1992 Issue 9 - Sermons of Benjamin Palmer: The Righteous Scarcely Saved - Counsel of Chalcedon
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Transcript of 1992 Issue 9 - Sermons of Benjamin Palmer: The Righteous Scarcely Saved - Counsel of Chalcedon
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8/12/2019 1992 Issue 9 - Sermons of Benjamin Palmer: The Righteous Scarcely Saved - Counsel of Chalcedon
1/6
Andi the Righteous scarcely
be saved,
where shall the
ungodly
and the sinner
appear?
The argument of Peter
in
the text is
presentedin he strongest fonn oflogic,
from
the
lesser
to the greater
probability. It is put interrogatively,
asa
direct appeal to themoral udgment
of
the
reader-carrying with it a
challenge
to
resist the conclusion, i f
t
be
possible. This is felt
by
the writer to
be
so irresistible,
that
the utterance
of
it may be
safely left with those to
whomtheargumentisaddressed: "For
the timeis come
that
udgment must
begin
at
the house
of
God;
and
i t irst
begin
at
us,
what
shall the
endbeaf hem
that
obey
not the
gospel
of
God?
Andi he righteous
scarcely be saved, where shall theungodly
and sinner appear?
It is necessary
just
here
to
intimate
a caution in the interpretation of the
text. Evidently
it
must
not
be
understood as implying any defect
in
the provisions
of
the gospel,
or
as
clouding with suspicion the cenainty
of
the
believer s
salvation. The
atonement for sin is perfect; the
Mediatorstanding between us and God
is
fully competent to the trust assumed;
the righteousness by which we are
justified, is commensurate with the
law we
had
broken: cenainly, there is
not ting wanting
in
this pan of the
Gospel
scheme. So,
when
this
redemption comes to be applied. The
agent is the Holy Spirit, equal with the
Fatherand the Sonin power and glory,
whose work must therefore be perfect.
All the
grace needed
in
our
sanctification is treasured
in
Christ,
that it may be dispensed-and the
Holy Spirit dwells within us, to make
the immediate application. When too
we come to the
final
stage of this
salvation, the glory into which the
saint shall be introduced is already
prepared for tim through
our
Lord's
ascension into heaven. (John 14:2-4 )
The certainty of this salvation cannot,
therefore, be impugued. It is secured
by the covenant of promise of Him
who is not a man that he should lie,
neither the son of man that
he should
repent: hat
He
said,
and
shall He
not
do
it? Or,
hath
He
spoken,
and
shall
He
not
makeitgood? (Numbers 23:19) This
assurance is made doubly sure, by the
close articulation of he gospel scheme,
in which all its pans are fitted the one
to the otherwith the nicest adjustment,
and the unity pervading the whole
displays the wisdom with w tich it was
desigued. Whilst the distribution
of
8 THE
COUNSEL
of Chalcedon October, 1992
offices amongst the persons of the
Godhead, is seen to be just what is
needful to give efficiency to the plan,
and
guarantees the accomplishment
of the end which is
proposed.
Whatever men may be intended by the
Apostle whenhespeaks of he righteous
as "scarcely saved," no distrust can be
entenained
as
to
the completeness
of
that salvation revealed
in
"glorious
gospel of the blessed God.
But there is a human side in this
salvation on w tich
man
is the actor, as
well as a divine side on which God is
the agent. The Scripture saith, work
out
your own salvation
with fear
and
trembling;Jar it
is
God which
worketh
in
you both
t
will
and
to do
of His
good
pleasure.
(Phil. 2:12,13). It is, I
conceive, upon this human side, where
the agency and the experience of the
Christian are brought
under
review,
we are
to
find the true interpretationof
the text. Howevercompletethescheme
of
divine mercy,
and
however cerrain
the salvation t provides for the sinner,
every believer finds mat, so far as his
own pan in the work is involved, he is
but "scarcely saved. Let us look into
this a little.
I
We
are made
to see that there
are
real obstacles to
be
overcome,
in
any plan of salvation which God
may devise. It is
not
proper to speak
of degrees of power
in
omnipotence,
and therefore all things
may be
regarded as alike
e sy
to God. But
there is a marked difference in the
Scriptural account of God's works,
when viewed as exhibitionsofphysical
or of moral power. We are presented
with the difficulties of the latter, that a
deeper impression may be made
of
he
power which subdues them. Thus the
work
of
creation, which lies so far
beyond the compass of reason that it
can
be
accepted only through faith,
(Heb.
11
:3) is yet presentedin5ctipture
as requiring only a word. In each of
the days, me creative act is described
thus, and
God said,
10r
He spake,
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and it was done He commanded, and t
stood fast.
n
(Psalm 33:9) But in
redemption there was counsel; as
though wisdom must be broughtin to
consider and
to
surmount embarrass
ments. It was a scheme gradually
unfolded through a period of four
thousand years, before its completion
in
the sufferings and death of Christ
upon the cross. Nay, a language must
be constructedin he types and symbols
of a figurate economy, through which
the methods of saving
grace
might be
revealed to the world. How wonderful
the contrast And God means the
Christian
to
understand the obstacles,
over which
the
great salvation is
brought to his door in the sweet offers
ofthe gospel.
Descending from this broad survey,
you
may
choose
to
enterinto the details
of
this amazing scheme. I warn
you
that difficulties will thicken upon every
step of the investigation until, it may
be, you will pause in alarm. When
justice, truth and holiness have united
in the decree, "the soul that sinneth, it
shall die, -how shall mercy and love
protest against it, without a schism in
the attributes of God which it would
be blasphemy to suggest? Do you fall
back
upon
the
idea
of
SUBSTITUTION?
Then explain the
embarrassment of expiatingthe sins of
the guilty by the sufferings of
an
innocent party. Would it not be
tyranny in the lawgiver
to
lay this
dreadful service upon any who should
be unwilling to assume it? And could
any creature lawfully propose it of his
own accord? Perhaps, if the law-giver
could himself achieve the task-if he
who has the deepest interest in
preserving the integrity of his own
administration could
endure
the
penalty-in that case, the repugnance
to justice would be lost in the
saClifice
which lays the suffering exactly upon
him.
But
do you not see that you have
risen now above the human plane to
the divine? You havefound the Son of
God, so far one with the Fatheras to be
identified with the Lawgiver; and yet
so
far
distinct from the Father, that He
may freely offer to take the sinner's
place.
But
then
ow shall the Wordbemade
flesh?"(john l:14) ForuntiltheDivine
is
lso
human, the substitute is not yet
found. Need I tell
you
that you have
just struck upon the deep mystery of
the Incarnation? PaSSing this by,
however, do you clearly see how this
substitute shall really
feel
the shame of
the sinsHe has assumed? Thesuffering
you may conceive s coming upon
Him from without; but the shame is
within. Here is the dilemma; how can
He, who was holy, harmless,
undefiled," encounter this strange
emotion of shame? And yet without it
how can He be said to put His soul in
our soul's stead, as a true substitute
must?
Without pressing further these
difficulties, which lie in the SCripture
facts ofincarnation, substitution, and
vicarious atonement.
turn your
thoughts a moment to theoffice which
the Holy Spirit discharges in
our
salvation. Evidently, His agency must
be omnipotent; for it is His function to
give life-to make the sinner a new
creature in Christ
Jesu5-to
raise him
from his death in sin, that he may
walk
in newness of
life.
" (Romans 6:4-
6)
Yet
in all this work of Almighty
power, He must not disturb the
autonomyofman'snature. The sinner
must be plucked from the jaws ofhell,
and a complete change be wrought in
his whole character; whilst not a pin of
the delicate machinery shall be jarred
from its place, in the spontaneity and
responsibility of the acts which he
shall
put
forth
underthe
impulse ofall
this grace.
I sweep over these points rapidly,
having no purpose beyond that of
passing them in review. They are but
illustrations
of
what must be
surmountedinanyplanofmercywhich
may be revealed to us; and
it
is in the
solution of these and kindred
difficulties, that the gospel of Christ
becomes
the
power of
God to
salvation
to
every
one
that believeth. They are so
brought home to us,
in
our Christian
experience, that we cannot suppress
the feeling of being "scarcely saved.
Indeed theysometimesso frown
upon
us with their rugged grandeur, that we
smile at the flippancy of the assaults
which infidelity has ever made upon
them. Dr. Payson used to say that he
could write from his own experience
against Christianity, ifhe chose
to
do
it, with a power that would put to
shame all
that infidels had
ever
dreamed. And it is true. The man,
who has drawn into his ownexperience
what Divine grace has achieved
in
order
to
secure his salvation, could
furnish the skeptic with difficulties
that would blanch his check with
terror. Yetthey have all beenconquered
in the gospel of he graceofGod, as the
believer with a blessedexperience fully
knows. It is is prerogative therefore
to say to the sinner who rejects this
gospel, these difficulties remain with
their eternal pressure against you. By
this gospel the Chlistian is only saved;
what then shall the
end
be
of hem that
do
11 t
obey it? The oppressive silence
which follows this interrogatory, is the
most solemn condemnation that can
be pronounced.
II. The righteous are scarcely
saved, in view of the struggle
with
which each
passed into the
Kingdom
of God. What a long period of apathy
and indifference, duting which God
was pleading for admission into the
heart that was barred against His
approach
What
resistance of motives
drawn from three worlds,
the
attractions of heaven, the tortures of
hell, and the emptiness
of
earth
against which three-fold battery the
human spirit has the power to hold
out in obstinate siege Over what a
October, 1992 THE COUNSEL
of
Chalcedon
t
9
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dreary waste memory travels, when t
brings up the years ofitnpenitence and
unbelief, during which we listened to
the denunciations of wrath and to the
pleadings of love, alike unmoved by
the pains of he one and by the pathos
of he other Then followed conviction
for sin, and the sense of guilt. Canwe
not
recall
the
unutterable
wretchedness,
when
we were first
overwhelmed by
the
shame and
disgrace ofall this? And wasitrelieved
when
we awoke to
an
equal sense
of
our
helplessness, and gloom settled
fora time into the blackness of despair?
Is it difficult to reproduce the agony of
those fruitless attempts to escape the
bondage of
sin
and the curse of the law
under which we groaned? What self
inflicted
tortures goading the
conscience to remorse,
in
the vain
hope that
remorse might transfoun
into a peace-giving repentance What
a strain
upon
the whole nature,
in
those spasms ofeffort to lay hold upon
the cross with the faith which would
make the Saviour oursl Truly then the
kingdom
of
heaven brol,e
in
upon us,
as one expresses it, with a mighty
movement
and
impulse," and
it
was
with a species
of
violence that we took
it
by
force. (Matt.
11
:12)
Can
the
hristian
recall these pangs of the
second birth,
when
he passed from
spiritual death
to
spiritual life, without
feeling
that
he was scarcely saved?"
And
he will read, in that experience,
the certain doom of those who have
never felt the anguish of this middle
passage from
sin to holiness.
ill. The righteous are scarcely
saved,
In
the severiry oj theconjlict
with indwelling sin, with the world
and with Satan.
It would cover the
whole personal history of he Christian,
to develop the
three points here
specified. Nothing can be
attempted
beyond
the
merest suggestion.
As
to
the first of the three, the new life is
infused by the Holy Spirit, and then is
left
to
its own aw ofgrowth: or to vary
the form of expression, the principle
of holiness is implanted, which by the
law of
expansion pervades the whole
nature and takes possession of every
faculty. Throughout life, until death
brings a blessed release, the antagonism
exists between what the Apostle calls
"the flesh" and "the spirit": jor
heflesh
lusted
against
the
spirit,
and
the
spirit
against
the flesh:
and
these
are
contrary
the
one
to the other, so
that
ye cannot do
the
things
thatyewould."(Gal.
v:
17). To
the
end of
his career
on
earth, the
believer
is
'
putting
off, concerning
the
Jonnerconversation,
the
old
man which is
corrupt according to the deceitful
lusts
and is putting on the new man, which
after God; Is
created in
righteousness
and
tnie holiness.
(Eph.
4: 22,24). The
Christian does
not
live, who cannot
enter into the sad complaint
of
Paul: I
see another
law
in my members warring
against the law ojmy mind, and
bringing
me
into captivity
to
the law
oj
sin which
is
in
my
members. Oh
wretched man that
I
am who shall ddivermeJrom the
body
oj
this death?" (Romans 7:14-25.)
The conflict with the world is severe
in two particulars. There is , for
example, it obtrusiveness (intrusion).
We are so much under the dontinion
of
sense, always unfavorable to
the
actingoffaith. Through the five senses,
this world of matter is ever rushing
in
upon the world ofspirit. In vain do we
seek to shut down the gates and
bar
outtheinvader. Withprofanerudeness
it
tramples upon
our
seasons of holy
meditationandsecretcommunion with
God-thrusting its trifles upon our
notice, and with boisterous
. positiveness asserting that to
be
real
which we have
sO
often found to be
empty as the shadow. In addition to
which there is the numbing influence
of
the world, so unfriendly to piety in
all its maxims, opinions, habits and
laws. Here we are-in the world, with
no power to separate ourselves from
i t ~ w i t .all the energies tasked in
resisting the snares by which we may,
10 I m COUNSEL
of
Chalcedon I October, 1992
at any moment, be entrapped.
And what shall I say
of
the Devil?
Most certainly not that which the
shallow skepticism of the day openly
pr
ocIaims---that he is a myth, a dark
superstition, a fantastiC specter
conjured
up
by fear
in ah
uncritical
age, the traditional legend ofa gloomy
and ascetic past. It was the lot
of
Him
whom we call our Master
and
Lord, to
enter into conflict with this most
personal of all foes: and there can be
no testimony more unimpeachable
than of the witness who declines, out
of the bosom of the dismal strife, that
Satan is
"the
prince of the
power
oj the
alr,
the spirit that
now
worketh
in
the
children
oj
disobedience. CEph.2:2;]ohn
12:31). With fearfulsigniticance
he
is
even styled "God
oj this
world," having
power to "blind the minds oj them that
believe not.
(2 Cor.
4:
4). The reality
of jurisdiction which this
feU
usurper .
has acquired over the forces ofnature,
is more than shadowed to us in the
temptation of our Redeemer himself;
when he
"took
Him
into
an exceeding
high mountain and
showed
Him
all the
kingdoms oj the world and the glory oj
them;
and saUl
unto
Him, all these things
willI
give thee,
i hou wilt
fall
down and
wo
rship
me.
" (Matt. 4:8,9). 1 have
no
speculations to offer as
to
the mode in
which this vision was accomplished.
The wonder is equally great,
and
eqoally attests the stretch of Satanic
power, whether we suppose
an
actual
spectacular display before the eye of
the
body-or
a mental conception
wrought through the imagination
alone .The point to be noticed is that,
in
either case, it
was
a
work
accomplished by the Devil: and it gives
the clue to much that is experienced
by the
Christian
who,
through
temptation, enters into the sorrow
of
his Lord. Who can describe the limit
of power granted him to inflame the
passiOns ofmen, to stimulate lust and
desire, to till the intagination with
pictures of sin, to enter into men's
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dreams and to pass the most weird
apparitions before the eye closed in
sleep? Nay, when the arts ofsolicitation
have all beenexhausted, what resources
of
malice are displayed
in
harassing
those whom he cannot destroy What
horrible suggestions, full
of
filth or
full
of
blasphemy, are suddenly thrown
into the mind-which recoils from it
with
a degree of horror showing them
to be arrows from thebow of an enemy
withoutl But say-if a Christian can
come out of a life-long conflict with
this triple conspiracy of the world, the
flesh, and the devil, without the
conviction riveted upon
him of being "scarcely
saved?"
IV. That he is
scarcely saved, isproved
by the
severe
discipline
to which
he
is subject
during life. Trials
doubtless, areallotted to
all: forthe doublereason ....
that by
the interlacing of .
human
relations the
piousandthewickedare
bound
up
together
and because this Divine
providence operates
chiefly through natural
and
established laws,
under which all men live alike. But
there is this fundamental difference
between the sorrows
of
the righteous
and ofthe
wicked: that the fonner are
embraced within the covenant which
God has made with His people, and
fall therefore
under
the ministration
of
love. I scarcely know what should
excite a deeper gratitude, than the
tenderness and unction with which
this distinction is pressed upon us
in
the Word of God.
If
you
tum
to the
Old Testament, there is the testim
on
y
of
the Eighty-ninth Psalm:
if
hi
s
children forsake
my
law,
and
walk
not in
my
judgments;
if
they break my statutes,
and
keep
not my comntandments; Olen
will I
visit
their transgreSSion
with
the
rod,
and tl1eir
iniquity with stripes:
hearts,
without putting us
to
the
nevertl1eless
my loving-kindness
will Inot torture. What those suffer whom God
utterly
take from him, nor
suffer my
undertakes to purify, must remain a
faithfulness to fail-my
covenant will I
secret betwixt Him who inflicts and
not break, nor alter the thing that is gone them who endure. "Theheart knoweth
out
of my lips. (vv. 30-34). Uyou tum its
own
bitterness;" and can we come
to
the New Testament, there is the ever forth from the pressure of grief and
classicalpassage
in
Hebrews: 'jorwhom pain, without knowing that we are
the
Lord
loveth, He
chasteneth,
and "scarcely saved?" The teaching power
scourgeth every
son
whom He receiveth
.
there is
in
sorrow-
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There is, too, a blessed sense
in
which
these works, follow the believer
into
heaven, there to receive a gradous
reward.
Our
Lord intimates
as mu
ch
in the
parable of the talents, when to
him who had
used well his trust
it
was
said: Well
done,
thou good
and faithful
servant; thou has been over
a ew things,
Iwill make thee ruler overmany things
enter thou into the
joy of hy Lord (Matt
25:21,23). And the voice,
whichjohn
heard from heaven, sweeps away the
last vestige of doubt: Write,
blessed
are
the
dead
which die in the Lord, from
henceforth:yea,
saith
the Spirit,
that
they
may
rest from their
labors;
and
their
works do follow
them.
(Rev. 14: 13)
But
whilst these
Christian
works
are
recognized
as
evidences
of
ourstate before God, and as
proofs of personal zeal in
the Divine service, they are
entirely disallowed as
forming any
part of
the
ground of our
acceptancein
the day of judgment. For
other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which
is
Jesus Christ.
Now i any
man
build
upon
this
foundation
gold,
silver,
precious
stones, wood, hay
stubble;
every
man's
work
shall
be made manifest-for
the day
shall declare it,
because it shall
be
revealed by
fire, and the fire shall t y
tveryman'sworkofwhatsortitis. Ifany
man's work abide which
he
hath built
thereupon, he shall
receive a
reward.
If
any
man's work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss;
but
he himself shall be
saved,
yet so as
by
fire. I Cor. 3: 11-15).
How prophetic of this separation of
the believer from
the
imperfect works
he
has wrought,
is that solemn
disclaimer
of
hem whichhe himself s
constrained to
make
in the hour of
death
At no moment does the
redemption of our Lord jesus Christ
seem
so
precious, as when the curtain
is lifted
which
hides the realities of he
eternal world. The language of every
departing saint is, not
by
works
of
righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us by
the
washingofregeneration and renewing
of
the
Holy Ghost-which
he shed upon
us abundantly,
through Jesus
Otrist our
Saviour.
(Titus
3: 5,6).
What can this
repudiation of his own righteousness,
prophetic of a more public divorce at
the judgment, import-except that
salvation is purely of grace?
In no
uncertain
tone is the
testimony
delivered that, so far as his personal
agency is involved, every Christian is
compelled to feel that
he
is scarcely
saved.
In the application of this fact,
according to the Apostle's argument,
it
will e best to e pointed and brief. If
the righteous scarcely be saved, where
shall the ungodly and the
sinner
oppear?
Before this solemn question is
answered,let the advantages possessed
by '
the righteous be carefully
considered.
l.They
are scarcely saved, not
withstanding their union with Christ
from whom life is constantly derived.
The preceding exposition was intended
to free the gospel from the suspidon of
incompleteness. But 1am anxious that
you shall appredate its sufficiency in
all its partS.
What
a splendid gain it is
12
I
TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon
t
October, 1992
to
the
believer to befound in Otrist, not
having
his own
righteousness which
is
of
the law, but
that
which is through thefaith
of Christ,
the
righteousness which
is
of
Godbyfai.th? (Phil. 3:9.) What vantage
ground can be higher,
than to be
complete
in
Him who is the head of all
prinCipality
and power"-in
whom
dwelleth the fulness
of
the
Godhead
bodily? (Co\. 2: 9,10). Who can be
safe, if he be not-unto whom jesus
Christ has been made
ofGod
wisdom,
and
righteousness,
andsanctificatfon,
and
.
redemption
? I Cor. 1 30). Yet in the
face
of all this, the Christ ian confesses
with Peterthatheis scarcely
saved.
What
possible hope
can then be cherished by
those who
are
without
Christ,
being aliens
from the
commonwealth
of
Israel,
and
strangers from the
covenants
of promised,
having no hope,
andwidwutGodin rheworld?
(Eph. 2: 12). ' Is not the
argument well put by the
Apostle, and can its forcebe
evaded?
2. The righteous are
scarcely saved,
notwith
standing the indwelling of
the Holy Ghost to sanctify
and
glorify.
The Christian has, in this presence of
the Comforter, a double assurance of
his salvation. He is given as the seal
and pledge of this: in whom, says the
Apostle, after that ye believed, ye were
sealed with that holy
Spirit of
promise,
which
is
the earnest
of
our inheritance,
until the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto
the praise
ofHis glory.
(Eph. 1:13.) And we can see that
nature of he guarantee
in
the fact that
the Holy Spirit is
the
quickener, the
fountain of spiritual life to those
in
whom he abides. Yet
with
this perfect
assurance of salvation, in the actual
presence and official working of the
agent by whom salvation is applied, it
is still most solemnly true that the
righteous are scarcely saved. What
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8/12/2019 1992 Issue 9 - Sermons of Benjamin Palmer: The Righteous Scarcely Saved - Counsel of Chalcedon
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must the end be of hose who not only
"have done despite unto the SpiJit of
grace:
but
who (so far as they can
testify from any expeJience of His
power,) have
not so
much
as heard
whetherbe any Holy Spirit? (Acts 19:2)
f
they are "scarcely saved" in whom
there isawell-spJing oflife,how utterly
dead must they remain upon whom
the Holy Spirit ha th never breathed?
3. The righteous are scarcely saved,
notwithstanding the entire change
wrought
n
their character and desires,
at their conversion. God knows, my
brethren, that we are conscious of
gJievous imperfection in ourselves.
The harsh world can bring no
accusation against us, save that of
conscience. But with all
this,
we are
constrained to
proclaim
the
stupendous changewhich Divine grace
has wrought within us.
One
thing we
know whereas
we
were once
blind,
now
we see."Oohn 9:25) A new nature has
been implanted, with its own nstincts,
appetites, aspirations and desires; and
the tendency of these is to holiness,
detaching from sin and leading us
to
God. f then with this magnificent
advantage we are
but
"scarcely saved,"
what is their hope who are still under
the power
of
evil and in whom the
yoke of spiritual bondage has never
been broken?
4. The righteous are scarcelysaved,
notwithstanding the support drawn
from the and grace of God.
These recur
to
the saint
in
every season
of darkness and trial, affording the
nourishment by which his spiritual
strength is renewed. It is one of the
offices of he Comforterto "bring them
to
our remembrance: and through
these channels to pour upon the soul
the rich grace of God by which we are
saved. but if with this aid we are only
saved at the last,
how
melancholy the
forebodings of hose who cannot point
to
a single line in the word of God that
does not warn them against the day of
final ruin?
Let the unconverted themselves
answer the question of the
text:
ifwith
all these splendid opportunities
the
righteous are scarcely saved, where
shall
the
ungodly and
the
sinner
appear? Alas
there is
no
answer, but in a most
oppressive silence.
n
that deepening
silence, let the sinner indulge two
reflections. When heshallstand before
the barof udgment, his probation will
be ended: he has reached his destiny,
and that destiny he has deliberately
chosen. Upon what principle can be
expect the Almighty
to
reverse this
deCision, to contravene hischoice, and
to force upon him that which he has
persistently rejected? The grace by
which we are redeemed is as sovereign
in its application, as in its oJigin: but it
saves no being against his will.
On
the
contrary, it is written, the people shall
bewilllngin the day oj hy power,
(Psalm
110:3). f thy Judge shall render his
decision upon this just
and
necessary
principle, the destiny which the sinner
has chosen will be the destiny he will
experience. He has chosen death, and
death must be his portion.
Besides thiS, the
sinner
has
completed his education;
and it
is and
educationwhichunfits him for heaven.
f
placed amongst the glorified
by
arbitraryauthOlity, he could not share
their joys. He has
not
been rendered
"meet
for
the saint's inheritance
in
light." What, 0 sinner, if you yourself
should earnestly pray
to
be banished
from the glory ofthat presence, whose
dazzling splendor would prove a more
terrible torture than the darkness of
despair What picture can be drawn of
the sinner's doom more dreadful, than
that hell with its horrors
should be
coveted as
an
asylum
from
the
intolerable anguish of being in the
light of God's presence and holiness
forever? I have
not
the hean
to
say
anything afterthis. Oh, thatyou could
be persuaded to faith and repentance,
whilst change is
pOSsible
At least, let
the difficulty with which salvation is
accomplished by us, be a sufficient
plea foryour immediate entranceupon
the work.
May
God, in His mercy, set
home the truth of the text upon every
conscience herel May the echo of its
unanswered question linger upon the
ear, until the answer shall come back
from thesinnerkneelingat the Saviors
crossin
October, 1992 THE COUNSEL
of
Chalcedon 3