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036 - The Law Established through Faith Discourse I · Sermons on Several Occasions, First Series

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty five of Sermons on Several Occasions First Series.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Aaron Weber. Sermons on
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  Speaker 1: Several Occasions, First Series by John Wesley. The Law Established
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  Speaker 1: through Faith? Discourse one. Do we then make void the
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  Speaker 1: law through faith? God forbid? Yea, we establish the law
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  Speaker 1: Romans three thirty one. Saint Paul, having the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: this epistle, laid down his general proposition, namely that the
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  Speaker 1: Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation
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  Speaker 1: to every one that believeth the powerful means whereby God
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  Speaker 1: makes every believer a partaker of present and eternal salvation.
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  Speaker 1: Goes on to show that there is no other way
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  Speaker 1: under Heaven whereby men can be saved. He speaks particularly
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  Speaker 1: of salvation from the guilt of sin, which he commonly
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  Speaker 1: terms justification, and that all men stood in need of this,
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  Speaker 1: that none could plead their own innocence. He proves at
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  Speaker 1: large by various arguments addressed to the Jews as well
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  Speaker 1: as to the Heathens. Hence he infers in the nineteenth
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  Speaker 1: verse of this chapter, that every mouth, whether of Jew
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  Speaker 1: or Heathen, must be stopped from excusing or justifying himself,
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  Speaker 1: and all the world become guilty before God. Therefore saith
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  Speaker 1: he by his own obedience by the words of the Law,
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  Speaker 1: shall no flesh be justified in his sight. But now
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  Speaker 1: the righteousness of God is without the Law, without our
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  Speaker 1: previous obedience. There too is manifested, even the righteousness of God,
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  Speaker 1: which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and
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  Speaker 1: upon all that believe. For there is no difference as
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  Speaker 1: to their need of death justification, or the manner wherein
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  Speaker 1: they obtain it. For all have sinned and have come
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  Speaker 1: short of the glory of God, the glorious image of
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  Speaker 1: God wherein they were created, And all who attain are
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  Speaker 1: justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
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  Speaker 1: in Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be
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  Speaker 1: a propitiation through faith in his blood, that he might
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  Speaker 1: be just. And Yet the justifier of Him which believeth
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  Speaker 1: in Jesus, that without any impeachment to his justice, he
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  Speaker 1: might show his mercy for the sake of that propitiation.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore we conclude, which was the grand position he had undertaken,
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  Speaker 1: to establish that a man is justified by faith without
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  Speaker 1: the works of the law Verses twenty through twenty eight.
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  Speaker 1: It was easy to foresee an objection which might be made,
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  Speaker 1: and which has in fact been made in all ages,
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  Speaker 1: namely that to say we are justified with thee the
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  Speaker 1: works of the law is to abolish the law. The apostle,
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  Speaker 1: without entering into a formal dispute, simply denies the charge.
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  Speaker 1: Do we, then, says he make void the law through faith?
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  Speaker 1: God forbid yea we establish the law. The strange imagination
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  Speaker 1: of some that Saint Paul, when he says a man
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  Speaker 1: is justified without the works of the law, means only
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  Speaker 1: ceremonial law is abundantly confuted by these very verses. For
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  Speaker 1: did Saint Paul establish the ceremonial law? It is evident
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  Speaker 1: he did not. He did not make void the law
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  Speaker 1: through faith, and openly avowed his doing so. It was
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  Speaker 1: the moral law only of which he might truly say,
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  Speaker 1: we do not make void, but establish this through faith.
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  Speaker 1: But all men are not hearin of his mind. Many
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  Speaker 1: there are who will not agree to this, Many in
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  Speaker 1: all ages of the church, even among those who bore
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  Speaker 1: the name of Christians have contended that the faith, once
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  Speaker 1: delivered to the same, was designed to make void the
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  Speaker 1: whole law. They would no more spare the moral than
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  Speaker 1: the ceremonial, but were forhewing as it were, both in
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  Speaker 1: peaces before the Lord, vehemently maintaining, if you establish any law,
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  Speaker 1: Christ shall profit you nothing. Christ is become of no
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  Speaker 1: effect to you. Ye are fallen from grace. But is
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  Speaker 1: the zeal of these men? According to knowledge? Have they
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  Speaker 1: observed the connection between the law and faith, And that,
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  Speaker 1: considering the close connection between them, to destroy one is
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  Speaker 1: indeed to destroy both. And to abolish the moral law is,
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  Speaker 1: in truth, to abolish faith and the law together, as
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  Speaker 1: leaving no proper means either for bringing us to faith
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  Speaker 1: or of stirring up that gift of God and our soul.
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  Speaker 1: It therefore behooves all who desire either to come to
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  Speaker 1: Christ or to walk in Him whom they have received,
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  Speaker 1: to take heed how they make void the law through
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  Speaker 1: faith to secure us effectually? Against which let us inquire first,
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  Speaker 1: which are the most usual ways of making void the
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  Speaker 1: law through faith? And secondly, how may we follow the
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  Speaker 1: apostle and by faith establish the Law. Let us first inquire,
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  Speaker 1: which are the most usual ways of making void the
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  Speaker 1: law through faith? Now, the way for a preacher to
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  Speaker 1: make it all void at a stroke is not to
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  Speaker 1: preach it at all. This is just the same thing
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  Speaker 1: as to blot it out of the oracles of God,
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  Speaker 1: more especially when it is done with design, when it
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  Speaker 1: is made a rule not to preach the law, And
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  Speaker 1: the very phrase a preacher of the law is used
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  Speaker 1: as a term of reproach, as though it meant little
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  Speaker 1: less than an enemy of the Gospel. All this proceeds
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  Speaker 1: from the deepest ignorance of the nature, properties, and use
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  Speaker 1: of the Law, and proves that those who act thus
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  Speaker 1: either know not Christ, are utter strangers to living faith,
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  Speaker 1: or at least that they are but babes in Christ,
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  Speaker 1: and as such unskilled in the word of righteousness. The
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  Speaker 1: grand plea is this, that preaching the Gospel, that is,
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  Speaker 1: according to their judgment, the speaking of nothing but the
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  Speaker 1: sufferings and merits of Christ answers all the ends of
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  Speaker 1: the law. But this we utterly deny. It does not
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  Speaker 1: answer the very first end of the law, namely, the
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  Speaker 1: convincing man of sin, the awakening of those who are
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  Speaker 1: still asleep on the brink of health. There may have
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  Speaker 1: been here and there an exempt case. One in a
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  Speaker 1: thousand may have been awakened by the Gospel. But this
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  Speaker 1: is no general rule. The ordinary method of God is
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  Speaker 1: to convict sinners of the law, and that only. The
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  Speaker 1: Gospel is not the means which God hath ordained, or
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  Speaker 1: which our Lord himself used for this end. We have
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  Speaker 1: no authority in scripture for applying it thus, nor any
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  Speaker 1: ground to think it will prove effectual, nor have we
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  Speaker 1: any more ground to expect this from the nature of
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  Speaker 1: the thing. They that be whole, as our Lord himself observes,
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  Speaker 1: need not a physician, but they that are sick. It
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  Speaker 1: is observed therefore, to offer a physician to them that
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  Speaker 1: are whole, or that at least imagine themselves to be,
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  Speaker 1: we must first convince them that they are sick. Otherwise
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  Speaker 1: they will not thank you for your labor. It is
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  Speaker 1: equally absurd to offer Christ to them whose heart is whole,
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  Speaker 1: having never yet been broken. It is in the proper
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  Speaker 1: sense casting pearls before swine. Doubtless they will trample them
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  Speaker 1: under foot, And it is no more than you have
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  Speaker 1: reason to expect if they also turn again and rend you.
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  Speaker 1: Although there is no command in scripture to offer Christ
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  Speaker 1: to the careless sinner, Yet are there not scriptural precedents
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  Speaker 1: for it? I think not, I know not any I
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  Speaker 1: believe you cannot produce one, either from the four Evangelists
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  Speaker 1: or the acts of the apostles. Neither can you prove
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  Speaker 1: this to have been the practice of any of the
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  Speaker 1: apostles from any paste in their writings. Nay, does not
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  Speaker 1: the Apostle Paul say in his former epistle to the Corinthians,
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  Speaker 1: we preach Christ crucified chapter one, verse twenty three. And
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  Speaker 1: in his latter we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus
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  Speaker 1: the Lord chapter four, verse five. We consent to rest
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  Speaker 1: the cause on this issue, to tread in his steps,
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  Speaker 1: to follow his example. Only preach you just as Paul preached.
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  Speaker 1: And the dispute is at the end. For although we
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  Speaker 1: are certain he preached Christ in as perfect a manner
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  Speaker 1: as the very chief of the Apostle, Yet who preached
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  Speaker 1: the law more than Saint Paul. Therefore he did not
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  Speaker 1: think the Gospel answered the same end. The very first
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  Speaker 1: sermon of Saint Paul, which is recorded, concludes in these
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  Speaker 1: words by him, all that believe are justified from all
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  Speaker 1: things from which ye could not be justified by the
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  Speaker 1: law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you,
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  Speaker 1: which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye, despisers,
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  Speaker 1: and wonder and perish, for I work a work in
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  Speaker 1: your days, a work for which you will in no
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  Speaker 1: wise believe, though a man declare it unto you Acts
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  Speaker 1: thirteen thirty nine forty Now it has manifest. All this
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  Speaker 1: is preaching the law in the sense wherein you understand
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  Speaker 1: the term, even although great part of it, if not all,
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  Speaker 1: his hearers were either Jews or religious prostolytes verse forty three,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore probably many of them in some degree at
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  Speaker 1: least convicted of sin. Already, he first reminds them that
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  Speaker 1: they cannot be justified by the law of Moses, but
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  Speaker 1: only in faith in Christ, and then severely threatens them
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  Speaker 1: with the judgments of God, which in the strongest sense
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  Speaker 1: preaching the law. In his next discourse that to the
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  Speaker 1: Heathens of Lystra Chapter fourteen, verse fifteen, we do not
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  Speaker 1: find so much as the name of Christ. The whole
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  Speaker 1: purport of it is that they should turn from those
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  Speaker 1: vain idols to the Living God. Now confess the truth.
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  Speaker 1: Do not you think if you had been there, you
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  Speaker 1: could have preached better than he? I should not wonder
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  Speaker 1: if you thought, too, that his preaching so ill occasioned
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  Speaker 1: his being so ill treated, and that him being stoned
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  Speaker 1: as a just judgment upon him for not preaching Christ
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  Speaker 1: from the jailer. Indeed, when he sprang in and came
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  Speaker 1: trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and said, sirs,
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  Speaker 1: what must I do to be saved? He immediately said,
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  Speaker 1: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts sixteen, twenty nine
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  Speaker 1: and thirty. And in the case of one so deeply
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  Speaker 1: convicted of sin, who would not have said the same.
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  Speaker 1: But to the men of Athens you find him speaking
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  Speaker 1: in quite a different manner, reproving their superstition, ignorance, and idolatry,
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  Speaker 1: and strongly moving them to repent from the consideration of
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  Speaker 1: a future judgment and of the resurrection of the dead
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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, verse twenty four through thirty one. Likewise, when
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  Speaker 1: Felix sent for Paul on purpose that he might hear
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  Speaker 1: him concerning the faith in Christ, instead of preaching Christ
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  Speaker 1: in your sense, which would probably have caused the governor
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  Speaker 1: either to mock or to contradict and blaspheme. He reasoned
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  Speaker 1: of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, till Felix hardened
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  Speaker 1: as he was trembled. Chapter twenty four, Verses twenty four
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  Speaker 1: and twenty five. Go thou and tread in his steps
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  Speaker 1: preach Christ to the careless sinner by reasoning of righteousness, temperance,
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  Speaker 1: and judgment to come. If you say, but he preached
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  Speaker 1: Christ in a different manner in his epistles, I answer
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  Speaker 1: he did not there preach at all, but in that
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  Speaker 1: sense wherein we speak for preaching in our present question
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  Speaker 1: means speaking before a congregation. But waiving this I answer.
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  Speaker 1: His epistles are directed not to unbelievers, such as those
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  Speaker 1: we are now speaking of, but to the saints of
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  Speaker 1: God in Rome, Corinth, Philippi, and other places. Now, unquestionably
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  Speaker 1: he would speak more of Christ to these than to
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  Speaker 1: those who were without God in the world. And yet
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  Speaker 1: every one of these is full of the Law, even
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  Speaker 1: the epistles to the Romans and the Galatians, in both
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  Speaker 1: of which he does what you term preaching the law,
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  Speaker 1: and that to believers as well as unbelievers. From hence
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  Speaker 1: it is plain you know not what it is to
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  Speaker 1: preach Christ in the sense of the Apostle. For doubtless
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  Speaker 1: Saint Paul judged himself to be preaching Christ both to
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  Speaker 1: Felix and at Antioch, Lystra and Athens, from whose example
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  Speaker 1: every thinking man must infer that not only the declaring
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  Speaker 1: the love of Christ to sinners, but also the declaring
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  Speaker 1: that He will come from Heaven in flaming fire, is
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  Speaker 1: in the apostle sense preaching Christ. Yea, in the full
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  Speaker 1: scriptural meaning of the word. To preach Christ is to
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  Speaker 1: preach what he hath revealed, either in the Old or
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  Speaker 1: New Testament, so that you are really preaching Christ when
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  Speaker 1: you are saying the wicked shall be turned into Hell,
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  Speaker 1: and all the people that forget God, as when you
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  Speaker 1: are saying, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away
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  Speaker 1: the sin of the world. Consider this well, that to
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  Speaker 1: preach Christ is to preach all things that Christ has spoken,
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  Speaker 1: all his promises, all his threatenings and commands, all that
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  Speaker 1: is written in his book. And then you will know
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  Speaker 1: how to preach Christ without making void the law. But
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  Speaker 1: does not the greatest blessing attend those discourses wherein we
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  Speaker 1: particularly preach the merits and suffering of Christ. Probably when
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  Speaker 1: we preach to a congregation of mourners or of believers,
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  Speaker 1: these will be attended with the greatest blessing, because such
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  Speaker 1: discourses are pecuularly suited to their state. At least, these
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  Speaker 1: will usually convey the most comfort. But this is not
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  Speaker 1: always the greatest blessing. I may sometimes receive a far
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  Speaker 1: greater by a discourse that cuts me to the heart
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  Speaker 1: and humbles me to the dust. Neither should I receive
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  Speaker 1: that comfort. If I were to preach or to hear
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  Speaker 1: no discourses but on the sufferings of Christ, these by
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  Speaker 1: constant repetition, would lose their force and grow more and
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  Speaker 1: more flat and dead, till at length they would become
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  Speaker 1: a dull round of words, without any spirit or life
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  Speaker 1: or virtue. So that thus to preach Christ must, in
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  Speaker 1: process of time, make void the Gospel as well as
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  Speaker 1: the Law. A second way of making void the law
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  Speaker 1: through faith is the teaching that faith supersedes the necessity
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  Speaker 1: of holiness. This divides itself into a thousand smaller paths,
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  Speaker 1: and many there are who walk therein. Indeed, there are
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  Speaker 1: few who wholly escape it. Few who are convinced we
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  Speaker 1: are saved by faith, but are sooner or later more
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  Speaker 1: or less drawn aside into this by way. All those
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  Speaker 1: are drawn into this by way, who, if it be
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  Speaker 1: not settled judgment that faith in Christ entirely sets aside
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  Speaker 1: the necessity of keeping his law, yet so pose either
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  Speaker 1: sets aside the necessity of keeping his law. Yet suppose
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  Speaker 1: either that holiness is less necessary now than it was
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  Speaker 1: before Christ came, or that a less degree of it
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  Speaker 1: is necessary, or that it is less necessary to believers
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  Speaker 1: than to others. Yea, and so are all those who,
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  Speaker 1: although their judgment be right in the general, yet think
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  Speaker 1: that they may take more liberty in particular cases than
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  Speaker 1: they could have done before they believed. Indeed, the using
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  Speaker 1: of the term liberty in such a manner for liberty
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  Speaker 1: from obedience or holiness, shows at once that their judgment
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  Speaker 1: is perverted, that they are guilty of what they imagined
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  Speaker 1: to be far from them, namely, of making void the
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  Speaker 1: law through faith by supposing faith to supersede holiness. The
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  Speaker 1: first plea of those who teach this expressly is that
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  Speaker 1: we are now under the covenant of grace, not works,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore we are no longer under the necessity of
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  Speaker 1: performing the works of the law. And whoever was under
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  Speaker 1: the Covenant of works, none but Adam before the fall.
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  Speaker 1: He was fully and properly under the covenant, which required
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  Speaker 1: perfect universal obedience as the one condition of acceptance, and
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  Speaker 1: left no place for pardon upon the very last transgression.
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  Speaker 1: But no man else was ever under this, neither jew
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  Speaker 1: nor gentile, neither before Christ nor sense. All his sons
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  Speaker 1: were and are under the Covenant of grace. The manner
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  Speaker 1: of their acceptance is this, The free grace of God
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  Speaker 1: through the merits of Christ, gives pardon to them that believe.
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  Speaker 1: That belief with such a faith as working by love
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  Speaker 1: produces all obedience and holiness. The case is not therefore,
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  Speaker 1: as you suppose that men were once more obliged to
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  Speaker 1: obey God or to work the works of His law
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  Speaker 1: than they are now. This is a supposition you cannot
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  Speaker 1: make good. But we should have been obliged, if if
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  Speaker 1: we had been under the Covenant of Works, to have
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  Speaker 1: done those works antecedent to our acceptance, whereas now all
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  Speaker 1: good works, though as necessary as ever, are not antecedent
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  Speaker 1: to our acceptance, but consequent upon it Therefore the nature
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  Speaker 1: of the Covenant of grace gives you no ground, no
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  Speaker 1: encouragement at all, to set aside any insistence or degree
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  Speaker 1: of obedience, any part or measure of holiness. But we
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  Speaker 1: are not justified by faith without the works of the law.
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  Speaker 1: Undoubtedly we are without the works, either of the ceremonial
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  Speaker 1: or the moral law. And would to God all men
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  Speaker 1: were convicted of this, it would prevent innumerable evils Antinomiism
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  Speaker 1: in particular. For generally speaking, they are the Pharisees who
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  Speaker 1: make the Antinomians running into an extreme so palpably contrary
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  Speaker 1: to scripture. They occasion others to run into the opposite one.
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  Speaker 1: These seeking to be justified by works affright those from
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  Speaker 1: allowing any place for them. But the truth lies between both.
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  Speaker 1: We are doubtless justified by faith. This is the cornerstone
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  Speaker 1: of the whole Christian building. We are justified without the
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  Speaker 1: works of the law as any previous condition of justification,
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  Speaker 1: but they are an immediate fruit of that faith, whereby
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  Speaker 1: we are justified. So that if good works do not
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  Speaker 1: follow our faith, even all inward and outward holiness, it
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  Speaker 1: is plain that our faith is nothing worth. We are
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  Speaker 1: yet in our sins. Therefore, that we are justified by faith,
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  Speaker 1: even by our faith without works, is no ground for
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  Speaker 1: making void the law through faith, or for imagining that
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  Speaker 1: faith is a dispensation from any kind of degree of holiness. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: but does not Paul expressly say unto him that worketh not,
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  Speaker 1: But believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
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  Speaker 1: is counted for righteousness. And does it not follow from
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  Speaker 1: hence that faith is to a believer in the room
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  Speaker 1: in the place of righteousness. But if faith is in
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  Speaker 1: the room of righteousness or holiness, what need is there
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  Speaker 1: of this too? This, it must be acknowledged, comes home
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  Speaker 1: to the point, and is indeed the main pillar of Antiinomianism.
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  Speaker 1: And yet it needs not a long or labored answer.
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  Speaker 1: We allow that God justified the ungodly, him that till
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  Speaker 1: that hour is totally ungodly, full of all evil, void
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  Speaker 1: of all good. That He justified the ungodly that worketh not,
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  Speaker 1: that till that moment worketh no good work. Neither can he,
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  Speaker 1: for an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. That
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  Speaker 1: he justifies him by faith alone, without any goodness or
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  Speaker 1: righteousness proceeding, And that faith is then counted to him
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  Speaker 1: for righteousness, namely for preceding righteousness. That is, God, through
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  Speaker 1: the merits of Christ, accepts him that believes, as if
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  Speaker 1: he had already fulfilled all righteousness. But what is all this?
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  Speaker 1: To your point? The Apostle does not say, either here
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  Speaker 1: or elsewhere, that this faith is counted to him for
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: subsequent righteousness. He does not teach that there is no
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: righteousness before faith, but where does he teach that there
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: is none after it? He does assert holiness cannot precede justification,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: but not that it need not follow it. Saint Paul
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: therefore gives you no color of making void the law
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: by teaching that faith supersedes the necessity of holiness. There
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: is yet another way of making void the law through faith,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: which is more common than either of the former, And
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: that is the doing it practically, the making it void
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: in fact, though not in principle, the living. As if
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: faith was designed to excuse us from holiness, how earnestly
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: does the Apostle guard us against this? In those well
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: known words, what then shall we sin? Because we are
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: not under the law but under grace God forbid? Romans
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: six fifteen, a caution which it is needful thoroughly to consider,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: because it is of the last importance. The being under
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the law may here mean the being obliged to observe
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the ceremonial law, the being obliged to conform to the
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: whole mosaic institution, the being obliged to keep the whole
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: moral law as a condition of our acceptance with God,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: And the being under the wrath and curse of God,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: under the sentence of eternal death, under a sense of
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: guilt and condemnation, full of horror and slavish fear. Now,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: although a believer is not without law to God, but
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: under the law of Christ, yet from the moment he
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: believes he is not under law in any of the
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: preceding senses. On the contrary, he is under grace under
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: a more benign, gracious dispensation. As he is no longer
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: under the ceremonial law, nor under the mosaic institution. He
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: is not obliged to keep even the moral law as
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the condition of his acceptance. So he is delivered from
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the wrath and the curse of God, from all sense
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: of guilt and condemnation, and from all that horror and
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: fear of death and hell. Whereby he was all his
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: life before a subject to bondage, and he now performs
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: which while under the law he could not do, a
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: willing and universal obedience. He obeys not from the motive
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of slavish fear, but on a nobler principle, namely, the
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: grace of God ruling his heart and causing all his
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: works to be wrought in love. What, then, shall this
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: evangelical principle of action be less powerful than the legal?
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Shall we be less obedient to God from filial love
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: than we were from servile fear? It as well? If
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: this is not a common case, If this practical antinomeniism,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: this unobserved way of making void the law through faith,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: has not infected thousands of believers, Has it not infected
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: you examined yourself honestly and closely? Do you not do
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: now what you durst not have done when you was
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: under the law, or, as we calmly call it, under conviction?
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: For instance, you durst not then indulge yourself in food?
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: You took just what was needful, and that of the
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: cheapest kind. Do you not allow yourself more latitude? Now?
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Do you not indulge yourself a little more than you did. Oh,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: beware lest you sin, because you are not under the
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: law but under grace. When you were under conviction, you
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: durst not indulge the lust of the eye in any degree.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: You would not do anything great or small merely to
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: gratify your curiosity. You regarded only cleanliness and necessity, or
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: at most very moderate convenience, either in furniture or apparel.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Superfluity and finery of whatever kind, as well as fashionable elegance,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: were both a terror and an abomination to you? Are
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: they so? Still? Is your conscience as tender now in
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: these things as it was? Then? Do you still follow
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the same rule in furniture and apparel, trampling all finer,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: all superfluity, everything useless, everything merely ornamental, however fashionable underfoot? Rather,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: have you not resumed what you had once laid aside,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and what you could not then use without wounding your conscience?
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: And have you not learned to say, oh, I am
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: not so scrupulous now, I would to God you were?
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Then you would not sin thus because you are not
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: under the law but under grace. You was once scrupulous too,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: of commending any to their face, and still more of
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: suffering any to command you. It was a slap to
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: your heart. You could not bear it. You sought the
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: honor that cometh of God. Only you could not endure
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: such conversation, nor any conversation which was not good to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the use of edifying, All idle talk, all trifling discourse
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: you abhorred. You hate it as well as feared it,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: being deeply sensible of the value of time, of every
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: precious fleeting moment. In like manner you dreaded and abhorred
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: idle expense, valuing your money only less than your time,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: and trembling lest you should be found an unfaithful steward
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: even of the mammon of unrighteousness? Do you now look
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: upon praise a steadily poison which you can neither give
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: nor receive, But at the peril of your soul? Do
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you still dread and abhor all conversation which does not
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: tend to the use of edifying and labor to improve
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: every moment that it may not pass without leaving you
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: better than it found? You? Are not you less careful
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: as to the expense, both of time and money? Cannot
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: you now lay out either as you could not have
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: done once? Alas how has that which should have been
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: for your health proved to you an occasion of falling.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: How have you sinned? Because because you are not under
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the law, but under grace, God forbid you should any
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: longer continue thus to turn the grace of God into luscivishness.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Oh remember how clear and strong a conviction you once
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: had concerning all these things, And at the same time
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: you was fully satisfied from whom that conviction came. The
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: world told you you was in a delusion, but you
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: knew it was the voice of God in these things.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: You was not too scrupulous then, but you are not
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: now scrupulous enough. God kept you longer in that painful
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: school that you might learn those great lessons the more perfectly.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: And have you forgot them already? Oh? Recollect them before
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: it is too late. Have you suffered so many things
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: in vain? I trust it is not yet in vain.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Now use the conviction without the pain, practice the lesson
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: without the rod. Let not the mercy of God weigh
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: less with you now than his fiery indignation did before.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Is love a less powerful motive than fear? If not,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: let it be an invariable rule. I will do nothing
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: now I am under grace which I durst not have
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: done when under the law. I cannot conclude this head
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: without exhorting you to examine yourself likewise touching sins of omission?
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Are you not as clear of these now you are
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: under grace as you was when under the law? How
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: diligent was you then in hearing the word of God?
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Did you neglect any opportunity? Did you attend thereon day
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: and night? Would a small hindrance have kept you away?
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: A little business, a visitant, a slight indisposition, a soft bed,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: a dark or cold morning? Did not you then fast
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: often or use abstinence to the uttermost of your power?
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Was not you much in prayer? Cold and heavy as
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: you was while you were hanging over the mouth of hell?
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Did you not speak and not spare even for the
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: unknown God? Did you not boldly plead His cause, reprove sinners,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: and avow the truth before an adulterous generation? And are
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: you now a believer in Christ? Have you the faith
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: that overcometh the world? What? And are less zealous for
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: your Master now than you was when you knew him?
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Not less diligent and fasting in prayer and hearing His
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: word and calling sinners to God, Oh repent, see and
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: feel your grievous loss. Remember from whence you are fallen.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Bewall your unfaithfulness. Now be zealous and do the first works,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Lest if you continue to make void the law through faith,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: God cut you off and appoint you your portion with
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: the unbelievers. End of section thirty five. Recording by Aaron Weber.