On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
btit ? t ? fiJfe operation of this divine influence , in the present day , is not to give truth of doctrine , but wisdom of duty , and holiness in heart and life . And even admitting that divine truth is thus communicated iiito the heart
of man in the present day , yet since it is certain that the feelings and con vietions which accompany this working of the mind are often experienced from other causes , it is the part of Christian
caution to observe closely that we do not labour under any delusion , and especially that we try the spirits by the written word , that thus we may see whether thev &re of God ,
And to the same test must those strong emotions and convictions be subjected Which are called conversion . The passions and affections of the heart are the great engines by which religion operates in it to produce
Christian obedience ; and neither philosophy nor experience justify the Christian preacher in declining to appeal to them . But he that calls the strong emotions which are excited by the hopes and fears , the promises ana
threatenings of the gospel , religion itself ;—^ - or who even considers the fervours of feeling and an overheated imagination as the proofs of repentance and consequent remission of sin , —is alike ignorant of the nature of the human mind , and of the tenor and spirit of Christianity .
The conversion , the regeneration , the new creation , &c , which the Scriptures represent to us , as in fact all in all for salvation , consist in something more than strong agitation of mind ; they
consist in a change of heart and life . < 4 if any man be in Christ , " ( if he have that genuine , vital principle of faith in Christ , which alone deserves
the name , and which alone can entitle him to the all-important blessings , of Which it is made the condition , ) " if jjny man be in Christ , lie is a new creature : old tilings arc passed away , behold all things are become new . " His desires , his purposes , his dispositions , his conduct , and vVith them his
final prospects are all changed . Before he was the servant of sin unto d ^ eath ; now lie is alive unto God , unto righteousness aitd true holiness . And whete the evidence of this is given by a holy life and conversation , there thG Christian minister may justly raise the atill trembling heart , with the
Untitled Article
promise of divitife mercy through Jesus Christ . But he who not only points out to the repentant sin her the hopes of the gospel , but also encourages in his mind the convictions which
eminent saints have expressed , after a long * course of Christian obedience , ( and which in the Scriptures none else do express , ) and leads those who have long been running a course of abandoned wickedness , or at least
living in the utter neglect of God and Christ , to entertain , at once , an assuranee of having obtained divine forgiveness through the blood of . Christ , ( because they have a strong and agoirfzmg conviction of the guilt and folly bf their past lives , and are alarmed at
the awful judgments which are hanging over them , and with these impressions of terror and anguish , cling to those hopes of salvation which the gospel proposes , ) and under the influence of such assurance to indulge in ecstacy and transport , when there is
no evidence but that of strong emotion that the great change has really taken place within them , on \ V'hich alone they can rest their peace and joy , —he has no warrant from Scripture for his presumption . It cannot be that the gospel promises eternal life to terror and anguish and vivid
assurances . That repentance to which the gospel promises pardon , I feel myself authorized by the Scriptures in pronouncing to be a godly sorrow ,
arising from the conviction of having broken the laws of God , either by the transgression or the neglect of them , accompanied with sincere and earnest resolutions and endeavours after new
and better obedience . He who sincerely repents of his past sins , will pray to God to deliver him from evi !? and will add to prayer , that without which prayer is a mockery , watchfulness and caution , lest he be led into
temptation , and holy resolutions , lest he fall when exposed to it . Repentance ( or , if you please , the work of conveYsipn ) may be begun in a moment . Often has the conscience on a sudden been awakened , the conviction
of sin deeply impressed 6 \\ the heart , the sense of danger been ardused , and the dateless , thfc profane , and the worldly-minded , who have too much lived without God hi ' tlte world , have been led to a » y but , « What shall we
Untitled Article
G $ d &r . Carpenter on Divine Influences .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1819, page 620, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1777/page/32/
-