Admonitory counsels, addressed to a Methodist, on subjects of Christian experience and practice ..

Preface

At a time when the press is teeming with religious publications, it seems requisite to offer some apology for adding to the number.

The author of the following pages has for some time been under the conviction, that a work was needed which could be placed, as a guide, in the hands of the members, especially the junior members, of Methodist societies.

To ensure the efficiency of a system, it must not only be well adapted to its proposed end, but its component parts must be clearly understood, and its true spirit faithfully carried out. To promote these objects, in reference to Methodism, is the design of the writer. Whether the attempt be a successful one, must be decided by those to whom the contents of this volume are more im mediately addressed.

4 PREFACE.

Conscious that his only aim is to become the humble instrument of rendering his read ers increasingly holy, and useful, and happy in the church of God, the author commends his work to the blessing of Him without whose sanction the best-devised and best-intended schemes are vain.

J.B.

Chester, Dec, 1840.

Chapter I. On The Nature And Importance Of A Thorough Conviction Of Sin

An open profession of religion is the unquestionable duty of every sincere Christian. In the present state of the world the only mode of properly making this profession is, by being united to some religious society. He who forms such a union will, if actuated by right motives, give preference to that denomination which most nearly meets his own views in matters of doctrine and of discipline, and toward the ministers and members of which he can cherish a cordial and respectful attachment. A union based on such principles will, in all probability, be, permanent ; and, if rightly used and appreciated, will be productive of the happiest results.

The persons for whose benefit this little book is specially intended have selected the Methodists, as the people in connection with whom they will confess Christ before men. As Methodists of every section are distinguished from other communities by certain peculiarities of sentiment and of usage, my design is to offer a few counsels which shall at once recognise these peculiarities, unfold, in some measure, the privileges which they confer, and enforce the obligations which they involve.

Those who have but lately begun to receive the weekly instructions of a leader constitute the interesting class of persons to whom I wish, for the present, more particularly to address myself. May I bespeak your candid, your serious, your prayerful attention ? In presuming to advise you, I trust that the advancement of God's glory is my principal aim ; and in subordination to this, I feel that I am prompted by Christian sympathy and affection toward you. My object is to encourage you to persevere in the course upon which yon have entered ; at the same time to warn you against dangers to which you will be unavoidably exposed, and to direct you to that source from whence strength and wisdom are to be derived. Let me beg of you to look up to God, that by his blessing this effort may be rendered instrumental in establishing you in the faith, and perfecting you in love.

In the commencement- of your religious course, it is of supreme importance that you obtain right views of yourself as a sinner in the sight of God. Our Lord speaks of stonyground hearers, who, though they "receive the word with joy," yet " endure only for a time." They run well for a season ; they give promise and raise expectations of usefulness ; but in a while they return to their former habits of ungodliness, and drink even more deeply than ever into the spirit of the world. Why this instability ? The causes of. it are various ; but it very frequently arises from the want of an adequate conviction of guilt. There is no fruit, because there is " no deepness of earth," in which the seed of the word can take root, and maintain its hold on the heart. There being, in the first instance, no depth of conviction, there is, in consequence, no decision of character. There may be slight and transient emotions ; there may be some indications of seriousness, and even of sorrow ; but these may exist when there is no sense of the intolerable burden of sin, nor any clear perception of that depravity which reigns in every unrenewed mind.

Far be it from me to add to the anxieties of those who are already sorrowing to repentance ; but I cannot divest myself of the fear that many religious inquirers are falsely reconciled to the absence of strong convictions of sin, by the well-intended but erroneous encouragements that are frequently administered. When one who is favoured with some measure of spiritual light complains that his impressions are not sufficiently strong, nor his sorrow for sin sufficiently deep, he is told, perhaps without further inquiry or discrimination, that God is gently drawing him with the cords of love, and thererore does not visit him with those distressing apprehensions of which others are the subjects. Such a statement may be true, and therefore may be applicable to the individual to whom it is addressed. But it may be otherwise. It may be, that instead of being soothed and quieted, the inquirer needs to be directed to tbose means and considerations which, by more powerfully awakening his conscience, will impart earnestness and decision to his efforts. In advising those who profess a desire after salvation, it can seldom, if ever, be wrong to enforce the necessity of a deep and humbling conviction of sin. Be it also remembered, that every one who is drawn to Christ, is drawn by the cords of divine love ; so that whether the penitent be agitated with terror, or melted into sorrow, his conversion is equally an act of infinite mercy. Neither is the sinner drawn only by the cords of love : he is also guided by the light of truth; and whenever truth shines into the heart, it lays open the depth and power of its depravity. Nor is it easy to conceive of any human being entering in at the " straight gate," and exercising " repentance toward God," who does not painfully feel the burden of his sin, and who is not both grieved and humbled by the recollection of his ingratitude and rebellion. Be assured of this, that unless you so feel your sinfulness, as to mourn on account of it, a thorough and permanent change of heart can never be experienced. One cause of the formality, lukewarmness, and hypocrisy which too evidently exists in some religious professors, and of the apostacy which we deplore in others, is, that they have never been subdued and heart-broken under a sense of their vileness ; they have never had the convictions of the publican, constraining them to cry out, " God be merciful to me a sinner."

Be determined, therefore, to acquire such a knowledge of the nature of sin as will render it the object of your abhorrence. By searching the Scriptures you will find it represented as an evil of awful and incalculable magnitude. Sin is the transgression both of the moral and of the evangelical law of God : it is therefore nothing less than open rebellion against the divine government ; it opposes itself to the justice and benevolence of the divine character ; it debases the dignity and destroys the happiness of man; it pollutes his nature and ruins his soul. Contemplate sin as the source of these appalling consequences. View it in all its deformity, till your heart loathes it, and swells with indignation against it. Ponder also the melancholy fact, that you are by nature the subject, the slave, of sin ; that your heart has hitherto been the welcome abode of this tyrant; and that your life has been submissively governed by its dictates.

Try yourself by the first great commandment of the divine law, which requires you to love God with a supreme and constant affection : this equitable requirement you have never once obeyed ; this first great duty you have never once performed. From the moment of your becoming accountable to God, you have therefore, by your disobedience to this one commandment, been incessantly accumulating guilt upon your conscience.

Not only have you withheld your heart from God, you have also repeatedly been influenced by selfishness, envy, unkindness, and resentment toward your fellow-men. And though the world may regard your conduct as unexceptionable, yet, if you are taught by the Spirit of God, you will be painfully conscious that you have never for one moment felt that pure, ardent, and universal benevolence which is enjoined in the comprehensive precept, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

But this is not all. Your transgressions of the moral law have been committed under circumstances which render those transgressions peculiarly aggravating. You have been favoured with gospel light, and with Christian ordinances ; but this light you have resisted, these ordinances you have disregarded. Mercy has been repeatedly offered to you, but you have spurned the offer; Christ has been preached to you, but you have rejected him ; you have heard of his infinite love, but you have refused to be softened by its influence ; the efficacy of his atonement has been announced to you, but you have treated the announcement with strange and criminal indifference.

Such are the reflections that will occupy your mind, if you be the subject of saving conviction. You will feel that ingratitude, impenitence, and unbelief, constitute the essence and enormity of your guilt. Your recollections of the goodness of God, of the sufferings of Christ,- and of the strivings of the Spirit, contrasted with your own disobedience, will so vividly exhibit to you the evil of sin, and the depravity of your heart, as to fill you with self-abhorrence, humiliation, and sorrow.

Whatever may be the degree of conviction which you feel, do not, I beseech you, trifle with its warnings ; whether your impressions be feeble or powerful, do not, by levity and unwatchfulness, weaken their influence ; let neither the loss of worldly friendship, nor the sacrifice of worldly pleasure, nor the endurance of persecution, prevent you from acting with decision and earnestness in the pursuit of salvation. If you extinguish the light that is within you, an awful state of darkness and insensibility will be the consequence ; the Holy Spirit, expelled from the heart which he designed to make his home, may abandon you for ^ver, and leave you to reap the fruits of your infatuation throughout a dark and dismal eternity.

In thus urging upon you the importance of a deep conviction of sin, let me caution you against supposing that the depth of your convictions can invest you with any claim to the divine favour. Conviction, of itself, furnishes no ground of confidence toward God, though it is necessary to prepare and fit the mind for the reception of gospel privileges. The pardon of sin will be most earnestly sought after, and most cordially welcomed by him who most acutely feels the burden of his guilt ; sanctification will be most highly appreciated by him who has the clearest insight into the depravity of his own heart ; and communion with the Father will yield the richest joy to him who is most painfully sensible of his natural alienatior from God, and of his enmity against him.

Sincere inquirers after salvation are frequently anxious to ascertain what amount of godly sorrow is necessary to constitute them real penitents. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to give a definite answer to such a question. It may, however, in general terms, be observed, that where there is such a desire after the blessings of redemption, as leads to the immediate abandonment of every sin, to frequent and wrestling prayer, and to a diligent use of all the other means of grace, there are satisfactory indications of genuine penitence, — of a penitence wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God. And as he is the Author of conviction, he will, if his influences be cherished, and his dictates obeyed, carry on his own work, and pour that divine light into the understanding which shall reveal the sinner's danger and the Saviour's glory ; a light which shall shine more and more unto the perfect day.

I cannot dismiss this subject without reminding you that the sorrows of conviction are essentially different from the agonies of despair, nor must the latter be substituted for the former It is possible for a person to have alarming apprehensions of the wrath to come, without loathing and humbling himself before God on account of his sins. Do not, therefore, imagine that a foretaste of hell is necessary to render you a true penitent. You cannot indeed feel yourself a sinner without in some measure feelin f the condemnation of sin ; but, if your repentance be genuine, it is not the condemnation of sin that chiefly occupies your thoughts, but its defilement, its ingratitude, its opposition to God. You mourn over it, not only because it deprives you of God's favour, but because it unfits you for his service.

Chapter II. Justification Faith Assurance

I am now about to address you on subjects which, if you are athirst for salvation, you will deem of unspeakable interest and importance. You need scarcely be informed of the necessity 9f obtaining correct views on the doctrine of justification by faith, and also of securing a personal interest in that great blessing. To be in error on this subject, is to be in danger ; inasmuch as it enters into the very essence of the Christian's hope, and supplies the only efficient motives to acceptable obedience. Doubtless your opinions on justification may be orthodox, while the practical influence of

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those opinions is unfelt ; nevertheless it is obvious that the comforting and hallowing effects of this doctrine cannot be experienced unless your knowledge of it be sound and Scriptural.

In attempting to define justification, it may be observed, that it consists in the sinner's deliverance from that condemnation which sin has brought upon him, and which he justly merits. As the wrath of God abideth on him who believes not, so when by faith he is justified this wrath is removed. In the act of justification that, sentence which dooms the sinner to eternal perdition is repealed, withdrawn, and blotted out. When a person is justified, he is accepted of God, received into his favour, and made the object of the divine complacency. Thus justification essentially includes the free forgiveness of sin. Indeed, the terms justification, pardon, and forgiveness, as they are used in the Scriptures, obviously mean one and the same thing. This great blessing, therefore, consists, not only in a deliverance from all liability to punishment for past sin, but in being also constituted an heir of everlasting glory.

That you may be rooted and grounded in this doctrine, let me exhort you to read the Bible, especially those portions of the New Testament which dwell on the design of the death of Christ, and on God's method of justifying sinners. Pray that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of your understanding, that yju may have a spiritual discernment of the thir gs of God, and that you may be guided into all the truth as it is in Jesus. It will, at the same time, be your privilege and your duty to avail yourself of such helps for the right understanding of the word of God on this subject, as have been furnished by men who, though not inspired, have, we believe, been taught by the Holy Ghost. You may read with great advantage Mr. Wesley's and Dr. Bunting's discourses on justification ; which, in my humble opinion, give in clear and forcible language the true sense of Scripture on this all-important doctrine. Let your inquiries be pursued, not in the spirit of cold speculation, nor for the purpose of satisfying a vain curiosity ; but let your object be to secure reconciliation with God, and to have your confidence fixed on that foundation which is laid in Zion.

Important as it is that you should rightly understand the nature of justification, it is of infinitely greater importance that you should experience its vital, saving influence. I will therefore now address myself to you on the presumption that you are anxiously proposing the inquiry, " What must I do to be saved ?" and that you are determined not to rest, — that you feel you cannot rest, — until you are assured of your acceptance with God.

You are seeking to be justified, and the gospel informs you that you are to be "justified by faith." If, indeed, you were required to bring any personal righteousness as the ground or condition of your justification, the blessing

'2 could never be yours. You feel this to be true. Instead of dreaming that your obedience to God's law can either merit or procure his favour, your most decided and painful conviction is, that you iiave no obedience to offer. Your conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, testifies against you, that you are altogether sinful. And it is as a sinner, conscious of your guilt, not as a righteous character, that you are to come to Christ for salvation. Even your penitence you cannot rest upon as a foundation of hope ; because, involving as it does the discovery of your utter destitution of all spiritual good, its consequent results are the renunciation of self, and the exclusion of every plea, of every ground of hope, except the great atonement. Throughout the universe a more monstrous contradiction cannot be found than that of a self-dependant, self-justifying penitent. " Believe, then, on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Believe immediately. The trembling jailer was not told to defer the exercise of his faith : he was commanded to believe, and that without delay, although but a few minutes previously he had attempted to commit suicide. If, therefore, you are earnestly proposing the jailer's inquiry, you are not to wait till your convictions are stronger, nor till you are more deeply humbled under a sense of sin. If you are longing to be free, if you are athirst for salvation, if you feel your need of Christ, you must come to him just as you are. You must come to him with all those corruptions of which you are conscious, and over which you mourn ; you must come with all that impenitence, pride, and hardness of heart of which you complain.

Instead of considering these evils as reasons for delaying your application to Christ, you must regard them as furnishing the most powerful motives for the immediate exercise of faith. By a believing view of the cross, the impenitence which grieves you will be removed; the pride that harasses you will be abased ; the hardness of heart that discourages you will be melted away. In the cross there is a power which gives a death-blow to every corruption ; and an attraction which despoils sin of its fascination, and concentrates the soul's affections on God and holiness : there is in the cross a glory, the rays of which banish those clouds of spiritual darkness that oppressed the sinner ; substituting for them the light of God's countenance, and the hope of heaven. This moment, then, look to Jesus with confidence ; look to him for a present salvation. The fountain of his blood is alwavs open ; it is open for sin and for uncleanness ; and as the efficacy of that blood is infinite and perpetual, so also are the ability and willingness of Christ to save you even to the uttermost. Let me caution you against expecting an assurance of pardon before you have exercised faith. Such an expectation is both unscriptural and presumptuous ; and yet many, instead of struggling against unbelief, look for a sudden and overpowering communication of the divine presence, and imagine that, until thus favoured, they must continue in darkriess and in bondage. That such manifestations are promised, is unquestionable ; that they are enjoyed is equally certain. But they are promised to faith ; and are enjoyed only by those who have already believed. It is by " believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." It is God's prerogative to impart consolation, it is your duty to believe ; and before you can receive an assurance of pardon, you must exercise faith in the atonement. First, believe ; and then, and not till then, shall the " Spirit itself bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God."

But you will probably ask, What is faith ? How am I to believe 1 Such questions are often proposed by penitents : they are questions which generally indicate a state of painful embarrassment, and frequently occasion protracted distress. Faith has been defined as a simple belief of the gospel testimony. Admitting the correctness of this very general definition, the next question which naturally arises is, What is the gospel testimony ? Some have asserted that it is the statement of facts and the system of truths which the gospel reveals to us ; and that faith is a firm persuasion of the certainty of these truths, and of the reality of these facts. This is true as far as it goes ; but it does not go sufficiently far to meet the necessities, and remove the anxieties under which you labour. You already have this firm persuasion of the

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truth of the gospel, and yet your conscience is unrelieved of its burden.

The gospel testimony includes a number of facts and truths, individually exhibiting their distinctive features, but all together constituting one harmonious and divinely arranged system. _'t is not unreasonable, then, to suppose that these facts and truths are severally intended and adapted to benefit man under his varied circumstances, feelings, and modifications of character. Is there not, therefore, some one part of this testimony, some one object which it places before us, which is pre-eminently calculated, yea, especially designed, to direct and cOmfort the inquiring penitent ?

Now one part of the gospel testimony is, that " Christ died for the ungodly ;" and some have affirmed that justifying faith, is nothing more than simply believing this or some other proposition of the same import. But you already believe this ; nevertheless you are still in bondage. Your faith, though it include the death of Christ in its objects, is even yet of too general and of too vague a character to bring you the satisfaction after which you are seeking. It is not enough for you merely to know that " Christ died for the ungodly ;" because this declaration, when compared with other passages, might have signified that Christ died only for a select number of the ungodly; and had it been so, there would have been no warrant, no ground whatever, for relying upon him as your Saviour. No invitations, however

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unlimited, no entreaties, however urgent, could rationally justify you in reposing your confidence in Christ, unless there be satisfactory grounds for believing that you are one of the ungodly " for whom Christ died."

The object of which you are in pursuit is an assurance of your personal interest in the death of the Saviour : the only ground upon which this assurance can rest is the declarations of God's word. It is true, you will not find your name in the sacred book, connected with the statement that you are one for whose .benefit the atonement was offered : but your character and condition as a sinner are described ; and whatever is affirmed to have been accomplished for every sinner was, of course, accomplished for you ; it is therefore designed for your encouragement, and is, on your part, a legitimate object of appropriation. Let us, then, endeavour to ascertain what the word of God testifies, and whether it does not authorize you to believe that Christ died for you.

The apostle Paul, speaking of Christ Jesus, calls him " my Lord ;" and in another epistle, naming him by his title of Son of God, he adds, " who loved me, and gave himself for me." Each of these passages exhibits an act of appropriating faith. Was this appropriating faith a privilege conferred exclusively on the apostle ? Certainly not. In this respect he was placed on the same level, and bound by the same conditions as every other Christian believer : and the persuasion which he felt was not a privilege peculiar to himself and the rest of the apostles ; it was common to all the faithful followers of Christ. As a development of Christian experience, it is not to be regarded as a standard placed immeasurably beyond our reach, but as an example which we are required to imitate ; as indicating a state of mind to which all may attain, and the blessedness of which all may realize.

In order to evince to you that the confidence expressed by the apostle may be as boldly exercised by you, let me direct you to declarations which, from their explicitness and universality, ou^ht at once to remove hesitation and to banish doubt. The word of God asserts that Christ " gave himself a ransom for all ;" that " he tasted death for every man ;" that " he is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world." Such is the gospel testimony ; and if faith consist in believing this testimony, then, in ordei to exercise this faith, you must believe that Christ has given himself a ransom for you, that he tasted death for you, and that he is a propitiation for your sins.

If, then, your conscience is burdened with the load of its guilt, in order to obtain relief you must, with firm confidence, cast yourself on the atonement of Christ for pardon, che:ishing the certain conviction that he is both able and willing even now to save you to the uttermost : you must from your heart believe that all your iniquities were laid upon the Son of God ; that " he bore them in his own body on the tree ;" that he " loved you, and gave himself for you," and that consequently he will now give to you " redemption in his blood, even the forgiveness of all your sins." This is justifying faith : in order to exercise it you must make a vigorous effort. Make the effort now. Try at this moment to believe, and to apply to yourself the passages you have just read. They are plain and intelligible ; they are the statements of eternal truth; and you are required to believe them exactly in the same manner that you would believe any other proposition, of the truth of which you are certain,. Faith is not enveloped in that mysteriousness and difficulty which some imagine it to possess. Its simplicity is its essential characteristic. It is its simplicity, too, at which multitudes stumble, and from which they take occasion to excuse their continuance in unbelief: they cannot divest themselves of the impression that faith is the performance of some mighty and almost impracticable achievement ; whereas it is nothing more than the awakened sinner giving full and entire credit to the plain and unequivocal testimony which God has given of his Son.

The act of believing will, of course, be more or less energetic and intense, accordingly as you feel the importance of the proposition believed, and as you perceive its bearing on your own interests and happiness. The immediate effects ff faith will also be proportioned to the vigour with which it is exercised, and to the strength of previous convictions. If you, then,

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conscious of your guilt, believe with due energy and intenseness, that " Christ was crucified for your sins," and that you " have redemption in his blood," you will " have peace with God," a? a direct and necessary consequence. You will indeed discover that there is an intimate connection between the exercise of faith, and the possession of peace. How, indeed, can the sinner any longer groan under the burden of his guilt, when he has the persuasion that Christ has borne that burden for him ? How can the self-condemned penitent expect the curse of the law to be his doom, when he believes that Christ " has redeemed him from that curse, by having been made a curse in his stead ?"

By thus showing the connection which naturally exists between the exercise of faith and the attainment of peace, let it not be said that the agency of the Spirit, as " the Comforter," is denied ; nor that the necessity of that agency is lessened. The heavenly peace which calms the sinner's conscience is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and therefore the gift of God. But God, in the bestowment of his gifts, requires, on our part, the use of means which he himself has appointed, and which are also adapted to iheir end. God, in all his dispensations, acts rationally, not arbitrarily. There is a congruity in the operations of grace, as well as in the operations of nature. When the penitent sinner believes that portion of the divine testimony which is more directly applicable to his case, God gives to that testimony a vitality and a power which render it effectual. Through its medium he communicates the blessing which it unfolds and promises ; and thus the pardoned rebel, while reflecting on the process through which he has passed, regards the acquirement of his peace as a direct effect of pardon, and the bestowment of it as absolutely divine.