spirit. You have been too self-confi- 
 dent, 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 suffered yourself to be seduced by 
 Satan, who took advantage of these things, 
 into a spirit of self-confidence and self-depend- 
 ence. You have forgotten that in you there 
 is no good thing, and have forsaken the Foun- 
 tain 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. You have striven, 
 
DISCOURAaEMENTS. 175 
 
 but it lias 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 ; strive in the Spirit. Open 
 your heart to his gracious influence; and let 
 it be a feeling, as well as a conviction, that 
 your spiritual life has no existence separate 
 from his indwelling and inworking in you. 
 
 It may be, however, that this discourage- 
 ment and complaint of a slow growth in relig- 
 ion are founded in error, and the result of dis- 
 appointment 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 establishment in faith, 
 hope, and love. You expected, perhaps, by 
 one stride, or rather bound, to reach the posi- 
 tion of experienced Christians. But remem- 
 ber, that both in nature and in grace, the 
 works of God come gradually to maturity. 
 
176 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 There is first the babe, then the young man, 
 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 neces- 
 sary to preserve the spark from being extin- 
 guished. Such has been the unpromising con- 
 dition in which many a strong and long-lived 
 man has commenced his existence. How anal- 
 ogous 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 divine Redeemer, " He shall 
 feed his flock like a shepherd;" 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 car- 
 ry them in his bosom" — not on his shoulder, 
 the emblem of strength, but in his bosom, the 
 image of tender love — "and shall gently lead 
 those that are with young" — ^burdened with 
 
DISCOUHAGEMENTS. 177 
 
 many fears and painful apprehensions. How 
 kindly did he bear with the dulness and in- 
 firmities and mistakes of his disciples ; how 
 gently did he correct the errors and sustain 
 the minds of the two friends on their sad and 
 gloomy walk to Emmaue, and keep alive the 
 last glimmering spark of hope just when it was 
 ready to expire in their bosom. How gra- 
 ciously, in his addresses to the seven churches 
 in Asia, did he mention all the good he could 
 find among them, not overlooking even the 
 " little strength" that was left in that of Phil- 
 adelphia. 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 Sav- 
 iour who "will not break the bruised reed, nor 
 quench the smoking flax." Weak grace is real 
 grace, and is in connection 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 
 
 Inquirer. 1 2 
 
178 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 because they are not laden at once with fruit 
 I saj not these things to paralyze your exer 
 tions after high attainments — for he who ic 
 satisfied with the grace he has, has in reality 
 none — ^but to check despondency, and prevent 
 that disheartening sense of deficiency which 
 benumbs exertion by extinguishing hope. 
 
 5. Great discouragement has been experi- 
 enced 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 watchfulness, 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 ex- 
 posed from the peculiarity of our constitution, 
 situation, or any other circumstances. Yet 
 sometimes even they who have sincerely and 
 earnestly engaged in the pursuit of salvation, 
 have been, through a want of watchfulness, 
 betrayed again into those sins from which they 
 
DISCOURAGE ME NTS. ]79 
 
 had been delivered. In such cases the back- 
 slider, 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 can- 
 not be too deeply humbled for such relapses, 
 you ought not to think that your case is despe- 
 rate. If such sins could not be pardoned, and 
 such sinners could not be restored, who then 
 could be saved ? " But it is not so much a 
 doubt of pardon for the past," you say, '' that 
 discourages me, as a fear of falling into sin in 
 future." You find your heart so treacherous, 
 your purposes so frail, your corruptions so 
 strong, and your temptations so great — ^you 
 have been so often victorious, and then again 
 have been so often conquered, that you quite 
 despair of success. What mean these despond- 
 ing expressions? 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. Courage, trembling sinner, God is 
 almighty. Humble yourself under his mighty 
 
180 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 hand for the past, and then rise Tjp 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, strength- 
 ened, confirmed, and made more than conqueror, 
 as thousands already have been. 
 
CAUTIONS. 181 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CAUTIONS. 
 
 1. Do not seek to relieve your solicitude, or 
 settle your religious peace, by making a pro- 
 fession 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 dependence upon duties? In what 
 way can the Lord's supper give relief to a bur- 
 dened conscience? Is there any thing more 
 meritorious in that ordinance than in any 
 other ? Perhaps you gay that the emblems of 
 the body and blood of our Lord will more deep- 
 ly and powerfully impress the mind through 
 the medium of the senses. So they will; but 
 then the mind must be in a state of knowledge 
 
182 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 and faith to receive the impression : 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? Is any thing necessary to be added to 
 the righteousness of the Saviour for your justi- 
 fication ? What can ordinances do for you, if 
 this be insuJEcient to save you? 
 
 The sinner that seeks to lose his burden of 
 guilt anywhere, whether it be at 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 sup- 
 per you may feel for the time an abatement of 
 yoiu' solicitude ; your imagination may be ex- 
 cited, your feelings moved ; and mistaking this 
 for faith, you may have peace ; but it will be a 
 false or a transient one. Either you will fall 
 asleep in self-deception, or your anxiety will 
 soon return, increased by an apprehension that 
 you have added sin to sin by receiving the 
 
CAUTIONS. 183 
 
 Lord's supper in an unprepared state of mind. 
 This institution is intended, not to give peace 
 to sinners, but consolation 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 break- 
 ing of bread ; but the question is, not what ho 
 may do, but what he may be expected to do ; 
 and even in this case, what is it that relieves the 
 conscience of its burden and gives peace to the 
 mind? Surely not the ordinance itself, but the 
 great truth of Christ's sacrifice 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 a right 
 reception of the Lord's supper ; but certainly 
 there ought to be real, even if it be but weak 
 faith ; for how else can we " discern the Lord's 
 body?" 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, 
 
184 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER, 
 
 is unquestionably to depend for acceptance 
 with God upon our own religious duties, instead 
 of the work of the Saviour. The frame of 
 mind in which we should receive the memo- 
 rials of redeeming love, is that of an humble, 
 thankful, and peaceful reliance upon the medi- 
 ation of our divine Lord for pardon and eter- 
 nal 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. Salva- 
 tion is your great object, or rather, the way of 
 obtaining it. Your cry is, " Life, eternal life f 
 and your course should be direct to the cross 
 of the Redeemer. 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 justifi- 
 cation of your soul before God, to the thorny 
 controversies which often unhappily exist ever, 
 in the church of God. Take up nothing con- 
 troversially. The subjects of disputation are 
 strong meat for adults, which will choke and 
 
CAUTIONS 185 
 
 destroy the babe in Christ; and even the 
 former cannot feed much upon them without 
 having their spiritual health impaired, and 
 their soul filled with rank and unhealthy hu- 
 mors. Or, to change the metaphor, the man 
 locked up in the condemned cell, under sen- 
 tence 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 dis- 
 cussed by the citizen and the patriot. If any 
 one were to carry him a newspaper, and en- 
 deavor to engage him as a partisan in some 
 political strife, he would reply, with a look of 
 astonishment that such topics should be ob- 
 truded on his notice, " What are these matters 
 to a man condemned to die? Assist me in 
 gaining 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 
 Bolicitude which is seeking the way of salva- 
 
186 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 tion. 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 contro- 
 versial ones; be much in prayer and silent 
 meditation ; preserve a tranquil and unruffled 
 mind, for it is in the stillness of devotional 
 feeling, 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 professed pursuit after truth ; 
 and instead of becoming 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 sanc- 
 tified affections ; and finished their course, it 
 may be feared, not amidst the light and love 
 of heaven, but in that world of unsanctified 
 
CAUTIONS. 187 
 
 knowledge where " the devils believe and trem- 
 ble." 
 
 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 admonitions on this head, and in reproofs to 
 those who repose in indolence upon the lap of 
 ignorance. 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 unhallowed curiosity. 
 The temper which I am anxious to guard you 
 against, shows itself in various ways; some- 
 times 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 preach- 
 
188 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 er, 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 an- 
 other, 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, 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 doc- 
 trine of a free, full, and present salvation in 
 Christ, that must be the pillow of your poor 
 aching and restless head, and not any partic- 
 ular manner or method of representing 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; 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 varie- 
 
Cr THE ^ 
 
 CAUTI0NSj^J^JTT"||t6|IT 
 
 ties whicli 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 institutions are not 
 always the best atmosphere for the anxious 
 inquirer to breathe. There is a tenderness, a 
 delicacy, and a pensiveness in the feelings 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 frequently employed on such occasions, 
 have but little that is calculated to deepen con- 
 viction or relieve anxiety, but often much to- 
 diminish the one and divert the other. If, in- 
 deed, our anniversaries were always conducted 
 Avith that solemnity and seriousness which thetr 
 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 surrender one's self to the 
 dominion of conscience, and the teaching of 
 God the Holy Spirit. 
 But curiosity may be indulged another way : 
 
190 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 I mean a disposition to pry into the deep mys- 
 teries, the hidden things, the unrevealed secrets 
 of God. Even the most established Christians, 
 yea, the profoundest and most philosophic di- 
 vines may and do sometimes push their inqui- 
 ries too far, and presumptuously put forth their 
 hand to draw aside the veil of the holy of 
 holies. But you especially should abstain from 
 this: such questions as the origin of moral 
 evil, the reconcilableness of God's foreknow- 
 ledge with the freedom of man, the divine pur- 
 poses, the symbolical and unfulfilled prophecies, 
 with other subjects of equal difficulty, are most 
 unsuitable for you in your present state of 
 mind. What you have to do with is the sim- 
 plest 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 ^hich an elephant may swim, and 
 shallows which a lamb may ford ; your business 
 is at present with the shallows, and to venture 
 
CAUTIONS. 191 
 
 into the depths is a perilous attempt, which I 
 would not advise you to make. 
 
 4. You should beware of setting up other 
 standards of personal religion than the word of 
 God, and making the religious experience of 
 other Christians a test of the truth and reality 
 of your own. 
 
 The Bible, and the Bible alone, is the true 
 standard of godliness ; 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 substan 
 tial agreement there may be circumstantial 
 differences; there may be unity of genus, yet 
 variety of species. All true Christians love 
 God, hate sin, feel Christ to be precious, addict 
 themselves to prayer, live holily ; but they may 
 not have been brought to this state by the same 
 methods, nor carry it forward to the same de- 
 gree of perfection. In reading religious biog- 
 raphy, you will see great dissimilarity in the 
 experience of God's people, and will be some- 
 times in danger of sinking into great distress, 
 because you do not feel in all points as the 
 
I9t THE ANXIOUS INQUIREK.. 
 
 saints did whose lives are before you. When 
 you meet with instances of more than usual 
 elevation of personal religion, of nearer ap- 
 proaches 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 not like them, 
 and let their example stimulate your energies, 
 but not extinguish your hopes, nor paralyze 
 your efforts. 
 
 5. I caution you not to allow your convictions 
 to be shaken, nor your mind to be staggered by 
 those instances of backsliding or apostasy which 
 sometimes occur among professors of religion, 
 and even such as were once accounted eminent 
 professors. 
 
 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 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, " Woe to the world because of offences : 
 
CAUTIONS. 193 
 
 it must needs be that offences come, but woe 
 to that man by whom the offence cometh/^ 
 Matt. 18 : 7. Such cases, therefore, are but 
 the accomplishment of a prophecy, and prove, 
 like other fulfilled predictions, the inspiration 
 of Him by whom they were delivered. 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 destroyed 
 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 
 enemies. Counterfeits are a presumptive proof 
 of the excellence of that which they profess to 
 imitate, for who is at the trouble of imitating 
 what is worthless? Do not, then, permit your 
 mind to be affected by the conduct of false 
 professors, 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 
 Bupplication : 
 
 '* Lord, let not all my hopes be vain, t 
 
 Create my heart entirely new — 
 Which hypocrites could ne'er attain, 
 Which false apostates never knew.'' 
 
 Inquirer. l O 
 
194 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ENCOURAaEMENTS. 
 
 Among all the objects of human desire and 
 pursuit, there is not one which we have so 
 much encouragement to seek, or to hope for — 
 there is not one, in reference to which despon- 
 dency is so much out of place — there is not one 
 to which indubitable certainty so surely be- 
 longs, as the salvation of the soul, if it be sin- 
 cerely 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 history 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 despond of gaining 
 salvation. It is nea: er 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 
 
ENCOUHAaEMENTS. 195 
 
 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 can- 
 not 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 at- 
 tainment of which there existed no difficulty 
 out of himself, he would feel greatly encour- 
 aged, and be ready to congratulate himself as 
 tolerably certain of success. Reader, the only 
 difficulty in the way of thy salvation is in thy- 
 self. 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, if thou art willing to be helped; 
 and therefore, in this view of the case, even 
 thine own weakness is no insurmountable ob- 
 stacle. The only question is, "Art thou sin- 
 cerely willing and anxious to be saved ?" 
 Once made truly willing, what is to hinder thy 
 salvation? Dwell again and aeain on this 
 
196 THE ANXIOUS INQUIREH. 
 
 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 remove 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 
 reluctant 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 sal- 
 vation unwillingly and grudgingly, this would 
 indeed be discouraging, and might induce a 
 fear that we should not succeed. But the con- 
 trary is the fact. " God is love." " He is 
 gracious and full of compassion," "is rich in 
 mercy," and " plenteous in mercy." He even 
 " delighteth in mercy." " He is not willing 
 that any should perish, but that all should 
 come to repentance." " He delig'hteth 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 
 
ENCOURAaEMENTS. 197 
 
 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 salva- 
 tion of sinners. Nor is this all, for it is af- 
 firmed that " the Lord taketh pleasure in them 
 that hope in his mercy." Psa. 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 de- 
 light 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 you. All your dark de- 
 sponding thoughts of him are unjust and inju- 
 rious to his mercy. To conceive of him as 
 unwilling to save you, is a slander upon his 
 love, a false and foul calumny upon his grace. 
 
198 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 ?" Rom. 8 : 32. You have 
 God^s mind and heart and purpose and attri- 
 butes all on the side of your salvation, and is 
 not this encouragement 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 in- 
 vited all to him for salvation ; he has promised 
 to save them ; and will he now fail ? Think 
 of the glory of his person, God manifest in the 
 flesh; think of the design of his incarnation, 
 sufferings, and death ; think of the perfection 
 of his work in satisfying divine justice, magni- 
 fying the law, sustaining the moral government 
 of God in all its purity, dignity, and effective 
 
ENGOURAaEMENTS. 199 
 
 Hess ; tluiik of the love of his heart, tne power 
 of his arm, and the connection between his 
 mediatorial renown and the salvation of sin- 
 ners; think of his universal dominion over 
 angels, devils, men, nature, providence; think 
 of his continued and prevailing intercession at 
 the right hand of God ; think of his universal 
 invitations, and his absolute promises: what 
 topics these, what sources of encouragement! 
 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 f this is " the travail of his soul," and 
 by this its ineffable longings will be satisfied. 
 Your salvation is his business, and the accom- 
 plishment 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? 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 
 renown as a Saviour, by refusing, when you 
 trust in him, to save you ? Is it probable ? Is 
 it possible ? 
 
 4. Dwell upon the infinite and oil-sufficient re- 
 sources of the Holy Ghost. 
 
200 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 This divine Agent is as omnipotent to sane* 
 tify, 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 ?" and abandon the hope of salvation 
 for fixed and impervious despair. But the 
 economy of redemption provides no less for the 
 effectual application 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 Godhead were not more com- 
 pletely 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 con- 
 science can find out no defect. The blindness 
 of your judgment ; the hardness and deceitful- 
 ness of your heart ; the perversity of your will ; 
 the deadness of your conscience ; the wildness 
 of your imagination; the disorder of your 
 passions; your backwardness to good; your 
 proneness to evil; your reluctance to deter- 
 
ENCOURAGEMENTS. 201 
 
 mine ; your irresoluteness ; your timidity ; your 
 fickleness — all, all have been foreseen and pro- 
 vided for in the inexhaustible riches of grace 
 in the blessed Spirit of God. On those riches 
 you are encouraged to rely, and to draw with- 
 out- 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 espe- ' 
 cially the following passages of Scripture, and 
 ask if there be not encouragement enough 
 here. Luke 11 : 9-13 ; Rom. 8 : 10-17 ; James 
 5 : 5, 6; Gal. 5 : 22; John 16 : 7-15; 2 Gor. 
 12 : 9, 10. 
 
 5. Dwell upon the general complexion of the 
 word of God^ as so largely made up of com- 
 mands to seek salvation, invitations to accept 
 of it, promises to insure it, and descriptions 
 setting forth its blessings in their vastness, 
 variety, suitableness, and certainty. 
 
 If the whole Bible were to be summed up in 
 one short, comprehensive sentence, it would be 
 
202 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 reducing it still more, it would 
 all be contained in that one word, of immense, 
 infinite, and eternal 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 gos- 
 pel, meet. Salvation glimmers amidst the clouds 
 and shadows of the Levitical economy, and 
 shines forth in all its glory 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 ceremonial law, 
 when the thunders of the decalogue had ceased 
 to terrify the affrighted Israelites in 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 ; 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 
 
ENCOURAaEMENTS. 203 
 
 epistles ; and which even the awful visions of 
 the apocalypse seemed designed to magnify 
 and illustrate, by representing it as the point 
 of harmony 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 em- 
 ploys 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 threatenings 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? 
 
 6. The unchangeableness of God^s nature and 
 covenant are a source of boundless hope. 
 
 . He has invited, he has commanded, he has 
 promised : and he is not " a man that he should 
 lie, nor the son of man that he should repent f 
 but he is the Father of lights, with whom there 
 18 no variableness nor shadow of change. Im- 
 mutable in his nature, he is equally so in his 
 purpose and in his promise. Whom he loveth, 
 he loveth to the end. Could ycfii examine the 
 secret lists of his friends, you would find nei- 
 ther blots nor erasures there. "All things 
 
204 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 work together for good to them that love God, 
 who are the called according to his purpose. 
 For whom he did foreknow, he also did pre- 
 destinate to be conformed to the image of his 
 Son. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, 
 them he also called; and whom he called, 
 them he also justified ; and whom he justified, 
 them he also glorified. What shall we then 
 say to these things ? If God be for us, who 
 can be against us? Who shall separate us 
 from the love of Christ? shalL tribulation, or 
 distress, or persecution, or famine, or naked- 
 ness, or peril, or sword? Naj, 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 princi- 
 palities, 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." Eom. 8 : 28-39. Sublime language ! 
 Triumphant boast I Inspired and inspiring ex- 
 ultation! 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, 
 
ENCOURAaEMENTS. 205 
 
 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 suffer it to sink to 
 ruins after he has finished it. Though enemies 
 without may oppose and ridicule, and though 
 enemies within may stir up occasional insur- 
 rection 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 the 
 people of God, 
 
 Discouraged as you may have been by the 
 indifference and lukewarmness of some, let it 
 comfort you to know that all are not thus. 
 There are myriads of holy ministers of Christ, 
 and millions of pious men and women, from 
 age to age, pouring out their fervent supplica- 
 tions 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 
 
206 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 of social prayer, and by your ministers when 
 leading the devotions of the great congrega- 
 tion ? Have you not thus found the feelings of 
 the assembly poui^ed in a full tide of sympathy 
 into your heart? Yes, and not only do the 
 "Spirit and the bride say. Come," in this public 
 manner ; not only does the voice oi united prayer 
 commend you to God, but in thousands of clos- 
 ets 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 groan- 
 ings 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 considera- 
 tion of the ministry of angels; for "are they not 
 all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister 
 unto the heirs of salvation?" What offices they 
 perform we know not, perhaps because tt is not 
 safe for us to know; why they are employed 
 we know not ; or what is the extent of our obli- 
 gation we know not; but the bare fact thai 
 such instruments are employed about you, that 
 such attendants are engaged upon your inter- 
 
ENCOUllAaEMENTS. 207 
 
 ests, such spectators are witnessing you, such 
 friends are sympathizing with you, is a sweetly 
 pleasing and encouraging idea. They have 
 already rejoiced over your conversion, if indeed 
 you are converted ; and have had you consigned 
 to their care, to minister to your welfare. You 
 may be despised by men, but you are regarded 
 by angels ; you may be neglected by men, but 
 you are attended by angels ; you may be dis- 
 missed by men, but you are associated with 
 angels ; you may be opposed and persecuted by 
 men, but angels ''are ministering spirits sent 
 forth to minister" unto your salvation. Is not 
 this encouragement? 
 
 9. Consider how many, who were once tried, 
 disheartened, weak as you now are, have been 
 carried 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 
 u umber, of all nations, and kindreds, and 
 
208 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 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 ? They that had come " out 
 of great tribulation, 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 begin- 
 ning their religious course, as you now are ; 
 
 " Once they were mourning here below, 
 And wet their couch with tears ; 
 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 agi- 
 tated theirs ; there is not a temptation that as- 
 sails you, but what assailed them ; there is not 
 an obstacle that terrifies you, but what terri- 
 fied them ; they were once as ignorant, as weak, 
 as sinful, as timid, as discouraged, as you; 
 there is not a sorrow, a perplexity, or a danger 
 with which you are painfully familiar, but they 
 
ENCOURAaEMENTS. 209 
 
 passed through before jou. But there they are 
 in heaven, "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 sin which doth so 
 easily beset us, and let us run with patience the 
 race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the 
 author and finisher of our faith." Heb. 12 : 1, 2. 
 
 10. Let the magnitude of the blessing you are 
 seeking, and tJie 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 includes, as I have already said, what is infi- 
 nite 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 justification of your person; the re- 
 newal and sanctification of your nature ; adop- 
 tion into the family of God;' the spirit of 
 adoption ; a guardian of your reputation ; a pro- 
 tector of your property ; an auxiliary to your 
 health; a s})riiig of comfort in the dreariest 
 
 Inquirer. ] ,| 
 
210 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 situation; a light in the darkest scene of dis- 
 tress; a companion in the deepest solitude; a 
 counsellor in every perplexity ; a help in weak- 
 ness ; a check in temptation : it will associate 
 you with the redeemed and holy people of 
 God, conduct you in honor through the chang- 
 ing scenes of life, attend you to the verge of 
 eternity, soften your dying pillow, assuage the 
 grief of separation, and 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 en- 
 tered 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." "He that believeth 
 on the Son hath everlasting life." " To them 
 who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek 
 for glory, honor, and immortality, eternal life." 
 *' Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 
 worketh for us a far more exceeding and eter- 
 
ENCOURAaEMENTS. 211 
 
 nal weight of glory ; for the things which are 
 not seen are eternal." " Who hath begotten us 
 to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and 
 that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for 
 you, who are kept by the power of God, through 
 faith, unto salvation, ready 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 we shall see 
 him as he is." " After this I beheld, 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, say- 
 ing. 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 sit- 
 teth 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 awaj^ all tears from their eyes." 
 
212 THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. 
 
 Anxious inquirer after salvation, commit 
 your soul and all your interests to Jesus Clirist ; 
 "live not unto yourself, but unto Him -who 
 died for you and rose again ;" look upward to 
 heaven, and in his strength press onward ; and 
 you, yes you, unworthy as you are and see 
 yourself to be, shall inherit that " exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory" which He has 
 prepared for all that love him. 
 
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