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to feel themselves guilty and undone? do they feel no backwardness to confess that they are justly exposed to everlasting misery? Next, it implies a renunciation of all dependence on ourselves and is this pleasing to corrupt nature? Are we willing to believe ourselves so utterly destitute of wisdom, righteousness, and strength, that we must be altogether dependent on Christ, as much as a new-born infant is on its parent? Next, it implies a turning from every thing that is displeasing to Christ: but have we no reluctance to mortify our besetting sins, and to forsake the habits, maxims, company, and interests of a polluted world? Lastly, it implies that we give ourselves entirely up to Christ, to walk in a state of holy communion with him, and unreserved obedience to his will: but does man naturally affect such a life as this? Is there nothing irksome to him in such restraints; nothing painful in such exertions?

Here then is one reason why we need the drawings of the Father in order to come to Christ. Our coming to Christ is altogether against the current of our corrupt natured and as a river flowing to the ocean cannot turn back again to its source without the attractive influence of the heavenly bodies, so neither can we reverse all our natural habits and propensities, without the drawings of our heavenly Father.]

2, On our impotency—

[The impotency of man to do what is good is certainly rather of a moral than a natural kind: his inability is not like that which incapacitates him to stop the sun in the firmament: it consists principally in a want of inclination: yet, together with that, there is a positive weakness; there is even in a regenerate man "the flesh lusting against the Spirit, so that he cannot do the things that he would." St. Paul himself complained, that "to will was present with him; but how to perform that which was good, he found not:" that "the good which he would, he did not; and that the evil which he would not, that he did: that when he would do good, evil was present with him." And who amongst us has not found the same? Who has not felt wanderings of mind, yea, and lamentable obduracy of heart, in those seasons when he has earnestly desired to maintain communion with his Lord and Saviour? Who has not been made sensible that he is like a becalmed vessel; and that he spreads the sails in vain, until the wind arise to bear him onward in his voyage?

We need not then to inquire after any other reasons for the doctrine in the text: our own experience, together with that of the saints in all ages, amounts to a demonstration of the e Gal. v. 17.

d Rom. viii. 7. 1 Cor. ii. 14.
f Rom. vii. 18, 19, 21.

point; more especially because it is confirmed by the strongest declarations of Holy Writ. God himself has told us, that without Christ we can do nothings; that we cannot, of ourselves, even speak a good word; nay, that we have not sufficiency even to think a good thought: that "God must give us both to will and to do." If then "our sufficiency even for these things must be of God," how much more must a Divine influence be necessary in order to our coming fully and habitually to Christ, as the life and strength of our souls!]

We must not however be satisfied with establishing this doctrine; for,

III. It is liable to abuse; and therefore we will guard it

It is abused as much as any doctrine whatever; 1. By the ignorant and ungodly

[When we tell them how they must come to Christ, and devote themselves to his service, they excuse themselves by saying that they cannot: and thus, in fact, they cast all the blame of their condemnation upon God, instead of taking it to themselves. But the impotency of which they complain is no excuse for them. Before they conclude themselves to be blameless, let them inquire, whether they do all that they can; whether they read, and meditate, and pray, and watch, and strive as much as they can? If they do not improve aright the strength they have, what reason have they to complain that God has not given them more? They will not so much as "frame their doings to turn unto the Lord:" and therefore they are as deserving of punishment, as if they had had all the power in their own hands: if they be not faithful in the few things which they have, there is no reason to think that they would have been faithful in more, if more had been committed to them. With this accords our Lord's own interpretation of such excuses, and the sentence he will pronounce on those who offer them': instead of standing excused before God, they will be condemned as wicked and unprofitable

servants.

But such excuses are indeed the greatest aggravation of their guilt: for they amount only to this; "I love sin so much, that I cannot renounce it; and hate God so much, that I cannot bring my mind to love and serve him." And how would such an excuse sound in a court of judicature on behalf of a murderer? This man hates his fellow-creatures to such a degree, that he cannot help murdering them whenever he

John xv. 5. i 2 Cor. iii. 5.

h Matt. xii. 34. and 1 Cor. xii. 3.

k Phil. ii. 13.

1 Matt. xxv. 24―30.

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can get them within his reach? Would the people say, Poor man, he ought not to be punished, for he cannot help it?' Would they not rather think, that the wickedness of his disposition was the greatest aggravation of his guilt, and that it would be the height of injustice to let him pass unpunished? The cases are altogether parallel: the conduct of each proceeds from his own depravity: and in either case increases, rather than diminishes, their desert of condemnation.]

2. By many professors of religion

[Strange as it may seem, we must confess that there are many professors of religion who abuse most shamefully the doctrine of the text: I allude to Antinomian professors, who, when warned of their state, will plead their weakness in extenuation of their guilt, and will cast the blame on God, just as the ungodly themselves are wont to do. But if there be any people under heaven more offensive to God than others, surely these must be they. The ignorant and ungodly are quite innocent, when compared with these. Truly the excuses of an Antinomian professor are little short of blasphemy. O that all of that description might consider the fallacy and impiety of their pleas! But we would hope that no such professor is in this place: if however there should be one, we must declare unto him, that, whatever excuse he may make for his sinful practices or neglects, "he deceiveth his own soul, and his religion is vain." If God indeed were unwilling to help him, there might be some justice in his pleas. But who will dare to cast such a reflection upon him? The fault is only in the depraved wills of men: "Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life." Let none then presume to charge God foolishly: if ever we would be right in his sight, we must trace all good to him, all evil to ourselves.]

ADDRESS

1. To the self-confident

[If you be not yet convinced of your need of Divine influences, go home, and try to perform some spiritual acts in your own strength: try to go to Christ with contrition; to cast yourself upon him with humble confidence; and to devote yourself to him in unreserved obedience. Do this, do it really, and with your whole heart, and we will retract all we have spoken, and confess either that the Bible is false, or that we have mistaken its true import. But we fear not the issue of such a trial: we are persuaded it would tend, more than any thing, to your conviction. Having within your own power the means of ascertaining the truth or falsehood of what you have heard, you will be utterly inexcusable if you neglect to do it.]

2. To the timid

[Let it not be a source of discouragement to you that you feel your weakness for "when you are weak, then are you strong." Can you do nothing of yourselves? then live the more dependent upon God: and "he will perfect his strength in your weakness." He has said, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, thou shalt thresh the mountains." What a labour is this to be performed by a worm! yet it shall be done. Trust then in him, and be of good courage: and He who "sent Christ to you," will draw you to him, and he who draws you to him, will accomplish in you all his good pleasure, till you are "raised at last" to a full enjoyment of his presence and glory.]

MDCXLI.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LIVING BY FAITH ON CHRIST.

John vi. 53–55. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

THE natural man neither does nor can understand spiritual truths. This inspired declaration has been verified in all ages. The Samaritan woman shewed how unapt we are to receive spiritual instruction". Even Nicodemus formed the most absurd conceptions of our Lord's meaning: such also was the blindness of the Jews to whom our Lord addressed this discoursed. He, however, in compassion to them, proceeded to confirm his gracious declarations. May we experience the illuminating and constraining influences of divine grace, while we consider,

I. What is meant by eating the flesh of Christ, and drinking his blood

Great caution is necessary in explaining the figurative expressions of Scripture. We shall endeavour to exhibit the full scope of the metaphor, without pressing it too far. It is sufficiently obvious that the text

a 1 Cor. ii. 14.

d

ver. 41, 52.

b John iv. 14, 15. c John iii. 3, 4.

e ver. 44, 45,

is not to be understood in a literal sense; nor does it relate to the sacrament, that being not yet instituted; nor does it signify the giving a mere assent to our Lord's doctrines.

[The doctrines of the Gospel are sometimes represented as bread and wine; and our Lord may be considered as speaking of his doctrines when he speaks of himself as the bread of life. But he could not intend a mere assent to those doctrines by the metaphor of eating. If this were all that he meant, Judas and Simon Magus were truly possessed of eternal life'.]

Our Lord explains the eating of him as synonymous with believing on him: but to speak more particularly, the metaphor of eating the flesh of Christ, &c. implies,

1. An union with his person

[The doctrine of our union with Christ is set forth by a great variety of images in Scripture. It naturally arises from the metaphor in the text. It is particularly mentioned by our Lord in the two verses following.]

2. A trust in his sacrifice[Our Lord speaks of his flesh his sacrifice. The words which he his Last Supper confirm this idea. therefore can mean no less than a trust in that sacrifice.]

expressly in reference to used at the institution of The eating of his flesh.

3. A dependence on his grace

[What animal food is to the body, that the grace of Christ is to the soul. Unless we have recourse to Christ continually, we must fall and perish1.]

According to this view of the metaphor, it is worthy of the deepest attention.

II. The importance of the doctrine

This is abundantly manifest, from the words before There is nothing so important as a life of faith on Christ: nothing,

us.

f Acts viii. 23. Mark xiv. 21.

h Eph. iii. 17. Col. i. 27.

g ver. 35.

i From hence it appears, that as our bodily life is upheld by the invisible operation of our food within us, and as the spiritual life of Jesus was maintained by the indwelling of the Deity within him; so the eating of him is, in fact, an union with him, and shall ever be accompanied by the invisible supports of his Spirit and grace. I John xv. 5.

k ver. 51.

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