DIFFICULTIES REMOVED, RESPECTING TAKING HOLD OF THE PROMISE IN THE GOSPEL

Perhaps there is a secret thought in somebody’s breast, Alas! Sir, but I do not find the promise taking hold of me; and therefore, how shall I take hold of it? You have been saying, none embrace the promise till the promise embrace them; now, I do not find, I do not feel, the promise taking hold of me.

Answer: I fear, by this way of speaking, you are making sense and feeling the ground of your faith, and not the promise; this is not believing, but feeling; like Thomas that would not believe till he felt and saw Christ; but, “Blessed is he that believeth, and hath not seen.”

Question: But, say you, Must I not feel the power of God making me believe, before I can believe?

Answer: Yes, it is the power of God only that can make you believe: but make not your feeling of that power to be your warrant to believe; for the word of promise is your warrant, and also the immediate object and ground of faith: therefore, when there is a promise meet for you, and suited of God to your case, stretch out the withered hand to receive it at his call, never stopping for fear that the power of God be not enabling you: for no sooner will you essay to stretch out your hand than the power of God will be before-hand with you, though, perhaps, in an insensible manner: whereas, if you wait for a sensible feeling of his power, you are not believing, nor trusting, in his word. If you would believe it must be when you feel him not; for believing is not feeling; and feeling is not believing.

Objection: But if I believe his word without feeling his power, I fear I shall but presume and take the promise only in my own strength; or like the stony-ground hearers, receive the word with joy by a temporary faith, which will fail.

Answer: People may indeed say they believe, and fancy they believe, and deceive themselves: but fancy is one thing and faith is another; true, right, and solid belief, is what you need not fear can be done in your own strength! What! to take the word of a God for your security; to quit the law way of salvation and flee to the gospel promise; and to trust the faithfulness of a God pledged in his promise for your salvation from sin and corruption, as well as from hell and damnation; to set to your seal that God is true, and to receive his record with particular application to yourself: if you do this, never fear that you are doing it by your own strength: for it is not natural, but supernatural power that is dealing when you are so acting. If you get a heart to embrace the promise, you may be sure the promise is embracing you; for it is only virtue coming out of it that enables you to embrace it; before your embracing of it, the virtue may be insensible and invisible: but after the embracement, you may find sensible virtue. When the woman touched the hem of Christ’s garment, sensible virtue came out of him: but there was some invisible and insensible virtue came first from him to enable her to touch him; but she never knew of that precedent virtue till once she touched him. A man may not know, till he believe, that it is the power of God that is dealing with him to make him believe, God’s power deals and works so wonderfully in this matter; “No man can tell whence it comes, and whither it goes,” John 3:8. What impressions the stamp of his power has made, and how it makes the impression cannot be seen till on the back of it, or afterwards, in order of nature at least; even as the impression that the seal makes upon the melted wax is not seen till the seal be lifted, and there the impression remains. You cannot see yourself in a glass till you look to it; but look to it when you will, your image in the glass is before-hand with you; so, look to God in the promise; but lo, his looking to you therein precedes you. Your embracing the promise will flow from the promise embracing you; therefore when the promise is set before you, and held out to you to be believed, take it in God’s name, without any more ado; and then say with yourself, now there is a word for me, and it is the word of the God of truth; therefore that word and I shall never part; welcome, O blessed word, death shall not separate you and me; I will hang by this hook, I will rely upon his word, till all be made good to me. And thus you will receive the ingrafted word that is able to save your soul.

Excerpt from The Beauties of the Reverend Ralph Erskine

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen