EXTRACTS FROM FLETCHER'S WRITINGS.
THE SIN OF UNBELIEF.
"Unbelief is a sin of so deep a dye that the devils in hell cannot
commit the like. Our Saviour never prayed, wept, bled, and died for
devils. He never said to them, 'Ye will not come unto Me, that ye
might have life.' They can never be so madly ungrateful as to slight a
Saviour. Mercy never wooed their stubborn, proud hearts as it does
ours. They have abused grace, it is true, but they never trampled
mercy underfoot. This more than diabolical sin is reserved for thee,
careless sinner. Now thou hearest Christ compassionately say in the
text, 'Ye will not come unto Me,' and thou remainest unmoved; but the
time cometh when Jesus, who meekly entreats, shall sternly curse; when
He who in tender patience says, 'Ye will not come unto Me,' shall
thunder in righteous vengeance, 'Depart from Me, ye cursed; depart
unto the second death--the fire prepared for the devil and his
angels.' In vain wilt thou plead then as thou dost now, 'Lord, I am no
adulterer; I am no extortioner; I used to eat at Thy table; I was
baptised in Thy name; I was a true churchman; there are many worse
than I am.' This will not admit thee into the Kingdom of Christ. His
answer will be, 'I know you not; you never came to Me for life.'"
* * * * *
READING NOT PREACHING.
"Reading approved sermons is generally supposed to be preaching the
Gospel. If this were really so, we need but look out some school-boy
of tolerable capacity; and, after instructing him to read, with proper
emphasis and gesture, the sermons of Tillotson, Sherlock, or Saurin,
we shall have made him an excellent minister of the Word of God. But,
if preaching the Gospel is to publish among sinners that repentance
and salvation, which we have experienced in ourselves, it is evident
that experience and sympathy are more necessary to the due performance
of this work than all the accuracy and elocution that can possibly be
acquired.
"When this sacred experience and this generous sympathy began to lose
their prevalence in the Church, their place was gradually supplied by
the trifling substitutes of study and affectation. Carnal prudence has
now for many ages solicitously endeavoured to adapt itself to the
taste of the wise and the learned. But, while '_the offence of the
cross_' is avoided, neither the wise nor the ignorant are
effectually converted.
"In consequence of the same error, the ornaments of theatrical
eloquence have been sought after, with a shameful solicitude. And what
has been the fruit of so much useless toil? _Preachers_, after
all, have played their part with much less applause than
_comedians_; and their curious auditories are still running from
the pulpit to the stage, for the purpose of hearing fables repeated
with a degree of sensibility, which the messengers of truth can
neither _feel_, nor _feign_."
* * * * *
PRIDE IN APPAREL.
"I cannot pass in silence the detestable, though fashionable, sin,
which has brought down the curse of Heaven, and poured desolation and
ruin upon the most flourishing kingdoms--I mean pride in apparel. Even
in this place, where poverty, hard labour, and drudgery would, one
should think, prevent a sin which Christianity cannot tolerate even in
kings' houses, there are not wanting foolish virgins, who draw
iniquity with cords of vanity, and betray the levity of their hearts
by that of their dress. Yea, some women, who should be mothers in
Israel, and adorn themselves with good works as holy and godly
matrons, openly affect the opposite character. You may see them offer
themselves first to the idol of vanity, and then sacrifice their
children upon the same altar. As some sons of Belial teach their
little ones, to curse, before they can well speak, so these daughters
of Jezebel drag their unhappy offspring, before they can walk, to the
haunts of vanity and pride. They complain of evening lectures, but run
to midnight dancings. Oh, that such persons would let the prophet's
words sink into their frothy minds, and fasten upon their careless
hearts: 'Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, and walk with
stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, the Lord will smite with a sore
the crown of their head, and discover their shame: instead of well-set
hair, there shall be baldness, and burning instead of beauty.'"
* * * * *
WHAT IS SAVING FAITH?
"What is _saving_ faith? I dare not say that it is 'believing
heartily' my sins are forgiven me for Christ's sake; for, if I live in
sin, that belief is a _destructive_ conceit, and not _saving_ faith.
Neither dare I say, that 'saving faith is _only_ a sure trust and
confidence that Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me;' for, if I
did, I should almost damn all mankind for four thousand years. Such
definitiohs of saving faith are, I fear, too _narrow_ to be just, and
too _unguarded_ to keep out Solifidianism. To avoid such mistakes; to
contradict no Scriptures; to put no black mark of _damnation_ upon any
man, that in any nation fears God and works righteousness; to leave no
room for Solifidianism, and to present the reader with a definition of
faith adequate to _the everlasting Gospel_, I would choose to say,
that justifying or saving faith is _believing_ the saving truth _with
the heart unto_ internal, and (as we have opportunity) _unto_ external
_righteousness_, according to our light and dispensation. To St.
Paul's words (Rom. x. 10), I add the epithets _internal_ and
_external_, in order to exclude, according to I John iii. 7, 8,
the filthy imputation, under which fallen believers may, if we credit
the Antinomians, commit internal and external adultery, mental and
bodily murder, without the least reasonable fear of endangering their
faith, their interest in God's favour, and their inadmissible title to
a throne of glory."
* * * * *
THE EYE OF FAITH.
"_Believing_ is the gift of _the God of Grace_, as _breathing_,
_moving_, and _eating_ are the gifts of _the God of Nature_. He gives
me lungs and air, that I may breathe; He gives me life and muscles,
that I may move; He bestows upon me food and a mouth, that I may eat;
but He neither _breathes_, _moves_, nor _eats_ for me. Nay, when I
think proper, I can accelerate my breathing, motion, and eating: and,
if I please, I may _fast_, _lie down_, or _hang myself_, and, by that
means, put an end to my _eating_, _moving_, and _breathing_. _Faith_
is the gift of God to believers, _as sight_ is to you. The parent of
good freely gives you the light of the sun, and organs proper to
receive it. Everything around you bids you use your eyes and see;
nevertheless, you may not only drop your curtains, but close your eyes
also. This is exactly the case with regard to faith. Free grace
removes, in part, the total blindness which Adam's fall brought upon
us; free grace gently sends us some beams of truth, which is the light
of _the sun of righteousness_; it disposes the eye of our
understanding to see those beams; it excites us, in various ways, to
welcome them; it blesses us with many, perhaps with all the means of
faith, such as opportunities to hear, read, enquire, and power to
consider, assent, consent, resolve, and re-resolve to believe the
truth. But, after all, _believing_ is as much our own act as
_seeing._ We may in general do, suspend, or omit the _act_ of faith.
Nay, we may do by the eye of our faith, what some report Democritus
did by his bodily eyes. Being tired of seeing the follies of mankind,
to rid himself of that disagreeable sight, he put his eyes out. We
may be so averse from _the light, which enlightens every man_ that
_comes into the world;_ we may so dread it because our works are
evil, as to exemplify, like the Pharisees, such awful declarations
as these: _Their eyes have they closed, lest they should see:
wherefore God gave them up to a reprobate mind, and, they were
blinded_."
* * * * *
FROM ANIMAL MAN TO SPIRITUAL MAN.
"What is the state of a soul that is born again; and in what does
regeneration consist? In general, we may say, it is that great change
by which man passes from a state of nature to a state of grace. He was
an animal man; in being born again he becomes a spiritual man. His
natural birth had made him like to fallen Adam--to the old man,
against whom God had pronounced the sentence of death, seeing it is
the wages of sin; but his spiritual birth makes him like to Jesus
Christ--to the new man--which is created according to God in
righteousness and true holiness. He was before born a child of wrath--
proud, sensual, and unbelieving, full of the love of the world and of
self-love, a lover of money and of earthly glory and pleasure, rather
than a lover of God; but, by regeneration, he is become a child and an
heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. The humility, the purity,
the love of Jesus, is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit
which is given to him, making him bear the image of the _Second
Adam_. He is in Christ a new creature; old things are passed away,
all things are become new. All the powers and faculties of his soul
are renovated. His understanding, heretofore covered with darkness, is
illuminated by the experimental knowledge which he has of God and of
His Son Jesus Christ. His conscience, asleep and insensible, awakes
and speaks with a fidelity irreproachable. His hard heart is softened
and broken. His will, stubborn and perverse, yields, and becomes
conformable to the will of God. His passions, unruly, and earthly, and
sensual, submit to the conduct of grace, and turn of themselves to
objects invisible and heavenly. And the members of his body, servants
more or less to iniquity, are now employed in the service of
righteousness unto holiness."
* * * * *
TASTES THAT CORRESPOND.
"To rejoice in the pleasures that are at God's right hand, it is
needful to have senses and a taste that correspond thereto. The swine
trample pearls under their feet. The elevated discourse of a
philosopher is insupportable to a stupid mechanic; and an ignorant
peasant, introduced into a circle of men of learning and taste, is
disgusted, sighs after his village, and declares no hour ever appeared
to him so long. It would be the same to a man who is not regenerated,
if we could suppose that God would so far forget His truth as to open
to him the gate of Heaven. He would be incapable of those transports
of love which make the happiness of the glorified saints. It would be
insupportable for him now to meditate one hour on the perfections of
God; what then shall He do among the _cherubim_ and _seraphim_, and
_the spirits of just men made perfect_, who draw from thence their
ravishing delights? He loves the pleasures and comforts of an animal
life; but are these the same with the exercises of the spiritual
life? His conversations, his readings, his amusements, as void of
edification as of usefulness, rarely fatigue him; but an hour of
meditation or prayer is insufferable. If he be not born again, not
only he cannot be in a state to rejoice in the pleasures of Paradise,
any more than a deaf man to receive with transport the most exquisite
music; but the ravishing delights of angels would cause in him an
insupportable distaste. Yes, he would banish himself from the
presence of God rather than pass an eternity in prostrating himself
before the throne, and crying day and night, _Holy, holy, holy, is
the Lord of hosts, who is, and who was, and who is to come!_ We
conclude that the gate of Heaven must be opened upon earth by
regeneration, and by the love of God, or that it will remain shut for
ever; and that a local paradise would be only a sorrowful prison to a
man not regenerated, because, carrying nothing thither but depraved
and earthly appetites and passions, and finding nothing there but
spiritual and celestial objects, disgust and dissatisfaction would
be the consequence; and, like Satan, his own mind would be his hell."
* * * * *
WISE WORDS TO THE SINNER.
"I conjure you by the majesty of that God before whom angels rejoice
with trembling; by the terror of the Lord, who may speak to you in
thunder, and this instant require your soul of you; by the tender
mercies, the bowels of compassion of your Heavenly Father, which are
moved in your favour, all ungrateful as you are! I conjure you by the
incarnation of the Eternal Word, by whom you were created; by the
humiliation, the pains, the temptations, the tears, the bloody sweat,
the agony, the cries of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ! I
conjure you by the bonds, the insults, the scourgings, the robes of
derision, the crown of thorns, the ponderous cross the nails, the
instruments of death which pierced His torn body; by the arrows of the
Almighty, the poison of which drank up His spirit; by that mysterious
stroke of Divine wrath, and by those unknown terrors which forced Him
to exclaim, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!' I conjure you
by the interests of your immortal soul, and by the unseen accidents
which may precipitate you into eternity; by the bed of death, upon
which you will soon be stretched, and by the useless sighs which you
will then pour out, if your peace be not made with God! I conjure you
by the sword of Divine justice, and by the sceptre of grace; by the
sound of the last trumpet, and by the sudden appearance of the Lord
Jesus Christ, with ten thousand of His holy angels; by that august
tribunal, at which you will appear with me, and which shall decide
our lot for ever; by the vain despair of hardened sinners, and by the
unknown transports of regenerate souls! I conjure you from this
instant work out your salvation with fear and trembling! Enter by the
door into the sheepfold. Sell all to purchase the pearl of great
price. Count all things dung and dross in comparison of the excellency
of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Let Him not go till He blesses you
with that faith which justifies, and that sanctification without which
no man shall see the Lord. And, soon transported from this vale of
tears into the mansions of the just made perfect, you shall cast your
crown of immortal glory at the feet of Him that sitteth upon the
throne, and before the Lamb who has redeemed us by His blood: to whom
be the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the power for ever
and ever! Amen."