love with our line, infinite merits with our sins, which is the
great pride and blasphemy, Ps. ciii. 11, 12; Is. x. 15. Hear what
he saith: I have found a ransom, Job xxxiii. 24; in him I am well
pleased, Matt. iii. 18. God will have nothing else; nothing else
will do thee good, or satisfy conscience, but Christ who satisfied
the Father. God doth all upon the account of Christ. Thy deserts
are hell, wrath, rejection. Christ’s deserts are life, pardon,
and acceptance. He will not only shew thee one, but he will give
thee the other. It is Christ’s own glory and happiness to pardon.
Consider, whilst Christ was upon the earth, he was more among
publicans and sinners, than among scribes and pharisees, his
professed adversaries, for they were righteous ones: it is not
as thou imaginest, that his state in glory makes him neglected,
scornful to poor sinners; No. He hath the same heart now in heaven;
he is good, and changeth not; he is the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sins of the world, John, i. 20. He went through all thy
temptations, dejections, sorrows, desertions, rejections, Matt.
iv. 3 to 12 and 26; Mark, xv. 24; Luke, xxii. 44; Matt. xxiv. 38.
And he hath drawn the bitterness of the cup, and left thee the
sweet: the condemnation is out; Christ drank up all the Father’s
wrath at one draught, and nothing but salvation is left for
thee. Thou sayest thou canst not believe, thou canst not repent.
Fitter for Christ if thou hast nothing but sin and misery. Go to
Christ with all thy impenitence and unbelief, to get faith and
repentance from him--that is glorious: Say unto him, Lord, I have
brought no righteousness of grace to be accepted in or justified
by; I am come for thine. We would be bringing to Christ, which
must not be; grace will not stand with works, Tit. iii. 5; Rom.
xi. 6. Self-righteousness and self-sufficiency are the darlings
of nature, which she preserves as her life; that makes Christ
obnoxious to nature; nature cannot desire him; he is just directly
opposite to all nature’s glorious interests. Let nature make a
gospel, and it would make it contrary to Christ. It would be to
the just, the innocent, the holy, &c. Christ made the gospel for
thee, that is, for needy sinners, the ungodly, the unrighteous,
the accursed. Nature cannot endure to think the gospel is only for
sinners; it will rather choose to despair than go to Christ upon
such terrible terms. When nature is opposed to guilt or wrath, it
will go to its own haunts of self-righteousness, self-goodness,
&c. An infinite power must cast down those strong holds. None but
the self-justiciary stands excluded out of the gospel. Christ will
look at the most abominable sinner before him, because to such a
one Christ cannot be made justification--he is no sinner. To say in
compliment, I am a sinner, is easy; but to pray with the publican
indeed, Lord be merciful to me a sinner, is the hardest prayer in
the world. It is easy to profess Christ with the mouth, but to
confess him with the heart, as Peter, (to be the Christ, the Son
of the living God, the alone Mediator,) that is above flesh and
blood. Many call Christ Saviour; few know him to be so. To see
grace and salvation in Christ, is the greatest sight in the world;
none can do that, but at the same time they shall see that glory
and salvation to be theirs. I may be ashamed to think, in the
midst of so much profession, that I have little of the blood of
Christ, which is the main thing of the gospel. A Christless formal
profession will be the blackest sight next to hell. Thou mayest
have many good things, and yet one thing may be wanting that may
make thee go away sorrowful from Christ. Thou hast never sold all
thou hast, never parted with all thine own righteousness, &c. Thou
mayest be high in duty, and yet a perfect enemy and adversary to
Christ, in every prayer, in every ordinance.
Labour after sanctification to thy utmost, but make not a Christ of
it to save thee; if so, it must come down one way or other.
Christ’s infinite satisfaction, not thy sanctification, must be
thy justification before God. When the Lord shall appear terrible
out of his holy place, fire shall consume that as hay and stubble.
This will be found true religion, to rest all upon the everlasting
mountains of God’s love and grace in Christ; to live continually
in the sight of Christ’s infinite righteousness and merits, (they
are sanctifying; without them the heart is carnal,) and in those
sights to see the full vileness of sin, and to see all pardoned;
in those sights to pray, hear, &c., seeing thy polluted self, and
all thy weak performances accepted continually; in those sights to
trample upon all thy self-glories, righteousness, and privileges,
as abominable, and be found continually in the righteousness of
Christ only; rejoicing in the ruins of thy own righteousness,
the spoiling of all thy own excellencies, that Christ’s alone,
as Mediator, may be exalted on his throne: mourning over all thy
duties (how glorious soever) which thou hast not performed in the
sight and sense of Christ’s love. Without the blood of Christ on
the conscience, all this is dead service, Heb. ix. 14.
That opinion of free will, so cried up, will be easily confuted,
as it is by scripture, in the heart that hath had any spiritual
dealings with Jesus Christ, as to the application to its merit,
and subjection to his righteousness. Christ is every way too
magnificent a person for a poor nature to close withal or to
apprehend. Christ is so infinitely holy, nature durst never look
at him; so infinitely good, nature can never believe him to be
such, when it lies under a full sight of sin. Christ is too high
and glorious for nature so much as to touch. There must be a divine
nature first put in the soul, to make it lie on him, he lies so
infinitely beyond the sight or reach of nature.
That Christ, which natural free will can apprehend, is but a
natural Christ of a man’s own making, not the Father’s Christ, nor
Jesus the Son of the living God, to whom none can come without
the father’s drawing, John, vi. 44. 46. Finally, search the
scriptures daily, as mines of gold, wherein the heart of Christ
is laid. Watch against constitutional sins, see them in their
vileness, and they shall never break out into act. Keep always an
humble, empty, broken frame of heart, sensible of any spiritual
miscarriage, observant of all inward workings, fit for the highest
communications. Keep not guilt in the conscience, but apply the
blood of Christ immediately. God chargeth sin and guilt upon thee,
to make thee look to Christ.
Judge not Christ’s love by providences, but by promises. Bless God
for shaking off false foundations, and for any way whereby he keeps
the soul awakened and looking after Christ. Better sicknesses and
temptations than security and slightness.
A slighting spirit will turn a profane spirit, and will sin and
pray too. Slighting is the bane of profession; if it be not rooted
out of the heart, by constant and serious dealings with, and
beholdings of Christ in duties, it will grow more strong and more
deadly by being under church ordinances. Measure not thy graces by
other attainments, but by Scripture trials. Be serious and exact in
duty, having the weight of it upon the heart; be as much afraid of
taking comfort from duties as from sins. Comfort from any hand but
Christ’s is deadly. Be much in prayer, or you will never keep up
much communion with God. As you are in closet prayer, so you will
be in all other ordinances.
Reckon not duties by high expression, but by low frames, and the
beholdings of Christ. Tremble at duties and gifts. It was a saying
of a great saint, he was more afraid of his duties than his sins;
the one often made him proud, the other always made him humble.
Treasure up manifestations of Christ’s love, they make the heart
low for Christ, too high for sin. Slight not the lowest, meanest
evidences of grace; God may put thee to make use of the lowest as
thou thinkest, even that, 1 John, iii. 14, may be worth a thousand
worlds to thee.
Be true to truth, but not turbulent and scornful. Restore such as
are fallen; help them up again with all the bowels of Christ. Set
the broken disjointed bones with the grace of the gospel. High
professor, despise not weak saints. Thou mayest come to wish to
be in the condition of the meanest of them. Be faithful to others’
infirmities, but sensible of thy own. Visit sick beds and deserted
souls much, they are excellent schools in experience. Abide in your
calling. Be dutiful to all relations as to the Lord. Be content
with little of the world; little will serve. Think every little
of the earth much, because unworthy of the least. Think much of
heaven, not little, because Christ is so rich and free. Think
every one better than thyself, and ever carry self-loathing about
thee, as one fit to be trampled upon by all saints. See the vanity
of the world, and the consumption there is upon all things, and
love nothing but Christ. Mourn to see so little of Christ in the
world, so few needing him: trifles please them better. To a secure
soul Christ is but a table, the scripture but a story. Mourn to
think how many there are under baptism and church order, that are
not under grace, looking much after outward duties, little after
Christ, little versed in grace. Prepare for the cross; welcome it,
bear it triumphantly like Christ’s cross; whether scoffs, mockings,
jeers, contempt, imprisonment, &c. But see it be Christ’s cross,
not thine own.
Sin will hinder from glorying in the cross of Christ. Omitting
little truths against light may breed guilt in the conscience, as
well as committing the greatest sins against light. If thou hast
been taken out of the belly of hell into Christ’s bosom, and made
to sit among princes in the household of God, oh how shouldst thou
live as a pattern of mercy? Redeemed, restored soul, what infinite
sums dost thou not owe to Christ! With what singular frames must
thou walk, and do every duty! On sabbaths, what praising days,
singing hallelujahs, should they be to thee! Church fellowship:
what a heaven, a being with Christ, and angels, and saints in
communion; what a bathing of the soul in eternal love; what a
burial with Christ, and dying to all things beside him! Every time
thou thinkest of Christ, be astonished, and wonder; and when thou
seest sin, look at Christ’s grace which did pardon it; and when
thou art proud, look at Christ’s grace, that shall humble and
strike thee down in the dust.
Remember Christ’s time of love, when thou wast naked, Ezekiel,
xvi. 8, 9, and then he chose thee. Canst thou ever have a proud
thought?--Remember whose arms supported thee from sinking, and
delivered thee from the lowest hell, Ps. lxxxvi. 13: and shout
in the ears of angels and men, Ps. cxlviii. and for ever sing,
“Praise, praise, grace, grace.” Daily repent and pray; and walk in
the spirit of grace as one that hath the anointing of grace upon
thee. Remember thy sins, Christ’s pardoning; thy deserts, Christ’s
merits; thy weakness, Christ’s strength; thy pride, Christ’s
humility; thy many infirmities, Christ’s restorings; thy guilt,
Christ’s new applications of his blood; thy failings, Christ’s
raisings up; thy wants, Christ’s fulness; thy temptations, Christ’s
tenderness; thy vileness, Christ’s righteousness.
Blessed soul! whom Christ shall find not trusting in his own
righteousness, Phil. iii. 9, but having his robes washed and made
white in the blood of the Lamb, Rev. vii. 14. Woeful, miserable
professor, that hath not the gospel within! Rest not in church
trials; thou mayest pass them, and be cast away in Christ’s day of
trial. Thou mayest come to baptism, and never come to Jesus and the
blood of sprinkling, Heb. xii. 24. Whatever working or attainments,
short of Christ s blood, merits, righteousness, (the main object
of the gospel) fall short of the truth, and leave the soul in a
condition of doubtings and questionings; and doubtings, if not
looked into betimes, will turn to a lightness of spirit, one of the
most dangerous of frames.
Trifle not with ordinances. Be much in meditation and prayer.
Wait diligently upon all hearing opportunities. We have need of
doctrine, reproof, exhortations, consolation, as tender herbs
and the grass hath of the rain, the dew, the small rain, and the
showers, Deut. xxxii. 2. Do all thou doest as soul-work unto
Christ, Zech. vi. 5, 6; as immediately dealing with Christ Jesus;
as if he were looking on thee, and thou on him, and get all thy
strength from him.
Observe what holy motions you find in your soul to duties; prize
the least good thought thou hast of Christ, the least good word
thou speakest of him sincerely from thy heart. Rich mercy! Oh!
bless God for it! Observe if every day you have the Day-spring from
on high, with his morning dews of mourning for sin, constantly
visiting thee, Luke, i. 78. Have you the bright Morning-star, with
fresh influences of grace and peace, constantly arising, Rev. xxii.
16, and Christ sweetly greeting the soul in all duties? What duty
makes not more spiritual, will make more carnal; what doth not
quicken and humble, will deaden and harden.
Judas may have the outward privilege of baptism, the supper,
church-fellowship, &c., but John leaned on Christ’s bosom, John,
iii. 23; that is the gospel-ordinance posture, in which we should
pray and hear, and perform all duties. Nothing but lying in that
bosom will dissolve hardness of heart, and make thee to mourn
heartily for sin and cure lightness and indifference of spirit,
that gangrene to profession; that will humble indeed, and make the
soul cordial to Christ, and sin vile to the soul; yea, transform
the ugliest place of hell into the glory of Christ. Never think
thou art right as thou shouldst be, a Christian of any attainment,
until thou come to this, always to see and feel thyself lying in
the bosom of Christ, who is in the bosom of his Father, John, i.
18. Come and pray the Father for views of Christ, and you will
be sure to speed. You can come with no request that pleaseth him
better. He gave him out of his own bosom for that very end, to be
held up before the eyes of sinners, as the everlasting monument of
his unspeakable love.
Looking at the natural sun weakens the eye. The more you look at
Christ, the Sun of righteousness, the stronger and clearer will the
eye of faith be. Look but at Christ, you will love him, and live
upon him. Think on him continually,--keep the eye constantly upon
Christ’s blood, or every blast of temptation will shake you. If you
see sin’s sinfulness, to loath it and mourn, do not stand looking
upon sin, but look upon Christ first, as suffering and satisfying
for it. If you would see your graces, your sanctification, do not
stand gazing upon them, but look at Christ’s righteousness in the
first place,--see the Son, and you see all,--look at your graces in
the last place.
Go to Christ in sight of your sin and misery, not of your grace and
holiness. Have nothing to do with thy graces and sanctification,
they will but veil Christ, till thou hast seen Christ first. He
that looks upon Christ through his graces, is like one that sees
the sun in water, which wavereth, and moves as the water doth.
Look upon Christ only as shining in the firmament of the Father’s
love and grace, you will not see him but in his own glory, which
is unspeakable. Pride and unbelief will put you upon seeing
somewhat in yourself first, but faith will have to do with none
but Christ, who is unexpressibly glorious, and must swallow up thy
sanctification as well as thy sin: for God made him both for us,
and we must take him for both, 1 Cor. i. 30, 2 Cor. v. 21. He that
sets up his sanctification to look at, to comfort him, he sets up
the greatest idol, which will strengthen his doubts and fears. Do
but look off Christ, and presently, like Peter, you sink in doubt.
A Christian never wants comfort but by breaking the order and
method of the gospel, looking on his own, and looking off Christ’s
perfect righteousness, which is, to choose rather to live by
candlelight than by the light of the sun. The honey that you suck
from your own righteousness will turn into perfect gall; and the
light that you take from that to walk in will turn into black night
upon the soul. Satan is tempting thee, by putting thee to plod
about thine own grace, to get comfort from that; then the Father
comes and points thee to Christ’s grace, as rich and glorious,
infinitely pleasing to him; and biddest thee study Christ’s
righteousness; and his biddings are enablings; that is, a blessed
motion, a sweet whispering, checking thy belief--follow the least
hint, close with much prayer, prize it as an invaluable jewel; it
is an earnest of more to come. Again,
If you will pray, and cannot, and are so discouraged, see Christ
praying for you, using his interest with the Father for you. What
can you want? John, xiv. 7, and chap. xvii. If you be troubled,
see Christ your peace, Eph. ii. 14. Leaving you peace when he went
up to heaven, again and again charging you not to be troubled;
no, not in the least sinfully troubled; so as to obstruct the
comfort of thy believing, John, xiv. 1, 27. He is now upon the
throne, having spoiled upon his cross, in the lowest state of his
humiliation, all whatsoever can hurt or annoy thee; he hath borne
all thy sins, sorrows, troubles, and temptations, and is gone to
prepare mansions for thee.
Thou who hast seen Christ all, and thyself absolutely nothing who
makest Christ all thy life, and art dead to all righteousness
besides, thou art a Christian, one highly beloved, and who hath
found favour with God, a favourite of heaven. Do Christ this one
favour for all his love to thee; love all his poor saints and
churches, the meanest, the weakest, notwithstanding any difference
in judgment, they are engraven on his heart, as the names of the
children of Israel on Aaron’s breast-plate; Ex. xxviii. 21. Let
them be so on thine. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall
prosper that love thee, Ps. cxxii. 6.
THE END
SINS AND SORROWS
SPREAD
BEFORE GOD:
A SERMON,
BY THE REV. ISAAC WATTS.
[Illustration]
GLASGOW:
PRINTED FOR THE BOOKSELLERS.
SINS AND SORROWS
SPREAD BEFORE GOD.
JOB xxiii. 3, 4.
Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to
his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth
with arguments.
There is such a thing as converse with God in prayer, and it is the
life and pleasure of a pious soul; without it we are no Christians;
and he that practises it most, is the best follower of Christ, for
our Lord spent much time in converse with his heavenly Father. This
is the balm that eases the most raging pains of the mind, when
the wounded conscience comes to the mercy-seat, and finds pardon
and peace there. This is the cordial that revives and exalts our
natures, when the spirit, broken with sorrows and almost fainting
with death, draws near to the almighty Physician, and is healed
and refreshed. The mercy-seat in heaven is our surest and sweetest
refuge in every hour of distress and darkness on earth; this is our
daily support and relief, while we are passing through a world of
temptations and hardships in the way to the promised land. “It is
good for us to draw near to God.” Psal. lxxiii. 28.
And yet so much is human nature sunk down and fallen from God, that
even his own children are ready to indulge a neglect of converse
with him, if their souls are not always upon the watch. But let
it be remembered here, that so much as we abate of this divine
entertainment among the vanities or amusements of the world, the
businesses or burdens of life; so much we lose of the glory and joy
of religion, and deprive our souls of the comfort that God invites
us to receive.
Job was encompassed with sorrows all around, and his friends had
censured him as a vile hypocrite, and a great sinner, because he
was so terribly afflicted by the hand of God: whither should he run
now but to his heavenly Father, and tell him of all his sufferings?
From the practice of this holy man, I thought we might have
sufficient warrant to draw this inference, viz. that when a saint
gets near to God in prayer, he tells him all his circumstances, and
pleads for help. And this is the doctrine which I am endeavouring
now to improve. O if I could but come near him; I would spread all
my concerns before his eye, and I would plead with him for relief;
I would fill my mouth with arguments.
Four things I proposed in the prosecution of this doctrine.
I. To consider what it is for a soul to get near to God in prayer.
II. What particular subjects doth a soul, thus brought near to the
mercy-seat, converse with God about.
III. Why he causes to tell all his circumstances and his sorrows to
God, when he is thus near him.
IV. How he pleads for relief.
I. We have already considered what it is for a soul to get near
to the seat of God, and what are the usual attendants of such
a privilege. At such a season the holy soul will have an awful
and adoring sense of the majesty of God, a becoming fear of his
terrors, and some sweeter taste of his love. There will be a divine
hatred of every sin, and a sensible virtue and influence proceeding
from a present God, to resist every temptation; there will be a
spiritual and heavenly temper diffusing itself through the whole
soul, and all the powers of it; a fixedness of heart without
wandering; and a liveliness without tiring; no weariness is felt in
the spirit at such a season, even though the flesh may be ready to
faint under the overpowering sweetness; then the soul with freedom
opens itself before the eye of God, and melts and flows in divine
language, whether it complain or rejoice. But I have finished this
head, and repeat no more.
II. What are some of the particular circumstances or subjects of
complaint, that a saint brings to God when he comes near to him.
In general, a saint, when he is near to God, has all the fulness of
his heart breaking out into holy language; he pours out his whole
self before his God and his Father; all the infinite affairs that
relate to the flesh and spirit, to this life and that which is to
come; all things in heaven, and all things on earth, created or
uncreated, may, at one time or other, be the subjects of converse
between God and a holy soul. When the question is asked by a carnal
man, “What can a Christian talk with God so long and so often
about?” The Christian, in a divine frame, answers, “He that hath
matter enough for converse with God, to wear out time, and to fill
up eternity.” It may as well be asked on the other side, What has
he not to say? What is there that relates to God, or to himself, to
the upper, or the lower world, that he may not at some time say to
his God?
But I must confine myself from wandering in so large a field,
that I may comport with the design of my text. Though a good man,
in devout prayer often spreads his hopes and his joys before the
Lord as well as his sorrows, fear, and distresses; yet I shall at
present endeavour to set forth only the mournful and complaining
representations of his circumstances that he makes before the
throne of God.
1. If I could but come near the mercy-seat, I would confess how
great my sins are, and I would pray for pardoning grace. I would
say, “How vile I am by nature;” I would count my original descent
from Adam the great transgressor, and humble myself at the foot of
a holy God, because I am the descent of such a sinner. I would tell
him how much viler I have made myself by practice: “I have been
an enemy in my mind by nature, and guilty of many wicked works,
whereby I have farther estranged myself from him.” I would tell my
God how multiplied my transgressions have been before I knew him,
and how aggravated they have been since I have been acquainted
with him. I would acquaint him with the frequency of my returning
guilt, how I have sinned against mercies, against reproofs,
against warnings received often from his word, and often from his
providence.
I may appeal to the souls of many present, whether they have not
had the greatest freedom of confession of their sins when they have
been nearest to God, even though he be a God of holiness. At other
times they have not only been averse to confess to any friend, but
even unwilling to talk over to themselves the aggravation of their
iniquities, or to mention them in prayer; but when they are brought
thus near the throne of God, they unbosom themselves before him,
they pour out their sins and their tears together, with a sweet and
mournful satisfaction.