Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

28. What is a correct description of the unrenewed heart? (e) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?- And GoD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.- Because the carnal mind is enmity against GoD: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.- For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.- Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from sin. Jer. 17. 9. Gen. 6. 5. Rom. 8. 7. Mat. 15. 19. Prov. 20. 9. || Ps. 51. 5, Prov. 27. 19.

How vile and odious to God must the unrenewed heart appear? Have you such a heart?

29. What is the language of the unsanctified heart?

Therefore they say unto GoD, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?- Ye have said, it is vain to serve GoD: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt GoD are delivered. Job 21. 14, 15. Mal. 3. 14, 15. ||Job 22. 17. Ps. 10. 3, 6, 11. Luke 8. 37. Rom. 1. 28. Is. 30. 10, 11.

Does your practice speak this language, or not? What if you should be judicially left of God?

30. Is the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men?

The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.- For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebukes with flames of fire. For by fire, and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many.They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens, behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together,

(e) See Appendix, Note E.

saith the Lord. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousnes, indignation, and wrath; Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. Nah. 1.3, 5, 6. Is. 66. 15-17. Rom. 2. 8, 9. || Ps. 7. 11, 12. Rev. 6. 15-17. Deut. 29. 19, 20. and 32. 18-23, 40-42.

In your own characters are you not exposed to God's wrath? Will you not flee from the wrath to come?

31. Is perfect holiness in the creature required by the Creator? And he answering said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy strength, and with ALL thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. Be ye therefore PERFECT: even as your Father which is in heaven, is perfect. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. Luke 10. 27. Mat. 5. 48. 1 Pet. 1. 15, 16. || Heb. 12. 14. Eph. 4. 22-24. 2 Pet. 3. 11, 14. 2 Cor. 13. 11.

Have you ever been perfectly holy? Can you ever be justified by that law, whose commandment is so exceeding broad?

32. What is sin, and how manifested?

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of GOD.What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 1 John 3. 4. Gal. 5. 19-21. Rom. 7. 7-10. || Jam. 1. 14, 15. Mat. 15. 19.

Does sin appear exceeding sinful to you? Or do you live in the allowed indulgence of it?

33. "Have all the workers of iniquity no" true “knowledge of God?"

The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not

C

seek after Gon: GoD is not in all his thoughts. They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are out of course.- Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: For the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of GoD in the land. For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Ps. 10. 4. and 82. 5. Hos. 4. 1. Jer. 4. 22. and 9. 3. John 3. 19, 20. || Is. 1. 3. Rom. 1. 28. John 8. 19. and 17. 25. 1 John 4. 8. and 3. 6. Job 21. 14.

Are you among those that are wise to do evil? Has not GoD a controversy with you?

34. Are ALL commanded savingly to know "the only wise God and our Saviour?"

Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.- Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.- Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Deut. 4. 39. Ps. 100, 3. 2 Pet. I. 8. Jer. 9. 23, 24. || Job 22. 21. Hos. 13. 4. Col. 3. 10. || 1 Tim. 2. 4. 1 Chron. 28. 9. Ps. 46. 10. Hos. 6. 6.

Have you had experimental knowledge of GOD, of Christ, and of holiness?

35. In what does the true knowledge of God consist, and how is it obtained?

GOD understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the

place thereof. And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of Gon that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord and they shall be my people, and I will be their Gon: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.- But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their Gon, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Job 28. 23, 28. Jam. 1. 5. Jer. 24. 7. and 31. 33, 34. || Hos. 2. 19, 20. and 6. 1, 3. John 17. 3, 6-8. Ps. 119. 73. 2 Cor. 4. 6. 1 John 4. 7.

Do you fear to rollute your soul, and thus dishonour, and displease GOD? Have you sought heavenly wisdom by humble prayer?

36. Are not the teachings of the Holy Spirit indispensably necessary for the discernment of spiritual things?

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which GOD hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of GOD. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of GOD knoweth no man but the Spirit of GOD. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given us of Gon. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of GOD: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2.9-14. || Rom. 8. 7. Jude 19. John 3. 27. Eph. 3. 5. and 1. 16-19. (f)

[ocr errors]

Have

you felt your entire dependance on the Holy Spirit for divine teaching? Has he taught and sanctified, and comforted you?

37. What are the present consequences of impenitence?

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the (f) See Appendix, Note F.

1

number of years is hidden to the oppressor. A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.— Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is NO PEACE, saith my Gon, to the wicked. Job 15. 20, 21. Eph. 4. 18. Is. 57. 20, 21. || Tit. 1. 15. Deut. 28. 15-17. Job 20. 23-29.

Can you love the present consequences of sin? Why have you rolled it as a sweet morsel under your tongue ?

38. What are the consequences of sin in the world to come ? When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.- The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget GOD. Upon the wicked HE shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest. This shall be the PORTION of their cup.- Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Prov. 11. 7. Ps. 9. 17. and 11. 6. Prov. 1. 31. Rev. 14. 11. || Mat. 10. 28. Mark 9. 45, 46. Luke 16. 23, 24. 2 Thes. 2. 11, 12. Rom. 2. 5. Is. 33. 14.

If this language be figurative, has it not some meaning? Is not that meaning more dreadful than words can describe?

39. What are we required to do, that we may be saved from sin and its awful consequences?

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; BUT HE THAT BELIEVETH NOT SHALL BE DAMNED. Acts 16. 31. Rom. 10. 10, 11. Mark 16. 16. || Acts 2. 37, 38. and 3. 19. and 20. 21. Jer. 3. 22. and 31. 18, 19. Mark 1. 15. Luke 13. 23-27.

Have you truly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Or are you yet condemned?

40. What is repentance towards God, and how is it manifested? (g)

Therefore also now, saith the Lord, Turn ye even to me with See Appendix, Note G.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »