invite all to search that, as well as the holy Scriptures and we do not hesitate to say of this prayer in particular, what the prophet speaks of the inspired volume, “To the law, and to the testimony; if Ministers speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”* Next, let us take this prayer as a test whereby to try our own experience. We may now discard from our minds all that this or that Minister may lay down as necessary to our salvation. We have here, what no man can reasonably dispute, our own acknowledgments. We have here as beautiful, as just, as scriptural a summary of experimental religion, as ever was penned from the foundation of the world. The man that from his inmost soul can utter this prayer, is a real Christian. Whatever be his views with respect to some particular doctrines, (those I mean which are distinguished by the name of Calvinism) his heart is right with God. Whether he admit or re Isai. viii. 20. ject those abstruser points, he is accepted of God; and if he were to die this moment, he would be in heaven the next: the termination of his warfare would be to him the commencement of everlasting felicity. But is this the experience of us all? Would to God it were! All will repeat the words: but it is one thing to repeat, and another to feel them. Let us then bring ourselves to this test; and never imagine that we are in a Christian state, till we can appeal to God, that this prayer is the very language of our hearts. In examining ourselves respecting it, let us inquire, whether from our inmost souls we lament the numberless transgressions of our lives, and the unsearchable depravity of our hearts? When we cry to God for mercy as miserable offenders, do we abhor ourselves for our guilt, and tremble for our danger? Do we indeed feel that we deserve the wrath of Almighty God? Do we feel this not only on some particular occasions, but, as it were, daily and hourly? Is the consciousness of it wrought into us and become the habit of our minds, so that we can find no peace but in crying unto God, and pleading with him the merits of his dear Son? Is Christ, in this view, "pre-cious" to our souls ?* IS HE "our wisdom, HE our righteousness, HE our sanctification, HE Our complete redemption ?"+ Having nothing in ourselves, do we make HIM our "all in all ?" Are we at the same time ❝renewed in the spirit of our minds ?" Do we hate sin, not merely as it is destructive, but as it is defiling, to the soul? Do we account "the service of God to be perfect freedom ;" and instead of wishing his law reduced to the standard of our practice, do we desire to have our practice raised to the standard of his law? Is it our labour to"shine as lights in a dark world," and "to shew forth in our own conduct the virtues: of him that has called us ?" Let us all put these questions to ourselves; and they will soon shew us what we are. If this be not the state of our souls, we are in an aw-ful condition indeed. Our very best ser-* 1 Pet. ii. 7. † 1.Cor. i. 30. + Col. iii. 118. 1.Pet. ii. 9. a'gera's. vices have been nothing but a solemn mockery in our prayers we have insulted, rather than worshipped, the Majesty of Heaven; we have come before our God "with a lie in our right hand;"* O that it might please God to discover to us the heinousness of our guilt; and that we might all be "pricked to the heart," ere it be too late! Let us, the very next time we attempt to use this prayer, take notice of the frame of our minds: let us mark the awful incongruity between our professions and our actual experience and let a sense of our hypocrisy lead us to repentance. Thus shall the returning seasons of worship be attended with a double advantage to our souls: in praying for what we ought to seek, we shall be stirred up to seek it in good earnest: and through the tender mercy of our God we shall attain the experience of those things, which too many of us, it is to be feared, have hitherto hypocritically asked and ignorantly condemned. Isaiah xliv. 20. |