For thy names sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great....Psalm xxv. 11. STRANGE plea! GREAT is mine iniquity, therefore pardon it! Such an address at a throne of grace never rose from a self-righteous heart! No: with the the pharisee of old they are ready to say, "thank God, I am not such a sinner as David was: I never committed the horrid crimes of murder and adultery: his iniquity was great indeed;" it was so. But souls enlightened by the Spirit of truth, to see the spirituality of the holy law of God, will agree to our Saviour's gloss upon it; that lust is adultery in the heart, and anger a species of murder in the soul....Matt. v. 28. "Out of the heart proceed murders, adulteries." &c....Matt. xv. 19. Sensible of the desperate wickedness of our heart; eonvinced of the exceeding sinfulness of sin; who will dare plead, pardon mine iniquity for it is LITTLE? Is it against a little God sin is committed? Is a little wrath revealed against sin? Did a little Christ die for us? Is a little hell the punishment of sin? Lord forbid that we should think little of sin, or that iniquity should appear little in our eyes; the iniquity of each of us all is great. O, says a poor sin-burdened soul, mine iniquity is great, too great to be forgiven; so the father of lies might suggest to David, but he believed him not: great as his iniquity was, he did not aggra. vate his crimes, by rejecting God's declarations of mercy, invitations of grace, and promises of pardon; he confesses his great iniquity; he pleads pardon for it; on what does he found his plea? FOR THY NAME'S SAKE, O LORD; thou hast taken upon thee that precious name JESUS: "thou wilt be SALVATION to the ends of the earth.".... Psalm xcviii. 3. Thy blood cleanseth from all sin; wash me in it and I shall be whiter than snow; ALL manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: O, while these glorious truths stand upon record, I cannot doubt, I dare not despair; the belief of them causes me to pray and plead, and hope: GREAT as mine iniquity is, GREAT as my distress is, yet thou art A GREAT GOD AND SAVIOUR, to pardon my sin and give peace to my soul; was ever any sinner sent to hell with such a plea in his mouth? No: that is impossible ; for the word of God cannot be broken, which says, "if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to förgive us our sins.".... John i. 9. Therefore heaven rings with acclamations of joy from such pardoned, glorified sinners. O, that we may join them, in giving glory unto him, who loved us and washed us from our sins, in his own blood....Rev. i. 5. No sin however great, I'll plead his cleansing blood. Pardon, O Lord, my soul, O make my wounded spirit whole, M. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crowon of life....Rev. ii. 10. THIS text has been seized by Arminian hands, dragged to their mint, the impress of man's faithfulness struck on their minds, as his title to a crown of life; and pressed into their service to militate against the electing love of God, and finished salvation by Christ ONLY; O christian, does not your heart rise with indignation against such a self-exalting notion! It is the very dregs of unfaithfulness to Christ; are you not ready to spurn it with a holy vehemence, saying, get to hell, from whence you sprung? What! my faithfulness on earth, the cause, the condition, the merit of my being crowned in heaven? O, my law-fulfilling, justice-satisfying, sin-atoning JESUS; can I ever think so meanly of thy agony and bloody sweat; thy cross and passion; thy precious death and burial; thy glorious resurrection and ascension! And of the coming of the Holy Ghost, as though all this obtained no more for me than to make way for my faithfulness, to entitle me to a crown of glory! O, Christ glorifying Spirit, never didst thou teach such a diminutive thought of Christ's finished salvation. Forbid that my soul should ever indulge such a self-exalting notion; enable me to attend my Lord's gracious words. What means he by our being faithful? To believe on him to death, to exercise our faith constantly on him as our dear Saviour, whose blood has atoned for our sins; whose righteousness justifies our persons, has perfectly reconciled us to God, and ever lives to love, pray for, and save us to the uttermost; steadily to believe his word of truth which exalts his grace and love; sincerely to obey his precepts which adorn his gospel; to live upon him as our only title to glory, as our head of influence, and to receive out of his fulness grace upon grace, to ripen us for glory; thus faithfully to confess him to be our all in all and ourselves nothing at all in the work of salvation; to be faithful to his advice, "after ye have done all these things, say we are"....what? Perfect sinless creatures, who have our own faithfulness to plead at death for a crown of glory? O, no! This would be most arrogant unfaithfulness to such a precious Saviour, even if we were called to the stake for his truth; but even martyrs, in the midst of the flames, must say, 66 we are unprofitable servants."....Luke xvii. 10. To be faithful unto death is to renounce the filthy rags of our own righteousness, all our own faithfulness, cleaving to Christ, saying, O that I may win Christ and be found in him, who gave me grace to be faithful, and graciously promises a crown of life of his free gift....Rom. vi. 23. Sin shall not bow my spirit down, Nor chase me from my Lord; His merey lifts my spirit up To hear, and trust his word. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen, let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation....Judges x. 14. A SEVERE sarcasm from the Lord to apostate professors; it causes a hell upon earth to a renewed soul to hear and feel just upbraidings from the Lord of heaven: this is one of his severest chastisings to his children; here is an awful charge and a severe reproof; the Lord keep us clear of the one that we fall not under the other. Consider, 1st. The charge; it is idolatry: they had gods of their own choosing; for the Lord's sake and for our souls sake, let us not think we are in no danger of falling into this sin: it is committed by professors every day; aged Paul wept over such; though they professed Christ, yet they were enemies to his cross; "their belly was their God; their hearts were set upon earthly things."....Phil. iii. 19. Such are not content with Christ as their portion, to live in fellowship with him, to walk in self-denied love and obedience before him, and to derive all their comfort and happiness from him: the lusts of the flesh they gratify; earthly things have their hearts: thus they give up the Lord, and give into idolatry against him. O, what-a most heinous crime is this! How much practised! How little thought of, deplored and deprecated! Christians, where are your hearts? Who has your affections, God, the flesh, or the world? If not God, depend on it, you will soon, very soon hear from him in such a way as will be awfully distressing. Consider, 2d. The reproof: a day of tribulation will come; when sorrow and distress seize on your minds, then God is a blessed refuge; but O, then to think, alas! I have forsaken the Lord, have preferred other lovers to him; chosen other gods beside him, the world has had my heart and my hope, I have lived to the flesh, I have minded earthly things, and indulged covetous desires. Well, but I read, notwithstanding all this," the children of Israel cried unto the Lord saying, we have forsaken our God and served idols."....Judges x. 10. Ah! but mind the Lord's cutting answer, "go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen, let them deliver you." A severer reproof is scarce to be found in the bible; O, lay it to heart: deeply consider its import: do not, I pray you, cast away this with contempt as very legal; for, consider, the Lord though as your Father may everlastingly love your persons in Christ, yet he hates your conduct, and will make you smart for it in your conscience: true it is said, "the Lord's soul was grieved fo rthe misery of his children."....Judges x.16. But, O, consider the great misery they must feel to grieve the soul of the Lord: what a compassionate Saviour is our Christ," in all our afflictions he is afflicted."....Isa. Ixiii. 9. Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus....Col. iii. 17. I HAVE Sometimes thought, how is it possible that a believer in Christ can ever wilfully and deliberately commit any one sin? It is hardly to be conceived that such can live and walk under the power of sin: I am sure all sin is as contrary to the nature of a new born soul, as heaven to hell: yet nothing is more plain from the word of God and the experience of his saints, than that sin dwells in them; but they are solemnly forbid, to “let sin reign in them, that they should obey it in the lusts thereof."....Rom. vi. 12. And if our souls are not striving against sin, and pressing after holiness, I know not where to find one text in the word of God, to encourage us to believe and hope that we are the children of God: I dread not the satanic grin of licentious Antinomians; does their infectious breath pronounce this LEGAL? It only proclaims their unregenerate enmity against God's truth, his grace and his glory. Ye believers in, and lovers of the Lord Jesus, here is a short, but most blessed and comprehensive rule for your walk and conduct. Does satan tempt, the world allure, and the flesh lust? Gratify them if ye can, only see that you do it according to this apostolic rule: yea, get drunk, game, go to plays, routs, take your full swing in carnal pleasures and sensual delights, and mix with the wicked and profane, only see that you do all this as here commanded in the name of the Lord Jesus. Does your heart recoil? It must, if the name of the Lord Jesus is music to your ears, and the joy of your soul; you can no more take delight in these things, than in the music of hell. O, the matchless charms of that precious name! Lord, never, never suffer them to wear off our hearts; thy name charms away the power of sin, the love of the world, and the pleasures of sense: it charms our souls into the presence of God, fellowship with God, and into the joys of heaven; right welcome are we to God, fully reconciled to him, and perfectly accepted with him, in the precious name of the Lord Jesus. O my dear, dear Saviour, it is in thy precious name my heart would now indite; O for the pen of a ready writer to display the glories of thy precious name, my King and my Lord; may the readers of these meditations find the odour of thy name in them, "as ointment poured forth, that they may love thee."....Song i. 3. To us sinners, "the name of Jesus is above every name."....Phil. ii. 9. Thy words and deeds, thou matchless This wicked world with all its charms, Keep me encircled in thine arms, M. My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord....Psalm civ. 34. SWEET meditation of the Lord causes gladness in the Lord, inspires us with the love of the Lord, and inclines us to ascribe the glory of all we enjoy to the Lord. It is said of Constantine the great, that after God had honored him with many victories, as the effigies of other emperors were set up in a triumphant manner with their victories engraven upon their loins, he desired that his might be set in a posture of prayer, kneeling, that he might manifest to the world that he attributed all his victories, more to his prayers than his sword; this was the result of sweet meditation. What great gain do souls reap by spiritual meditation? Strangers to this delightful exercise know not others' gain nor their own loss; a day spent without some meditation of the sinner's Redeemer and Saviour, is a day lost; for Jesus gets no glory from our hearts; we get no comfort from his love: Paul the aged, exhorts his son Timothy, MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS....1 Tim.iv.15. What things? The scriptures, which testify of Christ and the peace and salvation which are brought unto poor sinners by him: O, how sweet is this! Saints in all ages have one and the same delightful object to meditate upon the soul under the sweet exercise of grace knows no end of it; nor how to leave off meditating on HIM, who hath loved us poor sinners with an everlasting love, and saved us with an everlasting salvation; his person is WONDERFUL, God and man in one Christ; the love of Christ passeth knowledge; the offices of Christ as King, Priest, Prophet, Mediator, Surety, Redeemer, Saviour, how glorious in their nature! How interesting to us sinners! The blood of Christ, how precious! His righteousness, how perfect! His death, how affecting! His resurrection, how joyful! The salvation of Christ, how comforting! His intercession, how prevailing! His grace in the heart, how sinsubduing, and soul-purifying! His almighty power in keeping us through faith unto eternal salvation, how animating! and the perfect sight and full enjoyment of Jesus in glory, how transporting! Contemplations on these blessed subjects will cause us to cry out with David, "my meditation of him shall be sweet, I will be glad in the Lord." Now, do you complain for want of gladness in the Lord? It is because your heart is carried away after other things; you meditate too much on them, and too little on your God, who saith, "I will not forget thee."....Isa. xlix. 15. My soul is never well, but when Tho' in myself I'm nought but sin, |